Author: Asian Bangla

Hasina government faces allegations of a concerted persecution of its opponents [The Associated Press] Hasina government faces allegations of a concerted persecution of its opponents [The Associated Press] more on Bangladesh Buddhists ‘lured’ to settle on Rohingya land 2 days ago ‘I have no words to tell them’: A Rohingya fixer 2 weeks ago Bangladesh: Why was science fiction writer Zafar Iqbal attacked? 3 weeks ago Tricked and trapped: Inside the Rohingya trade 3 weeks ago Dhaka, Bangladesh – The controversial jailing of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and the state persecution of dissent have raised fears that the…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Bangladesh Bank has made funds cheaper for all banks by reducing its repo rate by 75 basis points to 6 percent. The decision was made yesterday, a couple of days after the BB slashed the cash reserve requirement or CRR by one percentage point to 5.5 percent. But both the decisions will take effect on April 15, according to two circulars issued by the central bank yesterday. The BB, however, kept the reverse repo rate unchanged at 4.75 percent. Repo is a short-term fund that the central bank gives to commercial banks in case of cash shortfall,…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : They were once government land. But over the years powerful people occupied them and built establishments on them as they liked. Now the government wants to reclaim them with taxpayers’ money. With most of the surviving 26 city canals under illegal occupation and clogged with solid wastes, the government has taken up a Tk 607-cr project for land acquisition and excavation of five canals to ease the capital’s waterlogging problem. The five canals are Hazaribagh, Baishteki, Sangbadaik Colony, Begunbari and Manda Khal flowing through the two Dhaka city corporations. Over 82 percent of the money will be…

Asianbangla, DHAKA : China is developing a 750-acre industrial park in Bangladesh which will largely be used by Chinese manufacturing firms, a Chinese official said on Wednesday, part of its push to expand links with South Asia and beyond. Reuters. State-run China Harbour Engineering Company will hold a 70 percent share in a joint venture being formed for the park with the Bangladesh Special Economic Zone Authority (BSEZA), Li Guangjun, the economic and commercial counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Dhaka, said. “This is for the first time China has received such a facility from the Bangladesh government where Chinese…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Bangladesh Shipping Corporation is in the process of purchasing new bulk carriers for its fleet after about 27 years. The first of the six Chinese vessels would be delivered by the supplier on July 5. The vessels, three of which are oil tankers and the rest freighters, are being bought from China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation. Each of the vessels is of 39,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT). The total cost of the project is Tk 1,843.58 crore. China will provide financial assistance for the purchase under a government-to-government concessional loan. The vessel to be received in…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : The Anti-Corruption Commission has opened an enquiry into eight BNP leaders over alleged involvement in money laundering and amassing of wealth illegally. They are BNP standing committee members Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas, Nazrul Islam Khan and Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury; vice chairmen Abdul Awal Mintoo and Morshed Khan; Executive Committee Member Tabith Awal, and Joint Secretary General Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel are being investigated, according to ACC Director (Enquiry and Investigation) Kazi Safikul Alam. Morshed Khan’s son Foysal Morshed and Dhaka Bank Managing Director Syed Mahbubur Rahman are also being investigated, he added. The ACC yesterday appointed…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : City authorities have tried out a host of “solutions” to control chaotic traffic over the decades. The result? All the money went down the drain and the situation turned from bad to worse. After bamboo and rope fences, manual traffic lights turned digital at the capital’s intersections in 2004 to ease traffic movement. Nine years later, the system was upgraded with electronic countdown timers and solar panels. The two projects cost Tk 37 crore but in the end public money was more or less wasted. Dhaka South City Corporation and the World Bank, lender of previous projects,…

Bangladesh has sought active cooperation from Russia and others for resolving the ongoing Rohingya crisis. Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali made the call at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow yesterday, says a foreign ministry press release. While describing Bangladesh’s achievements, including its becoming eligible for graduating to a developing country from a least developed one, Ali narrated how the possibility of outstanding economic and social development tempo of Bangladesh may face challenge by the Rohingya influx. The foreign minister told his Russian counterpart how Bangladesh was doing everything in its capacity to assist Rohingyas at a…

Bangladesh government is expecting to make a huge leap in growth during the running 2017-18 fiscal. Sources at the planning ministry say, the government is expecting that the GDP or growth will reach 7.65 per cent this year, what was targeted at 7.4 per cent during the budget preparation. The provisional projection has been made based on information of data available of the last eight months, the sources, highly placed within the ministry, told The Daily Star this afternoon. Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal informed the details to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a ECNEC meeting held at the NEC…

Last year, a 30-year-old teacher suffering from a severe bloodstream infection arrived in my emergency room for treatment. The woman had been in and out of local clinics with a stubborn chest infection and fever, and by the time I examined her, she was receiving chemotherapy for blood cancer. Instinctively, I treated her infection with an antibiotic from a group of drugs known as “carbapenems,” strong medicines commonly prescribed to people who are hospitalised. But after further tests I discovered that she was carrying a strain of bacteria that is resistant to most antibiotics in our therapeutic arsenal. There was…