Bangladesh exports to Turkey grew by 40 per cent in the first 11 months of the financial year 2013-2014, overcoming the barrier of safeguard duty imposed by the European country on RMG items. EPB data showed exports to Turkey soared to $792.77 million against $568 million in the same period of the FY13 riding on the ... Read more
Month: July 2014
Visiting IMF DMD advocates energy price hike
International Monetary Fund on Wednesday advocated for raising further the country’s energy price by cutting (energy) subsidy to create room to boost spending on social safety nets to protect the poor. The IMF also suggested the government to step up its tax collection programme in a bid to create more space to give priority to social ... Read more
MNCs must maintain int’l transaction details
Transfer pricing rules come into force July 1 Transfer pricing rules for the multinational companies finally came into force on Tuesday as the National Board of Revenue made submission of the records of their international transactions mandatory, officials said. Transfer pricing occurs when a company pays or gets paid for purchase or sell or transfers of ... Read more
BB says some NBFIs showing defaulted loan as regular credit
Asks errant NBFIs to classify the defaulted loan Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday asked non-bank financial institutions to classify their defaulted loan in line with the earlier directions of the central bank as some NBFIs have recently violated the regulations by showing the defaulted loan as their regular credit. The BB issued a circular to managing ... Read more
Palli Sanchay Bank Bill – 2014 passed in JS
Parliament on Wednesday passed the Palli Sanchay Bank Bill – 2014 that aims at encouraging rural people to save their money for their future needs. Though the bank is expected to be established like the Grameen Bank, the basic difference of the proposed bank is that no individual would be
Foreign investment at DSE up 182pc in June
The net overseas investment at the Dhaka Stock Exchange increased by 181.91 per cent or Tk 234 crore in June compared with that in the previous month as low prices of stocks lured foreign investors. The key index of the DSE, DSEX, on June 17 declined to five and a half months low at 4,338.87 points ... Read more
Extra-time goals send Belgium through
Belgium finally found a way past inspired goalkeeper Tim Howard as extra-time goals by Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku gave them a 2-1 victory over the United States today and set up a World Cup quarter-final against Argentina. Howard was in terrific form from the first minute when he denied Divock Origi and he made a ... Read more
Sakib to leave for CPL today
All-rounder Sakib al Hasan will leave for West Indies today to participate in the forthcoming Caribbean Premier League, said the officials of Bangladesh Cricket Board on Tuesday. In the second edition of the league, which begins on July 11, Sakib will play Barbados Trident, a team that he represented in the previous edition also
IGW cartel moves to control int’l call business
A cartel of the international gateway operators is planning to gain control over pricing of international incoming call termination industry by forming a two-tier clearing exchange. BTRC officials said a consortium of some IGW operators recently proposed BTRC to from an International Clearing House in two tiers where one tier will bring
Efforts to lure Japan corporate investors
Japanese investment mission due this month The government has undertaken steps to facilitate Japanese investment in the potential sectors and deepen the bilateral trade relations while a high-powered Japanese investment mission is due to visit the country later this month, sources said. The two countries took initiatives to boost bilateral
Govt fails to recruit addl factory inspectors within extended time
The government has failed to complete the recruitment of additional 200 factory inspectors within the extended timeframe until June 30 due to some procedural complexity. A labour ministry official said that all the complicities including amendment of a relevant rule have been completed and the recruitment process
Di Maria takes Argentina to last-eight in gripping extra time finish
A stunning last-minute goal from Ángel Di Maria put Argentina through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, as the Albiceleste lead Switzerland 1-0 in extra time. But Alejandro Sabella’s men were left fretting until the end, saved when Blerim Dzemaili struck the post in the dying seconds. After a tense 0-0 draw at 90 ... Read more
Tenashinash Award
Ramendu Majumdar, Masud Ali Khan conferred with lifetime achievement award Seasoned actors Ramendu Majumdar and Masud Ali Khan received Life Time Achievement Awards at the Tenashinash Awards at the Manirul Islam Auditorium of Bangladesh Television on Friday. Television Natya Shilpy o Nattyokar Sansad (Tenashinath) bestowed the awards to the artistes for their long standing contributions ... Read more
Literary arena mourns Abul Hossain
Eminent Bengali poet Abul Hossain died on Sunday at about 10:30pm in the capital’s Square Hospital. He was 92 and was suffering from old-age complications. One of the most aged poets Abul Hossain was a parent figure to many in the contemporary literature arena in Bangladesh. Hossain, an Ekushey Padak winner, has had an unwavering ... Read more
TV serial on lives of apparel workers
One of the major contributors to the country’s economy is the apparel sector where millions toil hard from dawn to dusk. The cogs and wheels of this sector are kept running by millions of hands, majority of which are women. But these working hands and their lives hardly get noticed. Society seems to be soullessly ... Read more
Bollywood divas question pay disparity
Bollywood’s leading ladies, like Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan, Katrina Kaif and Kangana Ranaut, are not amused at the pay disparity between male and female stars in the industry, and have spoken out in solidarity against it, reports Hindustan Times. While Priyanka calls the difference in remuneration ‘insane’, Katrina feels the gap is ‘huge’. Kangana feels ... Read more
Transformers: Age of Extinction rules US box office
Transformers: Age of Extinction has topped the North American box office and scored the biggest opening weekend of the year so far, reports BBC Online. The fourth installment in Michael Bay’s franchise took $100m (£58.8m) despite generally poor reviews from critics. It also added another $201.3m (£118.2m) from 37 international territories, including $90m (£52.9m) in ... Read more
Kamal blames nepotism for Tigers’ decline
Nepotism and lack of discipline are at fault for Bangladesh’s recent failure, observed the new International Cricket Council president AHM Mustafa Kamal. Kamal was given a hero’s welcome on Monday on his return from Melbourne where he assumed the role of ICC president, a largely ceremonial post without any
New FY begins with challenges in investment, political fronts
The government will face some major challenges including boosting private investment, bringing momentum in economic activities, achieving GDP growth at higher rate and containing inflation in the new fiscal year 2014-2015 that begins today amid looming risk of political instability, economists and business leaders said on Monday. Achieving the targets
BB to cut mortgage-free agri loan limit
Bangladesh Bank has made a decision to reduce the limit of mortgage-free loan for 28 crops at different rates from the new financial year 2014-15. A BB official told New Age that the central bank had made the decision to reduce the mortgage-free loan of the crops to contain the scheduled banks’ credit risk.