Nobel Laureate claims Bangladesh will be social business destination

Bangladesh will become an attractive destination of ‘Social Business’ in near future setting an example for rest of the world, as it has totally different objectives withspecial focus on solving society’s most pressing problems, instead of making money.

This was stated by Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank and innovator of social business, at the inaugural session of a conference at media bazzar auditorium, BICC the city on October 28, 2011, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
S: http://www.demotix.com/news/900434/nobel-laureate-claims-bangladesh-will-be-social-business-destination

Orange now moneyspinner in Moulvibazar (Bangladesh)

Cultivation of orange is becoming a moneyspinner in the district as farmers achieved steady growth in yield in the last few years.

According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), more than 500 hectares of hilly lands in Juri and Baralekha upazilas have been brought under commercial orange cultivation this year.

Farmers in the upazilas are expecting a bumper production of the fruit because of favourable weather, timely rainfall and necessary support from the DAE officials.

During a recent visit to Hayachhara, Kochurgul, Rupachhara, Belbari, Jorichhara, Lathitila, Lalchhara and Kalachhara villages under Goalbari union in Juri upazila, this correspondent found the orange growers there busy harvesting and sorting according to the sizes and packing the fruit in bamboo made buskets for sale.

Ibrahim Ali, an owner of an orange garden, said he begun selling of orange as early as from October 15 this year.

“I have sold around 12 thousand oranges worth around Tk 60,000 from the garden to a wholesaler of Bhairab in Kishoreganj”.

“The price of each 100 pieces was Tk 500”, he added.

In the previous years, the fruit was not commercially produced in the area for lack of its good quality and poor marketing facilities, farmers said.

The government initiatives to encourage farmers in the district for commercial cultivation of the fruit have brought some positive changes, they said.

The DAE took up ‘Integrated Orange and Pineapple Development Project’ in the area in 2001, officials said.

Under the project, the orange producers were provided with quality saplings and technical support including a short term training for growing and marketing the fruit.

Wholesale traders are now buying orange directly from the growers, they said.

The orange producers in the villages told this correspondent that the irrigation problem still remains the main obstacles to cultivation as the gardens are located in hill areas.

Installing deep tubewells for irrigation in the areas and developing feeder roads cost a big amount which they can not afford to, they said.

The integrated project for orange and pineapple ended in July, 2008.

“After the end of the project, we can not do anything more than giving advice to the orange growers,” said Abdul Jalil Miah, deputy director of the DAE Moulvibazar office.

“Farmers will certainly be benefitted if they continue to work as per the instruction of the project officials”, he added.

Md Mostafizur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Moulvibazar, said Juri upazila has earned good reputation for producing quality oranges in a large scale.

The administration will provide all-out support to the orange growers, he added.

S: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=211420

Indian retailers move to Bangladesh to source apparels

Retailers always look for efficient sourcing of goods. Indian retailers, reeling under rising costs of goods and fuel in India, are looking  eastwards to drive in cost efficiencies. Bangladesh has emerged to be the new destination for sourcing apparels.

The move comes after the Prime Minister announced duty free imports of 46 textile items to India, in his visit to the country in September. This will now allow retails to bring down costs of apparels by 15-20 per cent owing to the cheap cost of labour and duty free imports.

As stocks refuse to fly off the shelf due to high prices, retailers are looking at newer locations to source apparels. It’s been a tough year for retailers who have been grappling with sluggish volumes, high cotton prices and contracting margins.

Reliance Retail is reportedly looking to set up an office in Bangladesh to source about 20 per cent of their apparels from the country. Last week, Shoppers Stop too sent a sourcing team to finalize vendors in the country.

Govind Shrikhande, MD, Shoppers Stop said that a team was sent to Bangladesh to look at vendors and factories. “By March, the batch imported from Bangladesh will hit our shelves for sure,” Shrikhande told NDTV Profit.

International retailers like Walmart, J C Penny, Marks& Spencers and Zara already get their apparels stitched in Bangladesh. Now  Indian retailers are also following suit and expect the dividends by February.

“We expect the prices of apparels to come down when the new season kicks in by February 2012,” Pankaj Tibrewal, COO, Pantaloons, told NDTV Profit. “Soon after our sale period we should have fresh stock reflecting price correction,” he added.

However, while retailers are going full throttle to ensure cost efficiencies including sourcing from Bangladesh, experts spell caution.

They say that the domestic apparel industry, which provides large employment to the country is slowly losing its competitive advantage, which will be a key concern if this trend catches on.

Source: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/indian-retailers-move-to-bangladesh-to-source-apparels-189052?cp

ERP software ‘leading surge in Bangladesh IT spending’

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is one of the most popular investments in Bangladesh’s thriving IT sector, where overall spending is considerably up in recent years.

New research by market intelligence firm AMI-Partners has found that the 220,000 businesses in the Asian country that own PCs have increased their expenditure when it comes to computing solutions in the last two to three years.

It identified ERP software as one of the key drivers of this, describing it as having enjoyed “drastic growth”.

Medium-sized enterprises and large organisations are responsible for about 45 per cent of all IT spending, despite only making up 2.5 per cent of the total number of companies.

Somnath Das, assistant research manager at AMI-Partners, said: “Business integration software such as ERP enables Bangladesh’s medium and large businesses to view results of multiple group companies in a dashboard-like manner.”

Leading ERP software provider SAP recently announced it is to make a $2 billion (£1.25 billion) investment in another Asian nation – China – over the coming years.

Posted by Victoria Browne, S: http://www.codestone.net/news/story/erp-software-leading-surge-in-bangladesh-it-spending/801219149/

‘Bangladesh next hub in IT sector after China, India’

Ed Franklin Senior Advisor of Virtustream, a leading enterprise cloud software and services provider, said Bangladesh looks like the next hub in the IT sector after China and India, said a statement. Programmes such as Digital Bangladesh 2021 and the growing programmer base in Bangladesh convinced him to think like that, he said. The IT expert made the comment while talking to the journalist at New York on the upcoming three-day ‘E-Asia Conference’ to be held in Dhaka from Dec. 1, 2011.

Mohammad Mahdee-uz Zaman Apu, a Director on Virtustream’s Cloud Platform Services team, and an NRB from New York, was present at the discussion and will be a speaker at the e-Asia conference.

Mr. Ed gave detailed and significant information on potential opportunities in the Bangladeshi market.

Ed Franklin and Mohammad Mahdee-uz Zaman will both be participating in the E-Asia Conference to showcase the tremendous potential of cloud computing to the Bangladeshi IT market and advise on cloud adoption strategies that can reduce IT costs, increase efficiency and speed time-to-market.

Fifteen countries from South Asia and Five countries from the Nordic region will participate in the E-Asia Dhaka conference.

Ed said these countries would be looking for business solutions and looking at Bangladesh as possibly the next IT hub in South Asia. Describing his objective at the conference, Franklin said countries like Bangladesh can optimise their existing IT infrastructure and leverage their intellectual property and human capital to drive economic growth and help the people of the country.

Mahdee-uz Zaman added utilising a cloud model for the delivery of IT services can reduce energy costs considerably for Bangladeshi companies. This model can also the reduce the carbon footprint (CO2) of existing data centers in Bangladesh by as much as 95 per cent when compared to current usage. Bangladesh can mitigate power issues significantly through cloud solutions as well.

S: Financial Express (Bangladesh), 2011-11-23

Bangladesh to build its first waste-fuelled power plants

(Reuters) – Bangladesh plans to build its first ever waste-fueled power plants to ease electricity shortages and manage garbage properly, a government official said on Monday.

Italian firm Management Environment Finance SEL was given permission to build two 50 megawatt power plants at two places in the capital, to be completed in three years, the official said.

The company would build the plants with its own funds and the government would pay nearly $900 million in 20 years for the plants, he said adding that it would purchase power for 8.75 taka ($0.11) a kilowatt.

“It is cheaper than the cost of power from diesel or fuel-run power plants but higher than that of coal or gas-based power plants,” the official said.

Dhaka, one of the world’s fastest growing cities with a population of 12 million, produces around 5,000 tonnes of waste each day and struggles to manage disposal.

S: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/14/us-bangladesh-waste-power-idUSTRE7AD1CB20111114

Bangladesh-Russia signs landmark nuclear power plant deal

The Bangladesh government signed a landmark deal with Russia on Wednesday to finalise arrangements for installing two nuclear power plants at Rooppur in Pabna.

The estimated cost of the first-ever nuclear plant of the country however was not disclosed.

The deal was inked around 11:30am at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in the capital.

Yeafesh Osman, state minister for science and information and communication technology, and Sergey Kirienko, director general of State Atomic Energy Corporation of Russia (Rosatom), signed the agreement on behalf of their respective governments.

The information came at a joint press briefing at Bangabandhu Novo Theatre auditorium in the city.

According to Sergey Kirienko of the Rosatom, such types of projects usually take nearly five years to complete but with respect to this one, it will take a few more years as the feasibility study is yet to be completed.

“We will employ all safety measures in the plant design to avoid accidents that took place at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan when a strong earthquake hit the country recently,” the Rosatom director general said.

“The most important part of the deal is that the spent fuel (used fuel that becomes radioactive) will be taken back to Russia for reprocessing,” he added.

In reply to a query, Yeafesh Osman expressed hope that the construction work of the project will begin within the tenure of the current government.

The deal comes nearly two years after Dhaka signed a crucial framework agreement with Moscow on Russian cooperation to install the two power plants with 1,000 megawatt each.

The two countries prepared the groundwork earlier, inking a primary deal in February this year.

Officials familiar with the process said the cooperation under the agreement would include, “design, construction and operation of nuclear power and research reactors; nuclear fuel supply, taking back the spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste management.”
S: TheDailyStra.net, 2nd November 2011.

Bangladesh attracting Indian Garment Makers

Hit by declining sales, low export orders, rising manufacturing costs and bad infrastructure facilities, Indian garment exporters are setting up factories in Bangladesh to take advantage of the low labour cost. According to Indian exporters, apparel manufacturing costs in Bangladesh are 60 per cent of those in India despite the infrastructural inadequacies. With orders from the US and EU declining or importers asking for cost cuts, it makes a significant difference to manufacturing costs for Indian exporters to manufacture in Bangladesh.

According to Bangladesh Board of Investment, Indian garment makers have invested about $79 million in 35 factories in Bangladesh so far. Over the past decade, apparel manufacturers from India and China have been steadily losing share in this labour-intensive business to Bangladesh, where companies pay very low wages compared to India and China.

In addition to lower labour costs, Bangladesh’s clothing exports don’t face taxes in at least 37 countries, including EU, Canada and Australia, a facility given to the world’s poorest countries. A CRISIL study reveals, garment sales from India attract import duties of 8-10 per cent in these countries. Today, with a 4.5 per cent share in world garment exports, Bangladesh has overtaken India, which has a 3.5 per cent share. Garment sales comprise 80 per cent of Bangladesh’s exports, with export-processing zones enjoying subsidized power supply.

S: http://www.fashionunited.in/news/apparel/bangladesh-attracts-indian-garment-makers-171020112621

Bangladesh Govt launches local made Laptop Line Starting At $130

Nationalized technology efforts are becoming more common as countries begin to question their reliance on foreign powers for the means to participate in modernity. China is starting to design its own processors, India is subsidizing a national tablet, and now Bangladesh (working with fewer resources, but similar intentions) has taken the wraps off a new line of ultra-cheap laptops.

The computers are branded Doel, after the country’s national bird (the magpie), and the cheapest comes to around $130, and runs Android. You scoff, but it’s a free and popular OS with plenty of room for extensibility and customization. Sure, it won’t run Crysis and the media player sucks, but it’s more than sufficient for basic computing: browsing, word processing, and document management.

They’re manufactured by contractors managed by ISS, the state-owned telecom over there. At the moment only 10% of the parts are made in Bangladesh, but ISS managing director Mohammad Ismail was confident that within six months they would be able to produce 60%. Naturally the processor and RAM and such are imported. The project was announced several months ago, but today marks the official launch of the devices.

The 10,000 Taka ($130) Model 2102 has an 800MHz VIA 8650 processor, 512MB of RAM, and a 10″ 1024×600 display. There’s no internal storage, but there’s an SD card slot. Not the hottest piece of hardware on the market, no. I would actually advise people to upgrade to the 12,000 Taka ($160) Model 0703, which brings in a better screen, Atom N456 with twice the clock speed, double the RAM, a 250GB HDD, and a better webcam. It runs a “Linux Based OS” but that can be adjusted. There are more specs and pictures at DotNews.

So basically, they’ve got their own locally-designed set of netbooks. Sure, the richest countries in the world are entering the “post-PC era,” but when generations need to be introduced to the rudiments of computing, netbooks are still a good idea. Hopefully this program gets a little traction and Bangladesh succeeds in its push for a more digital nation.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/11/bangladesh-announces-national-laptop-line-starting-at-130/

Bangladesh and Bhutan to start new economic ties

Bangladesh and Bhutan have entered a new business era. Though trade agreement was signed between two countries in 1980 but now both have started a new beginning. It is showing that, two countries will be befitted in economy rapidly. Bhutan is a smaller country than Bangladesh but Bhutan exports more in Bangladesh. But, this new start will accomplish a big goal. It is not the time to calculate which country is exporting more and which less is. It is the time to consider how these two countries are getting benefit from new connectivity and business relation.

It is true, the agricultural products, basically fruits of Bhutan is more popular in Bangladesh; besides that Bangladesh does not have the type of land which can produce orange and apple in a large scale. Even, the climate of Bangladesh is not in favour of apple cultivation. So, these two countries have to reach in a common point regarding how they can produce these fruits in a large scale. Bangladesh has reached a maximum height in rice production. Bangladesh is able to provide every citizen sufficient rice now. So the government of Bangladesh has to think now that she has to provide more nutrition to people. Fruit is one of the most nutritious foods. The habit of taking fruit is increasing in Bangladesh. In that case, Bangladesh and Bhutan have to find out a way of producing orange, and apple in a large scale.

In this case, Bangladesh can invest capital and manpower and Bhutan can invest their land to cultivate orange, apple and other orchards. It can be easier if it is run in private sector. The governments of two countries have to allow that private sector will do this.

We know that, through the orchards, the economy of Thailand is getting a large benefit. All over the world, people can see Thai orchard in any five star hotel. If Bangladesh and Bhutan start cultivating fruits jointly, it can follow Thai orchards because demand of fruits in Bhutan is not much high and thus it is possible for the growers to export these to other parts of the world.

On the other hand Bangladesh and Bhutan is going to start tourism business jointly. It is hopeful that, these two countries are lucrative places for tourism. That is why, tourism will increase here; and with this business, hotel business must be increased. Hotels will be also market of these orchards. Besides, producing fruits Bhutan and Bangladesh can set up agro based processing industries. On the other hand, besides orchards Bangladesh have a large demand of spice, ginger, turmeric, onion and garlic. It can be possible to cultivate some of them better in the hilly land. So Bangladesh can invest capital and manpower in that agriculture sector in Bhutan. That will open a new window for the economy of the two countries.

Bhutan’s economy is growing day by day, so Bangladesh can take over a market there for garments, cosmetics and house hold items. It is a close market for Bangladesh. Bangladesh and Bhutan are using Tamabil – Dhauki route. In this route, Bhutan and Bangladesh are using 280 km street of India. India has given this facility for its two neighbors.

It is a big change for Indian foreign policy and their business attitude. India has understood that, market economy wants more market. If any country goes to open market economy policy they have to be an open country. They have to build cooperation with the world but they have to build regional cooperation first. It is clear now that, India is going for a regional cooperation.

India’s present government is very much serious about building regional cooperation but it is true, the present government of Bangladesh and its leader Sheikh Hasina is the most sincere leader of this region; who wants to promote a true and strong regional cooperation. In true sense it can be said that, sincerity of Sheikh Hasina is building regional cooperation of this area. She is the model of the regional cooperation of this area. To build regional cooperation, what Sheikh Hasina has done and what she is doing- will be recognized in future history. Now that the north east of India is heading for relative peace; it is also largely a result of the leadership of Sheikh Hasina. Sheikh Hasina is now the leader of electricity of her country. In that way she is taking her place in the future history of Bangladesh that she will be called as a leader of electricity. Leader of electricity means a leader of modern world.

Sheikh Hasina is trying to produce electricity jointly with Bhutan. There is a huge resource of hydro-electricity in Bhutan. It is green electricity so it can be produced in optimum scale. India is helping Bhutan to generate electricity. Bangladesh is going to be a part of it and India has agreed to allow transmission of electricity through its territory. This electricity of Bhutan and the two ports of Bangladesh will be another new window of the economy of Bhutan and Bangladesh. These two countries are taking initiative urgently in these sectors.

However Sheik Hasina is trying to have an open business relation with Bhutan. As a result of the effort of Hasina, India is giving the transit facility through their land so it is a new age for these two countries. On the other hand India has committed to give more facilities because Bangladesh is giving more facilities for their block land area. In addition, now it is very much needed to build regional economical cooperation. So, Bhutan and Bangladesh have to take more initiative. It is the time of advancement. So we think the leader of the two countries will do that.

Source: http://www.timesofassam.com/articles/bangladesh-and-bhutan-to-build-new-economy/