The interim government has undertaken a programme of massive reforms of the nationalised commercial banks to infuse them with dynamism and make them more attractive to local and foreign buyers. Under the planned programme, the finance ministry decided last week to appoint managing directors at Sonali, Janata and Agrani banks from the private sector soon with attractive salaries following a pressure from the World Bank.

The discretionary powers currently enjoyed by tax officials are a major cause of corruption, claimed the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in a recent report, urging the government to scrap such fiscal distortions in the ensuing budget. ‘The discretionary powers were withdrawn briefly for two years but the same have been restored for reasons not known to us,’ the report reads. ‘It will be relevant to mention that tax collection did not decline when the discretionary powers were withdrawn,’ it points out.

The Bangladesh Rice Foundation, a nonprofit private organisation, on April 9 launched a rice data bank to increase the effective use and access to integrated information about rice in Bangladesh. Multifaceted information about rice at national, regional and global levels are available on the web based data bank. The data bank comprises several inventories of rice in Bangladesh, global rice data, socio-cultural aspect of rice, rice trade, rice mills in Bangladesh, cost benefit analysis of the crop land emergency technologies for rice.

Bangladesh will hand over a list of its products for zero-tariff access to the Indian market as India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh announced trade concession to least developed countries of SAARC. In a post-SAARC summit briefing on April 8, the foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, welcomed the decision of Manmohan Singh.

China will ban processing trade in more categories of chemical and resource products in the latest move to restrict the export of resource-intensive products and to balance trade. The 2007 Prohibited List for Processing Trade, which would take effect on April 26, bans processing trade firms from dealing in 990 products.

In a major shake up in the capital market, the Securities and Exchange Commission is going to introduce book-building system for initial public offer soon. Book Building – alternative to fixed price system – is basically a capital issuance process used in initial public offer and during the period for which the book for the IPO is open, bids are collected from investors at various prices, which are above or equal to the floor price.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), one of the major development partners of Bangladesh, will provide direct loans to the country’s private sector businessmen for implementing projects in mainly infrastructure and financial sectors. In infrastructure sector funding ADB attaches priority to energy (power and hydrocarbons), water supply, waste management and treatment, telecommunication, roads, ports, airports, and light rail system. They will also provide assistance for up-gradation and expansion of the existing infrastructure projects to enhance their operating efficiencies. In the financial sector ADB will provide loan to private financial intermediaries such as banks and non-banking financial institutions so that these institutions can, in turn, finance small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro enterprises.

State-run Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) has initially selected 14 products under its one district one product policy aiming to diversifying the country’s exports. The products that have been selected are: organic tea, crab, leather and leather goods, handicraft, handloom items, pineapples, fresh vegetables, agro-processed items, fish, herbal products, clay tiles, rubber, perfume and betel leaf.

The Businesses welcome and commend the bold steps initiated by the Caretaker Government under your leadership for tackling corruption, reconstitution of the Election Commission for making necessary preparation for holding a free, fair and credible election and creating an enabling environment for business and restoring the business climate in order to ensure continuity of growth momentum. We would like to congratulate you for reconstitution of the much talked about Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and for the steps so far taken for separation of judiciary from Executive branch of Administration. We urge upon you to reconstitute and undertake necessary reforms in the Public Service Commission (PSC). We also welcome the move of the Government against land grabbers and urge to continue the drive.

The country’s economy will grow by 7 per cent in the next fiscal year compared to 6.5 per cent in the current year, despite challenges in infrastructure development, governance, and stimulating foreign direct investment, forecast the Asian Development Bank. The Manilabased lending agency made the projection in its Asian Development Outlook 2007 launched simultaneously in Dhaka and elsewhere on March 28, considering a strong performance of Bangladesh’s industry and service sectors.

Vietnam has targeted to raise its vegetable, fruit and flower export revenues to 700 million US dollars in 2010, and one billion dollars in 2015 from 280 million dollars in 2006. The country has also planned to post the products annual export growth of 29 per cent since 2016. To this end, Vietnam will boost production of 10 kinds of fruits, including orange, grape fruit, pineapple, mango, longan and litchi.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on March 20 inaugurated a multi-million-dollar Chinese-funded deep sea port in southwestern Baluchistan province. Gwadar port, on the Arabian Sea, has been around 75 percent financed by Pakistan’s close strategic and economic ally China. The cost of the development is around 250 million dollars.

International Monetary Fund has enquired about the tariff measures and fiscal projections for the next fiscal year three months ahead of the budget announcement, which usually takes place in early June. In a letter forwarded to finance and planning adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, the Fund, which supports the government to maintain fiscal discipline, enquired about the tariff measures, tax policy, annual development programme, energy pricing and subsidy planned for 200708 fiscal. It also wanted to know about the key policy focuses of the next budget.

Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing markets in Asia for advertising and market research, according to a senior executive in one of the regions leading ad agencies. Nirvik Singh, Grey Global Group chairman of South Asia and president of South East Asia, said that with a growing middle class, a population of more than 140million and the increasing influence of satellite television, the market for consumer products could take off.

The premier nongovernmental research organisation, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), has identified five major areas to strengthen agriculture cooperation among the South Asian countries. Although the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is committed to cooperation in agricultural development, there has been a little progress, CPD observed.

Impoverished Myanmar has sold 3,652 lots of jade, gems and pearls at a government-run sale which is expected to earn millions of dollars for the ruling junta, official media said on March 21. Myanmese-language newspaper The Mirror said a total of 3,508 jade lots, 47 gem lots and 97 pearl lots were sold at auction at the 44th Myanma Gems Emporium, which ran from March 820.

A TRADE bill has been introduced in the Senate of the United States (US) seeking to provide duty-free access of products from Bangladesh and 13 other least developed countries (LDCs) to American market. Senator Gordon Smith introduced the Tariff Relief Assistance for Developing Economies (TRADE) Act of 2007 in the Senate on March 15 to extend certain trade preferences to certain LDCs, including Bangladesh for next 10 years. The bill, cosponsored by Senator Feinstein, Senator Craig and Senator Sununu, was referred to the Senate Committee on Finance.

The World Bank is going to prepare a strategy paper on power sector to help Bangladesh overcome problems in electricity generation. An expert team from the World Bank headquarters would arrive in Dhaka on March 25 for a 12day visit to initiate activities for preparing the document styled political economy of the power sector in Bangladesh. The paper will highlight all features including investment, existing electricity generation, transmission and distribution system, per capita power consumption, demand, necessary investment in the sector in future to make electricity available for all and its role in the national economy,.

Business models like Grameen Telecoms Village Phone Programme have huge potentials to tap a US$ 5 trillion market worldwide as a study measured on the basis of purchasing power of four billion people living in relative poverty. International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, and World Resources Institute conducted the study released in Washington DC on March 19.

A strategy has been unveiled by the new leadership of the apex trade body of the apparels sector to double its export target in a span of three years on the backdrop of changed global business scenario.
Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) says besides implementing this new strategy, styled Time Action Plan, to resolve local and global barriers, they would look into enforcement of the tripartite agreements on RMG workers minimum wages and compliance issues to augment exports from $9 billions to $18 billions.