Rejaul Karim Byron

Although Bangladesh achieved food security and improved access to food, eight percent of the households where the urban poor live still go to sleep with empty stomachs, reveals a government survey.

State-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation’s net profit dropped 14.21 per cent in the last fiscal year because of a decline in fuel sales amid the pandemic-induced demand collapse.

Bangladesh is on track to graduate to a developing country from a least developed one as a UN body estimates that the country’s scores in all three criteria would be much higher from the graduation threshold next year.

Officials hinted at a new stimulus package yesterday amid fears of a possible second wave of Covid-19 and the subsequent setback for the economy which has only slightly recovered from the impacts of shutdown.

With the installation of the last span yesterday, the multipurpose Padma Bridge has connected the backward southwest region with the rest of the country and, more importantly, removed the last great geographical barrier.

The government yesterday approved a proposal to set up a 55-megawatt wind power plant in Bagerhat, a move that may give a much-needed fillip to its efforts to tap the country’s unrealised renewable energy potential.

Multilateral lenders are joining with the government to boost financing for micro entrepreneurs in order to rejuvenate the tens of thousands of pandemic-hit micro and small enterprises.

The government’s decision to suspend purchase of new and replacement vehicles under all expenses has been extended for the remaining half of the current fiscal year to reduce unnecessary expenditure in the face of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (Beza) is set to invest Tk 4,367 crore on a fresh project aimed at developing a greener Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar (BSMSN).

The government and the development partners plan to inject more money into the economy for its recovery amid the pandemic while the progress in implementing the stimulus packages for employment creation and revitalisation of the rural economy remains slow.

General inflation fell to 5.52 per cent in November, bucking a rising trend, driven by a significant drop in food prices, official data showed yesterday.

Bangladesh is going to be connected with a third submarine cable to meet the rapidly growing demand for internet bandwidth and ensure uninterrupted broadband internet services.

None of the government frontline workers infected with coronavirus received the compensation they were promised seven months ago. And families of only 42 of the 133 frontline workers who died with Covid-19 have been compensated as of November 4.

The economy is apparently sailing safely through the turbulent times amid additional fund allocated to tackle the coronavirus crisis and anaemic growth of tax collection as revenue expenditure fell 3.66 per cent in the first quarter.

After the government announced 21 stimulus packages involving more than Tk 1,21,000 crore to tackle the pandemic fallout, 39.23 percent of the total amount or Tk 47,615 crore was disbursed till October 31, according to a report of the finance ministry.

Private sector credit growth dropped heavily in October due to the eroding confidence of businesses amid the potential threat of a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed ministries to undertake new projects cautiously to avoid unnecessary public expenditure as the government will have to spend a considerable amount money to procure Covid-19 vaccines to immunise the whole nation, officials said.

The government has failed to provide a special honorarium to healthcare professionals more than four months into its announcement of rewarding medical frontliners in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Election Commission has prepared a proposal for the second phase of a project to distribute smart NID cards among all citizens aged above 10.

The government is likely to approve a Tk 101 crore scheme today to promote cultivation of improved varieties of grass among dairy and beef cattle farmers to boost yields and reduce their high dependence on concentrate feed.