Expatriate Bangladeshis remitted $1.4536 billion back home in October

BANGLADESH NEWS

Expatriate Bangladeshis remitted $1.4536 billion back home in October, a record high for a month, according to Bangladesh Bank. 

The previous high was $1.22 billion in January. 

The latest amount pushed up the total remittance in the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal to cross the $5 billion mark, 25 percent more than that of the same period last year. 

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman "Bangladesh didn't receive such a big amount of remittance in one month in the past 40 years." 

He hoped the uptrend would continue in the future. 

Kazi Saidur Rahman, General Manager of the central bank's Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department, said the expatriates set the record by remitting more before the Eid-ul-Azha celebrated on Oct 27. 

They had remitted $1.0395 billion in October last year. 

The higher flow of remittance also thrusts the reserve of foreign exchange of the central bank, setting another record. 

The reserve amounted to $12.36 billion on Thursday, the highest in history. 

The Governor said fall in payment of import bill also played a role in boosting the reserve. 

On Oct 18, the reserve crossed the $12-billion mark for the first time.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines buying Boeings to fly off chaos

BANGLADESH NEWS

Biman Bangladesh Airlines is adding two new aircraft to its fleet to battle its way out of flight schedule chaos.

The aircraft, two Boeing 777-300 ERs, will be bought on Sonali Bank UK and a consortium of 21 banks led by Eastern Bank Limited.

Representatives of the banks took the decision in a meeting at Bangladesh Bank on Thursday, Eastern Bank Limited Managing Director Ali Reza Iftekhar said. Deputy Governor of the central bank S K Shur Chowdhury presided over the meeting.

Biman will have to make a $118-million pre-delivery payment within Nov 15.

Sonali Bank UK is paying $58 million while the other banks led by the Eastern Bank Limited will pay the rest of the pre-delivery payment.

"We've decided to finance the purchase of aircraft by Biman. It will be given $ 60 million within the second week of this month," Iftekhar said.

Biman had been given loans to buy aircraft and it had repaid properly earlier, he added.

A top Biman official, requesting anonymity, said, "The meeting discussed the size and type of loans from Bangladeshi and foreign banks."

Biman Managing Director Mosaddek Alam was also present at the meeting.

Biman flies on four domestic and 18 international routes

Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia prays for Bangladesh at Ajmer Sharif

BANGLADESH NEWS

Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia on Thursday visited Ajmer Sharif, the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, and prayed for Bangladesh and happiness and prosperity of the nation's people.

Her Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan said the BNP Chairperson and her entourage arrived at Ajmer Sharif around 1:15pm from Jaipur by road on Thursday, fifth day of her current visit to India.

After offering special prayer at the shrine, she wrote on the visitor's book there, "We need Rahmat of Allah and Doa of Kwaja Baba for Bangladesh and us."

She had started for Ajmer Sharif around 10am in the morning.

BNP Standing Committee Member Tariqul Islam, her Advisors Riaz Rahman and Sabih Uddin Ahmed, BNP Vice-Chairman Shamser Mobin Chowdhury, and former MPs Khaleda Rabbani and Mosaddek Ali Falu were also among those accompanying her during the visit.

The shrine's chief Khadem and others received the opposition leader as she reached there.

She left back for Jaipur from the shrine.

Khaleda reached Jaipur, capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan, on Wednesday afternoon from New Delhi. She spent the night at Hotel Rambagh Palace.

She kicked off her seven-day India tour on Sunday on invitation of the Indian government with a nine-strong delegation accompanying her.

With only a year to the parliamentary elections, the BNP considers the visit 'very significant' while India says it 'is part of their engagement with Bangladesh's democratic and multiparty polity'.

She met Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and National Security Advisor Shibshankar Menon on Tuesday. She has already met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Opposition Leader in Indian Parliament Sushma Swaraj.

Khaleda will return on Nov 3, according to Maruf Kamal Khan.

Bangladesh VoIP licence BTRC call likely by December

BANGLADESH NEWS

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission are preparing for finalising the number of VoIP service providers by December.

The telecom regulator will complete evaluating the applications of the local entrepreneurs for licence authorisation in the beginning of December and after that the ministry will prepare the final list within days.

BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose on Thursday that they would complete evaluating the applications either at the end of November or at the beginning of December and then send those to the ministry.

The former Telecom Secretary said the licences are expected to be finalised in two weeks after sending the applications to the ministry, which will determine how many will be issued.

"The licences are likely to be issued early January," he said.

A senior official at the BTRC's Legal and Licensing Department told bdnews24.com that the applications were being evaluated on a 'grade basis' and incomplete applications were being rejected for not having necessary documents.

The telecom regulator posted the final VoIP guideline and licence application notice on its website on July 22, inviting applications for much-talked about VoIP licence to stop illegal call transmission, legalise the business and encourage the local entrepreneurs to invest more in the telecommunication sector.

The licence will be issued under the name of "VoIP service Provider (VSP)", it had said. However, the guideline did not mention how many licences would be provided for this telecom business.

The government took the initiative of issuing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) licence last year to stop illegal VoIP business, which has been causing huge revenue losses every year.

About 1,500 entrepreneurs applied for VoIP business licence by the deadline that expired on Oct 14.

In the current guideline, the application fee for VSP has been fixed at Tk 5,000, licence fee at Tk 500,000 and annual renewal licence fee at Tk 100,000.

Firms receiving the licence will have to channel 10 percent of their income to government exchequer.

According to the BTRC, the legal average daily international calls amount to nearly 30 million minutes while 10 million minutes of calls are made through illegal channel for which the government incurs Tk 50 million in revenue losses every day.

The government now gets three cents from each international incoming call.

According to the BTRC statistics, Bangladesh receives around 55-60 million minutes VoIP calls a day of which more than 10 million minutes calls are made through illegal channel.

The government receives three cents from each international call as per the country's telecommunications act, but due to illegal VoIP, it is deprived of almost Tk 8.0 billion each year.

Bangladesh 'concise statement' of jail killing case document submitted

BANGLADESH NEWS

The Attorney General's office submitted 'concise statement' of jail killing case to the Appellate Division on Thursday, a year and eight months after getting permission to appeal against a High Court verdict.

Advocate on record Sufia Khatun representing the office of Attorney General submitted the document to the relevant branch of Supreme Court.

Later she told journalists that now the case was ready for a final hearing at the Appellate Division.

The state counsel for jail killing case, Anisul Haque, submitted the summary statement of appeal on Wednesday.

On receiving the statement, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam had said that they would file an application in the Appellate Division for hearing this case on Nov 4.

A regular bench of the Appellate Division, led by then Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque, on Jan 11, 2011 had approved the leave to appeal of the state.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court had asked Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah and Abul Hashem Mridha, the two accused in the jail killing case and acquitted by the High Court, to surrender to law enforcers. The court also asked the police to arrest them if they did not surrender immediately.

But state counsel Haque on Wednesday said, "Police couldn't arrest them as they are absconding. I am not sure about their whereabouts but can assure that they are not in Bangladesh."

"If they do not surrender, they will not have the right to engage lawyer to fight for them at the Appellate Division, and there is no bar to proceed with the final hearing without their representation by a lawyer in such a situation."

The Appellate Division in its previous order termed "inactive" the appeal against the High Court verdict that acquitted Faruq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid, Bazlul Huda and A K M Mahiuddin, as they had been executed for their conviction in the Bangabandhu murder case.

The four national leaders of the wartime national government in and post-1971—Acting President Syed Nazrul Islam, Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed and Cabinet ministers M Mansur Ali and AHM Qamruzzaman—were brutally killed inside the Dhaka Central Jail on Nov 3, 1975.

The Awami League government had revived the trial in the jail killing case after it came to power in 1996. Charge sheets were submitted against 23 people on Oct 15, 1998.

On Oct 20, 2004, Dhaka's Metropolitan Sessions Court Judge Matiur Rahman had awarded death sentences to fugitives Risaldar Moslem Uddin, Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah and Abul Hashem Mridha in the case.

It also awarded lifer to Syed Faruk Rahman, Sultan Shahrier Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda and AKM Mahiuddin Ahmed — all of whom were executed for the murder of Bangabandhu — and eight others.

But, the High Court in 2008 upon petitions acquitted Marfat Ali, Hashem Mridha, Faruk, Shahrier, Bazlul and Mahiuddin.

On Sep 14, 2009, the government filed the petition for leave to appeal against the High Court judgment. The hearing on the petition began on Nov 7, 2009.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina exhorts youth to become entrepreneurs,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday urged the youth of the nation to come forward and take the role of entrepreneurs to build a hunger- and poverty-free Bangladesh.

"The mentality of the youth nowadays is to get a job anyhow. But if they become entrepreneurs, then they can create job opportunities even for their neighbours and other people," she said.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the inauguration ceremony marking the National Youth Day 2012 at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium here in the morning.

Mentioning the young generation's contribution to the War of Independence, Hasina said, "The youth fought with arms and freed the country. Now the war is against poverty. The youth can definitely build a hunger- and poverty-free Bangladesh."

She also urged the younger generation to stay away from drugs and terrorism to become self-reliant in order to build an independent Bangladesh.

"We all must be aware so that we don't step in a wrong direction and get involved in drug addiction and anti-social activities."

Hasina said, "We have become old. Our time is nearing end. The youth are the future. They have to build the country. So they have to build themselves that way."

Mentioning various developmental activities of the Department of Youth Development, she said the Department had so far trained nearly four million youth, and of them, nearly two million had become self-reliant entrepreneurs creating employment opportunities for others.

She also handed over the National Youth Award 2012 to 15 male and female young entrepreneurs who have started their own projects after taking training at the Department of Youth Development.

State Minister for Youth and Sports Ahad Ali Sarkar and Youth and Sports Secretary Noor Muhammad also addressed the function, among others.