Business

Dhaka, keen to get duty free access to the US market, has requested Washington to establish two committees on market access and investment, senior commerce ministry officials said. The committees comprising public and private sector representatives could hold period meetings to identify and remove the hurdles to boost trade

The overall shortfall in provision against general and defaulted loans in the banking sector increased by Tk 2,174.59 crore or 843.74 per cent in the first quarter of this year with seven banks failing to keep required provision in the period. According to the latest BB data, the shortfall rose to Tk 2,432.32 crore as of ... Read more

The Dhaka Stock Exchange plans to scrap the existing lot-based trading of shares by October this year in a bid to reduce investors’ hassle in trading odd-lot shares. Once the bourse scraps the lot-based trading system, the investors will be able to trade any amount of shares, DSE managing director Swapan Kumar Bala

Banks, defaulters misuse relaxed rescheduling policy as BB goes soft Defaulted loans in the banking sector increased by Tk 7,589.15 crore in the first three months of this year as many of the loan defaulters, who were allowed to reschedule their loans on the ground of pre-poll political unrest became defaulters again. According to the Bangladesh ... Read more

The Asian Development Bank on Monday reiterated the country’s GDP growth rate at 5.6 per cent because of political unrest surrounding the January 5 election which resulted in declining remittances and export orders in 2013-14 fiscal year. In its quarterly update released on the day, the Manila-based multilateral donor also said that industrial

Recruitment of additional 200 factory inspectors by the June, a new deadline set by the government, appeared uncertain due to some procedural complexity, said officials concerned. A labour ministry official said that amendment on a relevant rule is required to facilitate the recruitment process as existing rules do not allow recruiting

State-run Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited on Monday agreed to export 10 Gbps bandwidth to India’s Tripura. The BSCCL signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian state-owned telecommunication company Bharat Sanchar Nigam on the day, said officials. The four-member BSNL delegation led by its chief general manager DP Singh

Dhaka stocks finished flat in volatile trading on Monday as bargain hunting in late trading hours after a two-day sharp fall saved the market from another day of heavy fall. The market remained downbeat in the last three trading sessions following the finance minister’s announcement that the government ‘would not allow’

Qatar Airways, the national carrier of Qatar, will officially move to its new home at Hamad International Airport on May 27, 2014. The move to HIA’s state-of-the-art facilities is set to compliment Qatar Airways five-star service, said a news release. HIA will offer passengers a new standard in international travel and help in supporting Qatar Airways as it ... Read more

Factory inspection department survey finds A Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments survey has found that 49 per cent of the country’s readymade garment factories do not take approval from factory inspectors for additional working hours at their units. DIFE officials said that taking approval from factory inspector for additional working hours is mandatory. The DIFE ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank on Sunday asked Sonali Bank to raise fund maintaining its minimum capital requirement as the bank suffered a capital deficit of Tk 895 crore as of December 31, 2013. The BB also asked the four state-owned banks — Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali — to speed up their monitoring on the loans which had ... Read more

Bangladesh’s export to India slumped by 32.22 per cent in the first 10 months of the current financial year 2013-2014 compared with the same period of the corresponding period of the FY13. Economists and Bangladesh Bank officials said that political unrest in first six months of the FY14 coupled with continuous non-tariff and para-tariff barriers put ... Read more

India has proposed Bangladesh to buy 10 Gbps (Gigabits per second) bandwidth for its north-east state, said officials. They said a visiting delegation of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited had expressed its interest during a meeting with Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited that deals with the bandwidth. Talking to the news agency, Abubakar Siddique,

Terming microcredit as a powerful tool for alleviating poverty, finance minister AMA Muhith on Sunday said microcredit programmes have been expanded in the country to a large extent as it now accounts for 33 per cent of the country’s overall credit portfolio. ‘The microcredit accounted for 4 per cent of the country’s

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Saturday said that there had been capital flight from the country to Dubai of the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia in the absence of private sector investment. He observed that the special incentives given since `70s for legalising undisclosed money were ‘totally useless’. Muhith was speaking at a pre-budget meeting with

Say foreign diplomats at DCCI meet Foreign diplomats on Saturday said that Bangladesh should diversify its exportable products to tap significant share of the export market taking advantages of duty-free market access and other factors in different countries. At a roundtable discussion organised by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, they also suggested that the ... Read more

The agriculture ministry has opposed a move to introduce crop insurance terming it ‘unrealistic’ for Bangladesh, a disaster-prone country with huge small-scale farmers, officials said. The ministry last month forwarded its opinions to the banking and finance division of the ministry finance suggesting that the crop insurance should not be

Chittagong Customs House has recently made a proposal to the National Board of Revenue to form a customs marine unit for intensifying monitoring activities to prevent smuggling and offences related to export-import on the international water boundary of the country, customs officials told New Age. They said incidents of smuggling and leakage of products had

The government is going to develop 2,000 entrepreneurs in IT sector under ‘Freelancers to Entrepreneurs Development Programme’. The programme will be launched today in 64 districts simultaneously aimed at developing entrepreneurship on outsourcing. In Dhaka, posts, telecom and communication technology minister Abdul Latif Siddique

Indian chilli has been banned in Saudi Arabia, the fifth-largest importer of fresh vegetables from India, citing the presence of high pesticide residues in it, reports Press Trust of India. ‘We have been informed about the Saudi ministry of agriculture’s decision to ban chilli pepper beginning May 30,’ said Surinder Bhagat, second secretary