Morning Newsflash Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Transcription

1 Export earnings from Canada reached 1.12b in FY18 Bangladesh exported products worth $1.118 billion to Canada and imported $ million from there in fiscal year (FY18). Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi made the disclosure while High Commissioner of Canada to Bangladesh Benoit Prefontaine called on him at the secretariat in the city on Monday. The minister laid emphasis on forming a forum to expand trade and investment and enhancing relation between Bangladesh and Canada. He also hoped that the ongoing trade and investment will get momentum in the coming days. Benoit Prefontaine said Canada is interested to expedite trade and investment in Bangladesh. The minister said both the governments will take steps if businessmen of the two countries shared their experience and gave recommendations to them after visiting each other's countries. Govt has no net bank borrowing in 9 months as NSC sales soar The government had no net borrowing from the banking sector in nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year ( ) as high sales of pricy national savings certificates helped the government meet deficit financing, Bangladesh Bank officials said. Instead, the government paid back Tk 1, crore to banks in the nine months of the current fiscal year. Despite the poor state of tax-revenue collection, the government s net borrowing from the banking sector dropped to Tk 87,001 crore as of April 7 this year from Tk 88, crore as of June 30, Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh executive director Ahsan H Mansur told New Age that the government s move to borrow high-cost fund by the sales of NSCs and to pay back low-cost fund of the banks was a political decision. A major portion of the budget is being spent for debt payment and the amount would increase if such trend continues, he said. High borrowing from the sales of NSCs would finally increase interest payment burden and reduce the government s capacity to finance for social safety purposes including health education, he said. Return rates offered by the NSCs are between per cent and per cent, while the government can take fund from the banks at less than 8 per cent interest.

2 One stop service to be set up at industrial estates Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun on Sunday said one stop service would be set up at the industrial estates to ensure necessary government services there speedily. One stop centers will act to provide government services more effectively to help flourish the potential industrial sectors, he said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of Baishakhi Fair-1426 held on the Bangladesh Academy premises. Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) in partnership with the Bangladesh Academy have jointly been organising the 10-day Fair. Chaired by BSCIC Chairman M Mostaque Hossain, State Minister for Industries Kamal Ahmed Majumder, State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid, Industries Secretary M Abdul Halim, Cultural Affairs Secretary Dr Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal and Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Samity President Mirza Nurul Gani Shovon spoke on the occasion. Only 11pc women using MFS in BD: Study Only 11 per cent of women are registered users of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) in the country while 30 per cent of men are using such services, a study has revealed. Volume or frequency of need, influencers and convenience are the main three factors that motivate women to use Mobile Financial Services (MFS), found the research, styled 'Gender Centrality of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) in Bangladesh'. Lack of literacy, far distance, social and religious barriers and absence of innovation in product design are found as main hurdles for women to avail the services. The study by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) was conducted under its SHIFT SAARC in Bangladesh programme. By investigating the centrality of gender in Digital Financial Services (DFS) through qualitative research, the study's aim was to make sense of "how and why" women use the services. Banks & NBFIs JS body for implementing single-digit bank interest rate The parliamentary standing committee on Public Undertakings on Monday suggested Bangladesh Bank and scheduled banks to take effective steps to implement the single digit interest rate in the banks. The recommendation was made at the 3rd meeting of the committee held at the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) Bhaban with its chairman ASM Feroz in the chair, said a press release. Committee members Mostafizur Rahman, Narayon Chandra Chanda, Md Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Mirza Azam and Muhammad Nazrul Islam attended the meeting. The meeting held discussion on measures taken by Bangladesh Bank and other state-owned banks to reopen closed and inoperative mills and realise classified loans. The parliamentary watchdog was informed that so far 279 garment industries and 411 non textile institutions were identified as sick industries.

3 Banks' return on assets narrows by 57% in 2018 Banks & NBFIs Banks' return on assets (ROA) narrowed by 57% in 2018, as a result of the high amount of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the sector. ROA is a profitability ratio that provides how much profit a company is able to generate from its assets. The higher the number, the more efficient a company's management is at managing its balance sheet to generate profits. In 2018, net profit of banks stood at only Tk0.30 against assets worth Tk100, down from Tk0.70 per Tk100 of assets in 2017, according to the Bangladesh Bank. In 2018, state-owned commercial banks lost Tk1.30 against assets worth Tk100. In 2017, these banks had made profits of Tk0.20 against assets worth Tk100. On the other hand, private commercial banks made net profit of Tk0.80 per Tk100 of assets last year. However, in 2017, banks had earned a higher net profit of Tk0.90 per Tk100 of assets, according to central bank data in-2018 Banks & NBFIs Move to rid banks of NPL burden The central bank has moved to form an asset management company to deal with the growing non-performing loans (NPLs) of banks, as part of its efforts to perk up the ailing sector. The development comes following recommendation from a six-member committee formed two months ago. The committee came up with the recommendation after conducting an extensive analysis of seven Southeast Asian countries on how they had brought down their large amounts of NPLs after facing a major recession -- widely known as Asian financial crisis -- between 1997 and Each of the seven countries -- Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines -- successfully brought down their classified loans by way of implementing this formula. For instance, NPLs in Indonesia went up to nearly 50 percent of its outstanding loans during the financial crisis, but it came down to less than 3 percent in 2017, said a member of the committee. Esquire Knit falls within a day of DSE debut Capital Market Esquire Knit slid below its offering price within a day of its stock market debut on April 9 -- in a baffling development for a new stock, which typically experience high demand amongst general investors. The stock's offering price was Tk 45. The following day it slid to Tk and yesterday it traded at Tk Analysts said the reason for the slip is general investors' acting once bitten twice shy: in recent times, many stocks debuted at a high price but within months they came crashing down. So, general investors who bought into the stocks early incurred losses. The last stock to debut through the book-building method like Esquire Knit was Bashundhara Paper Mills on July 2 last year. Its offering price was Tk 80, which rocketed to Tk 181 within three days of its debut on the Dhaka Stock Exchange. But it is now trading at Tk

4 Capital Market MNCs show mixed trend in recommending dividend The multinational companies (MNCs) listed with the stock exchanges have performed mixed in recommending dividend for the year ended on December 31, The amounts of dividends recommended by some MNCS have declined, while the dividends of some other companies increased compared to previous year. The companies have recommended dividends ranging between 10 per cent and 700 per cent. Of the MNCs, the British American Tobacco Bangladesh Company (BATBC) has recommended the highest amount of dividend. The BATBC has recommended 500 per cent cash and 200 per cent stock dividend. Two companies have recommended stock dividend despite the MNCs usually prefer the recommendation of cash dividend. The companies whose dividends increased for 2018 maintaining their growth trend are BATBC, Linde Bangladesh and Grameenphone. Fuel & Power Bangladesh, Bhutan welcome trilateral cooperation on hydroelectric power Bangladesh and Bhutan think the proposed trilateral cooperation with India in hydroelectric power can further 'strengthen regional cooperation, encourage the use of renewable energy and mitigate climate change challenges'. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Bhutanese counterpart Minister Dr Lotay Tshering welcomed the ongoing discussions among Bangladesh, Bhutan and India on the proposed trilateral cooperation in hydroelectric power, reports UNB. They noted that a trilateral meeting of the power secretaries could be held in this regard, according to a joint statement issued on Sunday night on the Bhutanese Prime Minister s four-day state visit to Bangladesh. The visit witnessed the signing of a number of bilateral documents, including SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for the operationalisation of the MoU on Use of Inland Waterways for Transportation of Bilateral Trade and Transit Cargoes between Bangladesh and the government of Bhutan.

5 Jute millers want source tax waiver, cash subsidy Local private jute millers and spinners have demanded of the government to waive the source tax from their export earnings as they were struggling to survive due to political unrest and economic slowdown in the key export markets. Currently, the source tax on the export of jute products is 0.60 per cent. They also demanded increasing the cash subsidy for all the jute goods exporters to 20 per cent to help increase their exports. Presently, the jute yarn exporters enjoy 7.5 per cent cash incentive while sacks exporters 12 per cent and diversified jute goods exporters 20 per cent. Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA) and Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association (BJSA) jointly placed their demands to the Ministry of Textiles and Jute through a recent letter, the millers said. Their other demands included allocating a fund of Tk 100 billion in the upcoming budget for the fiscal year to create a low-cost export development fund, enforcement of Mandatory Jute Packaging Act-2010, and enlisting jute goods as processed agricultural products. BD's aviation market doubles in seven years Others Others The aviation market of Bangladesh doubled over the last seven years to 2017 and is expected to grow at even faster rate in the near future. This has prompted Airbus to look to the market with offers for supplying their most modern and up-to-date aircraft for meeting the country's needs. "Bangladesh aviation market is growing and witnessed 99 per cent growth in international traffic (passengers) over the last seven years (compound annual growth rate of more or less 10 per cent in both direction)," said Sheel Shukla, Senior Sales Director of Airbus Customer Affairs. He was giving a presentation on the global aviation industry, with focus on Bangladesh, before a group of journalists from Bangladesh at the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France recently. In terms of gross order intake, Airbus has been the largest aircraft manufacturer in eight out of the last 10 years to December 31, The company is an industry leader with the largest order booking International Business EU approves tougher EU copyright rules in blow to Google, FB Google will have to pay publishers for news snippets and Facebook filter out protected content under new copyright rules aimed at ensuring fair compensation for the European Union s $1 trillion creative industries. EU governments on Monday backed the move launched by the European Commission two years ago to protect Europe s creative industries, which employ 11.7 million people in the bloc. When it comes to completing Europe s digital single market, the copyright reform is the missing piece of the puzzle, the Commission s president Jean- Claude Juncker said in a statement. Under the new rules, Google and other online platforms will have to sign licensing agreements with musicians, performers, authors, news publishers and journalists to use their work. The European Parliament gave a green light last month to a proposal that has pitted Europe s creative industry against tech companies, internet activists and consumer groups.

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