Farmers in Lalmonirhat are losing interest in tea cultivation as a lack of processing facilities in the area is preventing them from raising enough capital to sustain the business, according to growers and traders.

Hazaribagh has transformed itself into a leather products manufacturing hub from a tannery zone in a span of five years since rawhides processors were shifted to Savar, logging an annual trade of Tk 60 crore. 

Around 73 per cent of Bangladesh’s garment exports is still limited to nine countries for a lack of market diversification in spite of different public and private initiatives. 

The government’s austerity measures have hit implementation of the annual development programme (ADP) in the first month of the current fiscal year, with just 0.96 per cent of the total allocation being spent, the lowest in the last four years. 

The unit prices in the mutual fund sector have dropped over the past few weeks even though they disbursed handsome dividends in recent times as the National Board of Revenue (NBR) suggested deducting source tax from the cash dividend income. 

A number of directors of Prime Islami Life Insurance siphoned off more than Tk 300 crore funds by keeping the fixed deposits of the insurer as collateral to secure bank loans for another company, putting policyholders’ interests at risk, according to an audit. 

As the economy of Bangladesh is growing rapidly, the Netherlands is looking to enhance bilateral trade and utilise investment opportunities here with a strong focus on digitalisation and sustainability.

Bangladesh’s marine fishing industry is barely keeping head above water as their operating costs have risen significantly after fuel prices were hiked twice in the last eight months.

For the past two months a storage tank of state-run Padma Oil Company containing nearly 6,000 tonnes of furnace oil has been kept sealed off by Custom House, Chattogram on charges of dodging duty of Tk 116.74 crore.

Apparel exporters in Bangladesh are feeling the pinch of a looming global recession, persisting higher inflation and dragging severe fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war as orders from international buyers have fallen. 

Shrimp and prawn yields in the country stood at 296 kilogrammes per hectare in 2017 but increased to 664 kg per hectare in 2021 as growers started following six measures of scientific farming introduced by the Safe Aqua Farming for Economic and Trade Improvement (SAFETI) project, according to speakers at a workshop.

Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, a former chief executive officer of Robi Axiata Ltd, has filed a lawsuit against the telecom operator, its board chairman and former group CEO seeking Tk 227 crore in retirement benefits and compensation for ‘wrongful dismissal’. 

Bangladesh’s cotton consumption may remain unchanged in the year from August 2022 to July 2023 owing to lower-than-expected imports, said the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently.

The government is gearing up to implement a new “Smart Bangladesh” vision by 2041 with the belief that a preceding “Digital Bangladesh” had been realised by 2021.

Most of the listed non-life insurance companies in Bangladesh posted lower profits in the first half of 2022 largely due to a decrease in premium incomes from their marine insurance segment as the country moved to curb imports.  

India’s headline retail inflation may ease below 6 per cent by the fourth quarter of this financial year, bringing an end to the current cycle of rate hikes, analysts said over the weekend.

Dealers will lose their trade licence if they try to create a fertiliser crisis in the country as there is enough of it in stock to meet the demand until January next year, Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque said yesterday.

People in Bangladesh once barely knew about dragon fruit, also called pitaya, but it is gradually making its way into the fields by winning the hearts of farmers all over the country through its immense popularity.

Out of my 26 years with three global banks, I spent more than half of it in treasury dealing room environment in Dhaka, Mumbai, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, London, and New York.  

The lack of gas connections is creating obstacles for companies at the API Industrial Park to conduct their operations even though the project was completed in June last year.