Six local entrepreneurs will get $48.55 million foreign loans for expanding their projects.

The Scrutiny Committee of the Suppliers’ Credit Committee of the Bangladesh Bank at its 68th meeting approved the foreign loan proposals.

The meeting was held Tuesday at Bangladesh Bank head office in Dhaka, said a press release.

Of the total amount, $9.75 million has been approved in favour of NovoAir Limited, while $0.5 million for RZ Power Limited, $7.5 million for Esquire Knit Composite Limited, $9.0 million for SQ Celsius Limited and $20.0 million for KYCR Coils Limited.

Dr Atiur Rahman, Governor of Bangladesh Bank presided over the meeting. Committee members including representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industries, Board of Investment and officials of the committee were also present.

The highest annual interest rate of the loan is 6-month LIBOR+4.0 and the tenor is at least 5 years.

The committee was informed that more foreign financing proposals had been under processing and close consideration for approval.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/19-Sep-12

Hassan O Rashid, Head of SME Banking of Standard Chartered Bank, hands over the first SME collateral free Business Instalment Loan (BIL) to Mahbub Iqbal, Managing Director of AS Knitting Ltd in Dhaka recently.

Standard Chartered Bank has launched collateral free Business Instalment Loan scheme.

Under the scheme, the Bank would provide collateral free Business Instalment Loan up to Tk 10 million for Small and Medium Enterprises. The customers would be able to apply for the loan at any of the 26 branches and 17 kiosks of the Bank, said a press release.

“We remain committed to the development of SMEs by continuously addressing the entrepreneurs’ changing financial needs,” Hassan O Rashid, General Manager, SME Banking of Standard Chartered Bank said.

“During last 8 years in SME banking, we have brought many innovations, especially for small business segment. We are committed to help entrepreneurs achieve desired progress in all sectors and through efforts like this, we want to show that we are here for good cause”, he added.

The first loan was sanctioned to AS Knitting Limited, a knit manufacturer unit operating in the country since 2002.

Mahbub Iqbal, Managing Director of AS Knitting Limited said, “The loan offering was exactly what my company needed for its expansion and the fact that no cash or property security is required to avail this loan, which is its main feature”.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/19-Sep-12

Md Alamgir Mia, General Manager of Dhaka north divisional office of Janata Bank, speaks at a review meeting in Dhaka recently.

The state-owned Janata Bank Limited organised a review meeting on classified loan at north divisional office of the Bank in Dhaka recently.

Md Alamgir Mia, General Manager of the divisional office presided over the meeting, said a pres release.

Md Siddiqur Rahman, Md Mosharraf Hossain, deputy managing directors of the Bank attended at the meeting.

Deputy general managers, assistant general managers and branch chiefs were present at the meeting.

The participants at the meeting discussed various issues relating to recovery of classified loans.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/19-Sep-12

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund acknowledged on Monday it faced "serious challenges" in designing bailout programs for troubled euro zone countries mainly because it was restricted by the rules of the 17-member currency zone.

Analysts and some IMF member countries have expressed concern that the Fund has compromised on tough conditions in its bailouts in Europe where it has been part of a "troika" of international lenders in Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

But the IMF preliminary assessment found that the Fund actually had to impose extensive structural conditions on euro zone countries-where deep labor and market reforms were needed-compared to programs elsewhere.

"While it is difficult to judge whether all the conditions were critical, the increase in the number and depth of (Euro Area) conditions warrants scrutiny," according to the review, which analyzed conditions attached to 159 IMF programs in the decade to September 2011.

Greece for one has struggled to stay on track with the terms of its IMF-European Union bailout after a deeper-than-expected recession and political challenges.

The IMF said extensive reforms and large loans to the euro zone were necessary because of the systemic risks in the region, such as the spreading of the euro debt crisis to more countries.

However, the IMF needs to develop better tools to assess this risk of contagion, said Ranil Salgado, division chief of the IMF's Strategy Policy and Review Department.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/19-Sep-12

The country's interest matters more than that of an individual, former caretaker government adviser Akbar Ali Khan said yesterday.

He was talking about the reported 'leave' of Prime Minister's Economic Affairs Adviser Mashiur Rahman.

“A person does not matter more than the country,” Khan said.

An individual should not be a barrier in construction of the Padma bridge as it is necessary for Bangladesh, he said.

Khan spoke to a group of reporters after a regular meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in Dhaka.

The government must convince the World Bank to release the Padma bridge fund for the sake of the nation, Khan said.

“The government's efforts to get the Padma bridge fund from the WB are in right direction."

“But the government should also notice whether those measures are adequate for getting the loan,” Khan said.

Earlier in June, the WB cancelled its $1.2 billion loan deal citing "corruption conspiracy" in the Padma Bridge project and set three conditions for revival of the loan deal.

Khan said the 'corruption conspiracy' allegation raised by the WB was right because 'conspiracy' is an offence according to Bangladesh's laws.

The WB has cancelled loan agreements not only with Bangladesh, but also with other countries like India, on the ground of corruption, he said.

Speaking on development and governance, Khan identified four major reasons for corruption.

The four reasons are failure of incentives within the government machinery, over-centralisation of government which encourages the delayed decision, discontinuation of policies and, finally, under-reformed judicial system.

“There are some organisations, which you cannot reform through training. You have to write off those organisations,” the economist said without naming such corrupt organisations.

Given the current political situation, people are very angry and this is the final stage of political development. “I am saying this because people are asking about the third option in the political development.”

In spite of such a bad situation of governance, the country is developing economically which he cited as a puzzle. He also said at the low level of development, governance is not as important as when it goes to mid level.

Khan credited four specific reasons including encouragement of garment sector, inflow of remittance, encouragement to the private sector entrepreneurs and building up rural infrastructure for economic development.

Aftab ul Islam, AmCham president, said people are fed up with the current governance and the incidents of hiding, fear, threat and suspension are regularly taking place in the country.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/19-Sep-12