Bangladesh Economy thread

[Eagle_Flights]

Per capita income increases


Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha . Dhaka

Despite decrease in the Gross Domestic Product, the per capita income increased in the 2008-09 fiscal year, ended on June 30.
The latest data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistic shows per capita income rises to US690 dollars at the end of June this year, which was US608 dollars in 2007-08 financial year.
‘The per capita income rises due to the increase in the remittance inflow and export earning,’ said economist professor Abu Ahmed.
Besides, he said the GDP declined slightly last year, but growth in agriculture sector was positive, which also helped increase per capita income.
According to the BBS statistic, the per capita income in local currency was Taka 47,373 and the population was 14.42 crore in the 2008-09 financial year.
The statistic also showed law inflation during the period, which was a major contributory factor to the increase in the per capita income.
The point-to-point inflation decreased to a six-year low of 2.25 in the end of June. Earlier in 2003, the country saw the lowest 2 per cent inflation on point-to-point basis. The inflation, however rose to a record high of 11 per cent in January 2008, according the BBS statistics.

 

[Eagle_Flights]

WB analyst observes Bangladesh economy stronger in the region

Staff Reporter



Bangladesh is still not hit hard by the ongoing global economic recession and the economy of the country is stronger in comparison with other countries in the region, said the World Bank (WB) yesterday. "The economy of the country is stronger in comparison with other countries in the region and it has more time to anticipate effects than developed and other emerging nations", said Zahid Hussain, senior economist of the WB at a workshop on 'State of Bangladesh Economy and Policy Response to the Global Financial Crisis' at the bank office in the city.

Mehrin A Mahbub, public information associate delivered the welcome speech while Xian Zhu, country director of the WB made the opening remarks.

Zahid said the economy of the country was stable and the projected economic growth for the fiscal year 09 would be 5.5 per cent. He, however, said in the worst case of declining of export and remittance it could be as low as 4.5 per cent in the fiscal year 09.

The senior economist of the bank said that the inflation rate of 6.1 per cent in January of this year was quite satisfactory due to the falling prices of commodities in the international market.

Recession in the developed markets and slowdown in the Middle East has already begun to pose threat to Bangladeshi exports and remittance inflows, he added.

Citing a 30 percent decline in capital machinery import, Zahid said there might have been a significant slowdown in investments.

On the impacts of the global crisis he said, export, remittance, revenue and banking sector along with the employment would be affected severely.

"At least 2 to 2.5 million new local jobs will be needed until the global economy recovers, compared to 1.1 million job creation prior to the crisis," he mentioned.

"Demands for bailout packages from businesses might not help the poor and the agriculture, livestock and fisheries sectors are doing well", said the senior economist of the international donor agency.

Xian Zhu said the impact on Bangladesh's growth may not be severe during the current fiscal year and the government should prepare the best for the worst.

He said that government need to take precautionary measures to mitigate the impacts of the crisis especially for the poor by creating more jobs internally and safety net programmes should be given highest priority.

"The government needs to carry out the unfinished reform agenda to turn Bangladesh a middle income country," he added.

 

[Eagle_Flights]

sorry, didnt know another thread on this was created before me...could the MODs please merge 'em

 

[leonblack08]

Local mobile phone sets to hit market in January

Star Online Report
Mobile phone sets made in Bangladesh will hit markets by January next, said the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on post and telecommunications today.

The handsets would cost between Tk 1,500 and Tk 10,000, committee chief Hasanul Haq Inu told reporters after a meeting at the parliament complex.

He said locally-made land phone sets retailing for Tk 500 each would be available in markets next month.

Telephone Shilpa Sangstha and Cable Shilpa Sangstha took the initiative to manufacture digital land phone and mobile phone sets, fiber optic cables, solar power panel and laptop at home.

Inu said local laptop computer, fibre optic cables and solar panel would hit markets soon.


The Daily Star - Details News

 

[leonblack08]

Malaysian group intends to build car plant​

Star Business report
The Malaysian Agate group has expressed its interest to build a car plant in joint venture with local the Walton High Tech Industries, officials of both the sides disclosed it yesterday.

The group will also import Walton-made motorbike and freeze and market those in Malaysia and some other countries.

“Bangladesh is a big market for cars and other motorised vehicles. Production cost will be relatively cheaper because of huge surplus labours,” said Agate Group Managing Director Sultan Abdul Quadir at a press briefing at the Walton headquarters at Motijheel in Dhaka.

The group has also planned to invest in the country's power sector and human resource development, Quadir said.

Agate's proposals include setting up 1,000-megawatt power plant based on coal fired facilities, medical schools and other training facilities to create qualified nurses and other technicians and imparting training to the local people with a duration ranging from three months to three years for overseas job market.

In the field of international trade, the delegation on behalf of the Malaysian government expressed its desire to export 1.5 million tonnes of palm oil to Bangladesh.

Quadir expressed his interest during a meeting with Commerce Minister Faruk Khan at his office Sunday.

Agate Group operates duty free outlets to sell cigarettes, cosmetics, jewellery, leather goods, perfumes, fashion wear, watches, textiles and electrical goods in Malaysia. The company also operates colleges to provide courses in engineering, electronics and information technology.

It involves in software development for finger print identifications, general security systems and warfare related technological equipment.

The group has a coalmine in Indonesia and a 1,200-megawatt power plant in Gujarat in India.

Walton Directors Mahbubul Alam and Abul Bashar Howlader were present at the press conference.

The Daily Star - Details News

 

[leonblack08]

Remittance flashes global recovery signs​

Forex reserve crosses $9b mark
Rejaul Karim Byron
The remittance inflow increased by 18.22 percent in the first two months of the current fiscal year which Bangladesh Bank officials described as moderately good.

The growth of inward remittance points to early signs of a bounce-back in the world economy from the financial crisis.

According to BB statistics, the remittance inflow soared 30 percent to $937.91 million in August, up from $721.92 million in the same period last year.

Inward remittance has jumped as expatriates are sending more money to their relatives on the eve of Eid-ul Fitr.

The central bank's foreign currency reserves reached $9,149.57 million for the first time yesterday -- boosted by remittance growth and a partial release of IMF's special recovery fund.

In the July to August period of the current fiscal year, the total remittance inflow was $1,823.29 million, a rise from $1,542.63 million in the same period a year earlier.

Bangladesh recorded average remittance growth at 22.42 percent last fiscal year. In fiscal 2007-08, the growth was higher at 32.39 percent.

Central bank officials said the global recession had slowed the remittance inflow last fiscal year. In July, the remittance growth was a paltry 7.80 percent.

The International Monetary Fund has set aside 463.3 SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) equivalent to $735 million in recovery funds for Bangladesh. Of the amount, the lending agency has already given $630 million to Bangladesh early this week.

With much of the world still mired in recession, IMF moved to bolster its members' reserves through an allocation of SDRs.

The allocation, equivalent to $250 billion, was made on August to be followed by an additional, but smaller, amount of $33 billion on September 9.

There are no notes or coins denominated in SDR, but it plays a role as an interest-bearing international reserve asset as the unit can be tuned into a usable currency. SDRs provide liquidity into the global economic system.

OECD said yesterday added its voice to forecasts that a fragile global rebound is taking shape.

The United States and the eurozone are set to break out of recession in the third quarter, according to latest reports.

With the pace of US economic decline slowing and with the eurozone economy actually expanding in August, OECD chief economist Jorgen Elmeskov pointed to a recent "run of good news".

The Daily Star - Details News

 

[natarajan]

Avoid red colour as it strains the eyes when reading(except mods) you can use other pleasing color to highlight

 

[leonblack08]

Avoid red colour as it strains the eyes when reading(except mods) you can use other pleasing color to highlight

Too much used to using Red,in PDF.It comes out automatically.

 

[leonblack08]

Remittance hits new monthly high ​

Expats send home $937m ahead of Eid-ul Fitr

Bangladeshis working abroad remitted US$ 937 million in August this year --- the highest monthly inflow in history thanks largely to the forthcoming Eid-ul Fitr festival, officials said Thursday.

"The remittance amount in August is a new record after June," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE, adding that $919.10 million was remitted in the last month of the previous fiscal year.

The August figure is up by $52.53 million from July, according to the central bank statistics released on Thursday.

BB officials said the record rise in remittance is due to the ensuing Eid-ul Fitr, the biggest religious festival for the Muslims, when traditionally migrant workers send home increased amount of money.

"Despite facing hard times due to the global recession, many workers saved more money and worked more hours in an effort to send higher amount to their families and relatives back home," said an official.

The August total took the remittance figure in the first two months of the current fiscal to $1.823 billion, registering an 18.19 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Officials said the latest figure also shows that despite the slowdown of overseas jobs, inflow of money has maintained a robust trend --- a continuation of last fiscal year when remittance grew 22.41 per cent.

Overseas jobs for the country's unskilled and semi-skilled workers plunged by 30 per cent in August as the main job markets for Bangladeshi migrant workers continued to face the onslaught of the global meltdown.

The state-run Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) said 38,434 people found jobs abroad in August this year, down from 54,708 of the corresponding period of 2008.

In the first eight months of the year, as many as 327,359 Bangladeshis found jobs abroad, a fall of 38 per cent than the same period of the last year.

The World Bank has projected that despite the massive job squeeze for Bangladeshi migrants, the country would still receive nearly $11 billion in the current fiscal year.

"We think the amount could be higher than the World Bank projection. We have sent record number of workers abroad in 2007 and 2008. The robust remittance flow is due to the carried over effect of the last two years," another BB official said.

The central bank earlier took a series of measures to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis to send their hard earned money through formal banking channel instead of the illegal "hundi" system to boost the country's foreign exchange reserves.

As part of the measures, the BB has issued four more licences to three commercial banks in the last month for setting up exchange houses in different parts of the world aimed at expediting remittance inflow.

The central bank has also issued more clearances to the local banks for establishing contacts with overseas exchange houses through drawing arrangements.

The central bank has, so far, given approval to establish 280 exchange houses and set up 820 drawing arrangements abroad to boost flow of remittance through formal channels.

Four state-run commercial banks and dozens of private commercial banks have also stepped up efforts to increase remittance flow from the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy and the United States.

"We are establishing new contacts with overseas exchange houses so that our overseas workers can find it easy to send money back home. We're also setting up our own exchange houses," Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Agrani Bank Limited Syed Abu Naser Bukhtear Ahmed told the FE.

The country's foreign exchange reserves stood at $9.149 billion Thursday due to the robust remittance.

Remittance hits new monthly high

 

[leonblack08]

Bangladesh eyes frozen food exports to Russia​

Bss, Dhaka
Bangladesh may start exporting frozen food, including shrimps, to Russia this year opening a new market.

A Russian veterinary delegation has recently visited Bangladesh and saw seafood plants. The delegation has initially selecting four plants to export shrimps and seafood to the Russian market.

Delegates have also issued export permission and necessary guidelines for processing the merchandise for Russian buyers. The fisheries department has sent a memorandum to the ministry for approval before signing it with the Russian importers.

Bangladesh exports frozen foods to 16 countries including the US, EU, UK and UAE. Russia will be the new export destination of the country's frozen food, Abul Bashar, an official of Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association (BFFEA), told the news agency.

He said the association is also working on a scheme to increase export of frozen food to countries like Australia and Canada where expatriate Bangladeshis are living in large numbers.

Bashar said the delegation visited seafood-processing units at Chittagong and Khulna and were impressed by their high standards. In the process, they selected Apex Foods Ltd and ARK Sea Foods of Chittagong, Fresh Foods Ltd of Khulna and Bagerhat Sea Foods for opening export to Russia.

Explaining how frozen food processing facilities achieved impressive hygienic standard over the recent years working on earlier improvement, Bashar said a food and veterinary delegation of EU which visited Bangladesh recently offered 10 more local processing plants the export permission to EU market.

With it, the number of frozen food plants now exporting to the EU market stands at 68 including 27 in Chittagong and 41 in Khulna region. Moreover, the number of fish plants now operating having BFFEA licence is 145.

The Daily Star - Details News

 

[leonblack08]

Stone chips exports to India double on high demand​

Kawsar Khan

Export of stone chips, an important construction ingredient, to India doubled in the last two years, thanks to its high demand from Tripura and Methalaya, the two north-eastern states of the neighbouring country.

Sector people say although India is a natural source of stone, the two states import the construction material from Bangladesh since it is cost effective for the users there. They also point to the fact that the Indian construction contractors prefer collecting Bangladeshi stone to the one available in different parts of their own country, as transportation costs much more than it costs in case of the import from Bangladesh.

"Last year we exported around one crore cubic feet (cft) of crushed stone to the Indian states and the demand was created due to huge construction works in those regions," said Abdul Ahad, president of Bangladesh Stone Merchants Association (BSMA).

The annual sales of stone chips to India were between 50 and 60 lakh cft two years back, the sector people said.

In the Indian market, each cft of crushed stones costs around Tk 120, while it ranges from Tk 100 to Tk 120 in Dhaka.

"Though crushed stones price is almost the same in Dhaka and in export markets of India, we can make a little bit more profit by exporting because of the low transportation cost," said Abdul Matin Khan, general secretary of BSMA.

It costs around Tk 29 to transport each cft of crushed stone from Sylhet to Dhaka, while it ranges from Tk 15 to Tk 17 to send it to India, Khan added.

Besides earning foreign currency, crushed stone exports have also created job opportunities for around 10 lakh peopledirectly and indirectly, according to industry insiders.

They, however, denied any environment pollution extracting stones by machine, though the government slapped an embargo on it in February.

Jafflong and Volaganj of Sylhet are the main sources for natural stone in the country.

The embargo was enforced to save environment of the rivers of Piyain and Dauki in Sylhet, a source of the 75 percent of stone supply.

However, manual extraction of stones was allowed. Restrictions led to drastic reduction of stone collection, followed by supply crunch and price hike.

"Though we are exporting stone chips to Tripura and Meghalaya, a few companies have also started importing stone from India due to short of supply from the domestic source,", said the BSMA president.

Following the government embargo, some local contractors, who signed deals at the previous stone chips rate, have suffered a huge loss due to price hike of stones.

The Daily Star - Details News

 

[RPK]

fullstory

Bangladesh seeks duty-free access of its goods into US

Washington, Sept 17 (PTI) Bangladesh has urged the Obama Administration to give duty-free and quota-free access for its goods into the US market.

The request in this regard was made by the visiting Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni during her meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

"With regard to trade, I especially requested for duty-free and quota-free access for Bangladeshi products into the US market," Moni said at a joint press conference with Clinton after the meeting.

"With respect to the foreign minister's very clear request for duty-free access, we have a vibrant trade relationship now, and it has been growing, and we look forward to continuing to grow that trade," Clinton said

 

[RPK]

Bangladesh may have higher gas reserves than estimated

Dhaka: Bangladesh may have surplus gas reserves, something past governments have denied, as per revised estimates being examined by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government.


Hasina told a meeting with energy officials on Thursday that it was "good news for the country" that the gas reserve at Bibiyana, the country's second-largest, was much higher than the earlier estimate.

She was hopeful that more gas would be found, said a source who was present at the meeting.

US gas and oil multinational Chevron has submitted to the state-run Petrobangla a new estimate of gas reserve in the Bibiyana field, putting the "proven recoverable reserve" at 4.4 trillion cubic feet (TCF), up by a staggering amount of 2.7 TCF, said Petrobangla officials.

"We have now formed a committee to scrutinise the company's new estimate. If the findings are right, production at the Bibiyana gas-field could be increased to around 1,000 million cubic feet per day in the next two years from the present production of 670 mcfd," Petrobangla's chairman Muqtadir Ali told New Age on Thursday.

As per the new estimate, the "gas in place or proven gas reserve" of the field has been put at 6.6 trillion cubic feet, of which 4.4 TCF is recoverable, said Petrobangla officials.

The earlier estimate had showed that the proven gas reserve was around 2.51 TCF, and Petrobangla, which coordinates the gas and oil exploration, had estimated that around 60-70 percent of the reserve was recoverable.

The availability of gas and if it can be exported has been a subject of political controversy in Bangladesh.

Unocal, another American MNC that had carried out explorations, had given higher estimates and had sought to impress upon the political leadership that only by exporting gas could Dhaka's exploration and production be cost-effective.

However, there were differences over selling gas to immediate neighbour India and lower estimates of gas reserves from among the explorers became the benchmarks.

An attempt by Indian business house Tata to set up gas-based industries in Bangladesh to allow the use of gas locally failed. Tata's USD 3 billion offer was found "politically sensitive" by the Khaleda Zia government which was in power 2001-06.

Petrobangla officials said that Chevron submitted its new estimate, made by another US consultant, Degolyer and MacNaughton, September 13.

Muqtadir Ali said that the new estimate puts the total 'proven plus provable reserve' at more than seven TCF and the 'proven plus probable plus possible' reserve at more than eight TCF.

He claimed that the new estimate would remove the confusion surrounding the gas reserve and daily production rate at the Bibiyana field.

 

[leonblack08]

FDI inflow sets a new benchmark​

Star Business Report
Bangladesh ranks third among the Sough Asian countries in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow list for 2008. The country received $1.09 billion in the year.

This is for the first time the country crossed the billion-dollar-mark in terms of FDI inflow, according to the World Investment Report (WIR) 2009, released globally yesterday.

The WIR 2009 shows that Bangladesh received 63 percent more FDI in 2008 than that of 2007. FDI inflow was $666.3 million in 2007.

Prepared by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the report subtitled "Trans-national Cooperation, Agricultural Production and Development" was released by the Board of Investment (BoI) in Bangladesh yesterday.

In 2008 India received $41.56 billion FDI and Pakistan $5.4 billion, making them top two FDI receiving countries in the area. India ranked 13th globally, while the global ranking for Bangladesh was not available.

Despite a worldwide financial crisis, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have made significant progress in receiving FDI.

But FDI inflow in Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan declined during the time, while it remained static in the Maldives at $15 million both in 2007 and 2008, the report says.

“The rise in FDI shows that investors prefer Bangladesh for their business,” SA Samad, executive chairman of BoI, told journalists at the report launching programme.

Samad however termed the FDI inflow in the country 'very low' compared to the position of other countries. He said small countries like Taiwan and Singapore received a huge amount of FDI for congenial business environment and adequate infrastructure facilities.

“We are among the worst performers in the global ranking," said the BoI executive chairman.

He said gas, power and infrastructure are some of the lucrative areas that interest the foreign investors.

He also stressed infrastructure development, and branding Bangladesh positively to attract more FDI.

According to the report, telecommunication sector performed the best in 2008 receiving $641.39 million, which was $201.90 million in the previous year.

Textiles and weaving pulled in $126.36 in 2008, while the amount was $102.35 million in 2007.

Banking, the third largest FDI recipient, attracted $141.76 million, which was $79.96 million in 2007.

Food industry received $22.89 million in 2008, agriculture and fisheries $14.43 million and others $139.5 million, while the figures were $9.84 million, $7.33 million and $264.99 million respectively in 2007.

Egypt emerged as the top investor in 2008 with $373.4 million as its telecom company Orascom invested heavily in Bangladesh's mobile phone operator Banglalink. The second largest investor was UK with $130.57 million. Bangladesh received $102.19 million from the United Arab Emirates, $70.72 million from Malaysia, $57.15 million from Japan and $44.64 million from South Korea in the period.

The United States, Hong Kong, Norway and the Netherlands were the other major investors in 2008.

BoI officials at the function said a total of 89 foreign companies registered themselves with the BoI in the first eight months of 2008 till August to invest Tk 4,161 crore, while registration in the same period of 2007 was worth Tk 4,668 crore.

Dr M Ismail Hossain, professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, presented the report, while Abu Reza Khan, executive member of BoI, also spoke among others.


The Daily Star - Details News

 

[leonblack08]

Bangladesh achieves 5.9% GDP growth in 2008-09 fiscal: ADB​

DHAKA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's GDP grew by 5.9 percent in the 2008-09 fiscal year ended in June, slightly lower than 6.2 percent in the previous fiscal year due mainly to global economic slowdown, the Asian Development Bank said here Tuesday.

According to June 2009 issue of the Manila-based bank's Quarterly Economic Update for Bangladesh released here Tuesday, the country's GDP growth deterred because of the moderation in aggregate demand affected by a slowdown in exports and remittance inflows, and also underpinned by private consumption (about 75 percent of GDP), which rose by 6.0 percent.

It said several downside risks to the economy in the near term include a delayed recovery of the global economy, likely shortfalls in revenue collections and mobilization of external financing, and the onset of natural disasters.

According to the Quarterly Economic Update released through a press statement, the country's industry sector growth declined to 5.9 percent in 2008-09 from previous year's 6.8 percent as export production in the second half of the fiscal year slowed due to the global slowdown.

But the South Asian country's agriculture sector managed to post 4.6 percent in growth in 2008-09, up from 3.2 in the previous 2007-08, owing to high growth in food-grain production aided by favorable weather and strong government support.

The ADB update said weak investor sentiment also affected manufacturing growth. Growth in the power and gas subsectors dropped to 4.5 percent in 2008-09 from 6.8 percent in 2007-08, while growth in the construction sector dipped slightly to 5.7 percent.

The service sector growth also slowed slightly to 6.3 percent in 2008-09, due to the slowdown in remittance inflows, lower trade activities, and moderation in industry growth, it said.

Exports grew 10.3 percent in 2008-09, a sharp deceleration from the 15.9 percent in 2007-08 as retail sales in developed economies fell while imports in the same year rose only 4.1 percent. As a result, the trade deficit narrowed to 4.7 billion U.S. dollars in fiscal year 2008-09, from 5.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2007-08.

The Quarterly Economic Update said revenue collection remained unchanged at 11.2 percent of GDP in 2008-09 because of the sharp fall in import growth due to the fall in international fuel and commodity prices, the global economic crisis and slower expansion of economic activity.

Private sector credit growth slowed to 14.6 percent year-on-year in June 2009, down from 24.9 percent in June 2008, because of the slower trade growth and slack in investment activities due to the global economic recession.

The weighted average nominal exchange rate (taka/dollar) remained mostly stable in fiscal year 2008-09 with modest depreciation, moving between 68.5 taka-69.1 taka to one U.S. dollar, benefiting from the healthy and stable foreign exchange reserve position and high remittance inflows.

Growth of workers' remittances remained robust at 22.4 percent and pushed the current account surplus of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in fiscal year 2008-09 from 680 million U.S. dollars in fiscal year 2007-08. The overall balance of payments surplus ballooned to 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2008-09 from 331 million in 2007-08.

Gross foreign exchange reserves were 7.5 billion U.S. dollars at the end of June 2009, up 1.3 billion U.S. dollars during the fiscal year while the falling trend in inflation continues with point-to-point inflation reaching 6.7 percent 2008-09 from 9.9 percent in 2007-08.

Bangladesh achieves 5.9% GDP growth in 2008-09 fiscal: ADB _English_Xinhua

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

Major gas find in Bangladesh​

DHAKA: US energy group Chevron has made the biggest gas discovery in at least a decade in energy-starved Bangladesh, almost doubling the size of a field it is drilling there, a government official said on Wednesday. The US firm has told authorities its Bibiyana gas field in Sylhet, north eastern Bangladesh, contains 6.6 trillion cubic feet (186 billion cubic metres) of gas, up from its original size of 3.4 trillion cubic feet, Muktadir Ali, chairman of state-owned Petrobangla said. ‘Out of the amount, some 4.4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) is recoverable. It’s the biggest new gas finding in at least a decade,’ said Ali, whose company shares production with Chevron.

A Chevron spokesman in Bangladesh said the company had submitted its latest reserve figure to Petrobangla recently but would not comment on exact figures. Bangladesh has been facing an acute shortage of gas since 2008, resulting in production cuts in hundreds of factories. ‘The new findings mean we can now scale up gas production within a year and our gas reserve would last a few more years than originally thought,’ Ali said. The country has proven recoverable gas reserves in the Bay of Bengal of more than 15 tcf, but some 60 per cent of the amount has already been used. Petrobangla had said gas reserves in the South Asian country will start declining from 2012 and dry up by 2014-15 at present consumption rates if there were no new discoveries.—AFP

Link

 

[RPK]

Myanmar warns US company against exploring in Bay of Bengal

Dhaka: A fresh confrontation appear to be brewing between Myanmar and Bangladesh as Yangon has warned US energy giant ConocoPhillips against exploring an offshore block for Dhaka in Bay of Bengal, which it said were in disputed waters.

Bangladesh officials claimed that Myanmar along with issuing the warning had mobilised extra troops on frontiers sparking tension on the border. An official said the US oil company sought to take up the matter with the foreign ministry. He said the company had received the warning letter claiming that the offshore Block 11, awarded to it by Bangladesh, was located within Myanmar's maritime boundary.


"The ConocoPhillips' officials want to discuss the issue with the foreign ministry. We have taken steps so that a meeting can be held this week," the New Age reported quoting official who said that the overlapping claim areas was "not significantly large".

The US company earlier informed the state-run Petrobangla, which awarded it the block, about the Yangon warning asking it not to take over offshore Block 11.

The development came as reports from southeastern frontiers, bordering junta-ruled Myanmar, said Yangon mobilised extra border troops in the frontline sparking tension in the area over the past two weeks.

 

[RPK]

Dhaka’s foreign exchange reserves cross $10 bn

Dhaka, Nov 12 (IANS) Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves have crossed the $10 billion mark, the highest ever, an official said.
The nine-fold increase in as many years is thanks to increasing remittances, a fall in global fuel prices and reduced rice imports.

The country’s foreign currency reserve was $1.3 billion in the financial year 2000-01.

The increase of 91 percent, from $5.24 billion in November 2008, recorded Wednesday was cause for celebration for the country’s economic planners.

“It is a historic moment as our long-cherished dream of reaching the $10 billion mark has finally turned into reality,” Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman told media.

“It has become evident to the international arena that Bangladesh’s economy is now based on strong economic foundation. We thank the farmers and non-resident Bangladeshis for their contribution in reaching the milestone,” New Age newspaper quoted him as saying Thursday.

However, the reserves stood at $10.03 billion due to the addition of an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan of $744 million to deal with the global recession and implementation of policy reforms.

Remittances had continued to rise despite global recession and hundreds of workers returning home jobless.

Bangladeshi workers abroad remitted over $3.6 billion in the first four months of the fiscal year, which is 21.23 percent up against the same period last year.

An all-time record for monthly remittance of $937.9 million was set in August this year. Bangladesh received $9.7 billion in remittance in 2008-09, and $7.9 billion in 2007-08.

Another plus for the calamity-prone economy was that rice production remained high and the import of the staple commodity dropped to zero.

Hit by floods and a cyclone in November 2007, Bangladesh had resorted to panic buying of rice during 2008 to offset crop losses.

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

Bangladesh looks at power imports, investment from Indian players

Bangladesh may soon emerge as a major investment destination for Indian power sector players, as its government is planning nine power projects and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal worth $5 billion, with the help of expert private sector players around the world. It is also planning to buy power from Indian producers.

Sources said officials from the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) visited India on December 16-17 to study both private and state-owned coal power projects. They also held discussions with government officials and some private sector players wo are setting up projects.

Bangladesh faces peak power deficits of 1,800-Mw. It plans to import up to 1,200 Mw of electricity from Indian players by the middle of 2012, Alamgir Kabir, chairman of BPDB, said recently.

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

B'desh ahead in apparel export

Bangladesh has overtaken India in apparel exports this year. For the first nine months, its exports stood at $2.66 billion, ahead of India’s $2.27 billion. In 2008, both the countries were at the same level ($10.9 billion) with each having 3 per cent share of global apparel exports.

India’s exports volume is down 80 per cent this year for two reasons: One, the global economic downturn and increasing competition from Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. During the downturn, buyers looked for cheaper deals and Indian exporters were unable to compete on costs due to rising raw material and power costs. The second reason: Many domestic companies are setting up units and offices in Bangladesh to avail the benefits of duty-free access. Prominent among those who have set up units in that country are House of Pearl Fashions (two units) and Raymond (one unit).