The New Nation - Internet Edition

Govt to set up special economic zone

BUSINESS REPORT

The government is likely to set up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to speed up local and foreign investments in the country, sources at Board of Investment (BoI) told The New Nation yesterday.

A senior official of Board of Investment said that the Council of Advisers of the caretaker government last month approved in principle the creation of a SEZ.

He said the office of the Chief Adviser is now scrutinizing the

final draft of a proposed "Special Economic Zone Ordinance-2008", under which a Special Economic Zone Authority would be established.

The official said the SEZ, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, will be modeled after similar "successful" zones located in China, Vietnam, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

He said the SEZ authority would oversee the development and plot allotments in the new exclusive industrial parks, which will be established on public-private partnership, in future in Bangladesh for more local and foreign investments.

The BoI official said that unlike the existing publicly owned and managed Export Processing Zones (EPZs), a SEZ will be larger in scale and be linked to the domestic market.

The first EPZ was set up in the country in 1983 and since then the country's eight EPZs have netted over 1.5 billion US dollars in investments, according to official statistics of the EPZ authorities.

More than 283 industrial plants are now in operations at the EPZs, which provide employment opportunities to 2,20,000 workers.

These industries exported various products worth 2.43 billion US dollars in 2007-08 fiscal year (July 2007-June 2008), which is more than 17 percent of the total export earning 14.11 billion US dollars.

GP to build schools-cum-cyclone shelters in SIDR-affected areas

Grameenphone Ltd will provide financial assistance to build four schools-cum-cyclone-shelters in Bagerhat and Barguna districts, as part of the company's rehabilitation plans in the SIDR affected areas.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in this regard between Grameenphone and Resource Development Fund (RDF) and Shushilan, both local NGOs, on August 21 last.

The elevated structures will be used as primary schools throughout the year to provide non-formal primary education to underprivileged children of the locality. RDF and Shushilan, local NGOs that operate in the selected areas, will be responsible for the overall management of the project, including the construction and operation of the schools. Each school-cum-cyclone-shelter will be a two storied building along with an adjacent playground.

Under the terms of the MOU a co-ordination committee, comprising local Government official (UNO office), RDF official and representatives from the community and Grameenphone, will monitor the progress of the construction work and supervise the school-cum-shelter after its construction.

K.H. Masud Siddiqui, Director General, Disaster Management Bureau, Ministry of Food and Disaster, was present at the signing as chief guest. Arnfinn Groven, Director, Customer Service, Grameenphone, M Golam Mostafa, Chief Executive Officer, RDF and Mostafa Nuruzzaman, Director, Shushilan signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.

Syed Yamin Bakht, Director, Public Relations of Grameenphone, and other officials of Grameenphone, RDF and Shushilan were also present on the occasion.

Earlier, Grameenphone extended its help towards victims of the devastating cyclone SIDR. A contribution of Tk 10 million was made to the Chief Adviser's Relief Fund, which included GP employees' one-day salary contribution. In addition, Telenor, the majority shareholder of Grameenphone, donated another Tk 23 million towards Grameenphone's relief and rehabilitation effort. GP's sister concerns Telenor Pakistan and Telenor Denmark had also donated Tk 1 million each in this regard. During the relief operations earlier, Grameenphone organized 16 medical camps and 14,000 family packs were distributed among the affected. Almost 200 employees voluntarily participated during the relief effort.

RDF is a non-profit organization, started in 1993 with the aim to identify and maximize the utilization of resources through proper training and technical support and to improve the socio-economic conditions of the poorest people in the community.

Shushilan, a local agro-ecology and right-based NGO working in the southwest coastal region, started in 1991 with the aim to create opportunities and enable the socially underprivileged community for sustainable resource management, livelihood security, gender equality and human rights.

LCMI holds seminar for female graduates

Lankan Clothing Management Institute (LCMI), a local institute for accelerating career in garments sector, organized a free seminar on August 23 offering professional training in merchandising and social compliance. Held in Uttara (H-8, R-12, Sector-6) the seminar focused to encourage women, particularly female graduates to build their career in garments buying & merchandising. A good number of female graduates attended the seminar, many of whom came with detailed CV to get admission for training.

MoneyGram to launch remittance service in Bangladesh

Business Report

MoneyGram International is going to launch a campaign - power is in your hand, you can get money within ten minutes from abroad, before to the onset of the festive season.

Harsh Lambah, Regional Director of South Asia, MoneyGram India Pvt.Ltd, recently said this at a press conference at a hotel of the city.

"Bangladesh is a very important market for MoneyGram," said Lambah, " The potential that this market presents, is huge. We have well establish our network in Bangladesh with a sizable base of key bank agents including NCC Bank, Uttara Bank, Eastern Bank, The City Bank, IFIC Bank, Jamuna Bank, Premier Bank, Standard Bank and Mutual Trust Bank that support our network here so that we are present where the customer need us."

Mentioning that Bangladesh has already earned $8 billion remittance in recent year, he said a lot of people leave countries for better opportunities, we want to be there to serve these people.

Claiming MoneyGram as no 2 money transfer organization in the world, Lambah said, choice of receiving money is now on people's hand.

"Our key task in Bangladesh is to help the consumer understand the significance of using a safe, convenient and affordable money transfer service that helps them receive their hard earned money in just a few minutes from anywhere in the world. The consumer now has the option to choose MoneyGram money transfer service to avail of all these benefits and the new campaign attempts to establish just that", he said.

To receive Money via MoneyGram in Bangladesh, the receiver can simply walk into any MoneyGram agent location, complete a simple Receive Form and show a photo identification to receive funds in as little as ten minutes, subject to agent availability and hours of operation.

In response to a question, he answered, it charged comparatively less than other organisations in transferring money and the rate was dynamic. The local bank does not charge money form the receiver he added.

MoneyGram has undertaken various marketing initiatives this year to gain consumer preference in the market. Bangla New Year, which is a key festival in Bangladesh, was celebrated with a consumer promotion in April this year whereby rewarded for using the MoneyGram service.

MoneyGram now has 10,500 agent locations on the Indian Subcontinent. Its money transfer service has been available in Bangladesh for almost 10 years. MoneyGram has recently invested more resource and introduced special pricing on transactions received into country.

With a large number of Bangladeshi in the US, UK, Italy, Canada, Australia and the Middle East, remittances of funds from these countries to their families in Bangladesh is high.

High officials from different banks participated in the conference.

Industrial credit disbursement grows by 66pc in last fiscal

The industrial credit disbursement in the country recorded a hefty 66 percent growth in 2007-08 fiscal year (July 2007-June 2008) over that of 2006-07 fiscal year, official data showed.

According to the provisional statistics of the Bangladesh Bank received yesterday, disbursement of industrial term loans in the country stood at Tk 206.10 billion in 2007-08 fiscal year, while a total of Tk 123.81 billion was disbursed as industrial term loan in 2006-07 fiscal year.

A senior official of Bangladesh Bank said that the upward trend in the industrial term loan disbursement will continue in the near future in line with the existing central bank monetary policy.

The central bank on July 17 unveiled its half-yearly monetary policy aiming to achieve maximum economic growth through credit expansion to productive sectors during the current fiscal while keeping inflationary pressures under control.

Investment in textile sector down by 26 pc

BUSINESS REPORT

Investment in the country's textiles and ready-made garments -- which contribute more than 75 percent of total export earnings -- dropped by 26 percent in the year to June 2008, a senior official of the Board of Investment said yesterday.

Investment in the industry fell to $146 million during the year compared with $184 million in the same period the previous year, he said.

"We have experienced a declining trend in all the sectors during the period, but we are concerned especially for the textile sector as it revamped the whole economy by contributing more than 75 percent in total export earnings," the official told The New Nation.

A top business leader said the decline would affect export earnings for the year to June 2009 and asked government to address the problems they face.

"Due to shortages of electricity and natural gas, lack of adequate financial resources and political uncertainty, the entrepreneurs are shy to invest," said Mohammad Fazlul Huq, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

The country at present faces up to 250 million cubic feet of gas shortages and up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity shortages every day forcing hundreds of manufacturing firms to close down.

"talso due to abnormal price hikes the savings of common people are minimal and for that the banks are not in a comfortable position to finance the businessmen," Fazlul Huq said.

Essential prices including of rice, wheat, fuel and edible oil have nearly doubled in the country since last year, which officials blame mainly on soaring prices in international markets.

OMS of rice starts in Jamalpur

Jamalpur Correspondent

Rice in open market sale (OMS) started in the district yesterday.

A total of 84 OMS centres have been set up in the district of which 21 in district headquarter, 9 in Jamalpur sadar upazila, 10 in Sarishabari, 9 in Madergonj, 8 in Melandah, 9 in Islampur, 9 in Dewangonj and 9 in Bokshiganj upazila.

District food controller G.M. Faruk Hossain Patowari inaugurated the OMS centre at Nayapara in the town yesterday morning.

District food control office sources said under this programme 510 kgs rice is being sold at a rate of Take 28 per kg daily except Friday from each centre. One person can buy maximum 18 kgs of rice every day.

LEIC partners with Hatil to help furniture export

The Local Enterprise Investment Centre (LEIC) has recently signed a contribution agreement with Hatil Complex Ltd to undertake a six-month long training programme for 560 employees.

The programme will assist Hatil to streamline its manufacturing process, develop skill set of its employees, improve capacity utilization, acquire required certificate, modify product design, and reduce wastage to minimize production cost. Successful completion of this project is expected to lead Hatil to be competitive in the global market and add a new product to the export basket of Bangladesh. Streamlining production process of Hatil will act as a model for other local furniture companies.

LEIC is a private sector development project contributed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and managed by IDLC Finance Limited, the largest non-banking financial institution of the country.

Anis A. Khan, CEO and Managing Director of IDLC Finance Limited and Salim H Rahman, Managing Director of Hatil Complex Limited, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations. Yongbok Jo, Deputy Managing Director of IDLC, Israt Ara Younus, Centre Director of LEIC and Moshiur Rahman, Director of Hatil were also present at the event.

9th annual general meeting of Exim Bank held

Ninth Annual General Meeting of Export Import Bank of Bangladesh limited held on Tuesday at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference centre. Dhaka. Md. Nazrul Islam Mazumder, Chairman of the bank, presided over the meetings. In the 9th Annual General Meeting 7 per cant Cash Dividend and 25per cant Stock Dividend have been approved by the shareholders for the year ended December 31,2007.

Members of the Board of Directors AKM. Nurul Fazal Bulbul, Md. Abdul Mannan, Md. Nurul Amin, Abdullah Al-Zahir Sapan, Mohammed Shahidullah, Md Abdullah, Habibullah, Mrs Nasima Akhter, Mahbubur Rashid, Independent Director Professor Muhammed Sekander Khan, Managing Director Kazi Masihur Rahman, sponsor and former Director Md. Nazrul Islam Swapan, Md. Altaf Hossain, Md. Mazakat Harun, Eng. Aminur Rahman Khan, Al-Hajj Md. Nur Hossain, Anjan Kumar Shaha, Fahim Zaman Pathan, Additional Managing Director Ekramul Haque, Deputy Managing Director Md. Sirajul Islam Bhuiyan, Mohammed Haider Ali Miah and Company Secretary Md. Golam Mahbub were present at the meeting. The Chairman of the Board of Directors Md. Nazrul Islam Mazumder provided with relevant and satisfactory answers against all the queries raised by the shareholders. A large number of shareholders attended the meeting and expressed their highest satisfection to the achievement of the bank during the year and put their valuable suggestion and comments for better performance of the bank in future.

South Korea to allow duty free access to Bangladeshi goods

South Korea has decided to allow duty free access of Bangladeshi goods into its markets, aiming to augment bilateral trades, the South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh said .

South Korean Ambassador Suk-Bum Park said his government has recently forwarded its decision to Dhaka, offering duty free access of over 300 kinds of Bangladeshi products into its markets from this year.

In line with the offer, Bangladesh's products including textile items, synthetic fibers, jute goods, silk items, cotton, automobile parts, dry foods, etc. would enjoy the benefits of duty free access to South Korean markets.

In the fiscal year 2007-08 (July 2007-June 2008), South Korea exported goods worth 612 million US dollars to Bangladesh, while imported goods worth 142 million US dollars, according to the data available with the Ministry of Commerce.

Bangladesh imports petrochemical items, paper products, machinery, high-quality fabrics and electronic items from South Korea, while it exports frozen foods, garment products and naphtha to South Korea.