Textiles Minister Abdul Matin Chowdhury on Thursday said the handloom sector provides more than Taka 1,000 crore value addition for the national economy. "The handloom sector plays an important role in our national economy, and it meets 40 per cent of domestic textile demand and 63 per cent of textile production," he said at a certificate giving ceremony of a training course and inauguration of next course of handloom training institute in Narsingdi. Chairman of Bangladesh Handloom Board AKM Asadul Huq Talukder and principal of the institute Dr MA Jahangir also spoke on the occasion. A total of 67 weavers took part in the training programme.

New import policy in the making 

A new import policy now in the making may allow conditional import of aluminium scraps, used computers and reconditioned vehicles over five years old to make the items available to larger numbers of consumers at affordable prices. Necessary amendments and modifications will be made to the existing import policy to ease the import of the items, reflecting suggestions from the private sector and considering the needs of the people. These hints came from a consultation on import policy between Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and business leaders in the city on Wednesday. Meeting sources said local importers and assemblers of vehicles had varying views on car-import policy--one side wants ban on the import of old vehicles and the other further relaxation of the rules.

Dhaka welcomes foreign investment in energy sector 

Bangladesh State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resource AKM Mosharraf Hossain on Wednesday said the government has taken reform steps to infuse dynamism in the energy sector. "We would welcome all local and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in this vast prospective field," he said while addressing a four member delegation of Westfarmers Kleenheat Elpiji Ltd. Australia. Klaus Gohra, country manager of the company led the delegation. The company has established LPG importation, bottling and storage plant at Mongla port industrial area, some 300 km from the capital city. The delegation requested the authorities to reduce import tariffs on different items like cylinder, burner, gas regulator and hose etc.

EPB seeks detailed product information under 14 categories for US GSP facilities 

Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) has sought detailed business information of products under 14 categories as the government is planning to seek GSP facilities for those items in the US market. Official sources said the Commerce Ministry has finally short-listed 14 items to name in a review petition urging US Trade Representative for granting generalised system of preferences (GSP) eligibility. The items include some leather and jute goods, carpet covers and cheaper steel tableware. The prayer has to reach the Chairman, GSP Subcommittee, USTR by June 1 and US administration would notify Bangladesh authority by July 15 whether the petition is accepted or not. To meet the deadline, EPB requested the manufacturers and exporters of the related fields to furnish detailed information of their production strength by this (President) afternoon.

"The queries are huge and it’ll take at least one month to collect those. That’s why we requested the concerned private sector people to reply those shortly," an EPB executive said.

The Commerce Ministry initially listed 26 categories for putting in the review petition, but later shortened it to 14.

Law drafted to facilitate e-commerce

Bangladesh is going to have a law to facilitate electronic commerce eliminating the need for paper documents for business deals. Bangladesh Law Commission drafted the law as the growth of electronic commerce was being retarded for want of a legal framework that recognises digital signatures and other electronic documents. The draft on Information Technology (Electronic Transaction) Act, prepared in February this year, was circulated among the stakeholders and relevant forums to elicit opinions before it takes the final shape. The proposed act will have enough provisions to check cyber crimes which are not covered by any existing law of the land. It aims to eliminate barriers to E-Commerce, promote legal and business infrastructures to implement secure E-transactions, curtail the need for paper documents and signatures, facilitating electronic filing in government agencies and ensuring efficient delivery of electronic records from government offices.

Move to make way for private sectors to play key role in telecom  

Two separate agreements were signed here in Dhaka on Tuesday for conducting studies to find out ways and means to facilitate the private sector to play a bigger role in the country’s telecommunication sector. Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Centre (IIFC), a government-owned entity of Economic Relations Division (ERD), will conduct the studies under the deals with Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC). BTRC Chairman Syed Margub Morshed and IIFC executive director Nazrul Islam signed the agreements on behalf of the respective sides at the commission office. Funded by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the study will be on franchising Public Switching Telephone Network (PSTN) services and on outsourcing spectrum management, said Morshed after signing the contracts. Under the study, IIFC would estimate potential market demand for telecom services, evaluate how market evaluation scenarios may or may not meet this demand and suggest a strategic master plan for the telecom sector for ensuring the highest level of benefit for the people.  

‘Human resource development is a must for country’s uplift’  

Speakers at a seminar on "Total Quality Management and Excellence in Education" in the city on Friday stressed the need for making appropriate human resources in all educational institutions, and fields and factories to achieve overall national uplift. The main theme of the daylong seminar was to promote and practice total quality management (TQM) in educational institutions besides mills and factories to eliminate darkness and transform every student into a worthy citizen to establish a happy, prosperous and peaceful society. Bangladesh Society for Total Quality Management (BSTQM), a voluntary organization engaged in making a breakthrough in promoting quality management, organized the seminar in association with Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and National Productivity Organization (NPO). 

Country should diversify export: Dr Debapriya 

The government of Bangladesh should diversify its export sector, giving support to newer products like agricultural products, agro-processing, information and communications technology (ICT), ceramics and light engineering products, economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said on Monday. Simultaneously, he laid emphasis on the diversification of the agriculture sector and its potential linkage to the export sector and said the budget should reaffirm its commitment towards the agriculture sector for a sustained growth. Giving his pre-budget views to this correspondent, the noted economist said the government should spell out mid-term perspective of institutional and structural reforms, inclusive of the sixth five-year plan, and incorporate wider aspects of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) into the next budget. "Bangladesh is giving subsidy to the agriculture within the very limits of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)," he said in reply to a question and reiterated that the government should continue to support the supply of inputs, price-stabilisation of post-harvest public procurement, fertilizer and pesticides.

Bangladesh to submit list of items for availing US GSP facilities 

Bangladesh will submit a list of some new products of 26 categories eligible under the United States GSP scheme to the US administration for availing of the facilities for enhancing exports to the American market. Necessary information on the products as per specified requirement of the US administration must be enclosed with a review petition to be submitted for the additional GSP facilities, a commerce ministry official told UNB on Monday. The Ministry of Commerce is now preparing to collect the product information and asked Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and apex trade body FBCCI to invite the information from the respective sectors urgently. Meanwhile, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) has issued over 100 letters to their members and different export houses to seek their cooperation in providing information, said an FBCCI official. EPB assigned FBCCI to collect necessary information and submit it to the bureau for processing. In the invitation letter, EPB listed five categories of products – leather goods, jute and yarn-made carpets and similar products, jute sacks and bags of the kind used for the packing of jute, stainless steel tableware and fruit juice.