A preview of the 2018 Budget

The presentation of national budgets in parliament traditionally starts with praise for the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, which crossed seven per cent or so during the last couple of years. This positive performance was overshadowed by rising inequality,...

Improving corporate governance: Making independent directors really independent

An independent director is quite often termed an outside director. He is a member of the Board of Directors (BoD) who does not have a material or pecuniary relationship with the company or related persons, except sitting on board meetings...

Muhith slams BPC

Finance Minister AMA Muhith expressed his deep annoyance at the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation's (BPC's) failure to pay its debt to the government."The BPC is violating both policy and rules concerning the public accounts. This is in no way acceptable," the...

Effects of rising temperature on productivity and occupational health

In its new report titled 'World Employment and Social Outlook 2018', the International Labour Organisation (ILO) observed that in some countries across the world, including Bangladesh, the rising global temperature will have a significant impact on productivity and occupational safety...

Eclectic, expansionary portfolios bring gleaning success for MTB

Skilled human resources and tech-savvy banking products have yielded significant returns for Mutual Trust Bank (MTB) in the last consecutive five years.According to MTB top officials, eclectic and expansionary portfolios of the bank also played an important role to spur...

Prices of reconditioned cars likely to go up

Reconditioned cars are likely to be pricier in the next fiscal year (FY), as the government might propose a downward revision of the existing year-wise depreciation rates in the next budget.Sources said, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is likely...

World Environment Day 2018: The menace of plastic pollution

'World Environment Day', also known as environmental awareness day, 'Eco Day' or 'Environment Day' is being observed today. The primary aim of the day is to raise public awareness about the environment and specific issues affecting the environment.The observance of...

The 'missing' youth

The latest Bangladesh experience is possibly a clear pointer to a camouflage. It is that growth has been satisfactory, but the employment effect of growth is not up to the mark. It is being argued that Bangladesh has been passing...

The myth of food self-sufficiency

The principal objective of agricultural production in Bangladesh is to ensure adequate food supply for the rising population. The memory of the catastrophic famine of 1974 that led to the death of tens of thousands of people due to starvation...

Food security and growth in Asia

A disquieting finding of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017, Building Resilience for Peace and Food Security, or (SFSN2017), Rome, is that, in 2016, the number of chronically undernourished people in the world increased to...

Remittance inflow rises 11pc in May

The flow of overall inward remittance jumped by more than 11 per cent in May over that of the previous month ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, officials said.The remittance inflow was estimated at $1.48 billion in May 2018, up by...

DSE sees Tk 2.83b net foreign fund withdrawal in May

The net withdrawal of foreign funds invested in shares listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) hit Tk 2.83 billion (283 crore) in May last.The foreign investors were in a selling mood throughout the month.They sold shares worth Tk 6.24...

Increasing export competitiveness of plastic industry

The plastic industry that began its journey in Bangladesh in a small scale in the 1960's has developed into an important industrial sector in the last two decades. A 2012 UNESCAP (The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the...

Dilemma over duty-free rice imports

The country has seen bumper harvests of two major rice crops---Aman and Boro---this year. The positive development follows a debacle in the production of the main staple last year due to two consecutive floods.But the bumper output has failed to...

NBR seems not on course to attain revised target

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is likely to miss even the revised tax revenue collection target set for the current financial year, 2017-18. The shortfall in tax revenue collection stood at Tk 300 billion in the first ten months...

TCB truck sale is a rare sight in some city areas

Consumers hardly found any dealers selling commodities at subsidised rates under a government programme in some areas in the city over the past week.Consumers said in the absence of dealers in those areas they could not purchase essential commodities over...

India targets boosting exports from north-eastern region

India is pushing Bangladesh for keeping its land ports open to facilitate easy entry of products from the north-eastern states, officials said.The idea is to boost exports from India's lagging north-eastern region."In my opinion, easing of port restrictions at the...

Shurwid faces no bar to reduce paid-up capital

Shurwid Industries Limited would have no restriction to reduce its paid-up capital subject to the court's permission and compliance with the companies act, according to legal experts and officials.Officials at the securities regulator said the company could reduce its paid-up...

The hidden dangers of private foreign currency loans

An ominous trend witnessed in the last few years is the rat race for borrowing money in foreign currency by the borrowers in the private sector. According to the Bangladesh Bank's latest Annual Report (2016-17) the amount of foreign currency...

Shasha Denims to acquire Tk 480m stake of EOS Textiles

Shasha Denims Limited (SDL) will acquire 40 per cent stake of EOS Textiles Mills Limited. The shares are valued at approximately Tk 480 million."The process of acquisition of EOS Textiles Mills is almost done," Aslam Ahmed Khan, company secretary of...

The necessity of standardising poultry feed

For poultry and livestock, certain mineral elements such as iron, manganese, lead, copper and zinc are used as dietary nutrients. However, all mineral elements, whether considered essential or potentially toxic, can have an adverse effect on human beings and animals...

Ramadan is more than fasting and praying

Ramadan is here. In this blessed month, most Muslims if not all, spend the daylight hours fasting completely. They abstain from having any food or drink and indulging in other physical needs during the daylight hours. But refraining from food...

Changing the face of towns and villages

Over the last few decades the face of rural Bangladesh has been changing through the money remitted regularly by the rural people's sons and daughters working abroad around the world-especially in the Middle Eastern and South East Asian countries. In...

Aiding transcontinental manufacturing, trade

If a nation doesn't sell abroad enough, it is doomed to limit its market size, support its less competitive but lower-quality products, have a lower per capita wage and thus reduce the standard of living. Therefore, the volume of exports...

Digital challenges for businesses

In today's digitalised world, technology is influencing every sphere of human life, and it is impossible to imagine modern businesses without technological applications. It is a whole new world where digital intervention is necessary to address all managerial issues ranging...

Merits of staggered weekends

Starting from around the 6th century BC, the Jews were probably the first community in world history to practise a continuous seven-day cycle without paying any attention to the phases of the moon, and kept the provision for a fixed...

SDG 10: Reducing inequality within and among countries

Economic inequality is the difference found in various measures of economic well-being among individuals in a group, among groups or among countries. Economic inequality also refers to income inequality, wealth inequality, which is popularly known as the wealth gap. Economic...

New ferry service to link Ctg with Mongla, Payra ports

The government is set to launch a ferry service on the Gazaria-Munshiganj route on Sunday, officials said.This ferry service will facilitate transportation of goods as it will connect Chattogram port with Mongla and Payra ports as well as the southern...

Contributory pension for all

The element of uncertainty over its execution notwithstanding, the government's move to introduce the 'universal pension system' covering both private and public sectors is certainly a positive one. Finance Minister AMA Muhith, according to a report published in this paper,...

Madmen in authority

In The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, John Maynard Keynes famously worried that, "Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back."Yet even without prescriptive...