President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in separate messages greeted the Buddhist community on the occasion. President M Abdul Hamid yesterday urged all irrespective of party affiliation, opinion and religious belief to play a proper role for the national development upholding communal harmony and tradition. He was exchanging greetings with the Buddhist community at Bangabhaban on the occasion of Buddha Purnima. The President hoped that the Buddhist community would continue to put their efforts for country’s overall development upholding the traditional norms and containing the immortal ideology of Lord Buddha.
Buddha Purnima, the biggest religious festival of the Buddhist community, was celebrated amid religious fervour and festivity across the country yesterday. Buddha Purnima marks Gautam Buddha‟s birth, enlightenment and death.
Saudi King and Custodian of Two Holy Mosques Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has invited Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to attend the Arabic Islamic American Historical Summit. The summit will be held in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on May 21.The visiting Saudi Minister for Culture and Information Dr Awad Bin-Saleh AlAwad handed over the invitation letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban on Tuesday night.
Holy Shab-e-Barat, the night of fortune and forgiveness, will be observed in the country tonight with due religious fervour. Meanwhile, President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have issued separate messages on the occasion.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said there will be some changes in the new VAT law.“I‟m thinking about giving some relief… some amendments may come (in next budget) …I‟m‟ still considering a change,” he told reporters in response to a query. The Minister was inaugurating a mobile VAT Online Helpdesk at the National Board of Revenue (NBR) office.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday urged the people to take the country forward with the spirit of religious harmony upholding the ideology of Gautam Bhudda, founder of Buddhism. He made the remarks while addressing a discussion as the Chief Guest, marking the Buddha Purnima.
Expenditure under the social safety net programmes, including allowance for the elderly and widows, will be increased substantially in the next fiscal year to give more benefits to the ultra-poor. At a meeting on April 30 with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in chair, it was decided that the number of beneficiaries and the amount of money under the programmes will be increased.
Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has described the European Union (EU) as a trusted partner of Bangladesh in its journey towards development, and hoped that the ties will grow further on all fronts in the days to come. He made the remarks while addressing a reception marking the Europe Day on Tuesday evening.EU Ambassador in Dhaka Pierre Mayaudon also spoke at the programme. Highlighting the success stories of Bangladesh EU partnership, the diplomat said the EU takes pride over the extraordinary performance in Bangladesh’s RMG industry that helped lift millions of women out of poverty. The diplomat said no other country like Bangladesh has been able to take an impressive advantage of the duty- and quota-free access to the EU single market of 500 million consumers.
National Mobile Application Awareness Development and Capacity Building Programme of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division under Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology of Bangladesh won the first prize of Global mobileGov Award 2017 for its innovative best practices in mobile public service implementation. World renowned organisation m4life.org on Tuesday night announced the three Global mobileGov Awards‟ winners at the closing ceremony of the three-day „mobileGov World Summit 2017‟ held in Brighton, UK. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam received the award, while Bangladesh High Commissioner to UK Nazmul Quaunine was present.
The government is set to buy a supercomputer to analyse critical data and reap the maximum benefits of digitization, said Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister for ICT. A supercomputer is a high-performance computing machine designed to have extremely fast processing speeds, and is employed to handle very large databases or for applications that require immense amount of mathematical calculations. The demand for a supercomputer came from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department after the recent floods in the haor areas.
The two-day Bangladesh Denim Expo will start in Dhaka on May 17 to showcase denim fabrics, trousers and other products from home and abroad. The exhibition will be held at International Convention City Bashundhara, said Mostafiz Uddin, organizer of the show.
– Press Wing London, 11 May 2017