Bangladesh Economy: News & Updates

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Source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200808/ai_n27993582

Ericsson in mobile broadband pilot to boost social and economic development in Bangladesh

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) is launching a pilot in Bangladesh to demonstrate how to improve productivity and quality of life in the country with the use of high-speed internet services through 3G/HSPA technology.

The pioneering project, called Alokito Bangladesh (Enlightened Bangladesh), will demonstrate high-speed internet access and a range of advanced services - including mobile health and mobile learning - in the region of the capital, Dhaka, from early August to the end of October this year. Ericsson is seeking to showcase how the technology can be a major catalyst for social and economic empowerment by bridging the digital divide in this developing market.

Situated on the Brahmaputra river delta on the Bay of Bengal, this nation of 153.5 million people faces a number of economic and social challenges, but it has also come a long way, achieving consistent GDP growth during the last 10 years and telecommunications have played a pivotal role in this growth.

The pilot will demonstrate m-learning through interactive long-distance classes led by remote teachers, while mobile health will demonstrate the potential of distance health care in the country, highlighting the potential benefits of bringing basic services to communities that lack them today. Other services included in the pilot are m-surveillance, video calling and entertainment.

Manzurul Alam, Chairman, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) says: "BTRC is striving relentlessly to introduce affordable new technology services that benefit the Bangladeshi people. BTRC welcomes all initiatives that work towards unveiling new opportunities and building a modern and affordable ICT portfolio for Bangladeshi consumers. BTRC is happy to support Ericsson in their demonstration of 3G/HSPA technology. I believe there would be immense benefits for Bangladeshi telecom subscribers by gaining high-speed mobile internet access through 3G/HSPA technology in the near future."

Arun Bansal, President, Ericsson Bangladesh, says: "This pioneering project will showcase the full potential of broadband services for the first time in the country and how an efficient and affordable 3G/HSPA broadband service can help serve as a blueprint for the widespread introduction of internet connectivity."

Ericsson is conducting the 3G trial by using the site and transmission networks of three telecom operators - Warid Telecom International Bangladesh, Grameenphone, and Telecom Malaysia International (Bangladesh), which operates under the brand name AKTEL. Ericsson is using partners for m-learning and for mobile health.

Bangladesh has an estimated 43 million mobile subscribers.


Copyright © Hugin AS 2008. All rights reserved.

 

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Source: Bangladesh to Offer WiMAX Licenses, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission

Bangladesh to Offer WiMAX Licenses​

Bangladesh's telecoms regulator, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has published its draft guidelines for issuing Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) licenses. The national licenses are being proposed - two in the 2.3Ghz band and one in the 2.5Ghz band.

The incumbent operators are banned from bidding - and the bidders are limited to having 60% foreign shareholding.

The Licensees will be authorized to develop and operate a telecommunications network to provide nationwide BWA services based on IEEE 802.16e (WiMAX) standards. The system can be point-to-multipoint or mesh radio systems consisting of BWA distribution hub stations and their associated subscriber stations (or BWA access devices). The last mile solution may be done in conjunction with WiFi.

The operators and end-users are allowed to use their equipment in fixed locations, in a nomadic manner or with a fully mobile capability, at their choice.

Interestingly, the draft proposals will mandate that all the licensed operators will have to share the same tower and the existing infrastructures.

The proposals will award a contiguous 30 MHz of unpaired spectrum from 2.3 GHz band (23xx-23xx MHz and 23xx-23xx MHz) to 2 licensees. A contiguous 30 MHz of unpaired spectrum from 2.5 GHz band (25xx-26xx MHz) will be assigned to 1 licensee. 2615-2620 MHz is kept as guard block between TDD and future FDD assignment. 30MHz contiguous channel will be allocated to each operator to provide BWA services. Per channel bandwidth should be either 5 or 10 MHz.

Subject to the availability, two pair of frequency will be assigned form any of the 18, 23, 26 and 38 GHz band to build their own point to point link.

The existing ISP license holders operating in 2.3, 3.5, 5.2, 5.4 GHz and 700 MHz will be allowed to continue their wireless Internet services for 5 years with pre-WiMAX equipments - but will not be allowed to replace any existing equipment.

On the web: Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission

Posted to the site on 6th July 2008

 

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Source: Financial Express

Dhaka looks for global integration to expand trade


FE Report

Bangladesh looks for global integration right this moment as the country wants to expand its trade volume with dominating developed countries in the coming years, the commerce adviser said Tuesday.

"Our purpose is to integrate globally as we need to utilise the trade benefits from dominating markets of the world," Commerce Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said while speaking at a seminar titled ' An EU Perspective of Regional Integration' organised by the Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI) in the city on the day.

Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain, Commerce Secretary Feroz Ahmed, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez and Executive Director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Mustafizur Rahman, among others, spoke at the seminar where Ambassador of the European Commission in Dhaka Stefan Frowein presented the keynote paper with Professor MA Taslim, chief executive officer of BFTI, in the chair.

"Utilising preferential trade benefits from the developed countries in the Europe and the USA, our garment industry achieved a tremendous success."

He said the second purpose of integration is to create new markets in emerging countries like Malaysia, Turkey and others.

"We need to ensure our access aggressively to the markets of these emerging countries as their equal partners," he added.

The commerce adviser also stressed the need for regional integration saying it is imperative for the country to boost trade, commerce and investment further with the sub regional nations.

"We need to reap benefit of regional opportunities also," said he referring to the development works in northeast India.

He said a link between South China and South Asia via Myanmar connecting Chittagong will open a new avenue for opportunities.

"At the end of the discussion I would say that domestic policies are important to make ourselves competent partner in the global market."

Presenting the keynote paper, Mr. Frowein said: "I would argue, though political commitment is a necessary but not sufficient condition for integration to sustain over the long term, there must also be a legal structure."

"The EU certainly would not have come as far if it did not create legally binding instruments that were enforceable in court."

He further said: "I think the EU's experience highlights the possibility of using economic integration as a means to achieve broader objectives of stability and peaceful relation. I trust that this could be a recipe for success in other regions around the world also."

There is a need for strong political will in some issues where the countries of the region will make their integrated efforts for reaping mutual benefits, the foreign secretary said.

The commerce secretary said entire South Asia might suffer due to economic disparity between India and other countries in the region.

The BGMEA president said political weakness is hindering making SAARC functional in the real sense for regional development.

He, however, said the country should go ahead for bilateral free trade agreements with neighbouring India and Pakistan.

Earlier, replying to a question of the CPD Executive Director on EU's planned FTA with India earlier, Mr. Frowein said: "We don't think a bilateral agreement is the best option but signing multilateral agreements is difficult."

 

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Source: © Gulf Times Newspaper, 2008; Gulf Times ? Qatar?s top-selling English daily newspaper - SriLanka/Bangladesh

Bhutan seeks investment from Bangladesh

DHAKA: A Bhutanese business delegation has urged Bangladesh’s business community to invest in Bhutan to reap maximum benefit from their investment.
“Businessmen from Bangladesh can enjoy the foreign investment friendly policy of Bhutan,” said Phub Tshering, secretary general of Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, during a meeting with the leaders of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) in Dhaka yesterday.
Tshering is the leader of a 16-member Bhutanese delegation now visiting Bangladesh.
During the July 2007-March 2008 period, Bangladesh imports from Bhutan stood at $10.80mn, while its exports to Bhutan amounted only $0.78mn.
Major items imported into Bangladesh from Bhutan are vegetable and mineral products, prepared foodstuffs, beverage, spirits and vinegar, tobacco, chemical industries products, wood and wood products, and textile products.
Bangladesh exports to Bhutan include woven garments, computer accessories, dry food, pharmaceuticals, soap (toilet), textile items and frozen fish.
However, Bhutan may import from Bangladesh items like leather footwear, ceramic tableware, electrical items and textile fabrics.
During the meeting, FBCCI first vice president Abul Kashem Ahmed said Bhutan was a business partner of Bangladesh for long, but the trade volume between two countries was very small.
“There is scope to enhance export from Bangladesh, if the Bhutanese importers come forward with their keen interest to buy Bangladeshi products,” he said.
Bhutanese ambassador in Dhaka Dasho Tshering Dorji, who accompanied the Bhutanese delegation at the meeting, said there is a lot of scope for doing business between the two countries.
“Trade is not up to the mark until now … we’ve to find out what are the products we can trade,” he said.
The ambassador invited Bangladeshi businesses to visit Bhutan to explore business opportunities.
FBCCI secretary general Mir Shahabuddin Mohammed in a presentation at the meeting mentioned that though Bangladesh and Bhutan have been partner in trade for a long time, but the volume of trade is not very large.
He said exports of Bangladesh to Bhutan fluctuated over the last 15 years in the range of $0.02 to $5.10mn, while imports from Bhutan between $2.21mn and $12.83mn.
“The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been also trying to develop infrastructure in our sub-region which includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, northeast India and Nepal for promoting trade in South Asia sub-region.”
Shahabuddin said Bhutan’s third country trade currently moved through Kolkata port in India, which always remains congested. Bangladesh could have provided relatively congestion-free facilities through Mongla port, which is also located at a shorter distance compared to Kolkata.

 

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Padma Bridge in Bangladesh

Plz see the link below:

Structurae [en]: Padma Bridge (2015)

 

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Source: Board of Investment Bangladesh


Bangladesh one of 'hottest' emerging markets, says UK research firm

Investor Chronicle, a UK based research organisation on market and investment, in a report last week short listed Bangladesh as one of the hottest emerging market having the potentials of attracting more foreign investment.

The other emerging markets, according to the report, are Pakistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Egypt, United Arab Emirate (UAE) and Nigeria.

The observation on Bangladesh by the Investor Chronicle (IC) came after two USA-based investment banks-JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs- praised the country's future economic prospect last year.

The IC report said: "Bangladesh initially tends to get a rough deal when it comes to global perceptions-military rule prompted by rampant corruption, made increasingly worse by climate change which was inflicting huge natural damage on the deltas of the Bay of Bengal."

The experts of the firm, however, see more and more adventurous global money flowing into the US$ 12 billion stock market that is expected to hit $15 billion by the year end.

More IPOs like Grameen Phone, country's largest cell phone operator, is expected to go public and privatisation of a number of state entities to occur, it said, adding that a combination of reforms and privatisation was spurring interest.

"International investors' interest is also growing" as the country is growing at around seven per cent and is maintaining solid foreign currency reserve, it said.

"Citigroup's acquisition of a licence for investment banking is a sign of huge potential as is the entrance of many other multinationals (Shell, Unocal, BP, Mobil, HSBC, Citibank, Samsung, Toshiba, Cemex, Singtel, Orascom) into the local market."

The scale and potential for Bangladesh is obvious- a population of 150 million, strong demographics, hard working people sending early signs of a growing middle class, the report added.

JP Morgan also included Bangladesh in their 'Frontier Five' group of countries last year along with Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria and Vietnam.

Goldman Sachs, a US-based investment banking and securities firm, put Bangladesh in its 'Next Eleven'- a group of nations having promising economic growth potential-to watch.

The Next Eleven is the second term that the Goldman Sachs has coined to describe economies with high growth potential in the world as it first named BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

The 11 countries include Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Turkey and Vietnam.

 

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Source: JPM Becoming an Asian Tiger

Becoming an Asian Tiger​

Sep 05, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- JPM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Quite often we refer to certain countries in Southeast Asia as 'emerging tigers'. Their economics and their progressive economic development are analyzed and extolled for their performance. Such an approach also draws our attention not only to the manner in which such countries identified the weaknesses within their development paradigm but also how such measures to overcome challenges subsequently facilitated foreign direct investment.

In the recent past, we have watched such enthusiasm also about Bangladesh. Despite a generally negative image of the country, resulting out of natural calamities, corruption, poor governance, extremism and lack of a participatory political process, efforts have been undertaken by several external institutions to point out the latent possibilities of Bangladesh. 'Investor Chronicle' from United Kingdom has identified the country as a 'hot emerging market'. J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, two United States financial institutions have acknowledged existing detracting factors but have also suggested that Bangladesh could be included among a handful of countries whose economy has potential for absorption of future investment. Such views are particularly welcome given the fact that the country was recently being written off by so-called experts as having no future during the post-MFA era.

The other interesting feature has been the recent acquisition of a license for investment banking by Citigroup. This step has been interpreted as a sign of potential for other multinationals (Shell, B.P., Mobil, HSBC, Citibank, Samsung, Toshiba, Cemex, Singtel and Orascom) also entering the local market despite its perceived limitations.

Many non-resident Bangladeshis who have been associated with financial institutions abroad have watched the possibilities unfold within Bangladesh and have followed these developments with great interest. During the recently concluded NRB Conference and also through separate interventions in the media, they have expressed their desire to actively participate in the future potential economic development process within Bangladesh.

One such example of constructive engagement has been that of Asian Tiger Capital Partners, a group of young expatriate Bangladeshi entrepreneurs experienced in consulting, banking and investment abroad. Mostly of British origin, the stakeholders of the Company, in the presence of the British High Commissioner in Dhaka, recently presented their plans to launch a US Dollar 100 million private equity fund to be invested in Bangladesh. Media reports indicated that this group seriously believes that foreign direct investment in the country could increase tenfold from the current figure of around US Dollar 700 million to US Dollar 7 billion by 2015. In this context, the group also unveiled its first research report on the Bangladesh economy, entitled 'Bangladesh: Growth, Investment, Opportunity', focusing primarily on 14 investment sectors ranging from agriculture to power and pharmaceuticals.

It has been suggested that the initial steps pertaining to this equity fund would probably be in place by September this year. It will be aimed at 'general investment' and will be followed by a 'separate stock market equity fund and an infrastructure fund'. The group is hoping to raise money from global investment institutions and non-resident Bangladeshis. Most interesting! This company believes that given better information and removal of informational asymmetries, top global investors and multinational financial institutions will 'see Bangladesh as Asia's next great untapped investment opportunity'. It is indeed good to see such confidence.

I have always personally described Bangladesh as the 'untapped frontier'. I remember the stark days of 1972, when one had milk only if one had a cow. We have come a long way since then. Today, we are almost self-sufficient in food. We still have problems in several sectors-- energy, water management, fertilizer and different areas of infrastructure. Nevertheless, we are slowly, but steadily moving forward. Rampant corruption and abuse of official power has to a large extent been reduced. Accountability and transparency, as concepts, are being re-introduced within the matrix of governance. The enforcement of draconian measures might have led to some degree of torpor within the business community, but one hopes that this will pass under an elected government.

I am optimistic about our economic future when I see groups like Asian Tiger Capital coming forward to participate in the regeneration of this country's future economic development.

I agree with the need to predicate our success on the basis of an 'economic vision'. "We need to believe in ourselves and also in our ability to seize opportunities in different fields and find solutions to problems. What we requires a change in our mind-set. That is the real catalyst for economic recovery. It has already been demonstrated in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and South Korea. We might not right now have cutting edge technology, but we have cheaper alternatives.

What we require is a sustainable economic strategy that will automatically provide us with investment opportunities. The World Bank in its July 2007 Report on Bangladesh has remarked on the need- to shift from agriculture to industry and services, to intensify integration with global markets and to evolve diverse dynamic urban centers. They have also noted that FDI will improve if there is better macroeconomic governance, continued macroeconomic stability and a commercially viable energy sector. To this one can add the need to have in place better infrastructure, larger pool of skilled manpower required for management, information technology and the services sectors, the spirit of innovation and the existence of due process of law. These factors are all inter-related. It is the juxtaposition of all these elements that will spur development and possibly take Bangladesh to the status of a Middle lncome country by 2015.

We have to understand that we have a difficult task ahead in this globalized, competitive world. We have to not only project Bangladesh as a creative economy but also market it as a brand that will not be scoffed at. In this regard, both our Bangladeshi diplomatic Missions as well as our Diaspora have to play key roles. They can help in the creation of an enabling environment. At the same time, to ensure rapid growth, serious measures have to be taken, in a coordinated manner to streamline the regulatory principles and to develop the financial system, both in capital markets and banking.

Asian Tiger Capital and other similar institutions in Bangladesh should be given assistance and access by the responsible authorities in Bangladesh so that their efforts can succeed. We need their presence, connectivity and outreach contacts in areas like-Energy, Non-Energy Infrastructure and alternative energy sources, cold storage facilities. Textiles (weaving mills and dyeing-finishing mills), Outsourcing, Pharmaceuticals (plants with certification for developed markets), Healthcare, Biotechnology, Light and Heavy Engineering, Tourism and Hospitality sectors and Education (both in information technology as well as vocational training).

The report prepared by Asian Tiger Capital has noted that currently several very large FDI proposals (total worth US Dollar 9.7 billion) are pending for decision by the government. These include investment proposals made by the Indian conglomerate Tata, the Abu Dhabi group from UAE, Global Oil and Energy Ltd. from UK, Azimat Corporation from Malaysia and Contech Ltd. There have also been other offers by the steel group Mittal. The significant aspect pertaining to this scenario is the absence of decision making for many years. One can only hope that necessary action will be taken in this regard soon after the next elected government is in place based on transparency and national interest. We have to remember that for a developing country like Bangladesh, increasing the level of FDI is likely to have a direct bearing and 'significant positive impact oil export growth, foreign exchange reserves and the balance of payments. It will also facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology.

Bangladesh needs to grow a 'can-do' attitude and work ethic. It also needs to upgrade its corporate culture and improve its 'bureaucratic processes'. We need to learn and replicate the experience of South Korea, China and Vietnam. We must also open our mental windows and be more focused in our strategic approach. We also have to streamline the underlying market fundamentals so that future flow-in of foreign investment (in the form of preferred stocks and subordinated debt) does not upset the institutional investor base. We have to be cautious so that the commercial banking sector can absorb the expected growth.

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Source: :The Daily Star: Internet Edition

South Asia economies grow despite lack of good governance​

Star Business Report


South Asia's economies are growing despite obstacles like poor infrastructure, inadequate foreign investment and lack of good governance, noted economist Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud has said, adding that many people consider this growth as a miracle.

Dwelling on Bangladesh economy, he said the country's economic fate depends on whether people's expectation is finally materialised or vested interest group continues to rule people.

He also lamented that political parties have so far failed to fulfill people's expectations.

“Ruling political parties in South Asia, including Bangladesh, have a tendency to patronise their cadres with numerous benefits. But there is a limit. People do not tolerate such things when it goes beyond the limit,” Wahiduddin Mahmud said.

He was speaking at a seminar on “Understanding growth and poverty: Is there a South Asian model”, organised by The Institute of Microfinance at the PKSF auditorium in Dhaka.

The noted economist said the country is under the rule of a caretaker government because political parties have failed to render the desired services to the people.

He said poor governance of the two major political parties in their 15 years regime exhausted people's patience.

Abhijit Sen, member, planning commission, Government of India, presided over the seminar, while Siddiq R Osmani, a professor at the University of Ulster, UK, presented a paper titled 'Explaining Growth in South Asia.' Baqui Khalily, executive director of Institute of Microfinance, gave vote of thanks.

Prof Mahmud said although South Asian countries have their own model of democracy, they share a common trait every ruling party in their respective countries patronise their party cadres illegally.

“People in Bangladesh have a pro-democratic and pro-development mindset. Also their tolerance is not unbounded,” he said, adding that the parties lost their credibility because of their inability to function in a democratic and transparent manner.

Wahiduddin Mahmud said the country's economic fate would depend on when and how the politics turn in next several months.

In his paper, Prof Osmani categorised the South Asia's economic growth pattern into three phases the early phase between 1952-67, the middle (1968-81) and the final phase that has been continuing since 1982.

He observed that the region witnessed growth in the first and last phases, but had a dismal decade in the middle phase, for which the Indian planning commission member blamed undue political and military intervention and oil and food price hike.

Abhijit Sen said the South Asia has the lowest growth in education and physical infrastructure, which are needed for accelerating the economic growth. He said the region is poorly linked in trade. He also called 'Safta' a so-called treaty.

Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud said any South Asian country needs 7 percent economic growth at a stretch for 25 years to become a middle-income country.

Only 13 countries have been able to become middle-income country so far. Of which, 10 represent East Asian nations, he added.

 

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Source: :The Daily Star: Internet Edition

Bangladesh In The 21st Century
The promise of aquaculture Nazia Habib and Md. Saidul Islam
​

By: Nazia Habib and Md. Saidul Islam

This piece is from the series of summaries of papers presented at the "Bangladesh in the 21st Century" conference held at Harvard University (June 13-14) The views expressed in the articles are expressly those of the authors.

CULTURED shrimp is promoted as an alternative to the exhaustion of global fisheries. The coastal zones of some tropical countries, including Bangladesh, are dominating the production of commercial shrimp, and export to the US, Europe, Canada, Japan and other wealthy countries.

For many developing countries, including Bangladesh, shrimp has become a major source of foreign exchange and has integrated often previously marginal coastal communities into high value commodity networks. However, the producing countries are facing increasing challenges with international trade, particularly concerning "quality."

Among the recent transformations of the global agro-food system, quality rather than price or quantity has become the basis around which production, commodities, and markets are increasingly organised.

Under increasing pressure from various actors such as environmental and labour activists, multi-lateral organisations, and regulatory agencies in their home countries, multi-national firms are implementing "certification" arrangements that include codes of conduct, production guidelines, and monitoring standards that govern and attest to not only the corporations' behaviour but also to that of their producers and suppliers around the world.

While previous "quality" assurance was confined to only Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) manual, recent movements have extended quality assurance to traceability, environmental sustainability, labour rights, and community-based resource management in production sites.

As major buyers such as Wal-Mart, Darden and Lyons recently committed to buy only the "certified" seafood, including farmed shrimp, it is anticipated that other buyers will also follow the same path and a major portion of shrimp production will soon come under certification umbrella. This conspicuous trend poses both opportunities and challenges.

While it offers an opportunity to move towards a sustainable aquaculture, the producers who fail to meet the shifting private regulations will eventually lose out in the market. It is observed that Bangladesh can easily earn about $2 billion from shrimp industry. While many neighbouring countries such as China, Thailand and India are genuinely working with pragmatic plans and policies to capture the lucrative shrimp markets, Bangladesh -- despite having enormous prospects -- is now grappling to survive with numerous problems and malpractices.

Part of the problem is that about 80% of the economic actors are living in poverty. Poverty is not simply low income or economic inequality, but rather a serious deprivation of certain basic capabilities and rights to improve. For these people, when improvement means food, health, shelter and education for children, making waterproof floors in the depot, having running water on the entrance, as per international regulations, are last of the priorities. As a result, 70% of Bangladesh shrimp industry operates within informal economics.

Furthermore, Bangladeshi fishery exporter association (BFFEA), who are the major lobbying group for this industry, fails to recognise that the major weakness of this industry lies in the feed, chemicals and fry used as inputs. These inputs are mainly imported from China. The use of low quality and often contaminated inputs resulting in low quality shrimps. This low quality shrimp gets low market price, which trickles down to the bottom of the supply chain. The industry needs comprehensive industry-wise strategies which will help to improve the conditions of economic agents at all level socially, economically, and politically.

The following proposals are a starting point to incorporate local socio-political considerations into industrial policy. To do so, the Bangladeshi government and researchers should undertake a household-level economic shock and vulnerability study to build a framework for national policy responses.

First, policies should regulate, reward, and penalise private entities but should not try to compensate for economic shocks. If an unforeseeable crisis creates an economic shock requiring compensation, policy should not discriminate against affected actors in the industry. For example, the entire industry suffered from the 1997 ban, but incentives were given to factory owners/exporters and not other actors. Recipients of government incentives should undergo third party audits verifying fulfillment of social and economic objectives, such as job creation, export growth, or technology improvements.

Second, Bangladesh needs to improve import policies to ensure quality and appropriateness. Policy can support farmers by regulating imports for basic acceptability, such as shrimp fry and feed contamination screening. Instead of government laboratories as the only check point, consumers of these imports should receive training, technology, and basic tools to test on their own.

Third, counter-cyclical policies are needed to protect jobs and incomes and provide adequate social security in times of economic shocks and natural disaster. The finance ministry, industrial ministry, or land reform ministry should be tasked to include a complete cost-benefit analysis of the distributive effects of proposed budgetary, tax, or land reform initiatives that considers every group of the industry.

Fourth, collectiveness should be promoted in the bottom half of the supply chain. This largely informal segment should have greater incentives to collectively contest and resist exploitation and discriminating policies, but the informality of their business, continuous insecurity, and submission to local political power hampers their collective force. Lack of collective force translates to lack of political voice to represent their needs to the government and exporters.

Fifth, Bangladesh should diversify trading partners to find policy maneuvering space. Instead of depending on the US and EU, Bangladesh should focus more on under-exploited markets such as the Middle East and emerging markets in China and African nations. This will provide shrimp producers more space to improve their activities while seeking to venture into new markets.

Sixth, countries like Bangladesh, with weak institutional support, need to thoroughly and carefully consider international insurance proposed for countries facing shocks from price swings and non-tariff barriers to trade. Such insurance is designed to offset monetary shocks, but is not attuned to socio-political crisis that the poor encounter on a daily basis.

Last but not the least, the Bangladesh shrimp sector needs immediate policies and programs in the following areas: Establishing research institutes to increase productivity and to invent cures for viruses, adherence to quality standards as required by the buyers, and negotiation and consultation with NGOs opposing shrimp culture.


Nazia Habib is a Visiting Scholar in Economics, Columbia University.

Md. Saidul Islam is a Consultant, United Nations, New York.

 

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Source:Kamal Ahmad brings higher education to the women of Asia - The Boston Globe
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

The education of Kamal Ahmad


BROOKLINE - The first time Kamal Ahmad started a school he was a 14-year-old boy in his native Bangladesh, the son of a university biochemist and a writer, living on a campus where children worked as household servants and couldn't read. So Ahmad organized classes for them in garages left empty by day.

Forty years later and living in Coolidge Corner, Ahmad has grander dreams. He is the founder of the ambitious Asian University for Women, built on the old saying that to educate a man is to educate an individual and to educate a woman is to educate a family.

In March, in Chittagong, Bangladesh's second largest city, AUW launched its pre-college Access Academy for 128 students from six countries and four religions. In September 2009, AUW expects to enroll its first undergraduates in an innovative program that combines three years of American-style liberal arts education with two years of professional training.

AUW has secured 100 acres from the Bangladesh government and a charter guaranteeing autonomy and academic freedom. It has so far attracted $35 million, including $8 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It has hired renowned architect Moshe Safdie to design its campus, enlisted retired Harvard dean Henry Rosovsky to aid academic planning, and recruited Jack Meyer, former chief manager of Harvard's endowment, to chair its foundation. Its provost, biochemist Hoon Eng Khoo, a Smith College graduate born in Malaysia in a house without running water or electricity, was vice dean of the prestigious National University of Singapore Medical School. Microfinance pioneer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus serves on AUW's board of advisers.

In 2006 Ahmad quit his job as an attorney in Manila to work full-time on AUW. He shuttles between its foundation's bright Cambridge offices and Bangladesh. He traverses the country raising funds and recruiting faculty. The goal is a university of 3,000 students, half on scholarship and half fee-paying, whose graduates transcend national and religious boundaries to tackle the region's problems.

"This can be a force against fundamentalism and many of the sort of narrow identities that seem to be at the root of many social ills," says Ahmad, 43. "Women's education is the most effective way to bring about social and economic change."

The university joins a handful of women's colleges established recently in Asia and Africa - including the Dubai Women's College founded in 1989 and Zimbabwe's Women's University in Africa founded in 2003 - that focus, for the most part, on the professional education of women in their home country.

AUW is the brainchild of a soft-spoken man whose unassuming manner belies a history of transforming idealism into action. He traces his commitment to liberal arts to his education at Exeter and Harvard College. He traces his passion to a privileged boyhood in a desperately poor nation racked first by war in 1971, when he was 6, and then by famine. He recalls the "constant juxtaposition of fear and play," of blithely pasting paper strips to windows to keep glass from shattering, then cowering as bombers flew overhead. He remembers terrifying games of hiding his father, Kamaluddin Ahmad, from soldiers rounding up intellectuals.

"When you're that close to being vanished and you're not vanished," he says, "you have a different sense of what you may be able to do with life."

A framed copy of his father's obituary adorns Ahmad's home office, honoring the nutrition expert who described scenes of rampant starvation to his children. Ahmad's mother, Nahar Ahmad, wed at 16 and attended college while raising seven children. Years later, when Ahmad married, he and his bride, both Muslims, asked guests to contribute to a Hindu charity instead of bringing gifts. Today his wife stays home with their 6-year-old daughter.

Ahmad learned early to marshal support as classmates and teachers embraced the garage schools that ultimately served 400. When neighborhood opposition closed the makeshift classrooms, lessons moved outdoors. Children brought a brick a day, until they amassed enough to erect a schoolhouse overnight on an abandoned street.

Ahmad arrived at Exeter in 1980 to student complaints of "oppressive" rules regarding visiting hours for girls. "I came from a world where oppression had a very different meaning," Ahmad says. So he founded the Third World Society, which organized Oxfam dinners and brought Robert Coles, Noam Chomsky, and other luminaries to campus.

"It was social entrepreneurship before the term became popular," says Richard Schubart, Ahmad's history teacher at Exeter. "Kamal is one of the most extraordinary people I know."


A capacity for engagement
Ahmad, at Harvard, and his brother, in graduate school at Stanford, organized the Overseas Development Network, which spread to 70 campuses. For this, Time magazine in 1987 recognized Ahmad as one of the nation's most promising undergraduates. Following college, Ahmad earned a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship.

"He had an enormous capacity to bring people around the table for a project, people much more senior than him, and get them engaged," says Kenneth Prewitt, professor of international relations at Columbia University and former Rockefeller vice president. "He sees something ahead of its time, doesn't take credit, and understands what motivates people like me and Jack [Meyer]."

AUW stems from a World Bank/UNESCO Task Force on Higher Education and Society that Ahmad, then an attorney in New York, initiated and co-directed. It issued its report in 2000.

"The traditional development institutions have a view that if you're a poor country you don't need higher education. You need primary education. That ends up in a situation where the best thinking happens on one side of the world and the other side provides the foot soldiers," Ahmad says. "In a time of globalization it's even more important for poor countries to have higher education."

That AUW rises in Bangladesh is due only partly to Ahmad's roots there. Primary education is almost universal, and children receive stipends to continue schooling. Bangladesh, thanks to Yunus, the Nobel Prize winner advising AUW, is the birthplace of microfinance and the resulting networks of female entrepreneurs. Its textile industry employs legions of women.

"There was such a dramatic change in the status of women in Bangladesh in the last 20 or 30 years that it was ripe for the Asian University for Women," Ahmad says. "The extreme poverty of Bangladesh made this possible. Women could not afford to stay veiled up and at home. They responded to every chance, whether it was for a stipend for school attendance or microfinance or the chance to work at a factory."


A good beginning
Now the Access Academy, operating in rented space, offers its scholarship students, chosen from 1,200 applicants, a year of college preparatory work in English. Students come from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Nepal. They are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian. Among them is Res Phasy of Cambodia, 19-year-old daughter of a widowed food peddler. "I want to make my own company," Phasy says by telephone from Chittagong. "I will take this money to develop my village because the people in my village are poor and not educated."

In January, construction begins on AUW's first building, on the shifting soils of hills and valleys where reflecting pools will collect monsoon rains for reuse.

As promising as its start may be, AUW still faces hurdles. It needs another $55 million for the first phase of construction and $8 million to $10 million annually for operating expenses. Former Oberlin College President Nancy Dye, AUW's vice chancellor (the equivalent of president), resigned last month for reasons she declines to discuss, except to say, "It is an excellent project, and I very much hope it succeeds."

Building a faculty is another challenge. Initially, AUW seeks professors from American liberal arts colleges interested in a semester or two in Bangladesh. "Only the most adventurous would sign up," Ahmad says. "The logistical challenges of Chittagong are hard to overcome. It's a crowded city with limited infrastructure."

Ahmad remains optimistic. "The fact that we have students leaves us no choice but to get this done," he says. "If you're a 12-year-old girl in Afghanistan, nobody tells you you can be anything. We want to be able to tell everybody if you have the courage you can do this."

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

 

[Spring Onion]

Nafees Congrats for becoming a Major

 

[Neo]

Threads merged.

 

[Raquib]

Migrant Money

Md. Golzare Nabi and Md. Mahmudul Alam look at the performance and challenges of remittance inflows into Bangladesh

Bangladesh has been witnessing a surge in remittance inflow since 2002, thanks to measures taken to encourage remitters in sending their money through official channels. Remittances have brought immense benefit to the Bangladesh economy in terms of employment generation, poverty alleviation, import financing, and building of healthy foreign exchange reserves.

The stability of remittance inflows has become an important policy issue due to its growing potential which affects both micro and macro economy via current account financing and influencing liquidity of the banking system.

As remittances are counter-cyclical and quid-pro-quo in nature, and these flows have no future payment obligations like other forms of foreign capital, and have exhibited resilience and stability, Bangladesh should pay topmost priority to tap huge amount of foreign exchange by exporting millions of unemployed youths to remove constraints of financing development activities to make Bangladesh free of poverty within 2020.

In the backdrop of declining trend of Official Direct Assistance (ODA) and fierce competition for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), massive remittance flow to Bangladesh would also curtail dependency on conditional foreign funds and would enhance the policy sovereignty.

Though remittance inflow to Bangladesh is increasing and relatively stable compared with world remittance flow, it is still in a very risky state: they are highly country specific and job category specific.

In 2006, over 66% of our remittances came from the Middle East, especially from KSA (35%). From 1976 to 2007, more than 84% of our total labourers migrated to the Middle East, especially in KSA (45%).

As a result, any economic or political crisis in the Middle East or unfavourable inter-country relationship will destructively reduce the remittance inflow in Bangladesh. When people migrate only in a specific job sector, any economic movement of this sector will reduce remittance drastically. Also, within a very short period, few specific countries' specific job sectors will not require more labour. As a result, Bangladesh needs to diversify its migration to other job sectors.

The skilled and highly salaried professionals can generate huge remittances, but they are the least migrating group from Bangladesh.

From 1976 to 2007, the category breakdown was: unskilled: 51%, skilled: 30%, semi-skilled: 16% , and professional: 3%.

In 2007, this record is far worse: unskilled: 58%, skilled: 20%, semi-skilled: 22%, and professional: 0%. If Bangladesh is able to send more skilled and professional labour, her remittance inflow would increase at a significant rate.

Only a handful of labourers migrate from Bangladesh through the government; the rest migrate through individuals or recruitment agencies.

From 1976 to 2007, the total labour migration was as follows: individual: 60%, recruiting agent: 39%, and government channel: 1%.

In 2007, total labour migrated through individual: 56%, recruiting agent: 44%, and government channel: 0%.

The government is a more powerful player than individual persons or recruitment agencies in terms of negotiating for job salaries and opportunities. When people migrate individually or through recruiting agencies, they may not negotiate properly with the actual authority or may not be able to get proper jobs. Sometimes, people also face fraudulent activities. Due to this, although many people are migrating, remittance inflow is low in comparison to the wage earners from abroad. In such a situation, if the government increases the rate of labour migration through government channel, it will accelerate the remittance inflow in a sustainable way.

In the last few years, many skilled labourers started to migrate permanently from Bangladesh to developed countries. Despite these developments, Bangladesh government has not prepared a proper migration policy. Scholars already raised the issue of brain drain due to skilled labour migration to developed countries. As a labour surplus country, Bangladesh can easily remove negative effects of brain drain by providing necessary training to its vast unskilled surplus labour.


Azizur Rahim Peu/Driknews

At the same time, there is no social security system or social insurance for remitters and no provision for voting at the time of national elections. The roles of nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) are gradually decreasing while private banks are emerging as major players in channeling remittances. There are not enough facilities to transfer remittance in Bangladesh from different countries. At the same time, transfer fees are also high and remittance transfer to rural areas is not hassle free, which leads to flow of remittances through illegal channels.

The recruiting fees are also higher in Bangladesh compared to other developing countries. Current investment areas for remitters are not attractive enough to grab huge attention in Bangladesh. There is only one mutual fund for non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) in the capital market. At the same time, most of the incoming remittances are used only for consumption purpose. In many cases, immigrants cannot invest in any productive sector, so they only buy land. As a result, inadequate investment opportunities for non-resident Bangladeshis lead to higher land price and inflation in Bangladesh.

Following the above mentioned circumstances, this paper concludes that Bangladesh as a labour-exporting country can influence the inflow of remittances by means of appropriate policies of building hassle free remittance sending infrastructure, searching new overseas markets, further improvement of formal channel of fund transfer, establishing specialised banks, special economic zone, township, and creating investment avenues such as special bonds, shares, ownership in social development projects, etc for non-resident Bangladeshis.

Bangladesh needs to formulate and implement a National Migration Policy in order to enhance remittances inflow and ensure welfare of remitters, and the Bangladeshi embassies abroad should be more active.

Bangladesh has to develop her financial sector further to facilitate remittance inflows at a greater pace by adopting measures such as automation of rural bank branches, encouraging private banks to open branches in rural areas, and allowing well-established NGOs and micro-finance institutions to receive and disburse remittances through their vast rural network.


Stringer/Driknews

Further rigorous research should be conducted to examine trends, determinants and policy options so that remittances can be a viable sustainable source of development finance in Bangladesh.

Md. Golzare Nabi is Joint Director, Monetary Policy Department, Bangladesh Bank. Md. Mahmudul Alam is an Officer, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Marketing Division, Grameen-phone. The views expressed in the research paper are authors' own and do not reflect those of the organizations in which they work.


Forum

 

[Neo]

BD exporters urge govt to depreciate taka ​

Friday, November 07, 2008

DHAKA: A Bangladesh export group called on Thursday for the government to allow a depreciation of the taka against the US dollar so the country can better compete against rivals on world markets.

Anwarul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said the government should depreciate the currency to 71 taka per dollar, or about 3.3 per cent from current levels, because the currencies of rivals have fallen giving them a competitive advantage.

The ready-made garments sector is Bangladesh’s biggest export earner. Government measures could help boost earnings, Parvez said. “If the government supports us with financial policies, along with other major critical issues, we will be able to increase export earnings from this sector by nearly 22 per cent to $13 billion in the fiscal year to June 2009,” said Parvez.

The taka has fallen just 0.13 per cent against the dollar so far this year, while some of Bangladesh’s export rivals have seen their currencies fall much more. That means they can sell their exports in world markets at cheaper prices in dollar terms. The Indian rupee has fallen 17 per cent and the Pakistan rupee by some 24 per cent since the end of 2007, swept lower by the impact of rising raw materials prices earlier this year and more lately the global financial crisis.

 

[BanglaBhoot]

Shipbuilders on the threshold of export binge

Staff Correspondent

New Age - November 12, 2008

Bangladesh is set to be swamped with orders for small ocean-going ships in the coming years as major Asian shipbuilders are now fully booked and are either turning down orders or delaying deliveries, industry people and service providers said.

Policy and fiscal supports from the government can help the fledgling industry fetch billions of dollars in export revenue using available local human expertise and resources, they said.

But, ‘Government supports are a must for the industry to sustain its growth,’ Patrik Wagar, regional sales director of Wartsila, a global market leader in power engines and ship machinery, said in Dhaka Tuesday.

He referred to substantial supports provided by the governments of emerging ship-making nations like India and Vietnam apart from major players such as China, South Korea and Japan.

Propelled by state patronisation, China overtook long-time market leader South Korea, commanding 35 per cent of the global ship market. South Korea follows with 29 per cent share and Japan 14 per cent, while Bangladesh is placed among Asian new entrants along with Vietnam, Philippines and India, altogether sharing 10 per cent of the total market.

There are 43 vessels on Bangladesh’s dockyards now waiting for delivery between 2008 and 2012, said the executive of Wartsila, whose local officials said they had booked orders for ship machinery worth $400 million from Bangladesh’s shipbuilders.

Wartsila Bangladesh invited industry leaders to explain its services in power generation and ship systems at Radisson hotel Tuesday.

Ananda Shipyard chairman Abdullah Bari said a huge pool of local expertise as well as skilled and semi-skilled workforces made the foundation of Bangladesh’s shipbuilding industry.

Delivery time is as short as 15 months, compared with global average of three years, which is an additional advantage for Bangladesh to get an avalanche of orders in the days to come, he said.

Ananda, the pioneer in local shipbuilding said the industry would need a bolstering policy and encouraging support packages from the government to explore its huge export potentials.

The company will deliver six vessels to Mozambique soon and start building four ships this month for a German buyer.

Ananda is the first Bangladeshi shipbuilder to go global handing over a 3,000-tonne to a Danish shipping line in May this year. It has secured export orders for 34 ships with a contract price of $373.50 million mostly from European market.

Western Marine and Hi-Speed, two other players in the business, are also working on a number of vessels.

Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Annisul Huq endorsed the industry’s need for specific policy support and fiscal incentives. Like the apparel sector, ship industry should also be offered back-to-back L/C facility for raw material imports, he told the business audience.

BUET professor of naval architecture and marine engineering Khabirul Haque Chowdhury urged Wartsila to help develop local backward linkage industry, apart from selling ship power engines.

Wartsila Bangladesh managing director Mohammad Shameem said the industry held huge potentials of export with more local value addition than many other export sectors.

‘We have huge local resources of high skills, which are the main strength of Bangladesh’s shipbuilding industry,’ he told New Age after the session.

He said Bangladesh would certainly get more and more orders in the days to come since major Asian builders stopped accepting orders for vessels smaller than 20,000-tonne capacity.

The company’s local sales manager Mahbub Morshed detailed on what Wartsila products and services are available for Bangladesh’s shipbuilders.

http://www.newagebd.com/2008/nov/12/busi.html