Block 2 and 5 of Hi-tech park

Summit to kick off construciton of blocks 2 and 5 in High-Tech Park today

The much awaited Hi-tech park will see construction finally in progress as of Feb 28, with block 2 and 5. The 232 acre Hi-tech park will house 65 acres for block 2 and 29 for block 5, which Summit Technopolis will take to construction under the Public Private Partnership. The deal with Bangladesh Hi0tech park authority will witness collaboration on park design, build, finance, operate, own and transfer. Summit will be cashing in USD $207.59 million for the construction of block 2.

Technocity, investing USD $25 million already started construction of block 3 in October 2015.

Industrial policy helping FDI

Foreign investors to get wider benefits in new industrial policy

A new refreshed Industrial Policy for 2016 is set to contain specific incentives for foreign investors to re-think Bangladesh as a lucrative and investor friendly business oriented economy. One-stop-service, country-specific economic zones, industrial parks, green business incentives will all be made available for foreign investors in a bid to revive the economy to international players.

Unutilized RMG development fund

$200m RMG fund left untouched

The EU ambassador said $USD 200 million was available for the RMG manufactures for development of the industry on behalf of the EU, USAID, JICA, IFC and few smaller organizations. Improvements can be significantly made in the areas of fire safety, electricity and overall structure of the factories. The fund created offered interest at minimalistic rates of 1-3% on loans, while commercial banks are charging 15%. However, this opportunity for development of the RMG industry, foremost of which being worker's safety is still not being utilized by the RMG manufactures.

 522 RMG units make less than 40% progress on Remediation
The Accord of Fire and Building Safety produced a list of 522 garments factories which are slack to produce increasing efforts to improve workplace safety. They have only updated improvement and remediation efforts only less than 40%. Previously, the Accord listed 36 RMG units who were slow to comply after which some good results were seen.

Mismatch of electronic media delivery

Digital content for grassroots people is the way forward

With the progressing growth of internet connectivity across the country, the former president of the Bangladesh Computer Samity has expressed some insight about the current status of digitalization. Smartphones, tablets and computers increasingly becoming the means of connecting online for even the people in the grassroots nowadays. However, he has referred to the mismatch of content with infrastructure, pointing out that the government is not stressing on content, first.

Farmer's Bank cleared

Farmers Bank apologises to BB for loan irregularities

The Farmer's Bank, plagued by allegations of loan irregularities, not following Bangladesh Bank's rulings. It had marked Tk 38.26 crore to six financial institutions as investment. The infringement occurred when the bank decided to trump the central bank's radar by branding it investment, since they failed to bring down the credit-deposit ratio by a stipulated time frame. The rate was to be brought down to between 70-75%, to check aggressive lending.

Requirements for growth

Equip youth with skills to accelerate growth

Bangladesh's prominent strides towards a middle-income country faces many challenges, but it's also presented with many possibilities. One such possibility is unlocking the potentials of the youth, so that they can enjoy demographic dividends. Drawbacks for demographic dividends are that the proportion is increasingly being owed to elderly and dependents. Another such deficiency is the abundance of untrained and semi-skilled workforce. A significant connectivity must be created between educational institutions that communicate seamlessly with the various industries to provide highly skilled labor.

Further discussions and outlines of developmental issues were discussed in a conference on "Bangladesh: Way towards a middle income country". Policies and institutions, public perception on politicians, judiciary independence and governance agenda, uncertainty about the future reflected by private investments were some of the issues discussed in the meeting.

Headlines Feb 15 - 17

Finishing the long weekend, we look back at the events of last week. Predominantly, the ATM inconsistencies gave us a big scare and so much of the news was covered.

Feb 15  : ATM loopholes!
Feb 17  : ATM Transactions decline

ATM Transactions decline

ATM forgery takes toll on electronic transactions

Following the recent transaction-scam in ATM booths, personal financial dealings have immediately taken a dip. Bangladesh Bank statistics have informed that in the month of February till the 15th, Tk 2.53 billion was recorded; till February 13, the aggregate transaction records came to Tk 2.38 billion.  With a daily average of Tk 181 million, on February 14 saw withdrawals of only Tk 46 million.

The average citizen is expressing serious concerns about the card-skimming issue. Between February 6-12, information of 200 debit/credit cards have been discovered stolen from these booths. Tk 25 lakh has been reported stolen from 6 ATMs of 3 banks, the highest amount from EBL. No one has been arrested yet.

Find out more in this link, which demonstrates how the forgery was done by a possible culprit from a CCTV photo:
Probe on to find ATM frauds

ATM loopholes!

ATM frauds rattle banks, customer

As the economy of Bangladesh is progressively embracing the revolution towards advanced technology in banking, so are its counterparts of high-tech pilferage. Banking scams, counterfeits and frauds have been evolving with the changing face of the banking industry. Like dynamic hackers who continuously create new online virus, Bangladeshi fraudulent experts are also challenging themselves to abuse loopholes in the banking system. Fraudsters have been reported to use clever technologies to skim ATM card information and make fake cards. 21 such card transactions have been detected recently that has forced suspension of ATM transactions through the National Payment Switch.

A fake EBL card was detected to be used for this fraud. The bank victimized was UCBL. EBL immediately suspended all ATM transactions for 6 hours, while the Central Bank requested all banks to remain alert on a Friday.

People with special intentions have been reported to present fake IDs as IT experts and install cameras on top of the ATM machine or attach a small device to the ATM reader to copy cardholder information. The copied information is then transferred into a new fake card using a blank magnetic strip. This has been accused of vulnerability using the NPS.

Find out more in the link.

Headlines Feb 7 - Feb 11

In the second week of February, we saw hints of a new industrial policy with prioritized industries outlined, a slow-march towards meeting possible investment horizons and new tariff guidelines drastically change Titas Gas market value.

Feb 7  :     New Industrial Policy
Feb 10 :    Investment a target to be achieved
Feb 11 :    Titas gas facing the heat

Titas gas facing the heat

Titas Gas share price battered by cuts in distribution charges

Due to a operational policy reformulation, the net market value of Titas gas has fallen by more than Tk3000 crore in the last five months, its share price dropping to a lowest of Tk 42, which didnt fall below Tk60 in the last two years.

By resetting the distribution charges in-line with the new tariff structure allocated by BERC, immediately in one month, the profit disclosed dropped 33%. Titas gas decided to appeal against this decision, since all power and energy resources were re-priced higher, unlike gas. Find out more statistics in the link.

Investment a target to be achieved

Raising private investment a major challenge: MCCI

To pursue the economic growth target of 7% it is widely known that private investment growth is extremely essential for the country. Currently it is just hovering around 28%, substantially below the target of 35%.

Local and Global investors are interested in their initiatives, given the country backs them up with three things. They are:

• political stability
• easy availability of reasonably priced utilities and infrastructure
• accessible credit at low interest

Since political clout in 2013, investors have been restructuring slow. They have significant complains regarding various processes, which the government needs to address. The agriculture and service sectors are improving, but needs support for sustainability.

Read more in the link to find out how the investment climate is harnessing currently in Bangladesh.

New Industrial Policy

Proposed industrial policy brings in reforms

A list of high priority industries are being formulated within the new industrial policy. 2 new sectors included are the creative industry and the high-priority industry, which is mentioned in the draft Industrial Policy 2016 replacing the previous one.

The prioritized industries are

• agriculture and food processing
• garment
• ICT and software
• Pharmaceuticals
• Leather 
• Jute and jute goods 

Find out more about the draft policy plans in the link

Highlights Jan 31 - Feb 2

Featuring the recent CES Sector Report on E-commerce, last week the blog further extended on this by focusing a spotlight on the possible formulation of an e-commerce policy. Some statistics from the highly jam-packed International Trade Fair was also covered.

Jan 31  :   CES Sector Report
Jan 31  :   Flyover update
Feb 1   :   E-Commerce policy preview
Feb 2   :   Booming export orders at DITF

Booming export orders at DITF

DITF ends with record export orders
Exhibitors reject DITF export order claim

The Dhaka International Trade Fair 2016 ended on January 31st and its concluding statistics said the export orders received at the fair was an abnormaly mammoth one - a total of Tk 235 crore order, which is 176% more than that of last years at only Tk 85 crore. Although it is expected that foreign buyers are present in the fair every year, this time there has been a doubt about their presence. This constitutes a discripency in the statistics.

Some exhibitors expressed the lack of initiatives to attract foreign buyers. However, official sale statistics have been reported to be above Tk 121 crore, which was Tk 71 crore higher than previously. This has been acclaimed towards the prevalent political stability which was a sharp contrast during the last year's fair. With 22 countries participating, 553 stalls were allocated, 56 of which were foreign companies. Within 14 categories, 38 institutions were awarded of which, Walton Hi-Tech industries received the first prize in premier pavilion category.

The FBCCI has proposed that this sort of arrangement be held at all divisional levels as well.

E-Commerce policy preview

Policy for e-commerce in the making

E-Commerce is being prioritized as a burgeoning sector in the country, to be the recipient of foremost infrastructural support. The E-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB), the official association founded for e-commerce, has adopted formulating the policy guidelines for e-commerce in the country. The ICT minister is observing this sector as more crucial this year. A draft preparation is assigned to e-CAB, which will be finalized upon comprehensive review.