Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The BBN has prepared the morning business round up compiling reports, published by different newspapers and news portals in Bangladesh.
Govt may hike allowable stake of foreign firms in life insurance
The government plans to increase the stakes that the foreign firms are allowed to hold in individual insurance companies to attract more reputed multinationals in the industry. Currently, foreign insurance firms can hold up to 60 per cent stocks of the total sponsors’ equities with their local partners under an order issued in 2013. The government is likely to increase it to 83 per cent. The insurance authority also wants to enhance to Tk 1.0 billion the size of the paid-up capital required for the life insurers.
Government has no clear data on Rana Plaza victims
Government does not have clear data about the Rana Plaza victims even in two years since the accident, said speakers at a roundtable yesterday.“It was government’s responsibility to prepare statistics over the victims that how many workers were injured, how many were dead and how many remained unidentified,” said Kazi Saifuddin Ahmed, labour adviser of Bangladesh Employers Federation.
He blamed the government for “chaos over compensation issue” that there were confusions that who have been compensated and who have not been.
Bangladesh Bank chief urges IGP to ensure banks’ security
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman has urged the inspector general of police (IGP) for taking proper action and arrest the culprits immediately who are responsible for the Savar bank robbery. The central bank chief made the request in a letter, sent to the IPG AKM Shahidul Hoque on Wednesday, a day after the bank robbery. BB Governor Dr. Rahman also urged the IGP to ensure security of all the bank branches across the country in the future through establishing hotline between bank branches and adjacent police stations.
BB credit ceiling for 4 poorly-performed SCBs remains unchanged
Bangladesh Bank has set an unrevised credit ceiling for the four state-owned commercial banks for 2015 as they failed to strengthen their financial health last year, said officials of the central bank. The BB took the move in a bid to curb the rise in the classified loans of the SCBs and to reduce the scope for loan scandals in the context of their relatively low level of operational performance. The BB issued separate letters to managing directors and chief executive officers of the four banks last week in this regard asking them to disburse loan in line with the central bank’s directives. According to the BB letters, the central bank set credit growth targets for Sonali Bank, Janata Bank, Agrani Bank and Rupali Bank at 6 per cent, 10 per cent, 10 per cent and 12 per cent respectively for 2015 like the previous year.
RANA PLAZA SURVIVORS LEFT IN THE LURCH
Some 55 percent of the Rana Plaza survivors are still unemployed, two years after the nation’s worst industrial disaster, due to physical inability, trauma or lack of suitable jobs, a recent survey by ActionAid Bangladesh found. On the flipside, about 44 percent of the survivors managed to get gainfully employed in various sectors, according to the survey, which was unveiled yesterday at a programme organised at the capital’s Brac Centre Inn. ActionAid, an international non-governmental organisation, had the biggest sample size among all the surveys conducted on the disaster that claimed 1,135 lives and injured 2,500.
Changes begin in Bangladesh factory safety issue: US ambassador
US ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat said that changes have begun in Bangladesh to address factory safety concerns. “We urge all of Bangladesh’s stakeholders to ensure that all factories are safe,” said the US envoy on the second anniversary of the Rana Plaza Tragedy. The government of Bangladesh has also begun to show its leadership among industrialising nations by demonstrating its commitment to important labour rights standards, said an op-ed by Ambassador Bernicat.
BTRC to launch hotline to receive complaints
The telecom regulator has taken an initiative to ensure the quality of services, allocating a dedicated number to help users lodge complaints. The 24-hour number is 01555121121, according to an official of Bangladesh Tele-communication Regulatory Commission.The number will officially be launched next week after Sunil Kanti Bose, chairman of the BTRC, returns from abroad. The regulator also formed three committees last week to ensure the quality of services of fixed line internet and the committee members are already visiting different sites.
TWO CASES FILED OVER ASHULIA BANK ROBBERY
Two separate cases have been filed against a horde of suspects of Tuesday’s daring daylight bank robbery in Ashulia that left eight people dead. However, investigators are yet to get at the crux of the bloody incident.
Meanwhile, the central bank has asked the commercial banks to establish hotline between their branches and nearby police stations to ensure security. The Bangladesh Bank (BB) also launched spot checks on security parapets of banks, and announced a compensation package for the robbed bank victims.