The New Nation - Internet Edition

After successful completion of the first phase of the relief effort, Grameenphone Ltd. has initiated the second phase of its relief activities in the cyclone-affected areas.

On 6 December, Thursday, Grameenphone officials, along with members from the Management Team, distributed relief in Morelgong, Bagerhat. Mr. Emad UI Ameen, Director Human Resource, N.K.A Mobin, Director Administration and Project and Ms. Rubaba Dowla Matin, Deputy Director, Brands led the team.

In the second phase, which started in the first week of December, a total of 7000 family packs distributed, of which 3000 packs were distributed in Khulna and Barisal regions. The family pack contained 4 kg rice, 1 kg dal, 1 kg salt, 2 kg wheat/flour, liter oil, 6 candles, 1 tin/carton biscuits, and 1 kg chira. Keeping in mind that winter is approaching, a blanket and a saree/ lungi have been also included in the family packs.

Additionally, makeshift tents, made from Grameenphone's old billboard vinyl, were built and handed to 400 families in Barguna districts.

Grameenphone has also set up donation boxes in 50 Grameenphone Centers to collect donations from subscribers. The collection will continue till 20 December, 2007 and will later be donated to the Chief Advisor's Relief Fund.

Earlier, Grameenphone made a contribution of Tk. 1 crore to the Chief Adviser's relief fund. In addition, Telenor, the majority shareholder of Grameenphone, had donated another Tk. 2.3 crore and the GP employees contributed their one day's salary towards the relief effort.

Grameenphone has been actively involved in the emergency relief efforts for the recent cyclone affected people over the last few weeks. The first phase of the relief effort concluded in last week of November. During the first phase, total of 10,000 family packs were distributed and 7,000 patients were treated in 10 medical camps in different districts, namely, Madaripur, Patuakhali, Barguna, Pirojpur, Jhalokhati, Bagerhat, Gopalganj and Shariatpur.

The company also participated in the joint SMS donation campaign, launched in collaboration with other mobile operators, with each SMS adding Tk, 10 towards the relief effort. The entire amount collected from this collective SMS campaign will be donated to the Chief Adviser's Relief and Rehabilitation Fund.

Coordination Meeting of the Inter-sectoral Population Projects (IPPs) under UNFPA 7th Country Programme implemented by different ministries of the Government of Bangladesh was held on 8 December, 2007 at Hotel Sheraton (Marbel Room). Md. Abdul Mannan, Director General of Family Planning (DGFP) attended the inaugural session as the chief guest and the Pornchai Suchitta, UNFPA Deputy Representative was present as special guest. Abdur Rouf Shah, Director, IEM Unit of DGFP and Project Director chaired the meeting.

Every year this coordination meeting is held under overall supervision of Information, Education and Motivation Unit of Directorate General of Family Planning. The objective of the meeting was to review and share the implementation status of different projects implemented by different sectoral ministries including Ministries of Health and FW, Religious Affairs, Women and Children Affairs, Planning, Labour and Employment, LGRD, Youth, Education, Information and Parliament Secretariat. The workshop provided the project directors and programme personnel the opportunity to share their success and constraints and to come up with concrete suggestions to strengthen coordination and cooperation among the IPPs for successful implementation of the project activities.

The chief guest, Md. Abdul Mannan underscored the need for functional coordination among the different projects, in order to achieve set objectives of HNPSP more effectively and efficiently. Mr. Suchitta addressed the Gender and RH related issues where he stated that in all societies, to a greater or lesser degree, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse. He mentioned that in Bangladesh 14% maternal death occurred due to violence during pregnancy and that still around 90% delivery take place at Home.

Ms Afsana Taher, Operations Manager, UNFPA informed the participants about the Harmonised Approach to Cash Transfer (HACT). She explained that UN agencies are going to use this harmonised approach to synchronize their financial activities with the individual partners.

UNFPA has been supporting different projects with the Government of Bangladesh implemented by different ministries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) those of promoting gender equality and empower women (goal-3), improving maternal health (goal-5) and combating HIV/AIDS (goal-6).

Arthur Erken at his concluding speech urged every individual partners to continue to act to reduce maternal mortality and involve men as partners in achieving the above goals.

Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) and Autism Welfare Foundation (AWF) jointly organised a four-day long workshop on education and training for the teachers and parents of the autistic children AHM Nazmul Ouadir, Additional Managing Director of DBBL was present as the chief guest and distributed certificates among the participants at the closing ceremony held recently. Earlier the workshop was inaugurated by National Professor Dr. M. R. Khan. The workshop was attended by a large number of parents of the autistic children.

While speaking at the certificate giving ceremony, Ouadir expressed his felicitations to Autism Welfare Foundation and thanked them for their volunteer activities of the autistics children. He hopes that Dutch-Bangla Bank always try to reach to the under privileged and destitutes with donation and financial support for well being of the society.

Among others, Medical Consultant of Dutch-Bangla Bank Mozammel Hossain Khan and Dr. Rawnak Hafiz, Chairperson of Autism Welfare Foundation were at the function.

A delegation representing BWCCI, led by Selima Ahmad visited Kochi of India from December 5th December 10th to take part in the Seventh Commonwealth-India Small Business Competitiveness Development Programme. The other members of this programme, representing BWCCI, Ms. Rahela Parveen and Ms. Khadiza Rahman. During the six-day visit, BWCCI's team participated in different events and activities.

The Commonwealth programme focus on building and developing institutional capacity on competitive policies, strategies and practices for Commonwealth developing states in the area of SME Development. The programme was attended by 66 participants from around the globe, including. Bangladesh, Pakistan, Botswasna Mauritius.

The daily activities included key-note paper presentations, field visits, working sessions the First India International Coir Fair, cultural programmes, and a buyer-seller meet.

Selima Ahmad, President of BWCC has had the opportunity, in several meetings and working sessions, to address the participants and share her learning experiences from Bangladesh regarding Indigenous business and social enterprise. In her briefings Ahmad spoke about the opportunities that exist in Bangladesh with linking business run by Indigenous people and social enterprise.

AB Bank Limited signed a contract with Millennium Information Solution Ltd (Millennium) for implementation of Shariah based Online Islamic Banking Solution - "Ababil" on 6th December, 2007. The objective of Ababil implementation is to manage operations of Sharia based online Islamic Banking of AB Bank for all of its Islamic Banking clients. The service will be available initially from 10 branches and eventually to all of the branches of AB Bank.

AB Bank being the first private sector bank will be pioneer in offering its Islamic Banking service through all of its branches in a few months. Ababil is one of the most proven and field tested Sharia based Islamic Banking software products in Bangladesh. The new generation Islamic Banking application of Millennium is online and fully integrated with internet, ATM and mobile banking facility.

In the contract signing ceremony, Millennium's CEO Mr. Mahmud Hossain said, "Millennium is happy to have like AB Bank Ltd. as its another partner in Islamic Shariah Based Banking Solution " He thanked AB Bank to give Millennium the opportunity to provide centralized and online solution for its Islamic Shariah based operation in parallel with their existing conventional banking solution.

Kaizar A. Chowdhury, President and Managing Director of AB Bank told that AB Bank is always ahead with technology to provide superior customer service. He expected an improved revenue contribution by its Islamic Banking wing through this centralized automation. He thanked everyone at the end of the ceremony.

The ceremony was attended by the Head of IT, EVP and many other senior officials of AB Bank. Millennium's Directors, Senior Managers and senior members of he banking team were also present in the ceremony.

NCC Bank Ltd. distributed agri loan amounting to taka 3.5 crore at Patgram of Lalmonirhat recently. Tofazzal Hossain, Chairman of the bank disbursed the loan among the farmers as chief guest.

Md. Nurul Amin, Managing Director of the bank attended as special guest presided over by Ershad Hossain Saju, Managing Director of Doel Agro Industrial Complex. among others, Chairman of Doel Agro, Mahbubul Alam, Vice Chairman Mizanul Haque and executives of NCC Bank were also present on the occasion.

For this season, total 3.5 crore taka was distributed at Patgram and Hatibandha, Lalmonirhat among 1500 farmers for maize cultivation through Patgram branch of NCC Bank Ltd.