SERVICES SECTOR Export earnings rise 42pc

[Homo Sapiens]

https://www.thedailystar.net/business/export-earnings-rise-42pc-1577533

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12:00 AM, May 17, 2018 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:19 AM, May 17, 2018
SERVICES SECTOR
Export earnings rise 42pc

Star Business Report

Export earnings from the services sector grew 42.14 percent year-on-year to $396.58 million thanks to increasing income from goods transportation and rising export of skilled human resources.

“The services sector's export has been growing over the last few months because we are sending more skilled and professional personnel abroad,” said Ali Ahmed, CEO of Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute.

“Our airlines are also carrying more goods of other countries. Our target is to export $1 billion worth of services in the computer and IT services.” Transportation services by the sea, air, rail, road and others earned $431.45 million in the July-March period of the current fiscal year, up 36.24 percent year-on-year, according to official data.

Year-on-year, personal services export grew 25.64 percent to $265.99 million, financial services export 88.73 percent to $121.28 million and insurance services export 281.93 percent to $3.17 million.

However, export in the telecom sector decreased 12.99 percent to $246.59 million and computer services 11.88 percent to $132.35 million.


The overall services export rose 20.53 percent to $3.03 billion in the July-March period.

According to the decision of the World Trade Organisation, its member countries have been counting the merchandise and services exports separately. Being a least developed country, Bangladesh enjoys duty waiver in the services export.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

Study: Bangladesh needs to focus on service exports in preparation for LDC graduation
Shah Muhammad Salahuddin

• Published at 10:33 pm May 16th, 2018

Bangladesh is currently heavily reliant on the export of goods Rajib Dhar

According to a study by the Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI), the country needs to concentrate on service exports as it is not only the most dynamic segment of global trade, but also because Bangladesh will lose preferential trade facilities after graduation from LDC status.

The BFTI study, titled “Export Potentials of Trade in Service in Bangladesh,” was revealed at a workshop at the CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka on Wednesday.

In last fiscal year, the service sector contributed $3.42 billion to Bangladesh’s total exports of $34.83 billion. Currently, 56% of Bangladesh’s GDP comes solely from the export of goods. Comparatively, 66% of the global GDP comes from trade in services, as does 60% of global economic activities, 44% of global employment, and 33% of worldwide FDI.

Speaking at the workshop, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Senior Research Fellow Dr Nazneen Ahmed said: “We have to think about what we will do after graduation from LDC status, as there will be no LDC waiver for us in the world market.”

She also expressed concern that local e-commerce services such as Ajker Deal and Chal Dal were being bought out by international e-commerce giants like Alibaba and Amazon.

However, Dr Nazneen said she held hope for the tourism industry, which was on an upward trend due to the establishment of modern resorts.

On the other hand, Md Hafizur Rahman, director-1 (joint secretary) WTO Cell of the Ministry of Commerce, criticized the accommodation system for international tourists in Bangladesh.

“There are only 13 five star, 4 four star, and 7 three star hotels available here, which is completely inadequate for attracting foreign tourists,” he said.

Also criticizing security for tourists in the country, he added there are only 180 cops for around 200,000 tourists - an abysmal state of affairs.

Speaking as the chief guest, Ministry of Commerce Secretary Shubhashish Bose said the ministry had set a target to earn $3.5 billion from the service sector this year, adding that he was optimistic about the sector’s prospects.

The study identified four main segments of the service sector which needed to be focused on: Tourism and travel-related services, computer and IT services, freight transportation services, and health services.

The discussants highlighted various strengths and weaknesses of each of these aforementioned services and made recommendations for their development, such as calls for a harmonized internet pricing policy to help the IT service sector.

Furthermore, the study also discussed the potential for service exports from Bangladesh under regional trade agreements such as the SAARC Agreement on Trade in Services (SATIS), APTA Framework Agreement on Trade in Services (AFATIS) and the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS)

General challenges to the export of services identified in the study include the special nature of services, the four modes of supply, an underdeveloped GATS regime, as well as various limitations to market access, inadequate knowledge and experience in services trade, and stringent domestic regulations relating to services.

“We need to enhance our capacity because we are graduating so we need trade related capacity building.” said Md Munir Chowdhury, director general (WTO Cell) of the Ministry for Commerce.

Education, proper language, and cultural training, and specialized training for the service sector were also discussed at the workshop.

Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute Director Dr Amitav Chakraborty, USAID-BTFA Project Customs Specialist Dr Mohammad Abu Yusuf, and USAID-BTFA Project former chief of party Dr Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder were present at the discussion, among others.
https://www.dhakatribune.com/busine...ice-exports-in-preparation-for-ldc-graduation

 

[greenhawk]

I really don't think tourism is a worthwhile investment in Bangladesh. If people wanted to stay in 4-star resorts they would've gone elsewhere. As far as natural landscapes go, (let's be honest) there really isn't much Bangladesh has to offer that cant be found in neighboring countries and states.

We're gonna have to look for other options.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

As far as natural landscapes go, (let's be honest) there really isn't much Bangladesh has to offer that cant be found in neighboring countries and states.

Tourism is not all about having a great and varied landscape. Very few tourist go to other countries to be awestruck by the landscape.And who said we don't have a beautiful landscape? We have beautiful sea beach, forests, mighty rivers, rolling hills, mountains, green carpet plains.Only two thing we are lacking 1.Desert 2.Alpine landscape.But many countries are doing great without them.Even countries with just one dimensional landscape like Netherlands and Poland are among the most visited countries in the world.What we need to flourish our tourism are-

1.Maintain good law and order and peaceful and secure environment. Political stability is very important as well as suppression of violent, militant crimes.

2.Upgrade public infrastructure. One of the major impediment why we can not ask any tourist to come in our country.

3.Make easier visa rules.Currently Bangladesh has a very restrictive visa policy even for the citizen of developed countries.They face higher visa fees for short visa and a lot of other bureaucratic hassle.In ideal condition, most of the country's citizen in the world should be able to visit BD without any visa restriction.

4.Proper maintenance of tourist sites and building more touristic sites.

5.Build low cost housing, cottage for tourists.

6. Aggressive overseas marketing about our country, it's natural beauty, cultural richness, tourist facilities etc. We have great ancient Buddhist monuments in the countries.We could have used them to attract the east Asian tourists.But we totally failed. This is one of the great example of missed opportunity.

7.Cultivation of a tolerant culture. Tourist should be allowed to do whatever they like as long as they are not doing any crime or harming others.We should not expect the tourist to turn into 'conservative Bengali Muslim' once they set foot in our country.

If this things are developed then there is no reason why Bangladesh can not be an attractive tourist destination.