Main Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The Asian Development Bank has lowered Bangladesh’s GDP growth projection for the 2004-05 fiscal year to 5.3 per cent but said agricultural turnaround and steady performance of industrial and service sectors are likely to prop a 6 per cent growth in the 2005-2006 fiscal year.
   The Manila-based bank has cautioned that adverse impact of the quota-free global apparel trade regime, abrupt increase in oil price and confrontational trend in politics pose risks for the economy and may buck the growth rate.
   ‘The government needs to address crucial policy and institutional issues to temper some of these risks,’ observed the bank in its annual economic outlook of the Asia and Pacific region, which was released simultaneously in 42 countries on Wednesday.
   Bangladesh’s economy is expected to grow at the rate of 5.3 per cent in the 2004-05 fiscal year, down from 5.5 per cent in the 2003-04 fiscal year. The GDP estimation has been lowered taking into account the devastating floods of July-September 2004, says the report.
   The GDP growth projection for the Asian region shows that Bangladesh is expected to maintain the lower growth trend compared to the most of the Asian countries.
   According to the ADB projection, South and East Asian countries excluding Japan are expected to grow at 6.7 per cent while the Central and Southeast Asian countries at 8.7 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively.
   Countries in the Pacific, excluding Australia and New Zealand, are expected to grow at 2.3 per cent.
   The bank says in line with the medium term macroeconomic framework, macroeconomic stability needs to be maintained along with necessary structural reforms to keep the GDP at 6 per cent.
   The office-in-charge of the bank’s Dhaka office, Hua Du, formally launched the report in Dhaka. Rezaul Karim Khan, the bank’s senior economist, highlighted the salient features of the Bangladesh economy.
   The report says the growth of the agricultural sector in 2005 is expected to slip to 0.4 per cent because of the flood-induced setback in the aman rice crop.
   However, industrial sector is likely to grow at 7.8 per cent led by export-oriented manufacturing sector in 2005.
   Expansion in transport and trade services, an upturn in recruitment in public administration and higher profitability of private sector banks are expected to lift the service sector to grow at 6 per cent in 2005.
   Exports are projected to show strong growth of 15 per cent during the period boosted by a steady rise in garments exports.
   But export expansion may moderate from 2006 due to intense global competition.
   The widening export and import gap may balloon the current account deficit about $600 million, which is one per cent of the GDP, at the end of fiscal 2005, posing a threat to external trade management.
   Hua said external imbalances of the US economy might pose a threat to many Asian countries including Bangladesh as further depreciation of the greenback may slump Asian exports. ‘This [depreciation of US dollar] might be the potential threat for Bangladesh.’
   On the domestic front, fiscal management will be the challenge for the government because of a week revenue collection, says the bank. Revenue collection in first six months of the fiscal year was little above 10 per cent against 16.7 per cent targeted in the budget.
   With increasing government expenditure the fiscal deficit is likely to widen to 4.7 per cent of the GDP, says the report. ‘The government will have to focus on augmenting domestic resources while rationalising expenditures.’
   Inflation is expected to creep up to 7 per cent because of the setback in rice production and the bank does not see any decrease in food prices for the rest of the fiscal year. Moreover, the upward adjustment in the petroleum prices in December will be reflected in the coming months’ price index.
   The bank has recommended that the government should undertake several policy initiatives including diversifying the export base, enhancing competitiveness and upgrading infrastructure.
   Besides, rising private investment levels will require major efforts to improve investment climate, including improving governance and stepping up reforms to improve the efficiency of the banking system and capital market, the report said.

Leading economists on Wednesday differed with the finance and planning minister’s claim that development and economic growth in Bangladesh were overflowing.
   Saifur Rahman claimed at a function to mark the inauguration of commercial production of the Moulvibazar gas field on Tuesday that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had told him last week that development and economic growth in Bangladesh was heating up and overflowing.
   The economists, however, said economic growth had stagnated between 5 and 5.5 per cent over the past few years and distribution was also not equitable.
   ‘With 24.5 per cent of national savings, the GDP growth rate should be at least 6 per cent against the current mark of 5.5 per cent,’ said Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, president of the Bangladesh Economic Association.
   ‘This implies that there are some misuses in resource utilisation and there is little room for an overflowing growth,’ he said on Wednesday. ‘When we need around 7 per cent growth to accelerate poverty reduction, how can below 6 per cent growth be termed overflowing?’
   Taking into account the PRSP target growth rate of 5.5 per cent in current fiscal year, linear growth rate of the economy during the fiscal year 2001 and 2005 is 4.9 per cent. Kholiquzzaman said increasing income disparity reflected a ‘very discriminatory’ growth distribution.
   The poorest 10 per cent of the population had owned more than 2.5 per cent of wealth up to 1992 before it came down to below two per cent.
   On the other hand, the richest 10 per cent had controlled about 30 per cent of national income till 1992 before their share increased to two-fifths of national wealth in the next 10 years.
   Kholiquzzaman said the finance minister’s definition of development appeared ambiguous. ‘If poverty reduction was the major indicator of economic development, the current situation gives us a grim picture of poverty.’
   The poverty monitoring survey, as noted in the poverty reduction strategy paper, using the direct calorie intake method showed that head-count poverty declined from 46.2 per cent in 1999 to 40.9 per cent in 2004. The energy intake method put head-count poverty at 42.1 per cent in 2004.
   ‘Without any updated data, it is difficult to validate whether the growth is overflowing or not,’ said Dr Atiur Rahman.
   He said even the finance minister himself was not satisfied with the quality of data generated and supplied by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
   Atiur was of the view that growth distribution had become urban-centric depriving the poor and resources were concentrated to a handful of people.
   He also said with low public investment in agriculture, rural economy cannot be given a boost.

At least seven people were killed Wednesday in a stampede as pilgrims went on a mad rush for a holy bathing during a Hindu festival in Gopalganj.
   The deceased were identified as Arati Palita, 60, and Milan Dhar, 12, of Bagerhat, Mahadev Dey, 60, and Bilani Das, 62, of Gopalganj, Putul Patra, 45, and Chandrakanta Haldar, 57, of Khulna and Arati Mal, 60, of Barisal. The bodies were handed over to their relatives.
   The police said the seven died in the morning as some 1,00,000 pilgrims gathered at Orakandi, the birthplace of Sri Sri Harichand Thakur, to attend the weeklong Baruni Fair, a bathing festival.
   The festival was organised on the occasion of the 183rd birth anniversary of Sri Sri Harichand Thakur. Thousands of people from different parts of the country as well as from India and Nepal come to attend the festival every year.
   The Indian high commissioner, Veena Sikri, who was on a trip to Gopalganj, visited the spot.

The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, arrives today on the second leg of his four-nation tour in South Asia.
   He will lead a 102-member entourage comprising three cabinet ministers, four vice ministers, senior officials and a large number of businesspeople.
   Bangladesh eyes Wen’s two-day state visit ‘politically and economically significant’ as Bangladesh and China are prepared to sign a number of cooperation deals.
   ‘It’s a very significant and milestone visit on many counts... And we feel confident that the Chinese premier’s visit will be a great success and turn a new leaf in our bilateral relations,’ foreign secretary Hemayetuddin told reporters earlier on Tuesday.
   Wen is expected to arrive by a special flight at 2:40pm and the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, will receive him at Zia International Airport in Dhaka.
   Tight security measures have been taken in the capital for the visit of the Chinese premier.
   Khaleda and Wen will have in-depth discussion about bilateral cooperation covering economy, trade, investment, agriculture, education, cultural affairs and defence on the first day of the tour.
   The Awami League president and leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, and her party’s senior leaders will call on Wen at Meghna Room of the Sonargaon Hotel Friday morning.
   The Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh, Chai Xi, who is also a member of the premier’s entourage, told New Age on Wednesday that China attached a great importance to the visit and that the visit would further bolster the bilateral relations between the two countries.
   The official visit at the invitation of Khaleda will explore new windows of cooperation in trade, commerce and investment as well as in other bilateral issues, he said. ‘Both the countries will find ways and means for further comprehensive partnership of cooperation’.
   The visit is also significant, as the year 2005 marks 30 years of Bangladesh-China diplomatic relations, he said. ‘The two top leaders will have official talks and if everything goes well a number of agreements might be signed in the filed of agriculture, public security, trade and commerce.’
   The Bangladesh-China-Myanmar roadlink is likely to feature prominently in discussions during the visit of the Chinese prime minister, Chai said.
   This will be the second visit by a prime minister of China to Bangladesh in the past three and a half years since Khaleda assumed office. Khaleda visited China twice, making a return bilateral visit in December 2002 and attending the Micro Credit Summit in Shanghai in July 2004.
   According to official sources, two-way trade came to $1.14 billion in 2003-04. Bangladesh’s imports from China totalled $1.08 billion while its exports totalled only $46 million.
   As for Bangladeshi products’ duty-free access to the Chinese market, the foreign secretary said 84 items will enter the Chinese market from January 2006 under the Hong Kong agreement to narrow the trade gap.
   ‘A number of agreements would be signed during his visit and we will focus on narrowing trade gap,’ he said.
   On the first day of his visit, the official talks between the two prime ministers will be held in the evening at the PMO on various issues and bilateral cooperation covering economy, trade, investment, agriculture, education and cultural affairs, followed by signing of agreements.
   Wen will attend a banquet hosted by Khaleda at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre. The banquet will be followed by a cultural programme.
   He will also meet working staff of the Chinese embassy and representatives from local Chinese community at the Sonargaon Hotel.
   On Friday, Wen will visit National Mausoleum at Savar in he morning and place floral wreaths. He will sign the visitors’ book and plant a sapling.
   The Chinese Premier will then visit the grave of late President Ziaur Rahman in Dhaka.
   Wen will also call on President Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed at Bangabhaban and he will also meet business entrepreneurs of Bangladesh and China.
   Later the Chinese Premier will attend the inaugural ceremony of a photo exhibition marking the 30th anniversary of Sino-Bangladesh diplomatic relations at Hotel Sonargaon.
   Senior leaders of ruling BNP and opposition Awami League will meet with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao during his official visit to Bangladesh.
   Wen’s eight-day tour of South Asia began with Pakistan from where he will arrive in Dhaka. The Chinese premier will leave Dhaka at 1:00pm on Friday for Sri Lanka. He will conclude his South Asia tour with India.

The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, said Wednesday Beijing would never seek to dominate Asia or pose a threat to other countries. ‘Some people are worried that a stronger and more developed China will pose a threat to other countries. Such a worry is completely misplaced,’ he told a conference of Asian and Middle Eastern ministers in the Pakistani capital.
   Wen is on his maiden tour of four South Asian countries, amid worries in Beijing about a changing geopolitical climate as the United States looks to boost New Delhi as a major power.
   ‘China will never seek hegemony,’ Wen, who is on a three-day official visit here, said in his keynote address to the Asian Cooperation Dialogue’s 26 member nations.
   ‘Even if we become stronger and more developed, we will not stand in the way of others, still less become a threat to others.’
   Washington has recently put an emphasis on strengthening ties with New Delhi, a move that analysts said would likely be seen by China as an attempt by the United States to contain Beijing’s rising power.
   The Chinese premier said Asian countries should focus on trade and economic links, adding that Beijing would continue to broaden and deepen its cooperation with the rest of the region.
   Wen is expected to woo India when he visits New Delhi on April 9 for four days. He will also spend a day in Bangladesh and another day in Sri Lanka after leaving Pakistan on Thursday.
   New Delhi has previously been sidelined by Beijing, which traditionally placed greater importance on relations with India’s main rival Pakistan.
   China and India have gone to war over border disputes, but relations improved dramatically after a visit to China in 2003 by then-prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. During that visit India acknowledged Tibet as a part of China and China gave up its territorial claim over the tiny Indian state of Sikkim.

A parliamentary standing committee on Wednesday suggested that the elite anti-crime force, the Rapid Action Battalion, should take action against the land-grabbers to recover the government lands encroached on and occupied illegally.
   ‘The committee has come up with the hard decision as it has been observed that the recovery of the grabbed lands is difficult under the existing
   civil and criminal laws,’ Mahbubur Rahman, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the land ministry, told reporters after a meeting held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
   The RAB will launch a special drive after the district administrators of Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur send the initial lists of the
   land-grabbers to the committee in the next 90 days,
   said the chairman, adding that the government lands worth over Tk 70,000 crore has remained in the grabbers’ hands.
   Mahbub said the prime minister has consented in principal to deploy the RAB to recover the grabbed lands.
   He said the decision has been taken after a long discussion as land-grabbing seems to be one of the major problems in the country.
   The meeting was informed that the real estate companies top the list of land-grabbers in the three districts.
   Officials of the land ministry said that half of over 10,000 acres of government land in Dhaka and its adjoining areas are now under the control of illegal occupants.
   ‘No one should be allowed to continue illegal business,’ the chairman said, referring to the errant real estate developers.
   The meeting, attended by members of the ruling and opposition parties, also underscored the need for strong action against the land-grabbers who have encroached on lands in the Banani, Uttara, Baridhara, Gulshan and Hatir Jheel areas.
   The meeting also advised the land ministry to strengthen the drive to realise unpaid land taxes worth over Tk 1,500 crore.
   It observed that most of the taxpayers evade taxes, and the authorities should urge such people to pay their taxes in time.

Bangladesh observed national mourning day on Wednesday as a mark of respect to the late Pope John Paul II.
   The national flags were hoisted at half mast in all government and other offices and also in Bangladesh missions abroad in honour of the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholics who died on Saturday. On Monday, the weekly cabinet meeting, chaired by the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, adopted a resolution to mourn the death of the pope.
   The government also announced that a senior member in the cabinet and food and disaster management and relief minister, Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf, would represent Bangladesh at the funeral of the pontiff on April 8. Chowdhury left Dhaka on Wednesday to attend the funeral in Vatican City. The minister will return on April 11, a government handout said.

At least 268 children were killed and 327 raped between January and December 2004, a human rights alliance in a news briefing at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Wednesday quoting a Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum report.
   The alliance, Action Committee to Prevent Child Repression, formed in August 2002, held the briefing on the killing of and repression on children.
   The speakers said at least 578 children were killed, 565 raped and 86 abducted in 2002.
   They said the incidents of repression on children had not been reduced much despite initiatives of NGOs and the government.
   The forum in a yearly report on child repression for
   2004 said at least 203 children faced physical torture in 2004. Sixty-six were acid-burnt in the year.
   The report said 35 children were killed after rape; three died from other kinds of repressions.
   It said national daily newspapers published at least 5,384 reports on child rights violation in 2004.
   The alliance leaders said working children, especially domestic helps, face brutality more than others. They are often tortured by the members of educated families, the speakers said.
   The alliance urged the government to form a task force to coordinate programmes against repression on children.
   They also urged reforms in and implementation of the Children Act 1974, Vagrancy Act 1943 and juvenile justice system.
   The speakers demanded that the government should ensure at least secondary level education for the children.
   The alliance leaders — Khursheed E Ahmed, Geeta Chakraborty, Abu Obaidul Rahman, Nasimul Ahsan,
   Siddique, Rokeya Mannan and Sahanaz Begum — also spoke.

The Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, might well choose to anoint an African pope to succeed the late John Paul II, Nigeria’s Cardinal Anthony Okogie said Tuesday.
   Okogie was speaking to journalists after a packed service of remembrance in Lagos’ Catholic Cathedral just ahead of his departure for Rome, where he will be one of 117 cardinals to take part in the secret election.
   ‘It’s not impossible. Nothing is impossible for God. The possibility is there but let us leave everything in the hands of the Holy Spirit,’ he said.
   ‘Before Pope John Paul nobody believed that a non-Italian could be pope. Anyone who enters conclave is a possible pope,’ he said.
   Although Okogie, who was only made a cardinal in 2003, is not thought to be in the running. Nigeria’s first cardinal, Francis Arinze, has been talked about as a candidate to be the first African pope since 496 AD.
   Arinze, the current number four in the Vatican hierarchy, is a theological conservative like John Paul II and online bookmakers have made him joint favourite at 11-4 with Italy’s Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi to win the job.
   Meanwhile, the College of Cardinals on Wednesday set April 18 as the date for the historic start of the conclave to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II, as the Vatican made final arrangements for the funeral expected to draw millions of pilgrims and world leaders to Rome.
   The decision came after the cardinals read John Paul’s spiritual testament during a pre-conclave meeting Wednesday, Vatican spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said, adding that the text would be released on Thursday.
   Navarro-Valls said cardinals would celebrate a morning Mass on April 18, then be sequestered in the Sistine Chapel in the early afternoon to start the conclave. According to church law, prelates are expected to hold one ballot on the first day of a conclave.
   The date was set on the third day of meetings of cardinals who have flocked to Rome for Friday’s funeral and burial of John Paul. Navarro-Valls ruled out that the late pope’s body might be brought to St John Lateran basilica, across Rome, before it is buried, as was done for Pope Pius XII when he died in 1958.

The government has decided to install a hybrid exchange in Dhaka for a multi-platform telephone exchange to ensure interconnectivity among mobile and landline operators.
   There are now about 40 lakh subscribers of mobile provided by five operators, including the government-owned Teletalk Bangladesh Limited.
   But 90 per cent of the users have no connectivity with about 8.5 lakh landlines of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board.
   Posts and telecommunications secretary Mahmud Hassan Mansur on Wednesday said the telephone board and four other mobile operators would finance the hybrid exchange installation.
   As the number of mobile users is increasing, there should be interconnectivity between mobile and landlines, Mahmud said.
   He said the ministry had formed a committee, headed by Fazlul Huq, operation and maintenance member of the telephone board, to prepare a project concept paper.
   ‘The paper will be sent to the mobile operators for recommendations before its finalisation,’ he said.
   The installation of another hybrid exchange is now in progress in Chittagong. Mobile users in Chittagong are likely to have connectivity with landlines by June or July.
   The first-ever hybrid point of interconnection is financed by a consortium of six parties — Bangladesh Telecommuni-cations Regulatory Commission, Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, GrameenPhone, Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited, Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh and Orascom, owner of the now defunct Sheba Telecom.
   The hybrid exchange with technical assistance from the International Telecommuni-cations Union is also partially financed by the UN Development Programme.
   The existing telephone exchanges are bilateral, with connectivity between two operators. A hybrid exchange will enable operators to use more operators than one.
   A telephone board official said the hybrid exchange in Chittagong will have 12,000-line circuit capacity, which will allow 1.20 lakh people to talk at a time.
   The four private operators — GrameenPhone, AKTel, CityCell and the now-defunct Sheba — earlier set up a Tandem exchange at Moghbazar in 2003 under a $2 million turnkey project to expand mobile connectivity with the BTTB network.
   The exchange allows mobile operators to have 2 lakh connections with landline network.
   The telephone board has also planned to review its existing revenue sharing option with mobile operators and has prepared a draft in this regard.
   The telecommunications secretary said the board at a meeting with the mobile operators on Tuesday put forth the draft to the officials of private operators.
   ‘The private operators say they will consider the revised sharing option,’ Mahmud said.

A US military helicopter crashed in bad weather in southeast Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing 16 people, including four American crew members in the deadliest military crash since the US-led offensive began in 2001.
   An Afghan police official said all the dead, including the four crew, appeared to be American. However, the US military provided no details of the passengers’ identity. Two more people were listed as missing.
   The US military suggested that severe weather brought down the CH-47 Chinook near Ghazni city, 80 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, as it returned from a mission in the militant-plagued south.
   ‘Sixteen people have now been confirmed dead in the crash,’ a military statement said. Two others listed on the flight manifest, ‘remain unaccounted for.’
   Military spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore said helicopter was one of two Chinooks flying to the main American base at Bagram, north of Kabul, when controllers lost radio contact.

Iraq’s parliament on Wednesday chose former Kurdish rebel fighter Jalal Talabani as the first freely elected president in its history, paving the way for the creation of a new government next week.
   The choice of Talabani by the 275-seat assembly is a major political victory for long-suffering Kurdish minority in Iraq, which was violently oppressed under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
   Shia Islamist Adel Abdel Mahdi and outgoing Sunni president Ghazi al-Yawar were named as his two deputies after weeks of political wrangling following the landmark January 30 elections.
   Iraqi MPs predicted that a government should now be in place by next week, with Shia politician Ibrahim al-Jafaari expected to be named prime minister by the newly appointed three-man presidency council.
   Saddam and 11 of his top aides were to watch the parliamentary proceedings from their jail cells on a fortified American base in Baghdad, the human rights minister, Bakhtiar Amin, said.
   MPs, dressed in tribal robes, business suits and Muslim cleric’s black robes, walked to the front of their assembly inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone to cast their votes before the ballots were counted publicly.
   The vote was a formality after the powerful parliament Shia and Kurdish blocs formalised the line-up with Sunni parties Tuesday after weeks of wrangling.
   Shia and Kurdish lists finally picked Yawar for vice president late Tuesday, filling a post reserved for Iraq’s fractured Sunni community.
   The presidency council submits the names of prime minister and his cabinet to the parliament for confirmation by a majority vote. It also has veto powers over legislative bills.
   Sunni Hajem al-Hassani was elected parliament speaker on Sunday and the community that controlled the levers of power in Saddam’s regime and all previous Iraqi governments is also to get four to six cabinet posts.
   Hassani was drafted as a last-minute choice amid fierce disagreement among Shias and Sunnis over who should serve as parliament speaker.

The Philippine House of Representatives adorned the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, with ‘Congressional Medal of Achievement’ at a ceremony in Manila on Wednesday.
   Jose De Venecia, speaker of the Filipino parliament, handed the award to Hasina in appreciation of her ‘historic role in the Asian continent’s movement towards integration’ and as founder president of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace, which convened in Dhaka in 2001.
   Hasina is the third to receive the award after South Africa’s legendary leader Nelson Mandela and former Malaysian prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad. The Chinese president, Hu Jin Tao, has been nominated to receive this award next year.

The government on Wednesday appointed Mohammad Abdul Quaiyum, additional inspector general of police posted in the Special Branch, as the new inspector general of police.
   Quaiyum will replace Ashraful Huda, whose contract expired on Wednesday. He is likely to take over this afternoon.

The government extended the services of the chief of air staff Air Vice-Marshal Fakrul Azam by a year.
   The orders extending his services will come into force Friday forenoon, an Inter Services Public Relations release said on Wednesday.
   Azam was appointed air chief on April 8, 2002 for three years.

The Rangpur district administration on Wednesday imposed Section 144 in sadar upazila fearing a clash over a rally of the Awami League.
   The upazila Awami League organised a meeting in the afternoon on Aviram Karimia Alim Madrassah field of Sukan Chauki to form Uttam union Awami League committee.

Though delayed the government is moving the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict that had declared illegal the president’s order removing additional judge Syed Shahidur Rahman on charge of bail fixing.
   Competent sources in the law ministry told the news agency Wednesday the matter is of great public interest and involves the dignity of the highest judiciary. The government cannot give up the legal battle half way.
   The president had removed Shahidur on recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council in April, 2004.
   When challenged the removal order, the High Court on February 2 had declared illegal the president’s order.

A non-stop Transport strike called by the Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation has been withdrawn after fruitful discussion with the state minister for labour and manpower, Amanullah Aman.
   The federation had called the strike for indefinite period from Thursday to press home their three-point demand including solving problems at Sayedabad and Gulistan bus terminals.