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HRW asks for wider inquiry against Rab, its disbandment  

New York-based rights body Human Rights Watch (HRW) has  asked Bangladesh authorities to establish an independent body to ‘investigate evidence’ that Rab has been responsible for extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture, and other serious abuses over many years. Human Rights Watch on Wednesday reiterated its longstanding call that Rab be disbanded, and replaced with a fully accountable civilian law enforcement agency dedicated to fighting crime and terrorism. “This is a good opportunity for Bangladesh to deliver on its longstanding promise of zero tolerance for human rights violations by security forces,” said Adams. “RAB should be disbanded and replaced with a fully civilian force that operates under the rule of law and has external oversight. Death squads have no place ...

World Bank to help Bangladesh on VAT

The World Bank Board has approved USD60m in interest-free credit to modernize the administration of Bangladesh’s value-added tax regime and to boost the tax take. The VAT Improvement Program Project will introduce automation, including the launch of online VAT taxpayer services, and improve transparency in VAT administration. The project aims to increase the ratio of VAT to gross domestic product (GDP) by at least one percentage point of GDP by 2019, from just 3.7 percent of GDP in 2012-13. wbThe project will support the government to implement the new VAT law, which comes into effect in 2015, and aims to provide better servic...

25 missions abroad fail to achieve export targets    

Twenty-five of the 51 Bangladesh missions abroad have failed to achieve respective export targets for the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal (2013-14). The key Bangladesh missions like the ones in Washington, London, Paris, Ottawa, Tokyo and Canberra which failed to achieve their July-April export targets while some other important missions –- Berlin, Madrid, Rome, The Hague and Stockholm — have been able to reach their targets for the 10-month period. The overall export earnings for the July-April period of the current fiscal amounted to US$ 24,654.39 million against the strategic target of $ 24,555.55 million, having a growth of 0.40 percent over the strategic target.

Garment exports grow 15.38pc in July-April

The exports of readymade garments from Bangladesh increased by 15.38 percent to US$ 19.97 billion during the first ten months of the ongoing fiscal year 2013-14, as against exports of $17.307 billion made during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, as per the latest data released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB). Segment-wise, woven apparel exports grew by 13.91 percent year-on-year to $10.166 billion during July-April 2013-14 period, whereas knitwear exports soared by 16.96 percent to $9.803 billion. Knitwear and woven garments together accounted for 81 percent of total $24.654 billion exports made by the South Asian nation during the ten-month period beginning July 1, 2014.

Solar in a big way: Green jobs booming

Bangladesh is known for its apparel manufacturing industry—and for the conditions faced by garment workers toiling in Dickensian factories for a dollar a day. But according to a report released Sunday, the South Asian nation has become a top hot spot for renewable energy jobs, creating a green workforce as large as Spain’s in 2013. How? Solar energy. Bangladeshi’s are installing small photovoltaic systems at a rate of 80,000 a month, says the report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). In a country where only 47 percent of the population had access to electricity in 2009, according to the Asian Development Bank, solar is increasingly becoming a way to leapfrog the need to build a bigger power grid.

Existing planning process impractical: Muhith      

Terming the existing planning process too impractical, Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Monday stressed the need for a new planning process to have better development outcomes. “The way projects are prepared now following PEC and Ecnec is much impractical…project proforma are archaic and useless for the present time. We’ll have to change it,” he said. The minister was talking to reporters after holding a pre-budget meeting with the secretaries of different ministries and divisions at the NEC conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area in the afternoon. Muhith
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