The case against helicopter money

Despite years of expansionary monetary policy, the European Central Bank (ECB) has failed to push inflation back up to its target of "below but close to 2%." The latest measures - a zero interest rate on the ECB's main refinancing...

Partnership in supply chain management

Businesses that are involved with forward and backward linkage fall under a supply chain. In today's business world, supply chain management is very crucial and important for uninterrupted services. Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods...

Germany\'s costly fiscal fetish

The European Central Bank (ECB) is under heavy attack in Germany, a country that has long prided itself on defending the principle of central-bank independence. Indeed, it was Germany that pushed for this principle's inclusion among the criteria set out...

Opting for international factoring

International factoring is rated as a better alternative to letter of credit as a means of payment for transaction of cross-border trade. The idea has come to the fore recently in Bangladesh because of persisting complications arising out of trade...

Rising non-farm vocations

With the passage of time, poor households in rural Bangladesh have increasingly been linked to rural non-farm activities (RNFA) for livelihoods. This is not surprising given their perceived fluctuations in earnings following from swings in output levels. Thus, more often...

Govt to cut bank borrowing target by 18pc this fiscal

The government is set to slash its bank borrowing target by more than 18 per cent for the ongoing fiscal year (FY), 2015-16, mainly due to lower implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP). The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has...

NBR to integrate BIN with TIN

The tax authority will integrate Business Identification Number (BIN) with Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN) through online to help the taxmen verify data on the taxpayers. Information on income taxpayers and VAT payers will be shared with each other under the...

Promoting gender equality in teachers\' training

Gender equality in education ensures that women and men, girls and boys have equal access to learning opportunities, apart from fair treatment in the teaching-learning processes, equitable outcomes and advancement in all spheres of life. However, gender inequalities around the...

Developing a decent culture of eating out

A drive launched on Sunday last against restaurants and eateries preparing and serving food in unhygienic conditions in the capital has not drawn much attention. But this is perhaps for the first time that a coordinated and concerted move has...

US elections: Bernie Sanders pitches for Palestine in Israel-Palestine conflict

The 9th Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders held at the latter's urging prior to the extremely important primary in New York was held in Brooklyn on April 14. The New York primary will be held on Tuesday,...

World steel glut and China\'s role

As the world's second largest economy and the largest exporter of goods, China has once again hit the headlines in the world media - both print and electronic. Of course, China's hogging global media headlines is no longer news, but...

Electronic tender: Public money counts

It sounds good that the Mayor of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), Anissul Haq, has turned down a plea of some of his Councillors to shift away from e-tender. The logic they raised at a recent meeting, according to...

Tax havens undermine the fight against poverty

On April 14, 2016 the world's leading economies took a step toward denying tax evaders and money launderers around the world the opportunity to hide behind anonymous shell companies. Acting in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal, finance chiefs...

Wait only for SRO to kick-start

A government SRO stipulating the freight fee is now the only instrument awaited to kick-start transhipment of Indian goods through Bangladesh's Ashuganj port anytime soon, officials said.        Responding to India's repeated call for starting procedures of transhipment of its goods...

Farm mechanisation -- a strong candidate for fiscal concession

The next national budget is not far away and it's time for almost everybody to seek a few fiscal concessions from the revenue authorities. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has made it more of an annual ritual to sit...

BMET to get UK\'s skill dev accreditation authority

Bangladesh is going to emerge as an international accreditation authority in skill development, which is likely to open market for the country's labourers in the European market. Official sources said Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) is about to...

BB wants account of all banks\' rescheduled loans

The central bank, now under a recast management following a big cyber-heist, has sought information on both rescheduled and restructured loans from all the banks for a reappraisal.   Official sources said the stocktaking of bailed-out loan portfolios is meant for...

Govt eyes correspondence banking with Russia

The government has initiated a move to establish correspondence banking arrangement with the Russian Federation aiming to facilitate bilateral trade between the two countries, officials said.   As part of the move, a government delegation will visit the federation to negotiate...

LDCs concerned over slow global trade

Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) came up with a gloomy projection of global economic growth. Prior to the annual spring meeting of the Fund and its twin, The World Bank, the projection appears disappointing. IMF projected the global...

Tk 4b RMG remediation fund remains idle

Some Tk 4.0 billion fund for remediation of ready-made garment (RMG) factories has been idle following poor demand from the owners due to 'unfavourable' interest rate, sources said. They said the country's RMG entrepreneurs feared getting indebted through borrowing at...

Capital dredging cost may go up by Tk 590m

A move is underway to raise the cost of capital dredging of 24 inland river routes by Tk 590 million citing the reason of increase in labour cost and dredging area, officials said. The project has also sought one-year extension...

Ensuring an enabling environment for investment

There's no alternative to production and investment to compete and to survive in this globalised world. Investment means expansion, modification and change in businesses and industries. An investor takes risks and invests money in businesses and industries and spurs economic...

Ideas on women empowerment

One of the most visible aspects of recent changes in rural livelihoods is substantial increase in women's access to credit. According to researchers, although women predominate in membership of NGOs (non-governmental organisations) through informal group mobilisation, the major thrust has...

WB to give technical aid to BB to recover $81m

The World Bank (WB) has assured the Bangladesh Bank (BB) of providing necessary technical supports for recovering the stolen $81 million from the Philippines, officials said. Two senior WB officials gave the assurance at a meeting with senior officials of...

Metro rail project hits snag

Despite the government's topmost priority, the project authority is yet to overcome the challenges of setting up the 20-kilometre metro rail line from Uttara to Motijheel in the city. Sources said the authority has been facing problems due to non-cooperation...

Tanners miss deadline again

The tanners at Hazaribagh in the capital are yet to start relocating their units to Savar even after the government has turned down their plea for more time. However, they want to remain in Hazaribagh area till next Eid-ul-Azha, considering...

Improved technologies to combat air pollution

Air pollution is a major issue around the world. It kills seven million people annually-one in every eight people that die around the world. And, of course, air pollution is a well-known and much-complained-about fact in Bangladesh. Few major global...

Relocation of tanneries, factories must but not at the cost of leather sector

Leather and leather goods is one of the most potential sectors of Bangladesh economy.  It employs about 1,80,000 people directly. This sector includes about 3,500 micro, small and medium leather goods factories with about 110 large industries. The sector is...

Taking quake warning seriously

Mother Earth is evidently in convulsion. Its pent-up anger is looking for avenues for its release. Some of the most active zones of the planet are so much in turmoil that the phenomenon called quake is happening much too often...

When old is not gold

'Build new, forget about the old ones' seems to be the guiding principle of the public sector development programme. That the government is pursuing this principle quite religiously is very much evident from the allocations it makes in the annual...