Business

World finance officials meeting in Washington Friday said they expected the global economic crisis to begin to unwind by year-end, citing encouraging early signs of recovery. The Group of Seven major economies said the worst global slump since the 1930s Great Depression appeared to be approaching a bottom but also warned the outlook remained highly ... Read more

The country’s biggest-ever flour mill is set to start production at the end of this month. Shampa Flour Mills, a Tk 250-crore project of the City Group, will produce premium grade and packed flour and semolina (suji). A visit to the factory at Rupshi under Rupganj upazila in Narayanganj last week

The initiative to bring regulatory reforms for improving business climate is yet to draw attention of the new government, the chairman of Regulatory Reforms Commission said, regretting lack of demand for business reforms from the stakeholders. Akbar Ali Khan, addressing the presentation ceremony of a survey report on business reforms on Friday, added that delay ... Read more

Say economists Economists and experts said the central bank initiative to cap the maximum lending rate at 13 per cent is still high as they believe the local commercial banks have the scope to bring it down further. Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday directed the banks to bring their lending rates down except for credit cards ... Read more

Sales of generators are rising on frequent outages and an electricity shortage in the country with local businesses increasingly getting involved in assembling and making parts of the power devices amid approaching summer. In the last three months, around 11,000 units of generator were sold mainly in Dhaka and Chittagong, marking a rise of 25 ... Read more

The world’s cheapest car went on sale on Thursday, with dealers and the company behind it confident of strong demand despite a slump in global car sales amid the world economic downturn. Bookings opened for orders of Tata Motors’ 100,000 rupee (2,000 dollars) Nano at dealerships around the country, with a spokesman describing sales as ... Read more

Readymade garment exporters in a parley with international buyers in Dhaka yesterday sought their cooperation in raising the trade volume in the face of global recession. They also bargained with the buyers for more prices of apparel items and export orders so that the country can gain more competitiveness. The buyers nowadays offer the lowest ... Read more

Four state-owned commercial banks have decided not to reduce their deposit rates rather exert coordinated efforts to help their clients face the ongoing global recession. The decision came from a meeting of the managing directors of the Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks at the Sonali Bank auditorium Thursday morning, banking sources said. In contrast ... Read more

Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has sought government’s nod to a tax-free investment of undisclosed money in the capital market in order to make it vibrant. Allowing such investment was among the set of proposals the prime bourse leaders placed before the head of government when they met her at her office yesterday. The DSE also ... Read more

Latif Real Estate Ltd has celebrated its 23rd anniversary on April 01. On the occasion of the founding anniversary, the company arranged a ceremony held its corporate office on the day. The chairman of the organisation Morjina Biswas, Managing Director Ahdul Lalif’ Biswas, Assistant Managing Director and organising Secretary of REHAB Md. Akter Biswas and ... Read more

BABs’ commitment, repo rate cut ignored The commercial banks have not yet started slashing their interest rates on lending in line with the central bank’s latest interest rate policy and the commitment of the Bangladesh Association of Banks. However, some banks have cut interest rates on their deposits, but they are still counting the same ... Read more

Seventy-four full-length films were released last year but very few of them could make profits or breakeven returns on investments. Industry people used to say the movies could not make profit as middleclass people were turning their back on cinemas. But they now say cinema goers are there and also is the business thanks to ... Read more

Trade analysts advise govt on recession risks Trade experts yesterday advised the government to aggressively negotiate with the Obama administration to obtain duty-free and quota-free access for Bangladeshi goods to the US. “This is the time to chalk out details with the Obama administration,” Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished fellow with the Centre for Policy ... Read more

Motorola, one of the leading mobile device makers, is developing plenty of strategies to grab a significant share of Bangladesh’s untapped handset market. The US-based company yesterday said it has taken a lot of strategic plans, which will be disclosed soon, to re-enter Bangladesh market with a wider distribution network. The existing 45-million mobile market ... Read more

Dhaka stocks rebounded strongly yesterday from continuous loss and flat trends for the last few days with all its indices going up backed by banking shares, although decliners beat advancers. The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSE General Index, rose by 39.62 points, or 1.63 percent, to 2,466.16 points. The DSE All Share ... Read more

Staying immune from the ongoing global meltdown, the local information technology industry witnessed a 67 percent rise in exports during the first seven months (July-January) of this fiscal year, compared to the same period a year earlier. The IT-enabled service makers fetched $19.75million from exports during the time, which was $11.77million last fiscal. Software exports ... Read more

Embattled General Motors is girding for bankruptcy if necessary but will still emerge “reinvented” from its wrenching crisis, GM’s new government- backed boss Fritz Henderson said yesterday. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said President Barack Obama’s administration was looking at all options for GM, after former CEO Rick Wagoner was replaced by Henderson last week on ... Read more

Islami Bank Foundation, a subsidiary organisation of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd (IBBL) has introduced ‘Quaraanic Language Institute’ through an inaugural function at Mohammad Younus Auditorium of Islami Bank Tower recently. Shah Abdul Hannan, former Chairman, Board of Directors of IBBL and also former Secretary inaugurated the institute as the chief guest. Principal MouIana Zainul Abedin, ... Read more

A high-level team comprising of RPP Project Chief Dick Moss (Sri Lanka), BACH Project Implementation Manager Nayeni Fernando (Sri Lanka) and Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank Mohiuddin Ahmed on Sunday visited the factory of Japan-Bangladesh security printing & papers Ltd. Located at Bhulta in Narayangonj. They along with Chairman of Japan-Bangladesh Group Salim Prodhan have ... Read more

Entrepreneurs want more supports to help cut imports A local entrepreneur is producing liquid rubber and marketing the item in a remarkable feat giving a lift to the country’s five decades old rubber industry. The Chokoria based HR latex successfully developed 60 grade rubber, popularly known as liquid rubber after an effort of four years ... Read more