The cabinet has given final approval to the draft of “The Bangladesh National Cadet Corps (BNCC) Act-2016” and a proposal for ratification of the WTO agreement on trade facilitation. The approvals were given in the weekly meeting of the cabinet held at the cabinet room of Jatiya Sangsad with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Briefing reporters later at Bangladesh Secretariat, cabinet secretary M Shafiul Alam said the draft on BNCC proposed for giving legal shape to the organisation which is entrusted with the task of grooming youths from educational institutions as future leaders. The new law will give the organisation a legal shape to enroll members from the school, colleges and universities, he said. So far, the BNCC has been functioning under a circular of the Ministry of Defence and under of a provision of Bangladesh Territorial Force Act-1950, he added. Under the new law, Mr Alam said, a separate department namely ‘Department of Bangladesh National Cadet Corps’ will be constituted under the Ministry of Defence with its head office in Dhaka. A Director General with the rank of a Major General or Brigadier General will be the operational head of the department which will also have an advisory council headed by the secretary of the defense ministry. The advisory council will have representatives from the ministries of defence, education and home, armed forces division, army, navy and air force headquarters, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, University Grants Commission (UGC), National University, Dhaka University, Open University, Technical Education Board and other educational institutions. Eligible students of the recognised colleges and universities having SSC and HSC or equivalent educational qualification would be considered for senior division while students of under SSC or equivalent educational qualification could be considered for junior division. The cabinet also approved a proposal for ratification of the ‘Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organisation’ and draft of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation. Bangladesh would be the 82nd country to ratify the agreement decided in WTO Ninth Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia in 2013 aimed at facilitation of trade among the countries. The cabinet secretary said the ratification would help getting support for expediting the movement of import and export goods, capacity building of the developing and least developed countries for trade facilitation and strengthen cooperation among tax authorizes of different countries. The cabinet was also informed about Prime Minister’s visit to Bulgaria and Saudi Arabia.

Dhaka raised a dozen non-tariff barriers, including lack of infrastructure and facilities in land customs stations, affecting businesses with New Delhi at bilateral trade talks in the Indian capital in the past week, commerce ministry officials said. The two-day Bangladesh-India joint working group meeting on trade ended on June 9 resolving to address para-tariff and non-tariff barriers to both way trade, ministry of commerce joint secretary Munir Chowdhury told New Age on Monday. Munir, who led the eight-member delegation at the trade talks, said that the meeting decided that a joint group of high-level government officials from Bangladesh and India would visit land customs stations and such visit would be the basis for future development in the land ports and customs stations. ‘A high-powered joint group on land port infrastructure development would soon be formed to help to improve the infrastructure and increase facilities at land ports and customs stations,’ Munir said. Above 80 per cent export and import between Bangladesh and India takes place through 29 land ports and about 160 land customs stations. The two-way trade volume was $7.07 billion in 2014-15 while goods of only $621.37 million were exported from Bangladesh to India, according to government data. At the joint working committee meeting, Bangladesh handed a list of eight land customs stations in the Indian side, outlining required facilities and physical infrastructure development to facilitate export from Bangladesh. At the meeting, Bangladesh side also pushed the India to recognise test certificates of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution as both the countries signed memo and cooperation agreement on standardisation. ‘It is a matter of great concern that Indian authority does not recognise the BSTI certifications of 29 items, mostly food and chemicals, as stipulated in the bilateral deals,’ a senior official at the commerce ministry said. He said that the Indian side assured Bangladesh team that they would solve the issue immediately. The Indian side agreed to construct two new land customs stations opposite to the proposed two in Bangladesh – Kalairag-Nazirgaon in Companiganj in Sylhet and Bashtala Colonybazar checkpoint at Doarabazar upazilla in Sunamgonj, sources said. Munir said they requested their counterpart to boost banking facilities in North-East India, as inadequate bank branches usually caused problems to Bangladeshi exporters. ‘Number of banks in North-East India authorised to handle foreign currency transactions and open L/C is very limited. Moreover, these banks cannot make transactions directly with banks in Bangladesh. This is a major impediment to trade between Bangladesh and North-East India,’ a senior official at the commerce ministry said.

Economists and exporters are in fear that a possible exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union could put a negative impact on the Bangladeshi exports to the UK, which is the third largest export destination for Bangladesh products. With the British people set to vote on June 23 in a referendum to decide whether Britain should leave or remain in the European Union, the latest opinion polls are suggesting a possible exit of UK from the EU. Economists said that if the UK exits (commonly known as Brexit) the EU, Bangladesh would have to go for bilateral negotiation to avail trade facilities. ‘If the Brexit brings positive things for the economy of the UK it would not hit Bangladeshi exports, but if the exit leads to any adverse impact on the economy of UK and EU then we will be a sufferer,’ Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman told New Age on Monday. He said that Bangladesh enjoys duty-free benefits for all products and flexible rules of origins for readymade garments in the EU. Due to Brexit, Bangladesh would have to need bilateral agreements to avail the benefits in the UK. ‘It is for the British people to decide whether the Brexit would be good or bad. But my personal opinion is that it will be better for Britain to be inside the EU,’ Mustafiz said. Prime Minister of UK David Cameron had promised to hold a referendum if he won the 2015 general election, in response to growing calls from his own Conservative MPs and the UK Independence Party. ‘If any crisis take place in the economy of EU and UK due to Brexit, it will hit hard Bangladeshi export business. Otherwise I do not see any direct impact of Brexit,’ Ahsan H Mansur, the executive director of Policy Research Institute, said. International media reported that the top economists at British universities apprehended Brexit would damage UK’s economy. They thought that Brexit would cause uncertainty in the markets and pose other economic risks. Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, first vice president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said that the issue was not directly related with Bangladesh but the country might have to face immediate impact of Brexit. ‘If Brexit poses negative impact on both the EU and UK economy, Bangladesh would have to suffer and if the Brexit leads positive in the economy we will be benefited,’ he said. Mohiuddin thought that the exit of Britain from EU would not be positive as integration is important this time for the EU economy. Bangladesh’s exports to the UK totalled US$ 3.20 billion in the financial year 2015-16 with US$ 2.90 billion coming from the readymade garments sector. Faruque Hassan, senior vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that Bangladeshi export business would be hampered as the possible Brexit would damage the economy of the EU. He hoped that if the UK leaves EU the duty benefits for Bangladesh would remain same in the market. According to the international media, the chances that Britain will vote to leave the European Union is growing day by day with Britain’s Independent newspaper on Monday saying 55 per cent people favoured Brexit in an opinion poll.

Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu sought Chinese investment in the priority sectors so the country could have a win-win situation in bilateral economic relations with China, reports BSS. The minister put the proposal at high-level and bilateral meetings with Chinese officials Monday in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan province. The industries minister, while addressing the meeting of the International Production Capacity Cooperation Forum at Kunming Intercontinental Hotel also named some projects where China could invest. The National Development Reform Commission (NDRC) organised the meetings on the sidelines of the 4th China-South Asia Expo 2016. The six-day annual flagship trade fair began here on Sunday. The main issue of the forum’s meeting was the consideration of building mechanism for bilateral cooperation on production capacity. At the bilateral meeting with NDRC Chairman Ning Jizhe, Amu said that Bangladesh is now ready to offer foreign investors necessary support, including land, power and lucrative investment incentives. He also told the meeting that Chinese entrepreneurs could make investment in the sectors identified as “high priority sectors” and “priority sectors” by the government. Among the high priority sectors are: agro-processing and agricultural tools and machinery industries, RMG industries, ICT/software industries, pharmaceutical industries, leather and leather goods industries, light engineering industries and jute and jute products industries. The priority sectors include plastic industries, shipbuilding industries, environmentally sound ship recycling industries, active pharmaceuticals, auto mobiles, energy efficient electric goods and cement industries. Besides, Amu said that China would make investment in installation of a UF-85 (Urea Formaldehyde-85) plant at Natural Gas Fertilizer Factory and a new di-ammonium phosphate factory in Rangadia, Chittagong. He also proposed that China could install three paper mills on the existing premises of the paper mills in Khulna, Rangamati and Pabna and an effluent treatment plant (ETP) in Karnaphuli Paper Mills Ltd (KPML). The industries minister told the meetings that China could set up a clinker factory on the premises of Takerghat Limestone Mining Project (LTMP), Tahirpur, Sunamganj and a new leather factory in the existing Dhaka Leather Co. Savar, Dhaka. Amu said the other areas where China could invest are insulator and sanitary ware, integrated biogas, bio-fertilizer and bakers’ yeast plant, sugar refinery and agriculture machinery and tools factory. He said Bangladesh and China could also cooperate in the setting up of joint venture with technology transfer and training of skilled workers in high-end product producing industries in textile and leather sectors, which would in turn lead to higher production capacity. “Because of huge wage hikes of Chinese workers and scarcity of labourers in the labor-intensive manufacturing sector, Chinese enterprises can hire low-skilled and semi-skilled manpower from Bangladesh. In addition, China can also relocate their labor-intensive industries to Bangladesh,” he said. Amu is now visiting China at the invitation of NDRC, which formulates and implements strategies of national economic and social development and carry out research and analysis on domestic and international economic situation. The minister will return home tomorrow after attending a bilateral meeting with Governor of Yunnan Chen Hao. At the meeting, they will have further discussions on the proposals made at different levels for mutual benefits.