Finance Minister AMA Muhith today said terrorism is thriving on smuggling as there is a strong connection between the two offences.

"Terrorism has appeared as another alarming sign now as smuggling is strongly contributing towards its expansion. Organised crimes are behind smugglings across the world. That's why we have to keep our border protected," he said.

The minister was addressing a seminar titled 'Countering Smuggling and Revenue Evasion at Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh (IDEB) Bhaban in Dhaka.

Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate arranged the seminar with International Resource Division (IRD) Secretary and Chairman of the National Board of Revenue Md Nojibur Rahman in the chair.

Muhith said the government's goal is to run the customs administration in a business-friendly way by ensuring that people are not subjected to harassment there.

The present government has taken various measures over the last six years to reduce public harassment and the government achieves some successes in this regard.

The minister said, "We'd long been cherishing a dream that there would be a free and border-less world in near future, where there would be no duty barrier towards traveling, but smuggling has gradually faded our dream. Now it has become almost impossible to think about a border-less world."