Remittance falls 6.71pc year-on-year in July

The first month of the fiscal year saw negative growth in remittance though Bangladesh Bank set a slightly ambitious target for the year.

Inward remittance dropped 6.71 percent year-on-year to $1.39 billion in July, according to data from the BB.

July's remittance was 3.47 percent lower than the receipts in June.

In its monetary policy statement, the central bank expects remittance growth to be 10 percent this fiscal year.

The flow of remittance increased 7.64 percent year-on-year last fiscal year.

A senior BB official said the negative growth in remittance is a temporary phenomenon.

Those who send back remittance mostly belong to the low income bracket and they sent higher remittance to their relatives during Eid, the official said.

Manpower exports have increased slightly recently and there is a possibility of a large number of people going to Malaysia for jobs in the next few months, said the central bank official.

Besides, manpower exports to Qatar and Oman are also on the rise, he added.

Manpower export stood at 39,960 persons in the first 29 days of July, compared to 31,894 in the same month last year, according to government statistics.

The central bank official is hopeful that the target will be achieved.

bdnews24.com :The central bank has ordered the mobile phone banking agents to take photos of customers making transactions.Bangladesh Bank's Payment Systems Department issued an official order on Sunday.The move aims at reducing risk of criminal transactions through mobile phone banking, according to the financial regulator.It further instructed the banks to check the information provided during the registration of the SIM cards used for phone banking.If a customer did not submit the information, they would have to re-register within six months and store documents on the re-registration.The central bank ordered the banks to conduct a campaign to raise awareness on its latest orders.They are to inform it about the steps taken by Aug 31 and submit updates on the issue every six months.Currently, 56 scheduled banks are operating in Bangladesh. Of them, 28 got permission to conduct banking through mobile phones, but 20 are providing the service.According to Bangladesh Bank, 28.65 million customers have their SIM cards registered for mobile phone banking.Of these SIM cards, 12.234 million are active. The number of SIM cards for agents is 538,170.In June, Tk 129.7 billion was transacted through mobile phone banking.The average daily transaction is over Tk 3.2 million.

Md Mehmood Husain, Managing Director of Bank Asia Limited and Jeoung Sek Kim, Country Director of Good Neighbors Bangladesh, an international NGO, exchanging MoU documents on facilitating financial transaction support to the NGO beneficiaries through the

Farmers & Institutions in Agriculture Sector of Bangladesh honouredStandard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh honoured individuals and institutions who served as outstanding examples in the agriculture sector of Bangladesh in recent time through the second AGROW Award. An award ceremony was organized at The Westin Hotel Dhaka. Begum Matia Chowdhury, MP, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of the People’s Republic Bangladesh graced the ceremony as the Chief Guest. Dr. Atiur Rahman, Governor of Bangladesh Bank attended the ceremony as the Special Guest.

Abrar A. Anwar, CEO, Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh;  Ms. Bitopi Das Chowdhury, Head of Corporate Affairs, Standard Chartered Bangladesh and Mr Shariful Islam, Founder & Managing Director, Bangladesh Brand Forum were also present at the ceremony.

The award, aptly named AGROW Award, honoured the industry contributors in seven categories of awards. Total 300 nominations were received this year across seven categories. The winners & honourable mentions in each category were selected through two rigorous jury sessions conducted by experts from the various agricultural and related sectors, policy makers and development agencies. 

Speaking at the ceremony, Begum Matia Chowdhury, Honourable Agriculture Minister, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, said “The Agrow Award has lived up to its promise to recognize individuals and organisations for a second year. The winners & honourable mentions have played exemplary roles in our agriculture sector through hard work and innovation. We expect the Agrow Award & this year’ winners and nominees to continue their commitment and inspire the millions of farmers across the country to take the sector to the next level of food production” 

Dr. Atiur Rahman, Governor of Bangladesh Bank said “My heartiest congratulation goes to the nominees and winners of the Standard Chartered Agrow Award 2015. I hope this award will inspire our grass-root farmers; dairy, crops & livestock distributors and marketers; and supporting research and logistics industries to enhance their commitment towards further development of this sector.” 

Abrar A. Anwar, CEO, Standard Chartered Bangladesh said “I strongly believe that agriculture sector is an integral contributor to the sustainable development of Bangladesh. I hope through this humble attempt of ours we will be able to motivate thousands of farmers and entities linked with the sector around the country to come up with exemplary contribution in the agricultural sector and help build a sustainable agriculture sector for this country.”

Agrow Award, which started in 2014, is an initiative of Standard Chartered Bangladesh. Standard Chartered and Bangladesh Brand Forum, the implanting partner of this event have been working together since 2014 to recognize and honour exemplary practices in the agriculture sector. 

The winner & honourable mention in each category received a crest and a certificate from the Honourable Minister for their exemplary contribution. 3 winners in Farmer of the Year categories were handed over prize money of BDT 5 lac with the honourable mentions getting BDT 50 Thousand each. The award ceremony was attended by around 300 invited guests from the agriculture sector and related organisations.