Bangladesh is loose attraction and service standard for foreign Investor .(sources)As Unctad released its World Investment Report for this year, a few curious things emerged.

The first — Bangladesh scored quite low as a foreign direct investment catcher in South Asia, even much lower than Pakistan. And the second, the comments of the Board of Investment executive chairman who found not energy but red tape as a determining factor for investment decisions.

It was a shock that foreign investors still prefer Pakistan as their destination rather than Bangladesh. In Pakistan, suicide bombings no more elicit any shocked look from observers, as it does not for Afghanistan or Iraq either. Pakistan is today torn by sectarian strife. Whether it will be run over by the Taliban any time soon is a current speculation, and world leaders are rather more concerned with what will happen to its nuclear arms –whether those will fall into the hands of militants.

Bangladesh, in comparison, offers a far greater safe place for investment. It did not suffer from a terrible anti-insurgency fight like Sri Lanka did, and for which Sri Lanka’s FDI flow also dipped sharply. The remnants of the militant bands in Bangladesh are on the run and the government is firmly committed to fight extremism. Bangladesh’s economic health is also quite stable in the region, and it has made reasonably commendable advancement in social index. And yet we scored low — we need to think hard about it.

Why countries like Pakistan and Nigeria — you would find it hard to book a ticket to Lagos because of passenger pressure — are still preferred by investors, needs to be looked into carefully. It is the policies, opportunity to make money, and image that matter most.

When Bangladesh passed a new telco law that threatens stringent punishments such as Tk 300 crore fines (which is much higher than the capital of many telcos), and arrest without bail for delinquency — it sends the wrong signal to investors across the board. And a country’s image is built up on such signals put together.

Then there are the Board of Investment chief’s comments. Since he took over as the board’s boss, Dr SA Samad has been repeatedly denying the fact that energy crisis is a big deterring factor for investment. It may be a conscious denial from him, since he once sat at the energy ministry, and knows very well what a crucial role energy — both electricity and gas — plays in investment. He also must have realised that the Awami League-led government in fact wasted its first one and a half years regarding the energy front, and that energy will emerge as a crucial issue for Awami League in the next election about three and a half years away.

Any entrepreneurs’ gathering, be it formal or informal, is replete with talks of how their businesses are suffering due to load shedding and gas crisis. An investor, who runs a big dyeing factory in Gazipur, was recounting only last night how judicious he was to have his factory shut down because of gas crisis.

“I am lucky. I paid off my bank liabilities earlier, and so it was an easy decision to shut,” he said.

The person sitting next to him claimed he is even luckier. His factory’s gas supply came through the same line as that of a BNP leader’s. The BNP man’s connection was snapped as he defaulted on bills. That boosted gas pressure for his sari factory which is now running at full steam. Others around him are not that lucky, he said.

So, downplaying a problem would not help the situation, as the BoI chief is trying to do. Rather it might send wrong signals to policymakers, and the government’s efforts in solving the energy crisis might slacken.

The second comment the BoI chief made is even more curious. He said bureaucracy is the major problem for investment. True. But then the question comes, what the government has done to reduce red tape? The Regulatory Reforms Commission has been let to die only because it was conceptualised and formed during the caretaker government. And so is the fate of the Better Business Forum. The recommendations these two platforms made remain largely unimplemented. Finance Minister AMA Muhith, in his first budget, after the Awami League-led government came to power, promised that a new body would be formed to push through regulatory reforms.

That promise is forgotten today.

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A one-day summit of the Developing Eight nations, or D-8, ended Thursday in Nigeria with a resolution to deepen economic relations among member states. to sign a preferential trade agreement by next year in an effort to double their trade with each other and strengthen economic co-operation, their governments said yesterday.
Delegates to the meeting said the grouping had failed to realise its potential because only Iran and Malaysia had ratified a trade agreement, the outlines of which were agreed on several years ago. Other nations disagreed on which goods would be subject to reduced tariffs.

“The trade statistics among [the developing eight] countries may appear positive, but this success might be mainly due to existing bilateral trade initiatives rather than the co-operation of the [countries] as an organisation,” Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said.

The most-traded goods within the bloc include petroleum products from Nigeria, petrochemicals and edible oils from Malaysia, consumer goods, cars, and basic raw materials, such as rubber.

Abdul Qadir Memon, Pakistan’s deputy commerce secretary , said on the sidelines of the meeting: “The most important step is the preferential trade agreement, which we are aiming to [implement] by January 1 .

“We thought that by 2006 we would have been able to implement the agreement but unfortunately there have been delays.”

Heads of state and ministers from eight countries – Iran, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey – are meeting in Nigeria to discuss developing business ties and reducing trade barriers.

“Though the role of a government as a catalyst and enabler of economic growth remains pivotal, the primary driver of this process must be the private sector,” Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan told the meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Trade between the eight Islamic nations is estimated to be worth about $68-billion a year, or about 3% of global trade.

“While recognizing that the present intra D-8 investments are far below the potential of the member countries, we affirm our resolve to take immediate measures to encourage, facilitate and promote foreign direct investment in the priority areas,” the group said in its declaration, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
The D-8 said that while government plays a pivotal role as a catalyst of economic growth, economic cooperation among members would be driven by the private sector, with which government authorities would share information on investment opportunities.
The D-8 also pledged to broaden cooperation in the energy sector through the transfer of technology and the development of alternative fuels, renewable sources of energy and the peaceful use of nuclear energy, according to the news agency.
The group’s declaration called on member countries to expedite the ratification and implementation of all pending cooperative agreements, including those on trade, civil aviation, labor and migration, the news agency said.
The D-8, which was established in 1997 to promote economic ties among member states, groups Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria, Malaysia, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt and Bangladesh. Pakistan will host the next summit of the D-8 in 2012.

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The seventh D-8 Summit started in Nigeria on Thursday bringing together eight developing Muslim countries with the theme of ??enhancing investment cooperation among the group??.

Heads of states and governments from Bangladesh, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria assembled in the oil rich Nigeria??s capital to boost economic ties between the member states.

At the summit, Malaysia handed over the chairmanship of the D-8 to Nigeria. Malaysia took over the D-8 chairmanship on July 8, 2008 at the sixth summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Nigerian President Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathon welcomed the D-8 member countries leaders in his inaugural address.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Iranian President Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Egyptian Prime Minister Dr Ahmed Nazif, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin, Indonesian Minister for Coordination M Hatta Rajasa and Pakistani Commerce Minister Makhdoom Mohammad Amin Fahim attended the summit.

Dr Goodluck Jonathon in his welcome address said that summit would reinforce and sharpen economic cooperation among member countries through sharing of expertise in the fields of energy, transport, tourism, banking, financial institutions, infrastructure development, human resource development, science and technology, migrant workers and remittances, small and medium scale enterprises as well as information and communication technology.

He mentioned that all these corporations are with a view to improving the well-being of its peoples in a global economy. It is also aimed at boosting the participation of member states in the process of decision-making at the international level.

Among the important agenda of the summit would be the D-8 Roadmap for Economic Cooperation (2008-2018).

The roadmap which was endorsed during the Kuala Lumpur Summit in 2008 is aimed at encouraging greater economic cooperation among member states and to assist in mobilising resources from governmental and private sectors in implementing D-8 projects.

At the end of the summit, the Abuja Declaration would be released. The declaration would address issues that could help cushion the effects and challenges facing D-8 member states on: global economic recession, world energy question, climate change and global warming as they affect agriculture and food security, transportation, and matters on world trade

All DiGITAL :

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At Telenor Group, believe that being at the forefront of
telecommunications isn,t just about technology.
It,s about people,s needs.Telenor is one of the biggest foreign mobile phone companies in Asia with operations stretching across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia.

Now, the Norwegian group seems intent on returning the favour by helping Asian companies build a foothold in Europe.

Telenor announced on Wednesday that it was awarding Tata Consultancy Services of India a big, multi-year contract to modernise its information technology systems in Norway.
The deal came seven months after Telenor chose Huawei of China to overhaul its Norwegian mobile network infrastructure ahead of European rivals such as Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Both contracts show the scale of competitive challenge facing the developed world as China and India climb the economic value chain. Everyone understands that Asia is sucking manufacturing from the west. But surely IT service contracts and wireless network overhauls are exactly the kind of sophisticated, added-value business that western companies were supposed to be able to keep hold of? Particularly in an advanced country such as Norway.

If any further proof were needed of the great strides being taken by Chinese and Indian companies, check out how Tata described its Telenor deal:

??This contract underscores TCS?? ability to help global corporations optimise their ??Run the Business?? cost and channelize those savings to undertake modernisation projects that are delivered with reduced risk and increased certainty,?? said A.S. Lakshminarayanan, head of Tata??s European consultancy business.

When an Indian executive shows such a mastery of western corporate gobbledygook, there can be no doubt that emerging market companies have arrived as a force to be reckoned with.

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Security forces from Somalia’s Puntland region have stormed a Panama-flagged cargo vessel held by pirates, freeing the ship’s crew. However, the?pirates killed the Pakistani captain of the MV QSM Dubai during the confrontation on Wednesday, according to a Somalian government official.
“Our troops stormed the Panama-flagged vessel and engaged the pirates,” Said Mohamed Raage, the ports and marine transport minister, said on Thursday.???”There was brief fighting before they defeated them.”We arrested seven pirates after they killed the captain of the ship.”
Two Somali?soldiers were injured in the gun battle, which freed 24 crew members from Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Ghana.Somali forces decided to use force after the pirates refused to surrender, Raage said.
The ship was carrying sugar from Brazil to Bossaso, a city in northern Somalia,?he said.
The zone becoming dangerious .Somali pirates have seized control of a Panama-flagged cargo vessel in the Gulf of Aden, the European Union’s naval forces say in a statement.

The armed pirates hijacked the ship and its 24 crew from Bangladesh, Ghana, Egypt and Pakistan on Wednesday, media reported.

“In the early hours of June 2 it was reported by the owner of the MV QSM Dubai that a group of armed pirates had boarded the ship and taken control,” EU NAVFOR said.

A US warship patrolling the waters reported that “they had seen a person with an RPG on board.” After flying over the ship, they concluded it had been hijacked, NAVFOR added.

The 15,220-ton ship was coming from Brazil.

The Gulf of Aden and water routes off the coast of Somalia remain the hotbed of mounting attacks on passing ships by Somali pirates despite the presence of about 35 international warships patrolling the lawless waters.

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Foreign Minister Dipu Moni will visit New York from May 2-4 to attend the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, a foreign ministry announcement said on Saturday.Earlier bangladesh supported the treaty.

The foreign minister will make a statement at the General Debate scheduled to be held on May 4 at the General Assembly Hall in New York.

She is expected to attend a bilateral meeting with Yukiya Amano, Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on May 3, according to the announcement.

BRIEF :

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT or NNPT) is a treaty to limit the spread (proliferation) of nuclear weapons. The treaty came into force on 5 March 1970 and currently there are 189 states party to the treaty, five of which are recognized as nuclear weapon states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China (also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council).

Four non-parties to the treaty are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons. India, Pakistan and North Korea have openly tested and declared that they possess nuclear weapons, while Israel has had a policy of opacity regarding its own nuclear weapons program. North Korea acceded to the treaty, violated it, and withdrew from it in 2003.

The treaty was proposed by Ireland and Finland and they were the first to sign.

The NPT consists of a preamble and eleven articles. Although the concept of “pillars” appears nowhere in the NPT, the treaty is nevertheless sometimes interpreted as a three pillar system, with an implicit balance among them:

1.non-proliferation,
2.disarmament, and
3.the right to peacefully use nuclear technology.
The treaty is reviewed each five years in meetings called Review Conferences of the Parties to the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In addition, Sessions of the Preparatory Committee for the Review Conference take place on the intermediate years. Simultaneously, many events organized by independent institutions, groups of experts, think tanks and NGO’s take place worldwide in order to provide reports and recommendations that compliment the Preparatory Committees.

Even though the treaty was originally conceived with a limited duration of 25 years, the signing parties decided by consensus to extend the treaty indefinitely and without conditions during the Review Conference in New York City on May 11, 1995.

The next Review Conference will be held in May, 2010.

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sources Pakistan seeks closer shipping ties with Bangladesh Pakistan has sought direct shipping links with Bangladesh to boost bilateral trade.

Pakistani High Commissioner here Ashraf Qureshi Thursday said that his country wanted to improve its relations with Bangladesh. The two countries should prepare a road map for strengthening trade ties.

‘We want direct shipping link between two countries,’ he was quoted as saying by New Age after a meeting with Bangladesh Commerce Minister Faruk Khan.

Qureshi also said that there was no Bangladeshi bank branch in Pakistan while two Pakistani banks were operating in Bangladesh

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Countdown to ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 ,the world at a cost of over US dollars 100 million..The countdown for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 the pinnacle event in the cricketing world staged every four years began in Colombo yesterday exactly one year from staging the final in Mumbai, India.International Cricket Council (ICC) Central Organising Committee (COC) for Cricket World Cup 2011 today praised the progress of Sri Lanka’s preparations to host the international event next year.

The Central Organising Committee chaired by ICC Vice-President Sharad Pawar met in Colombo today and commended the progress of ongoing work being carried out on the hosting venues at Colombo, Pallekelle and Hambantota

The 2011 event will be co hosted by Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka in February and March next year. The tenth edition of the ICC World Cup will feature a total of 14 teams competing in 51 matches across the three host event nations. The Group ?A? will comprise the defending champions Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya. The Group ?B? will include India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands.
The Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council Haroon Logart stated that the ICC World Cup will see the top one day international teams participate to be crowned the World champions and it is also the one day tournament that all teams strive to win. He said that Sri Lanka will host a total of 12 matches across three venues including one quarterfinal and one semifinal match respectively. He noted that arrangements are underway to make the 2011 World Cup the best in the world at a cost of over US dollars 100 million.

ICC tackles visa & Ticket issues for W.Cup fans
The International Cricket Council on Friday said it was working to ease visa complications for overseas fans wishing to travel to the 2011 World Cup on the Indian sub-continent.

Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh who are co-hosting the flagship event have promised to speed-up and simplify the visa issuing process, ICC vice president Sharad Pawar told reporters in Colombo.

“With a valid ticket, the visa process for the matches will be made easier,” Pawar said after a meeting of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 central organising committee in Colombo.

The 14-nation showpiece event, held every four years, opens on February 19, 2011 with India taking on Bangladesh at the Mirpur stadium near Dhaka.

While Sri Lanka allows visa on arrival for foreign tourists for up to 30 days, tourists travelling to India need to apply in advance for a single-entry visa.

The ICC said the organising committee was working with the Indian government to allow multiple entry visas for all supporters with valid match tickets, except those from Pakistan.

Pakistan, the fourth Test-playing nation in South Asia, were removed as co-hosts due to security concerns in the volatile country.

The 43-day tournament will be played across 13 venues in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and ends with the final on April 2 at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium, which is under renovation.

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said preparations were in full swing in all three countries to renovate and build new stadiums.

Tickets will go on sale in June and will be priced at between 50 US cents and around 50 dollars, officials said.

“Ticket prices will be kept as affordable as possible to allow younger fans to fill the stadium,” Lorgat said.

The other teams in the fray will be England, South Africa, the West Indies, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands and Kenya.

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Sources :p
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been awarded the prestigious ?ASOCIO Special Recognition Award-2010? for her ?unique vision and tremendous efforts? to turn the country into a modern ICT-based digital Bangladesh.

Looi Kien Leong, president of Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation (ASOCIO) handed the award to the premier at the inaugural ceremony of BCS Digital Expo-2010 at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) President Looi Kien Leong handed over the award to Sheikh Hasina at the opening ceremony of BCS Digital Expo-2010 in Dhaka Wednesday.

Later, the Prime Minister dedicated the award to the young generation of Bangladesh, who are playing an effective role in implementing the government?s vision for building an ICT-based modern Bangladesh.

?It is a great honour for the people of Bangladesh and the award will further increase the country?s image and help building an ICT-based modern Bangladesh,? the Prime Minister said after receiving the award.

ASOCIO is a Tokyo-based organisation working on developing the computing society and industry in the region.

The organisation awarded Hasina for her dynamic leadership to lead Bangladesh to a technology-based society, said Leong.

The president of ASOCIO underlined Hasina’s role in developing the country’s ICT sector, introducing a number of mobile operators and planning for building digital Bangladesh by 2021.

The other recipients of the award in previous years were the former prime ministers –Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand and Phan Van Khai of Vietnam.

In her immediate reaction, the prime minister thanked ASOCIO and dedicated the award to the young generation of Bangladesh.

Hasina said under the ‘Digital Bangladesh’ roadmap, her government would link 1,000 unions through fibre optic cable by next one year

More About
Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation (ASOCIO):
Throughout the expanse of Asia-Oceania, which encompasses both developed and developing economies, the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) stands tall as the bridge for IT companies in the region to expand their network of contacts, do business together and develop their capabilities.

Since its establishment in 1984, in Tokyo, Japan, ASOCIO has dedicated itself to promoting, encouraging and fostering relationships, while promoting trade between its member organizations. As a federation of computing industry associations from the Asian-Oceanian region, ASOCIO’s overriding objective is to develop the computing society and industry in the region.

ASOCIO has been instrumental in linking up IT companies in its member economies. The annual ASOCIO ICT Summit is o-ne of the region’s high-powered IT forums, providing platforms for government and industry to share information, develop closer relationship and, most importantly, identify new business opportunities.

ASOCIO has 20 members representing Japan, Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam. It has seven guest members from USA, UK, Canada, Spain, France, Russia and Kenya.

ASOCIO members associations, through their own members, represent more than 10,000 IT companies in the region.

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Five operatives of Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad have been arrested in the capital Dhaka, a Rab official said on Sunday.

Of the five, one is a Pakistani national while the remaining four are Bangladeshi citizens, Rab Assistant Director (media wing) Mohammad Kamaruzzaman said

The arrested are: Rezwan Ahmed, 26, of Karachi, Pakistan, two brothers — Imazuddin alias Munna and Sadek Hossain alias Khoka — sons of Mohiuddin of Hajiganj thana in Chandpur, Abu Naser Munshi of the same district, and Nannu Mia alias Belal Mandol of Kotwali thana in Sylhet.Rab Intelligence Wing and Rab-2 in a drive from around 1:30am to 6:30am arrested the militants at 5/F Sukanya Tower near the Gausia Market on the city’s Mirpur road.

The militant suspects belong to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group which is reportedly responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi, said Colonel Matiur Rahman, additional director general of Bangladesh’s elite Rapid Action Battalion.

Rezwan at a press briefing at the Rab headquarters confessed that he had been working as a coordinator of Jaish-e-Mohammad in Bangladesh and also a recruiting agent for conducting operations in India

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