Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The Bangladesh Business News (BBN) has prepared the morning business round up compiling reports, published by different newspapers and news portals in Bangladesh.
Footpath vendors forced to pay Tk 850cr a year: Around Tk 850 crore is extorted from hawkers every year, mostly by police to be followed by criminals, city corporation officials and political party cadres, claimed hawker leaders yesterday. “There are over 5 lakh hawkers in the country and each of them on an average pays Tk 50 every day to linemen, who are private agents of extortionists,” MA Kashem, president of Bangladesh Hawkers Federation (BHF), told a press conference at the Paltan office of Bangladesh Photojournalists' Association in the capital. Talking to The Daily Star, Rafiqul Islam, general secretary of Jatiya Hawkers Federation, said small stalls and minor vendors have to pay Tk 50 daily, while the bigger ones as much as Tk 400.
e-tendering not followed in most govt procurement: Most government offices are yet to introduce e-tendering though it is one of the priorities of the government's 'Digital Bangladesh' initiatives, sources said. Over 70 per cent government works are still being done through the old system of inviting bids although the Prime Minister had instructed all the ministries to implement e-tendering system in 2011. Reluctance on the part of high government officials and promoted by contractors, most of the ministries and departments are continuing with the manual tendering.
Fin Min hesitates to implement IMF roadmap: The finance ministry hesitates to the implement pledges that it told the International Monetary Fund it would do about reforming foreign exchange regulations to ensure foreign investments by Bangladeshis, high officials at the ministry and the Bangladesh Bank said. The visiting IMF team under the ‘extended credit facility’ programme has expressed its disappointment about the delay in the implementation of policies the government adopted in October 2013 in a roadmap package, it is learnt.
Study says weak state banks pose risks to economy: The banking sector is seriously vulnerable to economic shocks, mainly due to the poor performance of state-owned banks, Business Monitor International (BMI), a London-based research firm, found in a recent study. The state banks have racked up a large amount of non-performing loans on their books, creating a flaw in the banking system, the study said. “This makes the banking system extremely vulnerable to shocks and impedes the efficient allocation of financial resources in the economy,” the BMI said in its Bangladesh Commercial Banking Report 2014. “Weak balance sheet brings risks to privatisation of state-owned banks.”
Bangladesh economy hit by unrest: Bangladesh’s economy is showing signs of turning around as the opposition alliance led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson Khaleda Zia has taken a pause in its agitation against the Sheikh Hasina government. Since the Jan. 5 parliamentary election, which was said to be unfair and internationally unaccepted, the opposition has stopped street protests giving the economy a chance to rebound, the Arab News reported. However, reports of massive rigging in local bodies’ polls recently held in phases has once again triggered violence and might hinder the economic recovery.
Tk 80b new investment in RMG sector to meet compliance needs: Country's readymade garment (RMG) industry is going to make Tk 80 billion new investments to meet the requirements of full compliance as being demanded by buyers, brands, labour and human rights organizations since Tazreen and Rana Plaza catastrophe, insiders said. They said the sector has been under pressure from local and international stakeholders including Accord, Alliance, foreign buyers and International Labour Organization (ILO) now closely monitoring the sector.
Indian firms plan big investment in Bangladesh: A good number of Indian investors are now keen either in increasing their investments or to set up new manufacturing units in Bangladesh for manufacturing various products to export those items to other countries. Despite the prevailing crisis relating to infrastructure facilities, regulatory framework, domestic laws, transparency and political stability, the Indian biggest companies have now targeted Bangladesh for setting up their plants not only for grabbing the huge domestic market but also to export their products to other markets. They are showing interests in telecom, automobile, paints, pharmaceutical and other sectors.
Loan write-offs shoot up: Banks' written-off loans last year more than doubled year-on-year, as banks looked to bring down their default loan portfolio and clean up their balance sheet. In 2013, banks wrote off loan amounting Tk 6,893 crore, in contrast to Tk 2,992 crore in 2012, according to central bank statistics. The state-owned commercial banks alone accounted for Tk 4,573 crore of the write-offs, up 288 percent year-on-year. Sonali wrote off Tk 2,177 crore, Agrani Tk 1,313 crore and Janata Tk 1,083 crore. Rupali Bank did not write-off any loan in 2013. As for the Tk 2,320 crore written off by private banks, four banks alone made up half of the amount.
BBN/SSR/AD-30Mar14-8:19 am (BST)