News Briefs(23-10-2018)

BD earns $41b by exporting 744 items last FY

Bangladesh earned US$ 41 billion in foreign exchange by exporting 744 products to 202 countries in the 2017-18 fiscal year, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed told Parliament on Monday. Mentioning that it is not true that the country's exports remain confined to a few items, he said Bangladesh earned US$ 348 million by exporting 25 products to 68 countries in the 1972-73 fiscal year. The commerce minister came up with the statistics replying to a starred question from treasury bench MP AFM Bahauddin Nasim (Madaripur-3). Tofail mentioned that the government has taken a number of measures to diversify the export products. In reply to a written question from Awami League MP Didarul Alam (Chattogram-4), the minister said the export volume of readymade garment RMG) was US$ 28,149.84 million (over US$ 28 billion) in 2016-17 fiscal year which was higher by US$ 55.18 million from that of the previous fiscal year. Tofail said the export size of the readymade garments was only US$ 4,912.1 million in 2002-2003 fiscal year. The RMG export continues to rise every year and it will increase further due to various measures taken by the government. — UNB

Razee Hassan takes charge as BFIU head

Former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank (BB) Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan has been appointed the head of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) until September 10, 2021. The Ministry of Public Administration issued a notification in this connection on Monday. "I have already taken responsibility as the BFIU head," Mr. Razee Hassan told the FE. He earlier held the position of BFIU chief along with that of the BB deputy governor. BFIU, established in the central bank in June 2002, was named as Anti Money Laundering Department. To enforce and ensure the operational independence of FIU, Anti Money Laundering Department was transformed into BFIU in January 2012 in line with the provision of Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012. BFIU also achieved the membership of Egmont Group in July 2013. The main objective of BFIU is to establish an effective system for preventing money laundering, and combating terrorism financing, among others. BFIU is also entrusted with the responsibility of exchanging information related to money laundering and terrorist financing with its foreign counterparts.

— FE Report