Business

The telecom watchdog has decided to keep tabs on internet service providers to see whether they are reducing prices in line with a significant cut in bandwidth charges. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has also moved to make a guideline, aiming to discipline the internet market at retail level. “We cut wholesale bandwidth prices ... Read more

Hotel occupancy rate indicates good business Business executives from abroad have begun flocking to Dhaka’s five-star hotels in recent days — a trend that indicates negotiations and deals on advance export orders from the West for spring and summer of 2010. Occupancy rates in four major hotels in the capital have increased significantly now compared ... Read more

Augere Wireless Broadband Bangladesh Ltd launches its operation today. Augere chairman and chief executive officer Sanjiv Ahuja arrived in Dhaka on Sunday to host the inauguration, said a press release of the organisation. Augere is the parent company of Augere Wireless Broadband Bangladesh Ltd which successfully won a WiMAX licence in BTRC’s auction held in ... Read more

FARR Ceramics now eyes capacity building A local ceramics maker, in a span of less than two and a half years, has touched a credit mark of fetching around Tk 31crore from porcelain tableware exports in the immediate past fiscal year (2008-09), riding out the ongoing global recession. FARR Ceramics Ltd, which has now a ... Read more

Study sees manufacturing, real estate, construction most vulnerable to recession fallouts A study report cautions that a slowdown or negative growth of the country’s labour-intensive industries such as manufacturing, real estate and construction is likely to have adverse consequences on employment and labour market particularly in terms of generation of employment in these sectors. Most ... Read more

Ready-to-wear garment exporters Monday said, Bangladesh exports of RMG items to Germany will increase significantly at a time when the world became upset due to the financial recession, thanks to the government’s measures to face the economic meltdown. Speaking at a workshop on ‘Ways to Boost up RMG Export to Germany Under Present Recession’, they ... Read more

Southeast Asian counties need to come up with better policies for education, access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), climate change, gender issues, human development, food security and overall development of rural people’s livelihood, speakers told a regional seminar yesterday. Centre for Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) hosted the seminar titled ... Read more

Bangladesh Krishi Bank, the largest state-owned bank engaged primarily in financing the agricultural sector of the country, has made a net profit of Tk 12.19 crore in the fiscal year 2008-2009 after incurring loss for about two decades. Last year, the bank suffered a net loss of Tk 196 crore. The unprecedented success of BKB ... Read more

Bangladesh’s trade deficit with India from 2001-02 to 2007-08 fiscal years was US Dollar 12278.26 million. Commerce Minister Muhammad Faruq Khan said this in the House today in reply to a question raised by treasury bench member Mohammad Israfil Alam. He said the country’s trade deficit with India was 968.71 million in 2001-02, 1274.18 million ... Read more

Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Minister Engineer Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain yesterday told the Jatiya Sangsad [JS] that during 2008-2009 fiscal year a total of 6,45,779 Bangladeshis went abroad with foreign employments. Replying to a question from Hafiz Uddin Ahmed [Thakurgaon-3], the minister said that during this period 70,738 Bangladeshi workers

Beximco Group cos top list of bank loan defaulters, JS told Companies of the Beximco Group top the list of 2,196 bank loan defaulters, according to the latest report of the credit information bureau of Bangladesh Bank. Answering lawmakers’ questions in the parliament on Sunday, finance minister AMA Muhith disclosed that a total of 2,196 ... Read more

The change is more internal than external. It will be more of a systemic change. Daylight Saving Time (DST), that is. With DST to be effective from the midnight of June 19, all the offices are bracing for a synchronised change in their internal systems from computer to other time-sensitive devices. Bangladesh is set to ... Read more

Beximco Group has bought a 50 per cent stake in GMG Airlines and is injecting enough cash into Bangladesh’s biggest private passenger carrier to buy two big planes, the company announced Wednesday. Beximco paid Tk 30 crore to buy the stake in the ailing airline and will also lend another Tk 40 crore to help ... Read more

BUSINESS-RELATED CASES DSE wants special court Law minister Shafique Ahmed on Wednesday suggested that the parties may avoid delayed disposal of their cases if they resolve business-related disputes through arbitration instead of moving to court. Shafique Ahmed made the suggestion when a delegation of Dhaka Stock Exchange led by its president Rakibur Rahman met the ... Read more

Mobile operators added only 0.28 million customers to their networks in May, recording a 26 percent lower growth rate than in April 2009. According to data from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the total number of mobile phone customers reached 46.41 million in May 2009. The industry added 0.38 million customers in April 2009.

Warid Telecom International has renewed its working capital facility arrangement worth Tk 148 crore for one year. Warid Telecom, in this regard, signed an agreement with nine commercial banks in a city hotel on Tuesday. Industrial and Infrastructure Development Finance Company has acted as the lead arranger and security agent in this agreement.

As speculation on possible increase of tax and duty on luxury goods import mounts up, prices of some items have showed an increasing trend. Market sources and shoppers told New Age about the price increase of reconditioned cars and high-end mobile phone sets while some traders have started to build up their stocks of cigarettes ... Read more

Say businessmen Fish and shrimp worth around Tk 40 crore have been washed away from more than 400 shrimp enclosures and ponds in seven upazilas of Cox’s Bazar district by cyclone Aila and the recent tidal surge, businessmen said yesterday. The affected upazilas are Teknaf, Ukhia, Moheshkhali, Kutubdia, Cox’s Bazar Sadar, Chakoria and

Cellphone maker Sony Ericsson unveiled on Thursday two handset models it said are more eco-friendly, adding that the company will push greener features across its product line in the next two years. The new models, C901 GreenHeart and Naite, will be sold in smaller packages and have user manuals that are electronic. The devices use

Bangladeshi travellers can now use their regular Citycell handset while roaming in Japan. KDDI Corporation, Citycell’s roaming partner operator in Japan, recently introduced a network to support regular CDMA roamers from around the globe, a news release said. Citycell chief executive officer Michael Seymour announced the service at a ceremony held at its head office ... Read more