Bangladesh yesterday sought withdrawal of the 17.5-percent duty on garment exports to Turkey as the tax measure has hit the country's sales to the European nation, officials said.

The call came at the opening day meeting of the Fourth Bangladesh-Turkey Joint Economic Commission at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) in the city.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith, who co-chaired the opening session of the meeting, told reporters that he also raised the duty issue in a meeting with the 15-member Turkish delegation led by its Labour and Social Security Minister Faruk Celik.

Turkey will also give Bangladesh a $300 million credit for oil import, the finance minister said.

"Our garment export [to the country] has gone down because of the duty. The issue will be discussed at the commission's meeting," Muhith said.

He said, following the imposition of the tax measures, which came effective in July last year, the eagerness of Bangladeshi trade bodies faded a bit about the export potential to the Europe's one of the growing economies.

"We had thought that people-to-people contact will expand following the opening of the air-link. But it has not happened," said Muhith.

Ankara imposed the duty on import of garment items from developing countries, which was zero earlier, as a temporary measure to protect its local industry.

Bangladesh exported knitwear products worth $124 million and woven items worth $231 million in 2011-12.

The sales of knitwear items were, however, $272 million and woven items were $245 million in 2010-11 in the export basket of $518 million, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

The country's apparel exports to Turkey fell by 9.21 percent to $90.72 million in the July-September period of the current fiscal year, according to the EPB.

The Turkish side said the two countries would have to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) before Ankara could withdraw the tax measure for Bangladeshi garment exporters.

Turkey is now trying to get the membership of the European Union. So, the country will require permission from the European Commission if it wants to sign the FTA, said the Turkish side.

The two sides will discuss further on the issue today, according to an official who attended the meeting.

Muhith also said the two-day meeting aims to cement both political and economic ties.

"We have both deep political and economic relations with Turkey. We have talked about various needs for cementing our relations."

He said there are exchanges in the education sector. Protocol is needed here for equivalence, said Muhith who led the Bangladesh side in the meeting.

Muhith said, under the $300 credit line from EXIM Bank of Turkey offered to Bangladesh for oil import, there is a need to fix a counterpart bank in Bangladesh to use the credit.

State-run Bangladesh Development Bank Ltd might be chosen as the counterpart bank, he said.

At the meeting, the government also sought opportunity to export its good quality pharmaceutical products to the country, as Bangladesh's manufacturers are already shipping drugs to 83 countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa and have surplus capacity to cater other markets.

The two sides also discussed formation of joint trade committee, preferential trade agreement under Developing-8 bloc, investment, Turkish official

assistance to Bangladesh, manpower export, food security, health, shipbuilding, water management, energy, civil aviation, tourism, small and medium enterprises, agriculture, fisheries and livestock and cultural cooperation.

Emine Sendil, deputy director general (agreement) of Turkey, and Arastoo Khan, additional secretary to the ERD, led the technical sessions of the meeting.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/12-Nov-12

Engr. Md. Ruhul Matin, President of Cadet College Club Limited, inaugurates an ATM booth of MTB at CCCL premises at Gulshan in city recently.

Mutual Trust Bank (MTB) Limited opened its 123rd ATM booth at Cadet College Club Ltd (CCCL) at Gulshan in city recently.

Engr. Md. Ruhul Matin, President of CCCL inaugurated the ATM booth, said a press release Sunday.

Rashed A Chowdhury, Vice President of CCCL and Vice Chairman of MTB, former CCCL presidents Taneem Hasan, Shafiqur Rahman Munna, and Khandker Badrul Hasan, MTB Managing Director and CEO Anis A. Khan, Additional Managing Director Md. Ahsan-uz Zaman and senior officials of both the organisations were also present.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/12-Nov-12

Md. Shafiqur Rahman, Managing Director (CC) of SIBL, deputy managing directors AMM Farhad and Mohammad Mohashin Miah, seen at a foundation training course at Training Institute of the Bank in Dhaka recently.

Social Islami Bank organised a foundation training course for its 8th batch probationary officers.

The foundation training course of the Bank was held at the Training Institute of the bank in Dhaka recently, said a press release Sunday.

Md. Shafiqur Rahman, Managing Director (CC) of the Bank inaugurated the training course as chief guest.

Deputy Managing Directors AMM Farhad and Mohammad Mohashin Miah, Principal of Training Institute Abu Sadek Md. Sohel, head of HR Md. Akhter Hussain were present.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/12-Nov-12

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman, speaks at a seminar on ‘Financial Integrity: Managing Operational Risks and Avoiding Serious Losses at the Branch Level’ at City In Hotel at Shibbarhi in Khulna Sunday.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman urged the officials of the central bank to tighten supervision on corporate governance, internal audit, internal controls, and external audit in lowering the risk and discouraging repetition of fraudulence.

The central bank has to go forward with firmness and promptness and every bank and Bangladesh Bank have to keep watch so that none can escape by committing any fraud, he said.

The BB chief made the observations while speaking at a seminar on “Financial Integrity: Managing Operational Risks and Avoiding Serious Losses at the Branch Level” at City In Hotel at Shibbarhi in Khulna Sunday. Bangladesh Bank, Khulna, organised the seminar.

Atiur said the central bank has undertaken several reforms and redesign actions for its financial sector supervision framework in order to ensure sound growth of the country’s banking sector.

“As part of it, the BB has instituted quick inspection and formulation of a review report on activities and various issues of financial statement analysis of the banks, and also made two separate departments out of the previous foreign exchange inspection and vigilance department,” he added.

The central bank has been setting up an Electronic Dash Board in order to identify the trends that might indicate irregularities and fraudulence from the data and information of the financial statements of the banks collected by the BB’s supervision departments, the BB Chief said.

Atiur said proper directives have been given to the banks for submitting all information regarding export-import including IBP on-line to BB, as well as to adopt IT-based system.

The IT department of BB has also undertaken initiatives to prepare suitable software for the bank. Besides, the banks have been asked to prepare fraud risk assessment worksheets on quarterly basis. The banks to make self-assessment through the worksheets that has more than 50 assessment criteria, said Dr Atiur.

Bangladesh Bank has appointed the National Fraud Risk Detection and Risk Mitigation Adviser who, with the help of the related departments, will detect the limitations of existing policies, strategies, and guidelines of BB, determine the adequacy of the information sent by the commercial banks, and prepare recommendations on future actions along with providing training programme for the selected Bangladesh Bank Staff, said Dr Atiur.

In the Khulna and Barisal divisions, there are more than 1,200 branches of the scheduled banks, or about 15 percent of the total branches in Bangladesh. Overall, these branches manage about Tk 200 billion in loans and advances and about T. 260 billion in deposits, which represents only 6 percent of the total activity in the banking sector, BB chief mentioned.

He asked BB officials to check whether these branches are following the right procedures in handling the deposits of the people of the region.

Less attention from the head office, due to lower transactions and greater physical distance, fewer face-to-face meetings between branch managers and executive management in Dhaka, and other factors could expose these branches to a higher risk of internal and external fraud. Thus, we have to keep our keen/watchful eye on it.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/12-Nov-12

Eastern Bank Limited (EBL) organised a training course on 'Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and Anti Terrorism Act-2012' for the officials of different commercial banks of Noakhali.

The training course was held at Nice Guest House and Training Hall at Maijdee Court in Noakhali Saturday, said a press release.

The training course was participated by 55 branch managers from different banks of the district.

Mohammad Musa, Head of Operation Risk of EBL inaugurated the training programme.

Md. Rafiqul Islam, Joint Director, and Mohammad Abdur Rab, Deputy Director of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, Bangladesh Bank conducted the training course.

Md. Abdul Awal, Head of Operation Risk, SD, ICCD and Mohammad Shahjahan Ali, Head of Compliance Unit, ICCD of EBL also took part in the programme.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/12-Nov-12