Bangladesh's Corporate World

Due to the presence of biased obligation benefits, there is a chance that Bangladesh might find difficulties to compete with Africa nations to export garments to the U.S. Export of various garments to the US produced in African nations is increasing gradually with the zero-duty benefit under AGOA. This has been increased by 9.66% and reached $926.8 million in 2013, as stated by the US Department of commerce. Bangladesh is considered to be the most important country to export attires worth $5 billion per year to US by the payment of 15.61% duty. Garments exporters here had to pay worth $828 million as a duty to the customs of US in 2013 and a total of $3.41 billion in the past five years. Compared to the first 5 months export business of 2013, garment export to US by Bangladesh has decreased by 1.12% to$2.18 billion in this year. It is assumed that our competition will get tougher if African nations proceed this way to export to the US. The unfair duty system and expensive production c...

Open market policies are required for attracting more investment. The case in no different for Bangladesh. The World Trade Organization (WTO) initiative on Aid for Trade operates with OECD support and is working to ensure that developing countries are able to realize the benefits of market openness by building their capacity to trade. Illuminating the economic arena of Bangladesh, the national trade forum is trying to recover the recent loss and is progressing at an impressive rate. Considering the current flow in business, the central bank, Bangladesh Bank is initiating creation of new policies. Centering round this action, a variety of discussions has originated. Among them, one of the most mentioned motion is “Can open market policy assist in expanding the sphere of investment”. Being an interesting theme of discussion, this promises an analysis of the future in the business sector. While most agree that the open market policies can boost the local and foreign investment, others cl...

Private corporate groups of Bangladesh received less foreign loans in 2013 compared to the year before. The volume of foreign loans declined due to political unrest and frequent workers’ protest throughout the year. It is an indication that foreign loans providers have lost a share of interest in giving loans to Bangladeshi corporate groups due to the lack of investment friendly environment in the country. To add to the farce, Import orders on capital machinery came to almost a halt.  The Board of Investment expected at the start of 2013 that the flow would increase. In reality, it did not. Board of Investment approved foreign credit worth $1.19 billion in 2013 compared to $1.50 billion in 2012. Fear factor is that it might continue the falling trend in 2014 as most international loans providing organizations adopted a wait and see policy. Volatile political environment is a serious no-go factor for any foreign loan providers. The second in line in the no-go list is workers’ unre...

Local Bangladeshi companies want upward adjustment of taka against US dollar. The value of local currency has been remained more or less fixed at 78 since June 2013. They want this adjustment because Indian rupee has fallen in recent times. According to the local exporters, some particular products, like low-end apparels, ceramics, vegetables, jute yarn etc. are affected for decreasing of the rupee’s value. The president of Exporters Association of Bangladesh said that the government can increase incentives to make counterbalance in the foreign exchange earning sectors as they urged in a letter sent to the Ministry of Finance to “devalue” the local currency. There are many products like ceramics, vegetables, handicrafts that have to compete with Indian products. Indian traders get more advantage over local counterparts for their wider capital base and local raw materials. Managing director of Evince Textile said that the government can introduce dual exchange rates soon and exporters ...

It is in fact quite amazing that despite the global shocks, natural crisis, and local political instability, Bangladesh was able to maintain around 6 percent growth rate over the past few years. The GDP growth of Bangladesh was 3percent in the 1970s, and increased by 1 percent on average every decade. The credit goes to government's efforts to control population growth, which has significantly declined over the years. The per capita GDP growth rate was 1.7 percentage points on average every decade. Over the last three years, approximately 15 million people came out of absolute poverty due to the acceleration in the growth rate. Openness in the economy, financial deepening, macroeconomic stability and population control are some of the major reason Bangladesh experienced a steady growth over the years. Bangladesh now targets to enter the middle-income country strata by 2021. A recent report by World Bank said that in order to attain the middle-income status, remittances and GDP gro...

Bangladesh would face a slower economic growth during the current fiscal predicts the World Bank. However, it said that Bangladesh would enter the middle-income country group by 2021 if its employment rate increases by 2 percent per year. Over the past five years, the average growth rate of Bangladesh was 6.1 percent. This growth has particularly been as a result of the population growth, increase in productivity and enlargement of labour force participation in foreign lands and growth of local businesses. Though employment increased over the past couple of years, the employment rate remained stagnant for the country. The government's initial economic growth target was 7.2 percent for 2013-14 fiscal year, which has became unachievable due to the recent unrest that disrupted most of the services. The World Bank predicts, coupled with the unrest, the weak manufacturing exports, lack of growth in the agricultural sector and the increasing domestic consumption and investment dem...

Bangladesh business news The Canadian government has been requested by Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) to ensure that the General Preferential Tariff review does not put any impact of the duty free apparel exports to Canada. The proposed GPT review will have a detrimental effect on the readymade garments industry of Bangladesh. Hundreds of factories will have to be closed down and millions of people will be jobless. The apex apparel body of Bangladesh expressed their concern of the proposed review of the General Preferential Tariff and explained how terrible the impact will be for Bangladesh. It was almost the end of last year that Canadian government decided to review their GPT and proposed some changes in it. According to the review, 72 developing countries will not have GPT facilities which include China and India. Bangladesh has been sent out from the Least Developing Countries category. BGMEA has requested the Canadian government to tak...

Five new commercial banks have achieved the ‘go’ sign from the Bangladesh Bank by complying with the preconditions. This decision was taken at the Central Bank during the meeting of board of directors with the governor Mr.  Atiur Rahman. The issuance of the license is going to take place soon as per the statement of deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank. BB checked business plans of the applicant banks, after which they achieved the No-Objection certificates (NOC). The Banks that gained the NOCs are NRB Commercial Bank, Union Bank LTD, South Bangle Agriculture and Commerce Bank, Meghna Bank LTD and NRB Bank LTD.  Midland Bank LTD also presented their business plan, the board however asked the applicant bank to review and clarify their plans further before representing their business strategies in their next meeting. The five banks will be receiving their NOCs by the Bank Regulation and Policy dept. (BRPD) of the Central Bank, in order for them to be able to register with the R...

Chittagong Port is a vital variable to Bangladesh's economy and the prospect of growth. How well it is handled and dealt has a direct relation with the emergence of new businesses and growth of the existing ones. Most Bangladeshi group of companies including the top Pran Group, Jamuna Group, Square Group, Bosundrara Group depends on the efficiency of Chittagong Port as they export a big bunch of their manufactured goods through this gateway. A random article on the Chittagong Port mentioned that the country's garments industry is largely dependent upon this port. The statement makes sense. The article further mentioned that the port not only can help Bangladeshi based businesses, it can help the country earn foreign remittance by offering the service to neighboring countries - India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan. Bangladeshi businessmen and corporate houses will be benefited by miles if efficiency increases of Chittagong Port. They will be more enthusiastic in manufacturing k...