News in Brief

November 23, 2016

• TPP: US President-elect, Donald Trump promises to quit the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), worries Japan while Australia states that it plans to go ahead nonetheless. Experts think Bangladesh needs to consider being part of the TPP as the negotiation might be revised without USA participating.
• Cotton Consumption: US Department of Agriculture reports, cotton consumption in Bangladesh to rise 4.91 per cent year-on-year to 6.4 million bales this year due to higher demand from the apparels industry.
• Indian Rupee: The shock of demonetisation of high value Indian rupee notes is likely to negatively impact India’s GDP by 0.5 to 1.0 per cent.

November 22, 2016

• Accord: Accord, the garment factory inspection agency sponsored by the European retailers, is presently in discussion with the government of Bangladesh to extend its tenure beyond June 2018, by another three years to 2021.
• BGMEA: BGMEA outlined how it is using Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in a roundtable organised by USAIDS’s Workers’ Empowerment Programme on 17 November 2016.
• Export to India: Currently, Bangladeshi exporters to India are not interested to open LC as five hundred and thousand rupee notes are not being exchanged for smaller amount due to constrained availability of rupee in banks.
• Land Port: If Daulatganj land port is operationalized then Dhaka – Kolkata distance could be reduced by 100 kilometers. Bangladesh side is ready.
• Lending by Commercial Banks: Nine private commercial banks (PCBs) in Bangladesh have been warned against “aggressive lending” and recommended to cut down their classified loans and expedite recovery processes by the Bangladesh Bank (BB).