The Bangladeshi embassy in Brasilia has expressed surprise at the news but it has offered its support to the Brazilian authorities in their investigation. The victims have not been arrested but advised to seek refugee status. Their cases will now be decided by the National Council for Refugees.

According to the national secretary of justice, Paul Abram, Brazilian law provides that victims of human trafficking and people working in degrading conditions can get resident visa on humanitarian grounds. According to Abram, foreigners who are properly employed by companies will receive regular work visa and the others will be accepted in the country on humanitarian grounds.

“The first step is to confirm the occurrence of trafficking and slave labour since the simple fact of being identified as victims of trafficking gives them protection from the Brazilian state,” the secretary told reporters in Brasilia.

The federal police launched an operation, called “Freedom”, after noticing a sharp rise in the number of asylum claims by Bangladeshis in recent years. In 2010, there were 39 such cases but the number went up to 111 in 2011. Last year, the Bangladeshis were one of the four countries from where Brazil gets the maximum number of asylum seekers and refugees.

On Wednesday, the federal police teams, tracking the victims, found them in six places in Fern, a satellite town of Brasilia.

According to the police, all the victims were living in very bad conditions, with 20 people crammed into a room. Currently unemployed, they have been looking for work in the construction sector. Now, some of them are afraid of going back to their country, where the majority of population is trapped in poverty.

Melad Ahmed, 35, came to Brazil illegally to work in poultry industry in Parana state, but he was taken to Brasilia. “I can not go back. In Dhaka, I have no job and money. Here, I can work in construction, slaughter house and Indian restaurants. I will do any service,” Ahmed told Estadao de Sao Paulo newspaper in his broken English. “If I return to Bangladesh, I will have trouble with the police,” he told the newspaper.

Leaving his wife and son in Dhaka, according to Estadao, Ahmed travelled from Dhaka to Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia, with stops in Dubai, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires. From Bolivia, he took buses to Parana and from there he arrived in the federal capital.

The growth of new routes being used by international traffickers to bring illegal immigrants to Brazil has set the alarm bells ringing in Brazil. The first to use these routes were Haitians, who received special treatment due to the critical situation in their country.

However, the same routes are now being used by Africans and Asians who pass seven different countries until they reach the border of Brazil, often paying thousands of dollars to middlemen and smugglers who take them to Brazil through the porous borders with Peru and Bolivia, which are covered in heavy vegetation and difficult to patrol.

With its economy growing and the wages getting better, Brazil is now becoming a destination for migrants from poor countries, including Bangladesh. In recent years, there has been such an escalating influx of illegal immigrants into Acre, a state in Brazil’s westernmost region, and other parts of northwestern Brazil, that it created an emergency situation which the local government was not able to handle and it had to request the federal government for help to provide shelter, food and water to more than 1,000 migrants — mostly from Africa — who crossed into the state from Bolivia.

More than 5,000 Haitians have moved into Acre since the January 2010 earthquake devastated the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Talking to families in their homes about nutritious diets and healthful household behaviours is part of the fight against stunting in Bangladesh.

JAMALPUR, Bangladesh, 16 April 2013 – Monsoon rains lash down in northwest Bangladesh. The rising waters flood fields and rice paddies, turn dirt tracks and paths into muck.

UNICEF correspondent Guy Hubbard reports on health workers in Bangladesh’s rural villages who are fighting malnutrition by raising awareness about diet, breastfeeding and hygiene. Watch in RealPlayer

Saerni Shirka, clutching a small purple umbrella, braves the storm to go door to door in the rural villages around Jamalpur. A community health worker for more than 20 years, she’s on a mission to educate mothers about how best to feed their children.

High rate of malnutrition

The monsoon floods, while potentially destructive, are a vital part of the country’s rural economy. The waters carry rich silt from their Himalayan sources. When the waters recede, the soil is left fertile. The floodwaters also carry fish downriver and through villages, providing poor fisherfolk a rich source of protein – and income.

But, despite the fertile soil and fish stocks, the children of poor families here aren’t getting the nutrition they need.

Bangladesh has one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world. Forty-one per cent of children under the age of 5 suffer from moderate to severe stunting, an indicator of chronic malnutrition. Many of their parents are farmers and fishers. The farmers grow rice almost exclusively, and the fisherfolk sell off everything they catch to buy the rice.

Rice is the traditional staple food here. The nutrition it provides is not enough for growing children.

Teaching the benefits of a diverse diet

“Many families here do have access to vegetables and fish,” says Ms. Shirka. “But the main thing we’ve found is that they don’t know about the benefits of eating vegetables, fish and these sorts of things. They don’t know how the diversity of foods and nutrients will improve a child’s health. So we try to tell them why it’s important, and how it can be done easily.”

Children of poor families in Bangladesh aren’t getting the nutrition they need. Forty-one per cent of children under the age of 5 suffer from moderate to severe stunting.

When the rains let up, she convenes a meeting of mothers. They discuss the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, hygiene and including vitamin- and protein-rich ingredients with every meal. All of these behaviours are major factors in reducing malnutrition here.

Ms. Shirka’s rounds are part of a joint initiative by UNICEF and the European Union to educate mothers and pregnant women about the importance of nutrition and a varied diet. The 41 million euro global partnership is aimed at reducing the rate of malnutrition in nine developing countries

But since a building collapse April 24 killed at least 1,100 garment workers in Bangladesh in one of the deadliest industrial tragedies in history, the country has gone from one of the industry’s greatest assets to one of its biggest liabilities.

“The risk factors have jumped off the charts,” said Julie Hughes, president of the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, a trade group that represents retailers who import garments. “This is worse than what anyone had imagined.”

Working conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry long have been known to be grim, a result of government corruption, desperation for jobs, and industry indifference. But the scale of this tragedy has raised alarm among executives and customers.

The Facebook pages of Joe Fresh, Mango and Benetton, a few of the brands whose clothing or production documents were found in the rubble of the collapsed building, are peppered with angry comments from shoppers. Some warn they’re going to shop elsewhere now.

Retailers are also facing street protests. In the U.S., university chapters of United Students Against Sweatshops are helping to stage demonstrations against Gap in more than a dozen cities including Seattle, Los Angeles and New York. The group plans to target other retailers it believes are not committed to stricter standards for Bangladeshi factories.

The rising death toll may force Western brands to make a choice: Stay and work to improve conditions. Or leave and face higher costs, similar or worse worker conditions in other low-wage countries and criticism for abandoning a poor nation where per-capita income is just $1,940 per year.

Most retailers have vowed to stay and promised to work for change. Wal-Mart and the Swedish retailer H&M, the top two producers of clothing in Bangladesh, have said they have no plans to leave. Other big chains such as The Children’s Place, Mango, J.C. Penney, Gap, Benetton and Sears have said the same.

“Today’s economy is global, and it is not a question of if a company like H&M should be present in developing countries,” said Anna Eriksson, an H&M spokeswoman. “It is a question of how we do it.”

But for some, the risk of being in Bangladesh has become too great. The Walt Disney Co. announced this month that it is stopping production of its branded goods in Bangladesh.

“These are complicated global issues, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution,” Bob Chapek, president of Disney Consumer Products, said in a statement.

Industry experts predict others will quietly reduce their dependence on the country.

“Almost everybody is going to cut back on what they are sourcing from Bangladesh,” Hughes said. “Not today, but by a year from now our imports are going to fall. The question is how much.”

But it’s not easy for retailers who make their clothes in Bangladesh to simply leave.

There is no shortage of cheap labor or available garment factories around the world. But it takes months or even years to establish relationships with new factories that retailers can trust to turn out large volumes of garments to their specifications on time.

Even if retailers move their business to other low-cost countries, they still face threats to their reputations.

Of the major garment-manufacturing countries, Bangladesh’s working conditions pose the highest risk to brands, according to Maplecroft, a risk analysis firm based in Bath, England. But Bangladesh ranks somewhat better than many low-cost countries on other labor issues, such as child labor and forced labor.

According to Maplecroft’s Labor Rights and Protection Index, which measures the overall risk of association with violations of labor rights, Bangladesh is the 17th-riskiest country in the world – and less risky than such garment-producing leaders as China, Pakistan, Indonesia and India.

Another reason it’s hard for retailers to leave is that Bangladesh is one of the few places in the world that has enough workers, manufacturing capacity and experience to provide what retailers demand: High volume, low prices, good quality and predictable service.

The garment industry in Bangladesh is the third-biggest exporter of clothes in the world, after China and Italy. There are 5,000 factories in the country and 3.6 million garment workers. Manufacturers have easy access to cheap raw materials, and the country’s political situation has been relatively stable.

And its garment workers command the lowest wages – by far – in the world. The average worker in Bangladesh earns the equivalent of 24 cents an hour, compared with 45 cents in Cambodia, 52 cents in Pakistan, 53 cents in Vietnam and $1.26 in China, according to the Worker Rights Consortium, a worker advocacy group.

On Sunday a Bangladesh cabinet minister said the government plans to raise the minimum wage for , and a new minimum wage board will issue recommendations within three months.

Between 15 and 25 percent of the wholesale cost of a garment is for labor. Unlike raw material costs, which can vary, labor is the only major cost that retailers can control.

“It’s a country built for commodity products,” said Janet Fox, who arranged garment manufacturing overseas for J.C. Penney and Under Armour and now works as a consultant. “It’s not a highly skilled labor force, but they can make the basics.”

Bangladesh has long been a major garment producer, but in recent years its production has soared.

For decades, the global garment trade was controlled with a quota system called the Multi Fibre Arrangement that limited production from developing countries to protect higher-wage workers in developed countries.

When the system ended in 2005, retailers flocked to Bangladesh because of its low wages. Manufacturers scrambled to increase the size of their factories.

Land is scarce in Bangladesh, one of the world’s most densely populated countries. It packs 163 million people, about half the population of the U.S., into an area about the size of the state of Iowa. So the Bangladesh government, desperate to boost employment, looked the other way as companies converted unsuitable buildings into factories or crammed far too many workers and equipment into small spaces, creating fire hazards, labor activists say.

Since 2005, at least 1,800 workers have been killed in the Bangladeshi garment industry in factory fires and building collapses, according to research by the advocacy group International Labor Rights Forum.

In November, 112 workers were killed in a garment factory in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital. The factory lacked emergency exits, and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Clothes destined for Disney, Wal-Mart and Sears were found among the building’s remains, though Disney has denied its suppliers used the factory.

But as horrific as that fire was, it wasn’t as bad as the April 24 collapse, the garment industry’s worst disaster. The eight-story Rana Plaza building housing five garment factories collapsed 15 miles north of Dhaka at the beginning of a workday.

The building wasn’t designed to hold factories, and three stories had been added illegally. Most of the victims were crushed by massive blocks of concrete and mortar falling on them.

Then as the death toll was climbing, a fire broke out at a sweater manufacturer Wednesday in Dhaka, killing eight people including a senior police officer, a Bangladeshi politician and a top clothing industrial official.

Only a few companies, including Britain’s Primark and Canada’s Loblaw Inc., which owns the Joe Fresh clothing line, have acknowledged that suppliers were making clothes for them at the Rana Plaza site and have promised to compensate workers and their families. Loblaw’s CEO said suppliers were making clothes for as many as 30 brands and retailers at the site.

Benetton labels were found at the site, and the Italian fashion brand acknowledged that one of its suppliers had used one of the factories. The company said that before the collapse, the factory had been removed from its list of approved factories.

Mango, whose production documents were found in the ruins, has said it was planning to produce there but hadn’t started.

Clothing retailers often depend on a web of contractors and sub-contractors to produce goods for them. Fabric will be made at one factory, buttons at another, and the item will be sewn together somewhere else. Large orders are often placed with one contractor, who then farms out the work to several smaller factories.

Retailers said they have strict standards that they require their suppliers to follow, but they know little or nothing about conditions at individual factories that make their clothes because there are so many of them.

But retailers are very familiar with the general conditions in the countries where they do business, and their importance to local economies means they can push for improvements. Labor groups and other activists have said last month’s tragedy is just the most extreme evidence that brands haven’t done nearly enough to protect workers.

The retail industry hasn’t released estimates on how much it would cost to upgrade Bangladeshi factories to Western standards. But the Worker Rights Consortium puts the cost at $1.5 billion to $3 billion. If the money was spent over five years, it would be 1.5 to 3 percent of the $95 billion expected to be spent on clothes manufacturing over that time. Put another way, it’s 10 cents added onto the cost of a T-shirt.

There are limits to what companies can do to improve conditions, though, said Matthew Amengual, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management who studies labor regulation and enforcement in developing countries. “Companies have a very important role to play, but they can’t do it just by auditing their supply chain,” he said.

The collapse of the factory in Bangladesh showed how safety issues in the country are in some ways too ingrained and complex for companies to monitor and change. It is much easier for a company to push for more fire extinguishers or make sure fire exits aren’t locked than to judge the structural integrity of thousands of factories.

Experts said if big retailers and the Bangladesh government don’t work together to improve standards and enforce them, more production will gradually move out of the country.

“There are huge risks to stay if there isn’t any progress,” said the Rev. David Schilling, of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of shareholders that pushes companies to be more socially responsible.

Disney, which has said that less than 1 percent of the factories used by its contractors operate in Bangladesh, said it has told all its suppliers to stop production in the country by the end of March 2014. The company also said it would reconsider its decision if conditions improve.

Others have taken a different approach.

In the wake of the November fire, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, toughened its policies with suppliers. In January, it said that it would cut ties with any factory that failed an inspection, instead of first issuing a warning.

Last month, Wal-Mart said it will be tying some of the compensation of some executives, including CEO Mike Duke, to the success of its compliance program.

Forty garment buyers, including Wal-Mart, H&M, and J.C. Penney, met with labor rights groups on April 29 in Germany to discuss how the industry could improve safety conditions in Bangladesh.

The labor groups are setting Wednesday as the deadline for brands to sign up to a legally binding plan that would require retailers to pay for needed safety improvements and allow independent inspections of the clothing factories in Bangladesh.

Only two companies – PVH, the parent company of such brands as Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Tchibo, a German retailer – have signed up to the plan. Gap was close to signing last fall but then backed out and announced its own plan that included hiring an independent fire safety expert to inspect factories.

Adding to the pressure on retailers, Avaaz, a human rights group with 21 million members worldwide, has garnered more than 900,000 signatures on a petition pushing Gap and H&M to commit to the proposal.

“We would rather see companies stay in Bangladesh to compel and fund the renovations that are necessary to turn these deathtraps into safe buildings,” said Scott Nova, executive director at the Worker Rights Consortium.

—

The 18th session of the ninth Parliament will be presided over by the first woman Speaker of Bangladesh, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury. She is also the country’s first Parliament Speaker elected from a seat reserved for women.

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith will present the government’s last budget on June 6. He has already said the budget will be of around Tk 2.24 trillion.

Most of the opposition lawmakers are likely to lose their membership in this session as they abstained from attending Parliament for almost 90 consecutive days

The storm hit Patuakhali district on Thursday with winds of up to 100 kph (60 mph), and was heading for the ports of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.

One person has been reported dead, Bangladeshi officials say.

Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate low-lying areas in Bangladesh and Burma, and take shelter in cyclone centres.

However, some displaced people in Burma have resisted calls for them to evacuate camps in Rakhine state.

The United Nations has warned that 8.2m people could be at risk from Mahasen in Bangladesh, Burma and north-east India.

Centres crowded

The Bangladeshi authorities have raised the danger level to seven out of 10 for low-lying areas around Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.

AdvertisementBBC Weather update on the progress of Tropical Cyclone Mahasen and the tracks it could take

However, Shamsuddun Ahmed, deputy director of Bangladesh’s Meteorological Department, told AFP news agency the cyclone was not expected to cause serious damage as it was “not severe”.

The cyclone “did not gain strength in the last part of its journey as it hit the coast”, he said.

In Bangladesh, there have been reports of waist-deep water submerging low-lying areas and houses being damaged. There are also fears of a storm surge.

All schools, colleges and some hotels have been declared cyclone shelters, the BBC’s Mir Sabbir reports from Dhaka. These centres are crowded and people are still rushing in, our correspondent adds.

Airports in Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong have been shut until the danger subsides.

‘Race against time’

In Burma, meanwhile, tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims living in camps in low-lying areas of Rakhine state are feared to be at risk.

AdvertisementThe UN’s Kirsten Mildren says many in Burma are at risk from the cyclone

They were displaced by ethnic violence last year and many are reluctant to move from the camps.

Hla Maung said he lost his mother and two young daughters during the clashes between Muslims and Buddhists.

“I lost everything. I don’t want to go anywhere. I’ll stay here. If I die, I want to die here,” he said.

Rakhine state said it had moved some 36,000 displaced people from camps, Kirsten Mildren, from the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), told the BBC.

But she said the evacuation was “not moving as fast as we’d like – it’s certainly a race against time. We’re finding it very difficult to convince [people] to move to higher ground or safer buildings.”

Burmese planning minister Tin Naing Thein claimed that in all more than 166,000 people had been relocated, but there was little evidence of a mass evacuation in reports from the affected area.

Correspondents say the Burmese evacuations are seen as a test of the government’s resolve to assist the Rohingya, amid allegations that state forces stood by or even participated in last year’s anti-Muslim violence.

On Tuesday, President Thein Sein was quoted as urging officials to “carry out relief work on humanitarian grounds for all, regardless of race and religion”, at a meeting to co-ordinate relief efforts for Cyclone Mahasen.

Cyclone Mahasen has already taken a toll. Though the storm did not make landfall in Sri Lanka, the associated heavy rain caused floods and mudslides which killed at least seven people, according to the country’s Disaster Management Centre.

At least 50 Rohingya Muslims were feared drowned on Tuesday when boats evacuating them from the path of the cyclone capsized off western Burma.

“The Secretary-General has been following the recent wave of violence in Bangladesh with increasing concern and is saddened by the loss of life, including during the events that unfolded in Dhaka throughout Sunday and into Monday,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement.

“The Secretary-General calls on all concerned to stop the violence, to respect the law and to express their views peacefully.”

According to media reports, more than 30 people have died and 60 had been injured in clashes between police and protesters in the capital.

Mr. Ban also urged political and religious leaders to “engage in constructive dialogue and help defuse the tensions.”

The clashes come just over a week after a garment factory building collapsed in the outskirts of Dhaka, killing more than 650 people.

 Geographically chars (islands in rivers), sparsely located in different areas of Bangladesh, are recognised as the extreme poverty-prone areas. The people there lack infrastructures and adaptive capacity to mitigate fallouts of natural hazards like flood, drought, cold wave, and river bank erosion etc. Each year thousands of families living in the remote chars of mighty rivers Padma, Jamuna, and Teesta become victim to severe erosion of river banks and live in grinding poverty.

Char inhabitants are not just isolated from the mainland; they are deprived of resources, services in agriculture, livestock, health and education, social welfare etc, being provided by the government. In addition to food insecurity, lack of social services, health and educational facilities is added to their economic and environmental plight.

The government has been implementing a wide range of development and safety net programmes to ameliorate the lot of the poorest and assist the extreme poor section of the society. Char inhabitants were always neglected in various development programmes. Although two national budgets (FY 2009-2010 and FY 2010-2011) focused on them but not adequately, no allocation was made for them in the last two national budgets for FY 2011-2012 and FY 2012-2013. Consequently, char people were subjected to extreme discrimination and deprivation. The total allocation under different poverty reduction strategies in FY 2009-2010 and FY 2010-2011 budgets were Tk 1.82 billion and Tk 35.47 billion respectively. Different programmes under poverty reduction and food security measures included building community-based adaptation to climate change in flood-prone regions through constructing flood shelters, disaster-risk mitigation, coastal afforestation and comprehensive disaster management programmes. Besides, there were some programmes aimed at improving the living standards and building capacity in the form of char livelihood programmes, Asrayan, national nutrition, economic empowerment of poor, employment for extreme poor people and school feeding programmes etc in northern Bangladesh.

Due to unequal distribution of resources and negligence, char dwellers do not get the increasing benefits of social safety net programmes (SSNPs). The SSNPs carried out by the government for poor people are normally allocated according to area and population coverage. The ratio of extreme poor coverage in the mainland is 40 per cent to 45 per cent. While 80 per cent extreme poor of the mainland is covered under the safety nets, it is just 20 per cent to 25 per cent for remote chars.

According to the Bangladesh Economic Review-2012, the rate of extreme poverty across the country in 2005 was 40.4 per cent which remarkably decreased in 2010 to 31.5 per cent. The government has put significant emphasis on the sustainable SSNPs for extreme poor people aimed at reducing the poverty rate to 25 per cent and 15 per cent in 2013 and 2021 respectively through planned economic development. Char areas should be seen as specific and separate in light of adopted strategies under the development planning. Specific allocation has to be made in the national budget to improve the living conditions of char dwellers. About 50-60 hundred thousand people living in remote chars deserve the facilities given by the government on a priority basis. It is expected the char people get due attention in the upcoming national budget (2013-2014) which will be presented in the parliament soon. Happily, the finance minister has already assured that any remote char from entire Bangladesh can be considered as ‘model for char development’ under a pilot project in the coming budget. The remote chars of Pabna, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Lalmonirhat districts deserve special consideration because the inhabitants living in these chars are more vulnerable and highly risk-prone to natural disasters than others in the country.

Have you ever spent time thinking about your Vision?

Vision for your life, for your work, for your family…or anything else… Over the past few months, I have been hit with this huge need to re-define my vision. In fact, 31 people so far have specifically asked me about my vision for my business and a few dozen have asked me about my vision for my life. Now the strange thing is that all of these people have asked me recently, within the past few weeks.

So as with most things in life, if they happen in frequency, I tend to listen.

With that in mind, I’ve started my quest to define my vision. To create it so clearly that every movement I take, is a clearly thought-out, well-defined step

Growth slowed, inflation quickened, and exports weakened in Bangladesh, but the current account surplus nearly doubled in fiscal year 2012 on strong remittances. The authorities began implementing a program of macroeconomic and structural reforms to correct emerging imbalances and foster sustained, rapid growth. Weak external and domestic demand are projected to slow growth in FY2013, but the current account is expected to stay in surplus. Political instability in the run-up to the elections is a risk. Improving the business climate and infrastructure, deepening the finance sector, and liberalizing trade is needed to boost investment and competitiveness.

Economic performance

Growth in gross domestic product (GDP) slowed to 6.3% in FY2012 (ended June 2012) from 6.7% in the previous year. Agricultural growth halved to 2.5% from 5.1% in FY2011, as crop growth dropped to 0.9% from 5.7%. Higher power, fuel, and fertilizer prices, and reduced area for the monsoon season (aman) rice crop, weakened performance. Industry growth was strong at 9.5%, up from 8.2% in FY2011, as manufacturing expanded by 9.8% and construction and power both turned in somewhat better performances. Domestic market-oriented small-scale manufacturing benefited from new tax incentives and greater access to financing. Services growth slowed slightly to 6.1%, mainly because of lower exports and imports.

On the demand side, private consumption benefited from a marked expansion in workers’ remittances and higher bank credit. Reflecting the global economic slowdown, growth in exports and imports alike decelerated sharply, with net exports subtracting from growth.

Selected Economic Indicators (%) – Bangladesh 2013 2014
GDP growth 5.7 6.0
Inflation 7.8 7.0
Cu

rrent account balance
(share of GDP) 2.0 1.0
Source: ADB estimates.

Economic prospects

Economic forecasts for FY2013 and FY2014 rest on four assumptions. First, the central bank’s slight easing in monetary policy announced in January 2013 will not stoke inflation, given the declining trend in international commodity prices and a favorable domestic crop outlook. Second, the Government of Bangladesh will contain subsidies by continuing to raise fuel and electricity prices and thus keep in check its need for bank borrowing. Third, though political activity is expected to be volatile, social stability will be maintained. And, finally, weather will be favorable.

GDP growth is projected to edge lower in  to 5.7%. Export demand, a major contributor to GDP growth in Bangladesh, is expected to slacken slightly, reflecting the Asian Development Outlook’s baseline assumptions that the euro area economy stagnates and the recovery of the United States remains frail. Despite higher remittances, growth in demand for private consumption is expected to weaken as households adopt a cautious approach to spending because of political uncertainties ahead of parliamentary elections expected by early 2014, depressing production in industries oriented to domestic markets. Lower rice prices will further dampen consumer demand through reduced agricultural income. Ongoing decline in imports of capital equipment and slow import growth for raw materials indicate lower utilization of existing production capacity and a lull in investment. A drop in import letters of credit opened for machinery and industrial raw materials signals weak economic activity in the coming months. With some strengthening of economic activity expected in the euro area and the US in 2014, GDP growth is projected to recover moderately to 6.0% in that year on the back of gradual rises in exports, consumer spending, and investment.

The coltan that’s used in our mobile phones and entertainment systems is mostly mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions have died in what’s been called “Africa’s World War.” The United Nations has reported that warlords, guilty of numerous crimes against humanity, vie for control of coltan production while enslaving and killing thousands.

Many of the diamonds we buy for our loved ones come from West Africa, where diamond mining and the black market in the stones has fueled bloody wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Now, in light of a recent tragedy in Bangladesh, it seems even the clothes on our backs may be contributing to a portion of human misery

Foreign Minister Dr Dipu made the appeal while addressing as chief guest the opening session of an international conference on “Oil and Gas Exploration Technologies” at Dhaka University Senate Hall on April 24.

Recalling the historic bilateral relations with Russia , the foreign minister said Russia was beside the people of Bangladesh during the Liberation War in 1971 and it worked closely with the post-liberation government of Bangabandhu to rebuild the war- ravaged Bangladesh .

Dhaka University , Petrobangla and Gazprom, Russian energy giant, jointly organised the two-day conference. Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique presided over the opening session of the conference which as addressed, among others, by Russian Ambassador Alexander A. Nikolayev, Petrobangla Chairman Dr Hussain Monsur and Director Adviser of Gazprom Eduard S. Shevchenko.

Dipu Moni said after the settlement of maritime conflicts of with Myanmar , Bangladesh is planning to intensify its gas and oil exploration activities in the large area of the Bay of Bengal . Bangladesh hopes that Russia and Gazprom would extend its cooperation to these activities, she added.
In his speech, Dr Arefin Siddique recalled the historic relations between the two countries and said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Moscow in January this year has paved the way for deeper collaboration in the areas of energy, culture, counterterrorism, agriculture, science and education.

Russian Ambassador Nikolayev focused on the existing bilateral relations between the two countries and hoped that the two countries would continue to work to further the friendly ties in future.

During the ceremony, a total of hundred awards were conferred to 100 awardees in four categories for outstanding performance in outsourcing of software and IT enabled services, out of which 15 outsourcing organizations, 18 individual freelancers, 3 female freelancers and 64 freelancers from 64 districts were awarded.
In his speech, BASIS President AKM Fahim Mashroor stated that BASIS will keep supporting and inspiring the young generation to create their career in IT sector and become IT entrepreneurs.

Among others, Syed Abdul Hamid, Managing Director of Agrani Bank Limited, Papias Hawlader, CIO of Leadsoft Bangladesh Ltd, Md. Sabur Khan, President of DCCI, Md. Moinul Islam, Acting President of BCS, members of BASIS Executive Council and former Presidents of BASIS were also present on this occasion.

BASIS Outsourcing Award 2013 was sponsored by Agrani Bank Ltd, Leadsoft Bangladesh Ltd and Bdjobs.com.

Mr. Hamid has a dedicated career in politics and social welfare. He involved in politics in 1959 as a member of Chattra League. In 1961 he took part in political movement against the autocratic rule of the then President Gen. Ayub Khan and he was sent to jail fro several times. He held various political offices including General Secretary of the College Student Union, President of Chatra League in Kishoregunj sub division, Vice President of Mymensingh District Chatra League and joined the Awami League in 1969.

Mr. Abdul Hamid participated at the glorious war of liberation in 1971. He went to India and led the independence struggle as the Chairman of Meghalaya recruiting camp in Agartala and Sub-Sector Commander of Bangladesh Liberation Force (Mujib Bahini) for the then Sunamgunj and Kishoregunj Sub-Divisions. On the final victory of 16 December 1971, he played the major catalyst’s role to repatriate the Bengali refugees staying in different camps of India’s Meghalaya state. He came back home on 10 January 1972 and celebrated the home coming of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, from a long time captivity at Pakistani jail, on the same day.

Immediately after his return to the newly liberated land, he administered the chair of Kishoregunj Relief and Rehabilitation Committee and was entrusted with responsibilities of the Vice President of Kishoregunj Awami League in 1974. After the cruel assassination of the Father of the Nation, Mr. Hamid was arrested by the then Gen. Zia’s autocratic military regime during 1976-78. He served as the President of District Awami League from 1978 to 2009 and also carried out the responsibilities of Kishoregonj District Bar Association President from 1990 to 1996. As a social activist and patron of cultural and educational initiatives, Mr. Hamid established several Primary Schools, High Schools and Colleges at Mithamoin Sub-District.

He has a luminous political trajectory. He was the youngest member elected for the Pakistan National Assembly in 1970 from Mymensingh, member of the Constituent Assembly 1972, elected MP for the National Parliament of Bangladesh in 1973, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 from Bangladesh Awami League. Mr. Hamid was the Deputy Speaker of the National Parliament from 1996 to 2001 and became the Speaker of the House from July to October 2001. He was the Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2006. Mr. Abdul Hamid Advocate became the Speaker of the Parliament again in 2009. He became the Acting President of the Republic on 14 March 2013. Mr. Abdul Hamid Advocate has been elected the 20th President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh unopposed on 22 April 2013.

Mr. Abdul Hamid is married with 3 sons and a daughter. His interests rest on International Politics, Contemporary History and Comparative Study of Constitutions around the world.

Chaudhury will succeed Abdul Hamid who last week became President following the death of President Md Zillur Rahman.

Deputy Speaker Shawkat Ali put the resolution to voice vote during Tuesday’s parliamentary session and Chaudhury was supported unanimously.

BIOGRAPHY .

Professional Qualification
1992: Enrolled as an Advocate, Bangladesh Bar Council.
1994: Enrolled in the Hon’ble High Court Division, Bangladesh Supreme Court.
2008: Enrolled in the Hon’ble Appellate Division, Bangladesh Supreme Court.
Member, Dhaka Bar Association.
Member, Supreme Court Bar Association.
Academic Qualification
2000: Doctor of Philosophy in Law (PhD.)
University of Essex, United Kingdom.
Thesis on “The Right to Life”.
Area of Specialization: Constitutional Law and Human Rights.
Commonwealth Scholar.
1990: LL.M.
University of Dhaka.
First Class First.
1989: LL.B (Honours)
University of Dhaka.
First Class First
1985: Higher Secondary Certificate (H. S. C.)
Dhaka Board.
Humanities.
Second Position in Combined Merit List.
1983: Secondary School Certificate (S.S.C.)
Dhaka Board.
Humanities.
First Position in Combined Merit List.
Professional Experience
15 years Practice as an Advocate in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
Panel Lawyer for Jono Netri Sheikh Hasina.
Cases of Political Detenu:
• Election Case/Electoral/Voter List Case against the Election Commission.
• Contempt Case against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC)
• Masdar Hossain Case (Separation and Independence of Judiciary)
• Cases to protect rights of acid victims (Ferdousi’s Case)
• Public Interest Litigation on Land Acquisition Case, Eviction of Slum Dwellers Case.
• Case challenging the legality of Speedy Trial Act.
• Chittagong Hill Tracts Case of Indigenous People.
• Mass Arrest Case.
Conducted many important constitutional and human right violation cases:
• Shahriyar Kabir’s Illegal Detention Case (Eminent Writer)
• Dr. Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir’s Illegal Detention Case.
• Bahauddin Nasim, Ashim Kumar Ukil’s Illegal arrest under Section 54 of Cr. P. C.
and detention under the Special Powers Act, 1974 Case.
• Assisted Jono Netri Sheikh Hasina’s Lawyer Payam Akhawan, Lawyer of International
Repute from Canada in Press Conference held in Dhaka.
Key Areas of Work
Legal Area
Human Rights and Constitutional Law.
Commercial, Corporate Law, Contract, Banking Law, International Trade,
Documentary Credit, Securities Law, Shipping/Admiralty, Construction,
Turnkey Project on BOO / BOOT basis, Arbitration, Mediation, Criminal Law.
Judicial Review by way of Writs.
Sustainable Development Area.
Gender Issues..
Pro?bono Public Interest Litigation.
Human Securities.
Teaching Experience
Resource Person in Bangladesh Bar Council in Bar Vocational Course (BVC).
Resource Person in the Law Clinic of Law Department of Dhaka University.
Delivered lectures as Resource Person at Mirpur Staff College on “Empowerment of Women”.
Resource Person in the Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA) Judicial Training Program
of the Assistant Judges on the “Independence of the Judiciary”.
Resource Person in Human Rights at BRAC University, Department of Law.
Resource Person in Public International Law and Human Rights & Legal Aid for Protection of Human
Rights in Dhaka International University (DIU).
Award
Dr. Shirin was awarded Asia Society’s Humanitarian service Award on 09 June 2010 in recognition of her role as a leader in advocating the elimination of violence against women and mainstreaming women’s empowerment and employment in Bangladesh. Dr. Chaudhury received this award from Ambassador Melanne Verveer, US Ambassador-at-Large, Global Women Issues in a gala award ceremony at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington DC.
Publications
Former Editor
Bangladesh Legal Decisions (BLD), Law Report Series published every month by
Bangladesh Bar Council. (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Edition). .
Articles
“Role of the Judiciary in the Development of Human Rights” published in 1999,
in the book named Human Rights in Bangladesh, Ain-O-Salish Kendra (ASK).
“The Least Dangerous Branch and the Power of Judicial Review: Impact on the
Development of Fundamental Human Rights”, published in 2000, in the book named Human
Rights in Bangladesh, Ain-O-Salish Kendra (ASK).
“Right to Life and Its Dimensions”, published in 2000, in the book named Human Rights
in Bangladesh, Ain-O-Salish Kendra (ASK).
“Practice of Democracy: Importance of Free and Fair Election in Bangladesh” presented as
Key Note paper in a Seminar organized by Bangladesh Institute for Law and International Affairs (BILIA),
Bangladesh Heritage Foundation.
“Electoral Rights: Bangladesh Perspective” published in “Let People’s Voices be Heard”,
Conference Report on Human Rights and Governance, Local and Global Perspective,
January 16-18, 2005, Manusher Jonno and Partners.
“Regional Position Paper on Status of Women in South Asia” written for SAAPE as
Regional Thematic Focal Person from Bangladesh.
Developed dialogue, concept papers etc. with various relevant NGO’s and
Human Rights organizations on human rights issues.
Seminars
Key Note Speaker on “Practice of Democracy: Importance of Free and Fair Election in Bangladesh”
organized by Bangladesh Institute for Law and International Affairs (BILIA), Bangladesh Heritage Foundation.
Key Note Speaker on “Electoral Role and Process of Election” organized by Manusher Jonne, an NGO.
Key Note Speaker at a Seminar organized by Nari Progati Sangha on the “Role of Police in Ensuring Rights of Women.”
Key Note Speaker on “Violence Against Women” in a Seminar organized by Bangladesh Awami League.
Discussant in a Seminar on “Repression against Women” in the Convention on
“Unity Against Terrorism” held on 30th and 31st of August, 2005.
Presented paper in a Seminar in Nepal on “Democracy and Role of the Civil Society”,
organized by Heinrich Ball Foundation.
Participated in a Workshop organized at Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA)
by Institute for Development of Law in Rome, Italy (IDLI) on infrastructural projects on BOO/BOT/BOOT, basis.
Participated in a Seminar on Infrastructure Building Projects in Energy, Gas, Oil, Roads, Bridges
and general large scale construction schemes at BILIA.
Participated in a Seminar on “Corporate Social Responsibility” organized
by Lex Mundi (An Apex Body of Leading Law Firms of the world based in USA)
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in November, 2005.
Discussant in a Seminar on “Women Human Rights Defenders” organized
by European Commission (EU) in May, 2006.
Participated in a Seminar on “Rights of Indigenous People of Chittagong Hill Tracts”
organized by UNDP and Bangladesh Bar Council.
Worked on a Project jointly undertaken by World Bank and Harvard University
on Negotiable Instruments Act, Procedure for Cheque Collection Cases etc.
At the invitation of the State Department of USA toured the country extensively as
an International Visitor in International Visitors Program of Lawyers and Judges
from South East Asia and Africa. (April – May 2004)
Resource Person on “Concept of Human Rights” in International School Dhaka (ISD), Baridhara.
Resource Person in South Asian Program for Poverty Eradication (SAPPE), Bangladesh Chapter.
Participated in the 2nd General Assembly of South Asian Program for Poverty Eradication (SAPPE)
in Kathmandu, Nepal on July 1-4, 2006.
Discussant in a Seminar on Development of Public Interest Litigation organized by Ain-O-Salish Kendra and BLAST.
Discussant in a Seminar organized by Samaj Rupantar Adhayan Kendro.
Resource person in a workshop organized by Bangladesh Bar Council on “Child Trafficking”.
Exchanged views on issues relating to ensuing 9th Parliamentary Election with the delegates
of National Democratic Institute (NDI).
Speaker in a Seminar on “Counter Terrorism” in Delhi, India jointly organized
by Observer Research Foundation in India and Fourth Freedom Foundation in USA in November, 2006.
Resource Person in Divisional Workshops organized in Dhaka and Chittagong
by Prip Trust on Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
Keynote Speaker in a Seminar organized by Bangladesh Awami League on “Violence against Women”.
Keynote Speaker in a Seminar organized by Bangladesh Mohila Awami League on
“Rights of Women in Bangladesh in International Perspective” in celebration of Women’s Day 8th March, 2007.
Keynote Speaker in a Seminar on Prevention of Road Accidents & Motor Vehicles Ordinance,
organized by Human Rights & Peace for Bangladesh.
Discussant in a Seminar on Representation of People’s Order, organized by Peshajibi Shomonnoy Parishad.
Speaker in a Seminar organized by Kormojibi Nari on Election Manifesto of Political Parties and Rights of Women Issue.
Discussant on Independence of Judiciary in Bangladesh in a Regional Seminar
organized by South Asian Human Rights (SAHR) on 22nd April, 2009.
Participated in the Conference organized by International Republican Institute (IRI)
on “Working together for Parliamentary Strengthening”; May 13, 2009.
Regional Consultation/Conference of Parliamentarians of Asia Pacific Region on Maternal Health,
organized by AFPPD and UNFPA in Bali, Indonesia on 13-15 August, 2009.
Consultant
Evaluated the Legal Aid Project of BRAC throughout the country.
Position in Different NGOs and Organizations
Member, Executive Committee & Alternate Secretary, Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA).
Work with Ain-O-Salish Kendra (ASK) and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Trust (BLAST),
Bangladesh Bar Council, Human Rights Committee, Bangladesh Nari Progotee Sangha (BNPS), Prip Trust etc.
Member, Legal Education Committee, Bangladesh Bar Council.
Personal Information
Date of Birth:
October 6, 1966.
Nationality:
Bangladeshi.
Marital Status:
Married.
Husband:
Syed Ishtiaque Hossain
Pharmaceutical Consultant.
Father’s Name:
Late Rafiqullah Chaudhury.
Former (CSP). Former Secretary to the Prime Minister Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1972).
Mother’s Name:
Late Professor Naiyar Sultana.
Former Member, Bangladesh Public Service Commission.
Maternal Grand Father:
Late Justice Sikandar Ali
The Then East Pakistan High Court.

DCCI President and leader of the delegation made a presentation on “Investment Opportunity in Bangladesh” at the session. Acting Ambassador of Bangladesh Embassy in Doha Mohammad Nasir Uddin was present on the occasion where more than 50 Bangladeshi businessmen were also present and discussed various aspects of investment in Bangladesh. Businessmen mainly emphasized on the execution of business unitedly in a professional manner, free from political interference at home and abroad. They also called upon all to work together to reap more scope for Bangladeshi people.

DCCI President Md. Sabur Khan informed the gathering that DCCI is going to organize a conference titled “NRB for Positioning Bangladesh” in September this year. He invited the NRBs to participate in the upcoming conference of DCCI. He urged the NRBs staying in Qatar to invest in their homeland. He termed 11 potential sectors where they can invest like IT & ITES, Hotel & Tourism, Food, Medicine, Mechanical Engineering and repairing shop, Sales & Marketing, Tailoring & dress-making, Handicrafts, Automotive Driving, Security services, Cleaning & Maintenance service.

For understandable reasons, officials of the US Department of State, the Department of Energy and the World Bank are quite aware of the progress the country has so far made especially on economic and social fronts. They are particularly perturbed over the way Bangladesh’s politics is evolving and more importantly over recent strikes, loss of public property/assets and valuable human lives. Many asked me why the business community cannot create pressure on the politicians to resolve the ‘pending issues’. Most of them are not aware that our business community is also divided; alongwith the political line. With head of the apex business body being politically active and some of the leaders as ‘adviser’ or ‘council’ members of the ruling party respectively, the opposition now on the ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ motion is not ready to hear from them. Even then, most of them felt, the business community, particularly the apparel exporters who are the worst hit ones by the political turmoil, should be able to exert pressure on the parties, especially the government to come to terms and chart out a journey for ‘peaceful holding of the election’. Understandably, these people also felt, the possibility of troublesome political transition has contributed significantly to the ‘political mess’, not the ‘trial of 1971 killers or collaborators’.

Most of them seemed to have been quite concerned with the rise of the religious group or groups like Hefazat-E-Islam and particularly the demands they have put up and more significantly, large political parties `keeping mum’ on their issues raised and trying to grab `temporary benefit’ out of them. Though most of them have high trust on Bangladesh’s liberal democracy, its media and the civil society, some, a bit panicked, asked me whether Bangladesh is going the Taliban way. A few of them thought, we could not at all handle the madrasa or religious education in Bangladesh, especially the non-government or locally funded ones and strongly felt that Bangladesh should have engaged more international agencies and stakeholders to manage these expanding madrasa education, their curriculum development and career management of their graduates. Surprisingly, a few of these agency folks are aware that non-resident Bangladeshis in the USA and the Middle East are financially supporting these madrasas on a regular basis.

Professionals of Bangladesh origin, some of them holding senior positions in the US institutions, are very ‘unhappy’ about ‘corruption’ in Bangladesh. Surprisingly, though many of them didn’t visit their homeland or ancestors for last several years, they are aware of various ‘nexus’ including friends and relatives of ‘political high-ups’ encouraging or engaged in corruption in energy, telecom or large infrastructure projects. Most of them felt, there is not even a single ‘Mr or Ms Clean’ in the entire political establishment a point I, of course, didn’t agree with. Some of them want to help their country on information technology or infrastructure development but do not know what to do to take their interest forward. Like many of our readers, they are also dismayed to see all the new bank licences granted allegedly to non-resident Bangladeshis actually going to all ‘party men’, not any professionals.

Interestingly enough, a few of them asked me what would happen to Tarique Zia if Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) comes to power in the next election. They are equally skeptical about `his way of messing things up’. Good news is that almost all of our friends think Bangladesh and its issues are now being more seriously discussed in the ‘corridors of power’ or among ‘those who matter’ in the USA and Bangladesh politicians and the leadership must make best use of this.

All of them, be they friends of Bangladesh in the US government, the World Bank and the IMF folks, executives with the US institutions operating in Bangladesh and especially the professionals of Bangladesh origin, strongly feel that the country has a great future unlike many other least developed or emerging countries. However, they are in complete agreement to say that the country has to fix its politics and the politicians once for all.

The pacts – Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), Implementation Agreement (IA) and Supplementary Joint Venture Agreement (SJVA) – were inked in Dhaka in the evening for a 1320MW coal-based Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (Pvt) Limited (BIFPCL) in Khulna’s Rampal.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Bangladesh and India during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January 2011. In the MoU, the fields of cooperation in power sector were identified as exchange of power, grid connectivity, energy efficiency and electricity generation.

Last January, a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) was also signed between India’s state-owned electric utilities company National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Bangladesh’s Power Development Board (PDB) with ‘equal equity participation (50:50)’ for developing power projects in Bangladesh.

The 1320MW coal-based power plant in Rampal upazila will be a joint venture between the neighbouring countries. The project profile also set a goal to finish the project by 2018.

The thermal power plant is proposed to be set up over 1,834 acres of land near the Mongla seaport, though environmentalists have been warning that the plant would have a disastrous impact on the nearby Sundarbans – the world’s largest mangrove forest. They have also been staging protests to make the government cancel the project.

But the governments of both India and Bangladesh have claimed that the Sundarbans would not be affected by the plant.

At the agreements signing ceremony on Saturday, Power Secretary Monwar Islam said, “According to the master plan, the goal is to generate 20,000 megawatt electricity using coal by 2030. This is the beginning of implementation of the plan.”

A huge part of the power generated in Bangladesh comes from fuel-based power plants where the generation cost is relatively higher. The importance of coal-based power generation is increasing considering the option of multi-fuel power plants.

The government has approved establishing another 1,300MW power plant in Chittagong. Coals will have to be imported for these two plants.

Meanwhile, the plan to import 500 MW power from India is also nearing the execution stage, as construction of a power grid in Kushtia’s Bheramara for the purpose is almost complete.

Prime Minister’s Energy Advisor Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury at the agreement signing ceremony said the 500 MW would be coming from India by this July.

NTPC Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Chowdhury said this was the biggest initiative of the Corporation outside India and that’s why this project was special for them.

Indian Ambassador to Bangladesh Pankaj Saran said this project was also the largest joint venture taken up by Bangladesh and India.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, State Minister for Power Mohammad Enamul Haque and India’s Power Secretary P Uma Shankar were present at the agreement signing ceremony

Once written off as a basket case by the former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, Bangladesh is set to take a big step forward in embarking on its biggest-ever infrastructure project alone.

In a pre-budget briefing, the poor south Asian country’s finance minister AMA Muhith told national editors that he was putting aside 68.52bn Bangladeshi taka ($0.88bn) in the 2013-14 national budget for the 6.15km long railroad bridge on the mighty Padma river, about one-third of the project cost at current prices.

That an impoverished nation suffering back breaking poverty could undertake such a gigantic project was unthinkable till recently.

But bolstered by an economy thought be on the mend, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said: “We will prove to the world that we are not beggars, but achievers. We will bow to none.”

Once completed, economists say the bridge could boost national GDP growth by 1 percent every year.

But according to analysts, the project would bolster national pride more than anything else.

New funding avenues

In January of this year Bangladesh withdrew its request for funding from the World Bank on the $2.9bn bridge that will connect 21 districts in the south and south-western regions to the country’s mainland .

That came after two years of haggling with the global lender after the World Bank suspended its proposed $1.2bn line of credit for the bridge, alleging corruption in awarding the project consultancy to Canadian construction giant SNC Lavalin .

By asking the World Bank to pack up, Hasina showed great courage. By now planning to do the project with the country’s own resources, Bangladesh is making a huge statement.

Jayanta Ray, Analyst

The World Bank agreed to review its decision and resume funding once Bangladesh ordered its Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to conduct an enquiry into the corruption allegations.

But it kept disagreeing with the way the enquiry was being conducted, especially after the ACC left out two ministers of the Awami League government from the list of those charged in the corruption case.

And on Thursday, it banned SNC Lavalin and its 100 affiliates from bidding for World Bank projects for its “misconduct” in the Padma bridge project.

With elections to the national parliament barely a year away, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina lost patience with the global lender and asked Finance Minister Muhith to withdraw the funding request.

Hasina’s stance drew criticism from the opposition, with Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party saying the government was taking unnecessary risk by trying to do the project on its own.

“The government’s decision is prompted by its desire to cover up the corruption of its ministers in selecting the project’s consultants. Now you can see the World Bank has blacklisted SNC-Lavalin which had been selected as the project consultant, so that means they are convinced there was corruption,” he said.

Muhith initially said Bangladesh could count on at least three countries to provide funding for the project: India, China and Malaysia.

India had offered $200 million out of its previously plegded $1bn line of credit from 2010. The Chinese and Malaysians however quickly came back with comprehensive funding offers. Both agreed to bring in funds to finance the bulk of the project cost, and offered easy payback over 20 years after the bridge was completed .

“The Chinese offer was the most attractive,” said Muhith, particularly since the Chinese promised to help complete the bridge within three years.

But in an unusual display of confidence, Bangladesh finally decided to forgo the foreign financers.

Bangladesh foreign currency reserves has touched the $14bn mark mainly on a surge of remittances and rising export income, which crossed $20bn in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.

“The government will not be able to draw funds from the foreign exchange reserve, it will have to buy it with taka, it can borrow from banks to buy dollars,” said Bangladesh Bank’s Forex division chief Kazi Saidur Rehman.

He said the government has decided to float “Sovereign Bonds” to collect $500m in foreign currency for the Padma bridge project.

“Any individual or financial institutions at home and abroad can buy these bonds,” he said. “Currency collected from these bonds will be transferred to the FC account for funding the bridge.”

Many feel Prime Minister Hasina is taking a “huge risk” by deciding to go ahead with the Padma bridge project with the country’s own resources. But others say if she succeeds, it will be a major turnaround for Bangladesh.

“By asking the World Bank to pack up, Hasina showed great courage. By now planning to do the project with the country’s own resources, Bangladesh is making a huge statement,” says Jayanta Ray, a veteran Bangladesh-watcher, the author of the celebrated book Nationalism on Trial.

Recent widespread protests have paralysed the country [EPA]

“Hasina has sent a signal to the World Bank and the West that it cannot be toyed with,” said Ray. “Now if it manages the huge project with its own resources, it will prove the resilience and strength of Bangladesh’s economy and draw foreign investors.”

“Bangladesh can establish its case as a breakout nation if it manages to do the Padma bridge with its own resources,” said Sabyasachi Basu Roy Choudhury, also a Bangladesh analyst. “Its aspirations to emerge as a middle-income nation by 2021 will be well on course if Padma bridge can be done with national resources.”

Economists say Bangladesh can actually afford to undertake such a huge project on its own – something unthinkable even five years ago.

“The Bangladesh economy has performed really well. Improved production and exports, increased remittances and reduced import costs – all goes to point to better days. The only area of concern is investments,” said Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) research director Zaid Bakht.

Smart diplomacy

Analysts say that doing the Padma bridge with its own resources and keeping out China despite an attractive offer is also smart diplomacy by Hasina.

India, which is Hasina’s most reliable ally, would surely be upset if the Chinese were to do the Padma bridge, in view of Delhi’s growing concerns with China’s expanding footprint in South Asia .

“India can never compete with China when it comes to investing in such big-ticket projects in other countries,” said China analyst Binod Mishra.

But Delhi might have still fumed over the decision, something that Hasina can ill-afford, especially in a year when elections are due and she is waiting for the Indians to implement a land boundary agreement with Bangladesh and sign a water-sharing treaty on the Teesta river.

Beset by a series of strikes and increasingly violent protests related to the war crimes trials seeking justice for crimes during the 1971 civil war, the ruling Awami League is banking on a surge of national pride to wriggle out of a tight corner.

“The war crimes trials have given Bengali nationalism a new lease of life. Now funding the Padma bridge with its own resources may add more steam to that,” says Jayanta Ray.

If Bangladesh finally manages to complete the Padma bridge with its own resources, it will be a defining moment for South Asia’s youngest nation.

This writer could not check his tears when Richard Durbin, the Senator from Illinois, shared his views on Yunus with the audience. Yunus is the first Muslim in the world to have received the Congressional Gold Medal. It was all for his life-time contribution to elimination of poverty from this world and creation of continuous opportunities for the people at ‘bottom of the pyramid’ to stand on their own feet and create better future for themselves. Now with this honour for Yunus, not only the humble man from Chittagong, Bangladesh, the majority of the US Congressmen resolved to ‘send poverty to the museum’.

The medal itself contained slogan ‘Amra Daridroke Jadughore Pathabo’, (we will send poverty to museum), written in the Bangla language. What an honour for the Bangla language itself!

For the first time in my life (I happened to be there incidentally at the invitation of John Boehner, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives), I could see and hear so many Senators Rush Holt from New Jersey, Ileana Ros from Florida, Michael Enzi from Wyoming and one of the staunchest supporters of the professor Senator Durbin and more importantly Democratic leader of the US House of Representative Nancy Pelosi, Republican leader of the Senate Mitch McConnel, Majority leader of the Senate Harry Reid and Speaker of the House, speaking about his success in poverty alleviation in an otherwise not-so-significant country Bangladesh and more importantly through export of this home-grown concept to other countries. Yunus was given profuse applause for addressing issues of poverty and human development.

The hall was full of people who matter in decision-making in the United States as well as in the rest of the world. But we were very few from Bangladesh. This was more evident when a very senior Congresswoman from California mentioned, “No matter what is happening in his home country Bangladesh, we in the United States of America all love and esteem the professor for his commitment to social justice, creation of opportunity for the poor and more importantly letting the business to work for social emancipation”. The same was echoed by many other Senators and Congressmen, with the last one being Congresswoman Grace Meng from Queens saying that it was an extremely tough job to convince the two-thirds of the Congress members to agree and resolve the case for rewarding fight against poverty, but Professor Yunus and his work seemed to have ‘made it’ for most of them.

Each one of the Senators and Congressmen and women was extremely articulate and they focused on a life-time opportunity for a business teacher from anywhere in the world. Their choice of words, the applauses and more importantly the sentence-making were superb. I wish many of my friends could attend the rare function only to appreciate the speeches. Unfortunately, for reasons well meaning to my readers, there was least presence from Bangladesh. Thanks to Ambassador Akramul Quader for showing up at the ceremony.

No matter what a segment of our government machinery or few of their ‘obliging’ friends in the media and other professional fields think about him, Professor Yunus has made Bangladesh to consider itself to feel proud of. If I have not misunderstood Congressman Rush Holt, the world should not at all be surprised if they see this personality, now at 73 years of age, being nominated again for a Nobel prize for pushing the entire business world into ‘social business’ and therefore involving ‘business’ to solve newer issues for the mankind. The only regret is, this may be too late for many of our politicians to address dishonour they did show not only to the professor but also to their own conscience and more importantly to their country and countrymen.

We salute our ‘son of the soil’ Professor Muhammad Yunus for the rare honour he brought for Bangladesh in the comity of nations. One day our future generation will only visit the museums to see ‘what poverty was all about’.

Bangladesh has opposed the construction of two hydro-based power projects along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya until the two countries sign a water sharing agreement, Power Minister Clement Marak informed the State Assembly today.

A Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) member in his letter to the Union Ministry of Water Resources had said the two dams might cause adverse impacts in various sectors in Bangladesh due to change of water flow, Marak said replying to a call attention motion moved by the opposition United Democratic Party leader Paul Lyngdoh.

Meghalaya is in the process of constructing dams on two rivers — the Mawphu dam across river Umiew and Myntdu dam across river Myntdu in East Khasi Hills and West Jaintia Hills districts, respectively.

The JRC member had also requested not to proceed with the construction of two dams until impact assessment on various sectors had been jointly conducted and water sharing agreements of the two common rivers had been signed by the two countries, the minister said.

While there was no further communication from the Ministry since January 7 last with regards to offering a stake to Bangladesh in the two projects, the minister assured of no river diversion as such.

Marak said state-owned Meghalaya Electricity Corporation Ltd which was generating power from the Myntdu hydel power projects had informed the Ministry of Water Resources that the project would not have any water impoundment.

He said North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd has indicated the same in its pre-feasibility report of Mawphu hydel project.

“The project shall utilise mostly the available discharge in the river, drawn through a 4.07 km tunnel to the power house generating 362.53 million units, meeting the same river downstream through a 45 meter channel,” he said.

Paul in his call attention motion said the opposition of Bangladesh in the power projects ran the risk of depriving power starved Meghalaya of its potential in the hydro-power sector, besides losing a lot of time in resolving the issue.

He urged the State Government to respond to the issue at the earliest so that Meghalaya could benefit from the two projects.

The fire raised questions about safety in Bangladesh’s garment industry, which exports clothes to leading Western retailers. Wal-Mart-brand clothing was found in the factory, but the world’s biggest retailer said the factory wasn’t authorized to make its clothes.

Wal-Mart said Tuesday that it will donate $1.6 million to U.S. non-profit the Institute for Sustainable Communities to establish the Environmental, Health and Safety Academy in Bangladesh that will offer training on fire and workplace safety.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., ranks second behind Swedish fast-fashion retailer H&M in the number of clothing orders it places in Bangladesh.

The program also included a quantitative survey, through which opinions were collected from the youth and student representatives. Dr M A Taslim, chairman, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, Dr M M Akash, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka and Mr Kazi Ali Reza, Officer-in-Charge, United Nations Information Centre (UNIC), were present at the program as special guests.

The program started off with a welcome speech by Ahamed Naveed Hasan, President, Economics Study Center, who familiarized the audience with the research project. He also explained the Center’s mission of engaging the students further into real-life economic and social issues. Farzeen Ferdous Alam, President, OGGRO, then shared his experience of working with the rural youth in different parts of Bangladesh. He gave a first-hand account of the difficulties faced at the field level, especially in terms of funding and support.

The speeches were followed by presentations on the respective research topics, including budgetary allocations for the youth, the youth unemployment situation, environment and sustainability, and the youth’s role in public leadership. Research findings were presented by Israt Hossain, Md Abdullah Shihab, Md Rabiul Islam and Mahtab Uddin, all of whom are members of Economics Study Center’s executive committee. The research found that the implementation status of the youth budgets throughout different sectors of Bangladesh’s economy is very poor. The unemployment situation, on the other hand, showed that there is sheer lack of innovative policies that could reduce youth unemployment. The environment and sustainability portion of the research focused on finding ways to ensure intergenerational equity.

Following the presentations, Dr Taslim expressed his satisfaction with the program and emphasized on the importance of engaging in such economic dialogues. He pointed out that it is important to define specific age limits of the youth population. Professor Akash discussed the empirical aspects of the economic findings of the research. He encouraged Economics Study Center and OGGRO to dive deeper into empirical testing and analysis. He advised that the researchers to set smart goals, which should be specific, measurable, aligned, reachable and timely. Mr Reza, on the other hand, informed the audience that the United Nations counts people aged between 15 and 35 as the youth. He stressed on the importance of properly managing natural disasters, which can seriously hamper youth development in the peripheral regions of Bangladesh. Students of the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka participated in the dialogue along with students from other departments and institutions.

Together, OGGRO and Economics Study Center highlight the importance of engaging the youth into the country’s policy making process, because the leaders of tomorrow must become aware of the challenges ahead and find solutions to the problems

“I went on Yahoo.com and asked, ‘What’s the poorest country in Asia,’ she recalled years later. “I saw the photos of Bangladesh and thought, ‘Oh my God.’ The next thing I thought was, ‘I should go there.’”

In Bangladesh, Yamguchi attended graduate school at Brac University in Dhaka. When she wasn’t studying, she scouted the local economy, looking for clues to the nation’s problems and for opportunities. Always interested in fashion, she was drawn to the areas where people worked at sewing machines in small shops and factories, turning out low-end textile products. In time she settled on the notion of designing and making handbags in Bangladesh to sell in Tokyo. The concept would exploit her interest in fashion and the big women’s fashion market in Tokyo while providing work for people in Dhaka.

At first, she had trouble finding anyone in Bangladesh who believed that local workers were up to the task. As she recalled, she was “misled, lied to, and betrayed” many times before she began a partnership with a shop where workers (all men) turned coarse jute fabric into sacks for grain and potatoes. “They were making these sacks that cost $1 each and we had to get them to sew fashion bags worth a hundred dollars and more,” she said. “To make things more difficult, I was a young woman in an Islamic country who had to be the boss.”

Months of effort were required before Yamaguchi could get workers to start stitching samples based on her designs, and even then she discarded two dozen attempts before she got one bag that was good enough to show retailers in Japan. But gradually she coaxed workers to improve their skills and she built a stock of 160 pieces. She named her company Motherhouse in tribute to the famous Catholic nun Mother Theresa. In her first round of sale visits, Yamaguchi won orders to place bags in 13 stores. “Everyone in Bangladesh thought that when I left to go to Tokyo, I would never come back. When I returned with orders, they realized this was a real opportunity,” said Yamaguchi.

In order to seize the opportunity, Yamaguchi had to overcome a series of practical and cultural obstacles. Workers had to be convinced that she really considered them partners and that when she asked, “What do you think?” they were supposed to offer genuine replies. “No boss had ever asked them questions like this and no one was used to being part of a team.” To build a sense of esteem in her men, Yamaguchi issued photo identification cards. Many workers had never possessed a photo of themselves and they prized the cards. She opened a lunchroom and served free meals. She also raised their pay above the going rate, in order to acknowledge the superior skills required to make quality leather goods

US President Barack Obama has greeted Bangladeshis and other Bengali speaking people across the world ahead of Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bangla new year

In a statement on behalf of Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday: “On behalf of President Obama, I convey my warm greetings to all Bengali-speaking people around the world as you celebrate Pahela Boishakh.”

“The American people wish you all happiness and prosperity in the New Year.

The people of Bangladesh are preparing to welcome the new Bengali year, 1420, on Apr 14 with much joy and celebration.

Kerry’s statement read : “As the New Year begins, let us all celebrate the rich cultures of West Bengal and Bangladesh in a spirit of optimism and mutual appreciation. Shubho Nobo Borsho!”

A Nepalese farmer walks through a paddy field to his home in Khokana Village, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, on September 4th, 2012. More than 66% of Nepal’s population relies on farming. Many will benefit from Bangladesh’s recent decision to waive import duties on 108 Nepalese agro-products. [Prakash Mathema/AFP]

The move, they say, will further boostbetween the two South Asian nations, and open markets for new agricultural products in both countries.

“This is a very welcome decision for Nepalese businessmen and farmers,” Abinash Bohora, president of Morang Merchants Association, told Khabar South Asia. “The agreement will not only boost Nepal’s exports. This will equally help open up Nepalese markets for various Bangladeshi products.”

Nepal currently exports lentils, vegetables, cereals, wheat flour, fruits, juice, dairy products, poultry feeds and handmade papers, among other products, to Bangladesh, which lies less than 60km from its eastern border. Nepal imports pharmaceuticals, textiles, electric goods, fish products, garments and jute fabric from Bangladesh.

A bilateral technical committee meeting in late-February in Dhaka finalised the list of Nepali products to be granted duty-free access. The agreement is expected to go into force after a joint commerce secretary-level meeting in Kathmandu in July.

Nepal and Bangladesh have enjoyed excellent ties since establishment of diplomatic relations in 1972. A Nepal-Bangladesh Joint Economic Commission was set up in 1978 to promote trade relations between the two countries. Bangladesh has permitted Nepal to use port facilities at Mongla since September 1997, following the opening of the Kakarbhitta-Phulbari-Banglabandha transit route.

“The agreement will help further deepen the ties that exist between the two friendly countries,” said Ministry of Trade and Commerce spokesman Naindra Prasad Upadhyaya. He expects the duty-free access agreement to sharply increase exports from Nepal.

“As Bangladesh has also sought preferential treatment to its various 153 products in Nepali markets, we are currently working out in what products we can provide preferential treatment to Bangladeshi products,” Upadhyaya added.

However, Minister and Charge d’Affaires at the Embassy of Bangladesh in Kathmandu, Forhadul Islam, said Bangladesh seeks no reciprocity from its “friendly neighbour”.

“This is our unilateral decision,” he said. “We can understand the limitation Nepal has now.” After a violent, ten-year armed conflict, the nation is struggling to restore sustainable peace, ratify a new constitution and grow its economy.

Bangladesh is Nepal’s second-largest South Asian trade partner. According to the Trade and Export Promotion Center, Nepal exported goods worth NRs 2.57 billion ($29.6m) to Bangladesh in fiscal year 2011-12 and imported NRs 8.09 billion ($92.1m) in Bangladeshi products in the same period.

Dhundi Raj Dahal, an M.A. candidate in Economics at Patan Multiple Campus in Lalitpur, said Nepal must do more within its own borders to boost its volume of external trade.

“We need to first have enough agricultural products at home to increase exports,” he said. “As huge areas of cultivable land remain barren due to the tendency of youths to go to Gulf countries and other labour destinations for work, this agreement is not going to make any substantial change.”

He also pointed out the need to adopt commercial farming to boost Nepali trade, a nation where more than 66% people still depend on agriculture. “It is high time we embraced commercial farming against the current practices of subsistence farming.”

But others are more upbeat about the country’s economic prospects. In fact, Nepalese exports to Bangladesh have soared by 63% in the first six months of the current fiscal year, year-on-year.

Hari Prasad Niraula, who grows lentils in his farm in Babiya Birta VDC (Village Devolopment Committee) in Morang district, had not yet heard of the trade agreement with Bangladesh. “But if there is such an agreement, we may not have to worry about the market,” he said.

Its development arm, says it will provide $ 3 million grant to implement the Food for New Village (FFNV) project that aims ‘to reduce rural poverty and food insecurity.’

World Food Programme (WFP) will join the project.

The project is being taken up in Bangladesh and Tanzania after its ‘successful’ implementation in Rwanda and Nepal.

KOICA says the model is known as Saemaul Movement or New Village Movement, a 1970s initiative that boosted the rural development of South Korea.

Under the project, organisations will work ‘to enhance the resilience of vulnerable villages and households to natural disasters and the effect of climate change and to strengthen food and nutrition security in that area.’

Employment for the rural poor, particularly women will also be generated.
South Korea will launch a project in rural Bangladesh this year using its 1970s model for modernising rural economy.

Its development arm, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) says it will provide $ 3 million grant to implement the Food for New Village (FFNV) project that aims ‘to reduce rural poverty and food insecurity.’

World Food Programme (WFP) will join the project.

The project is being taken up in Bangladesh and Tanzania after its ‘successful’ implementation in Rwanda and Nepal.

KOICA says the model is known as Saemaul Movement or New Village Movement, a 1970s initiative that boosted the rural development of South Korea.

Under the project, organisations will work ‘to enhance the resilience of vulnerable villages and households to natural disasters and the effect of climate change and to strengthen food and nutrition security in that area.’

Employment for the rural poor, particularly women will also be generated.

Protesters continue to fill the streets of the capital, Dhaka, calling for action against what they call atheist bloggers for defaming Islam.

A number of international chain of hotels have come forward to build five star hotels under joint venture arrangements in the fastest growing cities of Dhaka and Chittagong, they said.

The Marriot International has recently signed two deals with two Bangladeshi companies for operating two five-star hotels, one each in Dhaka and Chittagong.

Bangladeshi companies are constructing the hotels to attract local and foreign businesses and traditional tourists with all the facilities offered by world-class hotels in different countries, business insiders said.

“With the expansion of Bangladesh’s economy, the demand for hotels is increasing. The existing luxury hotels are inadequate to fulfil demands of the growing number of guests in Bangladesh,” Shahidus Sadeque, Marketing Communications Manager of the city’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel .
The US-based hotel chain, Marriott International, signed agreements with Jamuna Builders Limited to operate a 700-room JW Marriott Hotel in Dhaka and with Pacific Jeans for 250-room JW Marriott in Chittagong in February last.

Bangladesh has only 1200 quality rooms at its existing five luxury hotels which are not enough for catering to the need of the guests, mostly business people in the capital, Mustafa Noor E Safa, Head of Marketing at Westin Hotel said.

The average occupancy rate of the Dhaka city’s five luxury hotels was nearly 70 per cent and revenue growth rose by 15 per cent last year, sources said.

Not long ago, the highly capital intensive hospitality industry in Bangladesh was dependent on public sector investment as the private sector was very shy of investing hefty amounts of funds in the sector.

This resulted in building major hotels like now-defunct Shahbagh Hotel — the first international standard hotel in Dhaka — in 1950s, Inter-Continental — now Ruposhi Bangla — in 1960s and Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in 1980s, by the public sector.

Only two notable old hotels — Purbani in Dhaka and Agrabad in Chittagong — are in private sector.

Now few local private investors have come forward to build international luxury chain of hotels in order to lure the growing number of business tourists to Bangladesh, sources added.

A local company — Best Holdings Limited — is building a 304-room five-star hotel close to Dhaka International Airport, named “Le Meridien”. This is in the front line in the hospitality market in Bangladesh.

The local business company has signed a deal with the US-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., to build the hotel, to be opened in July next year.

In a major development, Unique Hotel and Resorts Ltd, owner of Westin Dhaka, will build five-star standard second Westin (to be more precise, the extension of the existing one) in Banani and another Westin in Chittagong.

The Westin will build big luxury rooms to attract the foreign guests at Banani, Mr Mustafa Noor E Safa of the Westin Hotel said.

This is the largest-ever development programme in the country’s hospitality industry. The cost of the three projects will be around Tk 20 billion (2,000 crore), equivalent to US$300 million.

Unique Hotel and Resorts Ltd and Starwood Hotels and Resorts signed a Memorandum of Understanding on management of these properties on March 9.

Hilton Worldwide signed a management agreement with Premier Hotels & Resorts to manage Hilton Dhaka, to be situated at Gulshan, in September last year. The 250-room Hilton Hotel is scheduled to be opened in 2015.

Another five-star hotel – Sheraton — will be built by a local business company in between Basundhara and newly developed Purbachal areas of the capital.

Business insiders said a leading Bangladeshi footwear exporter has also planned to build Sofitel Hotel, a brand of the Accor Group in France, in Dhaka.

Accor announced that it would also enter Bangladesh as it would start operating two hotels under management contracts — Novotel Dhaka Gulshan Avenue in the capital and Novotel Chittagong in the port city.

The 185-room Novotel Dhaka at Gulshan Avenue will serve as a comprehensive meetings hub with conference and all other facilities for the guests.

The 170-room Novotel Chittagong will be located in the main business district of Chittagong, the commercial capital and main sea port of Bangladesh.

“Bangladesh has a thriving economy, with the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growing at about 6.0 per cent a year for the past five years,” said Simon Cooper, President of Marriott International for the Asia-Pacific region, during the signing of the agreement with Jamuna Group.

Mr Cooper said Dhaka is currently underserved, in terms of quality hotel accommodation, but it is set to grow strongly in the near future.

From Friday to next Friday, UN offices around the world will work with governments, civil society and international partners to mark “MDG Momentum: 1,000 Days of Action” in a variety of ways.

“The MDGs are the most successful global anti-poverty push in history,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was quoted as saying in a media release.

“The Goals have helped set global and national priorities, mobilise action, and achieve remarkable results.”

As part of a global ‘the MDG Momentum Campaign’, UNDP in Bangladesh is set to mark the week through events, competitions and a high-level workshop on the road to 2015.

UNDP Resident Representative Neal Walker said the UN family would continue its ‘cooperation’ with the government and other partners to step-up ‘collective efforts and re-energise the global movement to free people from extreme poverty and advance human development.’

Reiterating the need to retain a focus on the goals till 2015, UNDP Country Director, Pauline Tamesis said, “We have 1,000 days to close the gaps that remain for the Millennium Development Goals in Bangladesh – 1,000 days to accelerate action”.

The eight time-bound MDGs address poverty and hunger, education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, combating AIDS, malaria and other diseases, environmental sustainability and a global partnership for development.

Since the MDGs were adopted by all UN Member States in 2000, governments, international organisations and civil society groups around the world have helped make tremendous progress to improve peoples’ lives.

UN says, Bangladesh’s poverty rate has almost been halved since 1992, coming down from 56.6 percent to 31.5 percent in 2010 and is well on the way to meet the MDG 1 target.

It says a ‘massive’ reduction in child mortality has also been one of Bangladesh’s ‘standout successes’.

The under-five mortality rate has plummeted to 50 per 1,000 live births in 2009 from 146 two decades ago.

In 2011 Bangladesh received a UN prize for its success in reducing child mortality.

Maternal deaths dropped sharply to 194 per 100,000 live births from 564 and the contraceptive prevalence rate in also on track to be met.

UN, however says, Bangladesh has struggled in the areas of environmental sustainability, nutrition and certain aspects of gender equity.

“The 1,000-day milestone is an opportunity to amplify awareness of MDG achievements and the commitment to continue global progress, including in Bangladesh,” it says.

“The more the world can achieve on the MDGs, the more it will be possible to build confidence and support for a bold and ambitious post-2015 development agenda,” UNDP Administrator Helen Clark was quoted as saying in the media release.

“….that’s (democracy) the Bangladeshi thing, that’s the Bengali thing. And when this country has had non-democratic governance, that has not been a happy day,” he said replying to a question on Bangladesh’s current political situation and the future of US aid.

Speaking at a press conference organised for the visiting USAID deputy administrator Donald Steinberg on Thursday he said, he was ‘fully confident’ that democracy in Bangladesh would ‘continue to grow and strengthen’.

Mozena’s comment comes amidst the political impasse over how the next general elections will be conducted. The main opposition BNP insists on the restoration of the non-partisan caretaker system to conduct the polls but ruling Awami League-led alliance insists on getting the Election Commission to supervise the polls after scrapping the caretaker system through the 15th amendment.

Khaleda Zia at a rally in a northern district Bogra recently hinted at possible military intervention if the deadlock continued when she said that the army ‘would not sit idle during times of instability’.

Bangladesh witnessed fifteen years of military rule after 1975 when the country’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated.

In Jan 2007, a military backed caretaker administration took over power following political violence over holding the general elections. But instead of holding the polls immediately, it continued to govern for nearly two years , saying it would first trying ‘cleansing’ Bangladesh’s politics.

Mozena said said the US was aware of the current situation.

” What is needed is for the major political parties to talk to each other, engage in constructive dialogue and find a way forward for free, fair and credible elections,” he said.

Replying a question he, however, said all the activities of the USAID would continue as usual.

Doubling its aid in the last four years to $200 million in 2012 from $100 million in 2008 and staff in the mission, the visiting USAID deputy administrator said they laid much importance for the development of Bangladesh for the mutual benefit of both the countries.

“I can assure you that US recognises its interest in a strong, stable, prosperous Bangladesh,” he said.

Bangladesh, he said, was important because of its population, the moderate and secular Muslim state in the country, the unique new development initiatives and the contribution to global peacekeeping by its armed forces.

Supporting Bangladesh was vital for the US for its future security and economic interests.

“A peaceful and prosperous Bangladesh will not be into trafficking people, drugs and weapons, it will not harbor terrorists or pirates. It will not send refuges across borders, across oceans. It will not transmit pandemic diseases and it will continue to support global peace through the peacekeeping efforts,” Steinberg said.

“So it’s our mutual interest to see peace and prosperity in Bangladesh continues.”

In economic aspect he said, most of the US export markets become ‘stagnant’ and Bangladesh can be a market for US products in future.

He said as the world’s seventh largest country in terms of population, Bangladesh has shown the world how an Islamic state can succeed within ‘a secular democratic structure.’

During his presence, USAID and Bangladesh signed a $33 million 5-year project to protect nature and wild of the 25 protected areas out of 35 by generating alternative livelihoods of the people.

He extolled Bangladesh’s progress in cutting maternal and child deaths over the decades and said he came here to see ‘the magic’.

He said as a government, “we are increasingly changing how we do business in development field. We no longer have policies and programmes made in Washington DC that we apply in field.

“We are in a period where we recognise that the Bangladesh government, civil society and business community must be the drivers of development in Bangladesh.”

Earlier in December 2012, the review of the GPT guidelines proposed that if at least 60% of the value of a product had not been from raw materials from one or more of the GPT beneficiaries, the exporter country would lose the GPT facilities in Canada.

The challenge for Bangladesh was that more than 90% of the imported raw materials were from countries which would cease to be GPT beneficiaries after June 2014.

As per the proposed review of the Rules of Origin, Bangladesh was supposed to lose GPT facilities, i.e. duty and quota free access for its RMG export to Canadian market due to Bangladesh’s high dependence on future graduating countries from the GPT regime, like India, China, Thailand, etc.

Even though Bangladesh and likewise countries under the Least Developed Country Tariff (LDCT) would continue to get GPT facilities beyond 2014, the consequences of the proposed review of the Rules of Origin was about to create a collateral damage to Bangladesh’s RMG sector and its export to Canada.

The Canadian Budget 2013 has, therefore, announced the following:

“The Government (of Canada) will also ensure that graduating countries from the GPT regime does not reduce the benefits of the Least Developed County Tariff (LDCT) regime. The General Preferential Tariff and Least Developed Country Tariff Rules of Origin Regulations will be amended in order to continue allowing the duty-free importation of textiles and apparel from least developed countries that are produced using textile inputs from current GPT beneficiaries.”

The High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Canada, Kamrul Ahsan said that the Canadian decision comes as a great relief after intense diplomatic efforts with the Canadian Government. In this regard, the High Commissioner thanked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Commerce as well as BGMEA for their all out support to Bangladesh High Commission in Ottawa for maintaining close coordination.

He added that this decision would not only ensure the continued growth of Bangladesh-Canada trade relations but also save the employment of thousands of women workers in the apparel industry in Bangladesh.

The deal comes after Rosoboronexport showcased the twin-engine subsonic Yak-130 at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition last month, a report by the Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti said.

Detailed negotiations for the deal involving $1 billion of credit to Bangladesh will take place this spring, said Rosoboronexport Deputy Chief Viktor Komardin.

“The purchase of Yak-130 warplanes is a very significant subject of negotiations between Russia and Bangladesh,” he said during his visit to the 5-day show, which ended last Saturday.

Russia granted Bangladesh a $1 billion arms purchase credit during the visit of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed to Moscow in January when she met Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Komardin, who led the Rosoboronexport delegation to Malaysia, said Russian manufacturers want “cooperation in all areas, including the transfer of technology, assembly under license, (development of) hardware maintenance centers and joint research and development programs.”

Around 20 Russian companies took part in the Malaysian exhibition, which has been going since 1991. Russian firms included the state-owned United Industrial Corp. — Oboronprom — which produces helicopters, aircraft engines and air defense systems.

The aircraft, manufactured by Yakovlev, first flew in April 1996 and entered service with the Russian air force in 2009.

Algeria also operates the Yak-130 but the exact numbers aren’t known.

A report by RIA Novosti in June 2010 quoted the deputy head of Russia’s Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Vyacheslav Dzirkalin, saying Yaks along with Su-30 Flanker fighters were to have been delivered to Algeria in 2011 under a $1 billion deal.

“The delivery of Su-30s and Yak-130s (to Algeria) is due to begin next year, this is no military secret,” Dzirkalin said, but gave no indication of numbers.

Syria, too, is in line for the Yak-130 but the delivery is on hold, a July 2012 report by The New York Times said.

Dzirkaln was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying no new Russian weapons would be sent to Syria until the conflict ends.

The Times report also said Vyachislav Davidenko, a spokesman for Rosoboronexport, clarified in a telephone interview that Russia intended to service old military contracts with Syria, including the maintenance of Russian helicopters used by the Syrian army.

But the message about a delay in new weapons, notably shipments of the Yak-130, was a substantive change,

In his letter to the home minister of Bangladesh and the Thai ambassador, president of the company Santi Pongchaisopon complained that his company’s animal feed plant located at Boro Komoldoho in Merersharai of Chittagong is now in the grip of an unruly gang of extortionists there. He said, the plant there is being threatened to be taken over by local powerful musclemen who want to be involved with all its operations ranging from supply of raw materials, transportation and distribution. The goons are also asking the company owners to share its profits, he alleged.

Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) with headquarters in Bangkok was founded in 1921 by the Chia brothers, and is today one of Asia’s leading conglomerates. With businesses and affiliates operating within the agribusiness, retail and telecommunications markets, it currently employs over 250,000 people who conduct their investments, operations and trading at factories and offices worldwide. The company’s sales at the end of 2010 were US$ 30 billion.

Today C.P. Bangladesh Co. Ltd. has emerged as the most reliable development partner for sustained animal agriculture industry in Bangladesh, high quality and adequate protein supply for the nation and transfer of appropriate technology to grassroots farmers in animal health industry. The Thai conglomerate is further committed to developing competent human resource and protecting the business interest of all the stake-holders in animal industry of Bangladesh. The SOS issued by the C.P. Bangladesh is sure to send a danger signal to prospective foreign investors in the country. It is time that the ministry of home affairs stepped in immediately to protect foreign investors like C.P. Bangladesh.

Observers say, confrontational politics in Bangladesh responsible for laxity in law and order maintenance, has caused a rise in incidents of extortion, mugging and other sorts of crimes in major business centres. This has worried and disturbed the members of the business community and prompted them to ask the law enforcers to deal with the law breakers firmly. But no indication of any improvement in the situation is visible yet. Foreign investors, industrialists and businessmen are finding it difficult to sit in their offices due to frequent visits there by toll collectors and telephone calls demanding tolls.

The country’s leading chamber bodies have already made their grievances about incidents of extortion in their business houses known to the ministry of home affairs but without any redress. Quite rightly, the chamber leaders claim that only the private sector could create employment for the thirty million people still remaining unemployed. Current and future investments — both domestic and foreign — depend on improved law and order. The worries expressed by leading members of the business community about inaction of the police need to be addressed immediately.

He was very pleased to find an image of the inauguration ceremony already on the website.

An elated minister said, “This is digital Bangladesh!”

Hasanul Haque Inu was present at the launching ceremony of hello.bdnews24.com held at the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in Dhaka.

Children and adolescent journalists aged between 10-17 years will gather and deliver news on the website specially-designed to target young readers. The landmark move signals the inception of a new era in the country’s news service.

The country’s first internet newspaper, bdnews24.com, is running the website in partnership with UNICEF, the United Nations’ children agency.

The minister said, “Opposition leaders had mocked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina when she said she would build a digital Bangladesh – you will make a digital cow they said.”

“We have answered them with our work,” said Inu.

The minister, also President of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, said that this goal cannot be achieved in this age of information without the knowledge of ‘new and modern’ technologies.

”Information are not products, they pertain to societal matters. You will have to deliver news in accordance with state, history, heritage and solidarity”, he said addressing the young journalists.

He hoped ‘Hello’ will play a definitive role in developing the country, society and democracy.

The Information Minister said media was the ‘mirror’ of democracy. “It is the duty of the state and the people of the media to keep it clean. Democracy will be damaged if it (the media) becomes tainted.

He also urged them to present the condition of fellow children who hail from diverse and underprivileged backgrounds to make up for nearly half of the country’s total population.

Inu said the young journalists were representatives of deprived children in society. “It is your (children journalists) duty to project the condition of their (deprived children) sorrows and sufferings.”

Eminent botanist Dwijen Sharma, Jahangirnagar University teacher Hayat Mahmud, Noted actor Khairul Alam Shobuj, Information Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, bdnews24.com Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi, its Social Affairs Editor Baby Maudud and representative of UNICEF Bangladesh Pascal Villeneuve were present, among others, in the opening ceremony at the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in Dhaka

The visiting health minister of Maldives Dr Ahmed Jamsheed Mohamed expressed the view during a meeting with the health minister Dr AFM Ruhal Haque.

Praising Bangladesh’s success in health sector, the Maldivian minister said the two countries need to strengthen cooperation in developing the health sector as they face same kind of challenges.

He urged the Bangladeshi health minister to allow more Maldivian students to get admission to Bangladeshi medical and nursing education institutions.

Ruhal Haque described the infrastructure of the health sector and said the government health care service is widened from remote area upto district level. Free medicines are distributed starting from the community clinics to district level government hospitals, he added.

Referring to the acceptance of Bangladeshi medicines throughout the world, the minister said Bangladesh exports medicines to 87 countries and meets 97 per cent of local demand of medicines

Japan will give Bangladesh $1.04 billion – its largest-ever loan to Bangladesh – to help build and repair bridges, among other infrastructure projects. Improved traffic flow will help the country grow its economy. [Munir uz Zaman/AFP]

The deal was signed by Economic Relations Divisions (ERD) Secretary Abul Kalam Azad and Takao Toda of the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) at a March 10th ceremony in Dhaka.

To be disbursed starting in a year’s time, the loans carry an annual interest rate of 0.01% and a 40-year repayment period with a 10-year grace period.

“Japanese assistance will help the country proceed towards its double-digit economic growth target,” said Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith. Bangladesh’s economic growth stands at 6.2% following the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

Japanese ambassador to Dhaka Shiro Sadoshima, who like Muhith was present at the signing ceremony, said that if the Bangladesh government wants to achieve the growth target, it should avoid “violence and political instability”.

Three bridges…and more

About a third of the package is intended for building three new bridges on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, Bangladesh’s most important transportation corridor linking its capital and its major port city.

JICA will provide $316m for construction of the second Kanchpur, Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges, and renovation of existing bridges there. The total cost of the bridges is estimated at $845.5m, and JICA has assured Bangladesh it will furnish the balance ($529.5m) through future Official Development Assistance.

A total of $380m for the Karnaphuli Water Supply Project will expand clean water facilities in Chittagong City, while $224m for the Northern Bangladesh Integrated Development Project will help strengthen local government in the impoverished northern part of the country.

Meanwhile, $124m for the Renewable Energy Development Project will finance installation of solar energy and biomass power generation facilities. Top development partner

Japan is Bangladesh’s top bilateral development partner, having provided nearly $6.5 billion worth of assistance, not counting the present package, since Bangladesh’s independence, according to ERD.

“After India, Bangladesh is important to Japan’s South Asian foreign policy. This is why Japan has handed out aid to Bangladesh over the years,” said Delwar Hossain, chairman of the Department of International Relations at Dhaka University.

“Bangladesh should also try to explore the opportunities for trade and investment with Japan for faster economic development.”

Zaid Bakht, research director at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), pointed out that the Dhaka-Chittagong highway is the “economic lifeline” of the nation and would require proper maintenance.

“The government has had ambitious plans like having four lanes on this highway, expanding it further and so on, for quite some time. The construction of three bridges and renovating the existing ones will complement these plans,” he said.

Centre for Policy Dialogue Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman referred to the bridge projects as “significant infrastructure developments” for Bangladesh.

Through construction of new bridges, “there would be less traffic congestion. Goods transport cost on this highway will also come down, finally leading to an overall decrease in the cost of production,” he said.

“Additionally, it will be more convenient for the government to renovate existing bridges, which is not possible now without hampering the daily traffic flow. Inter-district connectivity will be another factor, all of which will contribute towards economic growth,” Rahman said.

Hartals, or general strikes, regularly paralyse the state. In the villages, people are taken by . But nothing filled my heart with quite as much fear as the item on day two of my Experience Bangladesh seven-day tour program:

“In the evening, as part of their daily practice of affirmation of sustainable living, you will listen to songs by the neighbourhood fishermen, weavers and farmers.”

If I were in my house, and the neighbourhood fishermen were in my dining room singing songs about sustainable living, I wouldn’t come out of my bedroom until they had gone home.

So I was amazed when the villagers of Tangail put on the most moving, haunting and uplifting performances of folk music I’ve ever heard.

There’s much that’s amazing about Bangladesh: the beauty of the Sundarbans rivers, the ugliness of the Dhaka traffic, the richness of the curries, the poverty of the villagers, the sheer pulsating strength of the gaudy, unquenchable culture, and the trembling fragility of the social order.

The country of more than 160 million people sees only 360,000 tourists a year. They include Japanese visitors exploring the relics of its ancient Buddhist civilisation and British Bangladeshis returning “home” to their parents’ villages.

Experience Bangladesh, a company with offices in the US and, slightly incongruously, Nowra, NSW, hopes to encourage more travellers to make the journey. After all, we go everywhere else.

The national carrier, Biman Bangladesh, which has a questionable reputation, doesn’t fly to Australia. But the energetic and voracious China Southern Airlines has a fast connection via Guangzhou, China, and Experience Bangladesh plans to use China Southern for its local packages.

Although it takes only 3½ hours to fly 2330 kilometres between Dhaka and Guangzhou, the 21-kilometre journey from Dhaka airport to the city grinds on for two hours.

The roads in Dhaka have reached such a level of overcrowding that vehicles can’t really be called traffic. They’re the opposite of traffic. They don’t move anywhere. But people – such as hawkers, beggars, and a man carrying a basket of ducks on his head – weave among the cars and bikes, unfettered by the shackles of wheels. Even the city’s 400,000 cycle rickshaws can’t make much headway through the chaos.

The dispiriting drive to the hotel is broken by a visit to the national parliament building, which manages to look simultaneously like a pared-down, modernist Taj Mahal and a power station held together by packaging tape.

In the members’ dining room (which boasts all the grandeur of a Queensland roadhouse), the tour party and I are served a delicious chicken korma, which sets the standard for the unexpectedly fine food we’re given time and again.

We “drive” into the narrow, congested streets of colonial Old Dhaka, where rickshaws are assembled in workshops by men who use their toes as clamps. Here, “rickshaw art” – the vibrant, kitschy paintings and decorations that lend the carts the celebratory shells of gypsy caravans – is for sale at about $12.5 for a back-seat piece.
We stay the night at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon, a five-star hotel with a marvellous buffet. I rise at dawn to swim in the outdoor pool, and watch the sun climb over the city and cautiously illuminate the armed guards on the hotel roof. The morning is warm but pleasant, as it is throughout Bangladesh in spring. The time to visit this country is November to February, avoiding the scorching summer and the June to July monsoon.

We drive 95 kilometres to Tangail, on roads that become less oppressive once we leave Dhaka behind. Tangail is a village of artisans, where most families weave elaborate saris on mechanical looms, while others mould earthenware pottery or handcraft rattan mats.

It’s all done with a guileless integrity under the sponsorship of the UBINIG organisation, which teaches craftspeople they can make more money and live better lives by continuing with traditional ways. There’s some evidence for this in the prices our group is prepared to pay for strikingly embroidered bags, but there’s no hard sell, or even soft sell, in Tangail – it takes about 15 minutes for the weavers to decide how much to charge, and the marketing manager bursts into tears of joy when she sees how much money they have taken.

In the evening comes the moment I’ve been dreading, when the farmers and fishermen gather with a few simple instruments to play songs they’ve composed themselves. Ominously, one of the early numbers is introduced with the un-thrilling line, “This song’s going to be about vegetables”, but it’s definitely the best song about vegetables I’ve ever heard. The music has a ghostly, insistent, Celtic feel, and the vocals are something extraordinary.

The third performer, Nobo Kumar Dey, a middle-aged man who describes himself as “a farmer as well as a singer”, enacts a (gulp!) political analogy about fish, in furious but disciplined dance, while singing a complex, rhythmic ballad with all the fire and energy of first-wave punk rock. It’s amazing.

Traditionally, the people of Tangail lived in mud huts, but most now inhabit sheds made from steel, a building method learnt from disaster-relief organisations. But the village guesthouse is part of the Biddhagarh (House of Knowledge), a concrete structure the size of a country motel, built over and around a courtyard where meals are served.

Bangladeshis say village food tastes better because it is cooked in earthenware pots on clay stoves fired by local timber, and the feast laid on for us in Tangail is terrific. It includes dahl, parathas, two types of spinach curry, potato in mustard seed oil, chicken, prawns, and magnificent melt-in-the-mouth marinated beef kebabs.

I’ll remember it long after I forget the guesthouse’s rather challenging beds. (The mattresses aren’t much thicker than the parathas.)

We fly south to Jessore – a 40-minute journey on United Airways, whose rather unsettling slogan is “Fly your own airline” – then drive for two hours to the town of Mongla, our gateway to the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans in the Ganges Delta.

If a tourist industry ever truly takes hold in Bangladesh, the Sundarbans, home of the Bengal tiger, will be at its heart. We cruise for two days in a comfortable, new five-cabin ship, ML Balawi, along rivers through jungle. In the early morning, it’s lovely to watch the ghost structures of laden timber-freighters gain lines and life at the lifting of the mist and the rising of the sun. We share the waters with houseboats and fishing boats, motor boats and canoes.

We are looking for wildlife, but it largely evades us on a dawn boat ride and a later bushwalk – which I miss out on anyway because my bunk is so snug. The others claim to see a tiger footprint, but I would say that, too, if I were talking to someone who didn’t go.

Although we don’t come upon a Bengal tiger, we do meet a man in a village whose brother was killed by a tiger, and who is now involved with the local tiger protection team. He says tigers are “beautiful” animals, and he doesn’t blame them for his brother’s death. Tiger incursions are on the rise, although nobody knows why. In 2012, there were only 56 reported incidents of tigers entering Sundarbans villages, but there were 23 in the first six weeks of 2013 alone.

Previously, the villagers had tried to beat the tigers to death – but cornered, frightened tigers are the most likely to strike. Today, teams of volunteers patrol the village borders at night and, if they see a big cat, they sound an alarm and drive it back into the wilderness.

The team is to stage a demonstration but nobody seems to want to be the tiger. A tall, bearded man stands apart from his comrades when they bawl a megaphoned warning to the village. He rubs his chin and zips up his cardigan. A siren sounds, whistles blow, and he ignores them. The others bear down on him, thumping the ground with sticks – and suddenly the villager drops onto all fours. His hips turn into haunches, his teeth bare as fangs, his hands twist to claws, and he leaps at his tormentors like a cat.

The team tries to drive him back but he is fierce, implacable and carnivorous. He rounds on them and rears, then attacks again, agile, majestic and fearsome, before he finally flees and reverts to human form. I’ve seen tigers in zoos that looked less real.

We leave the ship to overnight in Khulna, a town near Mongla. On the way to the spotlessly clean, airconditioned City Inn, we stop at Bagerhat, whose impressive archaeological sites include the magnificent Sixty Dome Mosque (which, oddly, has 77 domes).

On the last day, we are supposed to fly our own airline from Jessore back to the capital. However, an Islamist opposition party has called a general strike, which means rickshaws and ambulances (which are supposedly exempt) are the only safe transport out of Khulna. The hartals don’t target foreigners, but that doesn’t mean we can ignore them.

Our endlessly resourceful guides consider hiring two ambulances and smuggling us to the airport, but abandon the idea in favour of a journey by auto-rickshaw, train, and then another auto-rickshaw. As usual, it takes two hours to cover a short distance, but the crisis offers a chance to experience Bangladesh like a Bangladeshi, with all its rickety infrastructure, from the make-do-and-mend upholstery on the antique train to the ceiling fans that seem to be ordinary household fans nailed to the ceiling.

It’s surprisingly enjoyable – and no, I don’t usually enjoy that type of thing – and a bit like Race Around the World, until I read in The Daily Star that an ambulance carrying a heart-attack victim was stopped and “vandalised” by Jamaat supporters, and the patient died before reaching the hospital. Another man was killed when a strike-breaking minibus was overturned.

Not all the warnings about Bangladesh stand up. Experience Bangladesh takes elaborate precautions with food hygiene, and none of its travellers has fallen ill. The village cooking is wonderful. It’s a friendly, hospitable country, bursting with life.

But for the people of Bangladesh, there are far worse dangers than Bengal tigers.

“There’s a lack of good governance in the country. We’re also trying to root out corruption from the country, but we’ve not been able to do that,” he said.

The minister was addressing a meeting marking the Independence Day held at the Institution of Diploma Engineers Bangladesh (IDEB) at its conference room this afternoon.

Muhith noted that ‘Digital Bangladesh’ would be a powerful weapon to this end and then the trend of forgery would be reduced to a great extent in various institutions like in thanas and courts when it (Digital Bangladesh) would be materialised fully. “For this, Digital Bangladesh is the strongest weapon towards development.”

The finance minister expressed the hope that the nation would be able to attain ‘Sonar Bangla‘ by the time when it would be celebrating its golden jubilee of independence in 2021.

“We’re dreaming of a happy, prosperous and peaceful Bangladesh, which is not far away,” he observed.

Highlighting some achievements of the present government over the last four years, the finance minister firmly said hunger has been eradicated from the country alongside attaining food security and success in social safety nets, encouraging performance in primary education, health services and sanitation and success in alleviating poverty.

Muhith, however, acknowledged that problems are still there in housing, and employment generation in the industries sector still remains low compared to the services sector, and the trend of crime activities.

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Shaikh Md Wahid uz Zaman and Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad Central Command chairman Maj Gen (retd) Helal Morshed Khan also spoke at the programme chaired by IDEB president AKMA Hamid. IDEB central executive committee general secretary M Shamsur Rahman delivered the address of welcome

The report said ‘An upswing in the past few years that had lifted this impoverished South Asian nation into one of the world’s top clothing exporters now risks slipping through its fingers after a series of tumultuous events.

“Violent protests this month over the sentencing of three Islamist opposition leaders for war crimes during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence have led to at least 60 deaths and widespread strikes.

“The protests come on the heels of two apparel factory fires, one in November and a smaller one in January, which killed a combined 119 garment workers and attracted widespread negative press overseas. Rights groups said the fires reflected sometimes-dangerous working conditions and lax enforcement of labor standards in an economy that has become a major supplier to American and European retailers.

“Now, some companies are speaking of the country in the past tense”.

“Bangladesh was a good place to do business. But you have to read the political trends in the world,” says the report quoted “Christophe Roussel, chief executive for global nonfood sourcing and logistics at Tesco Corp., as saying” The company is the world’s third-largest retailer after Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Furthermore, “We are already moving away from Bangladesh. ‘Veit Geise, vice president for sourcing at VF Corp., VFC -0.07% a Greensboro, N.C., company that owns brands such as Wrangler, Timberland and Nautica, as saying’ How many eggs do you want in a basket that’s basically a powder keg?”

Both men were speaking at a meeting of supply-chain executives about sourcing goods in Asia sponsored by the French Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

“It isn’t the first time pessimism arises around Bangladesh’s garment industry; in 2005, the lifting of textile quotas fed worries that smaller garment-producing countries would be crushed by China’s greater ability to export. But despite such concerns, Bangladesh’s exports have continued to increase. According to data supplied by Bangladesh’s Export Promotion Bureau, garment exports grew by more than 10% in the first eight months of the fiscal year ending in June, helped by diversification into emerging markets.

“Any effects of concerns around the recent volatility won’t be seen for a while. Nevertheless, in the latest period, exports to traditional markets in Europe and North America slowed to a combined growth of around 5% from a year earlier. Analysts say this may be a reflection of nervousness among the world’s largest retailers due to sluggish economies as well as a reluctance to risk shipment delays.

“The latest unrest ignited Feb. 5 when a war-crimes tribunal sentenced a senior Islamist politician to life in prison. Two other opposition figures have been sentenced to death, sparking what many have called Bangladesh’s worst riots since independence from Pakistan. Local producers say they also are suffering from the turmoil”, the report noted.

“We are badly hit,” ‘Rubaba Huq, managing director of garment exporter Mohammadi Group,’ Thousands of trucks carrying goods to Chittagong port have been burned or damaged during strikes in the last two weeks. Manufacturers are chartering cargo aircrafts to make up for lost time. The country’s image has been badly damaged.”

“Bangladesh had been one of the biggest beneficiaries of a major reordering of the world’s low-end manufacturing in the past few years. Rising pay in China has forced companies to find less-costly production locales, especially for goods that require armies of laborers such as apparel, shoes and linens. Bangladesh’s exports of clothes have nearly doubled since 2008, creating thousands of jobs and putting a new sheen on the long-struggling economy.

But what many companies have found is that countries like Bangladesh-which seem like alternatives to China, including Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia- have their own obstacles. While salaries might be lower, political instability, poor infrastructure, recurring strikes and labor-law complexities can add their own costs. China’s deep supply-chain network is hard to replicate quickly elsewhere, making it difficult for some factory owners to move. Nike Inc. NKE -2.29% recently said only eight of the 896 factories it worked with in 2011 were in Bangladesh as it reduces its exposure to countries presenting reputational risks.

“That means there could be a limit to how much production actually leaves China in the coming years, economists say”, it added.

It reported: “Whereas China wiped out Korea’s textile industry, Bangladesh or Cambodia won’t wipe out China’s.” “Ben Simpfendorfer of Silk Road Economics in Hong Kong as saying”.

“Tesco has already moved aggressively to diversify its sources of goods away from China. The low-price retailer has reduced its reliance on Chinese factories from about 80% of its goods a few years ago to 60% today, Mr. Roussel said, with Bangladesh playing a big role in that transition. But after recent volatility in the country, Tesco is thinking twice. ‘We were overloaded in Bangladesh,’ he said. ‘It’s not about the conditions in the factory; it’s the country itself.’

“Tesco is looking for manufacturing sites closer to its core European markets, such as Turkey, Eastern Europe and Africa. But China will remain its biggest supplier, he says, as China will remain dominant in industries such as toys and electronics”, according to the WSJ report.

“Any further loss of investor interest in Bangladesh would mark a big lost opportunity for the country, which remains one of the poorest in Asia, with a per capita gross domestic product of less than $2,000 and a history of natural disasters,” the report said.

“What it does have going for it is a large population, with most of its 150 million people of working age, and relatively low wages, which helped fuel a manufacturing boom centered around garment making. After years of rapid growth, Bangladesh’s clothing exports have hit close to $20 billion, nearly as much as the second-largest exporter, Italy, according to World Trade Organization data. China, the world’s largest clothing exporter, sent abroad $154 billion of clothes in 2011.

“Neighboring India has looked on with envy as Bangladesh scooped up more business in recent years. India’s garment exports are expected to be around $13 billion this fiscal year which ends in March, around the same as last year and short of the government’s target of $18 billion.

“But now India sees an opening. A Sakthivel, chairman of India’s state-backed Apparel Export Promotion Council, estimates around $500 million of orders have shifted from Bangladesh to India in the past four months. ‘Some of the buyers are coming back to India,’ he says.

“Azizur Rahman, a senior official of the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone, denied that foreign investors may be pulling out. ‘The government is determined to keep the export-oriented industries free from political strife,’ he said. ‘We have plenty of investment in the pipeline and we hope to maintain our rapid growth,” the WSJ reported.

It said: “The government has remained bullish, setting an export target of $28 billion for the 2013 fiscal year ending June 30.

“But many manufacturers around Dhaka are skeptical. Garment-industry leaders say buyers have canceled scheduled trips due to the unrest, while manufacturers have incurred steep transport costs to make deadlines.

“The orders are still coming, but we will see the negative effect of the political upheaval in the coming months,’ said Ahsan Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Instute, a Dhaka-based think tank.

“Bangladesh’s textile industry is also facing challenges in keeping wages low. Although the minimum wage set by the government of $36.50 a month has remained the same since 2010, wages are set to be reviewed by the government next year, and pressure from labor groups has been rising.

“Owners were forced to temporarily close 300 private garment factories in the Ashulia industrial belt outside Dhaka in June last year after clashes between workers and police. The factories reopened after three-way talks between government ministers, manufacturers and workers’ unions, and the government promised to give ration cards to workers to buy commodities at subsidized rates.

“All those pressures mean more foreign companies may move to reduce exposure to the country, and potentially other nations seen as alternatives to China.

‘”We source significantly from Cambodia and Bangladesh, but we do want to put a kind of cap on those countries,’ says Richard Thomas, head of Far East for U.K. department-store chain Marks & Spencer MKS.LN +1.26% . ‘There are the political issues and risks associated with them. My personal view is that you shouldn’t source more than about 25% of your goods globally from a place like that’”, the report concluded.