Indo-Bangaldesh ties need stand alone attention

Indo-Bangaldesh ties need stand alone attention, says ex-Bangladesh
Foreign Secretary
From ANI

New Delhi, Mar. 12: Former Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Farook Sobhan
today appealed to Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to seriously
consider appointing a third Minister of State in the External Affiars to
look after Indo-Bangla relations alone.

"You have two ministers in the Ministry of External Affairs. You need
one more MoS for Bangladesh," Ambassador Sobhan said while delivering a
lecture at Observer Research Foundation (ORF) here on "India-Bangladesh
relations: Past, Present and Future".

The talk was chaired by former Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh,
Veena Sikri.

Saying that the Foreign Ministers of India and Bangladesh have met at
least six times in the last six months, Sobhan, who is now the President
of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, promised "a new, better
relationship between the two countries within six months".

"My feedback from talks with Pranabda and the Foreign Secretary is that
the talks are moving forward satisfactorily and soon things going to
improve," Sobhan said referring to his meetings with Pranab Mukherjee
and Shiv Shankar Menon in Delhi yesterday.

He said Dr. Manmohan Singh is also taking keen interest in improving
relations with its neighbour.

Sobhan suggested various measures to improve relations between the two
countries. He said both the countries, especially India, should revisit
their visa policy to improve connectivity with the North East and
between peoples who were once part of one country. He said the system of
visas should be abolished to help better movement between Bangladesh and
the North East. Besides benefiting both the countries, it would also
help in the development of North East as well, he said.

He said there was "enormous scope" for improving trade between the two
countries and greater Indian investment in Bangladesh.

"It was a sad day for Bangladesh when the planned huge investments by
Tatas, in which I was very much interested, did not materialize," Sobhan
said.

Blaming the frustrating domestic politics in Bangladesh, especially
between the two lady leaders, and the failure of Parliament to play the
role of a watchdog resulting in the "dictatorship of Prime Minister" for
many of the irritants in the relations between the two countries, Sobhan
said the present Indian government's shift to the neighbourhood and
increasing focus on regional and sub-regional forums like SAARC would
help improve relations with Bangladesh.

He said while Bangladesh is geopolitically and economically far more
important to India, it is ironically "obsessed with Pakistan" and in
that process, Bangladesh always got marginalised.

Sobhan suggested fast track investment processes, improved cooperation
in the field of energy, trade, education, and interaction between
business communities and business leaders of the two countries.

Sobhan said the changed international relations and end of cold war and
"the cold war of sorts in Asia" would help in improving relations
between the two countries. He said he was sure that improving India-US
relations would also help in better relations between India and
Bangladesh.

Sikri stressed upon the need to build trust and confidence between the
two countries to take the relationship further. She said Bangladesh
should take India's concern over insurgents operating from its soil
seriously and should address the problem.

She also said that while the Indian government would deal with the
incumbent government, India is always for a fully democratic government
which takes of the people's interests.

Sikri agreed with Amb. Sobhan that implementation and follow-ups of
summit meetings of Prime Ministers were always a concern.

Replying to questions on Bangladesh buying Chinese military hardware,
Sobhan said: "If you want to buy Indian military hardware, you will have
to compete with Chinese prices. They offer cheap and sometimes free
weapons, and you get hooked on to it."

Bangladesh outshines India, Pakistan in Women's Status, Gender Equality

Women's Status, Gender Equality
Bangladesh outshines India, Pakistan
Friday, March 14, 2008
Unb, Dhaka

Bangladesh outperforms India and Pakistan in many areas concerning
women's status and gender equality, though the picture of their access
to reproductive health services, labour markets and decision-making is
still bleak, said a World Bank report.

The report said Bangladesh stands out as a shining new example in South
Asia achieving impressive gains in gender equality despite being a poor
country.

After Sri Lanka and the Indian state of Kerala, Bangladesh dwarfs
Pakistan and India in many areas, said the WB report titled "Whispers to
Voices: Gender and Social Transformation in Bangladesh". It was launched
yesterday at a function at the LGED auditorium.

Supported by the World Bank and AusAid, Power and Participation Research
Centre (PPRC) arranged the launch ceremony.

Primary and Mass Education Adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury addressed the
function as chief guest, with Junaid Ahmed, sector manager for Social
Development of the World Bank, in the chair.

Xian Zhu, WB country director in Bangladesh, Rokeya Sultana, secretary
of women and children affairs ministry, and Douglas Foskett, Australian
high commissioner in Dhaka, also spoke on the occasion.

The report said despite the country's achievement, women's access to
reproductive health services, labour markets, physical security and role
in decision making need urgent attention.

"Between 1971 and 2004, Bangladesh halved its fertility rates. In much
of the country today, girls' secondary school attendance exceeds that of
boys. Moreover, the gender gap in infant mortality has been closed," it
said.

The report said the micro-credit revolution continues to boost women's
solidarity groups and earning potential, and a vast number of the young
women are leaving their villages to work in garment factories. In
earlier generations, young women were rarely seen outside their homes.

While gender inequalities in children's health have diminished,
Bangladeshi women still lack adequate access to reproductive health
services. "Almost 90 percent of Bangladeshi women give birth at home,
and over 86 percent do not have a skilled birth attendant to assist,"
according to the report.

It said there is already a huge gap in educational attainment between
the rich and the poor, and the quality of schooling is an issue of
concern.

"Poor children of either gender can rarely stay in school through to the
upper grades. By Grade 9, when nearly 100 percent of children from rich
families are enrolled, the ratio in terms of poor families is 20
percent," the report said.

The report found that despite increasing education and declining
fertility, the rate of women's participation in the labour force is very
low although they have doubled in the last 10 years.

Women's employment in South Asia is among the lowest in the world and
Bangladesh is at the lower end of the South Asian spectrum.

The report said four percent of women (less than one fourth of men) of
prime working age work for a cash wage in Bangladesh and in the casual
agricultural labour market, women earn about 60-65 percent of men's
wages and 81.5 percent of the difference between men's and women's
agricultural wages is unexplained.

About women's role in decision making, it said most women's influence
over decision-making is confined to household functioning despite the
presence of formidable women's groups in rural areas.

Low access to land and property is an important part of their low voice
in decision-making.

The report further found that there has been an increase in dowry over
the last 30 years and less than half of the women felt safe going out
alone in their villages.

Bangladesh scientists invent herbal tea to reduce insulin intake for diabetics

Bangladesh scientists invent herbal tea to reduce insulin intake for
diabetics

DHAKA, March 6 -- Bangladeshi scientists recently invented an
herbal tea that would help insulin-dependent diabetic patients reduce
their insulin intake, leading English newspaper the Daily Star reported
Thursday.

A group of scientists of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (BCSIR) invented the herbal tea from leaf extracts
of local tree named Jarul. The research was conducted at BCSIR research
institute in Bangladesh's southeastern city Chittagong.

Azad Khan, president of Diabetic Association was quoted by the
newspaper as saying that since the tea is extracted from nature, it has
no side effect and it might be helpful for diabetic patients.

He said, "Diabetes has spread in the world like an epidemic and
developing countries are the worst victims of this disease. An estimated
6 million people in Bangladesh now have diabetes."

Diabetic patients' body produces insufficient insulin that controls
the level of sugar in their blood.

The diabetic patients who are dependent on insulin injections might
benefit from the herbal tea as the recommended use of the tea could
lower sugar level in their blood through insulin secretion from their
pancreas and thus lower their insulin intake requirement, said experts.

The herbal tea might also help reduce obesity, the experts added.

Prof. Dr. Choudhury Mahmood Hasan, chairman of BCSIR, said herbal
drug is safe and effective and it has gained approval across the globe,
securing a market share of 62 billion U.S. dollars.

Fame Pharmaceuticals company will market the herbal tea under the
brand name of DiabeNo.

Serving foreign interest is not honest criticism

Serving foreign interest is not honest criticism
March 6, 2008

Publication of stories depicting a dark view of Bangladesh and its
people in the western media is nothing new. Some interested quarters
appear to be active in lending a helping hand to drum up propaganda
against this nation of 150 million which is striving hard to secure good
governance for itself so that people can enjoy rights while fighting
poverty to achieve sustained economic development.

Something went seriously wrong otherwise so many years' efforts to build
democratic governance could not fail as a result of bad politics and
unconscionable spread of corruption. Bangladesh has too many
foreign-aided NGOs to talk about human rights compared to any country.
The question can be rightly asked what these people in such NGOs were
doing in those days other than helping please their masters by supplying
propaganda materials against Bangladesh.

Several weeks ago police hauled up a man whom they reportedly found
active in fomenting trouble in some garment factories in Dhaka city. The
person identified himself as representative of a foreign NGO. He managed
his escape at the instance of influential foreign quarters.

A section of NGOs some time ago hosted visits of some foreign activists
who, not in the distant past, tried to depict Bangladesh as a Taliban
state. It was basically at their instance that even some development
partners of the country had formed a very negative idea about Bangladesh
and had a conference in Washington DC to decide their course of action.
A couple of influential development partners luckily played a crucial
role in that conference which ultimately ended on an optimistic note.

The latest campaign about reported torture and human rights abuses has
been steered by one who is a NGO person but maintained journalistic
connection also.

He claimed that he was arrested and tortured by army intelligence people
and then because of foreign connection he could leave the country. Now
he is enjoying hospitality in Sweden. He has published an article in a
foreign daily complaining of abuse of power under the present state of
emergency openly asking donor countries to do something about it. What
is clear is he was interested not in improving the situation in the
country but to stop donor countries from helping Bangladesh financially.

When the elected government fails in chaos and corruption, emergency
rule cannot be easy anywhere. Nobody will deny Bangladesh is going
through a very difficult time. Some excesses are unavoidable. Such
excesses must not be condoned also. Because emergency rule is for
improving the situation and making democracy work. All patriots are
expected to do their bid to help achieve this end. But to criticise only
for enjoying foreign hospitality and favour cannot be condoned.

The Washington DC conference of Bangladesh's development partners was
told that the complaints made about the human rights and minority rights
situation were not invented by them, but rather taken from reports of
some activist groups and a section of newspapers published very much
from Dhaka city. Such propaganda is aided by some vested quarters active
against the interests of Bangladesh, based outside the country and run
web sites on the Internet. Their representatives visit the country from
time to time as guests of a section of NGOs.

In one such case of making fabricated stories against the interests of
the country about four years ago, a foreign TV journalist was caught
while recording a programme of a 'fanatic Islamist activist group' which
together with others made Bangladesh, according to their analysis, 'a
cocoon of terror'. The group members were carrying placards written in
English that day although it was doubtful whether the members of the
group themselves understood the messages. Many observers raised the
question as to whether the whole episode was concocted or not.

An NGO activist accompanied the foreign journalist who was recording the
dubious programme. Against this backdrop, the authorities concerned
would probably do well if they properly scrutinise people hosted by a
section of NGOs. Because people unfriendly to Bangladesh and its people
use this cover to manufacture stories and continue their anti-Bangladesh
propaganda.

The government should not be afraid to be hard on those foreign NGO
elements in Bangladesh who are too eager to find faults with Bangladesh
only to give Bangladesh a bad name internationally.

(From The New Nation)

Riyadh focusing on hiring skilled workers from Dhaka

Riyadh focusing on hiring skilled workers from Dhaka
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Porimol Palma

Saudi Arabia has not stopped issuing visas to Bangladeshi nationals, but
is focusing more on hiring skilled workers from Bangladesh, the foreign
ministry and the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh confirmed yesterday.

Officials have dispelled all rumours that created serious confusion
among businesses and jobseekers willing to go to the Gulf country.

There is no reason for Bangladesh to be anxious about the ongoing
crackdown against irregular workers in Saudi Arabia since it is part of
the country's regular activities, they told The Daily Star.

However, they admitted the fact that Bangladesh's largest labour market
has recently intensified its drive against those violating Saudi laws
and values in the wake of increased social problems.

"Rumours were rife that Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing visas to
Bangladeshis," Bangladesh Ambassador to Riyadh Ikramul Haq told The
Daily Star over telephone yesterday afternoon.

Those living and working in the Gulf nation with valid documents have
nothing to be worried about for the intensification of police drives in
the Kingdom, which has very close relations with Bangladesh, he said.

Expressing similar observations, Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain told
The Daily Star the Saudi mission in Bangladesh was irked over media
reports that the Kingdom has stopped issuing visas to Bangladeshi
nationals.

"The Saudi Embassy in Dhaka has informed us that their computer server
is malfunctioning and they are currently unable to issue visas. However,
they're trying to manage issuing some visas manually," he said.

"The Saudi recruiters are staying in Dhaka and counting hotel rents for
hiring workers from Bangladesh."

Asked if the Saudi government has decided to reduce the number of visas
for Bangladeshi workers as reported by Saudi media, he said they
sometimes issue more visas for a country in one year and less in another
for making balance. It is not a matter of worry, he added.

On delay in Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury's planned visit to
Saudi Arabia to hold talks on workers issue, Touhid Hossain said: "You
have to understand the Saudi system... We should consider their
favourable time..."

Ambassador Ikramul Haq said: "The Kingdom issued around 1.4 lakh visas
for Bangladeshis in 2004, 0.8 lakh in 2005, 1.08 lakh in 2006 and 2.4
lakh in 2007. This means there are ups and downs. There is nothing to
worry they decide to hire less workers from a country. It's sure,
however, that Bangladesh can send more and more skilled workers."

The country has huge demands for nurses, doctors, masons, welders, pipe
fitters, plumbers and IT professionals, he said, suggesting that
Bangladesh focus on training more people on these professions for
tapping the opportunities in Saudi labour market.

The Ambassador said the Bangladesh government must make sure that the
workers are not forced to pay high cost.

Officials and industry insiders said some expatriate Bangladeshis
indulge in crime and violate laws mainly because of low salaries and
high migration cost.

"Due to low pay, some workers tend to do another job, which is not
allowed by the Saudi laws," said an official.

Sometimes they also transfer their employees that become a matter of
irritation for the employers as well as the Saudi government, he noted.

Advertising market in Bangladesh expanding fast

'Advertising market in Bangladesh expanding fast'
Thursday, 06 March 2008

The advertising market in Bangladesh is relatively small compared to
those of other Asian countries, but is catching up fast, said a top
executive of Ogilvy & Mather on Monday.

'The Bangladesh market is a tiger cub in comparison to China, India and
Indonesia. But it will become big,' said P Miles Young, chairman of the
Asia Pacific region of the United States-based company that opened its
office in Dhaka to position itself strongly in the country.

The company earlier ran its operation in the country through Interspeed,
a local advertisement agency that was affiliated with it. The country's
advertising market has been growing at a double digit rate over the
years, especially due to the mobile phone operators, banks and real
estates who advertise frequently.

There around 500 advertisement companies operating in the country, but
the top 15 companies control 65 per cent of the Tk 1,000 crore
advertisement market.

Miles, who has been working for Ogilvy & Mather since 1983, said
Bangladesh and Pakistan were the next potential countries in the region
for growth of the adverting industry.

'The advertising market in Bangladesh and Pakistan will grow, maybe not
be in the next few years or so, but it will definitely become bigger in
the coming years,' he said.

Regarding the company's strategy in Bangladesh, Miles said Ogilvy &
Mather would try to get more local companies as clients as most of its
customers are multinational companies.

'My view is that a company should not just depend on multinational
clients in a market; the client ratio of local and multinational
companies should be at least 50:50,' he said.

Regarding the human resources in Bangladesh, Miles said there was no
dearth of talent in Bangladesh. 'But what they need is professional
training to hone their skills,' he said.

Bangladesh set to sue Hyundai over billion-dollar bridge

Bangladesh set to sue Hyundai over billion-dollar bridge
March 02, 2008

DHAKA (AFP) - Bangladesh said Monday it expected to file a lawsuit
against Hyundai for cracks found in a billion-dollar bridge built by the
firm in the country's biggest construction project ever.

"We are looking into the pros and cons of the legal action. But
ultimately we will sue them for the faults in the Jamuna Bridge," said
communications ministry secretary Mahbubur Rahman.

Experts Bangladesh had consulted had blamed flawed construction and
design for the cracks, he said.

The bridge built by the South Korean firm spans the Jamuna River 110
kilometres (68 miles) northwest of the capital Dhaka.

The South Korean ambassador to Bangladesh, Suk Bum Park, on Sunday met
communications minister Ghulam Quader and urged him to reconsider the
decision, according to a report by the private UNB news agency.

The ambassador said the decision appeared to have been taken "hastily."

"Hyundai is a reputed company and it's not fair to blame the company for
the expanding cracks in the Jamuna Bridge without any examination," the
ambassador was quoted as saying.

The law ministry, however, was already working on the case and a
consultant had been appointed to inspect the cracks again before the
government finally went ahead, added Rahman.

The 4.8-kilometre (three-mile) long multi-purpose bridge, which was
opened in 1998, provides a vital link between central and northwestern
districts by crossing the mighty Jamuna, known as the Brahmaputra in
India.

It is the twelfth longest bridge in the world, according to the
Bangladesh government.

Thousands of cars, buses, and lorries, as well as trains, use the bridge
daily. Cracks were first detected last year, prompting the authorities
to impose limits on the number of vehicles allowed to cross at any given
time.