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Business & Finance News Thursday, August 03, 2004 Compiled by SDNP Head Lines BGMEA Seeks Tk 300 Crore for Flood-affected RMGs By
Staff Reporter, The New Nation
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and
Exporters Association (BGMEA) has requested the Finance Minister to give
a long-term block allocation of Tk 250-300 crore at a rate of simple
interest for the rehabilitation of export-oriented garment industries
affected by the flood. Netherlands urged to help solve flood problem The New Nation, By BSS, Dhaka, Aug 2, 2004, 13:23
Prime
Minister Begum Khaleda Zia on
Monday expressed her optimism that the Dutch government would come up
with assistance to help Bangladesh develop a lasting flood control
system and its post-flood rehabilitation. Flood-affected weavers seek interest-free loans, subsidy
The Daily Star, Star Business
Report The flood has affected about 80 percent handlooms across the country throwing thousands of weavers and their families into great miseries, they said. The weavers who run their business with small amount of capital do not have the financial strength to recuperate the loss caused by the flooding. "If the government does not take initiative for rehabilitating the weavers, I think 30 percent of them will be forced to close their looms," said Khondaker Jainal Abedin, owner of Jainal Silk Industries, Mirpur talking to The Daily Star. Jainal along with 45 handloom owners from different parts of the country took part in a handloom fair that ended Sunday at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy premises. Bangladesh Handloom Board organised the seven-week fair to popularise the traditional handloom products and protect the manufacturers. Board officials said the participants have sold products worth about Tk 4.50 crore during the fair. Jainal said the demand for handloom products in the world market is increasing day by day. "So the government should take initiative to promote the sector." At present, handloom products are exported to India and some Middle East countries, said MR Mostak, proprietor of Muslin Jamdani Weaving Factory. "Within short time we'll export handloom products to Canada and UK as the buyers have shown their interest to import our products", he added. Talking to The Daily Star, the participants said high price of yarn is a big problem for the weavers. They demanded reduction of import duty especially on silk yarn. "If the government reduces the duty, we'll be able to expand the export market competing with other handloom producing countries," said Jainal. Speaking at the closing function of the fair, Textiles and Jute Minister Shajahan Siraj said government has taken a Tk 50 crore programme for promoting the handloom sector. "Under this programme we have already disbursed Tk 30 crore among 22,000 handloom entrepreneurs" he said. "We have decided to increase the allocation to Tk 100 crore." About the plot allocation problem in the Mirpur Benarasi Palli in Dhaka, the minister assured the entrepreneurs of allocating 906 plots within next three months. Azizul Islam, secretary in-charge of Textiles and Jute Ministry, Abu Solaiman Chowdhury, secretary in-charge of Cultural Affairs Ministry, and Abdus Salam, chairman of Bangladesh Handloom Board, also spoke at the function. WTO faces daunting task to deliver on trade promises
The Daily Star,
Reuters, Geneva A last-ditch deal between the WTO's 147 members, setting out key guidelines for more work, prevented a potentially fatal failure for the round with its offer of deep cuts in rich power farm subsidies and more open markets to boost world growth. "The multilateral trading system is alive after a period of doubt," said European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, whose pledge to eliminate the bloc's hugely controversial farm export subsidies helped pave the way to the pact. The Doha Round, launched in late 2001 with the world still reeling from the suicide plane attacks in the United States, aims to lower barriers to commerce across the global economy. Its conclusion, the World Bank says, could lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and inject billions of dollars into a still fragile international economy. But the round was derailed 10 months ago when bitter rows between rich and poor nations, particularly over the farmer's lavish farm subsidies, triggered the collapse of a ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, raising fears negotiations would never resume. In Geneva, the WTO did what it failed to do in Mexico. "I said in Cancun it (the multilateral system) was in intensive care ... today not only is it out of hospital, it is up and running," Lamy told reporters. The round was due to conclude by the end of 2004, although few ever took that deadline seriously. But after the latest accord, Lamy said it could be done by the time ministers meet again in December, 2005, in Hong Kong. But while analysts and business organisations applauded the Geneva deal, which came only after five days of almost round-the-clock wrangling, they warned that the framework accord was short on detail and put off many of the hardest decisions. "It is clear from the ambiguity ... that important and difficult decisions have been deferred," the National Foreign Trade Council, a US business lobby, said in a statement. British based advocacy group Oxfam, which campaigns on behalf of poor nations, was equally cautious about how far it went towards achieving the round's supposed main goal of promoting development. "We are three years into negotiations, yet the results of this meeting fall far short of what is needed to reform world trade rules so that they work for the poor," said Celine Charveriat, head of its Geneva office. |
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