Browse Category

Governance

Gold smuggling at an all-time high, Biman involved (!)

There was nothing unusual about the thrice-weekly Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight BG048 from Dubai via the Bangladeshi port of Chittagong which landed in the capital, Dhaka, at 8.30am on the morning of February 2. Except for the fact that it arrived two hours ahead of schedule — and that it carried a secret cargo: 485 gold bars stashed in compartments throughout the plane, in its toilets and life jacket cabinets. GoldThe seizure, totaling 135 pounds (61 kilograms) worth nearly $4 million, was the latest in a string of illegal gold shipments intercep...

Bangladesh on the brink of political disaster

Bangladesh, a South Asian country of 150 million people, is on the brink of disaster now after facing a prolonged political turmoil for over a year. The recent bouts of political violence began on January 3 when police, on the order of the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, acted very highhandedly and banned all the protests in the national capital city of Dhaka. The police also confined the leader of the country’s hartalmain opposition, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, BNP, Khaleda Zia, to her office. Apparently this was done to neutralize the oppositi...

Canada seeks to increase exports to Bangladesh

Canada is seeking to raise exports of cereals and other agricultural products to Bangladesh, especially from the prairie province of Saskatchewan. canada-bangladesh“We wish to increase our exports to Bangladesh,” Mortoza Tarafder, a director of Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership, said at a trade fair organised by Canada Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CanCham). He did not give a figure. Bangladesh is Canada’s third-largest pulse export market and a major market for wheat and canola. Agricultural commodities rep...

Big, positive step in inter-country Saarc travel

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), the eight-nation regional economic grouping which started its journey 30 years ago but failed to make much headway, has taken a big and positive step in promoting intra-regional travel. SAARCFour members of Saarc comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are close to signing a deal allowing cross-border movement of motor vehicles. The four countries are Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan. The positive move will allow movement of vehicles thro...

UN sends official to broker peace deal to end BD unrest

UN Chief Ban-Ki-moon has assigned a senior official to Bangladesh to broker a peace initiative in the ongoing political unrest that has claimed over 100 lives in the country. "The secretary general is personally committed to the stability and positive development of Bangladesh," local media on Friday quoted a UN spokesman as saying. Bangladeshi textile workers run to safetThe UN secretary general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Ban tasked UN's assistant secretary general Oscar Fernandez-Taranco to liaise with the government and "he's d...

Mamata to visit Bangladesh on Language Day

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will make her maiden visit to Dhaka from February 19 to 21 to celebrate the ‘Bhasha Diwas’ (language day), which is observed in that country every year to pay tribute to language martyrs. MamataDuring her visit to the Bangladesh capital, Mamata is expected to meet Bangladesh President Mohammad Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina and discuss key treaties like the Teesta water sharing agreement and the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) between the two countries. She recently met Hamid in New Delhi, ...
Verified by MonsterInsights