News Clippings from the Week (20 December, 2012)

Bangladesh-India ties below potential:  WB (The Daily Star, December 20, 2012)

A new World Bank working paper entitled “Unlocking Bangladesh-India Trade” argues that economic ties between Bangladesh and India are far below potential.  While the study documents impressive gains in trade in recent years (exportation of Bangladeshi products to India has grown 7 fold in the last 11 years and importation of India goods into Bangladesh has increased 4 fold), Bangladesh still accounts for less than 1% of India’s imports.  The study estimates that a free trade agreement would lead to a 182% of Bangladeshi exports.   The full report can be found here.

Migrant workers drive economy  (The Daily Star, December 19, 2012)

On a discussion in International Migrants Day, Finance Minister said that Bangladesh's economic development largely depends on remittance sent by migrant workers, which is one of the sources of earning foreign currencies. He said that the remittance inflow would cross $14 billion mark this year. Speakers said that around 25 percent of the total employment comes from overseas employment, which could be increased to 50 percent in five years. They stressed the need for technical training and skills in foreign languages for the labor.

Trade deficit drops by 21 percent in Jul-Oct (The New Age, December 19, 2012)

According to Bangladesh Bank, the trade deficit of the country decreased by 20.84 percent in the first four months of the current financial year as the import of capital machineries, industrial raw materials and food grains declined in this period. According to the BB data the gap between export and import earnings stood at $ 2,517 million for Jul-Oct.

Malpractice threatens shrimp export (Financial Express, December 16, 2012)

Unscrupulous traders have allegedly injected shrimp exports with a type of gel to increase shrimp weight. Last week, six tones of adulterated galda shrimp were destroyed and businessmen were fined Tk3.9 million. The revelations have provoked fears of a repeat of 2009, when Tk1 billion in shrimp consignments were rejected after the discovery of salmonella, filth, and antibiotics in shrimp exports. In the aftermath of 2009, Bangladesh shrimp exporters faced onerous 20% mandatory testing throughout 2010.  Shrimp sales have declined 22% compared with the July-November period of 2011.

Stan Chart gives scholarships to intellectually-impaired students  (The Daily Star, December 16, 2012)

As part of its corporate social responsibility, Standard Chartered Bank awarded scholarships to 100 low income, intellectually-disabled students of five schools in Dhaka. Standard Chartered is giving education scholarships and medical facilities to the poor as part of its efforts to develop the country.