Business

COMMODITY SUPPLY MESS Supermarket pioneer reveals findings Kazi Azizul Islam If middlemen are eliminated and agro-produces from growers reach directly to retailers, prices will remain low — it is not only a public perception, also many economists subscribe to this idea. But, from his experience of running the operations of the country’s premier superstore chain ... Read more

Approves Asia Insurance IPO Staff Correspondent The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved the Asia Insurance Limited to raise Tk 9 crore through issuing initial public offering. ‘The insurance company will float 9 lakh shares of Tk 100 each,’ SEC executive officer Farhad Ahmed told reporters. The existing paid-up capital of Asia Insurance is ... Read more

Md Hasan The nascent call centre industry is facing policy hurdles and a shortage of skilled human resources that are posing a threat to nip the promising industry in the bud. Only seven out of 300 call centre licence holders in the country are inching towards grabbing a share of the $450 billion global

Staff Correspondent Garment exporters have admitted that the global recession has started affecting their businesses as orders are falling and importers are puting pressure for more price cuts. They, however, said that the government frustrated them more as it so far had not taken any decision on a stimulating support which

Asif Showkat Three state-owned banks, among four have targeted 231 loss-making branches to make them profitable by this year. The SOBs are Sonali, Janata and Agrani banks. Sonali Bank, the largest of the SOBs with 1,181 branches, had the most 439 loss-making branches in 2007 and the reform measures brought the number down to 191, ... Read more

Kawsar Khan Concord Entertainment Company Limited (CECL) plans to invest Tk 15 crore over the next one and a half years to expand its resort facilities at Foy’s Lake in Chittagong, in a bid to cash in on a steady inflow of tourists. In the next five years, CECL, a concern of Concord Group, will ... Read more

Bdnews24.com . Dhaka Investment in national savings certificates has increased two and a half times in the first half of the 2008-09 fiscal year compared with the previous year. Reduced inflation and suspension of anti-graft drive have contributed to the rise of investment in savings schemes, experts say. According to the central bank data, savings ... Read more

AFP, Nairobi The UN Environment Programme has unveiled an ambitious seven-point plan to feed the world without polluting it further by making better use of resources and cutting down on massive waste. A survey of the current state of food production and consumption released to a forum of the Kenya-based UNEP and world environment ministers ... Read more

Star Business Report A delegation led by Deputy Minister for Economic Development of Russian Federation Anna Popova arrived in Dhaka yesterday on a four-day visit to Bangladesh to learn about operations and the legal structure of Grameen Bank and

BSS, Dhaka According to a recent research findings with every ten percent increase in mobile phone penetration, a country’s GDP increases by 0.6 percent. A Wireless Intelligence report said Bangladesh at present is one of the top ten mobile phone growth markets in the Asia-Pacific region. It said in 2007, Bangladesh recorded unprecedented increases in ... Read more

Agence France-Presse . Manila More than 140 million people could be plunged into poverty and 23 million lose their jobs in Asia this year as the global financial crisis batters the region, according to a study released Wednesday. The crisis could also slow rural-to-urban migration, with many facing the prospect of returning to low-paid agricultural ... Read more

BSS, Dhaka A special economic zone on 1000 acres of land in Sylhet district could attract more FDI from expatriate Bangladeshis to help set up industrial projects there. Talking to BSS on Sunday, Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Junnun Mahmud Khan said that the business leaders of the district have planned to take ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The country’s small and medium enterprises in a pre-budget discussion on Sunday suggested setting up an economic crisis mitigation fund to help them grow. The growth of the country’s SMEs has slowed down in the last few years, an expert of the Central for Policy Dialogue told the discussion at the National Board ... Read more

Huawei Technologies (Huawei), a leader in providing nextgeneration telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, together with Intel Corporation, on Wednesday (February 11) announced the launch of a new WiMAX Interoperability Testing (IOT) laboratory in Beijing. Jointly designed and built by Huawei and Intel, the completion of the testing lab represents another milestone in ... Read more

Kawsar Khan Rupayan Housing Estate Ltd has constructed around 800 small and medium-sized apartments at a satellite township in Narayanganj that the company officials said were built targeting the middle-class families as clients. The apartments are housed in 28 buildings over a 19-bigha land in Bhuigar area of the district, a nine-kilometre ride from the ... Read more

NATION BUSINESS REPORT BTI (Building Technology and Ideas) on Saturday said it is constructing country’s one of the largest building projects in the city, which will accommodate at least 117 houses and shopping complex with modern architectural design. BTI is implementing the project styled Premier Plaza on 400,000 square feet land area at Rokeya Sarani, ... Read more

AFP, Dubai Low-paid Asian workers who toil long days to build the skyscrapers of Dubai have become the latest victims of the global financial crisis as companies run short of business and money. For many years, the Gulf emirate was a magnet for South Asian workers who fed the booming economy with cheap manpower-from cleaners ... Read more

Star Business Report Stocks rebounded yesterday as state-run banks entered the scene to rescue the troubled market from a slump in investor confidence and downturn for four days. The benchmark DSE General Index surged about 15-month high at 121.71 points or 5.03 percent to close at 2538. 37. The DSE All Shares Price Index advanced ... Read more

NATION BUSINESS REPORT Grameenphone’s revenue went up by 13 per cent to about Tk 6,100 crore in 2008 compared to 2007. At the end of 2008, the number of subscriptions reported about 2.1 crore with a subscription market share of 47 per cent. In 2008, the number of subscriptions increased by 45 lakhs. “While it ... Read more

Sayeda Akter Romance is set to paint the town scarlet and several industries eye trade worth over Tk 100 crore on Valentine’s Day, just around the bend. Flowers and cards are good, but not good enough for Valentine’s Day. Tailor-made packages for courting couples have been arranged by five-star hotels, restaurants, flower shops, card and ... Read more