The New Nation - Internet Edition

Govt to set up commodity stock exchange in capital

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

The government is going to set up a commodity stock exchange in Dhaka considering the growing importance of the price volatility of major international commodities, said Commerce Secretary Feroz Ahmed at a function in the city.

In this regard, he said, the Ministry of Commerce has already

initiated a study to examine it in the backdrop of the ongoing international financial crisis and the continued price instability of essentials, which could be a major concern to Bangladesh.

Commerce Secretary Feroz Ahmed was presiding over the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) and the Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI) at a city hotel.

The MoU was signed for establishing a long-term collaborative relationship between the two institutions, enabling them to develop collaboration in trade related research, training and academic interchanges.

IIFT director KT Chacko and chief executive officer of BFTI Professor MA Taslim signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.

The MoU signing ceremony was followed by the inauguration of a two-day training workshop on "International Commodity Trading and Risk Management", jointly organized by the IIFT and BFTI for the public and private sector trade officials.

Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty and President of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) Abdul Hai Sarker spoke on the occasion as special guests.

Welcoming the MoU, Pinak Chakravarty hoped that the collaboration between the two Institutions will contribute to the trade related growth and development in this region to a great extent.

High officials of different ministries and executives of the private sector, including the banking and financial institutions and diplomats were also present.

About 40 officials from the Ministry of Commerce, public and private banks, stock exchange and academic institutions are taking part in the workshop.

Grameenphone partnership with Bangladesh Post Office begins

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

A partnership agreement was signed between Grameenphone Ltd and Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) at a hotel in the city yesterday.

Under the terms of the agreement the GP is supplying over 24,000 special SIM cards to the employees of BPO working in over 8,000 extra departmental sub and branch post offices of BPO across the country.

The special SIM cards from Grameenphone will feature a combination of the Flexiload and GPPP facilities, for the postmen to use to supplement their income in the rural areas and facilitate communication among them.

Grameenphone CEO Oddvar Hesjedal and Director General, BPO, Mobasherur Rahman, were at hand to inaugurate the partnership.

Brig Gen MA Malek (Retd), Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Major General Manjurul Alam, ndc, psc (Retd), Chairman, Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), Rubaba Dowla, Director, Marketing, Grameenphone Ltd, Syed Yamin Bakht, Director, Public Relations, Grameenphone Ltd, and other senior officials of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the Bangladesh Post Office, and Grameenphone were also present.

Speaking on the occasion, the Grameenphone CEO, said "Grameenphone has always worked to take communication solutions to the masses, bringing communities and families closer. In that way this partnership with the Bangladesh Post Office is a natural extension of our services."

Grameenphone signed the agreement with the BPO in September this year, in response to an Expression of Interest (EoI) advertisement published by the BPO in March.

The EoI asked for a solution that would not only generate income for the post office employees working in the rural areas but also facilitate the communication among the said employees.

The SIM which are being supplied to the BPO for their rural post office employees blends FlexiLoad with Grameenphone's voice and data products and services; HealthLine and BillPay services will also be incorporated in the future.

"I see another big success in our hands. What's more, this partnership will not only be a revenue generating source for the rural post-office employees and the central BPO, but will in turn give rural people access to modern telecommunication solutions," added the GP CEO.

IBBL launches SME Service Centre

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

First SME Service Centre of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited was inaugurated at the Centre Premises, Alenga, Kalihati, Tangail on November 30 last.

Md. Tariqul Islam, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) inaugurated the centre as the chief guest, while

Robert Smith, RPCS Manager of DFID, UK was present as special guest.

Presided over by M. Fariduddin Ahmad, Managing Director of the bank, the function was addressed, among others, by Moulana Abdus Shaheed Naseem, Member of Shari'ah Council, Asbdul Kader, Executive Vice President and Head of Dhaka North Zone and Jafar Ahmed, In charge of Alenga S.M.E. Service Centre.

Abdul Halim Sarkar, Secretary of Alenga Bus Stand Businessman Association, Dr. Ruhul Amin, Professor of Dhaka Medical College and Abdul Malek Bhuiyan, Chairman, Salla Union Parishad and renowned businessman spoke at the function.

Md. Tariqul Islam said, "IBBL provides with the security of interest-free transaction to its clients. The opportunity of conducting interest-free economy in the country has been expanded by Islami Bank".

Robert Smith said that S.M.E. Service Centre of Islami Bank chalked out for the economic development of the country has delighted me much.

He hoped that people of middle and lower income would be benefited from the S.M.E. Centre through receiving investment.

M. Fariduddin Ahmad said that S.M.E. has become a well-known system in the world including Bangladesh.

State-owned banks and private commercial banks and financial institutions of the country are conducting their investment program through the system. Islami Bank has extended the activity through the inauguration of the service centre.

"We will inaugurate nine more Service Centres within the current year, " he also said..

Small and medium Entrepreneurs play significant role in the socio-economic development of the country through creating a number of employments. IBBL has been providing with investment facilities to the small entrepreneurs. The opportunity has been scattered through the establishment of S.M.E. Service Centre.

He hoped that the S.M.E Service Centre will play vital role in the development of socio-economic of the country.

BTRC issues final guidelines for awarding licences to pvt sector

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commi-ssion (BTRC) on Sunday issued the final guidelines of the National Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN) for private sector applicants seeking licence for conducting business.

Under the guidelines, the BTRC will issue licences to bonafide firms and individuals allowing them to build, operate and maintain nationwide optical fibre telecommunication network.

"Any interested person or legal entity complying with the terms and conditions of the guidelines may apply for the licence," it said, adding there is no time limit for collecting and submitting applications, the fee of which will be Tk 50, 000.

The licence acquisition fee for NTTN services will be Tk 30 million while its annual acquisition fee will be Tk 2.5 million, said the guideline.

The final guideline of NTTN is available on the web site of the BTRC, which is www.btrc.gov.bd.

Apart from helping expansion of telecommunication network across the country, the BTRC said appointment of private sector businesses for building, operating and maintaining nationwide optical fibre telecommunication network will also gradually help to remove the use of overhead cables in the cities and towns. "Telecommunication network across the country will further be expanded after issuance of licenses for providing NTTN services," the BTRC chairman Maj Gen (Retd) Manzurul Alam said. He said the nationwide coordinated network expansion will help connect more people in remote areas come under the net of telecommunication and internet.

"This will immensely help to increase penetration of Internet."

The BTRC said the license recipients under the NTTN guideline will be able to provide connection up to backbone network and 'end users'. A licensee will require submitting a bank guarantee as security deposit worth Tk.100 million in favour of the BTRC within 15 days of issuance of license with minimum validity of five years, it said.

The duration of the license will be initially for a term of 15 years.

According to the guidelines, foreign equity of any applicant firm will be limited to 60 per cent. It said the overseas partner shall directly invest in foreign currency equal to his percentage of ownership and no bank loan from any Bangladeshi scheduled bank or financial institution or leasing company can be raised for the overseas part of the investment.

For the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) a maximum of 70 per cent of Foreign Direct Investment will be allowed but no loans can be raised locally from any financial institution.

A partnership/consortium of Non Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) and foreign equity without Bangladeshi partners will not be allowed, the BTRC said.

The Access Network Service (ANS) operators having licenses from the commission and any of its shareholders, foreign or local, will not be eligible to apply for the license.

Two City Bank branches in Chittagong relocated

City Bank has relocated two of its of branches in Chittagong city namely Kadamtali branch and O. R. Nizam Road Branch on Sunday. Those to branches were relocated with modern online facilities to making more sense to the customers.

The bank's Director Tabassum Kaiser inaugurated the new locations by speaking at the functions held at the respective branches. While bank's MD and CEO K Mahmood Sattar, Head of Retail Banking Mashrur Arefin, Chittagong Area Head of Corporate Banking AHM Humayun Chowdhury and other high officials were also present.

At the client functions, the bank's Director Tabassum Kaiser and MD & CEO K. Mahmood Sattar reiterated the bank's continued priority focus in building a modern Retail & SME Banking services beside doing traditional whole-sale & corporate banking.

IBBL, SJIBL sign taka drawing agreement

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd (IBBL) and Shahjalal Islami Bank Limited (SJIBL) signed a taka drawing-agreement at the Head Office of IBBL on 26 November.

Under this agreement, Shahjalal Islami Bank will be able to disburse remittance by availing branch network of Islami Bank throughout the country.

Muhammad Ali, Managing Director of SJIBL and M Fariduddin Ahmed, Managing Director of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited signed on the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations. Among others, Deputy Managing Director of IBBL Md Habibur Rahman and Deputy Managing Director of SJIBL Md Mukhter Hossain, Executive Vice President of SJIBL Md Mohashin Miah and high officials of both banks were present on the occasion.

BGMEA takes steps to protect workers from HIV

Garment manufacturers and exporters have taken a programme to protect their workers from the risks of HIV/AIDS infection. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has already trained 66,000 of its 24 lakh workers under a `life skill education' programme with UN population fund in different factories."The number of trained workforce on HIV is not so big compared to the total workers, but it's a good beginning," BGMEA president Anwar-ul- Alam Chowdhury Parvez said at a function at a city hotel yesterday.Parvez said they have a plan to sensitize in phases all of their workers, many of whom are being sexually exploited and fall prey to the unprotected sex due to ignorance and adhoc emotions.

He said the public health interventions by BGMEA has already

achieved the lowest rate of total fertility (TFR) at 1.7, far below the national average of 2.7 and the targeted 2.2 by 2015.

In this context, he urged the government to help BGMEA in

attaining their millennium development goals (MDGs) 4, 5 and 6 on maternal and child survival as well as halting HIV.

Health Secretary AMM Nasir Uddin said prevention was the main objective of the government to improve public health status in the country. He appreciated the BGMEA-UNFPA joint programme on HIV and said it should also include family planning components.

Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof MA Faiz, Line Director of National AIDS STD Programme (NASP) Dr Mohammad Ishaque Khan and Country Director of Population Council Dr AK Obaidur Rob, among others, spoke on the occasion.

Enayet Karim elected GEF president

Enayet Karim was elected President of Global Economist Forum (GEF) for 2009-10. The election of GEF was held at Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on November 30 after the 37th congress, held on November 29.

More than 1,755 delegates from different parts of the world participated in the congress and elected the new leader for next two years tenure.

Global Economist Forum works for policy making of worldwide poverty reduction, ecological balancing, creating pressure to the developed countries for supporting the poor nations, eradication of environmental hazards, making strategy for the migrate workers, women empowerment and tackling economic debacles.

The newly elected president of GEF Enayet Karim is the author of credit evaluation theory book CAMELS Rating, a book first ever in the world for assessment of credit, asset, management, earning, liquidity and sensitivity of financial institutions. It is now read and taught as a text book in different universities at home and abroad. Enayet Karim is the Editor of the Weekly Industry. He has been playing significant contribution in promoting exports by organising exhibitions of Bangladeshi products through Dhaka International Exhibition Company (DIEC) abroad. He is the Chief Executive of DIEC.

Prothomalojobs.com workshop ends

Prothomalojobs.com organised a day-long workshop on 'Presentation Skill and Public Speaking' at Prothom Alo's conference room in the city recently, said a press release. Assistant Vice-president and head of PR and Brand Communication of Mutual Trust Bank Limited M Ahsan Ullah Khan and Training Manager of The Westin Dhaka Jishu Tarafder conducted the workshop as trainers. Joint Editor of Prothom Alo Abdul Quayum, Director (PIE) of Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed and head of Operations Prothomalojobs.com Riyad Hossain were present in the certificate awarding ceremony.

A total of 35 participants from different corporate houses took part in the workshop.

The workshop mainly focused on techniques and strategies of presentation skill and public speaking in order to excel in the workplace.