An 11-day ‘foundation training course’ on banking for the officials of Shahjalal Islami Bank Limited (SJIBL) began at the Bank’s training centre in the city on Sunday.

Md Abdur Rahman Sarker, managing director of the Bank, formally inaugurated the course as chief guest, said a press release.

Md Mukhter Hossain, additional managing director, Nazimuddoula, executive vice-president (EVP) and head of human resource development (HRD) of SJIBL and Md Fariduddin Ahmed, managing director of EXIM Bank were also present on the occasion.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 24th Jan 2012

Rumee A Hossain, director and chairman of board audit committee of Bank Asia, inaugurates a SME Service Centre of the Bank at Ramgonj in Laxmipur on Sunday.

The SME Service Centre of Bank Asia Ltd at Ramgonj in Laxmipur was converted into a full-fledged SME/Agri branch from Sunday.

Rumee A Hossain, director and chairman of board audit committee of the Bank, inaugurated the converted branch, said a press release.

Mohammed Lakiot- ullah, vice chairman, M Irfan Syed, Shah Md Nurul Alam, Mashiur Rahman, directors, Md Mehmood Husain, president and managing director, Mohammed Roshangir, deputy managing director, Md Arfan Ali, senior executive vice president, and Swapan Dasgupta, executive vice president and zonal head of the Bank, were also present on the occasion.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 24th Jan 2012

Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Thursday will announce its half-yearly monetary policy statement for the remaining six months of the current 2011-12 financial year.

BB Governor Dr Atiur Rahman will announce the policy at a press conference at the central bank’s headquarters in the capital city, official sources said.

Meanwhile, speculations have gone high among bankers, businessmen and share investors that the ensuing monetary policy would be more contractionary to slash unnecessary spending in both public and private sectors.

Earlier, economists and experts suggested the central bank to be more cautious in preparing the monetary policy as it would continuously be dealing with some challenging issues such as escalating inflation, depreciation of Taka and ensuring credit flow to productive sector against rising public borrowing.

They said the next monetary policy warrants some assertive steps by the BB to help the government keep inflation and borrowing within the budget limits of 6.7 percent and 5 percent respectively with achieving 7 percent economic growth.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 24th Jan 2012

Grameen Bank has sought tax exemption facility on its income for next four years, aiming to provide more credit to the poor, official sources said.

“Banking Division is now examining the tax exemption proposal of Grameen Bank” a senior Banking Division official said.

He said the division will also review a previous proposal of Grameen Bank on the same issue, which earlier was rejected by the government.

Grameen Bank Chairman Khondaker Muzammel Huq sent a letter to finance minister AMA Muhith last week seeking exemption of all types of taxes of the bank for four years from 2012 to 2015.

The proposal said the bank has been doing NGO-based works and for the development of the poor women. So, the bank should be exempted from tax net of the National Board of Revenue, said the proposal.

Earlier, the government had rejected a Grameen proposal on tax exemption for the years 2011 and 2012 in February last year due to an allegation that the bank operates business with the money gained through tax exemption facility.

Finance minister then said to media that the Grameen Bank should pay at least a small amount of money as tax to the national exchequer. It’s not necessarily that Grameen would have to pay 42.5 per cent corporate tax, he added in response to a tax exemption proposal submitted by former Grameen Bank Managing Director Prof Muhammad Yunus last year.

Nobel laureate Dr Yunus was unceremoniously relieved of his duties at Grameen Bank on March 2, 2011 through a Bangladesh Bank letter.

Grameen has been enjoying tax benefits for last 22 years since its inception in 1983. The facility of Grameen expired on December 31, 2010.

It last extended the tax exemption facility during the tenure of immediate past caretaker government.

Banking Division source said the tax exemption facility is contradictory to the existing income tax rules. The bank has other kind of business apart from micro-finance; so its income should be taxable, sources said.

Usually, all the commercial banks pay 42.5 per cent tax on their annual income.

An NBR study found that total tax exemption eats up about 2.5 per cent of the country’s GDP.

Grameen Bank earned Tk 7.43 billion in 2009, out of which, income against micro credit was Tk 2.73 billion, interest earned from fixed deposit Tk 3.95 billion, mutual fund Tk 1 million and other income Tk 789.8 million.

As per existing income tax rule, earning from the mutual fund is not taxable but other incomes are taxable.

About 63 percent of total income of Grameen Bank comes from micro-credit, sources said.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 24th Jan 2012

Bangladesh should now focus on job-led growth by creating new entrepreneurship to achieve sustainable development, according to a case study on the country by the World Bank.

The country has been pursuing the model of export-led growth for the last 20 years, but the time has come to accelerate growth of the private sector and entrepreneurship that will create a vibrant job market and lead to better productivity, it said.

Job creation will help raise living standards, increase aggregate productivity and enhance social cohesion, according to draft World Development Report 2013: Jobs, which will come out next year and highlight Bangladesh's success stories.

The report will contain the case study and demonstrate further measures the country should take to run on the track of sustainable development.

BIDS and BRAC yesterday co-organised a consultative workshops to share the Bangladesh case study at BRAC Centre in Dhaka.

Bangladesh has turned around in the past two decades from 'test case' to 'success case' among the least developed countries, said Binayak Sen, a member of the Bangladesh Country Study Team.

He said the country has achieved successive growth over the last three decades thanks to the contribution of agriculture, remittance and export earnings.

“This strategy had worked till 2010. But, it is time to focus on creating jobs in urban areas as 35 percent people now live in the area, which was 12 percent in 1974,” Sen said.

“We are not being able to give to people the jobs that match their academic qualifications and training,” the researcher said.

The country's young workforce is educated and wants to pursue careers in decent jobs. "Sometimes, they choose to remain jobless until they get a desired job, which is a huge economic loss,” Sen said.

"It will be a huge challenge if the skilled and young workforce does not get their desired jobs. It will create frustration among them,” he said. "We have to expand growth of the private sector for creating jobs."

Jobless growth has direct adverse implications for the living standards of those whose main asset is labour power or skill, said the study.

It said the country should focus on technological progress and productivity improvements to accelerate the growth momentum.

The study said inadequate job creation or a supply demand mismatch can be detrimental to social cohesion, which in turn can reduce future growth.

Several shifts in the composition of output have taken place between 1990 and 2010. It has shifted from farm to non-farm, from agriculture to industry, from low-value added products and informal service to high-value-added and formal services, and from domestic market to export markets.

It said the industry's share has increased from around 20 percent to 30 percent, while the share of formal services -- financial, wholesale trade and information technology -- has grown to 50 percent during the period.

Export's share in GDP has increased to 18 percent in 2006-07 from 7 percent in 1977-82 with more than 90 percent being manufactured exports.

Remittance from abroad has increased to around 10 percent of GDP in the last fiscal year, up from 5 percent in the late 1990s; aid inflow's share in GDP came below 2 percent compared to 10 percent in 1981-82, according to the study

Mahabub Hossain, executive director of BRAC and a member of the Bangladesh Country Study Team, chaired the consultation session with policymakers and academics.

The draft study is expected to be finalised by July and will be released next year.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 24th Jan 2012