A 60-year-old British national was found dead at a hotel in the capital’s Uttara area on Thursday, said police. The deceased was identified as Finlayson Dugald, who came to Bangladesh with a tourist visa and had been staying in ‘Marino Hotel’ in Sector No 4 on Road No 11 since September 20. Hotel staff said Dugald’s Chinese friend Dong Hao Peng knocked the door of his room but received no response around 10am. Later, the door of the room No 108 was unlocked with a duplicate key and his body was found lying in the bathroom, they said . Read: Young couple found dead at Mohammadpur flat Md Mamunur Rahman, sub-inspector of Uttara East Police Station, said on information they rushed to the spot and sent the body to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for an autopsy. The foreigner might have died of sickness but the exact reason will be known after the postmortem, he said. 

A three-day national dance and drama festival began at the Jatiya Natyashala auditorium of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) Wednesday. However, the last two days of the festival have been scheduled for July 24 and 25 at the same venue. On the first day of the festival "Kobor" of Polli Kobi Jasimuddin, "Proshongo 47" of Saju Ahmed and "Chandallika" of nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore were staged.   Read: StageOne Dhaka showcases 'The Odd Couple' at BSA On July 24, four dramas "Hajar Bochorer Bangali," "Baramkhana," "Rupantorer Gan," and "Kunjo Shajao Go '' will be staged from 5pm. The next day "Mayar Khela," "Shyema," "Meher Nigar," and "Rongila Nayer Majhi" will be performed.

The daylong National Ranking Open Archery Tournament will be held on Thursday (July 21) at the Archery Training Centre of the Shaheed Ahsanullah Master Stadium in Tongi. Some 61 male and female archers will take part in the singles event of the recurve men's, recurve women's, compound men's and compound women's competitions.The ranking tournament will begin at 9 am on Thursday and the final matches will start at 12 noon on the day. Read: Archery World Cup: Bangladesh to leave for France SundayThe champion and runner-up archers of all the four events will be given a monthly allowance of Taka 7,000 and 5,000 respectively. .Eight archers have already receiving allowances on monthly basis.    

Both semifinals of the Bangabandhu National Football Championship will be held Friday at the Bir Sreshtho Shaheed Shipahi Mohammad Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur, Dhaka. Bangladesh Army will face Mymensingh in the first semifinal at 3pm. Chattogram will lock horns with Magura at 6pm Friday. The final match will be held Monday at 4:30pm at the same venue. READ: School Football: Chomiruddin School , Benapol Secondary School win Earlier, Bangladesh Navy reached the semifinal beating Mymensingh 1-0 in the final round match on June 25. But they were eliminated from the tournament for fielding an illegal player against Mymensingh.   Finally, the Bangladesh Football Federation disciplinary committee in a meeting Thursday reviewed the allegation and found Navy guilty. So, it declared Mymensingh the winners against Navy.

The Parliament on Thursday passed the Tk 678,064 crore national budget for the fiscal year 2022-23. It is effective from Friday. The theme of the budget is 'Return to the Path of Development Leaving the COVID-19 Behind' and to overcome the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war on the economy. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal moved the Appropriations Bill, 2022 seeking a budgetary allocation of Tk 883751,81,97,000 crore which was passed by voice vote. Earlier on Wednesday, the House passed the Finance Bill 2022 with some changes. Following the proposal mooted in the House by the Finance Ministry for the parliamentary approval of appropriation of fund for meeting necessary development and non-development expenditures of the government, the ministers concerned placed justifications for the expenditures by their respective ministries through 59 demands for grant. Earlier, the House rejected by voice vote a total of 664 cut-motions that stood in the name of opposition members on 59 demands for grants for different ministries. A total of thirteen MPs from Jatiya Party, BNP, Gono Forum and Independent submitted their cut-motions on the budget. READ: PM in JS: Measures taken to make next parliamentary polls more acceptable They are Kazi Firoze Rashid, Rustam Ali Farazi, Mujibul Huq, Fakhrul Imam, Pir Fazlur Rahman, Shamim Haider Patwari, Begum Rawshan Ara Mannan, Ponir Uddin Ahmed, Harun Ur Rashid, Mosharrof Hossain, Mokabbir Khan, Rumeen Farhana and Rezaul Karim Bablu. They were, however, allowed to participate in the discussion on Election Commission Secretariat, Public Security Division, Health Services Division and Secondary and Higher Education Division. Later, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury applied guillotine to quicken the process of passing the demands for grants for different ministries.  Opposition and independent MPs were present at the House when the Appropriation Bill was passed in Parliament and they did not object to the passage of the bill. The finance minister on June 9 placed a Tk 678,064 crore-national budget for FY 2022-23 beginning July 1. The budget kept the GDP growth target at 7.5 per cent and the GDP size estimated at Tk44.50 lakh crore. The revenue target is set at Tk4.33 lakh crore, while the budget deficit is Tk2.42 lakh crore or 5.4 per cent of GDP. The average inflation in the budget was kept at 5.6 per cent.

Newly found natural gas from Kailastila field has started flowing into the national grid boosting the country’s overall supply of the fuel, officials said on Monday. “The newly discovered gas started coming to the national grid from Monday”, said Nazmul Ahsan, chairman of the state-owned Petrobangla. “We hope the gas will regularly be supplied to the national gas network from Tuesday through a permanent transmission line”, he told UNB.        Sylhet Gas Field Limited (SGFL), a subsidiary of Petrobangla discovered the new gas on May 2 at the Koilashtila field from an abandoned well through a work-over process. The well will regularly supply about 20 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMCFD), said the officials. State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid made the announcement of the discovery through his Facebook status on 2 May. The ministry also in a press release confirmed the discovery saying that it will be possible to supply between 17-19 MMCFD gas to the national grid from May 10. A discovery of about 17-19 MMCFD gas and 187 barrels of condensates has been confirmed through a work-over process by logging, perfection and testing in the lower gas sand zone of the Koilashtila gas field. It is expected that the current zone of the gas field will continue  production for next several years, the ministry said adding, the remaining recoverable gas reserves in the Koilashtila field is 758 billion cubic feet (BCF) which could be gradually produced through different wells. READ: Gas supply resumes in Dhaka, adjoining areas So far, seven wells have been drilled in the Koilashtila gas field of which 2 are now producing about 29 MMCFD gas. Energy industry insiders said the new, but small, discovery will give a minimum relief to the government when the country has been experiencing a huge gas shortage of more than 600 MMCFD. The country’s total supply now stands at 2950 MMCFD against a demand for over 3600 MMCFD. Of this, the country’s 27 gas fields can supply 2200 MMCFD while remaining 750 MMCFD is met by imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). The recent Russia-Ukraine war made the global import market volatile pushing up the gas price to over $37 per MMBtu from below $10.    As a result, the government has to spend a huge amount of foreign currency to import the natural gas, said the gas industry sources.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said that the upcoming national budget will be placed in the Parliament on June 9.  He announced this while briefing reporters after the two consecutive meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and Cabinet Com mitre on Public Purchase on Wednesday.  Responding to reporters’ questions, Kamal said that he has no plan to increase the taxes.  “Lowest income tax will be set considering the affordability of the people. We will try to fix the minimum tax considering the increasing cost of living”, he told the reporters.  The finance minister said the government will control the import of luxury items. But there is no plan to control import of essential commodities.  He noted that both import and export have increased. But always import is larger than export and export cannot overtake import in our country.  “Some imports are directly related with projects which we have to allow. Some imports must be controlled as those are not always open”, he said. He said as far as any internal vulnerability exists, these luxury items will be controlled. READ: Speakers for increasing allocation for mental health in national budget “If the situation becomes normal, then we will allow import of these items”, he opined.  Referring to a report of the World Bank the finance minister said globally the market prices have gone up by 38 per cent while price of beef has increased by 35 per cent, chicken by 55 per cent, soya bean oils by 35 per cent, tea by 13 per cent, TSP fertiliser by 65 per cent and urea fertiliser by 135 per cent.  The government has to take coordinated measures to control the market, said Kamal.

Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) on Tuesday announced a  20-member National Hockey team to compete in the Men's Asia Cup and Asian Games Qualifiers. The BHF announced the same squad for both the tournaments, but named two separate captains for two tournaments. Rezaul Karim Babu will lead the Bangladesh team in the Asian Games Hockey Qualifiers scheduled for May 6-15 in Thai capital Bangkok.  Khorshedur Rahman will lead the Bangladesh team in the eight- nation Asia Cup Hockey to be held in Indonesian capital Jakarta from May 23 to June 1. Iman Gobinathan Krishnamurthy of Malaysia named as the head coach,  Zahirul Islam Mitul as assistant coach and Mohammad  Rafiul Haque as team leader of Bangladesh for both the tournaments. Meanwhile, the cheque handover and team jersey unveiling ceremony of the team will be held on Wednesday (Apr 20)  at 11 am at the Falcon Hall of Bangladesh Air Force. Earlier, Bangladesh qualified for the Men’s Asia Cup  as they clinched the fourth consecutive title of the Men’s AHF Cup last month. READ: Junior Asia Cup Hockey: Bangladesh put in tough group A Oman, who finished as runners-up in the meet, also qualified to play in the eight-nation Asia Cup with auto-qualifiers – India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea, hosts Indonesia. Bangladesh squad:  Goalkeepers: Biplob Kujur, Abu Sayeed Nippon,  Defenders: Khorshedur Rahman, Farhd Ahmed Shitul, Ashraful Islam, Mehedi Hasan, Rezaul Karim Babu, Shohanur Rahman Sabuj Midfielders: Sarwar Hossain, Roman Sarkar, Naim Uddin, Fazle Hossain Rabbi, Prince Lal Samanta, Al Nahian Shubho, Forwards: Rasel Mahmud Jimmy, Milon Hossain, Pushkor Khisha Mimo, Arshad Hossain, Deen Islam Emon, Rakibul Hasan Rocky (Jr).

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on Saturday claimed to have nabbed a Myanmarese national with 80,000 pieces of Yaba worth Tk 2.40 crore in Cox’s Bazar.  The detainee has been identified as Md Kamal Hossain, 22.  READ: 4 drug peddlers held with 50,755 yaba pills in Cox's Bazar Acting on a tip-off, two BGB patrol teams took strategic positions in the Naf river off the coast of Jaliardwip and intercepted a boat at 1am carrying two drug peddlers. The teams managed to arrest one of the drug smugglers and recovered the banned narcotics from him, BGB said in a statement.

Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) and Prime Minister’s Office jointly organised the Logistics Infrastructure Development Working Committee meeting on Saturday.  The virtual meeting was co-chaired by Md. Tofazzel Hossain Miah, Secretary of Prime Minister’s Office, and Abul Kasem Khan, Chairperson of BUILD. Md. Tofazzel Hossain Miah started by attesting that Bangladesh cannot move forward without supporting the private sector during this worldwide economic transition period.   He said, logistics needs more investment, and the existing policy needs reforms so that more investment is made. He recommended that the sector should be based on technology and skill. Adding that the private sector should also assist with value-backed data, he emphasised advocacy for logistics.  READ: Relaxation of GTF loan conditions to help private sector exporters: BUILD Abul Kasem Khan, Chairperson of BUILD informed that developing countries invest 9-10% of their GDP to improve their logistics environment.  “Success stories of China, India, and Vietnam stand out as best practices in logistics. The return on investment is one of the highest in the world. Structural reform is required to mitigate key bottlenecks of the logistics system in Bangladesh. Logistics sector should be declared as a thrust sector besides a high priority sector and proper incentives should be declared to attract local and foreign investment.” Rizwan Rahman, President, DCCI, focused on the specific solution as: (1) logistics should be included in the industrial policy as a sector, (2) privatisation of airports, seaports, railroads is the demand of time, 3) decentralisation of industrialisation should be incentivised to attract investment, (4) Special Procurement Act should be considered to prepare logistics policy.  Mahbubul Alam, President, CCCI, said that there is no policy on the in-out time of container trucks in Chattogram.  The establishment of a central truck terminal may reduce the congestion stemming from this and water connectivity may reduce over-dependency on the road, he said.  Ferdaus Ara Begum, CEO, BUILD in her presentation informed that BUILD and the Ministry of Industries are working together to include logistics as a high priority sector and declare investment incentives for logistics and its sub-sectors in a separate chapter of the upcoming National Industrial Policy 2021.  READ: India's Reliance Group to build mega chemical project in UAE Formulation and implementation of the National Integrated Logistics Policy or Master Plan could help attract investment and increase export competitiveness to realize the targets of 8th Five Years Plan and Perspective Plan 2041.  It was decided in the meeting that two issues will be presented in the 3rd meeting of LIDWC, (1) framework or position paper will be prepared to set the national target of reducing logistics cost and (2) outline to prepare National Logistics Policy/Plan/Strategy.  Tatiana Peralta Quiros, Senior Transport Specialist of World Bank Group made the keynote on Reducing Logistics Costs to Enhance Bangladesh’s Trade Competitiveness and Export Growth.  She said that logistics cost increases the overall production and business operation cost by 4.5-48%. Implementation of three initiatives like reducing dwell times at Chattogram Port and national highways congestion along with initiation of national logistics strategy would increase overall export of Bangladesh by 19%. Captain Kamrul Islam Mazumder, Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (BICDA) said that increased cost of fuel will increase the cost of doing business as well as the cost of container handling transport cost while Syed Ershad Ahmed, President, AmCham stressed on proper utilization of Pangaon Port and Dherasram Project which should be linked with temperature-controlled logistics. 98% of the freight forwards operators in Bangladesh suffers from lack of modern technology and equipment. Kabir Ahmed, President, BAFFA urged on proper utilization and equipping of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, one of the most important gateways to export for Bangladesh. Sectoral recognition and policy reform for the sub sectors of logistics should be ensured. The meeting was attended by Zubaida Nasreen, Director General-I, PMO, Anisur Rahman, Director-1, PMO and Mohammad Lutfullah, Senior Private Sector Specialist, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group including representatives from 16 government ministries and private sector leaders.