Businesses to get easy, automated goods clearance benefits at ports

A new customs law in the making holds out a bunch of beneficial provisions for local traders along with easy and automated trade clearing from the ports, in line with government policy geared towards faster economic growth. Planned to be...

Listed engineering cos register 4.20pc growth

Listed engineering sector companies witnessed a 4.20 per cent growth in the first half of 2015 as profits of majority companies rose in January-June period of the current calendar year compared to the same period of last year. Consolidated earnings...

Move to bring some items under licensing coverage

The government has taken an initiative to bring some essential commodities under licensing coverage with a view to curbing possible scope of syndication, officials said. As part of the move, the ministry of commerce (MoC) has formed a six-member committee...

Developing students\\\' creativity in schools: Challenges and prospects

Teachers play a vital role for implementing education curriculum at the field level especially in the classroom situation. Government develops education policy with the help of policymakers and implementation part is organised by Ministry of Education, different   government bodies, administrators...

Unholy nexus behind question paper leak

The frequent leaking of question papers of different public examinations for the last few years has worried the civil society of the country. Regular leaking of question papers of different public examinations is bringing down the morale of the honest...

Ignoring lesson from Hiroshima will be at a great risk

This year too on August 6, thousands gathered at the Peace Memorial Park of Hiroshima to join in interfaith religious services to commemorate the anniversary of the first ever bombing of a city on this planet by an atomic bomb....

Traffic jams turn Dhaka into a \\\'living hell\\\'

Nowadays, illegal parking has swept the entire city of Dhaka as cars, trucks and other vehicles are parked almost everywhere with no respect for civic responsibility. In addition to illegal parking, faulty traffic signalling, narrow road-spaces and the incorrigible tendency...

Assessing prospects of demographic dividend

Social scientists, mainly economists and demographers, continue to debate whether population growth encourages, discourages or is independent of economic growth. The focus however is on population size and growth, with little or no attention to the age structure of population....

Enforcing legal process to stop child marriage

Child marriage - defined as 'formal marriage and informal union in which a girl/boy lives with her/his partner as if married before the age of 18 ' - is one of the most serious social menaces in the world. It...

Delhi rejects two BR projects, presses for new one

The government has selected three projects in railway sector to get US$490 million in funds from India's proposed new line of credit (LoC) worth US$2.0 billion, after the rejection of two others. Officials said the selection was finally made after...

BB asks SoCBs again to focus on agri, small loans

The central bank has asked four state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs) again to go for disbursing agriculture as well as small and medium-scale loans instead of large ones for minimising risk, officials said. The instruction has been included in the minutes...

Alliance top brass to visit Dhaka this month

Two top bosses of the Alliance including former US ambassador to Dhaka James F Moriarty will visit Bangladesh later this month to see the activities of the organisation, officials said. The other member is Mara M Burr, the senior adviser...

Farmers of char areas getting interested in cultivating sugarcane

RANGPUR, Aug 20: The farmers at different char areas in Rangpur and Lalmonirhat districts are getting interested in cultivating sugarcane on fallow char lands as a result its cultivation is on the rise in the areas in recent years. Due...

Sustainable urban cities for all children

In an era of rapid urbanisation, over half the world's people - including more than a billion children - now live in cities and towns. Urban areas - cities and towns - of course, offer a great potential for leading...

Fundamentals of economic journalism

Over the last two decades, economic journalism has flourished in the developing countries, including Bangladesh, rapidly. Compared to the developed world, where economic journalism has reached quite a high level, it lags behind in these countries. A few nations like...

Terrible impact of tailback

People living in the capital of this country have long considered themselves privileged. But this perception is changing fast. Dhaka city hosts the country's administrative hub, the best of educational institutions and healthcare facilities. Opportunities for employment, business and otherwise...

Population time bomb versus demographic dividend

In the early '60s, both students and teachers of Economics at Dhaka University were anxious about one thing - we are sitting on a population time-bomb and this bomb may explode anytime. Truly, the so-called "population time-bomb" has exploded by...

Tapping potential of Indo-Bangladesh connectivity

Bangladesh and India, two close neighbours in South Asia, lack seamless multimodal connectivity despite having potential of land and waterway networks through sharing of common borders and rivers.  Apart from the politically contentious issues between the two countries like water...

Stocks extend gaining spell for third day

Stocks extended gaining streak for the third straight sessions on Thursday with turnover improved slightly as investors remained active on large-cap stocks. DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 23.18 points or 0.48 per...

Default margin loans weigh heavily on stock market

A good number of merchant banks and brokerage firms are yet to come out of the woods due to gross mismatch between the funds they had lent as margin loans and the value of the stocks they have under their...

Grameen Bank seeks tax waiver extension until 2020

Grameen Bank (GB) has recently sought extension of its unconditional tax exemption facility until 2020, as the existing tax benefit for the entity is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2015. Chairman of GB board of directors Professor Khandaker Mozammel...

Strategies for fighting money laundering to be devised

The working committee on anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing has asked all ministries, divisions and state agencies concerned to devise their respective anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing strategies, officials said. They have also been advised to follow the National Strategy...

Establishing SME clusters for sustainable development

There are about 2.6 million unemployed or under-employed people in Bangladesh. About 1.8 million new workers are coming to the job market in each year. Employing this large number of population is a major challenge for the government. Creating entrepreneurs,...

Stocks edge higher for second day

Stocks edged marginally higher for the second running sessions on Wednesday amid volatile trading as investors remained active on lucrative stocks. DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 7.70 points or 0.41 per cent...

DSE, CSE up at opening

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) witnessed upward trend in early hour of trading on Wednesday, maintaining the previous session’s positive trend. DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, went up by 11.41 points or...

‘Compliance’ holds the key to success

A piece of advice, 'don't always take at face value what the politicians or government leaders say in public', is widely accepted across the world. The advice has come out to be true recently, at least, in the case of...

BSC gets into trouble in selection of shipbuilder

The Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC), which got permission for procurement of six vessels from China after a long delay, is now in the midst of yet another complexity involving their building in Chinese shipyards. The BSC has chosen a Chinese...

Most deals with foreign cos for railway dev fail to sail through

Majority of the deals signed with different foreign companies in the last five years to implement important projects for development of the country's railway communications hardly saw the light of day. Bangladesh Railway (BR) has already cancelled 31 out of...

Profits of listed NBFIs witness mixed trends

Profits of listed non-bank financial institutions (NBFI) witnessed mixed trend in first half of 2015 calendar year over the corresponding period of the last year. Market insiders said political unrest affected their loan recovery which ultimately cast a negative impact...

Climate Change: The world cannot afford a delayed action

We should mark the year 2015. Hardly a day or a week goes by without the distressing news of cyclones, tornadoes, floods, wildfires and more calamitous occurrences. Scientists, ecologists and philanthropists have repeatedly cautioned the international community against tolerating the...