The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday gave its nod to an amendment to the merchant banker and portfolio manager rules.

The stockmarket regulator at a regular weekly meeting approved the modification in the rules after scrutinising public opinion on the amendment, the SEC said in a statement signed by its Executive Director Saifur Rahman.

The SEC will soon publish a gazette notification on the modified version of the rules.

Earlier on February 20, the regulator approved the draft amendment to the rules, allowing them to raise their paid-up capital.

The paid-up capital of a full-fledged merchant bank will be Tk 25 crore, instead of the existing Tk 10 crore, according to the amendment.

The paid-up capital of a merchant bank with only one underwriting licence will be Tk 2.50 crore, instead of Tk 1 crore now, while the capital of a merchant bank with only one issue management licence will be Tk 12.50 crore instead of Tk 5 crore, as per the amendment.

The merchant banks will have to fulfil the paid-up capital requirements within a year of publishing the gazette on the amendment.

Presently, there are 43 full-fledged merchant banks in Bangladesh, while one holds the issue management, underwriting and portfolio management licence, and two others have the issue management licences.

Yesterday's meeting, presided over by SEC Chairman Prof M Khairul Hossain, also warned Union Capital Ltd, an issue manager, as it submitted draft IPO (initial public offering) prospectus of Padma Islami Life Ltd without mentioning some important information. However, the SEC later approved Padma Islami's IPO prospectus with the missing information.

The regulator at the meeting also extended the time for submitting the draft IPO prospectus of Padma Islami Life 1st Mutual Fund by six months.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 4th April 2012

Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing $70 million in loan for further improvement to the quality of training for secondary school teachers in the country.

While Bangladesh has made significant progress in providing access to secondary education, and has achieved gender parity up to grade 10, the quality of education continues to be a concern, says a press release sent by Bangladesh Resident Mission of ADB.

"Education is one of the pillars of development. This project will strengthen teaching, and help deliver quality education that will prepare Bangladesh's students for the job market or to pursue further education," said Rudi van Dael, social sector specialist in ADB's South Asia Department.

The release said only two in five students who enroll in secondary school education complete it.

"A poor number of schools meet performance and accountability requirements, particularly in disadvantaged locations, and many secondary school graduates are unprepared to enter the workforce in higher job categories or continue to tertiary education."

The project makes up the second phase of the about-to-be completed Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project, which instituted significant reforms in teacher education in Bangladesh.

This phase will focus on improving teacher competencies, enhancing the learning environment, and advancing student performance, particularly in science, mathematics, and English language studies.

The loan of $70 million comes from ADB's concessional Asian Development Fund and has a 32-year tenor, including a grace period of 8 years, with an interest charge of 1%, rising to 1.5% for the balance of the term, it said.

The government will also contribute $15 million equivalent.

The Ministry of Education will be the executing agency while the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education will implement the project, which is expected to be completed in 2017.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 3rd April 2012

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has backtracked on its plan to provide fund worth Tk 1.0 billion for the development of the Mongla seaport citing environmental reasons, officials said Monday.

After conducting a feasibility study on Mongla seaport and Benapole land port months back, the Manila-based lender had talks with the Ministry of Shipping (MoS) officials relating to its financing of the necessary development works of the two ports.

Of the total amount, Tk 800 million was planned for Mongla port while the rest Tk 400 million for Benapole land port.

Sources told the FE that an ADB delegation recently had met MoS officials and informed them that dredging and other necessary development works to make the port more efficient would be environmentally hazardous for the World Heritage Site, the Sundarbans.

So, the ADB is now not interested to invest in the Mongla port, the delegation members who were also involved with the feasibility study, informed the MoS officials.

A senior MoS official said ADB is now showing interest in funding the development of Beanpole and Burimari land ports. They are likely to provide US$ 13 million for Beanpole port and $ 5.0 million for Burimari port.

With the ADB's funding, necessary development works will be carried out to make the two land ports suitable for regional connectivity, sources said.

Talking to the FE, Ahmed Faruk, project management specialist of the ADB, said a loan may be granted for the development of the Benapole land port. It may be included in the ADB's next year's investment plan.

However, he could not give update relating to the funding for the development of the Mongla port. "ADB officials in Manila are looking after the issue. I can't give you any update. I was only involved in conducting feasibility study," Mr Faruk said.

Joint chief of the MoS Shamsul Karim Bhuiyan told the FE Monday that ADB had submitted a feasibility report to the MoS months back.

"I did not go through the report in detail. I have no idea if ADB has expressed interest to lend money for the Mongla port."

He, however, said there is an ADB proposal to provide fund for the development of the Benapole land port.

India, Nepal and Bhutan have already showed interest to use Bangladesh's Chittagong and Mongla ports to carry out their export and import activities.

Meanwhile, an investment proposal worth $ 750 million by a Singaporean company to develop the Mongla port is lying with the MoS.

Port Evolution Management Limited (Port-Evo), an agent of Singaporean port consultancy firm David Wignall Associates, submitted the proposal to the MoS last year.

The Port-Evo and the Mongla Port Authority have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to submit a proposal for the development of the port.

According to the proposal, the company will carry out necessary dredging to increase depth of rivers nearest to the Mongla port, set up a power plant to supply uninterrupted electricity for port activities, establish terminals, warehouse, cold storage, water treatment plant and an industrial zone in the area.

In return, the company wants to operate and maintain the port for 30 years.

After reviewing the proposal, the MoS asked the Port-Evo to submit a revised and specific proposal for the port's development.

Officials said the government wants to raise the utilisation of Mongla port since a substantial part of the port capacity remains unused every year. The government's move also aims to reduce congestion at the Chittagong port.

Statistics show that the Mongla port has the capacity to handle 6.5 million tonnes of goods and 50,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers every year. The port handled some 2.69 million tonnes of goods and 27,000 TEUs of containers during fiscal year 2010-11which were 42 per cent and 54 per cent respectively of the port's capacity.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 3rd April 2012

Flow of remittance has maintained a steady trend as the country received remittances worth US$ 1107.49 million in March, up 4.51 million from the same month of the last fiscal year.

In March last fiscal year, the country received $1102.98 million as remittances.

“Migrant workers remitted $1107.49 million in March and we expect this trend will continue throughout the current fiscal,” said an official of the Bangladesh Bank’s forex reserve department.

Durimg the nine months of the current fiscal year, the migrant workers remitted $9530.21 million.

The country received remittances worth $1133.01 million last month.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 3rd April 2012

Kanti Kumar, a senior banker, recently joined Prime Bank Limited (PBL) as Deputy Managing Director (DMD).

Previously, he was Director and Head of Global Corporate Bank at Citibank N.A. in Bangladesh, says a press release. Kanti holds Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Economics from University of Dhaka.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 3rd April 2012