Dwaipayan Barua

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has formulated the country’s first-ever comprehensive policy for private inland container depots (ICDs) in order to facilitate their operations and expand Bangladesh’s foreign trade.

Bangladesh’s premier seaport in Chattogram handled record number of containers in 2021 and also posted over 13 per cent year-on-year growth in container handling.

Chittagong port handled 31.15 lakh twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers so far this year, the highest since it began dealing with containers in 1977, as the economy of Bangladesh is returning to normalcy at a faster clip. 

With the much-talked about Padma bridge project nearing completion as only 11 per cent of the construction work remains, the authorities concerned hope to complete the project within the deadline by June next year.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) yesterday approved 10 development projects, half of which were revisions.

The government is set to extend the duration and budget for constructing 560 model mosques-cum-Islamic cultural centres all over the country for the second time by another three years.

Bangladesh now has a fleet of 80 oceangoing vessels, a record high since the country’s independence.

In a bid to automate procedures to cut time and business cost, the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) is set to launch an electronic system from next month to enable importers to receive goods somewhat faster.

The government is set to undertake a nearly Tk 3,500-crore project to construct an 11-kilometre elevated road over haors in Kishoreganj to connect the northeastern backwater to the mainland.

Real estate companies are hoping for a good response from buyers at a four-day housing fair that kicked off in Chattogram yesterday as apartment sales in the port city gained momentum in line with the waning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bangladeshi feeder vessel operator HR Lines, a subsidiary of the country’s only container vessel owning firm Karnaphuli Group, is now in the final stage of negotiations with a Chinese shipbuilder over building four 3,000 TEU-capacity vessels.

Private inland container depots (ICDs) have raised five types of operational charges, amounting to around Tk 145 crore in additional costs if last fiscal year’s trade volumes are taken into account.

With a countrywide strike of goods transporters coming to an end on Monday night, the Chattogram port and 19 private inland container depots (ICDs) are now struggling with the backlog of the preceding four days.

Though the strike involving public transport was withdrawn on Sunday evening, the owners and workers of vehicles engaged in transporting goods continued to enforce their countrywide protest as of yesterday evening, taking a toll on export, import and trade.

Losses piled up for local traders and exporters yesterday as goods could not move owing to the countrywide transport strike.

Power and gas are likely to become pricier next after diesel, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas as the government looks to calibrate the prices in the local market following a global price spiral since July.

The countrywide transport strike disrupted the smooth functioning of the apparel supply chain in Bangladesh for the second straight day yesterday, hurting the recovery of the garment shipment.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is set to provide $750 million for vaccine purchase and to help the economy to recover from the fallout of the global coronavirus pandemic.

In 2017, with the view to alleviating the capital’s absurd traffic congestion, the government took up the Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway project to implement largely with Chinese funding.

In a rare move, the government is not rushing into a $3-billion loan offer from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as Bangladesh has received a huge amount of budget support from multilateral lenders to fight the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.