business
Indian delegation meets BGMEA president to discuss trade,investment potential
A visiting Indian delegation led by Sandeep Poundrik, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries Department, government of Bihar, met the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Faruque Hassan on Monday.
The meeting discussed potential areas of trade and investment between Bangladesh and India, with a specific focus on enhancing collaboration within the textile and apparel industry.
Read: BGMEA delegation visits LafargeHolcim's Geocycle Project in Sunamganj
Both sides recognized the immense potential that exists for cooperation in this sector, and discussed ways of harnessing these opportunities.
The Indian delegation highlighted the investment potential in Bihar and support to investors seeking opportunities in the region.
During the meeting, Faruque Hassan underscored the importance of intensifying business collaboration between the two countries.
Read: BGMEA delegation meets Kurdistan regional Minister Safeen
He emphasized the need to identify specific areas where both Bangladesh and India can collaborate to yield mutual benefits.
The BGMEA president expressed his optimism about the prospects of expanding trade and investment ties, particularly within the textile and apparel industry, which is a vital sector for both nations.
Bangladesh and India could complement each other to capture global market opportunities and grow together, he opined.
Read more: BGMEA delegation meets Investment Board Chairman of Kurdistan regional government to discuss investment opportunities
Australia Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry elects new executive committee
Syed Moazzam Hossain and Jobayer Tansim Ahmed have been elected as President and Secretary General of the Australia Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ABCCI) respectively for the term of 2023-2025.
S. M. Hossain is the Managing Director of SMH Engineering Limited, SMH New Generation Apparels Ltd., SMH AGRO Industries Ltd. and Chairman of Lama Rubber Industries Limited.
He is the immediate past director of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FBCCI) and former president of Bangladesh – Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BMCCI), Bangladesh Indenting Agent Association (BIAA) and Bangladesh Rubber Garden Owners Association (BRGOA) & involved in many other organizations, said a media release.
Read: Salman F Rahman inaugurates FBCCI Innovation and Research Center
On the other hand, Jobayer Tansim is the Director of Shah Fatehullah Textile Mills Ltd., Jalal Ahmed Spinning Mills Ltd., Genvio Pharma Ltd.
He is also involved with various Chamber and Association.
The other office bearers include Deepok Kumar Baral (vice President), Jamilur Rahman (organising secretary), Mohammad Taherul Hoque (treasurer), directors Eric Samson Chowdhury, Nabeel Essa, Iqbal Hossain, Md Samsul Alam Mallick, Shubhashis Chakma and Md. Al Amin.
Read more: Bangladesh can be trade hub for ASEAN, South Asia: FBCCI
BGMEA, Vietnam counterpart discuss potential collaboration
A high-level delegation from the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), led by its Chairman, Vu Duc Giang, paid a visit to the Bangladesh Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in Uttara on Sunday.
The 24-member delegation also included Vice Chairmen of VITAS — Nguyen Bao Tran, Than Duc Viet and Luu Tien Chung.
During the visit, the delegation held a meeting with BGMEA President Faruque Hassan, where both parties discussed potential areas of collaboration that could bring mutual benefits to both Bangladesh and Vietnam, particularly within the textile and apparel industry.
BGMEA Director Asif Ashraf was also present at the meeting.
BGMEA urges NBR to speed up customs, bond services for RMG sector
The discussions were centered on the exchange of knowledge, experiences, and expertise aimed at advancing the textile and apparel sectors in both countries.
The Vietnamese delegation expressed keen interest in understanding the success stories of Bangladesh, especially concerning workplace safety, environmental sustainability, and circularity in the textile and apparel industry.
In the meeting, BGMEA President Faruque Hassan highlighted Bangladesh’s increased emphasis on value addition and diversification, with a particular focus on non-cotton products.
BGMEA calls for government support to safeguard RMG sector in testing times
He expressed BGMEA's interest in tapping into Vietnamese experience, particularly in the production of high-value items while Bangladesh could share its exemplary strides in the areas of workplace safety and environmental sustainability.
President Faruque Hassan also highlighted the importance of sharing knowledge and expertise through collaboration between the BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology (BUFT) and Vietnamese apparel trade associations and fashion institutes.
BGMEA president stresses timely policy to ensure growth of RMG industry
This partnership would facilitate interactions between designers and technical experts, fostering the exchange of faculties and students, ultimately leading to the development of knowledge and skills that would benefit both countries.
The exchange of knowledge, expertise, and experiences between these two industry associations could drive innovation, sustainability, and value addition in the textile and apparel sectors.Both sides expressed willingness to work together to explore avenues for cooperation that would boost the growth and prosperity of their respective industries and economies.
Robi’s sustained investment improves network experience across country
Following sustained investment, network optimization initiative, and deployment of L2600 spectrum band that the company acquired in the auction last year, customers of Robi Axiata Limited throughout the country are enjoying significantly improved data and video network experience.
Till date, Robi has deployed L2600 spectrum in 50% of the sites that were dealing with high level of data traffic. The doubling of network capacity following L2600 spectrum deployment in these areas helped to improve data speed by 50%. Going forward, further deployment of L2600 spectrum will continue to improve network experience across the country, said a press release.
Doubling of a site capacity means that the site will be able to carry double data volume with better experience. This is also enabling the VoLTE users to enjoy best quality of voice in their devices, read the release.
While improving the data network, deployment of L2600 spectrum is also ensuring Robi’s readiness to launch 5G service. Robi had acquired 60 MHz spectrum from 2600 band last year from an open auction.
Robi’s Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer, Shahed Alam said: “Robi has long been working on improving its network quality. On an average, we have been investing around $200million over a number of years. With the deployment of L2600 spectrum, we believe our network development is now helping us to deliver a far better quality of service for our valued customers. This drive will continue across the country going forward.”
Besides, the network optimization activities directly contributed towards reducing call drop rate by around 60% over the last year for users of both- Robi and Airtel brand users. Meanwhile, the Mean Opinion Score (MOS), a parameter that indicates overall the call quality had improved by around 50% since the start of the ongoing year.
CPD recommends minimum wage of Tk 17,568 for RMG industries
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) on Sunday (October 8, 2023), based on research of living expenses, recommended minimum wage of Tk 17,568, at the entry level, for export-oriented apparel industries.
Currently, the minimum wage for garment workers, set by the wage board on December 1, 2018, stands at Tk 8,000 – a sum frequently scrutinised, particularly given the prevailing economic crisis.
Read: Lack of awareness a serious risk on pollution: CPD
CPD said, if the foreign buyers pay an additional 7 cents per apparel product, factory owners will not be under pressure to pay this wage.
The CPD made this proposal at the minimum wage revision, monitoring, and recommendation dialogue for the garment sector. The event was held at a hotel in Dhaka’s Gulshan.
CPD Research Director Khondokar Golam Moazzem unveiled the proposal. He explained that the proposed increase in minimum wage has been made through findings from a comprehensive survey on the garment sector, conducted by CPD.
The research institute said that they are making the proposal after surveying 228 workers in 76 factories.
The CPD research director and senior research assistant Tamim Ahmed presented the keynote paper at the event.
Read: Bangladesh will need $10 billion annually to import primary fuel for power generation: CPD
BGMEA President Faruque Hassan, BKMEA Executive President Mohammad Hatim, Owners’ Representative in Minimum Wage Board and former president of BGMEA Siddikur Rahman, Minimum Wage Board Workers’ Representative Sirajul Islam, among others, were present at the event.
The government set a new minimum wage board on April 10, 2023, tasked with determining the new minimum wage for the RMG industry through discussions at the tripartite level.
The board has already met several times, and the new minimum wage is likely to be finalised within the next month.
Read: It is the ‘profession’ of TIB and CPD to find loopholes in budget, Hasan Mahmud says
The issue of minimum wage is immensely important, particularly given that it has a substantial impact on the RMG industry’s overall competitiveness and the livelihood of workers. Hence, it is crucial to examine the current structure of wages and to determine a new wage in a way that allows workers to have a fair minimum wage.
Bangladesh’s apparel exports to US saw 21.77% decline in Jan-Aug: OTEXA
The United States’ apparel imports from Bangladesh have declined by 21.77 percent during the January-August period of 2023.
The US imported USD 5.18 billion worth of apparel from Bangladesh during the first eight months of 2023, compared to USD 6.62 billion during the same period in 2022, according to data published by the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) under the US Department of Commerce.
Also read: RMG exports for July-August this year grow by 12.46%
Bangladesh is the third-largest apparel supplier to the United States.
According to OTEXA data, the United States’ overall apparel import from the world has declined by 22.77 percent in January-August 2023 to USD 53.45 billion, from USD 69.21 billion in the same period of 2022.
All the top apparel import sources of the US including China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia have shown significant negative growth in terms of both value and volume.
Also read: RMG exports: Bangladesh earned $3.95 billion in July, says BGMEA
The US’ import from China, the largest apparel import source, has declined by 29.47 percent whereas their import from the second largest source, Vietnam, also dropped by 24.57 percent.
Import from the other countries such as India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Mexico, Honduras, Pakistan and South Korea also declined by 21.59 percent, 26.09 percent, 27.28 percent, 8.87 percent, 22.26 percent, 29.24 percent, and 11.74 percent respectively.
Also read: Bangladesh's RMG export to USA grows 6.31% in FY 2023-24
Antifragile Career: 10 ways to make your profession sustainable
If there is one thing inevitable in this world, it is change. The world around us has changed drastically over the last few years. There was the pandemic that brought the world to a halt, combined with global political, civil, and economic crises. As businesses and employment stand in an unprecedented precarious situation, now is a better time than ever to consider the alternatives as an employee. What should be the game plan? And what should be the next move in it? Let’s talk about some effective and practical ways to make your career antifrgile and sustainable.
An Antifragile or Sustainable Career: The Next Step in Career Progression
The concept of antifragility was first developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder”. Long story short, Taleb talked about the idea that change is inevitable. What matters is how we deal with the change.
Typically there are two ways to deal with change. Either through resilience or through developing robustness. But none of these actually helps a person to prepare for change. Rather they are simple coping mechanisms.
Read more: 5 Essential Skills to Make Money Online
And that is where antifragility is different. Antifragility aims to minimize the damage caused by change as well as help a person gain experience and knowledge from the change.
The concept applies to career progression as well. We often think that a job loss is a negative change. However, it can be a learning opportunity to introspect and develop the expertise that might be lacking. This way a job loss won’t be a setback. Rather with an antifragile mindset, it will be an opportunity to make a stronger comeback.
DCCI seminar: Strong SME policy can boost export capacity
Speakers in a seminar on Saturday urged to improve the capability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) so that the sector can survive and increase exports to fight the challenges of LDC Graduation.
They said focusing on technology advancement, access to finance, marketing facilities, research and innovation, product diversification, cluster base skilled development, and infrastructure are some of the important issues for the overall development of the SME sector.
Speakers said these at a seminar on ‘Improving export capabilities of SMEs: succeeding globally upon LDC graduation’ organized by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) on Saturday (October 7)
Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, MP, Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament was present here as the chief guest.
Read: IRI-NDI pre-election assessment mission due to arrive Saturday
She said that the SMEs of Bangladesh are resilient enough and contribute more than 30 percent to the GDP. Still, this sector has various challenges and she hoped that the policymakers would try to address these issues to solve the existing problems.
She also added that despite the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, Bangladesh has been able to continue its commendable progress securing 6.5 percent GDP growth.
The speaker (Dr Shirin) invited the SME entrepreneurs to utilize technology to get access to the virtual market and requested them to use the platform of Joyeeta Foundation to sell their products.
DCCI President Barrister Md. Sameer Sattar said, “We need to prepare as the exporters including SMEs will face tariffs ranging from 8 percent to 16 percent on their export after 2026. However, we have a very strong SME base in Bangladesh. SMEs contribute 28 percent to the country’s GDP, 45 percent to manufacturing value addition, and account for 90 percent of the jobs in the private sector.”
Read: Shopowners’ Association seeks immediate withdrawal of 1% supervision charge in CMSME loans
He suggested redefining SME definition by excluding ‘Medium’ businesses as a medium are largely privileged.
DCCI president also recommended banks provide SME-tailored export financing like credit insurance, export development fund, and working capital loans to address export-related financial challenges.
He also underscored the importance of having a central SME database with updated information. He also endorsed foreign investment, easy technology transfer, and cluster development for export-oriented SMEs.
Dr. Selim Raihan, Executive Director, SANEM gave the keynote presentation in the seminar. He said that Bangladesh’s SMEs face challenges like capacity constraints, lack of policies and regulatory issues, financing, infrastructure, and skills gaps.
Read more: FBCCI president says they are against dishonest businessmen
He also said that the import tariff for SMEs in Bangladesh is a bit high, so it should be investment-friendly.
Kohinoor Yeasmin, CEO of Tarango, Rezbin Begum, MD, People’s Leather Industry, AFM Asif, CEO of Bengal Meat Processing Industries Ltd, and Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank Dr. Md. Kabir Ahmed, also spoke in the seminar as panel discussants.
Walton to participate China’s 'Canton Fair' for 3rd time
Bangladeshi global electronics brand Walton for the third time is going to take part in the world's largest trade 'China Import and Export Fair,' popularly known as 'Canton Fair' around the world.
Walton is the only Bangladeshi company going to showcase 'Made in Bangladesh' labelled world-class advanced technologies consumer electronics at this prestigious trade show, said a press release.
The 134th Canton Fair autumn session will start from 15th October this year at Canton Fair Complex in the Guangzhou City.
The fair will be continued till November 4, 2023 in three phases, read the release.
Under the supervision of China's Ministry of Commerce, this mega trade show has been held in April and October every year for 66 years.
Read: Walton gets ‘Bangabandhu SheikhMujib Industrial Award-2022’
The first phase of this autumn fair will be held from 15 to 19 October where electronics and household electrical appliances, lighting equipment, vehicles and spare parts, machinery and hardware and tools products will be displayed.
Walton's Mega Pavilion will be set up at the Canton Fair's International Pavilion in the Electronics and Household Electrical Appliances category.
At the 5-day long first phase of Cantor Fair, 'Made in Bangladesh' tagged European ACC brand and Bangladeshi electronics giant Walton brand's world-class advanced appliances will be showcased at Walton pavilion. The displayable products are huge energy saving advanced features refrigerators, air conditioners featured with voice control and digital display, rechargeable fans, ceiling fans etc.
Read: Walton brings new models of single door all-rounder fridge
Walton Global Business Unit's Vice-President and Chief Coordinator of Walton Pavilion at Canton Fair Abdur Rouf said, "Walton is the only Bangladeshi company participated in Canton Fair. For the 3rd time, we are participating in this prestigious trade show. Earlier in 2016 and 2017, Walton took part in Canton Fair and gained huge success and praise from the global buyers by displaying highest standard state-of-the-art technologies consumer electronics. We hope that this time Walton will also achieve great success in the Canton Fair."
Walton Refrigerator's Chief Business Officer (CBO) Tofail Ahmed said, "Walton is now the leading electronics brand in the domestic market. Now, our target is to establish Walton as one of the best global electronics brand around the world by 2030. As a part of the initiatives for achieving that vision, we are participating in the world's renowned trade shows in different countries, including Europe and America, with the world's best quality products. We are ready to challenge any global brand with high quality products.
Read: Walton awards 144 plazas, managers for contribution to sales revenue
Walton Air Conditioner's CBO Tanvir Rahman said, "Participating in the Canton Fair will further bright the image of Walton and Bangladesh as well. Canton Fair is the world's top platform where more than three lakhs traders and buyers come from almost every country in the world. Walton will get a best opportunity for creating business relationship with those global buyers.
Walton officials who are employed in different countries are conducting promotional campaigns in their respective countries including China, United Kingdom, USA, Europe, Africa, Middle East, India, Nepal and Bhutan to attract the attention of global buyers and also invite them to visit Walton Pavilion in Canton Fair, added the press release.
Brac Bank’s ‘Druti’ clinches 12 awards
Brac Bank's SME (small and medium enterprise) banking solution, Tally Loan 'Druti', has won a slew of awards both locally and globally, consolidating its position in the country's banking sector.
According to Barc Bank, Druti, designed to empower unbanked SMEs in Bangladesh, has secured 12 prestigious awards, a record for a single proposition.
It has achieved the distinguished ‘Product Innovation of the Year Award’ in the platinum category for its Tally Loan 'Druti' at the 2023 Global SME Finance Forum Awards.
This forum, orchestrated by the World Bank Group, acknowledged the Brac Bank for introducing a groundbreaking proposition, integrating unbanked small traders into the conventional banking system.
The coveted award was received by Syed Abdul Momen, Deputy Managing Director and Head of SME Banking, Brac Bank, from Matthew Gamser, CEO, SME Finance Forum, during a ceremony held in Mumbai, India, on September 13, 2023.
In addition, Druti earned considerable recognition at the Bangladesh Brand Forum's Commward, seizing four awards in the following categories: Rural Marketing – Grand Prix, Native - Grand Prix, Campaign for Sustainability – Gold, and Brand Experience and Promotion.
The remarkable SME proposition acquired seven more laurels from the international advertising consortium Mad Stars, renowned for its focus on Marketing, Advertising, and Digital content.
Druti stood out in categories including Brand Experience & Activation Stars, Data Insight Stars-Finance, Data-Driven Targeting, Innovative Use of Technology, Commerce Stars, Sustainable Development Goals-Reduced Inequalities, and PIVOT (Special Category).
Asiatic Communications Limited, the digital agency of BRAC Bank, spearheaded the nominations for Brac Bank in both Commward and Mad Stars and was instrumental in securing these awards.
Syed Abdul Momen said, “Brac Bank has consistently pioneered innovation in banking. Druti Loan transforms the landscape by bringing unbanked micro and small entrepreneurs into the formal banking sector, driving large-scale financial inclusion, and catalyzing national progress.”
“We feel honoured to receive such esteemed awards from the SME Finance Forum of IFC, Bangladesh Brand Forum, and Mad Stars. These accolades are a testament to our unwavering commitment to product innovation aimed at reaching grassroots and unbanked SMEs", he added.