Weekly News Clippings (June 27, 2014)

Govt plans survey to stop loss of arable land (The Daily Star, June 27, 2014)
The government plans to conduct an integrated survey on the use of land to help policymakers frame strategies to curb transfer of arable land to non-farm purposes. The amount of land going out of cultivation soared to 687,000 hectares a year during 2000-2010, said a study by Soil Resource Development Institute under the agriculture ministry. According to the Secretary of Statistics and Informatics Division of the planning ministry, the country is “losing valuable cultivable land due to construction and other purposes which is why it has become important to get proper data on the land use pattern". Bangladesh lost 13,412 hectares of cropland annually during 1976-2000.

Grabbers take 2,800 acres of govt land, 43 canals in city (New Age, June 26, 2014)

Investigations by the authorities revealed that during the city survey corrupt land officials and employees had recorded 2,800 acres of government land, known as khas land, and 43 canals in the capital as private property. There are also allegations that the corrupt land officials and employees made a fortune by aiding the land grabbers. The initiative of the Department of Land Records and Surveys to recover the government land or canals and initiate action against the dishonest land officials and employees was halted by injunction from the court. 

Money flies away from Bangladesh (The Daily Star, June 25, 2014)  

Bangladesh loses millions of dollars in capital flight every year due to a leakage in the balance of payments and trade misinvoicing by businesses. Over the last four decades, the country lost $800 million a year on average in capital flight driven by balance of payment leakages, trade misinvoicing and unreported remittances, according to a United Nations study. The total capital flight from Bangladesh accounts for 30.4 percent of its GDP of over $100 billion in 2010, says the study by the United Nations Development Programme. The UNDP looked into illicit financial flows from eight low income and Least Developed Countries (LDCs): Bangladesh, Bolivia, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia.

Stalemate Over Garment Factory Safety in Bangladesh (The New York Times, June 25, 2014)

Created a little more than a year ago to ensure worker safety in Bangladesh, the Accord has moved at a steady pace with inspections. It has hired 110 engineers and inspected 775 factories for structural soundness, unsafe electrical boxes, adequate fire exits and sprinkler systems — a new requirement for factory buildings 75 feet or taller. The series of inspections through more than 1,000 of the country’s apparel factories has been emotionally freighted from the start, with workers, manufacturers, building owners and government officials watching the process with conflicting sentiments. Of course, many Bangladeshis recognize the need for these inspections but factory closings can have immediate economic impact. 

KK Tea wins a spot in top superstores (The Daily Star, June 24, 2014)

Kazi & Kazi Tea, the country's first and only organic tea producer has pinned Bangladesh as a quality tea producer on the world map. The tea is now sold in countries like the US, UK, New Zealand and Malaysia. In the UK, Teatulia, (the name stemming from Tetulia, the northernmost district of Bangladesh where the tea is grown) its international brand name, is currently sold exclusively through Holland & Barrett, which has more than 800 stores, becoming the only Bangladeshi product to be sold upmarket. The tea is also being sold in other leading superstores in London. To remain 100 percent organic, the tea is sold in environment-friendly, biodegradable jute bags, which are also produced in its factories. It also promotes organic farming in the locality.

Bangladesh tea prices up as local demand outstrips supply (Reuters, June 24, 2014)

Tea prices in Bangladesh were higher at the weekly auction on Tuesday as larger supplies were offset by strong demand from local buyers. Bangladesh's tea production in 2013 rose 1.6 percent from a year earlier to a record 63.5 million kg due to favourable weather. That still fell short of domestic consumption of about 65 million kg. Around 1.8 million kg was offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong, and nearly 27 percent remained unsold. Bangladeshi buyers have been importing tea in bulk from neighbouring India, contributing to a glut in the domestic market and reducing demand at auctions. 

Bangladesh may face risks of middle-income trap and jobless growth (Dhaka Tribune, June 24, 2014)

Bangladesh may face the risks of middle-income trap and jobless growth unless the present pattern of growth is not reversed, economists fear. Renowned economists at a recent conference said that traditional problems like energy and land crisis should be removed while eliminating corruption and establishing rule of law are among the immediate challenges for accelerated and sustainable growth. They also found two immediate challenges to overcome – the middle-income trap and jobless growth. 

BB to investigate fictitious Swiss accounts (Dhaka Tribune, June 24, 2014)

The central bank of Bangladesh has decided to investigate the fictitious accounts held by Bangladeshi nationals in different Swiss banks. According to the report, Bangladesh Bank will investigate alleged money laundering by some Bangladeshis who supposedly deposited a huge amount of money in different banks in Switzerland. A recent report of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) showed 62% increase within one year in the volume of money deposited by Bangladeshis in different banks in Switzerland.

Bangladesh ‘Likes’ Harvard (The Harvard Crimson, June 23, 2014)

According to a recent report on university Facebook pages, Harvard and other universities like Yale and Oxford, may have had their number of Facebook likes artificially inflated. According to the report, most of Harvard’s 3.3 million likes come from Bangladesh’s capital city of Dhaka. The person who made the allegations, Lenny Teytelman, said that he suspects Facebook is at fault for artificially increasing likes to justify institutions paying to promote their online pages. Facebook has denied the allegations. In a statement Harvard also said that the university did not pay for any of the 3.3 million likes on its official Facebook page.

Economic progress lauded (The Daily Star, June 22, 2014)

Local and foreign economists praised the country's progress on the development and economic fronts and also reminded the country of the serious challenges it faces to sustain the advancement and make further leaps, at the inaugural ceremony of Bangladesh Economists Forum's first conference in Dhaka. They said that the country also needs to clearly capture the demographic dividend before ageing burden hits the country in 2040. Further pro-poor structural transformation is also needed in the agriculture, nutrition and fertility areas, they said.

Children in Bangladesh teaching mothers how to read (World Bulletin, June 21, 2014)

A Bangladeshi non-governmental organization has launched a campaign to encourage students to educate millions of illiterate mothers in the country. Around 100,000 illiterate or semi-illiterate mothers from 46 districts will be brought under the campaign and around 20,000 copies of books have already been distributed in ten districts. According to the latest survey of Bureau of Non-formal Education, about 37 million people are illiterate in Bangladesh, around one in five people.