Category: Industry

The Jatiya Press Club (JPC) on Wednesday strongly denounced Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) for seeking bank account details of 11 journalist leaders, and said it has tarnished the image of the journalist community.

In an emergency meeting, the JPC managing committee demanded the BFIU immediately withdraw such a “disgraceful decision”, said a press release signed by JPC Joint Secretary Mainul Alam.

“Under the existing law, allegations against an individual can be investigated. But there’re enough reasons to consider it a motivated decision since the letters were issued in the names of the elected top leaders of all organisations of only a particular profession (seeking their account details),” said the JPC meeting.

Voicing surprise over the BFIU move, the meeting said, “The image of the journalist community has been tarnished with the seeking of bank account details of its leaders in a wholesale manner. Even a national institution like the Jatiya Press Club has been put into question in an unprecedented way.”

It also said the elected journalist leaders have been publicly humiliated and their social status has been tarnished.

The BFIU of the Bangladesh Bank issued letters to the commercial banks asking for details of bank accounts of 11 journalist leaders last week.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

UNB Ambassador Rensje Teerink, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh, together with the EU Member States’ Ambassadors and representatives, hosted a virtual Erasmus+ pre-departure event on Friday for the 139 Bangladeshi students who will benefit from an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree scholarship under the Erasmus+ programme.

It is the most prestigious study programme that the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree has to offer: full-degree scholarships are funded and the beneficiaries are awarded a joint, double degree – or multiple degrees – upon their graduation. It is a true investment in the future of a young person and a reflection of the European idea.

The EU Ambassador said: “Despite Covid-19, we still live in a globalized world and a flagship programme like Erasmus+, with a strong external dimension that aims to promote people-to-people exchanges, can and should be a game-changer. Worldwide and in Bangladesh, demand for highly skilled, socially engaged people is increasing. Driven by digital technology, jobs are becoming more flexible and complex. The capacity of people to be entrepreneurial, think autonomously and creatively and be resilient are more crucial than ever. Erasmus+ helps its beneficiaries build resilience, adapt to the changing global environment, seize new opportunities and make the most of their talents.”

This year, 139 Bangladeshi students have been selected to study in numerous European cities for completing Masters in different areas such as environmental sciences, research, engineering, gender studies, economics, health, IT, law and development studies. The knowledge gained will surely have a far-reaching applicability in Bangladesh and contribute to making progress towards the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs. The event was made possible thanks to the active participation of the Erasmus Mundus alumni Association (EMA), according to a media release.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

International suppliers are offering long-term deals with Bangladesh to meet its soaring demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG), while energy experts and consumer right groups want the government to go through a competitive bidding process to ensure transparency.

Currently, the government is importing around five to six LNG cargoes, having the quantity of around 138,000 cubic metres every month. But the forecast is that the import will go up gradually as the country’s focus is now being shifted to LNG from coal as primary fuel for power generation.

According to sources, Bangladesh now imports LNG from two companies—Qatar-based QatarGas and Oman-based Oman Trading International—on long term basis while short-term supply is coming from international spot market where 17 more companies are enlisted.

Four more companies have been given green signal to be enlisted with the state-owned Petrbangla to supply LNG from the spot market.

Official sources said the long-term import is based on unsolicited deal while the short-term imports are taking place through a bidding process.

A senior official at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division said Excelerate Energy of USA, local Summit Group, Dubai’s ENOC, AOT of Switzerland, Vitol Asia are among the foreign companies which have recently expressed their interest to supply LNG on long-term basis besides their short-term supply.

He said all these companies are now involved in supply of LNG from spot market on short-term basis.

Meanwhile, consumer rights groups and energy experts have underlined ensuring transparency and accountability to select new suppliers of expensive LNG as the government has moved to select several long-term LNG suppliers to meet the country’s growing natural gas demand.

The government should select long-term LNG suppliers following an open and competitive mechanism, energy adviser of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) professor M Shamsul Alam said.

If the government selects the suppliers arbitrarily the purchase price of expensive LNG will be even costlier, he said.

The CAB adviser also demanded immediate cancellation of the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provision) Act 2010 to ensure transparency and accountability in the country’s power and energy sector.

The law was enacted more than a decade back to manage an emergency crisis in power and energy sector. “But now, that emergency crisis is over and the law has no relativity”, he added.

The government subsidy in energy sector will also mount further as the consequences of any farther unsolicited deals, he warned.

On the issue of ensuring transparency in LNG import, eminent energy expert Professor M Tamim said the government should avoid the path of selecting long term LNG suppliers through unsolicited mechanism for the sake of ensuring its ‘anti-corruption’ image.

“The government can select the suppliers either through competitive open tender process by setting some criteria or through pursuing ‘Swiss Challenge’ mechanism”, he said.

A Swiss challenge is a form of public procurement operated in some jurisdictions, which requires a public authority, which has received an unsolicited bid for a public project or for services to be provided to government, to publish the bid and invite third parties to match or better it.

Official sources said Petrobangla inked LNG sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) with the two companies after G2G negotiation under which it started regular import of LNG from September 9, 2018.

The country’s first-ever sales and purchase agreement with Qatar’s RasGas was signed to buy annually around 2.5 million tonnes per year (Mtpa) of lean LNG over 15 years.

During the initial five years of the deal, QatarGas will supply annually around 1.8 Mtpa of LNG, which will be increased up to 2.5 Mtpa in next 10 years.

The purchase price has been set at around 12.65 per cent of the three-month average price of Brent crude oil plus US$ 0.50 constant per MMBtu (million British thermal unit).

If Petrobangla has more demand during the first five years, it can increase the LNG import volume annually to 2.5 Mtpa, and during the next 10 years Petrobangla has the option to reduce the amount by 10 per cent every year.

On the other hand, the entity signed almost a similar deal with Oman trade International to import the bulk LNG.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

Online marketplace Daraz is gearing up to celebrate its seventh anniversary with a campaign designed to express gratitude to its customers and well-wishers.

Daraz Bangladesh, a concern of Alibaba Group, has completed its seven years of operation in Bangladesh.

The online marketplace will run an online festival for its customers during September 2-8 as a gesture of saying thank you to all of its customers, patrons, and well-wishers.

The online marketplace officially announced the “Daraz 7th Anniversary Campaign” through a digital press conference from their Facebook page yesterday.

Customers will be able to enjoy different offers and deals during the campaign. Mystery box, shake shake voucher, mega deals with up to Tk7,000 discount, prepayment discount, I love voucher, and flash sale are part of this campaign.

“I am thankful to all those people who have accompanied us through thick and thin. As a token of love, we have come up with amazing offers and deals as part of the anniversary campaign for our customers,” Syed Mostahidal Hoq, managing director of Daraz Bangladesh, said.

The campaign has been co-sponsored by Apex, Dabur Herb’l, Dettol, realme, Studio-X, and Savlon.

The brand partners of the campaign are Bruno Moretti, Dekko, Fabrilife, Focallure, Lafz, Logitech, Noah, Puma, Ribana, Rongon Herbal, TPlink, Motion View, Trendz, Emami, and Parachute Naturale Shampoo.

The global brand partners of this campaign are CKEYIN, UGREEN, Xiaomi, SKMEI Store, and Wiresto. The event partners are Binge, Ghoori Learning, Hansa Hotel, Cream & Fudge, Amari Hotel, Sky City Hotel, Burger King, 138 East and Dhaka Metro.

The payment partners are bKash, Brac Bank, City Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh, PBL, Shahjalal Islami Bank, and Southeast Bank.

During the campaign, consumers paying with bKash can enjoy 15% instant cashback (maximum Tk200).

Meanwhile, PBL, City Bank, Shahjalal Islami Bank, Southeast Bank, Brac Bank and Islami Bank Bangladesh customers can avail of a 10% discount (maximum Tk1500 per transaction twice), according to a press release.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

Bangladesh and Germany held the first-ever Strategic Dialogue in Berlin on Friday.

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany Miguel Berger led their respective sides at the dialogue.

Both sides agreed to work together for upholding multilateralism, addressing the challenges of climate change, and for closer collaboration in areas of trade, investment, skill development, renewable energy, countering terrorism, and safe and regular migration.

Bangladesh and Germany will celebrate the 50 years of bilateral relations next year.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

A total of 184 industrial establishments got registered with the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) in three months, from April to June this year.

The total amount of the proposed investments of the establishments is some Tk14,128 crore, which is much higher than the investment proposal of Tk5,684 crore in the same period of 2020.

Only 46 industrial establishments got registered with the BIDA during April-June 2020 due to the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Press Information Department.

The BIDA, the principal private investment promotion agency, provides diversified promotional and facilitating services to accelerate the country’s industrial development.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 and dying from the virus has continued to fall in Bangladesh, the latest daily figures show.

Bangladesh added 117 new fatalities to its national tally Friday – down from 145 logged a week earlier on August 20.

The average number of Covid-related fatalities confirmed each day has dropped by more than 110 over the last three weeks, 46% of the previous peak.

The country reported below 100, 77 fatalities, on June 26, the highest fatality number – 264 – on August 5 and 10, and 16,230 infections on July 28.

Bangladesh is now seeing a sustained drop in the daily case numbers, reporting 5,059 new cases on average each day – 35% of the peak. The highest daily average was reported on August 3.

Covid cases, fatalities continue to fall in Bangladesh

It recorded 3,525 new cases Friday after testing 27,578 samples, down from 5,993 logged a week earlier on August 20.

The country has been experiencing a surge of Covid-related caseloads and deaths since June 2021.

Between May and June this year, there was a 273% rise in monthly caseloads and 162% in fatalities. In July there was a 150% increase in caseloads and a 170% rise in deaths compared to the previous month, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Since the start of the Covid pandemic, Bangladesh has recorded 14,86,153 infections and 25,846 deaths, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

In 24 hours till Friday morning, the percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive stood at 12.78%, down from August 20’s 17.18%, while the WHO recommends a 5% or below rate.

Covid cases, fatalities continue to fall in Bangladesh

Meanwhile, the recovery rate rose to 94.50%, and the case fatality to 1.74% compared to the same period.

Dhaka division reported the highest 40 deaths, Chattogram 37, Khulna 11, Sylhet 10, Barishal six, Rangpur five, and Mymensingh and Rajshahi four each.

The government has administered at least 25,258,519 doses of Covid vaccines – enough to have vaccinated around 7.4% of the country’s population, assuming every person needs two doses.

The Covid vaccines cannot offer 100% protection but when more people are jabbed there is less opportunity for the virus to infect and spread.

Getting vaccinated prevents severe illness, hospitalisations, and death; and with the Delta variant; this is more urgent than ever, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd on Friday put a train of six metro rail coaches on a trial run on Diya Bari-Mirpur route.

MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd, told UNB that they put six couches on a trial run from Diya Bari to Mirpur in the morning to check the track from Uttara to Agargaon.

He said the company will put the same set of coaches again on the track on August 29 for reassessing their performances.

Bangladesh’s long wait for its first-ever metro rail is going to be over by December 2022 as work on the project has gained momentum despite disruptions by the coronavirus pandemic.

Four sets of trains — each comprising six air-conditioned coaches — have already reached Bangladesh from Japan and five more sets are scheduled to arrive by September next.

There will be a total of 144 coaches for the 24 train sets that will run on a 21km-route from Uttara to Kamalapur Railway Station via Agargaon, Farmgate, Dhaka University campus and Motijheel. There will be a total of 17 stations, according to project documents.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday approved a $1.78 billion multi-tranche financing facility to improve mobility, road safety, and regional trade along the Dhaka-Sylhet trade corridor in Bangladesh.

The SASEC Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor Road Investment Project will be delivered in four tranches, according to the global lender.

The $400 million first tranche of the MFF will help finance the initial works of the major contracts for the widening of about 210 km of National Highway 2 along the Dhaka–Sylhet corridor from two to four lanes. It will include 60 km of footpath, 26 foot bridges, and 13 overpasses.

Its design will have features responsive to the needs of the elderly, women, children, and the differently abled, as well as disaster and climate risks.

The government will fund $911 million of the total project cost of $2.69 billion. Apart from the MFF, ADB will also provide a $1 million technical assistance grant from its Technical Assistance Special Fund and an additional $2 million grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, financed by the Government of Japan, to support capacity building of the Roads and Highways Department on road safety and maintenance, climate change, and gender equality and social inclusion.

The Dhaka-Sylhet corridor, once complete, will support a new trade route connecting Chattogram port with India’s northeastern states through the three land ports of Akhaura, Sheola, and Tamabil, and from there to Bhutan and Myanmar.

The corridor is also the centerpiece of the Bangladesh government’s planned Northeast Bangladesh Economic Corridor, which aims to promote key industries in the area, such as energy generation and production of construction materials, and to better integrate them with the rest of the economy in the country.

ADB Transport Specialist for South Asia Satomi Sakaguchi said that Bangladesh’s export-driven economic growth has shown its unique potential of becoming a regional transport and trade hub. To sustain this growth, the country’s transport infrastructure needs to be improved.

“The project is the main part of Road Corridor 5 under the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) programme. Its improvement will reduce logistics costs, increase competitiveness, and help expand regional trade with neighbouring South Asian countries, apart from providing safe accessibility to the community members.”

“By doing so, the investment project will contribute to the government’s goal of achieving inclusive growth and sustainable development,” he said.

Transport and trade facilitation are among the priorities of SASEC members, which since 2001, have invested more than $14.3 billion in projects in the region, including 43 transport projects worth $11.4 billion.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

To equip the country’s youth with skills for the jobs of the future, Grameenphone and UNDP are all set to launch a unique virtual learning series.

Titled ‘Get Future Ready: Need for Skills’, the virtual learning MasterClass series is part of their commitment made on World Youth Skills Day. The sessions will be held from August 28 to September 25.

A pool of prominent industry leaders and experts will guide the participants with the aim to enable economic opportunities for all, especially in the post-pandemic era.

Sudipto Mukerjee (Resident Representative, UNDP Bangladesh), Rubana Huq (Past President, BGMEA), Ridwan Kabir (Vice President, AT&T), Zaved Akhtar (CEO, Unilever), and Yasir Azman (CEO, Grameenphone) will interact with participants on Zoom.

The speakers will discuss various aspects of inclusion, entrepreneurship, global professional scenario, innovation, leadership, and other business and career highlights.

Selective university students currently doing the Communication Skills, Digital Marketing & Entrepreneurship course under GP Explorers – a skills-led digital academy by Grameenphone – will join the sessions.

“We have the crucial advantage of a demographic dividend, which we need to utilise to the fullest,” said a Grameenphone representative.

“Through sessions like masterclass, our youth will get the opportunity to connect and learn directly from a handful of distinguished professionals. They can ask questions to satiate all their queries, from which other young audiences watching the live sessions can also benefit. Hopefully, this is going to be an immensely fruitful initiative for all of us,” he said.

UNDP’s Resident Representative Sudipto Mukerjee said, “This series of MasterClass, will orient young people to the kinds of soft skills and values which are increasingly considered essential in any workplace and in turn equipping them to become good professionals.

“UNDP is working with all development actors including the private sector to co-create platforms to help youth to not only access more dignified economic opportunities but through that becoming better able to contribute a modern and prosperous Bangladesh for all”.

The first session of the series shall be conducted by Mukerjee on August 28 from 7.30pm.

All sessions of the MasterClass series will be broadcast live on Grameenphone, UNDP, and Prothom Alo’s Facebook platforms.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has set up a PR and Media Lounge for journalists covering the readymade garment industry of Bangladesh.

BGMEA President Faruque Hassan and High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Vikram K Doraiswami jointly inaugurated the PR and Media Lounge at BGMEA office in Gulshan on Thursday.

BGMEA Vice President Shahidullah Azim and Director Md. Mohiuddin Rubel were present at the inaugural ceremony.

This is a part of BGMEA’s efforts to build bridges between journalists and the RMG industry to facilitate proper flow of factual information so that real picture of the industry is depicted.

BGMEA President Faruque Hassan said given the dominance of the RMG industry over the economy of Bangladesh, the sector has become an important beat for journalists at home and abroad.

“The apparel industry of Bangladesh has secured a prestigious position in the world and journalists have a significant contribution to the sector’s achievements. We hope journalists will continue their support to the industry through their factual, analytical and constructive reports,” he said.

“We request the media to portray the true picture with reports based on facts and dispel misinformation about the RMG industry which is making a difference to millions of lives,” he added.

Source: United News of Bangladesh

Already nearly two years behind schedule, Bangladesh’s ambitious Single Point Mooring (SPM) project in Chittagong is likely to miss yet another deadline.

One of this country’s top priority infrastructure programmes, the SPM project is aimed at offloading imported crude oil at reduced cost and time. Initially chasing a December 2019 deadline, the project’s latest timeline extension came in July last year.

However, highly placed sources told UNB that even the revised June 2022 deadline for the project may be pushed by a couple of months — till August next year, at least — due to labour shortage in the wake of Covid-19 and the consequent lockdown.

In fact, some 200 Chinese workers who were supposed to come to Bangladesh for the project, have been stuck in their home country since the outbreak of Covid in December 2019, the sources said.

“The Chinese contractor executing the SPM project on behalf of the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has sought another deadline extension,” said an official of Eastern Refinery Limited, a subsidiary of BPC.

“We have forwarded the request to the higher authorities. Some 65 percent of work at the site is complete, but we will need another year (till August) to make the SPM project operational,” said the official, who did not wish to be named.

When contacted, the managing director of ERL, Lokman Hossain, admitted the project’s current status but was quick to attribute the delay to Covid-19.

“Though the laying of submarine pipelines has been completed, the SPM floating buoy is yet to reach the country. We hope it will arrive here by November this year. Six oil tanks at Maheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar also have to be installed,” he said.

The SPM project was undertaken by BPC in 2012 to transport imported crude oil to the state-owned Eastern Refinery plant in Chittagong in order to reduce the transportation cost of crude oil fuel and also ensure prompt unloading from deep sea vessels.

After a number of feasibility studies and prolonged official processes, the government signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in December 2016 with China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP).

The foreign firm was supposed to build the facilities within 36 months (three years) at a cost of $550.40 million. But the project started facing delays with the outbreak of coronavirus in China in December 2019.

“As a result, our overall work had slowed down at the project site, and we could not progress much as per our original plan”, Sharif Hasnat, BPC’s project director for SPM, told UNB.

SPM was one of the top priority projects of the Energy Division as the project would substantially save the cost of fuel transportation.

At present, large vessels carrying crude oil are anchored in the deep sea and BPC uses some lighterage vessels to transport the imports to Eastern Refinery plant in Chittagong.

Under the SPM project, a total of 220km pipeline will be installed in the offshore and onshore areas to transport the imported crude and refined oil.

According to officials, the SPM project will have supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) & communication system and include the construction of three crude oil tanks (each of net capacity 50,000 m³) and three HSD tanks (of capacity 30,000 m³).

However, State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid said that the work at the project site “is going on in full swing”. “There were some procedural delays in the contractor’s payment system.”

“Once the project is implemented, it will save Tk1,000 crore a year as there will be no need to use lighterage vessels to transport the imported crude oil. The SPM project could be effectively used by the private sector oil importers as well,” the Minister added.

BPC officials said the project is being implemented with Chinese financial support.

Of the total project cost of Tk 5426.26 crore, Chinese Exim Bank will finance Tk 4293.12 crore and the Bangladesh government will provide Tk 1021.19 crore. The remaining Tk111.95 will be borne by BPC, the officials said.

ERL currently refines 1.5 million tonnes of crude petroleum annually. On completion of unit-2, its capacity will increase to 4.5 million tonnes. The SPM will have an annual unloading capacity of 9 million. It will be able to unload 120,000 tonnes of crude oil in 48 hours and 70,000 tonnes of diesel in 28 hours.

Source: United News of Bangladesh