Bangladesh cabinet approves Right to Information Ordinance

Dhaka, Sep 21 (PTI) Bangladesh Cabinet has approved the Right to Information
(RTI) Ordinance, taking a cue from similar laws in countries like India, to
ensure transparency in government offices and public funded organisations,
officials said here today.

The Advisory Council at a meeting held yesterday chaired by Chief advisor
Fakhruddin Ahmed gave the final approval to the proposed law, to be enacted
through a presidential promulgation soon.

"We have tried to ensure maximum disclosure of information under the
ordinance...If there is any lapse in it, there is always scope to address
that," the Information Secretary Jamil Osman told reporters.

Officials said they reviewed similar laws in different countries including
the RTI India while drafting the law.

Under the ordinance people can get information in 20 days and in emergency
cases within 24 hours, while officials concerned might face fine up to Taka
5000 for delay in providing the information sought.

Incase of issues concerning a person's life and death, arrest and release
from jail, the officials will have to provide primary information within 24
hours, the ordinance suggested.

The ordinance would not however cover National Security Intelligence (NSI),
Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, Military Intelligence, elite
Special Security Force, CID police and Central Intelligence cell of the
National Board of Revenue. But these provisions would not apply if that
information concerns corruption and human rights violation, it said.

Bangladesh Aug remittances up 55.6 percent

DHAKA: Bangladesh received $732.98 million in remittances from expatriate
workers in August, up 55.6 percent from a year earlier but down from a
record high of $820.7 million in July, the central bank said.

Remittances hit a record $7.9 billion in the 2007/08 financial year that
ended in June, nearly a third higher than the previous fiscal year.

Booming economies in the Middle East and the Gulf region, as well as an
ageing population in European countries and rising skills of Bangladeshi
workers were driving demand for Bangladeshi labour, officials said.

The central bank expects the inflow of remittances to touch an annual $10
billion over the next year, boosting a key source of foreign exchange for
the impoverished majority-Muslim country.

Strong remittances from more than five million Bangladeshis working abroad
also helped offset the impact of the trade shortfall and kept the overall
balance of payments in surplus.

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

The majority of expatriates work in the Middle East, the United States,
Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.

Remittances from Bangladeshis are the country's second-biggest source of
foreign income after ready-made garments, which earned nearly $11 billion in
the 2007/08 fiscal year. reuters

Mozambican government buys ferries from Bangladesh

Maputo, Mozambique, 18 Sept - The Mozambican government has spent US$7.5 million on buying six new ferries to transport passengers in the cities of Maputo, Beira and Quelimane, Mozambican daily newspaper, Notícias reported.

The newspaper cited Sérgio Cassamo, director of the Transport and Communications Project Management Unit (UGPTC), as saying that the vessels that were expected to arrive in November, were acquired in Bangladesh.

The biggest of these vessels has a capacity to carry 250 passengers, ten vehicles and four ten-tonne trucks and will operate on the crossing of the bay between the city of Maputo and Catembe.

A second boat with an 80-passenger capacity will provide a link between Maputo and Inhaca island.

The link between Beira and Búzi district, in Sofala province, and between Quelimane and Recamba, in Zambézia, will be provided by ferries with an 80-passenger capacity and another for 60 passengers and 2 tonnes of cargo, will link Inhambane to Maxixe.

The acquisition of these vessels is aimed to replace the ferries currently in operation and which, according to the Transport Ministry, are now obsolete. (macauhub)

Bangladesh clamps down on varsity sex crimes

Dhaka - Bangladesh plans to introduce tough laws to stamp out sex offences at its universities after a spate of complaints by female students, the government said on Wednesday.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Education said new legal measures would be enforced from November to combat a growing number of alleged assaults on campuses throughout the South Asian nation.

"The situation can badly tarnish the image of educational institutions, leaving a negative impact on the overall educational system," the ministry statement said.

In August hundreds of students locked the head of the leading Jahangirnagar University in a room for 15 hours after he failed to take action against a teacher accused of assaulting 20 women.

The university said it could not take any action because of a lack of evidence.

Female students at other universities have complained of being sexually assaulted, according to the leading Bengali language daily Prothom Alo.

Earlier in September, students held protests in the grounds of Dhaka University in the capital and Islamic University in western Bangladesh calling for action to be taken against teachers accused of assaulting students.

The ministry's statement said it would hold discussions with officials from several universities to finalise the new laws.

BD July inflation hits 6-mth high on fuel rise

DHAKA: Bangladesh's annual consumer price inflation in July hit a six-month high of 10.82 percent after a sharp rise in domestic fuel prices, official data showed.

Data on the latest pick up in inflation came after the central bank on Wednesday raised its key repo rate, at which it lends funds to banks, by 25 basis points to 8.75 percent in a bid to quash inflation.

It left the reverse repo rate steady at 6.50 percent.

The army-backed interim government raised fuel prices between 34 percent and 37.5 percent in July to offset the government's soaring subsidy bill. Annual inflation in rural areas hit 11.19 percent in July, and 9.91 percent in urban areas, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics said. Food inflation eased to 13.92 percent in July from 14.1 percent in June.

Rural people were the hard-hit by the rise in oil prices, especially diesel and kerosene, a senior official at the statistics bureau said.

Diesel and kerosene account for almost 80 percent of the country's annual oil consumption of around 3.5 million tonnes. The latest inflation level compares with 10.04 percent in June and was the highest since 11.43 percent in January. It hit double-digit levels for the first time in 13 years in July last year.

The government said it plans to cut oil prices by end of this month after the pull back in world prices since. US benchmark crude hit a record high above $147 a barrel in July but was trading on Friday below $100. Inflation is expected to ease to 9 percent in the year to June 2009 as the government is providing higher subsidies to boost farm output, finance ministry officials said. reuters

Bangladesh adopts long-time flood forecasting technology

Bangladesh Water Development Board has adopted a long-time flood forecasting technology to cope with the perilous impact of climate change.

Instead of existing 3-day forecasting technology, the long-time one consists of three types of forecast schemes: short term (1-10 days), medium term (20-25 days) and long term (1- 6 months), local daily The Independent reported Sunday.

Five pilot areas in the country have been selected for testing the application of newly introduced technology.

Besides, a 10-year disaster management plan has been taken under the framework of Global Earth Observation System of Systems to improve sustainable water resources management in the country.

Under the plan, Bangladesh is going to evolve another flood recasting model to be applied in major river Meghna and the country's remaining river basins will be brought under the model in phases attuned to the Meghna model. Flood becomes particularly common in monsoon season in Bangladesh from June to September every year.

Bangladesh's Biman eyes giant bailout partners: report

DHAKA (AFP) - Biman Bangladesh Airlines wants one of four top international air companies to bail the ailing national carrier out of its financial troubles, a local media report said Thursday.

Biman is hoping Emirates, British Airways, Qatar Airways or Thai Airways will become a strategic partner of state-owned Biman, the bdnews24 website said.

"Singapore Airlines and Emirates would be our priority," the website quoted director Zial Huq Mamun as saying, adding that Biman wanted one of the foreign airlines to either take a stake in it or manage its operations.

But Singapore Airlines spokesman Stephen Forshaw told AFP in a statement that his company was not interested in a partnership with Biman.

"Representatives of Biman have approached us and we have indicated that our focus now is on the business fundamentals in a high-fuel-cost and weaker economic climate," he said.

"We will look at mutually beneficial commercial opportunities, but we will not be moving to take equity and the reasons for that have been explained to Biman."

Biman, which ordered 10 Boeing aircraft earlier this year representing the largest capital expenditure in the country's history, posted a 12 million dollar loss in the past financial year.

Bangladesh, World Bank sign deal for $355M loan

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh has signed a deal with the World Bank for a $355 million loan to build a power generation plant and pipelines for natural gas transmission, the bank said on Thursday.

The money will be used to set up the Siddhirganj Peaking Power Project, Bangladesh's first integrated gas-to-power project, and will produce 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity to help address a shortage of power, it said in a statement.

"For achieving the middle income country status by 2020, Bangladesh must meet the rapidly growing demand for power. We are happy to support the government to increase power supply," Zahid Hussain, acting country director of the World Bank in Bangladesh said in the statement.

The plant, due to go into production in 2011, will boost power supply during periods of peak demand, said M. Fouzul Kabir Khan, government power division secretary.

"The Siddhirganj project will be an important part of the solution leading to sustainable provision of energy services, and will help Bangladesh to continue to expand electricity access to the poor," he said.

The loan from the International Development Association, the World Bank's concessionary arm, has 40 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period; they carry a service charge of 0.75 percent.

Bangladesh is facing power shortages of up to 1,500 MW each day, and hundreds of factories have been idled across the country.

Bangladesh gift items draw attention of Japanese buyers

The country's nine gift items manufacturing firms participated in the Tokyo International Gift Show drew big attention of the Japanese buyers, said a EPB press release.

The Asian Trade Promotion Forum in cooperation of JETRO(Japan External Trade Organization) facilitated the participation of Bangladeshi firms under the auspices of Export Promotion Bureau(EPB).

The fair held on September 2- 5 where the participating companies displayed handicrafts, home textile, jute products, nakshi katha, scarf, bags, belts, wallets, show pieces, wall- mat, candle, cushion cover pottery and such other products.

Bangladesh participants received US$ 20,000 spot orders in addition to 120.000 prospective orders, the EPB said.

Another group of Bangladesh participants to SAARC Trade Fair in Colombo, held from August 28 to 31 was also able to receive spot order worth US$ 490.000, the EPB said.

Pharmaceuticals items, soft drink, jamdani saree, Dhakai Moslin, Silk Scrap, and other products were put on display in the Colombo fair.

Large number of visitors went round the Bangladesh pavilion.

Bangladeshi participants also took part in meetings with Textile Importers Association of Japan and Japanese Shoe

Association and discussed broader prospects of exporting shoes and gift items and RMG products to Japan.

They also discussed the prospect of organizing a single country Bangladeshi trade fair in Japan.

Bangladesh bans 'toxic' ship for second time

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) - Bangladesh's high court has ruled that a ship with allegedly hazardous substances cannot be dismantled on its coast, a lawyer said Thursday.

The government last month banned the New Atlantia -- described by Greenpeace as hazardous in its global list of toxic ships -- after a Bangladeshi ship breaker imported it under the name of MT Enterprise.

But that decision was reversed this week after a government inspection did not find any excessive hazardous materials, as described by Greenpeace.

Iqbal Kabir, of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association, told AFP his group filed a petition to the high court seeking the ban to stay in place, which was upheld late Wednesday.

"The high court has ruled that the ship cannot be harboured and dismantled in Bangladesh."

The tanker is moored off the port of Chittagong and was due to be taken to Sitakundu, on the country's southeastern coast, to be dismantled.

The vessel was now expected to leave Bangladeshi shores, Kabir said.

Up to 130 large ships are dismantled each year on beaches at Sitakundu -- home to the world's largest ship breaking yards -- 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Chittagong city.

Sitakundu's breaking yards have experienced a boom in recent years due to soaring demand for steel.

Bangladesh T20 rebels banned for 10 years

Bangladesh cricket chiefs said on Wednesday that 13 players who opted to compete in the unauthorised Indian Twenty20 league will be banned for 10 years.

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) unveiled late Tuesday its new Dhaka Warriors team in New Delhi, which comprises 11 Bangladesh internationals reportedly earning 200,000 dollars each over a three-year period.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) held an emergency meeting Wednesday and decided to ban the players for joining the unapproved league for 10 years, BCB spokesman Rabeed Imam said.

"We don't have full reports of who have joined the ICL. But today, the board has decided that whoever has joined the unapproved league would be automatically banned for 10 years," he said.

The board was also considering legal action against the 13 for breaching International Cricket Council rules, he added.

At least seven of the 13 players informed the BCB they were retiring from Bangladesh cricket, citing personal reasons.

The 13 players announced for the Dhaka Warriors include former captain Habibul Bashar and senior team-mates Shahriar Nafis, Dhiman Ghosh, Mohammad Rafique and Alok Kapali.

The others are Aftab Ahmed, Farhad Reza, Manjural Islam, Mabud Chowdhury, Mahbubul Karim, Mohammad Sharif, Mosharraf Hossain and Tapash Baisya.

Players aligned with the ICL -- bankrolled by India's largest listed media company Zee Telefilms -- are banned from playing official domestic and international cricket.

The meeting was held a day after the board announced it would not accept the players' retirements.

Earlier Wednesday, Bangladesh's Australia-born coach Jamie Siddons, who joined the cricket minnows a year ago, denied the sport was in crisis.

"We can't afford to lose that many players on a regular basis. We'll replace these guys with young players but my biggest concern is that the ICL will come knocking again next year," Siddons told AFP via telephone from Australia.

Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful told the leading Bengali language newspaper 'Prothom Alo', in an interview published Tuesday that he was offered a 700,000-dollar contract to play in the ICL, which he declined.