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What the papers say

Trade and Development

This week in the Bangladesh English Press the Bangaldesh Finance Minister comments on the relationship between trade and development. And United Kingdom Trade and Investment manage a successful trade delegation from the UK to Bangladesh. Primary education is extended to class VIII and drop out rates in secondary education decline for girls and boys. And on a final quirky note: if you want to earn a living look to strawberries not matches.

A weekly round up of articles about employment, the labour market, skills training and workforce development.This week’s round up is drawn from The Independent. Here is the news for the week ending 3rd March 2015.

This week in the Bangladesh English Press…

…the Bangaldesh Finance Minister comments on the relationship between trade and development. And United Kingdom Trade and Investment manage a successful trade delegation from the UK to Bangladesh. Primary education is extended to class VIII and drop out rates in secondary education decline for girls and boys. And on a final quirky note: if you want to earn a living look to strawberries not matches.

Trade, Aid and Development

The Finance Minister says that trade should provide the funds to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. He was speaking at the United Nations headquarters in New York at an event celebrating 50 years of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The UNDP Administrator congratulated Bangladesh on becoming a lower middle income country. And she hoped that one day Bangladesh would become a funding country for the UNDP.

The Head of United Kingdom Trade and Investment in Bangladesh said that the UK has the closest ties with Bangladesh both in terms of trade and aid. She was speaking to the press following a successful trade delegation made up of 17 companies from the UK.

On 25th February the Prime Minister inaugurated a number of development projects. She spoke enthusiastically about rail and bridge construction that could link Payra and Mongla sea ports. A number of power generation projects were also mentioned in her address.

Primary education extended; more stay in secondary

The latest figures on secondary school drop out rates were released this week by the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics. Drop out rates have decreased from 61 per cent in 2008 to 40 per cent in 2015. For girls the figures show a decrease  of 20 per cent from around 66 per cent over the same period

Primary education will effectively be extended to class VIII in line with the Government’s education policy. Previously the Ministry for Mass and Primary Education was responsible for education up to class V. The Ministry of Education will handover responsibilities and new curricula, textbooks, and teacher guides will be developed.

Earnings: From matches to strawberries

The future of a match factory in Khulna hangs in the balance. The jobs of 750 are at stake. Opened in 1956 the factory changed ownership several times and ran profitably until the 1990s. But there seems to a number of obstacles to overcome if matches are ever to be made again.

Farmers on the banks and shoals of the Padma river are growing strawberries to turn a profit. A typical small farmer with about one bigha (about 1500 square metres) of land can make a profit of around 150,000 Taka (about $2,000) a year. The retail price of strawberries ranges from 100 to 300 Taka depending on the quality of the fruit.

So that’s the news from The Independent for this week.