Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzak said the government should not cancel the World Bank’s finance for construction of much-talked-about Padma Bridge.

He said this to the journalists after a two-hour long meeting between five ministers at Finance Minister’s office on Monday.

The other ministers who attended the meeting are Syed Ashraful Islam, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD), Obaidul Kader, Minister for Communications and Syed Abul Hossain, Minister for Information and Communication Technology.

“The crisis on World Bank finance for Padma Bridge project still goes on. But given the over all aspect, I think the government should not cancel the contract that it signed with the global lender,” said Dr Razzak. Finance Minister, however, didn’t talk anything about it with the journalists, rather said: “We sat together after a long time. So we discussed some old matters, which were only political.”

The total cost of the 6.15 kilometre long Padma Bridge is set at US$ 2.90 billion while the World Bank was supposed to provide US$ 1.20 billion.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 14th March 2012

Xiaoyu Zhao, Vice President (operations one) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) arrives in Dhaka today on a two-day official visit.

During the visit, Zhao will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and hold discussions with senior ministers and government officials, including the ministers for finance, communications and railways, said an ADB press release.

Discussions will focus on ADB operations and reform priorities, and implementation issues in key areas, including infrastructure development.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 14th March 2012

The government has constituted a two-step loan fund for the development of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) under the central bank’s ‘Financial Sector Project for the development of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises’.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the international development wing of Japan, will provide the funding for the project worth 5,000 million Japanese Yen.

The principal component of the fund is two step loan of taka 4.787.5 million yen.

Under the two step loan fund, participating financial institutes will be provided with re-finance or pre-finance for lending to SMEs.

An operating guidelines, named ‘Risk Management Guidelines’ has been developed in this regard comprising policies and procedure of this fund, by which the fund will be governed.

Banks and NBFIs interested in participating in this fund have to apply by March 27.

Talking to daily sun, general manager of Bangladesh Bank (SME and Special Programmes Department), Sukamal Sinha Chowdhury, said they have asked the interested banks to properly study the guidelines displayed at BB website before applying for the fund.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 14th March 2012

NCC Bank Ltd recently organized a two-day long training course on 'Branch Management' for the potential managers of the Bank at Bank's Training Institute.

Md. Nurun Newaz Salim, Chairman of the Bank inaugurated the workshop as chief guest. Mohammed Nurul Amin, Managing Director of the Bank attended the function as special guest.

In his inaugural speech Chairman of the Bank Md. Nurun Newaz Selim advised the potential managers to face the stiff competition and utilize training knowledge efficiently and effectively to achieve organizational goal.

Additional Managing Director Golam Hafiz Ahmed and Deputy Managing Director T. M. Faruque Chowdhury also spoke on the occasion.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 13th March 2012

Additional Managing Director of National Bank Limited Md Badiul Alam addressing the inaugural function of a foundation training course as the chief guest organised for the Bank's junior officers (cash) in the city recently.

Md. Badiul Alam Additional Managing Director of National Bank Limited attended the inaugural function of a foundation training course as the chief guest organized by the National Bank Training Institute for its Junior Officers(Cash) in the city recently. A total of 35 Junior Officers(Cash) are taking part in the training.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 13th March 2012