The World Bank (WB) thinks that Bangladesh will not require any budget support for upcoming fiscal year 2015-16. It is, therefore, uncertain whether the government will receive the Bank’s support in the next fiscal year’s budget. But the final decision regarding the matter will come at the spring meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington DC in April. “We had a long meeting with the World Bank officials and discussed about the budget support for the next fiscal year. But at the end of the meeting they (WB ...

All commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) will have to provide minimum Tk 50,000 as loan to at least a woman entrepreneur each year to expedite the ongoing financial inclusion programmes in Bangladesh. “We’ll able to create nearly 10,000 women entrepreneurs every year if the initiative continues,” Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Rahman said while announcing the unique scheme yesterday afternoon. [caption id="attachment_14355" align="alignleft" width="300"] Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman ha...

The two main initiatives established in response to the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, where nearly 1,200 garment workers lost their lives from a factory collapse, are wrestling with a critical question: Who should pay for the work needed to ensure basic factory safety standards in Bangladesh? It turns out that the global economy has enough financial assets, yet funds don’t always flow in the areas where they are needed. The global debt market is around $78 trillion and growing. Every week, an average of $100 billion in inv...