The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The United States of America alone imported 28.26 percent, 3441.02 million dollar, of the Bangladeshi products during the fiscal 2006-07, according to a statistics of Export Promotion Bureau released recently. Bangladesh exported 12,177.86 million dollar products against the strategic target of 12,500 m $, slightly short of target, but over the performance of the fiscal 2005-06, marking a 15.69 percent growth.

The USA mainly imported oven garments (2284.84 m $), knitwear (762.39 m $), frozen shrimp (175.32 m $), cap (57.29 m $) and home textile (14.86 m $), in percentage 49.06 pc, 17.86 pc and 38.36 pc as to the first three products. The export to the USA increased by 13.20 percent during the fiscal 2006-07 over the performance of the previous fiscal, the report added.

In importing Bangladeshi products, Germany took the second spot with 1955.38 m $ (16.06 pc). Germany imported knitwear, 24.23 pc, oven garments, 16.32 pc, and frozen shrimp, 4.44 pc. Export to the said country went up by 10.32 percent. The United Kingdom is the third largest importer with 1193.95 m $ (9.64 pc). The UK imported 404.82 m $ oven garments, 489.40 m $ knitwear, 109.13 m $ home textile, 47.37 m $ frozen fish and 31.08 m $ bi-cycle. The RMG export to the UK increased by 18.01 percent.

Exports to France amounted to 731.76 m $, to Italy 515.66 m $, to Holland 459.01 m $ and to Belgium 435.82 m $ respectively. The common items were knitwear, oven garments and frozen shrimp.

Iran contributed just 0.41 percent only--jute yarn, twin and hessian being the items. Japan and Singapore imported 1.21 and 0.75 percent of the Bangladeshi products while exports to India and Pakistan amounted to 289.42 m $ and 61.06 m $ respectively. The chief exporting items to India were chemical fertilisers, raw jute and frozen fish while to Pakistan were raw jute and tea.

In contrast, China imported only 92.99 m $ products although the said East Asian country is the highest exporter to Bangladesh. The reasons are that China imported only raw jute and leather.

It reveals from the statistics that three products i.e. woven garments, knitwear and frozen shrimp dominated the export performance contributing 38.25 pc, 37.39 pc and 4.23 pc respectively. In this backdrop, it is must to diversify the exporting items to check landslide if occurs in future for any reason whatsoever.

While the world currency market is still recuperating from the shock of US suprime crisis, soaring oil prices and geo-political turmoil, 2007 was rather a low key year for the local foreign exchange market There was no major gyration in the local forex market with rates being range bound for most of the year. The USD hovered mostly between BDT 69.0069.50, while reaching the peak of BDT 70.93 in January.

USD/BDT started the year with a bang marching momentarily upward to subside from February onwards. Price of dollar showed a modicum of movement in first half of 2007, supported by a marked increase in wage earners' remittance. Fall in commodity imports (food grain, edible oil) in H1 07 also abetted the stable USD/BDT.

Stability of USD-BDT was challenged in the second half of 2007 when the economy had to battle with two major floods. In October the demand for dollar was fuelled by higher import of food grains and petroleum, which reached a record peak of $99.29 a barrel in the international market The Central Bank facilitated the market liquidity with injection of ample funds. Since then, dollar has been extremely steady with the year end inflows of foreign aid on account of Cyclone Sidr.

A positive balance of payment coupled with record wage-earners remittances also helped keep the USD/BDT market stable. While both import and export registered a growth of around 15-16%, remittance registered a record growth of 25% to $ 6 Bio. The remittance flow helped to increase the FX reserve above USD 5 Bio for the first time.

The steady dollar taka throughout 2007 could not fully insulate importers of capital machinery as dollar plunged against most major currencies in the international market Dollar hit record lows against Euro and multi-year lows against other currencies driven by overall slowdown in US economy coupled with weakness in the housing sector that turned into what is now known as the US Subprime crisis. Rate cut by US Federal Reserve has hurt the dollar further as investors shifted to higher yielding currencies. Euro had climbed steadily this year, gaining more than Taka 10 in just 3 months mostly on back of Euro-dollar appreciation. Overall Euro had appreciated around 16% against BDT through the course of the year. Rising Euro has had telling effect on businesses involved in capital expenditures, as most of the machineries are imported from Europe. Steady rate of USD has also meant very little activity in the forward market Importers were content with steady rates and ample supply of Dollar. On the cross currency front some importers showed interest in hedging their cross-currency exposures.

Recently, Bangladesh Dermatological Society (BDS) certified two popular brands, Fair & Lovely and Lifebuoy, of Unilever Bangladesh Limited. The endorsement ceremony was held in a city hotel on 30 December 2007. Mahtabuddin Ahmed, Finance Director, and Professor Dr. M. A. Wadud, President, signed on behalf ofUnilever Bangladesh and Bangladesh Dermatological Society Limited respectively.

It is difficult to find somebody in Bangladesh who has not used the products Lifebuoy and Fair and Lovely. These products are popular household names in this country for along time. Millions of people still hold Lifebuoy as the only bathing soap in the country. Lifebuoy has proven itself as a symbol of health to the health-conscious. Stepping ahead with time Lifebuoy has a more attractive packaging and being better marketed by Unilever Bangladesh.

Fair & Lovely is another brand of the same company. Fair & Lovely has been reigning as the number one brand for millions of beauty-conscious women around the country. According to consumer needs Unilever is marketing Fair & Lovely in different international formulae packages.

A training course on 'Training of Trainers' organised under the project entitled "Capacity Building of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI)" funded by Government of Bangladesh (GOB) was being held at FBCCI Board Room.

Around 30 (thirty) representatives from different government and semi-government organisations, banks, financial institutions and training institutes of the country are participating in the course.

The three-day course was designed to enrich the knowledge, skill and optitude of the trainers. It included modules on training concept and training as a Tool for HRD, programme designing and management of training, principles for selection of Training methods, on job training, qualities of a trainer and utilisation of training and Role of Audio Visual Aids in Training etc. Experts from different training institutes and Senior officials of FBCCI conducted the courses.

Syed Manzur Elahi, Administrator of FBCCI distributed the certificates today to the participants. In his brief speech, Elahi said that we have acute shortage of good trainer.

Terming the present world borderless and highly competitive he stressed upon development of skills and expertise of the trainers.

The FBCCI Administrator expected that the trainees would benefit from this course and could add value in their organisations.

Among others, Syed Jamaluddin, Secretary General, Mir Muniruzzaman, Secretary, FBCCI and M Anwarur Rahman, Deputy Secretary (Project) and Coordinator of the training course were present.

Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited opened its 48th branch on Ring Road, Adabar, Dhaka on December 30, 2007 with Truly On-line Banking facilities from the very opening day of the Branch by Md. Yeasin Ali, Managing Director of the bank.

Business personalities, bankers, educationists and journalists were present in the inaugural ceremony. The respected guests, residents of the locality and owners of business houses/shops showed their spontaneous enthusiasm by opening account with the bank.

The opening ceremony started with a Doa-Mahfil seeking blessings of the Almighty Allah for successful operation of the branch, prosperity of the business community, depositors of the bank and stakeholders. The distinguished guests of inaugural ceremony opined that, Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited is not only rendering present-day customer need-focused banking services but also the bank spends a significant portion of its annual profit for carrying out a wide range of philanthropic activities from which the society at large is benefited.

Among others Abdur Razzaque-Khan, shareholder and senior executives of the Bank were also present at the inaugural function.