ePaper_2nd Edition_October 19, 2016

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DT 12 Business WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2016 Plan to borrow from forex reserves As reserves are huge, we should use the money to ensure implementation of different development projects, says AMA Muthith • Tribune Business Desk The government plans to borrow from the country’s foreign exchange reserves to finance multiple development projects. Finance Minister AMA Muhith disclosed the plan during his speech at a remittance award ceremony in Dhaka Tuesday. “As the size of the foreign exchange reserves is still huge, we should utilise it properly by taking loans to ensure implementation of different development projects,” he said. The central bank organised the “Bangladesh Bank Remittance Award 2015” in recognition of expatriates’ contribution to the country’s economy. Bangladesh Bank awarded 26 highest remittance senders, five bond investors and four exchange houses owned by non-resident Bangladeshis. As the chief guest, finance minister handed over the awards to the recipients at the function with Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury in the chair. Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir was present as special guest. Addressing the ceremony, Muhith announced that he would mention his plan of using forex reserves for financing projects in the next budget. He, however, assured the expatriates that their money won’t be at risk Capital market snapshot: Tuesday DSE Broad Index 4,711.9 0.4% ▲ Index 1,117.8 0.2% ▲ 30 Index 1,755.2 0.0% ▲ Turnover in Mn Tk 5,715.9 25.2% ▲ Turnover in Mn Vol 207.1 27.8% ▲ CSE All Share Index 14,467.9 0.5% ▲ 30 Index 12,985.2 0.2% ▲ Selected Index 8,805.6 0.5% ▲ Turnover in Mn Tk 316.6 10.3% ▲ Turnover in Mn Vol 14.0 24.3% ▲ visit our website @ www.dhakatribune.com Recipients of Bangladesh Bank Remittance Award 2015 pose for photograph at the award giving ceremony in Dhaka on Tuesday. Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir were present MEHEDI HASAN as the government would be totally liable in case of any project failure. Earlier, Bangladesh Bank former governor Atiur Rahman had proposed the government on various occasions to invest from the swelling foreign exchange reserves of the country for construction of Padma bridge. The amount of foreign exchange reserves is $31.16bn as of August, 2016 which was around $4bn as the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government took office in 2009. The remittance inflow made the major contribution to the rise of the foreign reserves. In his speech, Muhith put emphasis on giving skill development supports to promote the expatriates sending home money. “We put more efforts on skill development programmes for the expatriates as most workers going abroad are unskilled,” said the finance minister. He claimed that the country’s economy is now in a strong foothold due to absence of business-halting political programmes like hartal. Muhith is confident that the country’s economy will see a 7.3% in the next fiscal year. Urging the Bangladeshi expatriates for investing in Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir said it is high time for investors to make investment in Bangladesh. Most of the highest remittance sender and bond investors were from the United Arab Emirates. Of the award recipients, eight from Janata Bank, four from Standard Chartered Bank, three from Sonali Bank, three from HSBC, three from Pubali Bank, two from Bank Asia, two from NRBC and one was selected from each bank: Agrani Bank, AB Bank, Trust Bank, BASIC Bank, Mutual Trust Bank and NRB Bank. • BEZA wants low-cost funds for economic zone developers • Asif Showkat Kallol Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority has requested finance ministry to allow economic zone developers get loans at lower-than-market interest rates from a World Bank funding facility. BEZA Executive Chairman Paban Chowdhury wrote a letter to senior secretary of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) on October 13 making the request. The letter urged the ERD to make provisions for economic zone developers to borrow money from the World Bank’s Investment Promotion Financing Facility (IPFF) project, which is being implemented by Bangladesh Bank. “It is recommended to set a lower rate of interest for the zone developers under the project which can be settled by consulting the World Bank and the Bangladesh Bank,” the letter reads. Providing investors with initial support would enable them to take on the risk of long-term investment, it observed. The recommendations have been made in the letter as per a discussion that took place at a BEZA meeting held on September 19, at which a WB representative told the BEZA that private zone developers would be able to borrow money from the IPFF project. “At this stage of economic zone development in Bangladesh, it is advisable that the project take responsibility of the mode of financing for the economic zone developers,” the letter reads. It said supporting developers would spur investment in the economic zones and help the government achieve its goal of reducing poverty and generating employment by attracting foreign direct investment. Over the last two years, BEZA has issued 12 licences to corporate houses and another six more are expected to be issued within the next six months. • Export earnings from service sector fall • Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Export earnings from service sector dropped more than 6% to $488m in the first two months of the current fiscal year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data released yesterday. The earnings amounted to $531.48m in the same period last year. However, the total export earnings of the country stood at $6.32bn with a 6.88% rise during the period, which was $5.91bn in the same period a year earlier. As per the EPB data, the country earned $189m from goods and services export, which was the highest, $107.14m from while telecommunication, computer and information services, $66.18m transportation and $73.33m from business services. In the last fiscal year, service sector earnings were not included in the export earning figure. Earlier, EPB has taken initiative to include it in the country’s total exports value. The aim of the move is to include service sector in total export figure and give a real picture of the country’s overall earnings from export. According to Bangladesh Bank data, in the last fiscal year, the country earned $3.19bn from service sector exports with 12.85% rise from the previous year’s $2.83bn. The total export volume in the year was $34.25bn, growing 9.77% from a year earlier. In FY2014-15, the total earning amounted to $31.20bn. After the inclusion, the total export volume in the last fiscal year stood at $37.3bn. Bangladesh’s service sector earnings come from transportation of passengers and goods, freight, travel, business, communication, construction, insurance, financial services, computer and information services, royalties and licence fees, entertainment, cultural and recreation services and government services. •
Business 13 DT WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2016 Purchase limits for state-run firms likely • Asif Showkat Kallol The government has planned to limit the purchase of goods and services by the state-owned companies, official sources said. The Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division under the Ministry of Planning recently proposed to include a provision for fixing the purchase limit of the companies under the Company Act 1994. “The government has decided to limit the purchase by the stateowned firms after the proposal,” an official told the Dhaka Tribune. He said the IMED proposal will be placed at the cabinet committee on economic affairs meeting Wednesday. According to the proposal, it is compulsory to follow the Section 3 (c) of the Public Procurement Act 2006 and the Public Procurement Rules 2008. “There is no clear statement about issuing public procurement for companies under the Company Act. As a result, the power of the board of directors of the companies Digital World 2016 begins today • Ishtiaq Husain Around 400 exhibitors from different countries will participate The country’s largest digital expo-Digital World 2016-begins today at the International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB) in the capital to showcase the technology-based innovations and achievements and facilitate in a single platform for sharing ICT knowledge and idea. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the 3-day flagship annual event of the country’s ICT sector with the theme ‘Non-stop Bangladesh’. The ICT Division is organising the flagship annual event with assistance of the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and A2I programme of the Prime Minister’s office.’ Around 400 exhibitors from different countries including Bangladesh will participate in the event. Among them, many are policy-makers, senior government officials & ministers, industry leaders, civil society spokespersons, investors and multinational software vendors. Representatives of ICT companies, international ICT associations, international development agencies, local software development firms will be present alongside multinational and local companies, Govt. departments & agencies implementing successful ICT & e-Governance projects. Representatives from renowned IT training institutes as well as University faculty members and students will also be present. Different ministry will showcase e-Services in order to feature the development of e-governance in achieving the vision 2021 “Digital Bangladesh”. Its purpose is to exhibit government online service, as well as exchange information between the government and a variety of recipients, citizens, business and also other government. The expo mainly focuses on the prompt and accelerated transformation of Bangladesh, from being a traditional government to a digital one in a convenient, efficient and transparent manner. This year about 40+ stalls will exhibit various e-Services provided by the government. • for permission is transferred to the cabinet committee on economic affairs.” IMED made three recommendations on imposing limits on the purchase of services and goods by the state-run firms. The amount of the state-owned enterprises for the purchase of services is Tk500 crore. In the case of purchasing goods the limit will be Tk200 crore. Regarding the purchase of intellectual and professional services, the state-run companies’ board of directors can approve the purchase up to Tk50 crore while the category-based financial measures must be approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs fixing specific limits, the proposal said. • Court asks CID to submit probe report on reserve heist case • Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court again asked the Criminal Investigation Department to submit the probe report of the Bangladesh Bank reserve heist case on November 16. Metropolitan Magistrate Md Maruf Hossain Tuesday passed the order after CID’s Additional Police Super Muhammad Raihanul Islam, investigation officer of the case, failed to submit the report before the court. The scheduled day for submission of the report was October 18. On March 22, Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mahbubur Rahman allowed CID to conduct forensic test on three computer’s hard disks of Bangladesh Bank in the case. The three hard disks were seized from the central bank after the reserve heist incident recently. On March 15, the central bank’s Joint Director M Jubayer Bin Huda lodged the case with Motijheel Police Station against some unidentified people. The case was filed under the Money Laundering Act, Information and Communication Technology Act and Bangladesh Penal Code. • Walton makes strong foothold in e-commerce • Tribune Business Desk Walton, a local manufacturer of electronics and home appliance, makes strong foothold in its e-commerce business with monthly sales of about Tk50 lakh per month. The e-commerce site of Walton gained popularity within a short span of time as a good number of buyers are now preferred to buy electronics products sitting at home, said a Walton press release. Conditional free delivery also attracted the consumers to shop using e-commerce facilities provided by the Walton. In October last year, Walton has launched the experimental operation of e-commerce site, which was inaugurated by Sate Minister for ICT Junaid Ahmed Palak at Walton Hi-Tech Industries at Chandra in Gazipur. E-commerce service was opened for customers from November last year. Since then, the sales of Walton products have been in an upward trend. “The e-commerce business is booming in Bangladesh. Although there is no perfect statistics, the number of e-commerce sites in Bangladesh may be about one thousand, said E-commerce Association of Bangladesh (E-cab) president Razib Ahmed As a single brand, Walton is marking a good sing in e-commerce business in a short time, he said adding that there are also some other brands like Arong, Food Panda, Pran and Nitol are also experiencing sound business in e-commerce. “We are strongly committed to bring the advanced technology based electronics products at customers’ doorsteps,” said Md Liakat Ali, additional director (IT) of Walton Group. Now, customers can purchase Walton products from any corner of the country using our e-commerce site, said Liakat. Due to the launch of e-commerce operation, the expatriate Bangladeshis are also now able to purchase Walton products, he said adding that “Already, a good number of expatriate Bangladeshis has purchased Walton products through on-line.” For buying products through e-commerce, the customers have to browse www.waltonbd.com. • World Bank President Jim Yong Kim speaks at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday. Story on page 1 Dhaka Bank, Gemcon sign MoU for payroll banking • Tribune Business Desk Dhaka Bank Limited and Gemcon Group recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Payroll Banking Services. Dr Kazi Anis Ahmed, director of MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU Gemcon Group, and Md Shafquat Hossain, head of Consumer Banking at Dhaka Bank Ltd were present at the signing ceremony, said a press release. Among other high officials, Capt ZA Zakir (Retd), CFO of Gemcon Group, HM Mostafizur Rahaman, vice president and head of Cards Business of Dhaka Bank Ltd, Fayyaz A Mustafa, SAVP of Payroll Banking of Dhaka Bank Ltd, and Firoz Alam, GM (Finance) of Gemcon Group, were also present. •
Page 1 and 2: SECOND EDITION WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1
Page 3 and 4: News 3 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2016
Page 9 and 10: World FBI records: Effort to reduce
Page 11: Advertisement 11 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER
Page 15 and 16: Business 15 World markets climb on
Page 17 and 18: Feature 17 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2
Page 19 and 20: Biz Info 19 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19,
Page 21 and 22: Opinion 21 Thailand as we knew it i
Page 23 and 24: Opinion 23 The politburo of literat
Page 25 and 26: England cricketers, led by Test cap
Page 27 and 28: Sport 27 ‘Summer to make or break
Page 29 and 30: Downtime 29 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19,
Page 31 and 32: CheckMate: Showtime No one has to f

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