Billion-dollar project for 3 economic zones
A new study has identified Sherpur in Maulvibazar and Mirershorai and Anwara in Chittagong as potential locations for economic zones to be built at an estimated cost of $1.17 billion by investors.
The study, commissioned by Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority, advised the government to roll out the Sherpur Economic Zone first as required infrastructure—power, water and gas—is in place, reports the Daily Star.
“So, it has the potential to attract investors,” Shoichi Kobayashi, team leader of the economic zones project, said at the unveiling of the final draft of the study.
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Hindu migrants from Bangladesh must be accommodated: Modi
The Indian prime ministerial candidate of BJP, Narendra Modi said Hindu migrants from Bangladesh must be accommodated in the country and detention camps would be done away with once his party comes to power.
“As soon as we come to power at the Centre, detention camps housing Hindu migrants from Bangladesh will be done away with,” Mr Modi told a public rally at Ramnagar in Assam on Saturday.
“We have a responsibility toward Hindus who are harassed and suffer in other countries. Where will they go? India is the only place for them. Our government cannot continue to harass them. We will have to accommodate them here,” he said.
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Taka to Dhaka keep declining
Cash remittances to Bangladesh from its global diaspora of migrant workers – the country’s second-largest source of foreign exchange behind the garment industry – continue to slide. The Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank, reported that in January, such remittances totaled $1.25 billion, a 5.8 percent decline from the year-earlier period, and the sixth consecutive month of falling inflows. From July 2013 to January 2014, the first seven months of the current fiscal year, remittances amounted to $8 billion, a 9 percent drop from the comparable year-ago period.
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Remittance mostly used in non-productive sectors
A recent Bangladesh Bank study reports that remittance sent by expatriates is mostly used for consumption and in the “non-productive” sectors in the country. The survey conducted in 2011 found 90% of remittances were used for meeting basic needs. Seventy-five percent of households receiving remittance spent those on food, 42% on loan repayment, 65% on education, 57% on treatment, 49% on marriage and 4% on running legal battles (multiple responses allowed). Experts described these as failure of successive governments to act on diverting the remittances into “productive” sectors instead of consumption.
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Exports rise 7.8pc on garment sales in Jan
The country’s exports rose 7.8 percent in January from a year earlier to $2.75 billion, boosted by clothing sales, the Export Promotion Bureau said on Sunday, despite months of election-related violence that disrupted transport and prompted global retailers to curb orders.
Bangladesh's $22 billion garment industry had seen orders cut nearly in half in the three months to December as political unrest in the months leading up to a Jan. 5 election hit the country, according to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association.
Learning parliamentary systems from India!
Speaker of the Indian Lok Sabha Meira Kumar had conveyed to her Bangladeshi counterpart on Wednesday that India was ready to help strengthen parliamentary systems and structures in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury visited the Lok Sabha on Thursday, and however, managed to exit the House just as Indian MPs resorted to unruly acts over the division of Andhra Pradesh.
The Speaker of Bangladesh’s Parliament Jatiya Sangsad, was in the Lok Sabha’s special box as a state guest when...
The Speaker of Bangladesh’s Parliament Jatiya Sangsad, was in the Lok Sabha’s special box as a state guest when...
