Bangladesh's Corporate World

Janata Bank Limited has honored Beximco Group as the "best customer" at the bank's "Best Exporter Award" ceremony at a five-star hotel in the capital. The chairman of the bank Dr SM Mahfuzur Rahman handed over the "best customer" crest to Sohail F Rahman, chairman, Beximco Group, said a press release. Mahfuzur Rahman also handed over the crest for the second highest exporter to Salman Farooqi, managing director and Abdul Quddus, executive director of Multi-fabs Limited. He then handed over the crest for the third highest exporter to Syed Abu Afsar, managing director of Organic Shrimps Limited. In his welcome address, Janata Bank MD and CEO Md Abdus Salam Azad said that in 2021, Beximco Group exported goods worth Tk11, 610 crore through Janata Bank, which amounted to $1.36 billion. "Janata Bank made a total profit of Tk 707 crore through Beximco. About 79% of the bank's total export trade has been through local offices. Beximco Group provided 8...

Salman Fazlur Rahman, adviser on private industry and investment to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the country's shipment of pharmaceutical products may cross US$5.0-billion mark within the next three to five years. "Pharma export makes up about $1.0 billion now, but we expect to cross the $5.0-billion mark in the next three to five years," he told on the December-January issue of the fDi intelligence, a publication of the Financial Times. Bangladesh now exports pharma products to over 100 countries. He noted that the country is self-sufficient in pharmaceuticals with 99 per cent of the demand being met by local production. Bangladesh now produces around 70 per cent of its required white goods (electrical goods used domestically, such as refrigerators and microwaves). "Local companies, such as Walton, are growing at such a pace that they are now exporting their products to dozens of countries. On clothing sector, the adviser told the world's renowned magazine...

Banks resumed expanding their network in the year 2021 by opening branches after adopting a go-slow approach in the previous year when the entities were minimising their costs to tackle the Covid-induced economic fallout. According to Bangladesh Bank data, banks opened 268 branches in 2021 whereas the entities opened 103 branches in 2020.So, the number of total branches of banks increased to 10,939 at the end of December 2021 from 10,671 a year ago. In 2019, the country’s banks opened 287 branches. At the end of 2018, the number of branches of the banks was 10,281 and the number increased to 10,568 at the end of 2019. Officials of the central bank said that the banks focused on expanding their network as the country’s business and economic activities came close to normalcy after the jolt in 2020. Due to the coronavirus-induced economic jolt, most of the banks had to minimise their cost of business and that was why their branch opening dropped sharply in 2020. Along with reducing branch...

Bangladesh's capital market suffers from two major problems – infrastructure and trading trends of institutional and general investors, says Salman F Rahman, private industry and investment adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He made the observation at an event on Thursday as Beximco Green-Sukuk Al Istisna – country's first-ever asset-backed security by a private sector entity – made its trading debut on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE). The Beximco Group vice chairman attended the programme, held at the DSE Tower in Dhaka, as chief guest.In his address, he said that two problems of the country's capital market are discussed everywhere. "One of the problems is infrastructure related and the other is trading trends of institutional and general investors in a mature market. Our market is only equity-based. This is a big weakness, and taking this in view, the securities regulator is working for the development of the debt market,...