Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday said Dhaka has already conducted feasibility studies on 23 countries for inking different kinds of economic deals while the country is opening up new markets to realize the current government’s economic diplomacy.
“We’ve already conducted feasibility studies on 23 countries for bilateral and regional trade agreement, free trade agreement and comprehensive economic agreement,” he said.
The foreign minister said this while inaugurating the First Economic Diplomacy Week at Foreign Service Academy in the capital.
He said the foreign ministry along with all Bangladesh missions abroad timing up with the commerce ministry have been engaged in the process of finalizing preferential and free trade deals with a number of countries.
“All of my colleagues and Mission heads have been advised to put additional efforts in achieving our goals of Economic Diplomacy,” said the minister.
He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has outlined few roadmaps for achieving Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s dream of Sonar Bangla by 2041.
“And to help achieving those roadmaps, we have introduced two packages ... One is Economic Diplomacy and the other is Public Diplomacy and they reinforce each other,” he said.
For Bangladesh, Dr Momen said, Economic Diplomacy is more important as the country prepares for its transition from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) group in 2026.
“This is also an important tool in our national efforts to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 2041 goals,” he added.
The foreign minister said Bangladesh Missions abroad are working relentlessly to ensure post-graduation preferential access of Bangladeshi products to the large markets such as GSP+ facilities in the European Union.
He said Bangladesh’s apparel sector is already on the move to gradually strengthen its backward linkage industries to achieve “double transformation” to meet the RoO (Rules of Origin) criteria of the GSP+ scheme.
As of now, he said, as much as 80 percent of the country’s exportable knitwear is already for undergoing double transformation, while it is around 50 percent for woven garments.
“Steps are afoot to diversify our export basket by prioritizing sectors such as ceramic industry, ship-wrecking industry, cement industry, pharmaceutical industry and knowledge-driven industries such as Information technology (IT),” he said, adding that Bangladesh is now exporting robots to South Korea, ships to India and pharmaceuticals to Europe.
Apart from being a booming domestic market, Dr Momen said, Bangladesh is also a strategic hub linking India, China and the ASEAN countries.
“Today, Bangladesh has the most liberal investment regime in the region, characterized by a wide array of facilities, attractive incentive policies and consistent reforms,” he said.
The foreign minister said 100 Special Economic Zones and 28 High-Tech Parks are being created with a view to encouraging investment and rapid economic development through increase and diversification of industry, employment, production and export.
Duranta, bicycle brand of leading business conglomerate RFL Group, has launched a campaign called ‘Shobdo Traash’ to create public awareness to prevent unnecessary honking.
RN Paul, Managing Director of RFL Group, inaugurated the campaign at a function held at RFL Group’s office in Badda on Tuesday.
The program includes training of drivers, publication of articles on the harmful effects of noise pollution in the media, dissemination of various awareness messages on social media and organizing roundtable to prevent noise pollution.
Addressing the occasion, RN Paul said, “noise pollution is a major problem in our country. Main reason for the noise pollution is unnecessarily honking. Because about 80 percent of the noise pollution in the country is caused by honking from different types of vehicles. The impact of noise pollution is terrible. High levels of noise put negative impact on person’s hearing and health.”
He added, “If we want to survive, we must stop unnecessary honking. There are many countries in the world where people do not honk at all. It is also possible in our country, if we want to do so. RFL Group has a corporate social responsibility as the country’s leading business group. We have launched this campaign to make the common people of the country, including the drivers, aware. ”
Md. Mahmudur Rahman, Chief Operating Officer of Durant Bicycle, said that in most cases, drivers indulge in unnecessary honking without realizing the impact it can have on health. The main objective of this campaign is to make the people aware about the uncontrolled honking and its harmful effects.
He added that four video content have been made to create awareness through digital platform at the beginning of the campaign. The speeches of the people, who played a role in creating a social movement to stop honking at different times, will be disseminated on social media. Besides, articles and columns related to noise pollution will be published in the newspapers as well as roundtable will be held with the participation of experts. Moreover, we will provide training to drivers across the country so that they don’t honk unnecessarily.
Md. Mahmudur Rahman said, “We will introduce E-bike in this year that will work as alternative to motorcycle. E-bike is environment friendly.”
Shariful Islam, Head of Marketing of Duranta Bicycle, Robin Khan, Senior Operation Manager and Khandaker Arif Hossain, Brand Manager and other senior officials of the company were present on the occasion.
Rangpur Metal Industries Limited, a concern of country’s leading business conglomerate RFL, has brought new cooker hood using latest technology to the market. Rangpur Metal Industries Ltd Director Md. Moniruzzaman has unveiled the product at an event held at RFL Group head office in Badda recently.
Addressing the occasion, Md. Moniruzzaman said, “The live of our country people have changed a lot. So that, we have brought a new featured cooker hood to the market to make daily lives easier and more comfortable. This cooker hood has various features including automatic motion sensor, touch control switch, auto heat clean technology, tempered glass panel, stainless steel filter and 750m3/h enriched air suction, which ensures the highest quality.”
He added that the automatic motion sensor can be used without touching the hand. In addition, a 2-watt LED light has been added to the hood to work safely in low light and a powerful 150-watt motor with two speeds has been used, capable of blowing 180 cubic meters of air per hour. As a result, lowering the temperature will bring relief to the kitchen.
Shariful Islam, Head of Marketing, Rangpur Metal Industries Limited, said, "Hot steam escapes from the kitchen for using the kitchen hood. This is why cooking becomes comfortable.”
At present, RFL has a total of 8 different types of cooker hoods of different sizes. The price ranges of cooker hoods are between Tk 7,060 and Tk 31,765. Buyers will be able to purchase the product from Best Buy and Easy Build. There is also a free home delivery and free installation facilities within a maximum of three days when ordering from the popular e-commerce site www.othoba.com .
Md. Nazmul Haque, Assistant General Manager (Operations) of Rangpur Metal Industries Limited, Finance Controller Md. Zahir Uddin, Deputy Manager (Accounts) Binod Kumer Sarker and Sub-Assistant Brand Manager Md. Ashrafuzzaman and other senior officials of the company were present.
ICC Bangladesh strongly endorsed the finance ministry’s recent recommendation to avoid hard loans and discourage the import of luxury goods in order to reduce pressure on declining foreign exchange reserves.
The leading chamber also endorsed the recent austerity and regulatory measures taken by the government and Bangladesh Bank aimed at curbing non-essential imports, suspending the implementation of projects with high import components.
“We believe this will send a positive signal to the market and the economy as well as curbing inflation,” ICCB President Mahbubur Rahman told the 27th annual council held in Dhaka on Saturday.
ICCB also supports the demand of the businesses not to increase the power and gas rates, fuel prices as well reduce the corporate rate taxes during the upcoming budget as these will be helpful in containing the inflation, the ICCB president said.
While presenting the ICCB’s report, he said that over the last two years, the pandemic has played a major role in shaping the global economy. Many sectors have found themselves in difficulty and are still struggling and the countries dependent on those sectors are now quietly trying to get back up again.
The global economy is poised to be sent on yet another unpredictable course by Russia-Ukraine war. The Executive Board Report observed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine poses the most severe risk to developing Asia’s economic outlook, the report said.
The war is already affecting economies in the region through sharp increases in prices for commodities such as oil and has heightened instability in global financial markets, it said.
The Covid-19 continues to impact many parts of developing Asia, with some economies experiencing new surges in cases, he said.
Bangladesh’s journey of 50 years since its independence in 1971 has been tremendous and to many it is a ‘land of impossible attainment’, he added.
The dominant narrative of Bangladesh has been of an economic miracle and the country’s impressive score card is built on her success in terms of attaining a consistent high pace of economic growth and an impressive performance with regard to various development indicators, including those relating to the millennium development goals (MDGs), the ICCB president said.
According to World Economic Forum since its founding in 1971, Bangladesh has emerged from overwhelming poverty to be proclaimed by the World Bank in 2020 as ‘a model for poverty reduction’, Rahman said.
Bangladesh, like other countries, faces the daunting challenge of fully recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, which has constrained economic activities and reversed some of the gains achieved in the last decade, he said.