Posts

Protect every data to fight cyber crime

/0 Comments/in /by

Protect every data to fight cyber crime

Star Business Report

Bangladeshi companies should establish proper security shields to protect their official data from cyber attacks, cyber security and audit experts said yesterday.

Every organisation should think about security of their data before awarding the audit work to a chartered accountancy firm, said Luna Shamsuddoha, chairman of Janata Bank.

“Official data should be protected and archived to avoid cyber threats and loss of data,” said Luna, also president of the Bangladesh Women in Technology.

She spoke in a workshop titled “Cyber security for personal and professional safety” organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) and Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN) at the CA Bhaban in Dhaka.

The auditors should secure computer networks in their offices so as to prevent intrusions and hacking attempts, Luna said. Companies in Bangladesh will suffer because of the lack of their capacity to handle such threats, she said.

She also urged women to keep their national identity cards in a safe place and not to share passwords with anyone, not even their better halves. In today’s digital world, technology influences day-to-day activities of every person, said Dewan Nurul Islam, president of the ICAB.

So people should be more careful while using technology, otherwise they could fall victim to cybercrimes at any time, he said.

“Currently 80 million people are using internet in Bangladesh, so cyber threats may become pervasive just because of a lack of capacity in handling such threats.”

Munir Hasan, general secretary at the BdOSN, and Mohammad Tohidur Rahman Bhuiyan, managing director and CEO of Right Time Limited, jointly presented keynote papers at the workshop. Every minute, about 18 million people are sending text messages, 187 million sending emails and 1 million using Facebook, they said.

Some 78 percent of social media users share and press “like” on news posts without knowledge of its authenticity, they opined.

Organisations should have safer email identities to ensure security to their data, said Hasan of the BdOSN.

The internet network and the digital devices of any workplace should be locked using security codes, he said.

Parents should be more careful about the use of internet by their children because excessive dependency hampers brain development, Lafifa Jamal, chairperson of the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Dhaka, said mentioning a study.

People should very carefully select passwords for email or Facebook accounts, she said.

It is a must to create mass awareness on cyber crimes, said Sayed Nasirullah, assistant commissioner of the cyber security and crime division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

More programme should be organised to create awareness on cyber crimes among people, especially women, said Parveen Mahmud, former president of the ICAB.

Govt widens reach of jute packaging law

/0 Comments/in /by

Govt widens reach of jute packaging law

Sohel Parvez

The government has made packaging of two more products—poultry and fish feed— in jute bags compulsory, a move that has been objected by the feed millers due to risks of quality deterioration.

The Feed Industries Association of Bangladesh had earlier urged the government not to include feeds under mandatory packaging by jute sacks as it would expose the products to moisture, which depreciates the quality.

“It will affect farmers,” said Moshiur Rahman, president of the Feed Industries Association of Bangladesh.

The country’s feed mills, which cater to the needs of tens of thousands of poultry farms that meet the domestic demand for chicken meat and eggs, produced 56 lakh tonnes of feed in 2017, according to the data from the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council.

The sector also caters to the 1.50 crore fish farmers in the country.

If feed is to be packed in jute sacks, an additional layer of polyethylene would be required to protect them from moisture, Rahman said.

“This will not be good for the environment. At the same time, our costs will increase,” he said, adding that feed mills are using jute bags to package maize, one of the main ingredients for feed.

The feed millers will once again appeal to the government to reconsider the decision, he added.

The inclusion of poultry and fish feeds to the mandatory jute packaging umbrella comes 1.5 years after 11 agricultural items — including flour, potato, pulse, onion.

The government started enforcing the mandatory packaging law for commodities from the last quarter of 2015 to protect the interests of the jute growers and mills that remain vulnerable to fluctuations of demand in the global market for the absence of a vibrant domestic market.

Limiting the use of environmentally harmful plastic bags was another motive. The law was framed in 2010 and six commodities including the staple rice, wheat, fertilisers and sugar were brought under it.

The demand for jute bags has increased after the government started enforcing the law, said Md Mahmudul Hassan, chairman of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation.

Asked about the issue of moisture raised by feed millers, he said the use of inner liner will keep feeds free from moisture.

“We have examined in case of sugar and fertilisers and found no problem,” he said, adding that mills would try to use biodegradable liners.

Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA) estimates that public and private mills can make 140 crore pieces of jute sacks annually but they are manufacturing 50-55 crore pieces now, said its Secretary Abdul Barik Khan.

“Full compliance is yet to take place,” he said, adding that a section of the traders have started using plastic bags again.

In Bangladesh, about 2 lakh people work in 176 public and private mills, which process two-thirds of the country’s annual jute production of 14 lakh tonnes, according to data by the Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association.

Of it, 8.36 lakh tonnes are exported and the rest are consumed locally, according to the association.

Govt widens reach of jute packaging law

/0 Comments/in /by

Govt widens reach of jute packaging law

Sohel Parvez

 

The government has made packaging of two more products—poultry and fish feed— in jute bags compulsory, a move that has been objected by the feed millers due to risks of quality deterioration.

The Feed Industries Association of Bangladesh had earlier urged the government not to include feeds under mandatory packaging by jute sacks as it would expose the products to moisture, which depreciates the quality.

“It will affect farmers,” said Moshiur Rahman, president of the Feed Industries Association of Bangladesh.

The country’s feed mills, which cater to the needs of tens of thousands of poultry farms that meet the domestic demand for chicken meat and eggs, produced 56 lakh tonnes of feed in 2017, according to the data from the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council.

The sector also caters to the 1.50 crore fish farmers in the country.

If feed is to be packed in jute sacks, an additional layer of polyethylene would be required to protect them from moisture, Rahman said.

“This will not be good for the environment. At the same time, our costs will increase,” he said, adding that feed mills are using jute bags to package maize, one of the main ingredients for feed.

The feed millers will once again appeal to the government to reconsider the decision, he added.

The inclusion of poultry and fish feeds to the mandatory jute packaging umbrella comes 1.5 years after 11 agricultural items — including flour, potato, pulse, onion.

The government started enforcing the mandatory packaging law for commodities from the last quarter of 2015 to protect the interests of the jute growers and mills that remain vulnerable to fluctuations of demand in the global market for the absence of a vibrant domestic market.

Limiting the use of environmentally harmful plastic bags was another motive. The law was framed in 2010 and six commodities including the staple rice, wheat, fertilisers and sugar were brought under it.

The demand for jute bags has increased after the government started enforcing the law, said Md Mahmudul Hassan, chairman of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation.

Asked about the issue of moisture raised by feed millers, he said the use of inner liner will keep feeds free from moisture.

“We have examined in case of sugar and fertilisers and found no problem,” he said, adding that mills would try to use biodegradable liners.

Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA) estimates that public and private mills can make 140 crore pieces of jute sacks annually but they are manufacturing 50-55 crore pieces now, said its Secretary Abdul Barik Khan.

“Full compliance is yet to take place,” he said, adding that a section of the traders have started using plastic bags again.

In Bangladesh, about 2 lakh people work in 176 public and private mills, which process two-thirds of the country’s annual jute production of 14 lakh tonnes, according to data by the Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association.

Of it, 8.36 lakh tonnes are exported and the rest are consumed locally, according to the association.

Shipment delay weighs on RMG

/0 Comments/in /by

Shipment delay weighs on RMG

Star Business Report

Shipment delays and late presentation of documents to Bangladesh’s authorities are among the most critical challenges faced by the country’s garment sector, according to a survey.

Some 66 percent of the exports could not be delivered on time while late presentation of documents, which poses a money laundering risk, occurred 53 percent of the time, said the survey of the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM).

Inadequate knowledge of domestic and international regulations was also to blame, it said. The BIBM revealed the findings of the “Trade Facilitations in RMG by Banks: Risks and Mitigation Techniques” survey at a workshop at its auditorium in Dhaka yesterday.

The institute organised the programme in association with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA).

Garment exports account for more than four-fifths of the country’s total exports, earning about $30 billion in 2017, of which woven and knitwear garments constituting around 52 and 48 percent respectively, according to the survey.

The survey spoke of another risk: the increasing amount of overdue export bills: 48 percent against letters of credit (LCs) and 53 percent against contracts.

The bills increased sevenfold to $119.63 million last year from $16.23 million the year before, said the survey, adding that some 42 percent of the export proceeds were found to have been non-repatriated against contracts.

The overdue bills raised concerns about money laundering and whether the exports actually did occur. The LCs cater to transactions between locals and foreign banks while contracts to direct deals between buyers and suppliers.

During the survey, members of the BGMEA and the BKMEA pointed out some key operational challenges to trade facilitation and financing by banks.

These include low packing credit usage, inefficiency in assessing working capital, absence of credit limit tolerance and of a customised collateral system, and inconsistent trade charges among banks.

Other obstacles are lack of awareness and inefficiency of traders and bankers in handling operations, they said, adding that problems were sometimes faced in trade facilitation with countries including Russia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba.

Some 46 percent of bankers suggested increasing skilled workforce in the RMG sector to address the risks, the survey said.

Though foreign trade facilitation service improved, non-compliance still remains a major concern in banks, said Prof Shah Md Ahsan Habib, director of the BIBM, while presenting the research paper at the workshop.

Incidents of trade-based money laundering are a growing concern for policymakers and central banks throughout the globe and it is affecting the RMG trade and service-providing bankers, he said.

Though available anti-money laundering rules are in line with globally accepted standards, there is still a lot of scope for improving their enforcement and identifying applicable red flags in the country’s context, he said in his recommendations.

Shipment delays result from a lack of efficient workforce in the industry, said Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, second vice president of the BKMEA. Subcontract in the RMG sector is a great risk factor for banks and the government should give policy support to banks to minimise risks of foreign trade, said Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, supernumerary professor of the BIBM.

Banks should intensify monitoring in the entire import and export process to avert risks, said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Dhaka Bank.  There is no alternative to training for reducing risks in foreign trade, said Mehmood Hussain, managing director of NRB Bank.

Banks, NBFIs sign up to refinance power, infrastructure projects

/0 Comments/in /by

Banks, NBFIs sign up to refinance power, infrastructure projects

Star Business Report

Eight banks and four non-bank financial institutions yesterday signed a participation agreement with Bangladesh Bank to enjoy funds from an Investment Promotion and Financing Facility (IPFF) II project.

The central bank, as the project’s administrator, has formed a $403.70 million fund to lend to financial institutions, authorising them to refinance customers in power and infrastructure projects at a lower cost.

Governor Fazle Kabir was present at the signing ceremony as chief guest at the central bank headquarters in the capital.

Ahmed Jamal, deputy governor of the central bank; Hassan O Rashid, project director of IPFF II; AKM Abdullah, senior financial sector specialist of World Bank, and senior executives of the signatories were present at the event.

The signatories are Dhaka Bank, Prime Bank, Eastern Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, United Commercial Bank, One Bank, City Bank, IDLC Finance, Infrastructure Development Company, Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund, and Industrial and Infrastructure Development Finance Company.

The government received loans amounting to $356.70 million from World Bank to implement the IPFF II project.

The government provided $60 million as a counterpart fund to the project. The total project cost stands at $416.70 million, out of which the amount being lent is $403.70 million. The rest of the fund will be used as technical assistance.

India doubles import tax on textile products, may hit China

/0 Comments/in /by

India doubles import tax on textile products, may hit China

Reuters, New Delhi/Mumbai

 

India doubled the import tax on more than 300 textile products to 20 percent on Tuesday as the world’s biggest producer of cotton tries to curb rising imports from China.

It was the second tax hike on textiles in as many months after an increase on other products including fibre and apparels last month.

The moves are expected to provide relief to the domestic textile industry, which has been hit by cheaper imports.

India’s total textile imports jumped by 16 percent to a record $7 billion in the fiscal year to March 2018. Of this, about $3 billion were from China.

The government did not disclose details of the 328 textile products that will be subject to the duty increase announced on Tuesday.

Rising imports sent India’s trade deficit with China in textile products to a record high $1.54 billion in 2017/18, alarming industry officials as India had been until recently a net exporter of textile products to China.

Sanjay Jain, president of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, told Reuters he did not expect China to retaliate to the Indian duty increases as it still has a trade surplus with India.

He said India’s textile product imports could fall to $6 billion in 2018/19 as a result of the tax hike to 20 percent.

India’s imports of textile products from Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia also jumped in the last few years as they are not subject to any duty under free trade agreements (FTA) signed by India with these countries.

The 20 percent duty will not be applicable to products sourced from those countries due to the FTA, Jain said.

Industry officials say in the last few months Chinese fibre has been shipped to Bangladesh and processed and exported to India with zero duty.

“Rules of origin need to be implemented for textile products. Otherwise Chinese products will land from other countries,” said a Mumbai-based garment exporter, who declined to be named.

Jain said India’s textile and garment exports could rise 8 percent to $40 billion in 2018/19 due to a weak rupee and as the government is expected to introduce incentives to boost overseas sales.

India’s trade differences with the United States have also been rising since President Donald Trump took office.

Govt brings fresh funds for entrepreneurs

/0 Comments/in /by

Govt brings fresh funds for entrepreneurs

Star Business Report

The government has introduced an Entrepreneurship Support Fund (ESF) for agro-based industrial, food processing and ICT sectors by abolishing the Equity and Entrepreneurship Fund (EEF), as clients did not pay back loans on time despite enjoying equity at zero interest.

The ESF fund would provide eight-year term loans at 2 percent simple interest, the central bank said in a circular yesterday.

It has a four-year grace period, after which clients will have to pay 25 percent principle and interest every year, according to the statement.

Clients themselves have to provide 51 percent as equity of the project cost and invest it within one year after securing the approval from the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB). They must also submit mortgage against the loans.

The loans will be disbursed in three installments, the first through the ICB. Clients will have to invest the whole of the first installment within one and a half years. They would otherwise have to pay back the fund including interest.

No other bank loan will be allowed as equity of the projects and no defaulter can get the loan, according to the guideline.

The central bank will continue to frame policy-related rules of the fund as needed and the ICB will work as the operator.

Deal signed for single window to boost trade

/0 Comments/in /by

Deal signed for single window to boost trade

Star Business Report
Some 38 government and private sector agencies yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to speed up the process of clearing imported and exportable goods under a National Single Window (NSW).

The electronic gateway will allow businesses to submit information related to imports and exports to regulatory authorities only once to clear their goods from the ports.

The single entry point will deliver a user-friendly, electronic system that streamlines and automates procedures for international trade-related permits, licences, certificates and customs declarations, said the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

Once fully introduced, the NSW, which will connect the 38 agencies electronically, will benefit 319,000 Bangladeshi traders by cutting time and cost.

The average processing time for imports is expected to come down to 122 hours and the average processing time for exports to 88 hours.

 the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the UK’s DFID. The customs authority will be the lead agency to implement the electronic gateway.

The NSW came at a time when Bangladesh scored 34.9 in the “Distance to Frontier” indicator in the Doing Business Index 2018, far below the South Asian regional average of 57.8 and behind countries such as Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.

The measurement is based on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 represents the highest performance.

Estimates suggested that modern customs and border clearance procedure can reduce the cost of trading for the lower middle-income countries such as Bangladesh, said Khondaker Muhammad Aminur Rahman, a member for customs audit, modernisation and international trade of the NBR.

Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said, “As I understand, we will get a relief from submitting multiple documents thanks to the introduction of the NSW.”

“We look forward to its speedy and effective implementation,” he said. NBR Chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan also spoke. The NBR and the IFC jointly organised the event.

Improve infrastructure to woo investors: MCCI

/0 Comments/in /by

Improve infrastructure to woo investors: MCCI

Star Business Report

Inadequate infrastructure, a lack of confidence in the economy and a shortage of power and energy are major impediments to the country’s growth, said a leading chamber yesterday.

“These impediments must be removed to restore the confidence of the foreign investors as well as the country’s own business and the investor community,” said the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI).

Bangladesh’s impressive growth and its journey towards a higher development trajectory have been globally admired, said the chamber in its review of the economic situation in Bangladesh for April-June of 2018.

As per the provisional estimate of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, gross domestic product growth in the just-concluded fiscal year was 7.65 percent, up from 7.28 percent in 2016-17.

“Although the economy is progressing well, the achievements remain below their true potential.”

In the fourth-quarter of last fiscal year, some risk factors such as power and gas shortage and weak infrastructure appeared as major obstacles to the expansion of economic activity as those disrupted industrial production and discouraged new investment.

There are other downside risks such as the poor implementation of public investment programmes, the growing requirement of subsidy payments by the state to different public sector agencies, including the state-owned banks, and growing income inequalities.

“The corruption-ridden banking sector is perhaps the biggest downside risk now, which will call for strict vigilance by the central bank and the finance ministry to bring discipline to the sector.”

The review said the overall economic situation is positive as indicated by steady improvements in the major economic trends.

There has been steady progress in agriculture sector, moderately good growth in industrial sector despite a crisis in the power sector, decline in inflation rate, macroeconomic stability, build-up of a comfortable foreign exchange reserve and good progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goals, it said.

All these boost people’s confidence in the country’s ability to attain accelerated economic growth and emerge as a middle-income country by the turn of the present decade, it added.

ROAD SAFETY DEMO: BGMEA fears shipment slowdown

/0 Comments/in /by

ROAD SAFETY DEMO: BGMEA fears shipment slowdown

Star Business Report

Student demonstration and transport disruption, which partly halted movement of goods-laden trucks, have affected shipments of apparel items, exporters said yesterday.

Not only has there been a slowdown in shipments but also suspensions of trips of some important buyers to Dhaka who were scheduled to place work orders, said Siddiqur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), at a press conference at its office in Dhaka.

Rahman, however, could not exactly state the number of trips suspended, of shipments that could not be made from the port and of trucks stopped from reaching the Chittagong port.

“The most important loss from the demonstration and transport strike is the loss of image of the country as many buyers are asking us about the situation of the country,” said Rahman.

The BGMEA chief fears a massive loss of business if the demonstration continues for a long time.

Movement of exports and imports over the Dhaka-Chittagong highways has been hampered over the last past week for different reasons and the demonstration and transport strike compounded the woes of goods-laden trucks, he said.

Rahman said the BGMEA expressed solidarity with the movement of young students as they taught the nation a lesson on morality in everyday life.

“We are noticing that normalcy in transport is yet to be restored although it has started returning in people’s lives,” he said.

An adequate number of transport vehicles are not plying the roads, he said, adding that such a chaotic situation also brought a lot of suffering for people.

If the goods cannot be transported on time, factory owners will have to face order cancellations, offer discounts to buyers or go for expensive air shipments to maintain strict lead times, Rahman added.

“We are passing through a very difficult time as competing countries are performing well in the global apparel markets. So in such times we need a peaceful and business-friendly environment,” Rahman said.