Business

Pre-Budget Meeting Fy 2014-15 BSREA demands equipment import duty cut NBR chairman criticises solar panel cos for installing substandard products The National Board of Revenue chairman Ghulam Hussain on Wednesday blasted the solar panel companies for installing substandard solar system and poor services to customers in the country. At the first day of month-long pre-budget discussion ... Read more

The Asian Development Bank on Tuesday further lowered the GDP growth projection for Bangladesh to 5.6 per cent in the current fiscal year because of disruption in economic activities amid political unrest. This was the lowest growth projection among the estimates made by the government, Bangladesh Bank and other international lenders for the 2013-14 financial year.

RMG Sector Consultative body of stakeholders to be formed soon The government will soon form a stakeholders’ consultative committee on readymade garment to deal with the problems and prospects of apparel exports, workers safety and their rights in the garment industry. Representatives from ministries concerned, owners associations and labour organisations will comprise the committee, commerce minister ... Read more

One Year Of Rana Plaza Disaster Industriall urges brands to provide compensation before anniversary IndustriALL Bangladesh Council on Tuesday urged the global buyers and brands, who used to source products from the garment factories located in the collapsed Rana Plaza, to contribute significant amount of money to the Rana Plaza compensation trust fund before the ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank on Monday asked the scheduled banks to start implementation of international Basel-III guidelines by raising banks’ capital bases from July 1. The banks will have to implement the new guidelines on capital arrangement in five and a half years. The BB issued a circular to managing directors and

Urge govt for ensuring uninterrupted supply chain Prices of essential products will remain stable in coming months, particularly during Ramadan, the fasting month for Muslims, as the country has sufficient import, stock and supply of the items, traders on Monday assured the commerce ministry. At a meeting with the ministry, they, however, urged the government to ... Read more

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Monday said the long-overdue financial reporting act would be placed in the next session of parliament for passage of the bill to release US$ 150 million loan from Asian Development Bank. ‘It is essential to enact the act,’ he told reporters after a meeting with visiting director General of South Asia ... Read more

The cabinet on Monday approved a proposal for establishment of a new foundation with four finished project of BSCIC on poverty alleviation, aimed at continuing its poverty alleviation drive through development of small scale industries. The cabinet in its weekly meeting approved a proposal of the industries ministry for establishing the ‘Small, Micro and Cottage

Stocks’ Refinance Scheme Application deadline extended for fifth time The supervision committee for Tk 900-crore government refinance scheme for the affected small-scale investors is going to extend the timeline to get loan applications from merchant banks and brokerage houses for the fifth time by another month. The deadline expired on Monday. The supervision committee will extend ... Read more

They also urge govt to ensure political stability, power, gas supply Businesses on Sunday urged the government to remove the industrial land crisis through a speedy completion of the special economic zones and to ensure electricity and gas supply to the manufacturing units to facilitate local and foreign investments in the country. At a meeting ... Read more

Finance minister AMA Muhith has opposed an International Monetary Fund proposal saying monitoring concessional debts was not in the jurisdiction of the multilateral lending agency. He made the observation after a meeting with visiting IMF South Asian executive director Rakesh Mohan at the secretariat on Sunday.

The government has offered special incentive for the raw jute exporters allowing them to reschedule their defaulted loans with the state-owned commercial banks at 8 per cent interest rate in next 10 years, officials said. Ministry of finance on Sunday issued a notice in this connection stating that the businessmen who exported raw jute between 2009 ... Read more

BSEC to conduct test run in April The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to conduct a test run on collecting initial public offering subscription fees through brokerage houses by the end of April this year. The BSEC expressed the intention at a meeting held at its office on Sunday with the Dhaka and Chittagong ... Read more

Country’s leading mobile phone operator Grameenphone on Sunday said that it has completed the 3G rollout in 64 districts within six months since its commercial launch. ‘This is the fastest 3G-rollout in the history of Telenor Group with our ambition to provide internet for all,’ GP chief executive officer Vivek Sood

Foreign Exchange Regulations Fin Min hesitates to implement IMF roadmap The finance ministry hesitates to the implement pledges that it told the International Monetary Fund it would do about reforming foreign exchange regulations to ensure foreign investments by Bangladeshis, high officials at the ministry and the Bangladesh Bank said. The visiting IMF team under the ... Read more

Continuous fall in growth in agriculture and industry sectors may cause a slowdown in GDP growth in the current fiscal year, said local think-tank Unnayan Onneshan on Saturday. In its current issue of Bangladesh Economic Update on recent trends of growth in agriculture, industry and power, UO projected that GDP growth in

Gsp Action Plan Govt launches web site with RMG sector database today A web site of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments will be launched today containing a database on garment sector in line with the action plan for restoration of US generalised system of preference. The government has incorporated initial information of about ... Read more

The Indian high commissioner in Dhaka and Bangladesh officials at a seminar on Saturday said that information gap between Bangladesh and India was one of the main hurdles to facilitate the trade and investments of the two countries. The seminar on ‘Foreign Investment in Bangladesh: Opportunities and Prospects’ was jointly organised by India-Bangladesh

The future of news is not just about print versus digital as delivery mechanism, but what is the best user experience, said Jay Lauf, publisher at Quartz. Thereby, it would not be wondering sometimes print is better than digital. Quartz is the business news publication of the

Rescheduling before Jan 5 polls fails to make situation better The country’s eight state-run banks held 61.51 per cent of the total defaulted loans in the banking sector as of December 31, 2013 despite a rescheduling spree by the banks in the last quarter of the year on political consideration. Three out of the eight state-run ... Read more