Weekly News Clippings (May 1, 2014)

Tk 1,500cr (15 billion) lost for graft in 6 years (The Financial Express, May 1, 2014)
Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) suffered revenue loss of at least Tk1,500 crore in last six years due to corruption, revealed a TIB study yesterday. Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) identified tampering with the BTCL's international call records as one of its major corrupted areas.  The state-owned telecom company during this period lost around Tk 1,500 crore in revenue due to tampering with international call records.

World Bank calls on Bangladesh to raise domestic natural gas prices (Business Day, April 30, 2014)
The World Bank has asked Bangladesh to raise its domestic natural gas prices after five years without an increase. Domestic natural gas prices in Bangladesh currently range from 93 cents/Mcf across residential, industrial, commercial and power generation sectors. The country purchases natural gas from international oil companies operating in the country in the much higher range of $2 – $4.50/Mcf. Bangladesh has not raised domestic natural gas prices since August 1, 2009, when tariffs for all types of consumers excluding CNG were raised by 11 percent.

NBR to slap higher taxes on new factories in Dhaka (The Daily Star, April 30, 2014)
The National Board of Revenue plans to impose higher taxes on fresh investments in setting up industrial units in Dhaka and its surrounding areas."It is often said that Dhaka has become an unlivable city for increased congestion and industrialisation. According to the NBR Chairman MdGhulamHussain, new industrial plants should not be allowed in Dhaka and its adjacent areas for the sake of livability of the city.

Viyellatex cuts carbon emissions by 25pc (The Daily Star, April 29, 2014)
Viyellatex Group, one of the leading garment exporters havereduced carbon emissions by more than 25 percent over the five years since 2009. According toSystain, a Germany-based environmental consulting firm, the management of the company has put major focus on improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. Viyellatex replaced conventional fluorescent tube lights with efficient ones and replaced all conventional sewing machine motors with servo-motors, which require half the electricity, to reduce emissions.The group also installed a heat recovery system to form condensate from steam in the dyeing section, and uses it to pre-heat feed water for the boiler. Viyellatex also recovers heat from generators to use in a similar way and uses evaporative cooling instead of conventional air conditioning.

Telco prices Bangladesh’s first dollar bond (Finance Asia, April 28, 2014)

Banglalink sold $300 million five-year notes—the first dollar-denominated bonds from Bangladesh—as the mobile operator plans to boost its business and refinance existing debt.A bond is a debt instrument that enables the issuing company to raise funds by promising to repay a lender in line with terms of a contract.Banglalink's bonds will have a re-offer price of 99.008 percent with a yield to maturity of 8.875 percent, it said in a statement. The transaction is expected to close on May 6. Banglalink, the nation's second largest mobile operator after Grameenphone, is rated B1 by Moody's and B+ by Standard & Poor's—both with a stable outlook. 

40pc food poisonous (The Daily Star, April 28, 2014)

Banned pesticides that cause serious health hazards have been found in fruits, vegetables, milk and milk products and dry fish, according to a FAO-sponsored test at a government laboratory. The presence of toxic substances in the food samples was three to 20 times the limits set by the European Union. Forty percent of the 82 samples contained pesticides that had been banned more than one and a half decades ago for high toxicity.The banned pesticides include DDT (Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane), Aldrin, Chlordane and Heptachlor that are extremely harmful to humans.Carrot, bean, tomato, lettuce, capsicum, banana, apple, pineapple, mango and milk were contaminated with highly toxic pesticides, which heavy metals were detected in  samples of rice, turmeric, poultry meat and fruit juice. Arsenic and chromium were present above safe limits in three of 13 samples, and formalin was found in coriander, mango and shrimp and antibiotics were found  in chicken and fish.

US urged to cut duty on RMG (The Daily Star, April 28, 2014)

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has urged the visiting delegation of the United States Trade Representatives to reduce discriminatory duty on shipments of garment items to make Bangladeshi products more competitive in the American market.Bangladesh pays the second highest duty for export to the US but as one of the least developed countries it was supposed to enjoy zero-tariff benefit from the American market, he said.The duty structure for Bangladeshi products is discriminatory as other competing countries pay much less tariff on exports to the US.Of the yearly export of Bangladeshi products to the US market, 95 percent are garment items. Ticfa is a platform for settling trade disputes between the two countries. The deal was signed in Washington in November last year.

17,500 RMG workers lose jobs following inspection (Dhaka Tribune, April 27, 2014)

Some 17,500 workers became jobless following the closure of 16 garment factories in Dhaka after the inspection by Accord, an association of European garment buyers.President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Atiqul Islam said that the number of jobless garment workers would reach 100,000 in next three months and 500,000 in next 5 months if the inspection continued.He also said that the buyers would start detailed engineering assessment of the factory structures from July next and about 1.5 million workers were at risk of losing their jobs.He said Dhaka had 769 factories in shared buildings, while 1,434 factories are located in multipurpose buildings.

Bangladeshranks 31st in Hopkins professor's index (Dhaka Tribune, April 26, 2014)

Bangladesh has been ranked 31st among 90 countries in an index, a research by a professor at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.The index was calculated by summing the unemployment rate, lending rate and inflation rate minus the percent change in real GDP per capita, author Hanke said in his paper.Venezuela topped as the most miserable country in the world with a index of 79.4%, with inflation as its major contributing factor. Bangladesh was ranked at 31 with a index of 20.8% with interest rate as its major contributing factor. However, Bangladesh is better-off compared to South Asian neighbours India and Pakistan which are ranked at 21 and 28 respectively in the list. The least miserable country was Japan with an index of 5.41%.

Study: Bangladesh Factories Remain Dangerous (Wall  Street Journal, April 25, 2014)

A year after the deadly collapse of the Rana Plaza building, many factories in Bangladesh remain dangerous places to work. Data released this week by Asia Inspection, which audits factories in 45 countries for global brands, said the number of audits focusing on worker safety, child labor and building inspections rose 136% in the last year. Even so, factories received lower scores on these audits this year than in 2013, according to Asia Inspection. Bangladesh factories scored an average of 5.85 this April, down from 5.98 a year ago, on a scale of 0-10, where 10 represents the best score.

Weekly News Clippings (April 24, 2014)

CPD recommends commission for Rana Plaza victims (The Dhaka Tribune, April 24, 2014)
The Centre for Policy Dialogue has suggested the government to establish a national commission with strong executive authority to solve the problems affecting the Rana Plaza victims and the garment sector as a whole. Rehman Sobhan, chairman of the local think-tank, said the commission would be headed by a high-powered person with other responsible people from within and outside the government, particularly from the civil society. Sobhan also said there should be full transparency and accountability about the funds being mobilised in the name of Rana Plaza victims from both domestic and international sources. Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of CPD, said the government would have to see whether April 24 could be declared Workers' Safety Day.

Understanding the pain of the victims (The Daily Star, April 24, 2014)
During the months of March and April this year, a multidisciplinary research team from Brac conducted a study to find out the present conditions of the survivors who received rehabilitation assistance from Brac. For the study, data was collected on the socioeconomic status of 26 survivors, their physical and mental condition, demographic information, assistance received from other sources, the treatments they sought in the last one year and their future goals and aspirations. As revealed through the research, the survivors mentioned that they are no longer receiving the free treatment they were once promised. Of the 26 survivors, 11 are amputees who received prosthetic and monetary support from Brac, the study reveals.

Bangladesh hardly benefited from duty-free Indian market, trade experts say(Dhaka Tribune, April 23, 2014)
Bangladesh has failed to take advantage of the duty-free access to Indian market due to reasons, including lack of leadership, coordination, infrastructure bottlenecks and cumbersome export procedure. According to trade analysts, Bangladesh needs to diversify its export base, in order to enhance exports to the market. India allowed all but 25 Bangladeshi products duty-free in their market in 2011, though the opportunity was used only to buy trucks instead of developing the infrastructure.

Bangladesh factory victims get fund payout(SBS, April 23, 2014)
A fund created to compensate victims of Bangladesh's worst industrial disaster has made its first payments as the country marks the first anniversary of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse. The fund is paying about 3000 people - survivors or families of the dead - 50,000 taka each as an advance against their claims. So far, only $15 million has been collected in the trust fund managed by the International Labour Organisation against the required amount of $40 million. Of the 29 retailers, only British retailer Primark has put in $10 million.The nine-storey factory complex, where dozens of Western retailers were making clothing, collapsed on April 24 last year, killing 1138 people and injuring more than 2000.

Rajuk asked to identify unauthorised buildings (Dhaka Tribune, April 23, 2014)
The parliamentary standing committee on public accounts has asked Rajuk, the city development authority, to prepare, within a month, a list of the buildings constructed in the capital violating laws as well as to initiate departmental action against its officials who were involved in destroying the files and allowed the realtors to construct high-rise buildings in prime locations in the capital.

BGMEA, GIZ join hands to bring sustainable dev in garment industries(The Financial Express, April 23, 2014)
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) with a view to bringing sustainable development in the garment manufacturing industries in the country.   Under the MoU, the GIZ, an international enterprise operating in more than 130 countries worldwide, will implement a joint project undertaken by the governments of Bangladesh and the Germany to increase the environmental capacity of the local apparel industries, which are lagging behind to comply with the environmental issues.

Hero to set up plant in Bangladesh (Press Display, April 22, 2014)
India’s largest motorcycle maker has announced a joint venture with Bangladesh’s Nitol Niloy group. The two plan to invest around $40 million over the next five years. The joint venture, in which Hero MotoCorp will hold a 55% stake and the rest will lie with the Bangladeshi partner, plans to set up a new manufacturing facility which will have an annual capacity of 150,000 units when fully functional by the second quarter of 2015¬. The diversified Nitol Niloy group has interests in various sectors and also markets vehicles in Bangladesh.


Good job done-TIB finds 31pc pledges implemented, 60pc in progress, says Bangladesh proves it can tackle disasters like Rana Plaza (The Daily Star, April 22, 2014)
The anti-graft organization, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has released a report which assessed the country's progress in improving labour standards and working conditions since the garment industry saw its worst disaster on April 24 last year. The report praised the government for turning the factory inspection directorate into a full-fledged department, amending labour laws, formulating occupational and health policy, allowing trade unions, appointing more inspectors and raising minimum wages. In the previous assessment, the TIB identified 63 areas of governance challenges that Bangladesh needed to overcome to ensure a better workplace for more than four million garment workers

MCCI pushes for higher tax-free income ceiling(The Daily Star, April 21, 2014)
The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) has urged the government to increase the tax-free income ceiling for individuals and cut corporate tax. The chamber recommended that the corporate tax rate should be lowered to 20 percent from 27.5 percent now for publicly traded for listed companies and to 25 percent from 37.5 percent for the other companies.  The chamber also suggested reducing the flat corporate tax rate for banks, insurance companies and non-bank financial institutes to 35 percent from 42.5 percent.

$500m remittances flow in, 11 days into April (Dhaka Tribune, April 19, 2014)
In the current fiscal year of 2013-14, Bangladesh received a total of $10.479bn in remittances until March. According to a Bangladesh Bank statement, non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) living abroad have sent a total of $495.86m from April 1-11 of the current year. Of this, $160.63m came into the country in the first four days while the remaining $335.23m flowed in between April 5-11. The most significant portion of remittances entered the country through private banking channels.

Bangladesh files contempt case against British reporter (AFP, April 18, 2014)
Bangladesh's war crime tribunal launched a contempt case against a Dhaka-based British journalist, David Bergman, for allegedly criticising the court in his writings and questioning the death toll from the nation's 1971 independence war. The International Crimes Tribunal -- a domestic court set up by the country's secular government to try suspected war criminals including opposition leaders and key Islamists -- initiated the case after rejecting Bergman's assertion that the articles were "accurate".

Bangladesh seizes properties of owner of collapsed factory(Global Post, April 17, 2014)
The Bangladesh government has seized properties belonging to the Sohel Rana, owner of a building that collapsed and killed 1,138 garment workers, the worst industrial disaster in the country's history. The government announced the property seizures months after the High Court ordered them confiscated, and just one week before the first anniversary of the tragedy in the industrial district of Savar.

Weekly News Clippings (April 17, 2014)

Export tax cuts concern IMF (The Daily Star, April 17, 2014)
The International Monetary Fund has sought a concrete action plan from the government to counter the impact of export tax cuts. The cuts are expected to bring in revenue losses of around Tk 2,000 crore over the next 15 months. Last month, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) slashed the export tax on ready made garments to 0.3 percent from 0.8 percent and on all other products to 0.6 percent from 0.8 percent, in a bid to make up for the losses incurred last year due to political turmoil.

Banks reluctant to mobilise deposits (Dhaka Tribune, April 16, 2014)
Deposit growth in the banking sector dropped substantially in last one year as banks are reluctant to mobilise funds at higher rate due to lack of credit demand and sluggish investment climate. It decreased to 16.48% in February from 20% in the same month last year. The credit growth of the banking sector decreased to 7.44% from 12.73% during the same period, according to the Bangladesh Bank data.

WTO raises outlook for global trade in good sign for economy (The Financial Express, April 16, 2014)
Global commerce is set to grow by 4.7 per cent this year with recovery in rich economies expected to mitigate risks in developing nations, says the World Trade Organization. According to WTO’s earlier forecast, trade would expand by 4.5 per cent in 2014, up from an estimated rate of 2.1 per cent in 2013. So the latest forecast points to substantially more than a doubling of the growth achieved last year. Trade is a key measure of the health of the global economy which it both stimulates and reflects. Asia will continue to fuel growth rates, the WTO said, although China's exceptionally strong expansion is slowing. In addition, Europe and North America's recovery is also set to be a key driver on both the import and export fronts.

Bangladesh factory owner faces murder charges over deadly collapse (Australian News Network, April 15, 2014)
The owner of a nine-storey building that collapsed and killed more than 1,100 Bangladeshi garment workers in April last year is to face murder charges, police said. Sohel Rana, owner of the Rana Plaza factory complex would be charged in connection with the disaster. If convicted Rana, a junior official in the ruling Awami League party, could be sentenced to death. It was the first time police have said they would file murder charges against Rana, who was arrested on the western border with India as he tried to flee the country days after the April 24 disaster.  Survivors recounted how thousands of them were forced to enter the compound at the start of the working day despite complaints about cracks appearing in the walls.

Realtors call for relaxing lending rules (The Daily Star, April 15, 2014)
Realtors are urging financial institutions to provide more loans to the real estate sector due to the higher demand. The current demand for housing in urban areas is 30,000 units annually and is expected to cross 60,000 units in the next five years while the real estate sector is only producing 17,000-18,000 units per year. Realtors further said that banks should make investment in the real estate sector considering their heavy investment in its backward linkage industries such as steel mills, cement and tiles industries.

Seek buys 25% of Bangladesh's Bdjobs (The Australian Business, April 14, 2014)
Listed job search site Seek has acquired 25 per cent of fast-growing Bangladeshi jobs site Bdjobs, for $5 million in cash, as it continues its growth strategy in Asia. The acquisition was made using Seek's cash reserves, facilitated via a proportional sell-down by early stage investors. It grants the Australian company representation on Bdjobs' board as well as typical protections relevant to a minority shareholding. The jobs site -- Bangladesh's largest -- posted a net profit after tax of $US900 million ($A957.81m) in the 2013 calendar year. Bdjobs' chief executive and founder Fahim Mashroor remains its biggest shareholder.

Over hundred sub-contracting apparel factories close down (The Financial Express, April 14, 2014)
More than one hundred sub-contracting apparel factories, mostly non-compliant ones, have been closed and many others are at the verge of closure mainly for want of sufficient work. According to the industry insiders, the sub-contracting factories have long been facing dearth of work as big garment makers, who take work orders directly, are either turning away from the third parties or are opting for the compliant ones in the face of strict monitoring of safety measures by the buyers. Sources said, the sub-contracting factories randomly engage child labour in production and other safety measures like fire safety, exit facilities and their timely payments are rarely maintained.

Rising wages squeeze Bangladesh garment makers as factories await upgrades(Chicago Tribune, April 13, 2014)
Bangladesh garment factory owners say they are soaking up much of the cost of nearly doubling wages as some global retailers balk at price hikes, leaving less money for safety improvements urged by apparel chains after last year's Rana Plaza disaster. The task of coping with a 79 percent increase in the minimum monthly wage to $68, imposed last December at the urging of some retail chains, comes as competition intensifies among emerging markets producing garments for stores like Walmart and Zara. That is squeezing sales in Bangladesh's main export industry. Some buyers have shifted orders to countries like India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia because of concerns about workshop safety, higher wages and political uncertainty.

Facebook restricted content access in Bangladesh (Dhaka Tribune, April 13, 2014)
Facebook, the top social network in the world, had restricted access to content in Bangladesh. The restriction was implicated upon Bangladesh government request, says Facebook. A total of 3 contents were restricted according to the Facebook report. However, Facebook has not disclosed any details about the restricted contents. Earlier, Bangladesh government had asked for personal information of 12 Facebook users to the Facebook authorities from January to June in 2013. In the recent report, India requested to restrict 4765 contents, which is the highest among the countries. United States government asked for 18,715 user account information, which is highest in this regard.

Non-traditional markets show great promise for garments(The Daily Star, April 13, 2014)
Garment exports to non-traditional markets are rising at a faster rate than to the traditional markets owing to the stimulus package and duty benefits by emerging markets for Bangladesh. In fiscal 2012-13, garment exports to non-traditional markets such as Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and so on rose 29 percent year-on-year to $2.98 billion, according to data from Export Promotion Bureau. In contrast, exports to traditional markets of the US, Canada and European Union stood at $18.54 billion last fiscal year, up 10.93 percent year-on-year.

Good IMF grades to Bangladesh (The Daily Star, April 12, 2014)
The International Monetary Fund has said it is not concerned over Bangladesh's economic performance as the growth rate is hovering around 6 percent.  According to Changyong Rhee, director of IMF's Asia-Pacific Department, the 6 percent growth rate or close to 6 percent is not a bad performance. Bangladesh's GDP growth prospects are slightly brighter than its Asian peers: the IMF expects Asian growth to improve to 5.4 percent in 2014 and 5.5 percent in 2015, up from 5.2 percent last year. Asia will remain the global growth leader, as Rhee said the main growth drivers are improved external demand, which has lifted exports, healthy labour markets and robust credit growth.

Rutgers joins push for safer working conditions in Bangladesh (newsworks, April 11, 2014)
Rutgers, New Jersey's state university, is the latest of 17 schools requiring manufacturers of its collegiate apparel to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. International workers rights groups are praising a decision by Rutgers University that could help eliminate sweatshops in Bangladesh. That accord requires factories to establish workplace safety rules and agree to independent inspections, said Judy Gearhart, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum.

Bangladesh: Skills and Training Enhancement Project (The World Bank, April 11, 2014)
To ensure better employment opportunities for the Bangladeshi labor force, in both local and overseas job markets, skills development and vocational education have to be aligned with the market demand. The Skills and Training Enhancement Project (STEP) aims to strengthen public and private training institutions, to improve the quality of skills training and employability of trainees, both at home and abroad, including those from disadvantaged socio- economic backgrounds. Since the project was approved in 2010, 69,000 diploma students from 93 polytechnic institutions received stipends and 29,700 trainees received training from these training providers, 25% of them being women.

Weekly News Clippings (April 10, 2014)

Political unrest ate up $1.4b (The Daily Star, April 10, 2014)
Bangladesh has suffered a production loss of $1.4 billion (around Tk 10,857 crore), which is more than 1 percent of its gross domestic product, in the current fiscal year due to political turmoil from July last year to January, according to a World Bank study.  The WB revealed the findings yesterday at the launch of Bangladesh Development Update Report 2014 at its Dhaka office. The economic loss Bangladesh suffered in the current fiscal year was more than one percent of the country's GDP of around $130 billion, according to the WB. Of the losses, 86 percent was in the service sector, 11 percent in industry and the remaining 3 percent in agriculture, it said.

Study: Only 7 out of 126 RMG trade unions active (Dhaka Tribune, April 9, 2014)
Only seven out of 126 registered trade unions in the readymade garment industry are actively working to promote the rights of workers, a new study says. The key impediment for most trade unions not being functional is harassment and assaults by the factory management, finds the study, conducted by Solidarity Centre,  titled “Organising Trade Unions in the RMG Sector 2010-14.” Alonzo Glenn Suson, executive director of Solidarity Centre, said around 20% of the workers engaged with the trade unions found it difficult to operate due to torture by the members of the factory officials.

At long last, WHO certifies Bangladesh polio-free (Khabar South Asia, April 9, 2014)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has finally declared Bangladesh as "polio-free" and praised it as "one of the world's vaccination stars".  Through a robust national immunisation programme, Bangladesh mostly rid itself of the crippling disease in 2003. But the country reported a final case of polio in March 2006, and then had to wait for three years without detecting any polio cases. For Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, and North Korea, that long-awaited certification came on March 27th in New Delhi, during the 7th meeting of the South-East Asia Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication.

Bangladesh tea prices plunge on poor grade leaf (Reuters, April 8, 2014)
Tea prices in Bangladesh plunged again at a weekly auction on Tuesday, after a brief rise in the previous session, dragged down by inferior quality leaf near the end of the season, brokers said. Nearly 1.18 million kg was offered at the country's sole auction centre in Chittagong, and 46 percent remained unsold. At the previous auction, more than 2 million kg was offered, of which nearly 60 percent went unsold.  Buyers sought huge discounts to buy end-of-season tea that tends to be of inferior quality, the official said.

New building code to see a number of changes (The Financial Express, April 8, 2014)
The updated Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC), aiming to avoid disasters, is likely to receive approval by June this year. A good number of changes will take place for the first time after twenty years since the drawing up of the code in 1993. The new changes are made on the basis of US Building Code 2012 whereas the existing code is based on US Code 1989. Building codes are reviewed every two years in the US and other developed countries but in Bangladesh it is going to take place after more than two decades and the country is yet to form an authority to implement the BNBC.

European retailers yet to recruit local engineers for factory inspection (The Daily Star, April 8, 2014)
The platform of European retailers is yet to recruit 25 local engineers as promised although factory inspections are going on in full swing. The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a platform of around 150 retailers mostly headquartered in Europe, earlier said the recruitment of 25 local engineers would be completed by early March. At present, 60 foreign engineers recruited by Accord are conducting the factory inspections, with assistance from 52 Bangladeshi nationals, for structural integrity and fire and electrical safety.

Bangladesh raises duty on sugar and tea imports (Reuters, April 7, 2014)
Bangladesh has increased regulatory duty on imports of raw and refined sugar and on tea to discourage overseas buying amid a drop in local prices due to ample supplies, a senior tax official said on Monday. The duties on imports of raw sugar will now be 2,000 taka ($26) a ton from 1,500 taka earlier, said the official at the customs wing of the National Board of Revenue. Duties on refined sugar imports will be raised to 4,500 taka from 3,000 taka. The duty on imports of tea has been increased to 15 percent from 5 percent earlier, the official added.

Bangladesh to order probe into gold crests scam (Gulf Times, April 7, 2014)
The government has decided to investigate the reported adulteration in the gold of crests given to ‘foreign friends’ in recognition of their contribution to Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971, one and half years after the anomaly was detected. The adulteration in the gold was detected when the liberation war affairs ministry sent a sample of the crest on October 18, 2012 to the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution for testing. The crests  which were supposed to have 11.66 grams of gold each, are found to have only 2.63 grams of gold. The BSTI test also confirmed that the crests, which should have been made of 351 grams of silver, had no silver at all. They were made of an alloy of brass, copper and zinc. The ministry paid the manufacturer Taka 263,325 for each of the 324 crests.

Cash incentives may lead to 70pc growth in furniture export in next fiscal year(The Financial Express, April 6, 2014)

Furniture export may register 70 per cent growth in the next fiscal if the sector gets cash incentives from the government, industry insiders said.  The President of Bangladesh Furniture Exporters Association KM Akhtaruzzaman, the furniture industry stressed on skilled manpower along with modern- tech facility to increase the export. Furniture is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in Bangladesh and accounts for 0.29 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). At present, local manufacturers sell furniture worth around Tk 140 billion a year in the domestic market. About 2.5 million people are now engaged in the sector. The US is the key market for furniture exports.

Leather sector eyes $5b from exports (The Daily Star, April 7, 2014)
Bangladesh will be able to earn at least $5 billion in exports from leather, leather goods and footwear in the next decade if it can properly address health, environment and compliance issues in the sector, analysts said yesterday. “We have all the elements, such as cheap labour and raw materials to grab more orders,” Bazlul Haque Khondker, an economics professor at Dhaka University, said at a roundtable. But the country lacks environment friendly tanneries to process leather, posing as the main bottleneck to increasing exports, he said. Bangladesh now exports leather, leather goods and footwear worth around $1 billion a year, which accounts for only 0.005 percent of the global market worth $230 billion.

ADB to channel $110m loan for pvt infrastructure dev(The Financial Express, April 7, 2014)
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide US$110 million in loan to Bangladesh for developing the private sector infrastructure including renewable energy. The credit line will support the second phase of Public-Private Infrastructure Development Facility under the state-owned Infrastructure Development Company Ltd. (IDCOL), said a statement. The World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency will co-finance the project with $99.5 million and $96 million respectively. Private sector investors will also contribute $50 million as equity financing, and debt funding. The loan will help IDCOL to bump up investments in power generation, water and sanitation, transportation, and information technology. IDCOL currently has a pipeline of eight energy projects with a total investment amount of around $235 million. 

Bangladesh inflation quickens again in March on food prices(Reuters, April 6, 2014)
Bangladesh's annual inflation rose to 7.48 percent in March, fired up by food prices, the country's Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday. March's inflation rate was up from 7.44 percent a month earlier. Food prices in March were 8.96 percent higher than a year earlier, up from February's 8.84 percent increase. In contrast, non-food inflation rate eased to 5.26 percent from 5.37 percent. 

New tech power plant to save costs, reduce emissions(Dhaka Tribune, April 5, 2014)
As part of the government’s plan to turn Cox’s Bazar into the country’s biggest energy hub, the Power Development Board (PDB) has decided to construct a 1,400MW coal-fired ultra supercritical thermal power plant at the district’s Maheshkhali upazila. It is the first power plant where PDB is going to adopt the latest ultra supercritical technology for setting up coal-based thermal power plants. Currently, the 250MW Barapukuria plant is the only coal-fired power plant running on subcritical technology in the country.

Bangladesh does better than most S Asian nations(The Daily Star, April 5, 2014)
Bangladesh has done better than most South Asian countries in social progress, according to a report by Washington-based organisation Social Progress Imperative. Ranked 99 among 132 countries, Bangladesh has scored higher than India, Pakistan and Nepal, losing out only to Sri Lanka in the region. The evaluation was done based on the performance of these countries over the past one year.
The Social Progress Index, a multi-country analysis report, was released on Thursday. According to the index, Bangladesh's relative strength lay in bringing down child mortality, achieving gender parity in secondary school enrollment, improving life expectancy, showing respect to women, and its increased demand for contraception.  

Four More Shipbreaking Workers Die in Bangladesh(Environment News Service, April 4, 2014)
Four shipbreaking workers were killed and three others were critically injured on Thursday when a gas cylinder exploded in a shipbreaking yard in Chittagong. The four workers died after inhaling carbon dioxide. Shipbreaking involves the dismantling of old ships for scrap recycling of their steel and other equipment on board. Around one million tonnes of steel are dismantled in Bangladeshi shipyards every year. The country’s shipbreaking industry  provides direct and indirect employment for about 200,000 people. “Shipbreaking workers are not well trained, their work is not supervised and they are either not provided with safety gear or no checks are made to ensure that they are actually able to properly use protective equipment,” said Muhammad Ali Shahin, Bangladesh coordinator of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a Brussels-based coalition of environmental, human rights and labor rights organizations working for safe and clean ship recycling worldwide.

Bangladesh: factories faced with expensive fire safety requirements (fashionunited.co.uk, April 3, 2014)
As far as fire safety is concerned Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) factory owners will have to spend at least Tk 40 billion (331.5 million pounds) to meet requirements of various international buyers. Britain is going to launch three new projects to help improve working conditions and safety standards in Bangladesh’s garment industry, its international development minister says. Alliance, a body of retailers of European buyers, and Accord, another platform of North American retailers are looking after fire and building safety activities in Bangladesh alongside the government’s initiative. The deadly incidents at Rana Plaza building, which took lives of 1134 workers and injured many, and the fire incident in Tazreen Fashions, with 113 casualties, have seriously pushed forward the issue of workplace safety in Bangladeshi factories.