bangladesh economy news

[Espresso]

Bangladesh economy growth 'best in decades'

By Shafiq Alam (AFP) – May 31, 2011
DHAKA — Bangladesh's economy has grown at its highest rate in decades, driven by resurgent exports and a strong performance by the usually sluggish farm sector, officials said on Tuesday.
The economy expanded by 6.66 percent in the 12 months to June, the fastest pace since the early 1970s when it was boosted by recovery following Bangladesh's victory in its war of independence with Pakistan.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, which announces annual growth figures a month before the country's financial year ends in June, also revised its figures for 2009-10 growth upwards to 6.07 percent from a provisional estimate of 5.54 percent.
"The 6.66 percent growth is the highest in recent decades," BBS chief Shahjahan Ali Molla told AFP.
An official at the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics said it was the fastest rate of growth for Bangladesh since 1973-74 when the economy grew by 9.59 percent.
Bangladesh has targeted growth of seven percent for the next financial year beginning on July 1.
Last year's growth was powered by the country's resurgent manufacturing sector and higher crop yields, the secretary of the government's general economic division, Shamsul Alam, told AFP.
"Manufacturing was driven by an impressive 42 percent export growth in garment products. Agriculture also shone because of record outputs of rice, wheat and some other crops -- thanks to favourable weather," he said.
The World Bank had projected a 6.3 percent growth rate for Bangladesh, with a population of 150 million people, which is still one of the world's most impoverished nations, with nearly 40 percent of people living below the poverty line.
According to the statistics bureau, manufacturing expanded by 9.51 percent overall with major industries clocking 10.41 percent growth as garment shipments soared following a dramatic surge in orders diverted from an increasingly costly China.
The country has been benefited from rising wages in China that prompted many of the world's top retailers such as Wal-Mart to go bargain-hunting in Bangladesh, analysts said.
Garment export growth was just three percent in the 2009-2010 as demand for low-cost Bangladeshi goods fell sharply in the wake of the global financial crisis.
But the country's total foreign trade is now expected to grow 40 percent to a record $50 billion dollars in this financial year.
"Manufacturing and agriculture have done tremendously well this year," said Ahsan H. Mansur, a former senior official of the International Monetary Fund and the head of local think-tank Policy Research Institute.
"Garments, which account for 40 percent of our industrial activities, alone added two percentage points to growth," he said, adding the country's overall growth target of seven percent for the next financial year was reasonable.
At the weekend, the government unveiled a record $6.4 billion development spending for the next year to boost the economy. Power generation got the highest allocation of $1.2 billion in a bid to ease crippling electricity cuts, which have for years taken a toll on manufacturing growth.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »






http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...ba5fc0c618.2d1

[Espresso]

Wednesday, June 1, 2011 Business


Economic growth beats record



Star Business Report
Bangladesh's economic growth beat all records this year, riding on buoyant exports and robust agricultural outputs, said the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) yesterday.
The growth rate -- 6.66 percent -- is the highest since 1973-74, said Aynul Kabir, director of National Accounting Wing of the state-run BBS.
In 1973-74, a couple of years after the country's independence, the economy grew by 9.59 percent, which came after a negative growth in the previous years imposed by the war in 1971.
The actual growth of fiscal 2009-10 was 6.01 percent.
Kabir said this growth calculation is provisional as the growth estimate will be final in May next year. "This is provisional statistics as the BBS has not received many data since December."
The provisional calculation has also included the month of June, which has just begun, he added.
The economic growth for the current fiscal year (2010-11) to be ended this month was at 6.66 percent, particularly banking on the robust export growth, which was more than 42 percent in the July-April period, and exciting agricultural outputs, he said.
"The export sector, especially ready-made garment, performed exceptionally well. We are also expecting a robust boro output," he said.
The BBS took 18 major sectors in consideration to calculate the economic growth, he added.
Economists forecast a 7 percent growth next fiscal year, as the country's export sector is showing strengths, attracting increased orders from across the world, including China, a major competitor in exports.
The growth of Bangladesh's manufacturing sector hovered around 9.51 percent buoyed by soaring garment exports, showed the BBS data.
Mustafa K Mujeri, director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), attributed the growth to rising exports led by RMG, encouraging boro output buoyed by adequate supply of electricity, fertiliser and other inputs, and absence of natural disaster.
He said the provisional figure could still be adjusted once all the related data including the real boro output estimation are available.
The former chief economist of the central bank thinks this year's growth could be the highest in the country's history. “The growth of 1973-1974 came after a negative growth in the previous years imposed by war.”
“The level of production was lower soon after the Liberation War. But when the normal production picked up in 1973-1974 the growth jumped higher. The growth at that time was calculated on low base,” said Mujeri.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...php?nid=188136

[Espresso]

Bangladesh can be a secular beacon for the Muslim world


June 17, 2011




Forging new identity ... Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina is at the forefront of change in the country. Photo: AFP

If nations could be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, then Bangladesh would surely be a candidate. It remains trapped in the traumatic memories of its founding, struggling to move on.
The country was born from the ruins of East Pakistan in 1971 after a war of independence in which India-backed nationalists - unhappy at being ruled from what was then West Pakistan - fought Islamists loyal to Islamabad. Three million people were slaughtered in eight months before the Pakistanis conceded. Those were the days before international criminal tribunals, and the world left Bangladesh largely alone to heal and rebuild.
It is now undergoing a kind of collective therapy, as the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, launches the first set of war crimes trials in the Muslim world, to address the atrocities committed by Islamists during Bangladesh's struggle for independence. The decision has been hailed by international jurists, for good reason.
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Bangladesh is my birthplace and I visited last week to find a fresh challenge to the nature of Bangladeshi identity, brought on in part by debate over the notion of Pakistan as an Islamic state. Both countries are examples of the tensions between cultural heritage, secularism and Islam, an internal conflict most potent in Muslim nations outside the Arab world.
Extremist versions of Islam are really Arabised forms of the religion that refuse to bend or mould to local cultures and norms. Historically, Islam has been most successful in places such as Spain and Turkey when the religion fused well with local cultures.
Bangladesh's Foreign Minister, Dipu Moni, told me she hoped the country could become a beacon of secular humanism in a region racked by religious extremism, ethnic conflict and Maoist insurgency. It could then be a model not just for south Asia, but for the Muslim world.
Unlike Pakistan, language and not religion is the organising principle of Bangladesh, but Islamists have hijacked much of its history. In 1979, the same year as the Iranian revolution, they took control of the state, amended the constitution, and created an Islamic republic.
The government of the centre-left Awami League Party has spared almost no expense to expunge the traces of hardline Islam since its election in 2008. It has spent millions to rename public buildings that once honoured hardline Islamists, and rewritten laws to protect women from having to wear Islamic head coverings. The government has granted itself the means to dismantle Islamist militant networks. Through the Supreme Court, Hasina nullified the 1979 amendment, making the world's third-largest Muslim nation a secular republic again.
A more secular, humanist Bangladesh emboldened by its culture has potential to empower the intelligentsia in Pakistan against religious extremists as well as being an inspiration for other parts of the Muslim world.
The Bangladeshi economy has consistently achieved 6 per cent annual growth in the past five years and was rated among Goldman Sachs' ''Next 11'' in 2009, as a country that might drive economic growth once India and China have stabilised.
It has also achieved one of the key millennium development goals - gender parity in primary and secondary schooling - and is on track to achieve most of the other goals by 2015, such as reducing infant mortality.
Australia and the West have a responsibility to encourage what is a bold direction taken by Bangladeshi leaders. Australian activities there have increased significantly, in line with aid contributions. Australian taxpayers will give almost $100 million to Bangladesh in the coming year, much of it aimed at abetting the effects of climate change. With almost 20 million of its 150 million people living only a metre above sea level, Bangladesh is on the global warming front line.
But the clash between culture and religion is more immediate and its results may determine if the country can better withstand the ultimate effects of nature. It is too early to become overly optimistic. The day after I left, an alliance of religious extremists and other opposition parties called a general strike to protest against the secularisation of the country and what it perceived as an authoritarian stance by those in power.
It suggests there is a chance this artificial block of territory on the Indian subcontinent could morph again. Such a transformation could destabilise India, add weight to Islamic extremism in Pakistan and give the world another geopolitical and humanitarian headache of monumental proportions. Australia can play a key role in ensuring that it does not.
Dr Tanveer Ahmed is a psychiatrist and journalist. He travelled to Bangladesh as a guest of the Bangladeshi government.




Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politi...#ixzz1PTtynr5J

[Espresso]

Jute hits billion dollar jackpot as exports cross $20b mark
May export hits $ 2.29b—the best monthly figure ever



Monira Munni

Earnings from jute and jute product exports hit the billion dollars mark for the first time in the country's history, propelling overall shipments in the first eleven months to US$20.53 billions, official figures showed Thursday.

Exports of raw jute rose 81 per cent and jute goods 40 per cent to take the shipment of the proverbial Golden Fibre to $1.03 billion --- a figure not seen even in the heyday of the cash-crop in the 1940s-70s.

Shipments in May, the penultimate month of the fiscal year, soared to $2.29 billion, creating a new monthly record, as marks are shattered in exports every manufacturing and primary product that the country trade.

The year-on-year growth in May was over half a billion dollars in absolute term, or 48 per cent more than the same month last year.

The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) said the overall shipments grew a blistering 42 per cent in the eleven months to May, as the shipments crossed $20 billion threshold for the first time, on the back of booming apparel trade.

Garment export may have been the most important factor behind the export boom, following last year's meager four per cent growth, it was the revival of jute that has caught the officials and the industry by surprise.

Exporters attributed the rebound to surging demand of natural fibre in the developed nations, a sharp price-hike in the international market and a private sector-led diversification and value-addition of jute goods.

"This is for the first time in the country's history that exports of jute and jute products reached one billion dollar. It's a great news for the local jute industry and the farmers," EPB vice chairman Jalal Ahmed told the FE.

"We expect the growth will continue in the next fiscal year as a number of European Union and Middle East nations have planned to slap total ban on plastic-made bags," he said.

The country earned $725.56 million by exporting jute and jute products during July-May of the last fiscal year, when the natural fibre replaced frozen fish as the country's second largest export item after apparel.

Top jute exporter Rashedul Karim of Creation Private Ltd said golden days are still ahead of the Golden Fibre, as more and more nations are preferring bio-degradable jute sacks and bags over those made of polypropylene.

"Our industry has also ramped up its capacity over the past few years. They are churning out better and diversified products and are getting better price from the international buyers," he said.

Mr Karim said jute export could hit two billion dollars in the next couple of years if Bangladeshi companies can successfully brand their products, like their competitors in India and China.

"The government should focus on branding the country's image and ensure a good supply chain," he added.

Vice chairman of Bangladesh Jute Mills Association ABM Humayun said popularity of natural fibres amid growing environmental concerns across the globe is pushing up demand for jute.

Apparel exports continued to surpass expectations, with shipments of knitted products such as T-shirts surging 47 per cent to $8.44 billion in July-May and woven products such as shirts growing 40 per cent to $7.51 billion.

In total, apparel exports fetched a record $16.82 billion, with home textile clocking a growth of nearly 100 per cent. Last year garment exports grew a meager three per cent due to the impact of the global recession in the West.

Officials said the impressive growth of garment exports owe largely to diversion of orders from the world's largest clothing exporter, China.

"China is no longer competitive in most of the low-end apparel products," a leader of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) told the FE.

"That's why top global retailers such as Wal-Mart, Gap, Tesco and H & M have no choice but to place orders in Bangladesh because we can make things cheaper than anyone," he said.


http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.co...ate=2011-06-17

[Master Khan]

Bangladash is now better then Pakistan you know

I mean the currency rates today are

£1 =
119.291 BDT (Banglasdash)
138.590 PKR (Pakistan)
69.5129 AFN (Afghanistan)
72.5326 INR (india)

As you can see Pakistan is going down and down

[Karachi]

^ pakistan has commited suicide itself, while all other countries around are growing in every thing. Pakistan has always been a military state, thats why except the military nothing else is allowed to grow, and whenever there is little growth in some sectors, the stupid government and military policies destroy that too.

[Master Khan]

they spend like 80% of money on thier useless Army.
they should spend on money on Inmportant things like Busniess, Poor people, Electricity etc etc, not the Army, they are useless and pointless, all they do is do what the US tell them to do.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Export earnings post 41.41pc growth

The country’s export earning had grown by a whopping 41.47 per cent to $22.92 billion in the just-concluded fiscal year, buoyed by outstanding performance of the readymade garment, jute, home textile, and frozen food sectors.

The $22,924.38 million export earning in FY2010-2011 exceeded the target of $18,500 million by 23.92 per cent, according to the data released by the Export Promotion Bureau on Monday.

EPB vice president Jalal Ahmed told New Age the country’s export growth had maintained its upward trend throughout the last fiscal year.

He said the export proceeds of knit and woven garments in the year were robust, proving the manufacturers’ apprehension about a dull year wrong.

The home textile also posted a mammoth export growth in the year.

He said the bureau would send a delegation to Russia and Brazil in September to assess the potential of marketing Bangladesh’s knit and woven garments there.

Centre for Policy Dialogue senior research fellow Khondoker Golam Moazzem said the export registered a good growth in last fiscal year, coming out of the slow growth pace in the previous year caused by the global economic meltdown.

He said the growth in the export earning from readymade garments, the country’s top export item, would continue in the current fiscal year because of the relaxation of generalised system of preference by the European Union.

He, however, recommended that the government should lend a helping hand to the textile sector, which had been affected by the GSP relaxation of the EU that allowed the RMG sector to import a huge amount of fabrics.

The knitwear sector fetched $9,482.06 million in the year, posting a 46.25 per cent year-on-year growth, while woven garments earned $8,432.40 million, achieving a 40.23 per cent year-on-year rise.

The export proceeds of home textiles in FY2011 witnessed a whopping growth of 95.97 per cent year on year to $788.76 million, while footwear exports earned $297.80 million, primary commodities $958.98 million, frozen foods including frozen fish, shrimps, and others $625.04 million, and agricultural products $333.94 million.

Although the export proceeds of jute and jute goods registered a 41.49 per cent rise over the last fiscal year, amounting to $1,114.93 million, the amount fell short of the target for the year by 0.04 per cent. Of the amount, raw jute exports fetched $357.28 million, jute yarn and twine $500.66 million, jute sacks and bags $206.72 million, and other jute items brought in around $50.27 million.

Export of tea failed to recover from its poor performance in the just-concluded fiscal year, mostly because of increased domestic consumption, and fetched only $3.20 million, far short of the target of $6.00 million, adds the United News of Bangladesh.

Cotton and cotton products, leather and leather products, plastic products, and rubber maintained their upward export trend in 2010-2011.

Leather export proceeds in the year totalled $297.83 million, leather products $55.42 million, posting a healthy year-on-year growth of 90.71 per cent, cotton and cotton products together earned $135.01 million, plastic products fetched $68.76 million, and rubber export proceeds more than doubled to $20.66 million plus, registering an astounding year-on-year growth of 113.21 per cent.

The country also earned $37.58 million from ceramic exports, and clocks, watches, and their spare parts combined to earn more than $28.40 million in the year.

Engineering products including iron and steel, bicycle, and electronic products fetched almost $309.55 million in FY2011.

The export proceeds of man-made filaments and staple fibres totalled $95.75 million, caps $54.10 million, computer services $41.47 million [in July-May], while other manufactured products earned the country $69.42 million in the year.

Exports of ships, boats, and floating structures notched an eye-catching 332.98 per cent growth in the last fiscal year, fetching $40.44 million, compared to the target of $36 million.

Export proceeds of handicrafts totalled $4.47 million, paper and paper products $26.33 million, furniture $21.38 million, chemical products $104.76 million, and pharmaceutical products $44.27 million, while ores, slag, and ash bagged $29.18 million, posting a 154.40 per cent growth over the last fiscal year.

Specialised textiles including terry towel, special woven fabrics, and knitted fabrics notched a negative growth of 11.52 per cent over the year, earning $164.55 million, while export of petroleum by-products also fell into the negative trend as it accounted for just $260.68 million.

The export proceeds in June 2011 amounted to $2,386.04 million, showing a healthy rise of 40.25 per cent from that in the corresponding month of the previous year.

http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/business/25887.html

[Bengal_Tiger]

He said the bureau would send a delegation to Russia and Brazil in September to assess the potential of marketing Bangladesh’s knit and woven garments there

The bureau seem to know what they are doing.

Russia and Brazil are the other half of the BRIC quartet in addition to neighbouring India and China whom Bangladesh is working with anyway.

By the end of the decade Bangladesh will be on the same level as Malaysia if not having surpassed it insha'Allah.

[gadoonwal]

good luck to them.

[afghan]

^ pakistan has commited suicide itself, while all other countries around are growing in every thing. Pakistan has always been a military state, thats why except the military nothing else is allowed to grow, and whenever there is little growth in some sectors, the stupid government and military policies destroy that too.

after the suicide dead body need to be burried, should not be kept for so long, so the alive people can perform their duties.