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What the papers say

Fish Nets Filled

A weekly round up of articles about employment, the labor market, skills training and workforce development. This week’s round up is drawn from The Daily Star. Here is the news for the week ending 8 February 2018.

This week in the Bangladesh English Press…

…we hear about Bangladesh being among the top five Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to have achieved economic growth in 2017. We also learn about a rise in exports and remittances. Swiss president gave a positive nod about growing economic relations between Bangladesh and Switzerland. And hilsa fishermen and traders enjoy good business and profits.

Business, Investments, Trade and Growth

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report states that among the 45 Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Bangladesh is one of the top five countries that have achieved economic growth in 2017. The country experienced growth of more than seven percent.  It has been the largest recipients of remittances among the other Least Developed Countries (LDCs) with an inflow of around $14 Billion in the year 2016.

You can read the full The Least Developed Countries Report 2017 here.

Bangladesh exports increased to around $3 Billion in January 2018 according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau. This rise is around 4 percent higher than a year earlier. However, the target of $4 Billion for the month was missed. Most of the export earnings came from garment shipments. These account for more than 80 percent of Bangladesh’s total export receipts.

Financial Services

Remittance saw a five-month high in January 2018. This is a result of currency depreciation of the Taka against the US Dollar. Bangladesh received around $ 1 Billion remittance from migrant workers. This was a 37 percent increase from a year earlier and around 19 percent from a month earlier according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB). The transaction costs of bringing remittance through formal banking channels have been reduced recently. And this has contributed to the higher inflow of remittances.

Education and the Labour Market

The newly formed 9th wage board for journalists has started functioning. The chairman of the board, Justice Md Nizamul Haque held separate meetings with the Information Minister and the State Minister of the ministry on Tuesday.

A seminar on Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Women Migrant Workers: potential, challenges and strategies was organized by welfare and overseas employment ministry and UN Women in the capital. Speakers spoke about the need for female migrant job-seekers to improve or learn relevant skills in order to get better employment abroad. Knowing basic language and having cultural knowledge of a country is also equally important.

Farmers and Agriculture

Sand lifting from the bank of Arial Kha river in Chandrapara area of Faridpur’s Sadarpur upazila has become a serious cause of environment pollution, river erosion and a threat to agriculture. The livelihoods of riverside people involved in farming and fishing are being affected.

The disappointment of local fishermen, traders and consumers due to scarcity of hilsa fish has come to an end. Fishermen are netting large numbers of hilsa in the Meghna river in Laxmipur.  With the rise in supply of hilsa fish, the fish landing stations and local haats and bazaars have become lively with selling and buying activities.  Over 24,000 tonnes of hilsa worth around 8 Billion Taka are netted every year.

Other News

On a recent four-day official visit to Bangladesh, Swiss President Alain Berset cited the growing economic relations between the countries. He added that Swiss businesses could become a provider of technical solutions to Bangladesh in new areas of economic cooperation such as clean-tech and renewable energy. He spoke on various other issues and highly praised Bangladesh for its socio-economic development.

And that’s the news for the week ending 8 February 2018.