Business

The least developed countries should look for other alternatives to the World Trade Organisation forum to facilitate their trade as the WTO is failing to ensure the interests of LDCs, said speakers at a seminar in Dhaka on Sunday organised by the International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh. The WTO is passing through a crisis and it ... Read more

Tariff, non-tariff barriers hamper trade integration in S Asia The Asian economic recovery will be driven by the continental growth and China-India relations after the world economic crisis, said speakers on Sunday at a seminar organised by the International Chambers of Commerce Bangladesh. They also pointed out that tariff and non-tariff barriers hamper the trade ... Read more

The Economic Relations Division on Sunday launched an online-based foreign loans and grants information management system to track foreign aid flows to the country for ensuring transparency and accountability in foreign fund management and coordination. Finance minister AMA Muhith inaugurated the home-grown

Bangladesh Citizens’ Money In Swiss Banks BB gets no Switzerland response on info exchange Swiss Financial Intelligence Unit is yet to make any response to a proposal to sign a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit on exchanging information about money laundering despite repeated attempts taken by Bangladesh Bank. The BB sent a ... Read more

Bangladesh is going to host a three-day regional conference to assess the progress and find out the financing gaps to graduate from the least developed country category to middle income one, officials of the Economic Resources Division said. ERD, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and United Nations Department of ... Read more

The finance ministry and the International Monetary Fund, which are increasingly worried over the skyrocketing growth of non-bank borrowing of the government through savings instruments, are prompting policymakers to look for quick fix to keep budgetary deficit in control. The IMF past week asked the government to rein in

RMG Factory Database Upgradation hindered for owners’ non-cooperation A move for correction and upgradation of the readymade garment sector database taken by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments is being hampered due to non-cooperation of the factory owners, sources close to the process told New Age. They said DIFE officials, who found about ... Read more

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is likely to amend the guideline for the interconnection exchange operators with a provision to realise dues from the performance bank guarantee. BTRC officials said the commission had already discussed about the possible changes in the ICX guideline as 25 ICX companies had dues worth Tk 389.20 crore in revenue ... Read more

Relocation Of Tanneries Errant owners to face tannery closure, says Amu Industries minister Amir Hossain Amu on Saturday threatened with closure of tanneries in the capital’s Hazaribagh if their owners fail to transfer those to new site at Savar by next March. ‘Errant tanners would also face cancellation of plots in new tannery estate,’ he ... Read more

Dermatologist Ehsanul Kabir Joglul has recently been appointed managing director of Essential Drugs Company Ltd, the only government-owned pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Bangladesh, said a news release. Prior to the new appointment, Kabir had been working as head of dermatology department at Bangladesh Medical College Hospital. He is also the

Checking Money Laundering BB, customs start exchanging export-import data online Bangladesh Bank and customs department have started to exchange export- and import-related data through an online system to check money laundering and financial anomalies, officials of the central bank said. They said that the two entities had started to exchange the data from early this ... Read more

Bangladesh and 21 other Asian countries on Friday signed the intergovernmental memorandum of understanding to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, reports Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha. Representatives of the 22 nations signed the MoU at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing, according to media reports. Bangladesh was represented by state

The price of local red lentil increased in the city’s retail markets over the week ending Friday due to a supply shortage. The prices of other daily essential commodities including rice remained high over the week while the prices of some vegetables and broiler chicken decreased a bit. The price of local red lentil increased ... Read more

Suspicious Fund Handling BSEC probe finds LR Global caused losses to MFs A Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission’s probe body on LR Global Bangladesh Asset Management Company’s suspicious bank transactions has found that the frequent fund transfer from the mutual funds’ one bank account to another resulted in heavy losses for the funds. A BSEC ... Read more

The net investment in the national savings certificates and bonds increased by 225.20 per cent in the first quarter of the financial year 2014-15 compared with that in the same period of the FY 2013-14 as clients continued to invest heavily in the NSCs due to low bank deposit rates and sluggish business climate. According ... Read more

Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed on Thursday ruled out any possibility of bringing about further changes in the latest amended EPZ Act (2014) to ensure traditional trade union activities in the factories running inside the country’s export processing zones. ‘We have already initiated a process of bringing about

Internal Resource Division of the finance ministry on Thursday suspended the National Board of Revenue commissioner Hafizur Rahman on corruption charges and for not joining at office on time after expiry of his study leave. IRD on Wednesday issued an official order in this regard, officials of the revenue board said. They said that two ... Read more

International Gateway Operators Forum, a cartel of IGW operators, is lobbying with the government high-ups to get retrospective effect of the slashed revenue sharing and international call termination rate from July 1. The IGWOF in a letter to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on Tuesday requested that the new call termination rate of US 1.5 cents ... Read more

The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety has engaged the University of Texas to identify the effectiveness of its worker training on fire safety for garment factory workers in Bangladesh. Alliance, a platform of 26 retailers and brands of North America formed after the Rana Plaza building collapse, on Thursday said in a press release that ... Read more

The National Board of Revenue has taken steps to identify Bangladeshi citizens who bought homes abroad under ‘second home scheme’ of different countries to ensure tax collection from them, NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain on Wednesday said. The revenue board has started collecting data about the people from several countries where Bangladeshi people bought home with