The government plans to introduce direct flight services with Myanmar to increase exports especially of pharmaceutical products to the southeastern Asian neighbour. The commerce ministry will prepare a position paper soon to this effect and forward it to the council of advisers for approval. The ministry will also make proposals for resuming border trade with Myanmar to facilitate trade.

Malaysian company, the Capita Jaya Holding Ltd (CJHL), in a joint venture with the CapitaLand Development Company Ltd (CDL) of Bangladesh will invest $100 million in the housing sector of the country. They will construct about 900 apartments at the initial stage and their prices will be affordable to the middle-class buyers. All projects will be implemented by next 18-48 months.

BGMEA, the country’s apex trade body for the apparel sector, has set a roadmap to make the local garment units fully compliant within the next three years. The roadmap will be implemented in association with Multi-stakeholder Forum Bangladesh (MFB), the Bangladesh chapter of MFA Forum. The UK-based MFA Forum is an international organisation comprised of the buyers’ representatives, stockholders, trade unions and NGOs. The newly formed MFB will work for the local garment industry.

Myanmar is keen to set up a special economic zone for fishery products in its Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh to cater to the needs of Bangladeshi importers and consumers. Bangladeshi investors can invest in the zone or engage in contract farming with their Myanmar counterparts. The issue was raised when a seven-member Bangladeshi delegation visited the neighbouring nation to see its fisheries infrastructure.

Country’s top business leaders have urged the government to take immediate move for the withdrawal of Indian embargo on acceptance of Bangladesh’s investment in India. Such a ban since Bangladesh’s independence bars the local entrepreneurs from making any investment in the neighbouring country, they said, also pointing to the central bank’s rigid policy, which, according to them, hinders the cross-border investment.

India’s trade deficit widened 40.5 percent in the fiscal year that ended in March this year to 56.74 billion dollars while business insiders said a hardening rupee would hit exports further in the months to come. Government statistics released on May 1 showed economic growth has seen the trade deficit grow over the past few months and stood at 5.78 billion dollars in January as against 5.68 billion dollars in December last year.

SAIF Powertec Limited, a private sector operator of Chittagong Container Terminal, has launched SMS service for locating containers on the port yard. With introduction of the service, importers and exporters will be able locate their containers in 30 seconds. Previously, they need two/three days to locate containers from among the indiscriminately piled up containers on the port yard.

Speakers at a seminar on May 3 said Bangladesh can carve a niche in the lucrative Japanese processed food market by using Japan’s technology in local agriculture sector. ABEC Bangla Co Ltd, a Japan-Bangladesh joint venture company, organised the seminar to disseminate information about how Bangladeshi agro-processed foods can enter Japanese market.

The Council of Advisers at its meeting on May 5 approved a proposal for signing the inter-governmental agreement on Trans-Asian Railway Network. The objective of the deal is to develop transport communications in Asian and its surrounding countries, gradually connecting the European countries with the trans-border railway, which will enter Bangladesh from three directions in the west and get out through a single gateway on the eastern front.

Apparel manufacturers from now will not be required to pay extra charges to shipping agents and vessel operators. The decision came following a meeting between Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) members and Chittagong Joint Forces commander in Chittagong on May 3. According to the decision, BGMEA members will pay a fixed amount of $43.40 and $65.10 in terminal handling charges for twenty-foot equivalent units and forty -foot equivalent units of full load containers respectively at the export level.

Trade deficit widened by 18 per cent as the country imported goods worth over $10 billion and exported only $7.97 billion worth of commodities in the July-February period of the current fiscal year, according to the Bangladesh Bank’s monthly update. Total imports were worth $8.3 billion and total exports $6.6 billion in the same period in the last fiscal year.

Remittance inflow jumped 25 per cent to $4,861 million during the July-April period of the current fiscal. About 4.5 million expatriates sent this amount home during the first 10 months of the 2006-07 fiscal, surpassing the last fiscal year’s total of $4,801 million and surging foreign exchange reserves to $4,516 million on April 30. The highest amount came from Saudi Arabia as over a million workers sent $1,312 million during July-March period.

President of International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh Mahbubur Rahman has said country’s economy experienced a mixed trend in the calendar year 2006 due to political instability. ‘The economic indicators showed a sign of slowdown during the last quarter of 2006,’ he said this while presenting a report of the executive board of ICCB at its annual council-2006 held at the DCCI auditorium on Saturday.

International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Bangladesh president Mahbubur Rahman said the economic indicators showed a sign of slowdown during the last quarter of 2006 because the economy experienced a mixed trend in the same calendar year due mainly to political instability during the whole year.

The national output growth is likely to slow down in 2007, according to a report prepared by the ICC-B Executive Board. President of the Bangladesh chapter of International Chamber of Commerce Mahbubur Rahman presented the report at the Annual Council held at the auditorium of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) yesterday.

President of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Bangladesh Mahbubur Rahman on Saturday said the country needs stability for sustained growth and prosperity to match with other countries of the region, reports BSS.

Country’s economy faced a loss of Tk 130 billion for outages during FY06, which is about 4 percent of the GDP as against the loss of Tk 120 billion or 3.3 per cent of the GDP in FY05, said the annual report of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)-Bangladesh.

Japan said on April 25 that China became its top trading partner for the first time since World War II, unseating the United States in the past fiscal year despite strained ties between the Asian giants. The new milestone came as Japan reported the first rise in its overall trade surplus for two fiscal years, and a sharp increase in March that underpinned optimism in the outlook for Asia’s largest economy.

Taiwan will invest 40 million US dollar for setting up a tent, sporting goods and outdoor garments industry in Karnaphuli Export Processing Zone of Chittagong. The Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and Eusebio Sporting (Bangladesh) Ltd, a Taiwanese company, on April 25signed an agreement in Dhaka to this effect.

Political situation in Bangladesh remained the main challenge to smooth programme delivery, particularly in the last quarter of fiscal 2007, Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in its annual report. However, it said, close coordination with the Bangladesh government helped mitigate the constraints, the report said adding that policy dialogue with the government helped foster reforms in the energy, education, and railways sectors.