Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The countrywide dawn-to-dusk general strike is progressing with the incidents of vandalism and blasts in the capital Sunday morning.
The BNP-led 18-party alliance called the shutdown on Friday protesting the latest fuel price hike. Several vehicles were vandalized in the capital’s Mirpur and Jatrabari areas.
The vehicular movements are thin on the city streets.
 
Four decades after its independence, Bangladesh had a government that rolled out plans for a series of mega projects aimed at revolutionizing communications, port and energy sectors and drastically turning the country’s economy.
Unfortunately, the Awami League government’s very weak governance, indecisions, inability to execute plans, alleged indulgence of some in corruption, fund shortages, and donors’ conditions affected progress of most of these projects. 
 
The government has taken a move to raise the ceiling relating to the cost of a project that the Ministry of Planning (MoP) can approve — from BDT 250 million to BDT 500 million — to speed up the project approval process, officials said Saturday.
 
The central bank of Bangladesh started assessing performances of state-owned commercial banks (SCBs)aiming to ensure discipline through improving their internal controls, officials said.
 
With that end in view, the SCBs were asked to finalize business plan consultations with their respective newly-appointed boards of directors for the sake of improving their overall financial health.
 
The country’s macro-economic situation in the first half of the current fiscal year is relatively stable compared to that in the previous year, said Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) yesterday.
But the private think tank said this stability is underpinned by a number of risks.
Analysing the overall trend of the economy, the CPD said the government has been trying to maintain the macro-economic stability alongside a moderate growth. 
 
Country’s stocks fell in the first week of new calendar year breaking three weeks of gaining streak with turnover value shrinking further as the investors lost their interest in the market.
 
The market witnessed four trading sessions like previous week as trading was closed Monday due to bank holiday. Among those, two sessions fell 80.23 points while two others gained marginally by 35.97 points.
Week-on-week, the benchmark general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DGEN) ended at 4,160.88, losing 44.27 points or 1.05 per cent. 
 
The election of Office Bearers (Executive Committee) for the term 2013-2014 of Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association (BAFEDA) was held recently in the capital Dhaka.
S. M. Aminur Rahman, CEO & Managing Director of Janata Bank Limited was unanimously elected as Chairman of BAFEDA. Mohammed Nurul Amin, Managing Director of NCC Bank Limited and Mohammad Abdul Mannan, Managing Director of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited were elected as Vice Chairman and Treasurer of BAFEDA respectively.
 
Cash dividend declaration by the listed companies for common shareholders increased in 2012.
Experts attributed the increase to lack of further scope of operational growth by large cap and financial companies.
 
According to data of the Dhaka stock Exchange, 116 companies declared cash dividend for the investors in 2012 which was 92 in the previous year. 
 
BBN/SSR/AD-06Jan13-9:18 am (BST)