Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
100 Days of Govt: Major Steps Taken Towards a ‘New Bangladesh’: Despite numerous challenges, the interim government over the last 100 days has taken many timely and significant steps that align with the vision of building a "new Bangladesh", observed Transparency International Bangladesh yesterday. It said the government move to try killers and human rights violators from the previous regime; efforts to provide compensation and medical care to those injured in the movement; and the repeal of the Cyber Security Act were noteworthy. (The Daily Star)
2.
Janata Bank Turns Down Beximco’s Request for Funds: Janata Bank has rejected the Beximco Group's request for a Tk60 crore loan to pay employees' salaries for October, according to a letter sent to the finance ministry by the bank. In the letter, the bank's Chairman M Fazlur Rahman states that Janata Bank is not in a position to take on the financial risk that new funding would entail. The group applied for the loan to the bank on 4 November as its workers staged protests demanding unpaid salaries. (The Business Standard)
3.
No Company Shutdown, Action to Prevent Fund Diversion to Continue: No companies will face shutdown but action is being taken against individuals at fault to prevent fund diversion, the Bangladesh Bank governor said Monday as he oversaw reclaimed Islami Bank's bail-in package. The new management of the bank plans to pool around Tk 200 billion by unfreezing seized shares and floating fresh stocks on the bourses to minimize gaps between deposits and investments. Under the capital-repletion plans, Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC will collect Tk 100 billion through selling its shares seized by the central bank shortly after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, its chairman said. These shares were largely held by the controversial S Alam Group. (The Financial Express)
4.
24 Factories of Beximco Shut amid Liquidity Crunch: Amid a severe liquidity crisis and unpaid labour dues, troubled Beximco Group's Shinepukur Ceramics recently halted operations, bringing the total number of closed ventures of the group to 24. The group's inability to open new letters of credit (LCs) for raw material imports has forced its factories to halt production since August this year following the political changeover. (The Daily Star)
5.
Moody's downgrades Bangladesh's ratings to B2: Moody's has lowered Bangladesh's long-term ratings to B2 from B1, marking the country's second consecutive downgrade in less than two years, while affirming its short-term ratings at "Not Prime". The rating agency also revised its outlook to "negative" from "stable" for the first time in 14 years since Bangladesh began receiving ratings from Moody's in 2010. (The Business Standard)
6.
CA Didn't Say Interim Govt's Tenure Will be Four Years: Chief Adviser (CA) Prof Dr Mohammad Yunus did not say that the tenure of interim government will be four years, said Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to the CA, on Monday, alleging that a section of the media has wrongly presented the CA's this part of the statement made during an interview with Al Jazeera. He said the country's political parties will decide whether secularism will be excluded or not from the Constitution. The Attorney General (AG) recently opined in favour of excluding secularism from the Constitution, arguing that 90 per cent of the people of the country are Muslim and they do not want secularism in the Constitution. (The Financial Express)
----Saju Sarker
BBN/SSR/AD