Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said that there is freedom of speech in the country as the newspapers here are enjoying full freedom. “But all concerned will have to be responsible to enjoy this freedom. However, freedom doesn’t mean to tarnish the rights of anybody,” she said while delivering her winding up speech in the 15th session of the 10th Parliament.
The Cabinet yesterday approved the amendments to a law allowing four members of the same family to sit on the board of a commercial bank. The amended law will also allow the directors of commercial banks to serve for three consecutive terms of three years each. The seal of approval was given to the Bank Company (Amendment) Act 2017 at the regular weekly Cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
President Abdul Hamid yesterday called for establishing a humanitarian and non-communal, poverty and exploitation-free society imbued with the spirit and ideals of poet Rabindranath Tagore. “Rabindranath is not only a poet of a certain period but also Bangalees’ pride for all times. He is a great source of our inspirations and courage to establish patriotism, humanity, Bangalee nationalism and universal consciousness,” he said. The President was inaugurating the national programme marking the 156th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore in Potisor of Naogaon district.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani on Sunday lauded honest and hardworking Bangladeshi workers for their contribution to the development of Qatar. The premier came up with the acclamation while Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali paid a courtesy call on him at Doha Palace. During the meeting, the Prime Minister also commended the leadership of Bangladesh for its remarkable achievements.
The government is in the process of formulating a new law to provide domestic and foreign investors with a one-stop service that would incorporate 16 types of services. The Cabinet meeting led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina approved an initial draft of the One-Stop Service Act-2017, at the secretariat yesterday. “The new law will encourage domestic and foreign investors and provide them with necessary conveniences and opportunities,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told the media after the meeting.
Bangladesh wants to see air connectivity between the beach town of Cox’s Bazar and Kunming, a modern capital city and transportation hub of China’s southern Yunnan province. State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam raised the issue during a bilateral meeting with senior adviser to Yunnan Province government of China Li Xiuling at state guesthouse Padma yesterday. During the meeting, the State Minister requested Xiuling to introduce Biman flight on Cox’s Bazar-Kunming route on a trial basis. He also sought Chinese support in addressing Rohingya problems in Bangladesh.
United Nations bodies, Japan and Bangladesh governments have jointly agreed to focus on effective coordination amongst all humanitarian actors to ensure the response towards fresh influx of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Japan government, International Organization for Migration (IOM), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have raised funds of US$4 million for an ‘Emergency Grant Aid’ to support Bangladesh effort to provide succor to 74,000 displaced persons (DP) from troubled Myanmar.
Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman yesterday said the government has undertaken a project to set up 1,500 more primary schools in rural areas aimed at ensuring cent percent education. The schools would be set up in the rural areas across the country where there are no primary schools yet.
The highest number of foreigners in Oman is from Bangladesh. There are over 700,000 Bangladeshi workers in the Sultanate of Oman, according to National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) data. The number of Bangladeshis stood at 704,254 at the end of March 2017. Following Bangladesh Indians stood at second with the number of 689,201 and the number of Pakistani expats was at 235,769.
Exports grew a modest 3.92 percent year-on-year to $28.72 billion in July-April, riding on shipments of knitwear, home textiles, leather products and jute. Month-wise, it also rose nearly 3.49 percent to $2.78 billion in April compared to the same month a year ago, according to the Export Promotion Bureau.
Qatar has expressed interest to invest in Bangladesh’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) and power generation sectors and deepen the existing cooperation in areas of trade and investment, infrastructure development and exploration of gas. This was stated by Qatari Minister for Energy and Industry Mohamed Bin Saleh Al Sada after talks with Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Sunday. The Gulf nation also wants to recruit more specialised, skilled, semi-skilled and un-skilled workers from Bangladesh.
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu yesterday said the tax authority should work with the business community to eradicate double taxation that exists in some areas. He termed it as ‘unethical’. He was speaking at a discussion programme on implementation of VAT and Supplementary Duty Act 2012 organized by VAT Online Project of National Board of Revenue (NBR).
The government is likely to provide increased protection to domestic industries from imported commodities and give more comfort to small and medium enterprises while implementing the new VAT law from July this year. Revenue officials are working to increase the number of products in the list of supplementary duty (SD) to discourage imports and better safeguard the interests of the domestic industries. They are also working to increase the VAT-exempted threshold and turnover limit for small and medium enterprises.
The Cabinet yesterday fixed the office timing during Ramadan for all offices of the government, semi-government, autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies. The office hour will start from 9:00am and will continue till 3:30pm.
– Press Wing London, 09 May 2017