Former finance minister and the reformer with biggest contribution to building free market economy in Bangladesh, Saifur Rahman was killed in a road accident yesterday.
From The Daily Star,
The reform man
Star Report
An assiduous person that he was, Bangladesh’s longest serving finance minister M Saifur Rahman was loved by the audience for his serious remarks laced with humour, often in his own Sylheti dialect. Wherever he was, he always carried an air of freshness in ideas, vigorous conviction and straightforwardness. And through decades of his political career and wisdom, Saifur almost became a true statesman, often criticising his own party stances on issues such as hartal and anti-privatisation sabre-rattling. Inside his party, he was one of the few saner heads respected across the file and rank.
Read more…
rumi, September 6th 2009 |
Tags: adamjee jute mill, BNP, Economy, khaleda zia, liberalization
Posted in BNP, Business, reform
1. CFO Arif al Islam, who was in-charge of GP’s listing process with the capital market, quit last week, just four days after the corporate giant got the final go-ahead from the market regulator to float shares. Arif was announced as Deputy CEO only six months ago. [left in image above]
2. CCO Rubaba Dowla quit this week, after denying rumors of sacking last week. [right in image]
3. Of the new management team announced in January, these new firings replace two of the top Bangladeshis. On January 20th, the announced management team was: Oddvar Hesjedal, CEO [center in image]; Arif Al Islam, CFO and Deputy CEO, Titus Dan, CMO, Frode Stoldal, CTO, Rubaba Dowla, CTO, Raihan Shamsi, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, and Arnfinn Groven, Chief Human Resource Officer.
4. Strong market rumor is that all these resignations are actually firings, and two other top managers have been fired. All rumored firings are of Bangladeshis.
5. Grameenphone’s IPO is scheduled for Q4 2009
[Organogram Source: grameenphone.com]
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UV_Admin, September 2nd 2009 |
Posted in Business
Lot of hollagolla over Indian aggression into our markets. Meanwhile, the Chinese are quietly making many inroads.
Chinese companies rule Sirajganj tender
“The Chinese companies are Shandong Electric, China National Electric Equipment Corporation (CNEEC), Sinohydro, Shanghai Electric Co, and CMC. The three other companies are Spanish Cobra and Isolux and Indian Bhel. An influential ruling party man who is trying to influence different power tenders being staged by different government agencies is representing most of the Chinese companies. The same person is also representing an Indo-German power company in one of the recent tender processes.”
[Read More]
Shanghai gets Sylhet power job
“The SEC offered a gas booster compressor from Shanghai Fiorentini China, which has no experience of supplying such equipment. But interestingly, the SEC submitted performance certificate issued by end-users mentioning that the gas booster has been supplied by Pietro-Fiorentini in Italy, not by Shanghai Fiorentini.”
[Read More]
khujeci_tomai, August 28th 2009 |
Posted in Business
Top Loan Defaulters
As per Bangladesh Bank’s Credit Information Bureau (CIB)
Beximco Textile of Beximco Group Tk 353 crore
Padma Textile Mills Limited of Beximco Group Tk 293 crore.
Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, state-run Tk 267.5 crore
Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation, state-run Tk 177 crore.
SDS International Limited Tk 140 crore
Shinepukur Holdings of Beximco Group Tk 134 crore
Read more…
khujeci_tomai, July 6th 2009 |
Posted in Business
IMF comes out with predictions of a very severe downturn in the Asian Economy that will last till end of next year. Â
What’s the way out in Bangladesh? Â Met a Garments owner the day before yesterday. Â The orders have absolutely dried up. Â He said, ‘I am thinking whether to shut down the company for a few months.’ Â How is remittance market? Â Bangladesh Bank report shows the total remitance in the last 10 months has now equaled the previous fiscal year. Â However, the bad news is hardly any new workers are going abroad. Â That means Bangladesh is looking at creating jobs for additional 10 lakh people. Â Dhaka is flooded with seminars on this topic. Â There are potential new countries people are talking about. Â But are we ready to face what is coming to hit us with vengeance?
Samantha Morshed talks about a third way beyond for profit and not for profit and encourages a new kind of business leaders in Bangladesh  – the social business leaders.
Samantha would know because she has made it happen in Bangladesh. Â See the BBC report on Hathey Bunano.
What’s your take on social enterprises? Â We talk about problems too much but not enough about solutions. Let’s change the focus for a change.
Asif, May 6th 2009 |
Posted in Business, Economy, Recession, Social Entrepreneurship
- Shaheen Ahmed, Published in the Daily Star on 18 Feb 2009.
NEW technologies require new laws and regulations. But these regulations must be sensible and they have to be enforced uniformly. The tragedy in Bangladesh is that we make senseless regulations and do not enforce the sensible ones. As a result, businesses get destroyed, our workers migrate and then we highlight “record remittances” to console ourselves.
…
Where does all this leave us?
One company potentially controlling the infrastructure from the international exchange to the consumer. A thousand little VoIP operators out of business, most likely adding their numbers to the “expatriate labour force” of Bangladesh.
At least the chattering classes can crow on about “record remittances” while blissfully unaware of the potential for employment generation at home.
Read more…
UV_Admin, February 18th 2009 |
Posted in Business, Corruption, reform
From Thursday’s Daily Star:
The illegal business of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) based call termination made a rather robust comeback since the assumption of state power by the newly elected Awami League-led alliance government.
The reinvigoration of the illegal telecom business based on the illegal technology has been eroding the market of new legal telecom gateway businesses.
…….
VoIP is a technology that allows someone to make voice calls using a broadband internet connection instead of any phone line.
For its affordable business features, VoIP has become one of the most lucrative businesses in Bangladesh.
Unscrupulous people ranging from IT professionals to entrepreneurs and political party backed young individuals are getting involved in the illegal business.
According to the anti-VoIP team of BTRC, anyone can launch a VoIP service by spending only Tk 2.5 lakh, which might cost some more depending on the volume of the VoIP exchange.
In terms of tariff, VoIP calls are cheaper than traditional phone calls as well. According to the licence agreement, IGWs are charging 4 cents for handling each international call, while VoIP black market price is at most 2.5 cents on an average.
The Bangladesh market is very lucrative for VoIP operators, as around 6 million Bangladeshis live abroad, and the number has been increasing by the year.
The issue of illegal VoIP business became very important to the government, as due to the use of the technology the government is losing a large amount of revenue.
Read more…
dhakashohor, February 6th 2009 |
Posted in Business, Economy
What impact will BTRC’s punitive measures against mobile telcos for VoIP have on business confidence? BTRC announced today a new $25 million fine against Grameenphone (the second such fine against them in six months; as well as previous huge fines against Banglalink & Aktel) and court cases against preceding & current Grameenphone executives:
- Former GP officials: CEOs Eric Aas and Ola Ree, Technical Director Thor Randhaug, Chief Technical Officer Yogesh Sanjeev Malik, and Sales and Marketing Director Mehboob Chowdhury.
- Incumbent GP officials: Regulatory & Corporate Affairs Director Khalid Hasan, CTO Md Shafiqul Islam, Sales & Marketing Director Kafil HS Muyeed, CFO Md Aril Al Islam, Head of Revenue Assurance Espen Wiig Warendroph. Read more…
admin, January 27th 2008 |
Posted in Business
