Sale of notebook PC on the increase at Dhaka

The sale of notebook personal computer is on the rise although computer hardware is seeing a dull business in local market at the beginning of this year, said traders at BCS Computer City, the largest computer market in the country.  Students are the main buyers of notebook PCs these days besides increasing number of corporate users in the country.

   Computer traders said the people are turning their eyes to notebook PC as it is more

   user-friendly than desktop computer. According to information of different ICT professional trade bodies, at present there are about five million PC users and three million internet users in the country and the number of users is gradually increasing.

   Some large computer shops at the BCS computer market said they are selling, on an average, 5-8 personal computers per day and 80 per cent of them are notebook PCs.

   Momenoor Rashid, marketing officer of Computer Source Limited, said they are selling different configuration notebook PC of HP brand at prices ranging between Tk 48,750 and Tk 1,20,000.

   HP Compaq Presario, model C702TU notebook PC, is priced at Tk 48,750, HP model V6602TU at Tk 68,900 and HP 520 at Tk 56,200, he said, adding that these are selling well.

   ‘Our company is selling some HP business series laptops like HP Compaq nx8420, at Tk 1,03,000, HP Compaq nc6400 at Tk 1,03,500 and HP Compaq nx6310 at Tk 81,500.’

   Other brand laptops also selling well are Asus, Accer, Dell and Toshiba.

   Daffodil Computer has also started selling Daffodil brand laptops recently.

   Mohammad Ferdous, assistant manager (sales) of Flora Limited, said the trend of

   using computer has been changed these days; people are not using computer for multimedia purposes like playing games or watching movies at home.

   Many students particularly at graduate level are using computer for study purposes, said, adding that the number of users is also increasing in business sector like short and medium enterprises as well as in the government body at union and upazila levels.

   Ferdous said that they are getting more order from the government bodies at union and upazila levels, LGRD ministry, different UN offices, NGOs and short and medium enterprises apart from large corporate users.

   Users prefer clone PC to brand PC because they can change different hardware according to their demand in the clone PC, said the computer traders.

   Desktop computer mainly clone PC is selling at prices ranging Tk 25,000 and Tk 35,000 while the prices of brand desktop computer vary from Tk 35,000 and above.

   The prices of different computer hardware like hard disk, processor, RAM, AGP card, DVD writer, monitor, key board, mouse and other accessories fluctuate from Tk 100-Tk 500, said the traders.

   Ferdous said computer business was dull at the beginning of the year but the traders hoped that it would get momentum from the next month as the computer fair is going to take place in the 3rd week of February.

   Mofizur Rahman of Dolphin Computers said, ‘We make a good sale every year during the fair season as people wait for the computer fair to get discounts and offers.’

   Computer traders said

   there is growing demand for scanner, printer, digital camera, photocopier, MP3 and MP4 players and pen drives both from businesspeople and individuals.

Source: Newage

 

Growing tea gardens changes life of Panchagarh people

The overall socio-economic condition of common people is changing fast in Panchagarh following a faster growth of the tea sector.
Local tea growers, chamber leaders and officials concerned opined that setting up of more tea processing industries, competitive markets at the grass roots for tea leaves, supply of natural gas and resolving problems like power crisis could accelerate the production of tea. At the same time, hundreds of Panchagarh females, who lived in utter miseries due to abject poverty for years together, are now changing their fate and achieving self-reliance by earning wages as plucking workers in the dozens of tea gardens at the officially recognised third Tea Zone of the country. The growing tea sector in Panchagarh has ushered in a new hope for further enhancing the standard of socio-economic life and women empowerment, they said. The female workers are yet to get their just wages from the garden-owners as the growing tea-farming sector in the region has been facing manifold problems including present unfair prices of the tea leaves for the tea farmers. Presently, over 7,000 skilled an unskilled workers, mostly women, have been working in 246 tea gardens, including 18 big estates, 13 medium-size and 215 small-scale gardens set up on more than 1,815 acres of land in Tentulia and its surrounding areas, they said. Of them nearly 2,300 workers, mostly women, are working alone at the giant Kazi and Kazi Tea Estate (KKTE) at Tentulia which has earned reputation in both national and international markets by producing, processing and marketing the famous and most popular Mina Organic Tea and earning foreign exchange.
Small-scale tea farmer Mozahedul Hassan of village Dwarikamari in Sadar upazila while talking to BSS said he has been growing tea in 7 bighas of land after selecting 20 bighas for the purpose and lifting 50 to 60 kg tea leaves every week from the garden.
Small-scale tea farmers Abdur Rahman of village Dorjipara, Esahaq Ali Mandal of village Pediagoach and Raju Mia of village Majhipara in Tentulia upazila and Motiar Rahman of Sadar upazila expressed similar views to BSS recently. Development Officer of Panchagarh Regional Tea Board Amir Hossain today told BSS that there are tremendous scopes for expansion of the tea farming area in Panchagarh and Bangladesh Tea Board has been providing necessary trainings to the selected farmers and per hectare subsidy of Tk 14,000. Assistant Manager of TTCL Manjur Hassan said smooth supply of 220-volt power is required for processing and producing tea and the required voltage is not available most of the time, which compels using power generators that increases production costs.
According to Director of Small-scale Tea Farming Project and Director of Bangladesh Tea Board (Dev) Azharul Islam, the government has taken steps for expanding newer Tea Zones for further increase of tea production in the country to meet the growing demand.

Source: BSS

Bangladesh Shipbuilding industry now a promising sector

The shipbuilding industry in Bangladesh is now becoming a promising sector as it has signed several contracts with Danish investors to build multipurpose vessels. On at least two instances, Danish shipping interests recently have placed substantial orders with Bangladeshi shipyards. Ananda Shipyard in Meghna Ghat and CS and Partnere A/S, a Danish ship consortium, have signed a agreement to build a ship, said a press release.

The first ship – a 2,900 DWT multi-purpose vessel currently under construction at Ananda Shipyard and will be delivered in early 2008 – is the first of a series of up to 14 ships ordered by the Danish investors.The second order landed by a Bangladeshi shipyard was when Western Marine in Chittagong signed a contract to build up to 5 multipurpose vessels (4,100 DWT) to be delivered to a Danish ship consortium. ‘The two orders have positioned these shipyards as serious players in the international shipbuilding industry in strong competition with Chinese and Vietnamese shipbuilders, said Danish Ambassador to Bangladesh Einar Hebogard Jensen. ‘In order to live up to the highest international standards to design ship and to obtain international accreditation from bureaus such as “Germanisher Lloyd” and “Norske Veritas” it will be important for the shipyards to be able to import various fittings and components necessary for the ships to reach an international standard,’ Einar commented. “To live up to export requirements, it will be essential that a mechanism can be introduced for facilitating an easy clearance of such fittings and components when imported. A “Green Channel” like in the textile industry could probably provide necessary flexibility for the involved parties,” the ambassador said.

The Ambassador continues: “To our knowledge, Ananda Shipyard and Western Marine are breaking new grounds in Bangladesh in their endeavours to succeed in these projects. The orders obtained will be instrumental in bringing Bangladesh into the picture as a serious player for building ships for the international shipping market. He also added that a number of potential ship owners are watching closely the development of the Ananda Shipyard and Western Marine projects.“If these assignments prove successful, the ship building industry in Bangladesh will play a very important role in future competition against ship building nations like Vietnam and China,’ the diplomat mentioned. He also claimed that successful shipbuilding ventures will have a tremendous positive impact on job generation, technology transfer and export revenues, and help Bangladesh to create another ‘thrust’ sector like export-oriented readymade garments and textiles and IT.

Source: http://www.newstoday-bd.com/business.asp?newsdate=11/15/2007#5260