LATEST NEWS
ARCHIVE 17/02
The Daily Star
Young entrepreneurs in agriculture: The new driving force.
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Agriculture accounts for approximately 13.6 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP and employs more than 40.6 per cent of the labour force. As technology advances, so do agricultural applications, ushering in a new era of industrial upheaval.
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Sabina Yeasmin's story is a testimony to what determination and hard work can do. She struggled to find work after completing her formal education for a long time. She eventually got one but deep down, she knew she needed to do something that would truly make her self-sufficient. Her success is the result of hard work, interest, and dedication.
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Yeasmin established her own integrated farm, Alif Goat and Dairy, which has provided her with much-needed self-sufficiency. Many others, particularly women, are now following in her footsteps. As a successful entrepreneur, money is not her biggest motivation.
Economic Times
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Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra on Wednesday called on Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during which he reaffirmed India's support for wider and deeper development and economic partnership with her country. Kwatra arrived here on Tuesday evening from Kathmandu, Nepal, on a two-day visit.
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The Bangladesh foreign minister is scheduled to attend the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi on March 1-2.
The Business Standard
Bangladesh can have bigger slice of UK’s $327bn light engineering market
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Bangladesh can have a bigger slice of the $327 billion worth light engineering market of the United Kingdom, sector insiders and analysts said, as the northwestern European country offers developing nations privileged access to its markets with a new arrangement, called Developing Countries Trading Scheme.
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The generous scheme that came into effect early this year has replaced the UK's earlier Generalised Scheme of Preferences or GSP. Developing countries like Bangladesh, under the scheme, can now enjoy reduced tariffs and relaxed rules to export goods to the UK.
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"The new scheme can be a game changer for Bangladesh to break into non-RMG export sectors, such as light engineering," Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) Chairman Mohammad Abdur Razzque said.
The Business Standard
How Bangladesh can leverage the G20 Summit to forward its agenda
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Bangladesh as an emerging voice from the global south may utilise the G-20 summit to advocate for strategically significant issues like climate change, the Rohingya Refugee crisis, the food and energy crisis
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On 1 December, 2022, India took over the G20's presidency for 2023, demonstrating India's growing significance in the global platform. Hosting the G20 summit for the first time will have profound strategic implications for India, providing it with an opportunity to become a centrepiece of the current global political stage and emerge as a global leader of the South
The Business Standard
Good news for Bangladesh RMG as Western brands reopen business in Russia
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Western brands reopening businesses under new names in Russian markets have spelled optimism and opportunities for Bangladesh apparel exporters.
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Many foreign brands are importing goods for the Russian market through other countries – Turkey, UAE and Singapore – industry insiders said.
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According to a Swiss study, despite widespread outrage over Moscow's war in Ukraine, few Western companies deserted the country, the AFP reports.
The Business Standard
Bangladesh’s textile and garment machinery market now worth over $4bn
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Bangladesh's textile and garment machinery market is now worth more than $4bn as the sector has registered a 20% year-on-year growth, thanks to its strong textile and garment manufacturing strength, according to capital machinery manufacturers and local industry leaders.
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At the Dhaka International Textile and Garment Machinery Exhibition, the biggest machinery expo in South Asia, international machinery manufacturers said that Bangladesh is now one of the most important hotspots for the sector as work orders are shifting from other countries to this country.
Reuters
Congested Dhaka navigates cleaner transport, jobs with first metro rail
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In late December, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the first section of the MRT Line-6, built by the government-owned Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited, with financial support from the Japanese government.
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The rail system is expected to provide a safe and reliable transport option for the city's rising population of more than 20 million, up from 3 million in 1980, while cutting climate-heating emissions from vehicles crowding the roads.
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
Ramping up clean energy will help Bangladesh reduce its reliance on imported fossil fuels
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The rapidly rising average cost of electricity generation in the country makes a compelling economic case for Bangladesh to enhance deflationary renewable energy at the grid scale to rein in the soaring power generation costs and contain the challenges of imported fossil fuels.
The Business Standard
Md Shahabuddin elected 22nd president of Bangladesh
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The ruling Awami League-nominated Mohammad Shahabuddin was elected unopposed as the 22nd president of Bangladesh.
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Earlier on Monday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal declared Md Shahabuddin, a retired judge and former commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), as the president-elect as there was no other nomination.
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Md Shahabuddin will replace President Abdul Hamid, who will complete his second term on 23 April this year
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
Renewable energy may provide South Asia relief from energy price shocks
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Bangladesh drafted a long-term plan of achieving a 40% renewable energy target by 2041 as part of the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan.
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The unaffordability of energy led Bangladesh to cancel liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the spot market in July 2022 and adjust oil, gas and electricity prices to reduce growing fiscal burdens. Bangladesh also resorted to power rationing with directives for energy conservation measures to save expensive energy. As a result, the outputs of Bangladesh’s major industries shrank due to the energy crunch. Average inflation shot-up to 7.7% in 2022.
The Business Standard
We want peace, but are ready to resist external attack: PM Hasina
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"I want to thank our armed forces as they are brightening our image by working with glory at the United Nations peacekeeping missions," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said.
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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said the armed forces are being developed appropriately to give a fitting reply if the country comes under attack by any external forces.
The Guardian
‘I know how it feels to lose everything’: Rohingya refugees send aid to Turkey
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Driven from Myanmar by military action in 2017, the impoverished Rohingya are digging deep to donate relief to earthquake survivors
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With little to spare themselves, Rohingya refugees are among those in Bangladesh sending money, blankets and clothing to earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria.
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The images of destroyed homes and grieving families resonated with Rohingya expelled by the Myanmar military, prompting online organisation and volunteers walking through the vast refugee camps in Bangladesh collecting donations.
Brookings
A just and green transition in Bangladesh
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In this working paper, Khan and Huq describe Bangladesh as the ground zero of climate vulnerability, due to its dense population and exposure to floods, cyclones, sea level rise, and salinity incursions.
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However, Bangladeshi politicians remain committed to economic growth, with environmental sustainability as the second priority. Some segments of the business are, nevertheless, starting to commit to change.
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The key technical issues currently debated under Bangladesh’s “just transition” are around energy access, social equity, and building resilience—areas where international support has been less forthcoming compared to mitigation.
United Nations
UN rights expert calls on Bangladesh to draft anti-discrimination leprosy laws
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An independent UN human rights expert on Wednesday called on Bangladesh to draft laws to better protect those affected by leprosy.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Bangladesh has the fifth highest number of leprosy cases in the world. Data on Bangladesh indicates ongoing transmission, late diagnosis, and gaps in the health system.
World Bank
Stressed and depressed: Climate change and mental health in Bangladesh
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Climate change poses a number of mental health consequences such as heat stress and infectious and vector-borne diseases among a host of other issues.
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While these have been documented to a certain extent, the effects of climate change on common mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, have not been studied as extensively.
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One of the major reasons is due to mental health being stigmatized in many parts of the developing world, including Bangladesh. Additionally, studies that do exist tend to focus on post-disaster scenarios and do not represent the overall population.
United Nations OHCHR: Bangladesh
UN experts appeal for immediate funding to avert food ration cuts for Rohingya refugees
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GENEVA (16 February 2023) - UN experts* today warned about catastrophic consequences for Myanmar Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh if life-saving food aid is slashed, and issued an urgent plea for donations to the UN World Food Programme Rohingya Refugee Response.
The Washington Post
Rising seas risk climate migration on ‘biblical scale,’ says U.N. chief
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The head of the United Nations has warned that rising sea levels caused by global warming could spur a mass migration of entire populations from low-lying areas on a “biblical scale.”
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Speaking to the Security Council in New York about the impact of sea level rises on global peace and security, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said that some 900 million people live in low-lying coastal areas.
Bloomberg
The West Isn’t Powerless in Myanmar
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Home to 54 million people from more than 100 ethnic groups, Myanmar occupies a strategically important position between India and China.
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Disorder there threatens the stability of the broader region: worsening violence risks creating a refugee crisis akin to that of 2017, when 900,000 members of the Rohingya minority fled to Bangladesh after a military crackdown.
The Daily Star
Countries including Bangladesh at risk of exodus on ‘biblical scale’: UN
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Countries such as Bangladesh, China, India, and the Netherlands are all in danger, Guterres said, while mega-cities on every continent will face serious impacts -- from Cairo to Jakarta to Los Angeles to Copenhagen.
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The UN Secretary-General has warned that global warming could force a mass exodus "on a biblical scale" as people flee low-lying communities and called for legal frameworks to be implemented in preparation, especially for refugees.