United News of Bangladesh

Asian stock markets rebounded Wednesday after Wall Street stabilized following declines for bank stocks and U.S. inflation eased but stayed high. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced. Oil prices rose more than $1 per barrel, recovering some of the previous day's losses. Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index rose Tuesday as bank stocks recovered some of their losses caused by worries customers might pull out deposits following the collapse of two U.S. lenders. Stocks rose despite data showing prices rose 6% over a year ago in February, decelerating from the previous month's 6.4% but above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. Also Read: Asian shares mostly sink on jitters after US bank failure “The anchoring of less hawkish expectations provided some catalyst for risk sentiments to recover,” said Yeap Jun Rong of IG in a report. “There were also no new negative headlines of another bank or funds in trouble, which allows investors’ sentiments to settle down.” Investors had worried the Fed might respond to enduring upward pressure on prices by speeding up the pace of interest rate increases to dampen economic activity and inflation. But those jitters were overshadowed by anxiety about the U.S. financial system following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday and Signature Bank on Sunday. President Joe Biden and regulators tried to assure the public risks were contained and deposits in other banks were safe. Tuesday's data showed core inflation, with volatile energy and food prices stripped out to show a clearer trend, was 0.5% in February over the previous month, edging up from January's 0.4% gain. The Fed pays close attention to core inflation in making monetary policy. The Fed faces a dilemma over how to respond when banks already are under strain after the fastest pace of rate hikes in a decade knocked down prices of their assets. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7% to 3,267.15 after Chinese economic activity improved in January and February but less than expected after anti-virus controls ended. Retail sales rose 3.5% over a year earlier, rebounding from December's 1.% contraction. Factory output rose 2.4%, up from 1.3%. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo advanced 0.1% to 27,258.01 after major Japanese companies announced they had agreed with unions to the biggest wage increases in almost two decades. Low wages are seen as a major drag on economic growth in Japan, but fewer than one in five Japanese workers belong to unions. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 1.3% to 19,490.35 and the Kospi in Seoul surged 1.5% to 2,384.38. India's Sensex opened up 0.2% at 58,297.50. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets advanced. Traders rushed Monday to place bets that the Fed could keep rates steady at its next meeting, instead of accelerating to a hike of 0.50 percentage points, double last month's margin, according to data from CME Group. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 1.7% to 3,920.56, reversing from a three-day string of declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1% to 32,155.40. The Nasdaq added 2.1% to 11,428.15. First Republic Bank jumped 27% after plunging 67.5% over the prior three days. KeyCorp gained 6.9%, Zions Bancorp. rose 4.5% and Charles Schwab climbed 9.2%. The yield on a two-year Treasury, or the difference between the market price and the payout at maturity, climbed back to 4.21% from 4.02% late Monday, another huge move. The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 3.66% from 3.55%. In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.08 to $72.41 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract plunged $3.47 on Tuesday to $71.33. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trading, advanced $1.09 to $78.54 per barrel in London. It lost $3.32 the previous day to $77.45. The dollar declined to 134.09 yen from Tuesday's 134.19 yen. The euro rose to $1.0754 from $1.0741.

Asian shares mostly fell Monday, shaken by a Wall Street tumble that set off worries the biggest United States bank failure in nearly 15 years might have ripple effects around the world. But the falls were relatively subdued because of reassurances from U.S. officials that financial shocks would be mitigated. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 1.6% to 27,685.86 in morning trading. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3% to 7,125.90. South Korea's Kospi shed 0.4% to 2,385.25. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.4% to 19,594.07. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.3% to 3,238.98, as Chinese shares tracked a gain in U.S. futures. Dow futures were up 1.1% at 32,516.00. S&P 500 futures rose 1.4% to 3,952.50. The recent developments in Chinese politics have also worked as a stabilizing factor. Major posts, including the governor of the Bank of China, as well as other political leaders, were announced, signaling a continuation of policy. Also Read: Startup-focused Silicon Valley Bank becomes largest bank to fail since 2008 financial crisis Before trading began in Asia, the U.S. Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and FDIC said Sunday that all Silicon Valley Bank clients will be protected and have access to their funds and announced steps designed to protect the bank’s customers and prevent more bank runs. Regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank on Friday amid a run on the bank, which was the second-largest U.S. bank failure, behind the 2008 failure of Washington Mutual. They also announced Sunday that New York-based Signature Bank was being seized after it became the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Following two bank failures, worries about financial stability and liquidity concerns were dominating the market landscape, said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management in Hong Kong. He said traders made nervous by the weekend's news could create “a ready-aim-fire Monday open.” “With the market likely headed for a more turbulent period with US inflation on a collision course with Bank ‘theater of tragedy,’ now is probably not the best time for investor euphoria," Innes said. But the sense that U.S. authorities were taking some steps to limit “the contagion effect” had somewhat of a calming effect, although “markets remain skittish” in Asia, said Venkateswaran Lavanya at Mizuho Bank. Shares had tanked Friday on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 dropping 1.4% to cap its worst week since September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 345 points, or 1.1%, while the Nasdaq composite sank 1.8%. The S&P 500 fell 56.73 points to 3,861.59. The Dow lost 345.22 to 31,909.64, and the Nasdaq dropped 199.47 to 11,138.89. Some of the sharpest drops on Wall Street last week came from the financial industry. First Republic Bank tumbled 14.8%, while Charles Schwab lost another 11.7% after dropping 12.8% Thursday. Larger banks, which have been stress-tested by regulators following the 2008 financial crisis, held up better. JPMorgan Chase rose 2.5%. In Tokyo trading, banking issues were sold, with MUFG Bank falling nearly 4%, echoing such falls on Wall Street. Shares in Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group dipped 4.7% in morning trading. Worries were growing recently that interest rates are set to go higher than expected after the Fed Reserve said it could reaccelerate the size of its rate hikes. The Fed is focusing on wage growth in particular in its fight against inflation. It worries too-high gains could cause a vicious cycle that worsens inflation. Traders now largely expect the Fed to stick with a modest 0.25 point hike. Last month, the Fed slowed to that pace after earlier hiking by 0.50 and 0.75 points. The Fed has already raised rates at the fastest pace in decades and made other moves to reverse its tremendous support for the economy during the pandemic. In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude lost 26 cents to $76.42 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 35 cents to $82.43 a barrel. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 134.40 Japanese yen from 134.96 yen. The euro cost $1.0694, up from $1.0643.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco reported Sunday its profits surged to $161 billion last year off higher crude prices, a record result for an energy firm crucial to the kingdom's economy. The firm, known formally as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., said in its annual report that the profit represented “its highest annual profits as a listed company." That came off the back of energy prices rising after Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022, with sanctions limiting the sale of Moscow's oil and natural gas in Western markets. Aramco also hopes to increase its production to take advantage of market demand, raising the billions needed to pay for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plans to develop futuristic cityscapes to pivot Saudi Arabia away from oil. However, those plans come despite growing international concerns over the burning of fossil fuels accelerating climate change. Also Read: Europe bans Russian diesel, other oil products over Ukraine “Given that we anticipate oil and gas will remain essential for the foreseeable future, the risks of underinvestment in our industry are real — including contributing to higher energy prices," Saudi Aramco CEO and President Amin H. Nasser said in a statement. Profits rose 46.5% when compared to the company's 2021 results of $110 billion. It earned $49 billion in 2020 when the world faced the worst of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, travel disruptions and oil prices briefly going negative. Aramco put its crude production at around 11.5 million barrels a day in 2022 and said it hoped to reach 13 million barrels a day by 2027. To boost that production, it plans to spend as much as $55 billion this year on capital projects. Aramco also declared a dividend of $19.5 billion for the fourth quarter of 2022, to be paid in the first quarter of this year. Aramco's results, viewed as a bellwether for the global energy market, mirror the huge profits seen at those of U.K. energy giant BP,America's Exxon Mobil, Shell and others in 2022. Benchmark Brent crude oil now trades around $82 a barrel, though prices had reached over $120 a barrel back in June. Aramco, whose fortunes hinge on global energy prices, announced a record $42.4 billion profit in the third quarter of 2022 off the back of that price spike. Those high prices have further strained ties between the kingdom and the United States, traditionally a security guarantor among the Gulf Arab states amid tensions with Iran. Before the midterm elections in November, the kingdom said the Biden administration sought to delay a decision by OPEC and allies including Russia to cut production that could have kept gasoline prices lower for voters — making public the typically behind-the-scenes negotiations common in the region. President Joe Biden had warned the kingdom that “there’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done” in terms of oil prices. However, those consequences have yet to be seen as Saudi Arabia and Iran went to China to strike a diplomatic deal Friday. U.S. gasoline prices now stand on average at $3.47 a gallon, down just about a dollar from last year. For the kingdom, higher crude oil prices can help fuel the dreams of Prince Mohammed, including his planned $500 billion futuristic desert city project called Neom. However, they also run against the fears of activists over climate change, particularly as the United Nations' COP28 climate talks will begin this November in the neighboring United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has pledged to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2060, like China and Russia, though its plans to reach that goal remain unclear. Aramco's earnings report noted it started a $1.5 billion Sustainability Fund in October and plans a carbon-capture-and-storage facility as well. Saudi Arabia’s vast oil resources, located close to the surface of its desert expanse, make it one of the world’s least expensive places to produce crude. For every $10 rise in the price of a barrel of oil, Saudi Arabia stands to make an additional $40 billion a year, according to the Institute of International Finance. Shares in Aramco stood at $8.74 on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange before it opened Sunday. That's down from a high of $11.55 a share in the last year. However, that current price still gives Aramco a valuation of $1.9 trillion — making it the world's second most valuable company behind only Apple. The Saudi government still owns the vast majority of the firm's shares. Saudi Aramco publicly listed a sliver of its worth back in late 2019. Aramco will release a comprehensive earnings report Monday.

Bangladesh has signed an agreement and 3 memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabia and China on an inaugural day (Saturday) of Bangladesh Business Summit 2023. An agreement has been signed with a Saudi Company to set up gas pipelines through India and Bangladesh under a public-private partnership (PPP) basis. Besides, two MoUs were signed with Saudi Arabia for developing Rangpur Sugar Mills and Patenga Container Terminal, another MoU was signed with China for infrastructure development. The Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) also signed a memorandum of understanding with China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPET). The FBCCI is organizing a 3-day business summit in partnership with the government at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC), which will be ended on Monday. The summit, envisaged to become Bangladesh’s flagship business promotion event, seeks to highlight Bangladesh’s economic and market strengths, and concrete trade and investment opportunities in Bangladesh, said Dr M Masrur Reaz, Technical Adviser of the summit. The summit creates an opportunity for business-to-business leaders' interaction with national and global business leaders, investors, policymakers, practitioners, policy and market analysts, academia, and innovators, he said. The Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi set a meeting separately with the delegation of Saudi Arabia, China, and Bhutan. After the meeting, the minister told reporters that Saudi Arabia, China, and Bhutan expressed interest in investment in Bangladesh. Chinese investors have expressed interest in investing in Bangladesh more and more in energy, agro-based industry, food processing, and infrastructure development sectors. China has expressed interest in further increasing ongoing trade and investment with Bangladesh, Munshi said. “Saudi Arabia is a friendly country that has decided to invest heavily in the energy sector of Bangladesh,” he added. In addition, Saudi Arabia is interested in investing in the agro-based industry and food sector. Bhutan is keen to increase trade with Bangladesh. For this, it wants to increase rapid trade by eliminating various problems of sea and land ports, the commerce minister said. Munshi said, “The development of Bangladesh is now visible and the economy is stronger than ever. Different countries are coming forward to increase trade and investment with Bangladesh.” On Sunday, 9 parallel sessions will be held in the summit center in BICC on Investment Opportunities in Key Sectors, Consumer Goods, Infrastructure, Long Term Finance, Apparel & Textile, Digital Economy, Energy Security, Japan Bangladesh Business, and Agro Business.    

Regulators rushed Friday to seize the assets of one of Silicon Valley's top banks, marking the largest failure of a U.S. financial institution since the height of the financial crisis almost 15 years ago. Silicon Valley Bank, the nation’s 16th-largest bank, failed after depositors hurried to withdraw money this week amid anxiety over the bank’s health. It was the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history after the collapse of Washington Mutual in 2008. The bank served mostly technology workers and venture capital-backed companies, including some of the industry's best-known brands. “This is an extinction-level event for startups,” said Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator, a startup incubator that launched Airbnb, DoorDash and Dropbox and has referred hundreds of entrepreneurs to the bank. Also Read: 8 dead in shooting at rail yard serving Silicon Valley “I literally have been hearing from hundreds of our founders asking for help on how they can get through this. They are asking, ‘Do I have to furlough my workers?’” There appeared to be little chance of the chaos spreading in the broader banking sector, as it did in the months leading up to the Great Recession. The biggest banks — those most likely to cause an economic meltdown — have healthy balance sheets and plenty of capital. Nearly half of the U.S. technology and health care companies that went public last year after getting early funding from venture capital firms were Silicon Valley Bank customers, according to the bank’s website. The bank also boasted of its connections to leading tech companies such as Shopify, ZipRecruiter and one of the top venture capital firms, Andreesson Horowitz. Tan estimated that nearly one-third of Y Combinator’s startups will not be able to make payroll at some point in the next month if they cannot access their money. Internet TV provider Roku was among casualties of the bank collapse. It said in a regulatory filing Friday that about 26% of its cash — $487 million — was deposited at Silicon Valley Bank. Roku said its deposits with SVB were largely uninsured and it didn’t know “to what extent” it would be able to recover them. As part of the seizure, California bank regulators and the FDIC transferred the bank's assets to a newly created institution — the Deposit Insurance Bank of Santa Clara. The new bank will start paying out insured deposits on Monday. Then the FDIC and California regulators plan to sell off the rest of the assets to make other depositors whole. There was unease in the banking sector all week, with shares tumbling by double digits. Then news of Silicon Valley Bank's distress pushed shares of almost all financial institutions even lower Friday. The failure arrived with incredible speed. Some industry analysts suggested Friday that the bank was still a good company and a wise investment. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley Bank executives were trying to raise capital and find additional investors. However, trading in the bank’s shares was halted before stock market's opening bell due to extreme volatility. Shortly before noon, the FDIC moved to shutter the bank. Notably, the agency did not wait until the close of business, which is the typical approach. The FDIC could not immediately find a buyer for the bank's assets, signaling how fast depositors cashed out. The White House said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was “watching closely.” The administration sought to reassure the public that the banking system is much healthier than during the Great Recession. “Our banking system is in a fundamentally different place than it was, you know, a decade ago,” said Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. “The reforms that were put in place back then really provide the kind of resilience that we’d like to see.” In 2007, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression rippled across the globe after mortgage-backed securities tied to ill-advised housing loans collapsed in value. The panic on Wall Street led to the demise of Lehman Brothers, a firm founded in 1847. Because major banks had extensive exposure to one another, the crisis led to a cascading breakdown in the global financial system, putting millions out of work. At the time of its failure, Silicon Valley Bank, which is based in Santa Clara, California, had $209 billion in total assets, the FDIC said. It was unclear how many of its deposits were above the $250,000 insurance limit, but previous regulatory reports showed that lots of accounts exceeded that amount. The bank announced plans Thursday to raise up to $1.75 billion in order to strengthen its capital position. That sent investors scurrying and shares plunged 60%. They tumbled lower still Friday before the opening of the Nasdaq, where the bank's shares were traded. As its name implied, Silicon Valley Bank was a major financial conduit between the technology sector, startups and tech workers. It was seen as good business sense to develop a relationship with the bank if a startup founder wanted to find new investors or go public. Conceived in 1983 by co-founders Bill Biggerstaff and Robert Medearis during a poker game, the bank leveraged its Silicon Valley roots to become a financial cornerstone in the tech industry. Bill Tyler, the CEO of TWG Supply in Grapevine, Texas, said he first realized something was wrong when his employees texted him at 6:30 a.m. Friday to complain that they did not receive their paychecks. TWG, which has just 18 employees, had already sent the money for the checks to a payroll services provider that used Silicon Valley Bank. Tyler was scrambling to figure out how to pay his workers. "We’re waiting on roughly $27,000," he said. "It’s already not a timely payment. It’s already an uncomfortable position. I don’t want to ask any employees, to say, ‘Hey, can you wait until mid-next week to get paid?’” Silicon Valley Bank's ties to the tech sector added to its troubles. Technology stocks have been hit hard in the past 18 months after a growth surge during the pandemic, and layoffs have spread throughout the industry. Venture capital funding has also been declining. At the same time, the bank was hit hard by the Federal Reserve's fight against inflation and an aggressive series of interest rate hikes to cool the economy. As the Fed raises its benchmark interest rate, the value of generally stable bonds starts to fall. That is not typically a problem, but when depositors grow anxious and begin withdrawing their money, banks sometimes have to sell those bonds before they mature to cover the exodus. That is exactly what happened to Silicon Valley Bank, which had to sell $21 billion in highly liquid assets to cover the sudden withdrawals. It took a $1.8 billion loss on that sale. Ashley Tyrner, CEO of FarmboxRx, said she had spoken to several friends whose businesses are backed by venture capital. She described them as being “beside themselves” over the bank's failure. Tyrner's chief operating officer tried to withdraw her company's funds on Thursday but failed to do so in time. “One friend said they couldn't make payroll today and cried when they had to inform 200 employees because of this issue,” Tyrner said.

Ford Motor Co. announced Friday that it will cut around 1,100 jobs at its plant in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia. The cuts are in addition to the 2,300 layoffs largely in Germany and the U.K. that the automaker announced last month as part of a “leaner, more competitive cost structure in Europe.” Ford Spain said in a statement that it notified unions on Friday of what it said was “a profound restructuring of its operations,” which comes even as Ford champions the Valencia plant as its preferred site to assemble “next-generation” electric vehicles on the continent. The plant is Ford’s only such facility in Spain and employed 5,400 people. Ford has said its strategy to offer an all-electric fleet in Europe by 2035 has not changed and that production of its first European-built electric car is due to start later this year. The cuts were “mainly due to the already announced discontinuing production of the S-Max and Galaxy models in April 2023,” Ford Spain said in an email. In January, the Dearborn, Michigan-based company announced a new solar power plant had opened at the Valencia facility as it looks to become a carbon-neutral business. The job cuts come amid a sea change in the global auto industry from gas-guzzling combustion engines to electric vehicles. Governments are pushing to reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change, and a resulting race to develop electric vehicles has generated intense competition among automakers.

Test transmission of power supply from Adani's 1,600MW coal-fired power station in the Indian state of Jharkhand to Bangladesh started at 7:38pm on Thursday although issues of power tariff are yet to be resolved. According to a Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) Facebook status, the electricity transmission was synchronised with Bangladesh's national grid on a test basis. "More or less 50 MW of electricity from the Adani plant entered Bangladesh at 9pm for the national grid through newly built transmission lines and substations," the PGCB said. The company said it built a 134km 400kV transmission line, from the bordering Mankasha area through Rohanpur to Bogura. "Also, a 400/230kV substation was installed at Bogura to facilitate the evacuation of power." Electricity from Adani Power has started coming to Bangladesh at a time when the country has surplus electricity. But many power plants remained non-operative due to lack of gas and liquid fuel. The recent dollar crisis has made the situation tougher as the government had to suspend diesel-fired plants' operation. But due to the obligation of the power purchase agreement (PPA) the BPDB has to receive electricity from Adani despite the higher tariff, said a top official at the Power and Energy Ministry. Earlier, the 104 km Bogra (West) to Rohanpur 400 kV grid transmission line and substation was ready to carry electricity from Adani Power's 1,600 MW thermal power plant in Godda district of Indian state of Jharkhand. “Our transmission line and associated substations are ready for operation. We’ve been conducting some test runs of the installations,” said Md. Alamgir Hossain, the project director of the Southwest Transmission Grid Expansion Project. According to official sources, the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) has implemented the project with the financial support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at a total cost of Tk 3273.78 crore. The Bangladesh government and PGCB are also financing the project. Recently, dismissing any uncertainty over the Adani power’s availability to Bangladesh national grid, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said the electricity from the Jharkhand power plant will be added to the national grid in March as per the agreement. As per the report, Adani Power recently sent a request for BPDB to issue the demand note, where the coal price was quoted at $400 per metric ton - far above what BPDB officials believe it should be given the present state of the international market. A highly placed source at the BPDB said that the organisation sent a letter dated January 23 referring to the State Minister-led delegation’s recent visit to the Adani plant mentioned, “During the discussion your side also opined that suitable mechanism will be devised to reduce this inconsistency of coal price by adjusting/changing the coal pricing mechanism of the power purchase agreement (PPA)”. However, Nasrul Hamid said the tariff of Adani's power will be competitive compared with other coal-fired plants like Payra power plant. However, a team of Adani Power came to Bangladesh on February 23 and discussed tariff related issues following state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board’s request for revising the power tariff through “adjusting/changing the coal pricing mechanism of the power purchase agreement (PPA)”. A number of BPDB officials told UNB the Adani’s power tariff might be between Tk 20-22 per kilowatt hour (each unit) because of the absence of a provision for discounts on the purchase of coal in the PPA signed with Adani Power that allowed the Indian firm to quote such a steep bill for the coal. The absence of such a provision is all the more notable since it was made mandatory in the PPAs for thermal power plants signed with other independent power producers, domestic or foreign. In these PPAs, the price of coal to be purchased as primary fuel was kept as “pass-through”. Officials said that they have been working on a number of alternatives to offer Adani so that its coal price could be reduced to ultimately lower the power tariff. "If Adani's power tariff is not competitive, it would be difficult for BPDB to keep it on the merit list to take its electricity for the national grid,” said another top BPDB official.  

The overall Business Confidence Index (BCI) for 2022 stood at 74.4, indicating a positive outlook for business conditions over the next six months, according to the Bangladesh Business Confidence Survey Report 2022-23. Business entities across Bangladesh are confident that the volume of orders for the manufacturing sector, demand for services in the service sector, selling prices, and business activity will increase in the next six months.  As a result, businesses are willing to expand their employment and investment over the same period. However, business entities, especially in the manufacturing sector, have low confidence in costs, indicating the need for immediate action to address the cost burden of businesses, including the cost of electricity, water, gas, rent, and materials. The Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) and the USAID-funded Feed the Future Bangladesh Trade Activity jointly launched the "5th Business Confidence Survey Report 2022" Sunday at a hotel in Dhaka. The survey was conducted between September and November 2022, covering 567 business entities to analyse the existing business condition in the last six months (March 2022 – August 2022) and anticipate turning points in the economic activities for the next six months (December 2022 – June 2023) to enable businesses to prepare and plan accordingly to mitigate risks. Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun said the 5th Business Confidence Survey is significant as it has applied the methodology of harmonised business confidence survey recommended by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Statistics Directorate. Read more: Over 200 foreign delegates to join Bangladesh Business Summit 2023: Jasim "We are pleased to have learned that the overall Business Confidence Index (BCI), conducted by BUILD, gave an optimistic perception of business conditions despite the challenges Bangladesh is currently facing due to the global economic turmoil," he said. "The other scores in the survey show some visible recoveries of business activities and emerging business confidence. However, the cost confidence plummeted to as low as 22.4 over the next six months and the government must take this into serious consideration in fiscal and monetary measures." BUILD CEO Ferdaus Ara Begum said the upward movement in the BCI was driven by improvement in the sentiments for six out of seven components of the BCI, namely, employment, the volume of order or demand for service, business activity, selling price and investment. Out of the seven components, only the overall business cost index is negative giving a pessimistic perception. The diffusion index in this study ranges from 0 to 100 with a midpoint of 50 where less than 50 means contraction or less optimism and more than 50 means expansion or optimism. The overall business cost index stood at 35.8 over the last six months (March 2022 – August 2022) and is expected to reach 22.4 over the next six months (December 2022 – June 2023). Around 72 percent of business entities in this survey reported that the overall business cost will increase over the next six months. Martin Holtmann, country manager of the International Finance Corporation for Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, said: "The Business Confidence survey is the summary indicators of how the businesses feel. It is an individual measurement of the overall business condition of Bangladesh." "The BCS is a couple of early morning signs. We hope that these signs will help businesses make decisions. However, need to be careful about the status quo bias. We need to look at the trends. We need to give voice to the voiceless; in this case, they are CMSMEs, especially women entrepreneurs. It is well recognised that Bangladesh is doing good in every indicator." Sameer Sattar, president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said an optimistic view emerges from the Business Confidence Survey 2022-23. "This survey found that our business community is showing confidence and resilience. One of the major recommendations the government needs to consider is that the cost of doing business needs to be minimised." "CMSMEs are suffering from multiple issues. Getting finance is one of the challenges for CMSMEs. We would recommend removing the medium from the CMSME category. One thought is that this survey can be more inclusive. More companies and sectors are needed to be included to make the survey more inclusive," he added.

Adani Group has stared discussion to resolve the issues on "coal pricing mechanism of the power purchase agreement (PPA)”. According to highly placed sources at state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), a 5-member delegation of Adani Group arrived in Dhaka and held a meeting with the top officials of BPDB on Thursday. A chief executive and a chief procurement officer of Adani were among the 5-member delegation while one official from Adani's Dhaka office also joined the meeting, said the source without mentioning their names. A number of BPDB officials including the member (company affairs) and the member (finance) were present at the meeting, it said. "The meeting started in the afternoon at Biduyt Bhaban and lasted for more than an hour,”a top official of the BPDB told UNB. Read: TIB for reviewing Dhaka's power purchase deal with Adani Group The issue of the meeting was kept secret as it was sensitive for both sides. Sources said both the sides heard each other and they presented their points in favour of their respective sides on the issue. "But both sides expressed interest to continue discussion,”said the sources adding that Adani's representative informed them that they would communicate BPDB's stance on the coal pricing mechanism of the PPA to their top management and they will sit in more follow-up meetings. "Adani officials are convinced with the BPDB's points on the issue,”said the official preferring anonymity. "We're hopeful that Adani will finally accept Bangladesh's request for revising the PPA to set a new coal pricing mechanism’”he said. Following the meeting, the Adani team met  the BPDB chairman. Sources said the Adani team has a plan to meet State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid and also Prime Minister's Energy Advisor Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury. Earlier, the Bangladesh government sought a revision to the power purchase agreement (PPA) it signed with Adani Power Ltd for importing electricity from its thermal power plant in Jharkhand, India. The BPDB, the government agency tasked with overseeing the development of the country’s power sector, has already sent a letter to the Indian company in this regard, according to officials familiar with the deal. Read: Amid standoff over tariff, transmission lines for electricity from Adani plant completed It seems the price of coal to be purchased as fuel for the project has emerged as the prime bone of contention. The BPDB sent a letter to the Adani Group following a request it received in relation to opening LCs (in India) to import the coal that will be used as fuel for the 1,600 MW plant in Jharkhand,” a highly-placed official of BPDB told UNB, in return for anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. Since practically all the power generated by the plant located in the Godda district of Jharkhand state will be exported to Bangladesh, Adani Power requires a demand note from BPDB that it can present to Indian authorities before opening LCs against the coal import. The cost incurred to import the coal, including transport from port to plant, will ultimately be borne by Bangladesh, with the price factored into the PPA's tariff structure. Adani Power recently sent a request for BPDB to issue the demand note, where the coal price is quoted at $400 per metric ton (MT) - far above what BPDB officials believe it should be given the present state of the international market. “In our view, the coal price they have quoted ($400/MT) is excessive - it should be less than $250/MT, which is what we are paying for the imported coal at our other thermal power plants," the official said. The BPDB official referred to the coal procurement of Rampal Power Plant where the supplier Bashundhara Group won the contract to supply coal at $232.33 per ton to reach the product to the jetty. The same sources also said Bangladesh’s stance on the issue was communicated to Adani Power officials during the visit of a delegation led by State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid to the site of the power plant, that took place in the first week of January. Publicly however, the state minister gave no indication of any such issue during the visit, instead telling reporters that Bangladesh would start importing the power generated by one of the two units at the plant, some 750 MW, from March. The subsequent letter counts as BPDB’s formal request for the PPA to be reviewed and tariff structure to be adjusted before it can start importing the electricity, officials said. A number of BPDB officials told UNB it was the absence of a provision for discounts on the purchase of coal in the PPA signed with Adani Power, that allowed the Indian firm to quote such a steep bill for the coal.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said that American companies can increase their investment in the country's power and energy sector. "Some more mid-level companies from the USA will be welcomed if they want to invest in Bangladesh," he said when US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Hass called on him at his residence on Thursday. Both the state minister and the US envoy discussed various bilateral issues of mutual interest. Read: Deal signed for saline-tolerant wheat production across Bangladesh coast Welcoming the US ambassador, Nasrul Hamid said that different American companies like GE (general Electric), Exxon Mobil, and Excelerate Energy are showing their interest to make more investments in the country. He mentioned that US company Chevron has been making an important contribution in local gas production. The US ambassador said some more companies from the USA have expressed keen interest to invest in Bangladesh, said a press release of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources.