US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O Blake speaks at a symposium on South Asia women's entrepreneurship, at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital yesterday. Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, seated left, was also present.

The small and medium enterprises that are run by women guarantee faster economic growth, but access to finance remains a major barrier to women entrepreneurship, said Melanne S Verveer, US ambassador-at-large for global women's issues.

Verveer spoke at South Asia Women's Entrepreneurship Symposium that began yesterday in Dhaka to create cross-border linkages among women entrepreneurs in the region.

Some 120 participants from 11 South and Central Asian countries attended the event to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by women-owned SMEs.

"SMEs are the engines of economic growth. It is a fact that women-run SMEs drive economic growth and create jobs. This is true in my country and it is true around the world," Verveer said at the event at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel.

The US Department of State organised the symposium attended by participants from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

"If you want to drive GDP, the best investments that can be made are women-run SMEs," Verveer said.

But access to finance acts as a major challenge for women entrepreneurs to grow, she said.

She also said microcredit has lifted millions of poor women around the world out of poverty and enabled them to earn, support families and pay back the loans.

"Yet the significant gender gap to finance remains painfully acute as it affects what we might call the missing middle of the small and medium enterprise sector, which is mostly women-run and has the best growth and job creation potential," said Verveer.

In addition, barriers like a lack of access to markets, training, mentors and technology act as impediments to women entrepreneurship.

Women also often confront discriminatory regulations and a lack of inheritance and property rights, she said.

Verveer also stressed investing in girls' education and favoured women's representation at the policymaking level.

"As your businesses grow, we are confident you will speak out against corruption when you see it. As leaders in businesses, we know that you will also work to strengthen democratic institutions and civil society," said Verveer.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said the government has enacted a number of new laws for women and children and adopted a gender-responsive budget.

The government has framed 'women development policy' to ensure equal opportunity for men and women.

The government also took various initiatives to promote women entrepreneurship.

The government has kept 10 percent of small enterprises' fund for women entrepreneurs at Bangladesh Bank and ensured preferential treatment to them at commercial banks, she said.

"Strong networks among women entrepreneurs will certainly enhance their ability," said the foreign minister.

She said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has joined a global initiative by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Under the initiative, women's representation in Bangladesh's parliament will be raised to 30 percent from present 20 percent, said Dipu Moni.

US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O Blake said the summit will help women entrepreneurs foster cross-regional collaboration and build multilateral connections.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/10th-Dec-12

Muhammed Ali

United Commercial Bank Ltd (UCB) will begin mobile banking this month.

"We are going to launch this state-of-the-art technology in the third week of this month (December) aiming to broaden our efforts on financial inclusion," the newly-appointed Managing Director of UCB Muhammed Ali told the FE in an interview recently.

He said he is quite upbeat to consolidate the UCB's position in the banking sector of the country through delivering 'professionally sound and competent services' for the growing number of clients of the bank.

" As a new comer, I am taking the stocks of everything in my new working zone and after assessing the situation, I will adopt my strategy in compliance with the rules and regulations of the banking sector," Mr Ali said.

"I don't believe in short-term gain, rather I do believe in sustainable businesses accomplished on the basis of good governance and diversified pools of services," he added.

Putting a thrust on developing the bank's human resources (HR), he said there remains lot of scope to upgrade the bank's position through utilising the talents.

The MD said that adoption of various IT-enabled services will give the bank lucrative dividends.

"The adoption of modern IT-enabled services made us a real-time online bank and we are optimistic to go further to strengthen UCB's contribution to the development of rural economy through performing better in the SME financing," Mr Ali said.

"The bank is also trying to focus on green banking considering the effect of climate change. Now we only approve projects having the environment-friendly provisions considering the protection of humanity from pollution," the UCB MD said.

"As part of green banking we are trying to operate a branch using solar energy and also making aware the customers avoiding paper-based banking, Mr Ali also said.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/9th-Dec-12

The World Bank (WB) has commended Bangladesh and the Maldives for adopting schemes to boost the resilience of their peoples against global warming, while the Doha climate conference ended without reaching an accord to raise a $100 billion fund annually by 2020 -- a general pledge that was made three years ago.

Bangladesh and the Maldives, two of the most vulnerable nations to global warming, are becoming front runners for climate change impact adaptation, the WB said in a statement.

"Both the countries have long recognised that they must take on climate change adaptation to meet their development objectives," the statement issued on Friday quoted WB Vice President for Sustainable Development Mr Rachel Kyte.

Over the last decades, the government of Bangladesh has invested more than US$10 billion to make the country less vulnerable to natural disasters, the WB statement said.

The Maldives with the financial assistance from donors has also been implementing a four-year-long multi-million dollar Strategic Plan of Action since FY 2009-10.

"Bangladesh and the Maldives have established a multi-donor trust fund to channel international climate finance to domestic priorities. Early indications are that this approach is a success," Mr Kyte added.

The coastal Bangladesh and the Maldives, the state with numerous islands in the Indian Ocean, have taken schemes to boost climate resilience among the peoples by building infrastructure funded mainly by their respective national exchequers.

The countries are also utlising whatever amount they get from the international climate fund.

The statement was issued from the WB headquarters in Washington, summing up the observations of the relevant environment ministers of both the countries, made in Doha, during their deliberations at the annual United Nations Climate Summit which was scheduled to end yesterday (Saturday) following an extension of a day in a bid to reach a deal.

The two-week-long Doha event was organised to show case the proactive responses of extremely vulnerable nations toward climate resilience as the nations are beginning to experience the early impacts of global climate change.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/9th-Dec-12

Finance Minister AMA Muhith Saturday was highly critical of the Washington-based World Bank (WB) for its failure to promote many innovative and risky activities in Bangladesh.

"The World Bank is shy of innovations, they don't undertake innovative risky activities including MTBF (medium-term budget framework)," Mr Muhith observed while speaking as chief guest at a seminar on the roadmap for deepening the MTBF in Bangladesh held at a city hotel.

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan attended the inaugural session as special guest while Secretary of the Finance Division Fazle Kabir, WB Country Programme Coordinator for Bangladesh and Nepal Andras Horvai and the additional secretary of the finance division spoke on the occasion.

The secretaries of major line ministries, divisions and other institutions, local and international experts were present in the seminar.

The Finance Minister, however, said two such types of innovative projects -- trade and industrial policy and water resources planning -- were forwarded to the WB in 1981 but they did not take any initiative to implement those.

"They felt shy of those projects," he added.

Mr Muhith claimed that after a few years, he found in a book prepared by the WB that those projects were included in it.

"I contested the WB's book," he added.

Mr Muhith was also critical of the high government officials about their ignorance of the details of MTBF procedures.

"I doubt whether all of you have read the MTBF document," he said terming the document an important text.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/9th-Dec-12

The World Bank (WB) Saturday said it would finance the US$2.9 billion Padma Bridge project only after a full and fair probe by the Anti-Corruption Commission into graft allegations.

"The World Bank will proceed with support for the Padma Bridge only if the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) launches a full and fair investigation based on evidence of corruption under the project," said Ms Ellen Goldstein, WB country director in a statement.

The WB Dhaka office issued the statement two days after an inconclusive meeting between the independent anti-corruption expert panel of the Washington-based lender and the ACC on the Padma Bridge graft inquiry.

During its second visit to Bangladesh last week, the expert panel noted several unresolved issues and further encouraged the ACC to follow available evidence in determining the scope of its investigation, Ms Goldstein said.

She reconfirmed that the Bank had provided extensive information to the ACC to support such an investigation.

"Following its first visit to Bangladesh, the external panel encouraged the ACC to launch a full and fair investigation based on available evidence and in full accordance with Bangladeshi law," Ms Goldstein said.

ACC sources said they sought more information from the WB external panel during the meeting last week before taking legal action against the persons suspected to have been involved in the Padma Bridge "corruption conspiracy."

The Bangladesh's anti-graft body will review the inquiry report of its investigation team based on the legal provisions of the country as it (team) has found nine persons including ex-communications minister Syed Abul Hossain involved in the Padma Bridge corruption conspiracy.

After the meeting with the WB panel Thursday, ACC legal adviser Advocate Anisul Haque said they had reached a stage through discussions with the panel. People have to wait for a few days for a decision.

Ms Goldstein in her statement said the WB external panel would issue a statement when the ACC completes its review and takes a final decision on the scope of the investigation.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/9th-Dec-12