Business

National Internet Exchange to cut int’l charges for ISPs The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has recently sought telecom ministry approval for establishing National Internet Exchange to route the local internet traffic within the country. NIX, a consortium of two or more internet service providers, will be a passing point of internet traffic within the country. Two companies, ... Read more

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Monday requested the visiting delegation of Belarus for giving on-arrival visas to Bangladeshi businesses in their country. At the second Bangladesh-Belarus Business Council Meeting, the FBCCI said that on-arrival visa facility would help expand bilateral trade and investment.

Islamic Development Bank president Ahmad Mohamed Ali on Monday said that there was no scope of providing terrorist financing through the Islamic banks. It is a wrong conception that more scopes are available to finance terrorism through the Islamic banks, he said. The IDB president made the comments

Scheduled banks and non-bank financial institutions failed to fulfil their target of SME loan disbursement in the first quarter of this year due to political and business uncertainty, said officials of Bangladesh Bank. According to the BB data released on Monday, the banks and the NBFIs disbursed 23.77 per cent SME loan amounting to Tk 21,053.41 ... Read more

Dhaka stocks declined for the second trading session on Monday as investors were anticipating further corrections in share prices after a six-trading session rise. Market operators said speculation that the war crimes tribunals might pronounce their verdicts against some war crimes accused soon made investors

There will be no supplementary duty and regulatory duty on import of products, except 147 items, from July 1, 2015, said National Board of Revenue chairman Ghulam Hussain on Sunday. He advised the entrepreneurs of domestic industries to be prepared for a new duty structure in which local industries would get no protection from imported goods. ‘There

Assistant United States Trade Representative Mike Delaney on Sunday said that the anti-trade union actions of some of the garment factory owners were affecting the international reputation of Bangladesh’s RMG sector. ‘It may be that the factory owners who are not willing to work with the unions are a minority, but that should be no defence

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Sunday said there was no benefit by allocating budgetary fund for the public sector jute mills because of falling demand of jute in the global market. He said no allocation would be kept in the budget for 2015-16 for any new school under the monthly payment order that has been destroying ... Read more

Economists at a pre-budget discussion on Saturday urged the government to prepare a realistic budget with more focus on employment generation schemes, education and health. They also suggested the government that it should enhance direct tax and reduce dependency on borrowings from the local sources to meet budget deficit.

Foreign loans for the social safety net projects are likely to fall in the new fiscal year as the lenders are showing more interest in the infrastructure and transport sector deals. The Economic Relations Division officials said they were expecting to strike deals worth only US$ 71.4 million with the lenders on the social protection ... Read more

The premium earning of life insurance companies decreased by Tk 43.13 crore in 2013 compared with the previous year. The life insurance companies in 2103 registered premium earning of Tk 6,539.87 crore compared with Tk 6,583 crore in 2012. Experts in the insurance sectors said that the premium earning of the existing life insurance companies declined last ... Read more

Unnayan Onneshan, an independent think-tank, has said declining trend in the inflow of remittance might put adverse impact on rural economy, causing increase in poverty. The rate of remittance inflow declined by 6.93 per cent during the period of July-February of the current financial year 2013-14 from the corresponding period

The defaulted loans in the agriculture sector increased by 44.85 per cent as of March 31, 2014 from that of the same month in 2013 as the farmers failed to repay their loans for not getting fair prices of their products due to a supply chain disruption during the recent political unrest. According to latest Bangladesh ... Read more

The prices of edible oil and onion went up in the city’s kitchen market over the week ending Friday due to supply shortage. Retailers said that the prices of edible oil increased a bit due to soaring prices in wholesale market in last few days and the prices of onion increased over the week with the ... Read more

Standard and Poor’s on Friday downgraded its rating of Russia’s ability to repay debt as alarm grew over the effects of the Ukraine crisis on the economy amid increased capital flight and slumping growth. Russia’s central bank also hiked interest rates by half a percentage point in a move aimed at curbing inflation which could also ... Read more

A year after Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed, killing more than 1,100 workers and injuring more than 2,000 in the worst disaster in the history of the garment industry, protesters gathered Thursday outside the Walmart Neighbourhood Market in Lakeview to demand the world’s largest retailer commit more money to helping the survivors and

The implementation of the annual development programme failed to pick pace in nine months of the current fiscal year as the implementation rate was 43 per cent in July-March of 2013-14 compared with that of 49 per cent in the same period of the previous year. Planning ministry officials said low utilisation of government allocation and project ... Read more

Western fashion brands faced pressure Thursday to honour promises to care for Bangladesh’s victims of the world’s worst garment factory accident, ahead of protests on the one-year anniversary of the disaster that cost 1,138 lives. Workers are set to stage demonstrations in front of the site of the now infamous nine-storey Rana Plaza complex in the ... Read more

The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh on Thursday sought a set of tax benefits in the next national budget for telecommunications sector saying that high tax burden was holding back the investors from new investment. At a pre-budget discussion with the National Board of Revenue, Robi Axiata Ltd chief operating officer Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, while

Centre for Policy Dialogue, a civil society think-tank has urged the authorities to fulfil their commitments to help the victims of Rana Plaza tragedy and their families. The call came at a keynote paper presented at a seminar to mark the first anniversary of the worst industrial disaster of the modern world that killed 1,134 garment