The governor of the United Arab Emirates central bank said Friday it intends to buy the sovereign debt of bailed-out eurozone member Portugal.

“Portugal has taken steps towards recovery. Ireland has successfully overcome the crisis and now the second country to do it in Europe will be Portugal,” Sultan bin Nasser al-Suwaidi was quoted as saying in the Portuguese business daily Diario Economico.

“We therefore have the intention to buy Portuguese sovereign debt.”

Portugal in May 2011 became the third eurozone nation to be tripped up by the debt crisis and seek a sovereign bailout. It received a 78-billion-euro rescue from the EU and IMF after pledging to cut its deficit and implement structural reforms to increase competitiveness.

“I am confident that Europe will overcome the financial crisis,” said Suwaidi, who talked with the newspaper on the sidelines of a conference in the United Arab Emirates.

He added that “like Portugal, Italy is also on the right track.”

In a sign of rising investor confidence in Portugal, the yield on its two-year bonds recently dipped below 4.0 percent on the secondary market.

A number of Portuguese companies have also tapped the bond market in recent months.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/02-Dec-12

Syed Waseque Md Ali, Deputy Managing Director of First Security Islami Bank Limited and Mofiz Uddin Chowdhury, Managing Director, FAS Finance and Investment Limited, exchange documents after signing an agreement in Dhaka recently.

First Security Islami Bank Limited (FSIBL) signed a corporate agreement with FAS Finance and Investment Limited for Electronic Funds Transfer Network (EFTN) services recently.

Syed Waseque Md. Ali, Deputy Managing Director of the bank and Mofiz Uddin Chowdhury, Managing Director, FAS Finance and Investment Limited signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides, said a press release Saturday.

Kazi Osman Ali, SEVP, Abdul Aziz, EVP and Manager of Dilkusha Branch, VP and Head of Investment of Dilkusha Branch, Shah Mohammad Shoyeb Ali, Head of Marketing and Development Division, Azam Khan, Manager (Operation) of Dilkusha Branch were present.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/02-Dec-12

Private Commercial Banks (PCBs) have made the highest contributions to the country’s industrial growth by providing the lions share of loans to the sector in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

All banks and financial institutions (FIs) have disbursed a total of Tk 345.54 billion in July-September period of FY 2012-13.

The share of PCBs in industrial credit was as high as 76.23 percent while the stake of state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs), foreign commercial banks (FCBs), specialised banks and financial institutions (FIs) were 8.22 percent, 8.57 percent, 2.93 percent and 3.35 percent respectively.

The central bank data also shows a significant 38.22 percent rise in industrial credit in the first quarter of the FY13 over the same period last fiscal.

During the July-September period of FY13, banks and FIs have disbursed a total of Tk 345.54 billion loans while the loan in the same period last fiscal was Tk 249.99 billion.

Out of total loan amount, the current credit was Tk 248.33 billion and the term loan was Tk 97.20 billion, the BB data shows.

Meanwhile, the amount of outstanding industrial loans recovered by all banks and FIs was Tk 279.31 billion, out of which Tk 197.40 billion was current credit and Tk. 81.91 billion term loans.

The recovery of current credit went up by 32.55 percent to 197.40 billion in July-September period of FY13 compared to Tk 148.93 billion in the corresponding of last fiscal.

In case of outstanding term-loan, the recovery moved higher by 20.26 percent to Tk. 81.91 billion in FY13 compared to Tk 68.10 billion in the same period of FY12. Total recovery of industrial credit in July-September FY12 was Tk. 217.04 billion.

The success rate in industrial loan recovery by PCBs was Tk 75.14 percent, FCBs 11.63 percent, SoCBs 5.93 percent, FIs 4.03 percent and specialised banks 3.27 percent.

However, the central bank data shows a remarkable rise in the overdue industrial credit in the first quarter of current fiscal compared to the same period of last fiscal, signaling the risks of generating more bad loans as these amounts will be required to be classified and provisioned by banks.

In July-September 2011-12, overdue industrial credit amounted to Tk. 138.67 billion, which rose by 9.67 percent to Tk 152.09 billion.

According to the data, about 16.85 percent of the industrial term-loan became overdue while the stake of current credit was 2.64 percent.

Out of total overdue loans, the share was 49.61 percent of PCBs, 36.37 percent of SoCBs, 6.06 percent of FIs, 5.57 of specialised banks and 2.39 percent of FCBs.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/02-Dec-12

SME Foundation has recently agreed to provide Tk 3 crore to Trust Bank to give loans to small and medium entrepreneurs, particularly women, in Jessore and three hill districts at 9 percent interest.

Small women entrepreneurs at the nakshikantha cluster in Jessore will receive the financing without any collateral. Both male and female-led

SMEs in the three hill districts of Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari will receive the discounted financing, officials said.

ABM Khorshed Alam, acting managing director of the foundation, and M Shah Alam Sarwar, managing director of the bank, inked a deal at a programme at the foundation in the city.

Dilip Barua, chairperson of the foundation and the industries minister, attended the programme.

Since 2009, the foundation has distributed Tk 11 crore as collateral-free loans among SMEs across the country through Mutual Trust Bank, Eastern Bank, NCC Bank and Midas Financing.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/02-Dec-12

Rokia Afzal Rahman, a former adviser to caretaker government, gives an environment-friendly oven to a woman of Dhangmari, a village in the Sundarbans. Farid Hossain, bureau chief of the Associated Press; Hasibur Rahman, executive director of MRDI; Abdullah Al Jubayer, manager for corporate sustainability at HSBC Bangladesh, were also present.

International banking organisation HSBC has extended support for the MRDI's programme for developing Dhangmari, a remote village in the Sundarbans, as a climate model village.

The CSR initiative of the MRDI (Management and Resources Development Initiative) is aimed at improving the health and socio-economic conditions of the village people in a sustainable approach.

The intervention is a part of MRDI's CSR advocacy project implemented in partnership with Manusher Jonno Foundation that aims to mainstream CSR as an alternative source of funding for social development and poverty alleviation.

Under this intervention, eco-friendly ovens were distributed among all 360 families of the village, according to a statement of the MRDI yesterday.

The programme will contribute to addressing the threat of destruction of the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest of the world.

Three ponds will be re-excavated and filtering system will be installed in each pond to ensure pure drinking water for the dwellers there, who are at severe health risk due to acute crisis of safe water source.

Moreover, skills training on sewing and stitching will be organised for the interested women of the village that will open up better livelihood options for them.

The initiative will reduce health risk, improve living standard of people of the village and prevent environmental pollution which will ultimately save the Sundarbans, said Rokia Afzal Rahman, former adviser to a caretaker government, while addressing the oven distribution function.

Hasibur Rahman, executive director of MRDI, hoped that people and environment will be directly benefited through success of the programme and other corporate houses will feel encouraged to come up with similar initiative.

Abdullah Al Jubayer, manager for corporate sustainability at HSBC Bangladesh, took the occasion as a pride for them to be able to serve the people of a remote village.

Use of the fuel efficient oven will contribute to easing global warming, said Sudes Kumar Roy, chairman of Bani Shanta union parishad.

Use of less firewood will save trees of the Sundarbans, he said. "It is a simple technology and what is needed is to get used to it."

Green World Communication Ltd will implement the initiative on behalf of HSBC and MRDI.

Dhangmari is the third village in the area where MRDI has come up with such intervention. Two neighbouring villages are already under similar programme of MRDI in which Bank Alfalah and Midas Financing provided support from their CSR funds.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/02-Dec-12