BB expedites US dollar purchase

The central bank has expedited purchase of the US dollars from commercial banks to offset higher inflow of foreign exchange ahead of the holy Ramadan and Eid-ul Fitr festival, officials said. As part of the latest moves, the Bangladesh Bank...

BD money stashed in Swiss banks jumps

The money stashed in Swiss banks by a section of Bangladeshis increased by 36 per cent within a year, shows the latest data released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB). The funds held directly by Bangladeshi individuals and entities with...

A rich and useful book on insurance

A.K.M. Ehsanul Haque, the author of the book, has worked for several multinational insurance companies in Dubai. He has written a number of books on different aspects of insurance and risk management. Besides, Mr Haque is a qualified chartered insurance...

Water crisis in the capital

Since the concrete jungle of multistoried buildings is expanding exponentially in the capital, air and light are getting out of reach. On top of all this, if water scarcity enters the scene, how will people survive? A report in The...

US-China tension over the South China Sea

While quite a few regional wars are raging around the world, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter is making a lot of noise in a bid to put the rising China in its 'proper place'. In fact, Mike Whitney, noted commentator...

BBIN: Inadequate infrastructure key deterrent to trade activities

The concept of sub-regional trading bloc is not a new one. For the last two decades and more, different stakeholders in this region, to be precise South Asia, are looking up to sub-regional approach for enhanced connectivity and unimpeded flow...

DSE returns to red

The premier bourse returned to the red Thursday after a marginal fall in indices and turnover value as well after a continuous rise observed in last three consecutive sessions. At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of...

DSE stumbles at opening

Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), the country’s main bourse, saw doward trend in the early hours of trading on Thursday, the fifth and last session of the week. DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, slipped, after two-hours of trading, to...

Govt clears big Chinese loan to build elevated expressway

The government has approved a US$796 million loan from China Development Bank (CDB) for building the Dhaka Elevated Expressway (DEE) to help ease the traffic troubles on the city roads, officials said. Work on the long-delayed project may start in...

Necessity or extravagance?

What comes to your mind when you think of market research in Bangladesh? Some of you will consider this an opportunity to unveil the uncommon sense of the consumers, and some of you may not feel the importance of market...

Reforming VAT and tax system: Challenges for developing countries

An amalgam of domestic and international pressures resulting from conditionality packages has fostered reform of tax systems across developing countries. From the 1980s until mid-1990s, developing country governments initiated a set of tax reforms that were substantially influenced by international...

Capital flight from Bangladesh: GFI clarifies

In their latest report entitled 'Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2003-2012' the Global Financial integrity (GFI), a Washington-based Research organisation, reported that illicit financial flow from Bangladesh in 2012 was $1.78 billion-the ten-year average from 2003 to 2012 being...

Curtain comes down on 3-day ICT-Expo-2015

Curtains came down on the three-day ICT Expo Fair-2015 on Wednesday night. President Md Abdul Hamid on Monday inaugurated the ICT-Expo Fair-2015 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the city. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division and Bangladesh...

Standard Bank launches mobile financial service

Standard Bank Ltd (SBL) has launched mobile financial service (MFS) named “Spot Cash” allowing the people to enjoy different services including instant transaction, deposit and mobile recharge. SBL chairman Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed formally announced the launching at a press...

DSE witnesses uptrend

Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), the country’s main bourse, saw upward trend in the early hour of trading on Wednesday, the fourth session of the week. DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, advanced after one-hour’s trade to reach 4515.38689 points...

Jamaat\\\'s hartal underway

Jamaat-e-Islami’s nationwide 24-hour hartal (shutdown) is underway since Wednesday morning. The shutdown began at 6:00am today, and will end at 6:00am on Thursday. No long haul buses (inter-district) or trucks left Dhaka city for other districts since 6 in the...

Basel-III implementation leads to minor fall in banks\\\' capital base

The capital base of the country's banking sector fell slightly in the first quarter (Q1) of 2015 mainly due to implementation of Basel-III standard, officials said. The overall capital-to-risk weighted assets ratio (CRAR) of all banks stood at 10.73 per...

Misdirected bashing?

Initially it was the leaders of the country's apparel sector. Of late two key ministers have joined them in the act of bashing the two international platforms -- the Accord and the Alliance, formed following the collapse of the Rana...

Govt going to dig out reasons for export decline, target failure

The government moves to fix the factors behind the failure in attaining export target and, in some cases, reduction of export of goods despite various incentives being given for a boost, officials said. Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) authorities will sit...

Money transfer thru govt\\\'s postal dept loses out to aggressive pvt operators

The government-managed money transfer through postal department is losing its market share fast amidst aggressive action by private kiosks mushrooming every nook and cranny, sources said.    With the fast loss of market, the government services through EMTS even run the...

Agricultural diversity versus nutrition

In a recent research dissemination seminar held under the auspices of the Research and Evaluation Division of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and the Leveraging Agriculture on Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA), a few important papers related to nutrition...

Whitening of the black money, legally

Former Chinese strongman Deng Xiaoping has been widely quoted as having said that it does not matter if the cat is white or black as long as it catches the mice. In Bangladesh we really don't bother about black or...

BD inks deal with Netherlands, WB to implement Delta Plan 2100

Bangladesh has signed a deal with the Netherlands, the World Bank Group including its private sector arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC) to facilitate management of the Asia’s largest and the world’s most populated delta – Bangladesh. The partnership will help...

DSE witnesses positive trend

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) witnessed positive trend in the early hour of trading on Tuesday, the third session of the week. DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, moved up after half-an-hour's trade to reach 4497.93852 points at 11:00am....

Govt to procure 60m oral contraceptive pills this yr

The government will procure 60 million oral contraceptive pills at a cost of around Tk 600 million this year, officials said. To push the move forward the ministry of health and family planning (MoHFP) has sent a proposal to the...

Look beyond garment sector

Bangladesh needs to go beyond the ready-made garments (RMG) sector in order to accelerate its overall export growth.   Some sectors to help boost export in near future include shipbuilding, jute, bicycle, pharmaceuticals and information technology (IT). These are stated in...

Agarwood industry groans under neglect

The centuries-old Agarwood industry is facing hurdles to harness its potential in the absence of proper policy and technological support from the government, entrepreneurs said. Agarwood, one of the most expensive non-timber wood items, is a unique industry that fetches...

Progress requires strong political leadership

UNCONVENTIONAL MONETARY POLICY: Unconventional monetary policies (UMP) include both policies where the central bank attempts to commit to hold interest rates at near zero for long, as well as policies that affect central bank balance sheets such as buying assets...

Miseries of the Rohingya people

At this time, the plight of the Rohingya people is much talked about all over the world. Over the last few days, several reports were published in the media on the distressing state of the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar on...

Tax proposals for individuals need fresh review

In his budget speech, the Finance Minister was apologetic that he had to impose "net-worth surcharge" on the "income-based tax" of individual taxpayers, which, he admits, upsets the "fairness and equity" of the tax regime, but was forced to take...