Bangladesh’s competitiveness among global economies has slightly improved to 107 out of 109 in rankings published yearly by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The country ranked 107 this year, from last year’s position 109, among 140 countries in the world, Xinhua news agency cited WEF report as saying. Bangladesh’s leading think-tank Centro for Policy Dialogue (CPD) disclosed the ranking on behalf of the Geneva-based body at a press conference in Dhaka on Wednesday. The report says the list of top 10 countries including Switzerland, Singap...

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said there is no existence of militant organisation IS in Bangladesh, and the news of the involvement of IS in Italian citizen Tavella Caeser’s killing has not been ascertained yet. However, he expects the mystery of the killing would be solved soon. He was addressing a press briefing at the conference room of the home ministry on Tuesday. Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia was also present on the occasion. The minister said four intelligence age...

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has taken an initiative to bring cooking gas using water route of neighbouring Bangladesh as the key Assam—Agartala National Highway (NH44) remained blocked for a week due to landslide in Assam. The IOC has asked the Central government to take up the matter with Bangladesh to arrange for bringing cooking gas from West Bengal via Ashuganj port in Brahmanbaria district of the neighbouring country which is about 50 kms from here. Giridhari Adhikari, Manager of Bishalgarh gas bottling plant, has written to the Princip...

A leading Bangladeshi economist has declared that the country will not be able to emerge as a middle-income country and achieve the $50 billon garment export target without prioritising development of Chittagong, according to media reports in Bangladesh. “We cannot achieve the $50 billon export target without opening and widening a second hub for the sector in Chittagong after its huge growth in Dhaka and its adjoining areas,” said Hossain Zillur Rahman. Rahman made the comments while addressing a roundtable on “realising $50 billion target for

Police have arrested a human trafficking “godfather” in a fresh crackdown on smugglers amid fears of a resumption of the racket that sparked a regional migrant crisis earlier this year, an officer said Thursday. Police have arrested at least 20 traffickers in the past month including alleged kingpin Dil Mohammad on the weekend in the southern smuggling town of Teknaf bordering Myanmar, reports AFP. [caption id="attachment_19839" align="alignright" width="650"] Bangladesh has targeted a number of smugglers operating in the borde...