Opinion: Teacher ethics is to teach

Asia Energy to build 1,000 MW Bangladesh power plant

Asia Energy to build 1,000 MW Bangladesh power plant
Sat Jan 26, 2008

DHAKA (Reuters) - Asia Energy Corp (Bangladesh), sister firm of UK-based GCM
Resources PLC, has proposed to build a 1,000 megawatts (MW) power plant
using coal from Bangladesh's northwest field, a senior energy official said
on Saturday.

The firm submitted a plan to the Bangladesh government to develop a coal
mine at the field at Phulbari, 350 km (220 miles) northwest of the capital
Dhaka, using open pit mining technology.

"We have received the proposal (for the power plant) through the board of
investment, but before giving them any green signal, we need to get an
approved national coal policy," the government official said.

A committee appointed by the ministry of power, energy, and mineral
resources submitted a draft coal policy to the government last week for
approval.

"Bangladesh is facing a recognised shortage of energy and power and the
situation is worsening, ... and coal-fired power stations are being
seriously discussed by the government and people," said Gary Lye, chief
executive officer of the Asia Energy Corp (Bangladesh).

Bangladesh faces a power deficit of up to 2,000 MW against demand of 5,000
MW daily, energy officials said.

Frequent power failures cut the country's gross domestic product by around
$1.0 billion annually, the World Bank said, and would need $10 billion
invested over the next 10 years to overcome the shortages.

Asian Development Bank had said they would assist the authorities to build
power plants to generate 2,000 MW at Phulbari.

"Before financing to a major power station, one needs to have a fuel supply
guarantee. With the plus 35 years life span of the Phulbari Coal Project,
Asia Energy is in a position to offer such a guarantee," Lye told Reuters.

Asia Energy mining company is lining up an offer to invest $3.0 billion in a
Bangladesh coal project, which can produce 15 million tonnes of coal a year
and can give the state $7.8 billion in revenues over 30 years, Lye said.

"We are ready to start work as soon as we receive green signal from the
authority," he added.

During the feasibility study in 2004-2005, Asia Energy drilled 108 holes and
defined resource of 572 million tonnes of high quality coal at the Phulbari
coal basin project.

The current coal reserve in the country's five coal-fields is around 2.55
billion tonnes, including Phulbari, officials said.

Experts said gas reserves in the country were fast depleting, so its power
plants should be coal-based.

1,500-year-old brick structure excavated in Bangladesh

1,500-year-old brick structure excavated in Bangladesh
Jan 21, 2008

Archaeologists have excavated the brick structure of a temple more than
1,500 years old and a dilapidated wall from the Gupta dynasty at the
Vasu Bihara site of Shibganj upazila in Bogra, Bangladesh.

During the ongoing archaeological excavation, walls, held together with
mud, about two metres wide and antiques including part of an ornamental
brick have been found, said Nahid Sultana, custodian of the department
of Archaeology, government of Bangladesh.

According to a report in The Daily Star, m ost of the bricks on the
walls of the temple are 35cm long, 27cm wide and four centimetres thick.

To protect the walls of the main structure of the temple from
collapsing, support walls were built with the same kind of bricks.

According to Archaeologist Mahabubul Alam, assistant custodian of the
department, the brick built temple resembles the temple of Vasu Bihara
constructed during the Pala dynasty, suggesting it belonged to the same
period.

Chinese pilgrim Yuang Chwang, during his visit to the area between 639AD
and 645AD, saw several temples near Vasu Bihara which is known as
Narapatir Dhap, he said.

A brick-built floor of a room of the temple was also discovered in
western side of the structure.

As for the discovery of the wall from the Gupta dynasty, Alam said,
During excavation of trench No-15, a dilapidated wall dating back to the
Gupta dynasty (320AD-550AD) was found under the recently discovered
structure.

Further excavation is required to get more information about the wall
but the department cannot do so due to fund constraint, he added. (ANI)

Jumma King's Government Appointment Gives Tribes Fresh Hope

Jumma King's Government Appointment Gives Tribes Fresh Hope
21 January 2008

Bangladesh's caretaker government has given fresh hope to the Jumma
tribal people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts by appointing a Jumma king
to run the affairs of the area.

Raja Devasish Roy, who has been appointed as a 'Special Assistant to the
Chief Advisor', is the king of the Chakmas, the most numerous of the
eleven Jumma tribes. The Chief Advisor is the head of the caretaker
government.

The Jumma tribes have suffered decades of violent repression at the
hands of the Bangladesh military as the government has moved thousands
of Bengali settlers onto their land. The government signed a peace
accord with the Jummas in 1997, but has failed to fulfil almost every
aspect of it.

Since emergency rule was declared in Bangladesh in January 2007, arrests
and torture of Jummas have escalated. But Raja Devasish Roy's
appointment to government has raised hopes that the peace accord may at
last be implemented and the Jumma people's rights respected.

Rupayan Dewan, a senior member of the Jumma political party Parbatya
Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS), said, 'This appointment could
be considered the wisest and the most pragmatic decision of Chief
Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed'.

Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, 'The violence suffered by
the Jummas is among the worst Survival has witnessed. We hope that the
appointment of Devasish Roy will be a turning point and that the
Bangladesh government will finally start upholding the Jumma's rights.'

Bangladesh to meet donors in Europe to highlight plight of climate change

Bangladesh to meet donors in Europe to highlight plight of climate
change


DHAKA, Jan. 20 -- Bangladesh government will hold a major international
conference in Europe next month to draw donors' attention to the effects
of climate change in the country, local newspaper The Financial Express
reported Sunday.

The "International Conference on the Impact of Climate Change on
Bangladesh" follows two devastating natural disasters last year which
have killed over 5000 people and affected some 20 million people across
the delta country.

The government and experts have blamed the changes in the global climate
pattern for the disasters.

"We are looking for a venue in a major European Union or Scandinavian
cities to hold the conference in late February. Paris, London and
Brussels are our main options," a senior official of Economic Relations
Division (ERD) under the finance ministry was quoted as saying.

"We will highlight the impact of climate change on the country. We will
give them a detailed picture on the issue and hope to get donors
assurance to overcome the disasters in a sustainable way," he said.

Impoverished Bangladesh has been one of the worst victims of changes in
global climate system, with floods and cyclones becoming a permanent
feature in its annual calendar, putting at risk the livelihoods of
millions of its poor people.

The ERD official said the government would present a number of papers at
the conference, outlining the future impact of the climate change in the
country and possible measures to protect millions of vulnerable people
and the ecology.

"Our aim is now to build a sustainable protection against recurring
natural disasters," he added.

Bangladesh's arsenic agony

Bangladesh's arsenic agony
21 January 2008

Professor Mahmuder Rahman obtained his medical degree from Dhaka
University in Bangladesh and is a member of the Royal College of
Physicians (UK).

He was a full professor and consultant physician at Dhaka National
Medical College and Hospital until 2003.

Apart from his clinical and academic work, he has contributed
extensively to formulating policy for affordable health services, and is
actively involved in developing integrated health delivery services such
as Dhaka Community Hospital, a self-financing hospital dedicated to
providing health care for those on low incomes.

Rahman was actively involved in developing the "Arsenicosis" National
Case Detection and Case Management Protocols. He has published more than
15 papers on Bangladesh's arsenic problem.

As a member of Bangladesh's National Expert Committee on Arsenic, he
took a leading role in formulating the National Arsenic Mitigation
Policy and Action Plan.

The need for safe and clean water is the topic of this month's
commemorative issue of the Bulletin, to mark 60 years of the World
Health Organization (WHO).

In this interview, Professor Mahmuder Rahman says that 12 years after
the scale of the arsenic poisoning disaster in Bangladesh was first
revealed, millions of people are still drinking contaminated water.

He expresses his frustration at the lack of progress on a long-term
solution and his fears for the future.

Q: How many people are still drinking arsenic-contaminated water in
Bangladesh?
A: The Government of Bangladesh estimates that 30 million people are
drinking water that contains more than 50 micrograms per litre of
arsenic.

However, up to 70 million people are drinking water that contains more
than 10 micrograms per litre of arsenic, which is the provisional WHO
guideline value.

After a quick field survey in 2001, the government estimated that 40% to
50% of the estimated 10 million tube wells were contaminated with
arsenic.

In some villages that figure was as high as 80% to 100%. Now there is
the problem that some tube wells that were not originally poisoned are
becoming so.

Q: Why did it take so long for the full extent of this disaster to be
revealed?
A: International and national agencies were very shy about addressing
the issue when it was reported to them in 1993. They did not respond
until the Dhaka Community Hospital called a conference in 1997. Then the
media came and they started waking up.

Q: If it is widely known in Bangladesh that many of the tube wells are
contaminated, why are people still drinking the water?
A: When it was established that a well was contaminated, it was painted
red and people were asked not to drink from it, but it was not sealed.
After time, and because there were no alternative sources of water,
people started to drink the water again. Arsenic is colourless and
odourless and gives no acute symptoms such as fever or pain, so people,
especially children, continue drinking it.

Q: Why has no alternative clean, safe water supply been found so many
years after the scale of the disaster was discovered?
A: After seven years of lobbying, followed by national and international
conferences, hundreds of publications in the print media plus extensive
coverage on television and radio, government and international agencies
started to respond to this massive human health problem.

The Government of Bangladesh responded with the Arsenic Mitigation
Action Policy Plan prepared by a committee composed of Bangladeshi
experts in 2003.

Yet no real effort has been made to find alternative safe water sources
to address this major problem on a mid- and long-term basis. We have
seen hundreds of learned consultants from various international agencies
visiting Bangladesh but with very little understanding of the geography,
culture and patterns of water use.

They even fail to consider the total water resources of the country.
Instead, everyone debates what the answer is, whether it is surface
water, dug wells, tube wells or rain water. But then there is opposition
to all these proposals and the argument goes on.

Most of these experts come with the preconceived idea that dug wells and
surface water are totally polluted with bacteria, but they forget that
with simple and affordable technology these water supplies can be made
safe and can play a major part in mitigation of this major problem.

Q: What needs to be done?
A: Rivers and canals are in abundance in Bangladesh, which receives 2000
millimetres of rain a year. There are regions of this world with a
fourth of this rain.

There are a lot of options, but some agencies have their own agenda and
they do not want to follow our government-approved water policy, which
is the use of a combination of treated surface water, rainwater and dug
wells that reach water that is generally eight to 12 metres deep.

Conventional dug wells are small in diameter, about one metre, but we
have designed wells of around four metres called idera that are capable
of supplying up to 80 families.

They are safe and quite popular. However, we must not be dependent on
groundwater. We do not want to risk bringing up other toxic material of
which we have very little knowledge, such as boron. It's only arsenic
today, but we do not know what will come next.

Q: What about technological solutions such as filters?
A: There are some water filters available but they are short-term
solutions; they cannot be permanent solutions. No one in their right
mind would suggest taking poisoned water and purifying it for drinking
when there are other more important sources of water available.

We need a long-term solution. Bangladesh is a developing country. We do
not have the luxury of piecemeal solutions because if we only solve a
piece of the problem, it will rebound on us on a much bigger scale.

Q: What is your main concern in the future?
A: Recent studies show that a large amount of groundwater is going to
the fields for irrigation. It has been found that rice stalks that are
used for cooking can have a higher concentration of arsenic than
contaminated drinking-water.

People then breathe the fumes while they are cooking. Agencies are only
monitoring arsenic in drinking-water but we need a proper evaluation of
the risk from topsoil contamination. No international and national
agencies are very serious about this, but arsenic in the food-chain has
the potential to cause more serious problems in the future than arsenic
in drinking-water.

Q: Do you have a clear picture of how many people are suffering from
arsenic-related disease?
A: There are a lot of cases, but no proper prevalence study has been
done. There is an urgent need for research. We still don't know exactly
how many people are suffering from cancer, skin lesions or gangrene.

Arsenic can cause low birth weight, and many physical and neurological
deficiencies. The Bangladeshi who is drinking water with 50 micrograms
per litre of arsenic and has poor nutrition may have worse health than a
well-nourished person drinking the same water.

This is a point that bothers us very much. Moreover, agencies or donors
are not taking responsibility for patient management or arranging for
research on the long-term ill effects of arsenic.

Source: WHO Bulletin

Bangladesh ex-PM Hasina charged with taking bribe

Bangladesh ex-PM Hasina charged with taking bribe
14 Jan, 2008, REUTERS

DHAKA: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was charged with
accepting 30 million taka in kickbacks on Monday in a power plant deal
during her term in office, the anti-graft agency said.

The graft charge came a day after another court indicted Hasina, her
cousin and former minister Sheikh Selim, and Hasina's only sister,
Sheikh Rehana for extorting some 30 million taka from a businessman when
she was in power.

Hasina, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been under detention since
July. "The court has accepted the charge against ex-PM Sheikh Hasina for
accepting kickbacks from a firm while permitting it to set up a power
plant," a senior official of the Anti Corruption Commission told the
media.

The court will now formally frame the charge against her, the official
said. The court also issued arrest warrants against eight other
co-accused, including leaders of Hasina's party and former government
officials, for the power plant deal.

The barge-mounted power plant was set up in the southwestern city of
Khulna during Hasina's tenure as prime minister from 1996 to 2001.
Hasina faces another extortion charge, due in court soon, involving the
alleged extortion of 50 million taka from another businessman during her
term in office.

Hasina was arrested in July and since then she has been detained at a
house in Dhaka's sprawling parliament compound. Her rival, former prime
minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, is being held in another house in the same
compound, and she too is likely to face trial for corruption soon.

The two women alternated as leaders of the impoverished South Asian
country for 15 years until October 2006. They are said not to have
spoken to each other for a decade.

The so-called "Battling Begums" would be expected to play key roles in
the election that the army backed interim government has vowed to hold
before the end of the year.

But if convicted they would be barred from the race, legal experts say.
Bangladesh's interim administration, headed by former central bank chief
Fakhruddin Ahmed, has vowed to clean up politics and improve governance
before the elections.

Man-machine embedded intelligence

Man-machine embedded intelligence
January 09, 2008

The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing
machines will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting
partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process
data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we
know today (JCR Licklider in **Man-Computer Symbiosis**).

Jobs in the future will be lost not to countries with cheap educated
labour, but to networks with embedded intelligence. When I called my
Internet service provider, a soothing female human voice asked my phone
number, presumably to check my identification from its database, and
then said: "Perhaps I could help you, if you tell me the problem."

It was a shock because I was expecting a person with an accent who after
taking some preliminary information would have passed me on to a
technical expert. My curiosity was aroused whether it was an exception
or an emerging trend in outsourcing, so I called my vendor and once
again I encountered a female computerised voice eager to help me. Since
I was not sure why my laptop was acting crazy, the computerised voice at
the other end said: "Please wait. Let me locate a technical expert for
you." In a moment I saw the future of outsourcing.

Harvey Cohn, president of Strategy Analytics, said in a report regarding
its Emerging Frontiers programme: "In the next wave there will be an
employment threat involving substitution of emerging systems with
embedded intelligence for many first-level jobs in service industries,
resulting a net loss of customer service, help desk, directory
assistance, and related support function positions... Although today
politicians and workers are worried about job outsourcing due to
globalisation, the real future challenge to policy makers ~ and
strategic opportunities for business investment ~ will come from
machines with an increasing degree of embedded intelligence."
On the bright side, many Indian technicians will be released from the
outsourcing drudgery and eventually will take up more creative and
value-added work for better wages.

And no one is more eager to develop smart intelligent systems than the
US Military's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency in order to
upend the military's first response capabilities and keep the personnel
out of danger as much as possible. Many of these smart intelligent
systems have been successfully put into operations in Afghanistan and
Iraq. Eventually the concept of first response capabilities based on
embedded intelligence would find applications in business, law
enforcement and anti-terrorism.

Technological innovations mutate and creep into other areas. A new world
of sensate surroundings in which nothing would remain incommunicado is
arising. Based on converging sensor and intelligent technologies, law
enforcement and anti-terrorism experts are dealing with terrorism, among
other problems, in altogether different ways and perhaps more
effectively. The inside of the airplanes of the future would be embedded
with sensors that record and transmit any unusual activity to a monitor
and control centre for pre-emptive action.

Scientists at QinetiQ, a commercial offshoot of the UK's Ministry of
Defence, have developed a working model of sensor-embedded airplane seat
that's capable of capturing signals of physiological changes in a
passenger and transmitting the information to a cockpit monitor. The
signals could enable the crew to analyse whether the person is a
terrorist or someone who is suffering from thrombosis of the deep vein,
for example.

The smart seat would eventually be able to register signs of any
emotional stress a passenger feels during the flight. Hidden seat
sensors would provide unobtrusive in-flight surveillance and have the
potential for actionable intelligence about the activities including the
health status of in-flight passengers. More importantly, the information
would enable plain-clothed air marshals to take preventive action in
case there is a danger of terrorists contemplating blowing up or
hijacking the plane. The cockpit would become an anti-terror cell.

Technologies are seldom stand-alone in this age of digital networking.
They have a recombinant potential and tend to converge and splice with
others to form newer technologies, which could be used in ways the
original inventors never imagined. For example, if you combine QinetiQ's
smart seat technology with "sympathetic haptics" technology developed a
few years ago at the Virtual Reality Laboratory at the University at
Buffalo, New York, you would see how feelings of stress could be
precisely transmitted via the Internet.

If a bomber fidgets or a person is having a heart attack, the physical
movements that accompany the stress and distress would be transmitted to
the cockpit monitor and also to the homeland secure monitors via the
wireless Intranet. The two convergent technologies would turn an
airplane seat into a virtual-reality surveillance system that would
silently record every physical motion of the occupant for instant
analysis.

Since we have become accustomed to various kinds of intrusive searches
at the airports, we would not object to sitting in data collecting smart
seats if the purpose is to enhance security. We know the security
cameras are on us; but we do not feel self-conscious that we are being
spied upon when we go to ATM or a bank teller for a transaction.
This is the price we pay for security and convenience. So perhaps we
wouldn't mind sitting in a sensor-embedded train or bus if that takes us
safely to our destination where we can enjoy all the privacy we want.
Human beings won't be replaced altogether but they would be integrated
into intelligent systems. Of course it will be long before man-machine
embedded intelligence could save a brazenly audacious politician like
Benazir Bhutto in a public place from a suicide bomber.

(ND Batra, the author of Digital Freedom, is professor of communications
and diplomacy at Norwich University, Vermont. He can be reached at
narainbatra@gmail.com)

Bangladesh's trade deficit soars by 156 pct in four months

Bangladesh's trade deficit soars by 156 pct in four months
January 09, 2008

Bangladesh's trade deficit soared by more than 150 percent in the first
four months of the current fiscal (July 2007-June 2008), dragging the
current account balance to a negative 229 million U.S. dollars, the
central bank said Tuesday.

The overall trade deficit rose to 1.739 billion U.S. dollars in
July-October period, or 156 percent more than the corresponding period
last year, owing largely to high oil and food import bill.

During the period, export earnings stood at 3.970 billion U.S. dollars
against the import payments of 5.709 billion U.S. dollars, local
newspaper The Financial Express reported Wednesday quoting the
Bangladesh Bank's latest monthly economic indicators.

The soaring trade deficit pulled the current account to a negative 229
million U.S. dollars at the end of October although the overall balance
of payments continued to maintain a surplus.

"Despite a larger current transfer of 2.416 billion U.S. dollars,
current account balance recorded a deficit of 229 million U.S. dollars
during July-October," the bank said.

A senior Bangladesh Bank official said current account deficit was not a
major concern.

"We are not worried about the negative current account balance position.
The central bank has a satisfactory level of foreign currency reserve
and there has been robust growth in inward remittances," the official
said.

He also said the overall balance of payments is likely to improve
further as the country is set to receive more foreign aid to
rehabilitate the victims of the devastating cyclone that hit the country
in November last year.

Bangladesh appoints five new advisers to interim government

Bangladesh appoints five new advisers to interim government
Thursday, January 10 2008

DHAKA (AP) - Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed appointed five new
advisers yesterday to replace those who resigned days before the
military-backed interim government marks its first year, an official
said.

Golam Quader a retired army officer who once headed a national security
agency, ex-attorney general Hasan Arif, former bureaucrat M. Showkat
Ali, educationist Rasheda K. Choudhury and economist Hossain Zillur
Rahman were sworn in by Ahmed, government official Ali Imam Majunder
said.

Four advisers resigned yesterday for personal reasons, while another
stepped down on Dec. 26, the government said.

Four advisers to Bangladesh's government resigned

Four advisers to Bangladesh's government resigned
Tuesday, 08 January 2008

DHAKA, Bangladesh - Four advisers to Bangladesh's interim government
resigned Tuesday, local television reports said.

Mainul Hosein, Geetiyara Safia Chowdhury, Tapan Chowdhury and Matiur
Rahman, who have been in charge of various ministries since the interim
government took over in January last year, sent their resignation
letters to President Iajuddin Ahmed, the private ETV network said.

Mainul and Tapan told newsmen that they tendered their resignation from
the Council of Advisors, as the government desired.

Earlier on December 26, Education Adviser Ayub Quadri resigned in the
wake of Paris-bound artefact scandal.

The resignations came on the eve of Fakhruddin Ahmed's caretaker
government's completion of one year in office on January 12.

Official confirmation of the resignations was not immediately available.

New advisers were likely to be named later Tuesday, the RTV network
said.

Source: AP / UNB

Schools in Kolkata are turning to the close-circuit TVs

Schools in Kolkata are turning to the close-circuit TVs
Kolkata, January 08, 2008
Mou Chakraborty

Schools in Kolkata are turning to the CCTV, rattled by the shooting of a
student in a Visva-Bharati hostel a day ago.

On Sunday, Rabindrasangeet student Saswati Pal was shot dead by her
former boyfriend in her room in Santiniketan. Amaresh Kundu, who then
shot himself in the temple, died later that night.

The incident has made South Point High School, which has 13,000
students, sit up. It has decided to instal close-circuit televisions
(CCTVs) in all common areas, except the classroom, teachers' room and
toilets. "We are taking quotations from some companies and will soon
finalise the deal. With incidents like this (in Santiniketan) on the
rise, we feel the CCTV would help us track bullies and the students
likely to breach discipline and offer them counselling," said Krishna
Damani, spokesperson for the school.

On December 11, two students shot a classmate dead in a fit of anger in
a Gurgaon school. In Satna, Madhya Pradesh, a 15-year-old boy shot a
junior dead on the school premises on January 3.

Like South Point, Heritage School will also instal CCTVs from the 2008
academic session. Apart from common areas and the entrance, the
surveying eye will also monitor the basin area of toilets. "It has been
seen that most of the school shooting conspiracy has been hatched in
toilets. In the Satna incident, the student hid the gun in the toilet.
Hence, we felt it necessary to have a camera in the basin area," said
Seema Sapru, principal of Heritage school.

Parents have also requested for CCTV surveillance. "We were not in a
hurry to put up CCTVs but many guardians have mentioned in their
feedback form the need to have them installed at the earliest. After the
incidents at Gurgaon and Satna, they feel that some sort of surveillance
is necessary. So, the school plans to put up the cameras from the
beginning of the next academic session," said Sangita Sindey Kar of DPS
New Town, on Kolkata's outskirts.

Schools like St James, La Martiniere for Girls, La Martiniere for Boys,
St Thomas Boys', St. Thomas Girls and Pratt Memorial, which come under
the Churches of North India, too, would install CCTVs. "We will
definitely put up CCTVs in all our schools but the question is will that
be enough to tackle the trouble. The problem is in some students and
mere surveillance will not solve it," said Reverend PSP Raju, archbishop
of CNI Kolkata and head of all the CNI schools in the region.

Calcutta University and Jadavpur University have decided to beef up
security on the campus.

Bangladesh received record remittances in November

Bangladesh received record remittances in November
Wednesday, January 02, 2008

DHAKA: Bangladesh received a record $617.39 million in remittances from
expatriate workers in November, up 3.12 percent from a year earlier, the
central bank said on Tuesday.

In July-November, the first five months of the 2007/08 financial year,
remittances from more than 5 million Bangladeshis working abroad totalled
$2.8 billion, nearly 22 percent higher than the same period of the previous
year.

"We received all-time high remittances in November as the expatriates have
sent more money to their relatives to enjoy Muslim Eid al-Adha festival,"
said Murshid Kuli Khan, a deputy governor of the Bangladesh Bank, the
country's central bank.

Remittances hit a record $5.98 billion in the 2006/07 financial year that
ended in June, 24.52 percent higher than the previous fiscal year. The
Bangladesh Bank expects the inflow of remittance to touch an annual $10
billion over the next two years, boosting a key source of foreign exchange
for the impoverished majority-Muslim country.

The Bangladesh Bank has been making vigorous efforts to encourage
expatriates to send money home through legal channels, officials said.

It has expanded drawing arrangements, working with 38 Bangladeshi banks and
229 foreign banks and exchange houses. The banks have ensured the quick
delivery of remittances to beneficiaries in Bangladesh.

"We have strengthened our monitoring activities to different banks," Murshid
told Reuters.

The Bangladesh Bank has also regularly review of statements received from
foreign banks and exchange houses and take steps accordingly, he said
without elaboration.

The number of Bangladeshis leaving to work abroad is at a record high last
year even though Malaysia recently stopped admitting Bangladeshi workers,
officials said. The majority of the expats work in the Middle East, the
United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Singapore. Remittances
from Bangladeshis are the country's second biggest source of foreign income
after ready-made garments, which earned more than $9 billion in 2006/07
fiscal year. reuters