Zillur sits with traders today to review price situation

The government sits with the country's leading importers, wholesalers and traders (today) Sunday to discuss ways of keeping the prices of essentials under control during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.The high-level meeting convened by the ministry of commerce will...

D-8 summit: fruitful or same old drill?

The sixth summit of D-8 countries took place on 08 July at Kuala Lumpur. The member countries that attended were Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey.The journey of D-8 began in October 1996 when the then Turkish Prime...

Footwear exporters elated over EU withdrawal of GSP for Vietnam

The country's footwear industry expects a boom in export as the European Union (EU) has decided to scrap Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) facility offered to Vietnam by the end of this year, officials and exporters said on Friday.They said...

news digest

killed in AfghanistanKABUL, Jul 25: A NATO soldier was killed and two were wounded during a clash with militants in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, the military alliance said Friday. The nation's Interior Ministry, meanwhile, said three Taliban militants died in...

The tragic neglect of our proud heritage

THE ancient but crumbling structures signifying life and culture of those days of yore still stand in many places of Bangladesh and form collectively our national heritage. They range from the prehistoric time to the Bhuddist and the Hindu eras...

Development in ICT:Royal road to knowledge-based society

(The key points of this article were presented in the national roundtable on ICT roadmap on the 21st June, 2008 at AIUB, supported by Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), Gov3 Ltd., Spinnovation, D.Net and Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN).Governance: For proper ICT...

850,000 tonnes of rice to be distributed under OMS

An inter-ministerial meeting directed the authorities concerned to boost the government's food grains stock, which is required to successfully implement various social safety net programmes for the current fiscal.The meeting also recommended strengthening of the existing monitoring cells and taskforces...

Cuba changing under Ra

Cuba, which is situated very close to the nation that leads the capitalistic world, the USA, is one of the last two strongholds of classical socialism. With the father of Cuban revolution still alive and in office until the other...

Medvedev's Russia investment pitch under pressure

Dmitry Medvedev's case for investing in Russia is under pressure less than three months into his presidency after a top foreign executive left the country and state criticism wiped $5 billion from the value of a coal miner.Medvedev, a 42-year-old...

Mind-sets in Indo-Bangladesh relations

More than three and half decades after the independence of Bangladesh, some quarters in this country are still convinced that our vast neighbour to the east, west and north, is not well disposed towards us. They see India as a...

Power sector suffers for want of long-term plans

Three sectors namely electricity, fuel and mineral resources have emerged as the most important ones in Bangladesh. To develop the industrial sector, the use of gas is essential. Similarly, coal, electricity and other fuels are no less important for industrial...

The tragic neglect of our proud heritage

THE ancient but crumbling structures signifying life and culture of those days of yore still stand in many places of Bangladesh and form collectively our national heritage. They range from the prehistoric time to the Bhuddist and the Hindu eras...

Govt may consider PSI certification, instead of BSTI approval

The government might consider the certification of pre-shipment inspection (PSI) as a quality testing report instead of an approval of Bangladesh Testing Institution (BSTI) to expedite release of products from Chittagong port.The PSI companies are entitled to issue clean report...

Development in ICT:Royal road to knowledge-based society

(The key points of this article were presented in the national roundtable on ICT roadmap on the 21st June, 2008 at AIUB, supported by Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), Gov3 Ltd., Spinnovation, D.Net and Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN).A Chinese proverb goes,...

D-8 summit: fruitful or same old drill?

The sixth summit of D-8 countries took place on 08 July at Kuala Lumpur. The member countries that attended were Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey.The journey of D-8 began in October 1996 when the then Turkish Prime...

Expanding missions to cover important countries

OPPORTUNITIES do never come on a platter. Neither can one always hope to find it near at home. One has to be on the look out for the opportunities. This is true of an individual as well as of a...

corporatewatch

four new productsGlaxo SmithKline Limited has decided to import and market four consumer products of GlaxoSmithkline plc, UK in addition to pharmaceutical products. The company has expressed the hope that its revenue is likely to be around Tk 400 million...

Energy, the vital missing link

There is a an English idiom which says ' putting the cart before the horse.' It means essentially the doing of things in the wrong order. You put the horse before the cart so that the cart can be pulled....

Pros and cons need to be assessed

The saying 'beg, borrow and steal' comes into play when one needs something desperately.It's hard for the government to steal in a situation where it badly needs funds to meet budgetary deficit. Thus, begging and borrowing are the options that...

No service provider found for collecting motor vehicle taxes

A move of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to appoint a service provider for collection of Motor Vehicle Tax (MVT) and other fees has drawn poor response despite extending the timeframe twice for appointing such a firm.BRTA floated a tender...

A Doha deal would aid many European farmers

Two dangerous prejudices are threatening the critical meeting of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation that is taking place in Geneva.The first is the view that the Doha round would bring small benefits - merely $50bn (

The quality factor in ADP projects

THE Annual Development Programme (ADP) is the main source of public sector investment in the country. But success in ADP implementation is not only about fulfilment of expenditure targets either. Success must not be measured primarily on the basis of...

Time to go for strategic planning on energy

There is a hundred and one points to tell the modern from the pre-modern society. But of all the points of difference, subtle or obvious, there is one that makes the difference between the two sharper and unambiguous. Needless to...

Govt plans income tax offices in 110 more upazilas to net in left-out taxpayers

The government is drawing a plan to expand the income tax department to 110 more upazilas of the country to net in the marginal taxpayers left out across the country, officials said.There are only 303 circle offices in seven upazilas...

Rule on appointing 2 directors from among depositors soon

The central bank will soon issue a rule allowing the commercial banks to appoint two directors from among the depositors in line with the existing Bank Companies Act."We'll issue a rule in a day or two to appoint two directors...

Oil price hike and the reality of Bangladesh economy

The government has increased fuel oil prices by a margin of 33.85 to 37.5 per cent with effect from July 1, 2008. The price of most used oils -- diesel and kerosene -- increased to Tk 55 per litre from...

Food prices steady, inflation push eases: FAO

FOOD commodity prices have now stabilised after surging early this year while a weak dollar may reduce inflationary pressures in many countries, a senior United Nations economist said recently."It looks like from March onwards we have arrested the rise. It...

NBR to bring changes in order on ECR in shops

Automated business establishments will not be required to instal electronic cash registers (ECRs) if they incorporate some specific soft wares into their systems to protect the actual sales data.The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is expected to issue a statutory...

news digest

killed in bombingKABUL, July 21: The US-led coalition says one of its members has died after being wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's troubled south. The coalition says in a statement that the blast occurred in Helmand province Sunday...

Fiscalisation for better business transparency

Introduction of Electronic Cash Register (ECR) system is one of the most important decisions made by the government of Bangladesh. This step, however, is not taking the right course here as its implementation such a large scale is a hefty...