Bypassing dollar in international trade

Excitement runs high across the world to bypass or avoid the United States (US) dollar and use national currencies in international trade payments. Many developing nations have been trying to push their own currencies to settle trade with the partners...

Green cover can save Dhaka City from environmental disaster

Two contrasting developments in the two city corporations! While the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has taken up a programme of planting 200,000 saplings in two years, the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) is felling trees on the Satmasjid road...

Essentials' prices up in Ctg

CHATTOGRAM, May 05: Prices of daily essential items are silently but steadily increasing in Chattogram's kitchen markets, leaving buyers struggling with uncontrolled inflation. Traders raised prices just before Eid and have continued to hike them daily, according to buyers. The...

Greening Bangladesh's supply chain

Green supply chain refers to the process of integrating environmentally-sustainable practices into the entire supply chain, from product design and sourcing to production, transportation, and end-of-life disposal. In other words, it aims to reduce the environmental impact of the supply...

Coastal Koyra caught in mishandling of canals

Mismanagement of canals and river branches in coastal Khulna region has magnified the sufferings of salinity-hit farmers, including obstructed irrigation, apart from dams in upstream India.Irrigation aside, inhabitants in Koyra upazila said they have to spend a lot on drinking...

BD lagging behind others to tap potential due to high tax

Bangladesh is missing out on the potential of a rapidly expanding coffee market and failing to attract foreign investors to the sector thanks to high taxation on manufacturing. According to local manufacturers, the current tax incidences are stubbornly high, hindering...

Emerald Oil flies high with losses piling up for 6 years

Emerald Oil Industries, a junk stock, has been flying high on the Dhaka Stock Exchange in the last one month despite it incurring losses and being unable to declare dividend for six years. The company paid 10 per cent stock...

Midland Bank's rise on DSE breaks the trend

Midland Bank jumped 20.35 per cent in the outgoing week to Tk 13.60 on Wednesday as its earnings disclosure for 2022 held out hope for good returns on investment in the stock. Five weeks after the debut trading on the...

Addressing unemployment in time AI reigns supreme

The quarterly data from the Labour Force Survey unveiled by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on Tuesday show that the number of the unemployed in the country rose by 0.27 million to 2.59 million in the first quarter of...

Multinational cos' climbing up on DSE ‘a sign of change’

The country's forex market which was extremely volatile a few months back has started to ease slowly. International markets too have begun showing signs of stability. These factors encourage investors to take positions in good stocks, such as multinational companies,...

Govt bins stimulus plan for accessories sector

The government has dropped commerce ministry's recommendation on cash incentive to garment accessories and packaging industry with intent to spur the current export trend of the ready-made garment (RMG) sector.Sources said finance division has recently given its dissent to the...

Tips for future applicants

Although many students from Bangladesh go to Nanyang Technological University (NTU) for graduate studies, there is hardly any student from Bangladesh who went there for undergraduate studies, let alone with a full-ride scholarship. Recently one admission candidate ended the drought,...

Charles III ... beyond the glitter of the crown

Britons will soon be going through the coronation of their new monarch, the third Charles in their history. The first Charles, as history informs us, met a dreadful end in 1649. The second, his son, came back from exile in...

Govt to revisit trade negotiation structure before LDC graduation

The government is going to revisit the existing trade-negotiation structure ahead of graduation from the poor-country club for ensuring efficient and time-bound agreements with other countries, officials said.The planned review aims to strengthen the country's negotiation capacity to successfully face...

Refiners seek to up soybean oil price by Tk 18 per litre

Citing the expiration of a VAT cut, edible oil refiners want to increase the price of bottled soybean oil by Tk 18 to Tk 205 per litre from today (Wednesday) - at a time when the global prices declined to...

Most IT firms' profit leaps to double-digit growth in Jan-Mar on rising demand

Most information technology (IT) companies posted double-digit profit growth in the third quarter ended in March as the demand for related services increased both in the local and global markets.Of the 10 IT firms that disclosed quarterly earnings until now,...

United Power's profit falls in Q3 on increased gas price, cheaper taka

United Power Generation & Distribution Company's profit fell 22 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter through March mainly for the gas price hike implemented since February. Following a government decision, independent power producers (IPPs) like United Power and rental...

How GPT-4 can transform education system

Human civilization is all set to embark on the 4th industrial revolution (4IR) courtesy of artificial intelligence (AI). Although scientists and inventors have been working over the decades, remarkable success in this sector has come to light recently. Open AI's...

A priority for Bangladesh and the EU

On 24 April, Bangladesh launched its “Indo-Pacific Outlook”. The outlook highlights stability and prosperity in the region as essential pillars when it comes to translating the vision of Bangladesh’s future as a modern, knowledge-based developed country by 2041 into reality.The...

De-dollarisation: Yet another hiccup or for real?

The ongoing de-dollarisation campaign reminds me of Edward Hickson’s Moral Song (1857): “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” For many years, many countries around the globe were getting concerned over Washington’s impositions of economic and trade sanctions as...

Leading drug makers' profits down in Q3 for high production costs

Leading drug makers endured a year-on-year decline in profit in the latest quarter through March of FY23 owing to higher production costs. Square Pharmaceuticals, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Renata and ACI saw their profits drop up to 57 per cent year-on-year in...

Fall in Kaptai Lake water level hits power generation

CHATTOGRAM Apr 30: Power generation is being severely hampered due to drastic fall in water level of Kaptai Lake in Rangamati district caused by the prevailing drought-like situation.Besides, comke munication and business activities here are also facing hindrance due to...

IT: an indispensable factor in the economic growth

According to ND Century Code, "Information Technology (IT) means the use of hardware, software, services, and supporting infrastructure to manage and deliver information using voice, data, and video." IT has become an integral part of modern economies, playing a critical...

No relief from syndicated price hikes

The heated up market volatility of Ramadan usually cools down a little bit in the post-Eid period. But this time there is no relief for the consumers. Market has become exceptionally jittery particularly for two commodities in high demand in...

Stopping internecine in Sudan

That the government has at last taken necessary steps to rescue Bangladeshis trapped in the war-torn Sudan is definitely a commendable move. But it should have come earlier. Of some 1,500 Bangladeshis in that country, about 700 have, it is...

New push to recover investors' returns lost to a maze of real life & rules

A stock investor, Abdul Latif (not the real name) passed away in the 90's without deciding who would be inheriting his stock holdings. His two successors got locked into a fight over the ownership of the shares of listed securities....

Trade in services needs greater policy prop

Though trade in goods is predominant globally, trade in services has emerged as a critical portion of the world trade in recent decades. So, it is not possible to get a correct picture of the international trade without adding up...

Govt likely to offer cash perk from next FY

The government is considering providing cash incentive facility to the garments accessories and packaging industries - to continue the present export trend of the country's RMG sector, sources said.The industries are likely to enjoy the incentive facility from the next...

China to provide buyer's credit in yuan for dollar dilemmas

China wants to use its yuan as financing currency instead of the US dollar for projects to be funded under Preferential Buyer's Credit (PBC) to skip phenomenal forex tantrums, officials said.The Export-Import (ExIm) Bank of China has proposed to Bangladesh...

A good read for bankers

The contemporary Islamic banking activities began in 1963. For the last 60 years, the Islamic banking had significantly secured its global platform with utmost appreciation. It is not merely confined within Muslim countries but crossing the border into the non-Muslim...