Business

Bangladesh has received software export orders of 75,000 US dollar and potential orders amounting to 12.25 lakh from a three-day software exposition titled ‘Software Development Exposition’ held in Tokyo, Japan. The country, for the first time, participated in the Software Development Exposition from May 13 to 15, said a EPB press release on

Growers now struggle to maintain supply of tea in line with its growing demand, which ultimately pushes the beverage price up. Tea is widely consumed nowadays, from urban to rural areas, with around 7 percent domestic growth a year, says a senior official of the Tea Traders Association of Bangladesh (TTAB). According to the trade ... Read more

Restructuring move stagnant, no meeting in seven months The Board of Investment, the government’s investment promotion agency, has virtually turned into an ‘abandoned’ organisation for lack of proper attention and serious manpower shortage when investment climate is plagued by the crisis of infrastructures. The board, headed by the prime minister as its chairman, has not ... Read more

Mobile operators Banglalink and AKTEL are in talks for a possible merger in an aggressive bid to grab a substantial market share of Bangladesh’s 46 million market, giving a hint that the number of operators will come down in the already saturated six-operator market. The merger issue was disclosed by Orascom Telecom Holdings Chairman Naguib ... Read more

A recovery in cell phone demand will not happen until well into 2010, researcher Gartner said on Wednesday, while Reuters data showed the industry could suffer its worst quarter ever in April-June. The handset market fell 9.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, Gartner said, adding it saw demand stabilising but it would ... Read more

Some of the major juice manufacturers are flouting the rule by not marking the juice packs with maximum retail price. The rule of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution clearly states that every 250ml juice pack should have been marked with MRP. But, visiting some city outlets that sell packed juices it was found that some ... Read more

Beximco Pharma, a leading medicine manufacturer, now targets expansion of its export markets to Australia and North American countries. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a forum of 10 Middle Eastern countries, and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia have already accredited the company in 2008 for exports. The combined pharmaceutical market of GCC is valued at ... Read more

A seven-day housing fair of Sheltech, a leading real estate company of the country, begins in the Dhaka city today. The Sheltech is going to arrange the fair when the country’s businesses started feeling the pinch of global recession, Toufiq M Seraj, managing director of the real estate firm, said at a press conference on ... Read more

Warid Telecom, the fourth largest mobile phone operator, is on the lookout for a partner to raise fresh capital for investment in the next phase of operations in Bangladesh. Warid made its Bangladesh debut as the sixth mobile operator in May 2007 and has bagged 2.5 million subscribers until March 09. Partnership is crucial to ... Read more

When the country’s major export earning sectors are showing downward trend owing to the impact of the current global financial crisis, plastic sector shows a significant export potential. The sector sets on the 12th row of the country’s export earners’ listing with an earning of Tk 1,200 crore annually, is going to get a boost ... Read more

Industry leaders say growth may not sustain in recession Footwear exports have marked a 20 percent rise during July-March this fiscal year, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) statistics show. The country fetched $144.69 million from exports of the item in nine months, a sharp rise from $131.52 million in the July-February period. However, the industry leaders ... Read more

The government has finally paid heed to struggling TeleTalk’s cry for development fund. A Tk 2,000 crore will soon be allocated for the state mobile phone operator to reach out its network to additional 55 lakh customers in the next couple of years. “The fund will be spent for adding 55 lakh customers to our ... Read more

Former caretaker government adviser Akbar Ali Khan has suggested the government reset diesel price in line with the global market and increase allocation for infrastructure by reducing spending on unproductive sector in the upcoming budget. The government should consider it with priority to reset the price of diesel in the budget, he told a roundtable ... Read more

Bottled water supply has become a fast growing business as a growing number of people over the years have turned to the bottled drinking water against the backdrop of diminishing confidence on water supplied by the authorities. But substandard suppliers are dominating the market in absence of proper monitoring and legal action by the authorities ... Read more

Following the success of the first one, the second Laptop Fair is scheduled to kick off in the port city in the last week of May. The three-day event will be held at the Chittagong Engineers Institution from May 22 and is being organised by Maker Communications. The company have already organised laptop fairs in ... Read more

They were excited for obvious reasons, but at the same time their innovative business ideas amazed many. The Surma hall of Sonargaon Hotel was literarily too small to provide the encaustic young entrepreneurs with enough space, and with the announcement of the Young Entrepreneur Award 2008-09, the hall was about to be exploded with thundering ... Read more

Almost half of the 74 state-owned enterprises divested in the past were closed down that raised question about the quality of ‘so called privatisation’. A total of 74 state-owned enterprises belong to textiles, jute, manufacturing, chemicals, food, leather and banking sector were sold out since the establishment of the Privatisation Board in 1993 and thereafter ... Read more

When the government is planning a review of stimulus, announced last week, the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry has readied a Comprehensive Economic Stimulus Package. The CESP, prepared after discussions with different export sub-sectors, has suggested a fund, titled Financial Crisis Mitigation Fund from the government and interim subsidies to pay interest ... Read more

The Dhaka market rose for a second week amid volatile trading with the key indices gaining in the first two days and declining in the rest three sessions. The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSE General Index, increased by 45.92 points, or 1.8 percent, to 2,596.66 on a week-on-week basis. The DSE All ... Read more

Commerce Secretary Feroz Ahmed has urged the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to terminate the Generalised System of Preference (GSP) review proceedings and continue to accord GSP facilities to Bangladesh to help the country develop and fight poverty. His appeal came during a hearing on GSP Facilities for Bangladesh at the USTR office in Washington ... Read more