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Army chief in Zambia delivers lecture on military diplomacy
Chief of Army Staff of Bangladesh Army General Aziz Ahmed, who is now in Zambia on an official trip, Wednesday gave lectures on military diplomacy to the trainee officers and also shared examples from Bangladesh Army.
Earlier, he visited various training facilities at Zambia Defense Services Command and Staff College and met with Brigadier General Stephen Simusandu, commandant of the college. They discussed ways to strengthen other military training, including staff colleges, in the two countries.
CPD survey: Almost all who lost jobs in first wave back working, but earning less
Around 62% of people had lost their jobs during April-May 2020 when the "general holiday" was put in place to face the first wave of Covid-19.
Subsequently only 15% could get a job the following month, while 85% remained unemployed for a longer period, according to a survey by the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD). Almost all of these people were able to find a job by February 2021 when the adverse impact of the first wave started to recede. The study did not capture the second wave of the pandemic.
Most of the 'incremental employment' was generated in the agriculture sector, where the share of the labour force increased from 24.3% to 27.5%. At the same time, a significant number of people left the services sector, as its share of the labour force declined from 55% to 52%. For the industrial sector it remained unchanged at just above 20%.
Self-employed, contributing family members and day labourers have contributed to about 90% of the incremental jobs, indicating a substitution of formal by informal sector employment.
Also read: CPD: Next budget should stress health, social safety
Although people could find employment, they are working for a lower number of hours, on average, particularly in the agriculture sector, followed by the industry sector.
The average monthly income of individuals eroded by 11.3%. The decline in income has pushed a significant number of people into lower-income groups – indicating a higher poverty incidence. At the same time income inequality increased.
More than 40% of the employed population reported that their employment situation was worse than the pre-COVID-19 period.
No new tender under Public Works Division until June 30
The government has suspended the contract awarding of all new tender proposals under the Public Works Division until June 30.
The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase at a meeting on Wednesday put the moratorium as there is no enough time to implement any new project under the current fiscal year (2020-21).
“We don’t have enough time for implementing any new project. Only one month is left before the new fiscal year starts,” said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal while briefing reporters after a cabinet body meeting.
Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting as convener of the Cabinet body.
He, however, said only the proposals of the ongoing projects and foreign-funded ones will be considered for approval in addition to any cost variation.
“All the other projects will remain suspended. New projects involve different kinds of material purchase and the prices of which are not stable. We don’t know the prices of the materials of the projects under the Public Works Division in the current abnormal situation,” the minister said.
Cabinet Division’s additional secretary Dr Shahida Aktar said all the five proposals of the Public Works Department which were placed by the Public Works Division were rejected by the committee in compliance with the new decision.
Meanwhile, the cabinet body approved a total of eight other proposals, including the import of wheat, LNG and fertilizers, placed by different divisions and ministries.
Two of these proposals were placed by the Energy Division for import of LNG.
As per the proposals, state-owned Petrobangla will import 3.36 million MMBtu of liquified natural gas (LNG) from Excelerate Energy, United States, at a cost of Tk 318.25 crore from the international spot market through quotation at $9.93 per MMBtu of LNG.
Another similar proposal for the import of the same quantity of 3.36 million MMBtu of LNG at Tk 298.22 crore was approved by the committee. The per MMBtu was valued at $8.93, which was earlier purchased in the same process.
The committee also approved a proposal of the Directorate General of Food under the Food Ministry to import 50,000 metric tons of non-Bashmoti parboiled rice from Soubhik Export Limited, India, at a total cost of Tk 163.66 crore. Each metric ton of rice was valued at $386 while each kg of rice will be priced Tk 32.73.
The bulk rice will be imported through railway from West Bengal’s Chhattrishgar to Dorshana via Benapole.
This is the first time rice is being imported through railways from India, said Dr Shahida Aktar.
Two proposals, placed by the Agriculture Ministry, were approved by the committee for the import of fertiliser.
Of these, the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) will import 180,000 metric tons of MOP fertiliser from Belarus at a cost of Tk 447.82 crore with each MT being priced $289.87.
The BADC will import 150,000 MT of TSP fertiliser from Tunisia at a cost of Tk 723.77 crore -- each MT at $568.
The Cabinet committee approved a proposal of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) to procure 30,000 MT of urea fertiliser from Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company at a cost of Tk 92.38 crore. Each MT of fertiliser was valued at $362.50 per MT.
A proposal of the Secondary and Higher Education Division also received the approval of the committee to award a contract to Korean Company THAIHAN Consortium for supplying hardware and services for the project titled: Establishment of 160 Upazila ICT Training and Resource for Education Phase -II. The contract was valued at Tk 460 crore.
LDC graduation: High-level committee starts working over possible challenges
A high-level committee has started working out strategy and plan to overcome the possible challenges of Bangladesh’s graduation from the status of a least developed country (LDC).
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 26 last formed the 22-member committee, headed by Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus, for preparation, planning, implementation and monitoring in tackling the possible challenges of Bangladesh’s LDC graduation.
The committee sat in its first meeting virtually on Wednesday. Dr Ahmad Kaikaus presided over the meeting, joining it from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The meeting discussed different possible negative impacts on the country’s economy, socioeconomic and other areas, especially in the export oriented sectors like RMG and pharmaceuticals during the post-graduation period.
Also read: Bangladesh’s LDC graduation: Govt has its plan to face next challenges
Economic Relations Divisions (ERD) Secretary Fatima Yasmin made a power-pint presentation in the meeting.
The committee decided to sort out the possible challenges in different sectors within a month. To this end, a six-member subcommittee was formed under senior secretary of Commerce Ministry Dr Md Jafar Uddin.
“The subcommittee was asked to identify the sector-wise challenges and prepare an action plan within one month,” PMO Secretary Md Tofazzel Hossain Miah told reporters after the meeting.
Noting that Bangladesh would lose different international supports during the post-graduation period, he said duty free and quota free access and concessional loan facilities from bilateral or multilateral sources for Bangladesh would be narrowed for Bangladesh following the graduation.
Also read: Work together to tackle negative impacts after LDC graduation: Speakers
Besides, the issue of intellectual property rights would shrink any time after 2033, he said.
In the meeting, the committee also took the decision to arrange a large-scale seminar with experts of different sectors and academicians as early as possible to receive their views and opinions over the post-LDC challenges.
The committee will sit in a meeting every month regularly.
The committee members are Principal coordinator (SDGs Affairs) at the PMO (Zuena Aziz), senior secretary of ICT Division, Senior secretary of Finance Division, NBR chairman, the member (GED) of the Planning Commission, Senior secretary of Commerce Ministry, PMO secretary, ERD secretary, foreign secretary, industries secretary, agriculture secretary, environment secretary, BIDA executive chairman, chairman of Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission, liberation war affairs secretary, Planning Commission’s member Sharifa Khan, FBCCI president, BGMEA president, DCCI president, Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) president, director general (Executive Cell and PEPZ) at PMO (member secretary of the committee) joined the meeting.
Also read: Swedish development cooperation to continue past LDC graduation
Bangladesh has started its LDC graduation journey with the initiative of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She participated in the 4th LDC related summit of the United Nations held on May 9-13, 2011, where “Istanbul Plan of Action” was adopted.
Since then, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took the action plan for the LDC graduation of Bangladesh, and she has been giving directives to this end constantly, said the PMO Secretary.
Mugging attempt: Woman dies falling off rickshaw in Dhaka
A woman died falling off a rickshaw as hijackers tried to snatch her bag from a private car in Kamlapur area of Dhaka.
The deceased was identified as Sunita Rani Das, 50.
"I was going for a job interview with my aunt. When someone tried to snatch her vanity bag from a private car she fell down and sustained injures, said Sujit, the nephew of the victim.
She was rushed to the emergency unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital where she died, added Sujit.
Md Bacchu Mia, Inspector of the DMCH Police Camp, said the body has been kept at the morgue of DMCH for autopsy.
WHO, Germany to launch new global hub for pandemic, epidemic intelligence
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Federal Republic of Germany will establish a new global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, data, surveillance and analytics innovation.
The Hub, based in Berlin and working with partners around the world, will lead innovations in data analytics across the largest network of global data to predict, prevent, detect prepare for and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks worldwide.
German Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel said the current Covid-19 pandemic has taught them that they can only fight pandemics and epidemics together.
"The new WHO Hub will be a global platform for pandemic prevention, bringing together various governmental, academic and private sector institutions. I am delighted that WHO chose Berlin as its location and invite partners from all around the world to contribute to the WHO hub."
Also read: Bangladeshi doctor made WHO Representative to Maldives
The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence is part of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme and will be a new collaboration of countries and partners worldwide, driving innovations to increase availability and linkage of diverse data; develop tools and predictive models for risk analysis; and to monitor disease control measures, community acceptance and infodemics.
Critically, the WHO Hub will support the work of public health experts and policy-makers in all countries with insights so they can take rapid decisions to prevent and respond to future public health emergencies.
“We need to identify pandemic and epidemic risks as quickly as possible, wherever they occur in the world. For that aim, we need to strengthen the global early warning surveillance system with improved collection of health-related data and inter-disciplinary risk analysis,” said Jens Spahn, German Minister of Health.
Also read: COVID-19 continues to disrupt essential health services in 90pc of countries: WHO
“Germany has consistently been committed to support WHO’s work in preparing for and responding to health emergencies, and the WHO Hub is a concrete initiative that will make the world safer.”
Working with partners globally, the WHO Hub will drive a scale-up in innovation for existing forecasting and early warning capacities in WHO and Member States.
At the same time, the WHO Hub will accelerate global collaborations across public and private sector organizations, academia, and international partner networks.
It will help them to collaborate and co-create the necessary tools for managing and analyzing data for early warning surveillance. It will also promote greater access to data and information.
“One of the lessons of COVID-19 is that world needs a significant leap forward in data analysis to help leaders make informed public health decisions,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“This requires harnessing the potential of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, combining diverse data sources, and collaborating across multiple disciplines. Better data and better analytics will lead to better decisions.”
Serum to return money if it fails to provide vaccine: Finance Minister
Serum Institute of India will return the money paid by Bangladesh for purchasing the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine if it fails to supply vaccine, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
“We don’t know whether the vaccine will come or not. If we’re informed that the vaccine won’t come, then we’ll take the final decision,” he said while briefing reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase.
Mustafa Kamal, however, said negotiations with Serum are going on and nothing is final yet.
The minister said the agreement was signed with Serum for vaccine maintaining all the standards of an international contract usually has.
“This is not a verbal deal and there’re contractual obligations from the birth sides — Bangladesh and India,” he said adding that their obligation is to provide the vaccine to us.
Also read: India's Serum to produce Covid jabs overseas: Report
Mustafa Kamal went on saying, “We’ve been trying to get the (Oxford) vaccine. We’re also trying to get vaccines from other sources as vaccines are very important to save the lives of people.”
Vaccine stock running out
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has said the stock of the Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh is running out as there are only 14 lakh jabs in government hands with no sign in sight to get a fresh consignment of it from India.
Speaking at a virtual press briefing on Wednesday, DGHS spokesperson Dr Robed Amin said, “We had around one crore and two lakh vaccines in our hands…around 88 lakh jabs have already been administered as the first and second doses. Now we’ve some 14 lakh doses in stock.”
Also read: Bangladesh OKs Import of 30m Oxford-AstraZeneca doses from Serum
He said there will be a vaccine crisis if a fresh consignment does not arrive in the country before the existing stock is exhausted.
Robed said 58,19,719 people have so far received the first dose of the vaccine while 30,23,169 got the second one.
As per official statistics, the country lacks over 14 lakh second doses of the vaccine to administer those who received the first jab.
Also read: India's Serum Institute to launch another Covid vaccine by June
Amid the vaccine crisis, the government suspended administering the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on April 26.
The DGHS spokesman, however, hoped that the county may get vaccine doses from Chain before Eid-ul-Fitr.
Banks to operate from 10 am to 2 pm from Thursday
Banks will operate from 10 am to 2 pm from May 6 to 16 for normal transactions as the government has extended the ongoing lockdown to contain the Covid-19 transmission.
However, banks will remain open until 3:30 for conducting other necessary activities.
Bangladesh Bank issued this instruction in compliance with the directives of the Cabinet Division, said a central bank circular on Wednesday.
Normally, banks operate from 10 am to 4 pm everyday.
Also read: Bangladesh banks on preferential trade terms to boost export earnings
Earlier, banks were operating from 10 am to 1 pm keeping office open until 2:30 pm for other necessary works as per the directives of the government.
According to a Bangladesh Bank circular, banks will keep open its branches located from May 10-13 at the industrial areas to facilitate salary disbursement for workers and employees of the export-oriented garment Industries (depending on the moon sight for Eid).
It said all other instructions will remain unchanged as per the circular of April 13 where it was said that banks can keep one non-AD branch open within 2 km radius in the city corporation areas and in upazila level one branch of each bank can open on Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday.
The banks have to take measures to provide transport facilities for the staff during the period.
The BB circular also said, during the banking transaction hours, the banks have to ensure different kinds of services including clearing of cheques, withdrawal and deposits of money, money transfer, release of remittance, encashment of different instruments and also receipt of the payments of bills of different utilities.
BB said banks have to continue services like disbursement of loans, incentives, payment of salaries of different industries and also the purchase of export bills, loan sanction and distribution.
The banks have to follow instructions in keeping the branches located in the port areas in discussion with the local administration and other authorities, as per circular issued on August 5 last year, it said.
Also read: Bangladesh Bank defers recruitment exam amid Covid
The banks have to operate their activities with limited staff under a roster system.
They have to ensure operation of the ATM booths to facilitate transaction through cards by supply of adequate cash in the machines while the evening banking and weekly holiday banking activities will remain closed until further order, said the circular, said the circular issued on April 13.
Covid’s daily death toll in Bangladesh falls to 50
Bangladesh recorded 50 more deaths from Covid-19 in 24 hours until Wednesday morning, showing a marked fall in the fatality rate.
With the new death figure, the mortality from the Coronavirus rose to 11,755, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The number of Covid deaths came down to 50 after over a month as the country saw 50 deaths on April 1 and it had kept rising since then.
Health authorities recorded 1,742 new cases during the period.
The latest figure pushed up the caseload to 7,67,338.
However, the infection rate fell to 8.59 percent from Tuesday’s 8.71 percent while the fatality rate remained static at 1.53 percent.
The body count soared to over 100 during April 16-19 and on April 25 but the daily fatalities have been falling gradually since then.
In the last 24 hours, 427 labs across the country tested 20,284 samples.
Among the recent deaths, 32 were men while 18 were women.
Besides 3,433 patients recovered from Covid-19 during the last 24 hours, putting the recovery rate at 91.02%.
Also Read: Serum to return money if fails to provide vaccine: Finance Minister
Vaccination Drive
Bangladesh kicked off its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses it purchased from the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd.
Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.
The administering of the first dose has remained suspended since April 26, and no one in the country has received the second dose in the last 48 hours.
However, DGHS DG Prof ABM Khurshid Alam assured that Bangladesh will get 2.1 million doses of vaccines by early May.
In the last 24 hours, 38 people have received the first dose and 83,540 have received the second dose of Covid vaccine, a figure which is exactly the same of yesterday, according to the DGHS handout.
So far, a total of 72,48,829 people received vaccines where 31,06709 people managed to complete their second dose.
Also Read: Covid vaccine stock running out: DGHS
Vaccine stock dwindling
The DGHS on Wednesday said the stock of the Covid-19 vaccine is running out in Bangladesh as there are only 14 lakh jabs in government hands with no sign in sight to get a fresh consignment of it from India.
Speaking at a virtual press briefing, DGHS spokesperson Dr Robed Amin said, “We had around one crore and two lakh vaccines in our hands…around 88 lakh jabs have already been administered as the first and second doses. Now we’ve some 14 lakh doses in stock.”
He said there will be a vaccine crisis if a fresh consignment does not arrive in the country before the existing stock is exhausted.
Also Read: New variant may be behind Covid surge in Bangladesh: Experts
Drive intensified to get vaccines from US
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday said the government has intensified its efforts to have vaccine jabs from the United States (US) as it will share up to 60 million doses of its Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine with other countries.
Lockdown extended
The government has issued a notification extending the ongoing lockdown until May 16 with six fresh directives alongside the existing ones to contain the spread of Covid-19.
According to the notification issued by the Cabinet Division, the officials of all government, semi-government autonomous and private organisations, banks and financial institutions have been asked to remain at their respective workstations during the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr holidays.
Shops and shopping malls will remain open from 10 am to 8 pm maintaining health guidelines. If any kind of deviation and violation are seen, the shopping malls and shops will be closed instantly, says the notification.
Inter-district transport services will remain closed while only intra-district transport services will operate ensuring health guidelines from Thursday.
However, launch and train services will remain off.
Plastic waste increases from 178 tons per day in 2005 to 646 tons in 2020 in Dhaka
Plastic waste has gone up from 178 tons per day in 2005 to 646 tons per day in 2020 in Dhaka city alone, Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, has said.
Tembon said this at a virtual workshop jointly organized by the World Bank and the Department of Environment on Wednesday.
World Bank announced the winners of the Plastic Circularity Innovation Challenge at the event.
Also Read: Keep track of your plastic wastes online
The competition sought innovative solutions to combat plastic pollution in Bangladesh.
“Addressing plastic pollution is a critical development agenda for ensuring green and smart growth,” said Tembon.
The contest asked for innovative solutions in two categories:
i) collection/sorting, recycling of low-valued plastics and single use plastics and
ii) digital technology solutions in coping with plastic pollution such as mobile apps.
Read Fighting plastic pollution: EcoVia working to transform RMG waste
The three-member panel of judges included Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, Chairman and CEO of PRAN-RFL; Cyrill Gutsch, CEO, Parley for the Oceans, and Marina Tabassum, Founder and Principal Architect of Marina Tabassum Architects. The short-listed teams made presentations today virtually in presence of the judges.
Since 2019, the World Bank has partnered with the Department of Environment (DoE) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to organize a series of events on “Sustainable Management of Plastic to Leverage Circular Economy and Achieve SDG in Bangladesh.” This was the fourth event in the series.
“The Government of Bangladesh is committed to reduce pollution and ensure sustainable green growth. We are taking a range of actions to curb pollution and improve waste management,” said Mr. Ziaul Hasan, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change.
“It is encouraging to see that our youth are so well plugged into the issue and bringing pragmatic solution to beat plastic pollution.”
Also Read: BUILD wants to assist govt in promoting recycling, sustainable business practices
Further, to raise awareness on plastic pollution among school children, the event also introduced an animated video.
The contest was launched in November 2020 and funded by PROBLUE. The winners received 80,000 BDT each. The winners and winning proposals are (in alphabetical order):
Team Amity:
Formed by Farhana Haque, majoring in Civil Engineering and Sadman Fakid, majoring in Chemical Engineering – from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
Their solution to #BeatPlasticPollution is an integrated management of plastic wastes where they present a micro-credit business model addressing unemployment and involving multi-modal approach to plastic waste collection, sorting and recycling.
Read Solid waste management essential to save Cox's Bazar ...
Team Blues:
Comprised by Mahedy Hasan, Sakib Asrar, and Tanvirul Azim, three Electrical and Electronics Engineering students from North South University.
They built an extremely budget-friendly floating-aquatic-waste-cleaning robot made up of readily available cheap materials and with minimal labor. This bot is made of floatable material that will hover on the water to collect the waste materials resulting in cleaning our water bodies.
Read A Bangladesh startup that aims at saving the world!
Team Garbageman:
Garbageman Ltd. is an organization founded by Fahim Uddin Shuvo. He presented a ‘Recycling Platform,’ a free incentive-based digital way for environmentally conscious individuals, households, restaurants, and organizations who will donate recyclable waste for recycling and upcycling purpose. The platform will formalize the supply chain of recyclables and create opportunities for green jobs, and conduct research and development to create scope to recycle and upcycle waste.
Read Bangladeshis lose over 1.8 years of lifespan to air pollution ...
Team Green Beans:
Comprised of Mohammad Rayed and Asma Arisham, students of Computer Science and Engineering at North South University, and Mahdi Ahmed, a student of Information and Communication Technology at Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP).
The team came up with the model ‘Bottle Economy,’ a platform using USSD, a decade-old mobile communication protocol to connect the poor people and scavengers with local recyclers, allowing them to sell plastic wastes directly while limiting the role of intermediaries. It encourages them to recycle plastics by providing monetary incentives.
Read Plastic face masks, hand sanitizer bottles trigger pollution