Bangladesh Economy: News & Updates

[Kinetic]

Just like TATA trucks and buses run on BD roads now we will see TATA tea........


Tata Tea eyes 10% share in Pakistan, Bangladesh
Nandini Goswami / DNA
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 2:09 IST


Kolkata: Tata Global Beverages, the new avatar of Tata Tea, is all set to capture a sizeable 10% share of the packaged brew in Pakistan and Bangladesh in the next two years.


Sangeeta Talwar, executive director, Tata Tea Ltd, said here on Monday, “Our market share is around 5% in Bangladesh and around 7% in Pakistan.All our efforts in these markets are to build a strong distribution market, a strong branding and to get our business to move up our market share. We are in the process of enhancing our distribution networks in these countries”.

“Our target of 10% will take some time…one or two years. And our big competition is Unilever,” Talwar said.

South Asia accounts to about one-third of Tata Tea’s global revenue. Tata Tea, which has recently formed a 50:50 joint venture with Pepsico for producing non-carbonated ready-to-drink beverages in the health and wellness category, expects to launch its first product by the end of this year.

“The JV is essentially to give us the ability to do liquid beverages. Obviously Pepsi has huge sales and distribution access in the area of liquids. And that is what the JV would be focusing on initially. The JV with Pepsico will develop more liquid products in the good-for-you segment,” she said.

The company is targeting over 50% of its business from non-tea business over the next 5 years. Currently, tea contributes about 85% to Tata Tea’s total turnover.
The company was also looking at acquisitions in distribution and brands.

Tata Tea eyes 10% share in Pakistan, Bangladesh - dnaindia.com

 

[Al-zakir]

^^^
Keep dreaming. Not gonna happen and delete this article from this thread. It has nothing do with BD's economy.

 

[CaPtAiN_pLaNeT]

Steel makers want to emerge as exporters to close India


Tuesday, 22 June 2010 21:34

:: The Daily Independent Bangladesh :.. Internet Edition

Steel makers want to emerge as exporters to close India
UNB, Dhaka

The local steel manufacturers want to emerge as steel exporters to neighbouring India, subject to receiving the policy support of the government.

They claimed that presently they are utilising just half of their production capacity due to limited demand in the local market.

About 300 steel and re-rolling mills are now in operation across the country. Of those, some auto-steel mills were set up in the country in recent years with world-class automated and computerised machines which produce very quality steel products.

All these auto and non-auto mills together can produce about 4.4 million metric tons of MS (mild steel) products.

But the domestic demand is about 2.2 million tons a year. "We're now producing 50 per cent against our actual capacity," said Abul Quasem Majumder, general secretary of the newly formed Bangladesh Auto Steel and Re-rolling Mills Association (BASRM).

Steel mill industry sources, however, said some of the mills utilise 100 per cent of their capacity and they export their products to the seven sisters of the neighbouring country through unofficial channels.

They noted that there is a huge growing market of steel products, particularly MS rod, in the seven sisters- Assam , Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Arunachal.

"But, as the duty structure is very high for steel products to enter India, some manufacturers pursue the unofficial channels to send their products to the north-eastern and eastern regions of the neighbouring country," said a steel manufacturer on condition of anonymity.

He informed that the market operators in the seven sisters prefer Bangladeshi products because of their cheaper price compared to Indian products.

"If any businessman wants to use Indian steel products, he has to import it from other states passing through a long distance. This involves a huge carrying cost, which finally gets costlier compared to Bangladeshi products," he said.

Agreeing with the view, Abul Quasem Majumder said that while the government is going to allow India to use the Chittagong port, in exchange, it should negotiate with the neighbouring country to allow the Bangladeshi products with duty free access to its markets, particularly in the Seven Sisters.

The Seven Sisters have a huge potential and demand for Bangladeshi products in general and steel products in particular, he added.

He also said if the Bangladeshi steel makers are allowed to enter the Indian markets, they have the capacity to double their present level of production.

"If we're allowed to export our products, we can easily earn upto $200 million a year. It will help reduce the huge trade gap with India," said the local steel maker.

At present, there is huge trade gap between India and Bangladesh. Bangladesh imports goods-mainly vehicles, chemicals, food items, fabrics, cotton and machineries-worth more than $3 billion from India while India buys about $400 million worth of goods from Bangladesh.

Explaining their present business situation, the local steel makers informed that among the Bangladeshi manufacturers, steel makers had experienced a major shock in the global meltdown in 2008.

Before the financial crisis took place, the global market had experienced inflationary pressures as the prices of steel products went very high.

At that time, like the steel makers in other countries, the Bangladeshi manufacturers had to import their raw materials from the global market at a high price.

But soon after the global crisis began, the global steel market experienced a drastic fall which led to a price fall in the local market as well.

As a result, the local manufacturers, who had collected raw materials at a tremendously higher price from the global markets at that time, faced a big shock in terms of their business because of the consequential price fall in local markets.

"Many manufactures incurred a huge loss. Some of them have even been compelled to shut down their manufacturing units to absorb the shock," said Md Shahidullah, managing director of the Metrocem Ispat Mills Ltd.

"At that time, as the most affected sector, we deserved the government's stimulus package to revive our business. But, unfortunately, we didn't get that support", he added.

 

[nForce]

^^^
Keep dreaming. Not gonna happen and delete this article from this thread. It has nothing do with BD's economy.

Tata Tea eyes 10% share in Pakistan, Bangladesh

u might wanna take a second look at the topic of the article.....

 

[CaPtAiN_pLaNeT]

Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover project inaugurated

Tuesday, 22 June 2010 21:30

Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover project inaugurated

Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover project inaugurated
PM says design to be revised further

A model of the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction of the much-awaited project yesterday. Photo: FileA model of the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction of the much-awaited project yesterday. Photo: File

Staff Correspondent

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover, the biggest project taken up so far under Public Private Partnership, yesterday.

The PM said she had directed to revise the design of the project to integrate with the projected traffic through the Padma Bridge, Dhaka-Chittagong expressway and Narayanganj-Gazipur elevated way.

The Jatrabari flyover would be named after the first Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) mayor (late) Mohammad Hanif, declared the premier at the city's Golapbagh playground.

Belhasa Accom and Associates Ltd, an associate company of the Orion Group and concessionaire of the project, will implement the project at a cost of Tk 1,350 crore on Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis.

The investor (concessionaire) will transfer the facility to the government after a concession period of 24 years.

The concessionaire would be quick in completing the flyover construction within the tenure of the incumbent government, said the PM, adding that the DCC is the executing agency of the project.

LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said, "Revival of the Jatrabari flyover project would not be possible without the prime minister's initiative, as there were many complications."

The revised design of the flyover is of international standard, which would be the most convenient road link, he said.

Chairman of the concessionaire company Mohammad Obaidul Karim said the construction would be completed in two years after the relocation of Wasa, Titas Gas and BTTB utility lines.

Toll for using the flyover would be collected manually and digitally, he added.

The nine-kilometre dual carriageway flyover includes 13 slip roads (exit and entries) and will stretch from the Dhaka-Chittagong highway to Palashi. The minimum height of the flyover would be 5.5 metres while 7.2 metres at level crossing, according to sources.

The facility is also expected to provide faster road connectivity with 30 districts and the Chittagong port.

In 1996, the then Awami League government initiated the Jatrabari flyover and conducted a feasibility study but the succeeding four-party alliance government could not implement the project due to corruption and inefficiency, said the PM.

State minister for LGRD Jahangir Kabir Nanak, local lawmaker Md Habibur Rahman Molla and DCC's Chief Executive Officer Md Abul Kalam Azad, among others, spoke at the inauguration ceremony chaired by Monjur Hossain, secretary of Local Government Division.

 

[CaPtAiN_pLaNeT]

Dhaka eyes $400m RMG exports to Latin America

Wednesday, 16 June 2010 21:40

Dhaka eyes $400m RMG exports to Latin America

Dhaka eyes $400m RMG exports to Latin America
Bss, Dhaka

Bangladesh can fetch US$400 million from apparel exports to three Latin American countries in the next three years.

“The country has potential for taking share of $400 million from the total $4 billion RMG imports of the three countries - Brazil, Mexico and Chile. For this, government support is very much needed,” Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, first vice president of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association told the news agency yesterday.

A 13-member BGMEA delegation has already visited these countries to assess, explore and prepare for current and future potential of Bangladesh's garment exports to Latin America.

During the visit, tremendous responses were received from importers and buyers of those countries, said Chowdhury, who led the delegation, adding that delegations from those countries would soon visit Bangladesh to assess their import needs. "They would also participate in the coming BATEXPO 2010 in Dhaka," he said.

"The main obstacle to raising exports to Latin America is the absence of Bangladesh missions in those countries," Chowdhury said, adding: "If government missions are opened in the countries, then it would be convenient for Bangladesh exporters to catch market there."

Besides these countries, Bangladesh is eyeing opening new market for RMG export to Russia, Turkey and Colombia.

The BGMEA leader said, "We can also raise export of RMG to China and India, as those are very large countries in terms of population."

In order to explore market for export of readymade garments, the garment makers took the move to send delegations to the countries, he said.

"The foreign missions should be activated dynamically."

Brazil's readymade garment import amounted to $ 767.072 million last year, of which $303.631 million knitwear and $463.441 million woven, while Bangladesh's export to that country was $50.287 million ($ 33.599 million knitwear and $16.688 million woven).

Mexico's import totalled to $1,947.85 million last year, ($982.58 million knitwear and $965.27 million woven), of which Bangladesh shared $114.01 million ($61.76 million knitwear and $52.25 million).

Out of Chile's total RMG import to the tune of $ 1,074.83 million last year ($517.39 million knitwear and $557.44 million woven) Bangladesh took a part of $7.47 million ($ 5.26 million knitwear and $2.21 million), Nasir Uddin Chowdhury said.

The Mexican government has agreed to allow any Bangladesh businessman holding a US visa to visit that country, he said.

 

[bd_4_ever]

Manpower export fetches Taka 69,681 cr in current fiscal


SANGSAD BHABAN, Jun 28: Bangladesh earned Taka 69,681.02 crore from manpower export in the current fiscal year till May, Minister for Labour and Manpower and Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Engineer Mosharraf Hossain informed the House today.

Replying to a question from treasury bench member Muhammad Imajuddin Pramanik, he said 3,90,775 Bangladeshi workers went abroad with jobs in the current fiscal year till May.

Responding to another question from Jatiya Party lawmaker Begum Mahzabeen Morshed, the minister said the government has been continuing all-out efforts to export more manpower to different countries of Europe and America.

"In 2009, 1,253 Bangladeshi workers got employment in the United Kingdom, while employments were generated for some Bangladeshi workers in garment industry in Romania and agriculture sector in Poland," he said.

Engineer Mosharraf told ruling party lawmaker Md Ali Azgar that a plan has been undertaken to export manpower under the government management.

"To this end, directives have already been given to Bangladeshi missions to collect demand letters after discussing the matter with the employers," he said.

To send women workers through BOESEL, the minister said, a committee has been constituted in each district with deputy commissioner as its convenor. "In the first phase, women workers were sent to Lebanon under the government arrangement after providing training to them," he said.

Replying to another question from Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad, Engineer Mosharraf said 93,22,000 Bangladeshi workers returned home from different countries for various reasons including illegal staying.

After assumption of power by the present government, he said, 3,49,790 Bangladeshi workers went to Dubai with jobs. Besides the number of workers who are going to Libya is increasing day by day and the export of Bangladeshi workers to Iraq resumed in 2009 after 19 years, he said.

Responding to another question from BNP lawmaker Nilofar Chowdhury Moni, the minister said 2,061 Bangladeshi workers have been languishing in foreign jails for various reasons.

Source:BSS/ june 28,2010


:: The Daily Independent Bangladesh :.. Internet Edition

 

[eastwatch]

Manpower export fetches Taka 69,681 cr in current fiscal

The figure above shows an earning of nearly $10 billion in 11 months. So, it is possible that the remittance will touch $11 billion this fiscal.

 

[bd_4_ever]

The figure above shows an earning of nearly $10 billion in 11 months. So, it is possible that the remittance will touch $11 billion this fiscal.

Yah, but government should find a way to spend or invest this money....or else the reserve of the idle money are just increasing....even 1/10th of it, like $1.1billion could be used for military procurements each year....we could buy a lot of things with that....i hope the government sees into this....


Cheers!!!

 

[TopCat]

Submarines and new fighters are must...

 

[bd_4_ever]

Submarines and new fighters are must...

Even if not submarine, which would require lots of other auxillary stuffs, a $700 million destroyer would be a hell lot for us....

 

[eastwatch]

Yah, but government should find a way to spend or invest this money....or else the reserve of the idle money are just increasing....even 1/10th of it, like $1.1billion could be used for military procurements each year....we could buy a lot of things with that....i hope the government sees into this....

Cheers!!!

Even if not submarine, which would require lots of other auxillary stuffs, a $700 million destroyer would be a hell lot for us....

BD seems to have decided to buy 4 submarines, although it does not say it openly. Yes, we need both these submarines and also at least one unit of destroyer. BD govt is eagerly strengthenening our naval force. It is to protect our sea wealth.

Both China and USA are behind us. What we need is a little stronger economy. Both those big powers are supporting us by allowing our goods in their markets. We will not let any of our neighbours to bully us any more.

 

[eastwatch]

Rare rental record

Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Rare rental record
British power co set to add 100MW only 40 days after signing unsolicited contract
Sharier Khan

British company Aggreko that signed an unsolicited rental power contract with Bangladesh government last month is set to start generation of 100 megawatt power today or tomorrow, setting a record of fast implementation of such a project in the country.

But Aggreko stays an exceptional case as most of the 11 other companies who initialled unsolicited rental power deals with the government in last two months have not even started mobilising plant equipment.

Other than Aggreko, only two companies -- Summit Power and Khulna Power Company Ltd (KPCL)-- signed final contracts with the Power Development Board for generation of power.

Most of the other companies, whose contracts were approved by the cabinet purchase committee, are delaying signing of contracts which they initialled in late April, May and June.

PDB sources said most of them are “buying time” to purchase power plant equipment now. But as rental power companies, they were supposed to possess such equipment prior to initialling the contracts. One or two contractors eager to sign deals have refrained from doing so as the PDB could not provide them with suitable land, the sources added.

Summit Power and KPCL signed contracts only last week. The delay however was caused by a prolonged negotiation over their power tariff. They would add 217 MW power from heavy fuel oil (hfo)-fired plants in Narayanganj and Khulna from March next year, and sell that on a five-year contract.

As part of efforts initiated by the power secretary to resolve the perennial power crisis through unsolicited deals, the PDB initialled two types of temporary deals -- one for diesel-fired power plants and the other for HFO-fired ones. Diesel-fired power generation is costly but quick to implement. Thus the duration of such contracts is limited to three years. HFO- based plants take longer time to implement but they get five-year contracts due to cheaper cost of power.

Back in late April, British company Aggreko initialled its contract for two diesel-fired 100 MW power plants-- one in Ghorashal and another in Khulna. Along with Aggreko, local Desh Power initialled contract for another diesel- fired 100 MW plant. All diesel-based plants are supposed to be commissioned within four months of signing final agreement and sell power on a three-year contract.

Aggreko signed the final contract on May 20. But by that time, the company took all initiatives to mobilise plant equipment and start the projects as quickly as possible in response to a request from the government.

“Now they have mobilised equipment both at Ghorashal and Khulna sites and started partial operation at both the sites to generate 100 MW power from today or tomorrow,” said a PDB source. “This means Aggreko will set an example of launching a power plant within 40 days of signing contracts.”

The British company would begin generation of the remaining 100 MW in early August.

Expressing frustration over the delay of other contractors in signing final deals, a top PDB official told The Daily Star that the government would not wait for these companies for long. The contractors would be given a deadline to sign the contracts or face cancellation of those.

The power ministry today sits with all rental power companies which are either implementing projects or have initialled deals with the government. The meeting will review progress of the projects and also put pressure on the slow moving contractors.

The other companies which have initialled contracts include Desh Energy (100 MW), Northern Power Solution Ltd (50 MW), Bangladesh Diesel Plant Ltd & Primordial Energy Ltd & Aggretech AG, Germany (50MW), APR Energy Ltd (40 MW), IEL Consortium (100 MW), Sinha Power Company (50 MW), Dutch-Bangla Power Ltd (100 MWand BanglaTech (100 MW).

 

[eastwatch]

The New Nation - Internet Edition

Tk 1,32,170cr budget for 2010-11 fiscal passed
BSS, Dhaka

The Jatiya Sangsad on Wednesday unanimously passed the national budget involving Taka 1,32,170 crore for the 2010-11 financial year, targeting higher growth through encouraging investment and mobilizing more domestic resources.

The Jatiya Sangsad earlier unanimously passed the Finance Bill-2010 with some amendments to the tax proposals, which were brought to protect public interests. The amendments include withdrawal of tax on pensioner saving certificates, reduction in the tax at source on export earnings and commission of stockbrokers.

The finance bill, however, revised the proposal for duty cut for importing vehicles between 1501-1650cc, but withheld the proposal for increasing tariff on sugar import until the end of Ramadan while retained the current duty on importing milk powder.

Besides these minor amendments, there were no major changes in the budget, which the Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith announced on June 10. The growth target for FY11 has been set at 6.7 per cent, which economists and experts groups termed as ambitious, but attainable through effective measures in implementing annual development programmes.

Keeping this in view, on the basis of the proposal raised by the finance minister, the house adopted substantial allocation for power and infrastructure development and institutional capacity building. The budget also targeted accelerating private investment with more emphasis on projects under public-private partnership (PPP).

Inflation, which has been identified as one of the major concerns for the next fiscal, is targeted to maintain under double-digit through combined tools of fiscal measures and monetary policy.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) on July 19 will announce the new monetary policy in line with the fiscal target of keeping inflation at The budget allocated Taka 17,959 crore, the highest stake, to the education sector, which is higher by 13.5 percent from Taka Tk 14,006 crore of the out going 2009-10 financial year.

The power sector got Taka 6,115 crore, 61 percent higher than last year's allocation, to improve power generation faster than ever before. For infrastructure, the new budget underscored the projects under the PPP and allocated Taka 3000 crore for initiative.

Besides, the government targeted to raise the Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund of Taka 1,600 crore in the next fiscal year, beginning on July 1. The budget maintained the stimulus package to the export with fresh allocation of Taka 2,000 crore to help exporters overcome the aftermath of the recent global recession.

Its allocation for Annual Development Programme is Tk 38,500 crore, 35 percent higher than that in the revised budget for the outgoing year. The revenue budget for FY 2010-11 however has risen by only 14 percent to stand at Tk 93,670 crore.

The total fiscal deficit is targeted to maintain at 5 percent of GDP when the government will borrow only from banking system instead of Bangladesh Bank to keep inflation under control.

To meet the expenses, the government will also streamline the tax administration to collect more income tax, supplementary duty and VAT. In revenue expenditure, it has set aside Tk 20,374 crore to pay for salaries and allowances of the government employees.

The allocation is the highest, 20 percent up from that in this year's revised budget. An additional Tk 3,327 crore has been allocated to foot the bill for the new pay scale. The overall budget deficit is expected to be within 5 percent of Tk 39,323 crore GDP.

However, lawmakers of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party remained absent in the House during the budget session since June 4.

The new budget is the second fiscal document since the Awami League-led Mohajote government came to power with an overwhelming victory during the last general elections.

Leader of the House and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, ministers, treasury bench members and the opposition members, except those of the four- party alliance, took part in the budget discussion on 13 working days from June 15 to 29 June.

 

[CaPtAiN_pLaNeT]

Remittance tops $15bln

Remittance tops $15bln | Bangladesh | bdnews24.com

Wed, Jun 30th, 2010 2:40 pm BdST

Dial 2000 from your GP mobile for latest news
Dhaka, June 30 (bdnews24.com) – Foreign remittance topped $15 billion in the outgoing fiscal breaking all previous records.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina told the parliament on Wednesday during a question-answer session that Bangladesh had earned over Tk 1054 billion (about $15.26 billion) in remittance until May 10 this year.

New job markets have been opened up at a number of countries including Libya, Iraq, Italy and Papua New Guinea, according to Hasina.

She added her government was continuing its efforts to further explore the job market for Bangladeshi workers in Africa and Europe as well.

The prime minister said that over 640,000 workers had been sent abroad until May 10 during the current fiscal ending this month.

Hasina told the parliament that 14 journalists were killed and 384 cases were filed in connection with attacks and police harassment on journalists, during the tenure of the BNP-led four-party alliance government.