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Japan sees ‘great potential’ in Bangladesh to attract foreign investment but the country would need to remove bureaucratic obstacles and improve infrastructures for transport and power generation, said Tamotsu Shinotsuka, the new Japanese ambassador in Dhaka.
   ‘Bangladesh appears to be one of the very attractive countries for Japanese investment having both manpower and a market,’ the Ambassador said at a talk on Bangladesh-Japan bilateral relations at Dhaka Reporters Unity on Wednesday.
   ‘You (Bangladesh) have great potentials in terms of huge human resources— manual, semi-manual and skilled— who do not have job opportunities…On the other hand Japanese are now trying to widen their investment and divert the market vis-à-vis China,’ he said.
   Tamotsu said the Japanese investors are now trying to relocate their production bases and investment under ‘China plus-1’ theory, as they want to reduce dependence on China. ‘We’re too much dependent on China… Now our investors are trying to divert production bases to other countries including Bangladesh.’
   With about 1.2 billion US dollar investment in Bangladesh, Japanese now stands sixth after US, KSA, UAE, UK and Malaysia, he said. ‘Japan is sixth in terms of investment here. It is not enough for an economic power Japan.’
   Stressing the need for removing the obstacles to investment here, the ambassador said, ‘We’re trying to request Japanese companies to come here to do business and make investment, but they are asking for removal of obstacles.’
   A Japanese investment team is now in Dhaka, exploring the promising sectors for their investment, the ambassador said.
   He said now the investors have to go eight to nine offices in Bangladesh only to start their business. He suggested creating an efficient one-stop service for entrepreneurs and investors and improving power and transport facilities.
   The ambassador also suggested Bangladeshi exporters to widen their range of products from garment to frozen foods and high-tech items for the Japanese market.
   Giving hints for taking more students from countries including Bangladesh, he said Japan is expecting 300,000 foreign students, including sponsored and self-funded students, by the year 2020.
   Claiming Japan to be the ‘number one development partner’ of Bangladesh, he said his country’s contributions to the development efforts here is equivalent to US$ 10 billion which is larger than the combined development cooperation of the United States and the United Kingdom.
   He said Japan would continue to support economic, social and infrastructure development here and the Padma bridge and Monorail projects are two of the priorities in supporting Bangladesh’s development.
   DRU president Shamim Ahmad presided over the function and its general secretary Pathik Saha made introductory remarks. Political Counselor of the Japanese Embassy Kazumi Endo was present.

The government has no plan to stop contractual appointments right now as it would create a state of inertia in administration, the local government, rural development and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, told parliament on Wednesday.
   ‘We have no plan to stop contractual appointments in government services,’ the minister said replying to a question from Zunaid Ahmed Palak, a ruling Awami League lawmaker from a Natore constituency.
   A state of inertia may take place in administration if the system of contractual appointments is stopped, he said, assuring that there is no possibility of depriving the junior officers of promotion because of the contractual appointments.
   Ashraful, also minister in charge of establishment ministry in parliament, said the government generally appoints from among retired officers from civil and military bureaucracy and competent persons, on certain tenures in public interest to carry out official tasks at different ministries, departments and divisions.
   With their experiences and abilities, they have been playing vital roles in public interest, he added.
   Replying to another question, the minister said the government has actively been considering modernisation of the existing promotion policy to bring about dynamism in the administration.
   He said the previous BNP-led alliance government had turned the administration into a political platform. They made it inactive through appointing political cadres and the self-declared killers of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   ‘The BNP-Jamaat alliance had appointed partisan cadres in administration in the name of appointment and promotion in the government services,’ the minister said adding that the then cabinet secretary even held public meetings in his home constituency.
   ‘We are now working on a policy for making a non-partisan administration,’ he said.
   The water resources minister, Ramesh Chandra Sen, responding to a question from Israfil Alam, a lawmaker from Naogaon, said that the government has asked its mission in Beijing to let it know about the Chinese plan for construction of an upstream dam on the river Brahmaputra.
   He said that the government would take every initiative to protect the country’s interest on receiving a report from Beijing. It is feared that the proposed Chinese dam on the cross-boundary river would adversely affect the climate regime in South Asian countries.

Three policemen were injured in a clash with the Bangladesh Chhatra League and Juba League activists Tuesday night in Moulvibazar.
   Police said the trouble occurred after the police set up a check-post in front of the police station to seize motorcycles plying without valid documents.
   A group of BCL and Juba League activists were passing the check post ignoring police signal at about 9:45pm.
   When the police tried to stop these young motorcycle riders, they started hurling brick bats at the police, who had to fire six rounds of blank shots to bring the situation under control, the OC said.
   Sub-Inspector Abdul Hye, constables Mofizul Islam and Bachchu Miah were injured.

The parliament speaker, Abdul Hamid, on Wednesday expunged from the parliament’s proceedings the entire statement a minister had made in the house on October 12, for violation of rules.
   He also regretted using two ‘metaphoric’ words to bring the house in order on October 11 and expunged the words from the proceedings requesting
   the ministers and lawmakers to play their due role in the parliament as per the rule.
   Explaining the reason for expunging jute and textiles minister, Abdul Latif Siddiqui’s October 12 statement, the speaker said the minister could issue a statement under rule 300 of the rules of procedure related to his ministry or on issues of public importance.
   Latif Siddiqui had said in the parliament that the speaker was the ‘steward’ of the house, not the ‘master’ and asked if the parliament was a ‘fish-market’ who was the ‘wholesaler’.
   The speaker termed the jute minister’s remarks in the house contrary to the rules of procedure and expunged his entire statement. He also urged all to discharge properly and appropriately the duties and responsibilities vested in them.
   He said he could not take it easy that the senior members of the cabinet and lawmakers should be absent from the proceedings.
   The prime minister herself felt embarrassed by the absence of a large number of lawmakers from the house, he added.
   ‘In that situation, I urged the ministers and lawmakers to attend the house timely… I used two symbolic words at that time and I am sorry for that,’ the speaker said.
   He said the ministers can make statements in the house on matters of public interests but there was no provision in clause 300 of the rules of procedure for coming up with statements on other subjects.
   The jute minister was not present when the speaker expunged his statement. Curiously, when the jute minister blasted the speaker on October 12, the speaker was out of the house.
   On October 11, Hamid blasted the ministers and ruling party lawmakers for being absent from the house saying the parliament could not run in such a manner. The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina tried to calm the speaker saying some of the absentee ministers might be busy otherwise.
   As he saw lawmakers talking to each other during the proceedings, an angry speaker accused them of turning the house into a ‘fish market’ and ordered them not to talk aloud inside the house.

Freedom-fighters, cultural personalities, social campaigners and politicians have demanded that the government initiate the process by December 16 to bring those who committed crimes against humanity during the 1971 War of Independence to justice.
   At a roundtable discussion organised by the Sammilita Sangskritik Jote at Jatiya Press Club Wednesday, they expressed concern over the delay in arranging the trial of war criminals and hoped that the government would honour the people’s demand without wasting further time.
   ‘All the preparations are afoot and people gave their verdict in favour of the trial through electing the Awami League-led alliance government. Now it is time to start the trial by appointing investigation agencies,’ said Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu, Shammilita Sangskritik Jote president and a freedom-fighter.
   Harun-or-Rashid, secretary general of the Sector Commanders’ Forum, said the government is pledge-bound to try the war criminals and it should start the process immediately.
   Among others, president of Communist Party of Bangladesh Monzurul Ahsan Khan, president of International Theatre Institute Ramendu Majumder, Awami League leader Nuh Ul Alam Lelin, Afzal Hossain, Ajoy Roy of Sammilita Samajik Andolan, Principal Abdul Ahad Chowdhury, former chairman of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad and Kamrul Ahsan, addressed the roundtable.
   They said the anti-liberation forces hatch conspiracy to create unrest in the country whenever the government moves to try war criminals.
   They called upon the countrymen to remain united against any such conspiracy.

The government on Wednesday made a number of changes at the senior levels of administration by giving postings mainly to the officials who had been made officers on special duty on promotion.
   Officer on special duty (additional secretary), Md Khalilur Rahman has been posted to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh as chairman and another OSD (additional secretary), Md Mosheur Rahman has been made executive director of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board, replacing Abu Bakr Md Shahjahan who has been made an officer on special duty, according to the establishment ministry’s notifications.
   Additional secretary to the energy division, Syed Manjurul Islam has been sent to the finance division as additional secretary and OSD Khandoker Md Iftekhar Haider has been posted to the roads and railway division as additional secretary.
   Fifteen officers on special duty at the level of joint secretary have also been posted to various departments in the administration.
   Jasim Uddin Ahmed has been posted to the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation as director, Md Jahangir Molla to the Directorate of Insurance as controller, Md Nazrul Islam has been made a member of the Chittagong Port Authority, Parag has been posted to Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre and Ashish Kumar Sarker has been made a member of Non-Government Teachers’ Registration and Certification Authority.
   Md Nazrul Islam has been made director (accounts) of Vulnerable Group Development for Ultra Poor, Md Zia Uddin Ahmed has been sent to Bangladesh Tariff Commission as a member, Shudhangshu Shekhar Biswas has been made registrar of Tax Ombudsman’s Office and Goutam Kumar Ghosh has been made project director of higher education quality enhancement project.
   Director of Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation, Parimal Chandra Saha has been transferred to the water resources ministry as joint secretary, Md Abdur Razzaque has been has been sent to the labour and employment ministry as joint secretary and Md Shawkat Mostafa and Md Shafiqul Islam have been sent to the home affairs ministry as joint secretary.
   Swapan Kumar Roy has been made additional divisional commissioner of Rajshahi division and KBM Omar Farook Chowdhury has been made joint secretary to the health and family welfare ministry, replacing Md Anwar Hossain Munshi, who has been attached to the establishment ministry for posting.

The Public Procurement (Second Amendment) Bill 2009 has been passed into a law in parliament paving the way for novice contractors to bid for government jobs worth up to Tk 2 crore, a provision approved earlier by the cabinet amid reservations of a global lender.
   The government Wednesday introduced another bill to the Jatiya Sangsad to bring private courier services under a legal framework and improve public postal services.
   The Public Procurement (Second Amendment) Bill 2009, placed by planning minister AK Khandaker on November 1, was passed by voice vote in the House amid a lengthy boycott by the lawmakers belonging to Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition alliance.
   Opposition lawmakers gave notices eliciting public opinion on the bill, which was earlier vetted by the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry; but their proposals were not discussed due to their absence.
   The BNP earlier alleged that the government’s move to amend the existing public procurement act was designed to institutionalise manipulation in the official procurement process.
   Lending agencies, including the World Bank, also objected to the government’s plan to relax procurement rules, fearing that the quality of public works might fall if qualification requirements are compromised. They also said that liberalising the law would encourage corruption in public procurement expenditure, which is worth over $3 billion per annum in Bangladesh.
   The World Bank formally conveyed its reservations about some provisions of the bill in a letter to the finance minister.
   In his budget speech, finance minister AMA Muhith had identified rigid rules and complicated process of public procurements as among reasons that delay development works. He pledged to take steps to ease public procurements to accelerate implementation of annual development programme, which has an outlay of Tk 30,500 crore for the current fiscal year.
   Only 10 per cent of the money was spent in the first quarter ending in September.
   Post and telecommunications minister Raziuddin Ahmed Razu piloted the Post Office (Amendment) Bill 2009 in the House to bring private mailing operators and courier services under a legal framework and adopt new technologies for the century-old postal services in the public sector.
   ‘The amendments has been proposed to make the law, enacted in 1898, compatible with the present situation,’ the minister told parliament in justification of the proposed law.
   ‘The proposed law will help improve the quality of services by the postal department and legitimise the courier services which have been playing a vital role in public life,’ he said adding that once the law comes into effect it would allow the public postal department to outsource some of its services.
   The bill was sent to the parliamentary standing committee concerned for further scrutiny.
   Under the proposed bill, the private mailing operators or courier services would require obtaining licences from the government.
   ‘The government may by notification in the official gazette, constitute a Licensing Authority to grant licenses and to regulate the licensed Mailing Operators and Courier Services,’ said the bill proposing a three-member licensing authority.
   It also stipulates that the postal department, for the public interest and development of the postal services, might modify, rearrange or adopt new technologies and provide new services to the people as it deems fit.
   It would enter into new business ventures like post shops, e-commerce, address data base or other data base as it requires, and exchange or interchange business transactions with other domestic or international organisations for the purpose of commercial benefits.
   The bill also stipulates that the post office may provide remittance transfer services, banking services, postal life insurance services either individually or in partnership with other organisations.
   The amended public procurement law redefines the head of a procuring entity to include divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners and district judges as heads of procuring entities, replacing secretaries and heads of government departments.
   It proposed awarding of jobs through lottery in case of more than one qualified lowest bidders for a work involving up to Tk 2 crore.
   A bid will be cancelled if it quotes an expenditure of more or less than five per cent of the estimated expenditure of the work contract, the law said.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha—the capital development authority—on Wednesday allotted 283 residential plots in Purbachal and Uttara among eight categories of applicants including judges, freedom fighters, expatriate wage earners, private service holders and journalists.
   Rajuk held the computerised lottery at the city’s Osmani Memorial Hall auditorium for allotting the plots at the proposed Uttara Residential Model Town Project [third phase] and Purbachal New Town Project.
   Some 55 plots were allotted to journalists through the lottery in Purbachal and five in Uttara, which constitutes 50 per cent of total plots Rajuk had decided to allot among the journalists.
   While inaugurating the process of holding lottery, the state minister for housing and public works Abdul Mannan Khan said the rest 50 per cent plots earmarked for the journalists would be allotted on the basis of their salary and seniority and in consultation with leaders of the journalist community.
   Rajuk earlier allotted some 2,250 plots to applicants under seven categories in Purbachal.
   After Wednesday’s allotment, the total number of plots allotted to applicants under eight categories in the two residential projects stands at 2,533. Rajuk is expected to allot some 6,000 plots in Purbachal and 800 plots in Uttara under twelve categories of applicants.
   The remaining 4,267 plots in the two residential projects would now be allotted among the rest four categories —Ministers-MPs, army personnel, government officials and employees of autonomous bodies — and for which there would be no lottery.
   In allotting the plots for officials and employees of defence forces, government departments and autonomous organisations, seniority and salary structure of the applicants would be considered as a decisive criterion, said the state minister, adding that the plots under those categories would be allotted within next one month.
   Meanwhile, each of the MPs who applied, and who would be validated by the BUET scrutiny team, would get plots in both the residential projects.
   As many as 31,791 people applied in eight categories for plots in the Uttara project and of them 5,995 applications were cancelled due to mistakes in filling in the application forms.
   After Rajuk invited applications in November 25 last year, as many as 1.57 lakh people applied for 6,800 plots in the two housing projects, of whom 1,07,361 applied for plots in Purbachal.
   Rajuk has started paying back unsuccessful applicants the money they had deposited with their application for plots.

The commerce ministry on Wednesday rejected local refiners’ demand for increase in sugar price saying it was consistent with the price on the international market.
   The minister, Faruk Khan, rejected the demand when the local sugar refiners’ association, lead by its president, Fazlur Rahman, met the minister in his office in the afternoon.
   The minister told the association leaders the price on the domestic market was stable and consistent with the price on the international market.
   The commerce ministry examined four recent import consignments of unrefined sugar and found the demand for price increase was unjustified, said a ministry official.
   Local refiners sell sugar for Tk 45 a kilogram to dealers; the price was set less than a month ago. Sugar is, however, retailed between Tk 55 and Tk 56 a kilogram.
   The association’s secretary general Golam Mostafa told newsmen the minister had assured them of reviewing the demand again after his return from an overseas tour.
   Local refiners observed sugar price should be increased to check its probable smuggling into neighbouring India. Sugar price has gone up in India because of scarcity, Golam said.
   Local refiners, led by the City Group, Meghna, S Alam, Desbandhu and Abdul Monem Group, which import raw sugar from Thailand and Brazil for refining, meet more than 90 per cent of the domestic demand.
   State-owned sugar mills meet less than 10 per cent of the domestic demand, which amounts to 1.2 million tonne to 1.4 million tonne a year.
   The government provided incentives for local refiners to keep the sugar price stable on the domestic market in Ramadan. The incentives include duty rebates on raw sugar import and port fees.

A high official-level meeting between the border guards of Bangladesh and India to discuss bilateral issues began in Sylhet Wednesday afternoon.
   According sources in the Sylhet sector of Bangladesh Rifles, a 13-member team of the host country, led by BDR deputy director Brigadier General Md Obaidul Haq, attended the meeting, while an 18-member team, led by the Border Security Force inspector general SK Mishra, has participated at the meeting.
   The BDR team will introduce different border issues that include killings of innocent Bangladeshi nationals and building illegal structures on the no-man’s- land by the BSF force, in the meeting.
   Detailed discussion on stopping drugs smuggling, developing road communication and constructing roads and culverts alongside the Bangladesh border and to launch a joint survey of the disputed land would feature in the joint meeting, sources in the BDR said.
   The meeting that begun at Rose View Hotel in the city is scheduled to end on November 7, the sources said.

The Bangladesh Diploma Engineering Chhatra-Shikkhak-Peshajibi Sammannoy Parishad, a faction of the Institute of Diploma Engineers Bangladesh, on Wednesday called on the Awami League-led government to save institute from being captured by conspirators.
   The convener of the Parishad, Fazlul Haque Mallik, at a press conference in Dhaka Reporter’s Unity said that the institute’s present committee had not handed over power to the newly-elected committee.
   The institute’s election was held in 26 December, 2006, in which 18 office bearers were elected, said Fazlul Haque.
   The committee, whose tenure expired after the election three years ago, also took possession of the IDEB Bhaban and is not allowing the elected committee to enter it.
   The convener alleged that the general secretary of the former committee, Kazi Nazrul Islam, had misused the institute’s money.
   He called on the ministers and high officials not to join any programme organised by the former committee.
   The newly-elected committee also demanded investigation of corruption in the IDEB by members of the former committee.
   The committee announced various programmes to mark the founding anniversary of the institute.

Several hundred people of Demra and Matuail blocked Dhaka-Demra road on Wednesday, protesting at dirt filling in the name of housing projects in the area.
   Traffic on the road remained suspended for about an hour, triggering tailbacks on the Dhaka-Sylhet and Dhaka-Chittagang routes.
   The police and the Rapid Action Battalion reinforcements went to the scene and managed to withdraw the blockade assuring the agitators of steps to meet their demands.
   According to the local people, several businessmen, with the help of local influential ruling party leaders, started dirt filling in the name of housing project, causing serious environment pollution.
   Protesting at the dirt filling, several hundred local people took to the streets and blocked the Dhaka-Demra road at around 11:00am.
   In another incident, several hundreds students and guardians of the Jatrabari Ideal School blocked Dhaka-Chittagang Highway, demanding foot bridge at Sayedabad.
   The students withdrew the barricade after local political leaders assured of rapid step to meet their demand.