Chittagong port has reduced waiting time from 6 days to 3 days for vessels and from 25 days to 16 days for containers in recent times.

Chittagong port has shown improved efficiency in handling of containers, thanks to computerised terminal management system (CTMS).

Installed in 2011, the CTMS facilitates loading and discharging of containers to and from vessels by tracking containers in real time and automatically generating bills and invoices.

“Because of the system we are confident of opening our seaport for transit facilities to India, Nepal and Bhutan,” said CPA Chairman Rear Admiral Nizamuddin Ahmed, adding that the move would bring in substantial amount of foreign currency.

Ahmed said the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has turned the port into a world-class one by ensuring optimum utilisation of berths and yards, introducing systematic container handling, establishing control over container locations and increasing the use of modern equipments.

The CPA has also reduced ship turnaround time and boosted container holding capacity, he said.

Chittagong Port now handles more than 92 percent of the country's foreign trade, data from CPA showed.

“Factors such as road connectivity and infrastructure development outside of the port need to be considered as well when extending transit facilities to the neighbouring countries,” Ahmed added.

The marked enhancement of the Chittagong Port, however, would not have been possible without Asian Development Bank (ADB) assistance.

In 2004, ADB approved the $41.3 million Chittagong Port Trade Facilitation project with the view to boost port capacity and bring international standard security and environmental regulations.

Teresa Kho, ADB's country director, visited the port on Monday and found the progress made so far to be “impressive”.

Responding to a question, Kho said: “Chittagong Port Facilitation Project was really to help Bangladesh realise its potential to become an economic gateway to South Asia by lowering shipping and port charges.”

“Reduction in vessel waiting time and increased capacity to handle more containers at a lower cost will raise business competitiveness of the whole country and further promote Bangladesh's exports,” Kho said.

An efficient port will also help position Bangladesh as an attractive destination for foreign direct investment, she added.

Kho was particularly impressed with the reduction in waiting time of vessels and containers, which have come down to 3 days from 6 and from 25 days to 16 respectively.

“The port is now fully free from congestion. No trucks or other vehicles can be seen waiting around for carrying goods,” she said.

“It's continuing to improve. With this increased capacity, the port will see a greater volume of trade,” she added.

Quoting port officials, Kho said the Chittagong port now handles some 1.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container, which only a few years ago used to be just 7000.

M Khairul Mostafa, CPA's chief engineer, said: “There has been significant improvement following automation of computer handling. Now, anyone from any part of the world can identify the location of containers at the port, which previously was a very difficult proposition.”

“Things are much more disciplined than ever before and the port's income has increased by 30 to 40 percent,” he added.

He said there is no container or vessel congestion at the Chittagong Port, adding “container holding capacity has increased manifold”.

Security, too, has been tightened significantly, he said.

“There is no incidence of robbery or theft inside the port area.”

The CPA officials also assured of absence of any labour unrest in the port area.

The port handled around 1.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) containers in fiscal 2010-11, up from fiscal 2009-10's 1.21 million, according to CPA.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/15-Nov-12

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed an agreement yesterday to lend $25.1 million to Pran Group to build three food manufacturing plants.

“The new plants will source as much raw material as possible from the local farmers, and this will help boost agricultural growth,” said Martin Lemoine, investment specialist in ADB's private sector operations department.

“The majority of Bangladesh's poor still live in the rural areas, and agriculture remains their main source of employment and income,” he added.

The plants, to be set up under Sylvan Agriculture Ltd, will produce liquid glucose, frozen food processing and fortified flour, and are scheduled to be complete by 2015.

The three plants will cost $35.8 million to build, with Pran's controlling shareholders providing the remaining $10.7 million.

The plants will directly employ around 1,000 workers, and provide indirect employment for about 50,000 farmers under a contract farming model; at least 30 percent of the workforce will be female.

The estimated annual production capacity from the plants will be: 45,000 tons of liquid glucose, 90,000 tons of flour and 180 million units of flour-based frozen foods. The annual sales are expected to exceed $50 million by 2016, the ADB said.

The investment, ADB's first private sector agribusiness loan since 1985 and first private sector loan in Bangladesh since 2004, is part of ADB's efforts to promote productivity and competitiveness in Bangladesh's agriculture and food processing sectors.

The project will help push the country's agribusiness sector up the food value chain, increase food exports and improve food security and nutrition in Bangladesh.

Pran is the country's leading food and agribusiness company, with sales of $450 million that includes $70 million from exports.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/15-Nov-12

The central bank has imposed service charge on clearing automated cheque for the first time to afford the operational and maintenance costs of automated cheque processing system launched two-year back. The service charge will be effective from January next year and will remain enforce for one year, said a Bangladesh Bank (BB) press release issued on Tuesday.

A bank has to pay VAT (value added tax) worth Tk 25 to the central bank and that the respective bank will
realise Tk 50 from its clients for any high value cheque, the BB said.

In case of regulatory value cheque clearing, bank has to pay Tk 5.0 as VAT and will realise Tk 7.0 from their clients, it said.

And in case of any electronic funds transfer network, bank has to pay Tk 5.0 as VAT and will realise Tk 7.0 from their clients, it added.

The BB introduced Bangladesh Automated Clearing House (BACH) with the financial assistance of British donor agency DFID to modernise the payment system infrastructure.

With its two wings, Bangladesh Automated Cheque Processing System (BACPS) and Bangladesh Electronic Fund Transfer Network, BACH acts as the most sophisticated electronic channel for settling inter bank financial transactions throughout the country.

The BACH has started its operation in October 2010 by replacing the manual cheque clearing system with image and date-based cheque truncation system where Magnetic Ink Character Recognition encoded cheques are exchanged in encrypted form between the participating banks through a secured communication link.

After introducing the system, the high value cheque clearing has doubled and the duration of clearing time has reduced significantly maximising speedy payments, officials said.

Through the automated system, the central bank cleared an average 85,000 regular value cheques and high value cheques worth Tk 4,700 crore in a day.

However, earlier it had taken 7 to 30 days to clear high value cheques.

According to BB, of the total 85,000 cheques, 80,000 are regular value (below Tk 5 lakh) and the remaining 5,000 are high value (worth Tk 5 lakh and above) cheques.

The number of high value cheques rose to 5,000 in the automated system from 2,000 in the manual system, and the number of regular value cheques also increased to 85,000 from 70,000 in the previous system.

News: The Daily Independent/Bangladesh/14-Nov-12

Md Sayedul Hasan, Deputy Managing Director of Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited, inaugurates a branch at Hemayetpur, Savar Tuesday.

Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) has opened its 123rd branch at Hemayetpur, Savar (Pranto Plaza, Hemayetpur Bus Stand) Tuesday.

Like the other DBBL branch network, it would provide on-line banking facilities to the clients from the opening day of the branch.

Md Sayedul Hasan, Deputy Managing Director of the Bank formally inaugurated the Hemayetpur Branch.

DBBL provides a wide array of banking products and financial services including card services to its retail and corporate customers. The Bank started mobile banking operation, first of this kind in the country to reach banking services to the door steps of the millions of rural people.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/14-Nov-12

Bangladesh Bank will impose charges on transactions of Bangladesh Automated Clearing House (BACH) with effect from January 1 next.

“Such charges (of three categories) will primarily remain effective for one year from January 1,” said a BB circular sent to the Managing Directors and Chief Executives of all the banks.

The central bank will realise Tk 25 plus VAT (value added tax) for high value cheque clearing from the respective bank while Tk 50 plus VAT from clients.

It will also impose Tk 5 plus VAT for regular value cheque clearing and any EFT (electronic fund transfer) transactions.

In that case, the bank will realise Tk 7 plus VAT from the clients.

The BACH has two components - Bangladesh Automated Cheque Processing System (BACPS) and Bangladesh Electronic Funds Transfer Network (BEFTN) -- by which the clients were availing themselves of modern banking facilities.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/14-Nov-12