Weekly News Clippings (February 6, 2014)

Bangladesh garment factories still exploiting child labour for UK products (The Guardian, February 6, 2014)
Undercover filming by the Exposure programme found clothes produced for Lee Cooper, BHS and other UK retailers in Bangladesh garment factories where workers were physically and verbally abused and fire safety ignored. Despite promises made by retailers to improve conditions following last year's Rana Plaza factory collapse in Dhaka, where at least 1,130 people died and thousands more were injured, staff as young as 13 are filmed in factories being kicked, slapped and hit with a used fabric roll as well as abused with physical threats and insults.

Fitch Ratings to rate Bangladesh (Dhaka Tribune, February 5, 2014)
Fitch Ratings would provide sovereign credit rating of Bangladesh as the government has allowed the central bank to sign agreement with the New York-based global rating agency. Fitch would work on the ratings for the country besides existing two agencies – Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s – which are providing the ratings since 2010. The ratings would be free of initial cost as proposed by the agency, but fees would be required if the country issues any bond rated by the company during the two-year period.

Bangladesh Jan inflation quickens, hit by political unrest (Reuters, February 5, 2014)
Bangladesh's annual inflation rate picked up in January for the third straight month, according to the Statistics Bureau. January's inflation rate was 7.50 percent, up from 7.35 percent in December. Food prices in January were 8.81 percent higher than a year earlier, down from December's 9 percent pace.
Political unrest ahead of an election last month has damaged the country's supply chain.

Rahimafrooz to produce solar power for national grid (The Daily Star, February 5, 2014)
Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy will produce solar electricity for Dhaka Power Distribution Company after installing a 50kw panel on the rooftop of Bangladesh secretariat. Rahimafrooz, the nation's largest solar power system provider, will design, install, operate and maintain the project for 20 years. The panel will be set up in six months. After installation of the grid-tied solar system, Rahimafrooz will sell the generated power from the system to the state-run DPDC at Tk 19.95 per unit.

400 new factories cry out for gas (Financial Express, February 4, 2014)

Four hundred industrial nits with an investment worth 200 billion could not start production due to a lack of gas over the last four years, despite setting up the factories and establishments with the help of bank loans.

Remittance continues its slide in January (The Daily Star, February 4, 2014)

Remittance flow to Bangladesh continues to decline. It had dropped 5.3 percent in January. The country received $1.25 billion in remittance last month as opposed to $1.32 billion in January 2013, according to Bangladesh Bank. Moreover, the decline is accompanied by a large number of returning migrants.

Stimulus drives RMG exports to new destinations (The Daily Star, February 3, 2014)

Garment exports to non-traditional markets advanced more than four times over the last six years following the government's incentive package in 2008 to offset the impact of the global financial crisis on the sector. The financial crisis started off in the US and then spread to the European Union—both of which happen to be the chief destinations of the country's garment exports. In 2008, garment exports to destinations other than the US, EU and Canada stood at $800 million; in 2013 the figure crossed $3.5 billion.

HR practices pick up: study (The Daily Star, February 2, 2014)

Recent trends and practices in human resources management in Bangladesh have improved mainly due to changes in global and national economies and better education. According to a study on HR Practices and Trends Survey 2014 conducted by Ernst & Young LLP, nearly two-thirds of companies in the country now provide in-house and external training to their employees to sharpen their skills. The global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services, conducted the first study on HR in association with Bangladesh Society for Human Resource Management with feedback from about 100 people in 40 organisations in 11 sectors.   About a third of respondents said they used internal referrals and print media for recruitment. A similar percentage has indicated at outsourcing the recruitment process. 

Proactive info is key to corruption battle: analysts (The Daily Star, February 2, 2014)

The government should proactively disclose information instead of creating barriers to bring down corruption. According to analysts at a round-table on Access to Information Central to the Post 2015 Development Agenda, organised by Article 19, a non-governmental organization, the land ministry should be questioned for its reluctance to disclose information, as land is the root of most legal disputes and killings.