ICE Business TIMES, July 2018 by ICE Media Ltd.

Contents TIMES

From the Editor

WORD OF MOUTH 08 State of Affairs 14 Happening 16 Banking Corner 20 Around the World COLUMN 10 Rokonnuzzaman COVER FOCUS 50 Asif Saleh Senior Director, Strategy, Communications and Empowerment BRAC & BRAC International MAKING PRECIOUS METAL Steel is being melted in a hot furnace to be processed. Photo by Din M Shibly

Tasmiah T Rahman Head of Programme, Skills Development BRAC

Contents TIMES

a global business magazine from bangladesh

TIMES

Vol. 8 No. 11 | July 2018

Publisher & Editor Director, International Publications Executive Director Managing Editor Assistant Editor Designer Business Development

Finance & Accounts Sales & Distribution

: : : : : : : : : : :

Abul Khair Zeenat Chowdhury Nawshin Khair Tawhidur Rashid Shaikh Ashfaque Zaman Sk. Yeahhia Md. Nizam Uddin Forhad Mohammad Imran Rezaul Haque Heron Md. Abdul Alim Md. Rubel Khan

This issue’s Photographs by Din M Shibly Cover Photo Courtesy: BRAC Illustration done by Prisma App

Editorial & Marketing Queries PHOTO ESSAY 60 From Scraps to Standard: Anwar Ispat’s production of quality steel INTERVIEWS 42 AKM Zabed Chief Marketing Officer, Anwar Group of Industries SPECIAL INTERVIEW 46 Nusrat Feroz Aman Director and Chief Patron, AYAT Education and AYAT Skill Development Center FEATURES 26 A Future that Requires Foundation 30 Expanding your Network 32 The Urban Tales of Tourism 36 Sole of the Export Industry 66 Predicting the Storm Ahead 72 Over the Edge, Lies an Oasis 76 A Broad Brand of Choices 80 Barred in the Land of the Free

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* Not all the views expressed in the columns and interviews are the views of the magazine.

FROM THE EDITOR June marks the announcement of the National Budget; a document that dictates where and how we will spend money. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s budget is especially crucial as we gear our focus to becoming a lower middle-income country. Will our financial priorities foster growth? Are we promoting growth without proper reform? Marking his 10th year, the Finance Minister, AMA Muhith, rationalizes that Bangladesh would see a growth of more than 7.8% during the upcoming fiscal year. This would surpass the expected seventh five-year plan of 7.3%. The budget has increased by more than 50% from Tk. 260,508 crore (2014-15) to Tk. 464,500 crore (2017-18). Despite this increase, the investment in education and health is severely lacking; we have allocated only 5% and 14.6% of the budget for each of the sectors respectively. We have illustrated how models in Swiss, Canadian and Sinhalese models of health schemes are one of the pillars of a progressive nation (pg. 26). Moreover, Bangladesh has achieved significant strides in education (with a 98% enrollment rate). The time has come to focus on quality. Many students are graduating from schools and universities every year but educational merit is not translating into a quality career for the most part. A nation of more than 160 million people cannot solely rely on aspiring for jobs behind the desk. It is imperative that we focus on skills and vocational education in order to create a more inclusive work environment. Our issue focuses on the organization such as Ayat Skills Development Organizations (pg. 46) and BRAC (pg. 50), who are focusing on creating programs geared towards skills education for sustainable income. Furthermore, they are also working towards an environment that recognizes these skills and connects the government with workers and the private sectors to recognize potential and employment opportunity.

S TAT E O F A F FA I R S

Word of mouth

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina delivers a speech during the Annual Performance Agreement signing with various ministries and divisions on 4 July 2018.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina bids farewell to the Outgoing Ambassador of Netherlands, Leoni Cuelenaere, at the Parliamentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office on 3 July 2018.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina meets the President of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, at the Parliamentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office on 2 July 2018.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chairs the ECNEC meeting at the NEC conference room at the Sher-E-Bangla on 26 June 2018.

Column

WHO'S GOT THE GEAR Automobiles in the Age of Autonomous By M. Rokonuzzaman PhD

n autonomous or self-driving car has been a major technological development at the dawn of the 21st century. This human-free driving is raising a vital question: which direction is technology steering us? The issuance of a patent on January 29, 1886, to Carl Benz for his “vehicle powered by a gas engine” opened a new era in transportation. Through this invention, the role of giving energy from horses was delegated to the machine, making horses unemployed. Continued progression of gasoline-powered engines led to the innovation of increasingly comfortable as well as bigger automobiles. Machine powered automobile offered higher comfort, greater speed and lower cost of transportation. Consequentially, over the last more than 100 years, automobile industry expanded by leaps and bounds—reaching to global sales of 78.6 million units of passenger cars in 2017 alone. The automobile has been a major source of employment in most of the countries. Even in developing countries, the driving of automobile has created a large number of jobs. For example, in Bangladesh alone registered 420,000 automobiles in 2017 creating a virtually equal number of driving jobs. But automobiles are also major causes of unnatural death. Road accidents caused by automobiles also destroy a significant amount of wealth. Self-driving cars offer the opportunity of making our rides in automobile safer, more convenient and also less costly. But that also leads to loss of millions of driving jobs. Are we reaching new speeds or inevitably crashing? Is it an unpredictable revolution, or the outcome of continued progression? Should we step on the pedal or hit the breaks?

THE WRITER

is an academic, researcher and activist. He currently works as a Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North South University. He can be reached at zaman.rokon.bd@gmail.com.

Transportation is a basic need for humankind. At the very beginning of human existence on this planet, human beings felt the necessity of having a mode of transportation. Likely the journey started with carrying kids, sick persons or elderly on the shoulder. Technology started to get introduced increasing the quality and reducing the cost, leading to a rickshaw, pulled by human beings. Horses were domesticated and given the role of supplying energy to transport vehicles, leading to horse driven carriages. But human beings were looking for better means, leading to gasoline-powered automobiles. Despite serving an essential purpose, over the last more than one century, human-driven automobiles have become a major worry as far as road accidents are concerned. Human beings take on an average 700ms to perceive a situation and take driving action, whether to apply the brake, blow horn or slowdown. During this 700ms, often accidents happen. Human errors have been the major cause behind the death of millions of lives due to accidents. According to World Health Organization, more than 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes. It’s also quite disappointing to observe that 90%of the world's fatalities on the roads occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have approximately 54% of the world's vehicles. These horrific crashes cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product. Human errors have been the major cause of these road accidents. With the growth of machine intelligence technologies, the possibility of delegating roles of sensing, perceiving, reasoning and decision making from human to automobiles is opening the possibility of realizing self-driving or autonomous

C O L U M N M. ROKONUZZAMAN PHD

cars. It’s been estimated that 700ms delay would be reduced and some of the other limitations of human drivers like fatigue, intoxication or sleepiness could be addressed through autonomous machine capability. As a result, the full development of self-driving technology will lead to safer roads, less damage to lives and properties. The reduction of delay in responding to the dynamic driving situation will also reduce inter-vehicle distance resulting in higher throughput on highways. The delegation of human roles in driving to a machine has been a continued process. Initially, the role of supplying energy was delegated from human to horses. With the growth of gasoline engines, horses were replaced. But human retained the jobs to provide primarily cognitive roles. Continued progression of technology has opened the prospect of delegating these cognitive roles to machines, making roads safer as well as more productive. Moreover, autonomous driving also increases the utilization factor of automobiles. Self-driving cars will also offer higher autonomy to growing elderly people. Despite many technology uncertainties, the possibility of achieving self-driving cars appears to be a close reality. There might be need for more structured road networks, distinctly visible traffic signals, and disciplined human movement to accommodate the transition to autonomous driving. The possibility of substantially reducing accidents leading to lower deaths and less GDP loss through autonomous driving appears to have significantly larger economic benefits than some of the preparatory costs. The concern could be a loss of jobs. But should we protect jobs at the cost of human lives and major economic loss? Such a conflicting situation has created policy dilemma in a certain situation. For example, India’s politicians have chosen the position of saying to no to self-driving cars to protect jobs. As reported in the Washington post, India’s transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari told the Hindustan Times in 2017: “I am very clear on this. We won’t allow any technology that takes away jobs. In a country where you have

According to World Health Organization, more than 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes. It’s also quite disappointing to observe that 90%of the world's fatalities on the roads occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have approximately 54% of the world's vehicles. These horrific crashes cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product.

unemployment, you can’t have a technology that ends up taking people’s jobs.” On the other hand, countries like China, USA, Korea and others have been preparing to welcome such advanced forms of technology products. For example, South Korea plans to map major cities and establish a smart traffic system for autonomous driving. Similarly, as it has been reported by the China Daily newspaper citing the country’s industry ministry, China has laid out national guidelines for testing self-driving cars as it looks to keep pace with the United States in a global race to develop autonomous vehicles. By adopting autonomous cars every country will lose jobs. For example, 3 million truck drivers will lose jobs in the USA alone. But, upon adoption of safer and more productive automobiles, these countries will expand better economic growth leading to the creation of jobs in other sectors. On the other hand, countries saying no to the next generation automobile technology will fail to benefit from technology. As a result, the economy will grow at slower rate than should have been leading to less job creation. Therefore, there is a possibility that countries by slowing the adoption or creating a barrier to self-driving cars risk suffering from net loss. It’s not only self-driving cars, virtually every major productive activity is poised to benefit from machine intelligence. The delegation of cognitive roles from human beings to sensors and software is the evolving opportunity to improve our productive activities to offer higher quality products at lower cost. There is no denying that such cognitive role delegation leads to human free production, leading to massive job loss in existing production processes. But the underlying force created by machine intelligence is enabling us in creating increasing wealth from depleting resources to meet growing consumption appears to be non-stoppable; and presumably, we must not slow down by pursuing popular job protectionism policies. Rather, we should focus on creating greater opportunities by leveraging such technology opportunity to create more new jobs that are likely to be lost.

HAPPENING

Word of mouth Apollo Hospitals, India’s first multispecialty chain of hospitals reached a new milestone with over 1500 successful Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) procedures conducted on patients at Apollo Hospitals nationally. The 1,500 patients have been treated at Apollo BMT units from all over India including Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kozhikode, Gujarat, Bengal as well as from foreign countries like Oman, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Tanzania, Dubai, UAE, and Mauritius.

Bangla Perfume launched Mercedez-Benz Perfume for the first time in Bangladesh. Mercedes-Benz fragrances are offered in conjunction with INCC Group and they have 25 perfumes in its fragrance base.

Jet Airways, India’s premier full-service international airline, has commenced an additional flight between Dhaka and India capital Delhi with effect from today. The planned expansion including a four-day-a-week operation on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, is in line with the airline’s Think India, Think Jet Airways policy.

BRAC Bank Limited organized a financial literacy workshop on SME Banking in Faridpur to facilitate the SME sector in the region. They coordinated with the scheduled commercial banks and NBFI of Faridpur area to ensure a successful workshop. A total of 30 banks and financial institutions participated in the workshop.

BANKING CORNER

The 23rd Annual General Meeting of Dhaka Bank Limited was held on 28 June, 2018 at the Grand Ballroom, Pan Pacific Sonargaon, Dhaka. Mr. Reshadur Rahman, Chairman of the Bank presided over the meeting.

The 35th Annual General Meeting of National Bank Limited was held on June 27 2018 at Utshab Hall, Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel, Dhaka. Zainul Haque Sikder, sponsor director of NBL, a valiant freedom fighter and Chairman of the Bank presided over the meeting. 12% Stock Dividend was approved for the year ended on the December 31, 2017 in the Annual General Meeting.

United Mymensingh Power Ltd (UMPL) has commissioned its first Fast Track Power Plant at Jamalpur. The 200 MW (net) HFO fired Power Plant is one of the 10 power plants awarded by the Government on a fast track basis.

BRAC Bank Limited organized an extensive program on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Branch Operations Manager Development Programâ&#x20AC;? at its Head office in Dhaka. This two-week program was designed with a view to scale up operational knowledge and leadership qualities for aspiring Branch Operations Manager who will take over as the Branch Manager in future.

Dhaka Bank Limited signed an agreement with bKash Limited on June 10, 2018) for facilitating the internet banking customers of the Bank to make instant fund transfer to any bKash accounts via web and mobile app. Ziaur Rahman, Senior Executive Vice President & Head of Corporate Banking of Dhaka Bank and Moinuddin Mohammed Rahgir, Chief Financial Officer of bKash signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations at the Corporate Office of Dhaka Bank.

The 17th Annual General Meeting of Jamuna Bank Limited was held on June 24, 2018 at the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ABACUS Convention Center, Eskaton, Ramna, Dhaka. The Shareholders unanimously approved 22% stock Dividend for the year ended December 31, 2017.

In a move to complete the first ever Nuclear Power Plant Construction Project of Bangladesh, the main Russian Contractor JSC Atomstroyexport signed a contract with local company MAX Infrastructure Ltd (concern of MAX Group) to construct the lot- 600 of Rooppur NPP, Unit 1. This contract includes the critical civil and erection works of main Turbine Hall building.

Standard Chartered Bangladesh won two awards at the prestigious FinanceAsia 2018 Country Awards recently. At the ceremony, the Bank was recognized by FinanceAsia as the Best International Bank and Best International Investment Bank in Bangladesh.

A LONG ROAD TO JUSTICE

Earlier last month, a group of Saudi women took to the streets with their newly granted licences as the clock ticked past midnight and the ban on driving was lifted. A longstanding ban on women driving was finally lifted, making it a historic and liberating moment for the women who had been at the mercy of their fathers, husbands, or brothers. Although a law against women driving was never technically in place, a ban was enforced by the Saudi police and driving licences were not issued to women.

AN AIR FORCE TRAINING TRAGEDY Two Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) pilots were killed when a training aircraft crashed into a lake in Jessore after it took off from an airbase. Locals heard two loud bangs and saw the plane plnging into the water. The K-8W was being flown by Squadron Leaders Md Serajul Islam and Enayet Kabir Polash. The two-seat intermediate jet trainer was designed by Chinese Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation. The cause of the crash is yet to be confirmed, and a high-level committee has since been formed for an inquiry.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;GITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; WITH THE TIMES

For many years, Microsoft has openly been against open source software. However, after many years of humiliation in the realms of search and mapping, the Washington-based tech giant finally gave in and announced plans to buy the code-hosting and collaboration site GitHub for $7.5 billion. The service reportedly hosts 85 million codebases for a variety of organizations, including Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Walmart, and even the US government. GitHub reportedly chose Microsoft partly because of CEO Satya Nadella.

THE JOYS OF JUTE

For the development of the jute industry, the jute ministry is reportedly working on a policy to form a Tk. 10,000 crore fund in order to provide low-cost loans. Md Mahmudul Hassan, Chairman of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC), headed a panel, where he prepared the draft for the Jute Sector Development Fund and proposed that the government form a 20-year revolving fund to provide loans to farmers, industrialists, traders, goods producers, as well as exporters. Bangladesh Bank will be managing the fund, and the loans will be disbursed at 5% interest.

THE WAR ON WAGE

According to a new structure approved by the government, workers at state-run factories will now be receiving double their monthly wage. Hence, the minimum wage will be Tk. 8,300 from Tk. 4,150, while the maximum wage increased from Tk. 5,600 to Tk. 11,200. This decision was taken at a cabinet meeting by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier this month.

2% GDP Growth

At a meeting titled ‘Corruption Prevention Issues’, held by the district administration at the deputy commissioner’s conference room, Mahmud Hassan, the Director General (Prevention) of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), has said that the gross domestic part (GDP) could entertainment.There were prominent leaders and members from sectors, and activist across Bangladesh attended the meeting.

SUPPORT TO SUSTAIN

The World Bank announced that it would pledge half a billion dollars to help Bangladesh with the on-going Rohingya crisis. Funding would go towards such as education, water and sanitation, health, disaster risk management, and social protection. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim stated, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bangladesh has shown great leadership in this evolving humanitarian crisis by providing refuge for the Rohingya people. This grant allows the World Bank Group, working in collaboration with the Government of Canada, to support these efforts.â&#x20AC;?

DISPLACED AMONGST THE DISCORD

The recent wave of attacks in southwestern Syria has displaced 270,000 people. The majority of citizens are from the Deraa and Quneitra provinces; they have fled to Israel occupied Golan Heights and Jordan. While Russian air strikes have advanced government forces, the displacement of such a large population. These numbers have surpassed the predicted displacement of 200,000 citizens.

ELECTIONS ON EDGE

One of the deadliest pre-election attacks took place in Nigeria on June 27, 2018. More than 200 people were killed due to communal clashes before leading to the election. This was the largest of many attacks that have been going on throughout the election year. Communal violence in the nation has occurred for the better part of a decade because of conflicts between semi-nomadic herders and farmers as well as religious tensions.

Budget Matters

A FUTURE THAT REQUIRES FOUNDATION By Saraf Khan

In hopes of a digital Bangladesh, the country has progressed in multiple ways, from an increase in international companies like Uber all the way to food franchises like Burger King. When it comes to the healthcare and education in this country, there is a huge lack of resources allocated to these sectors by the government. This fiscal year of 2018-2019, the government set a budget of Tk 4.64 crore, of which only 5% is going towards health and 14.6% is designated for education and technology combined. With such little funding, it causes lack of infrastructure within these systems. There are multiple steps being taken to ensure that these systems are upgraded and are easier for all residents to afford and access to build a better future for Bangladesh. With more investment in these areas, this country could fix several of these issues at an accelerated rate. According to World Economic Forum, the cost of improving health care in the developing world is $400 billion. For every $1 invested it succumbs to only $4 of benefits. For this to take place, the government would have to collaborate with the private sectors such as banks and corporations to get as much investment into these areas as possible. Good health care and education lead to a more developed country. With a population of over 166 million people, it is considerably harder to manage a system thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been broken for such a long period of time.

LESSON LEARNED FROM A GLOBAL PLATFORM

Comparatively, in other countries such as Canada and Switzerland where healthcare is a priority, and the population is drastically smaller, the government has either set up a fully public funded system, or they collaborate with private companies to make health insurance more accessible. In Canada, the annual spending for health care was an estimated $242 billion in 2017 making out to be $6,064 for each resident. This made health care free for all citizens and permanent residents. Everything from a monthly check up to a heart surgery is all covered under what Canadians call Medicare. There are many disadvantages to a universal healthcare system; really long wait

times, availability of physicians and doctors per resident and many more. The Swiss model of health care is highly efficient. Out of all of the wealthy countries in the world, Switzerland has the smallest percentage of their budget allocated to healthcare, just a mere 2.7% of their GDP. The Swiss healthcare system called Santesuisse is a private insurance-based model. They don't receive benefits from work like the United States, or from the government like the UK. Each resident has to purchase their own insurance from an insurance provider and the average premium per month is 220 Swiss Francs. There are other packages created for lower income families making it affordable for all. Singapore, a country closer to home,

has the second best and most efficient healthcare system according to Nordic Business Insider. The citizens of Singapore have a life expectancy of 83 years old. In 2015, $155.2 million was invested in healthcare. Singapore uses the saving method and allocates a portion of the residents' income for future health expenses and they also have a nationwide life insurance policy. Bangladesh could definitely learn from these other far more developed countries. A good start may be better sourcing for investments and prioritizing these basic rights over other sectors. In the FY 18-19 the public administration sector gets 18.1% of the national budget, if these figures were distributed a little more generously there may be a difference sooner than later.

misdiagnosis, expired medication and even misbehavior with patients that cannot pay the hospital fees. The education system in Bangladesh is very scattered. International schools in Dhaka such as ISD, or AISD are higher end private schools with tuition fees ranging anywhere from $26,000-$35,000 which is 71 times the average annual income of a Bangladeshi resident, According to World and 292 times the Economic Forum, the total fee of a cost of improving health top-class. Bangladeshi care in the developing University. These world is $400 billion. schools eventually For every $1 invested it lead students to a succumbs to only $4 of better future of abroad or benefits. For this to take studying getting better place, the government opportunities. The most common is the would have to government-funded collaborate with the public schools that private sectors such as are far more banks and corporations accessible for the majority of the to get as much population. investment into these Considering how education has started areas as possible. to become more of a priority for the nation, the enrollment rate for schools when up to an average of 75%, however, there is still a drop out rate of 40.29% when last checked in 2016. The discrepancy between the upper and lower class in Bangladesh is so vast, that the middle class is almost APPLYING being wiped out. The literacy rate as of March 2018 is 72.76% which is a great KNOWLEDGE TO improvement from the 60% in the LOCAL STAGE 2000’s. The goal is to have around When it comes to Bangladesh, people 99%, especially in a country filled with in this small country are dying of so many people a lot more money has illnesses that are treatable because to be invested for this to happen. The they cannot afford it. The rate at technology has to be updated which patients are denied health care throughout educational sectors to is extreme, several people suffer due to ensure up to date learning and improper care from a hospital more teaching; that way all Bangladeshi can than in the 2000’s 60% of have similar opportunities. Bangladeshis could not afford or be “Bank support of Bangladesh’s denied healthcare which is about 80 education sector is based on the million people. Infrastructure isn't principle that investing early for all is always the issue for developing investing smartly, and investing in countries, lack of funding often stop lifelong learning is investing for the countries from being able to set up a future.” – The World Bank. There are stable system which can be accessed numerous projects that the World Bank by the masses. Currently, there are has initiated. Quality Learning for All problems in healthcare ranging from Program began on June 14th, 2018,

the summary of the project is ensuring quality education for all Bangladeshis. The World Bank has committed to invest $700 million into this project, however, the total cost is actually $16 billion. The project has already made several impressive gains for Bangladesh. The enrolment rate for primary education has gone up an estimated 11% in the last two years. The investment helped teachers receive better training, timely delivery of textbooks and better facilities on school grounds which at the end of the day enhances the overall quality of education. The overall approach Bangladesh is aiming for is to be able to provide better healthcare and education for all its’ residents. With more investment from private sectors, Bangladesh has a real shot at reforming the flaws put in place by broken systems of a small nation. The economy in Dhaka is said to be the fastest growing and most happy. The economy grew by 7.1% in 2016 according to Quartz it was the fastest expansion in 30 years. As Bangladesh as a whole grows into a strong economic power with better infrastructure, investing in healthcare and education along with technology will only help grow it further. With the recent intake of Rohingya refugees, it’s become infinitely harder to Bangladesh to focus on the problems at hand. However small this country maybe, the world is giving Bangladesh a standing ovation for giving aid to the mass influx of a million Rohingyas. The advances this country has made in the past couple of years have been a lot more than what the past 50 years have brought. Keeping in mind Bangladesh as a country is young and just starting up, with disadvantages in population growth and geographical location, Bangladesh still shows a lot of promise heading into the developed world. Many big corporations are now looking at Bangladesh as the new hub. Investing in anything here is a gold mine, numerous non-resident Bangladeshi return to this country to start up business because of the opportunities this country has to offer. So with this growing economy, it should be that much easier to focus on developing the health and educational sectors. Source: Expatica, Independent, Forbes, Canada Gov.

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Digital Trends

THE MOVE TOWARDS NETWORKING PLATFORM

By Syed Apanuba Puhama The paramedic of social media has taken the world by storm, playing a significant role in our lives in many forms and fundamentally changing the way businesses interact with their audience. According to the statistics portal Statista, the worldwide users of social media in 2017 was an estimated 2.46 billion, expected to reach approximately 2.95 billion by the year 2020. Due to this growth rate of the digital era, successful companies have begun utilizing the diversity of social media by establishing a presence on various platforms. As a cost-effective way of content marketing, services, and employer brand across a plethora of mediums, this opportunity can be pivotal in expanding a company's reach. Social media, while offering unparalleled opportunities for businesses to implement their marketing strategies and generate

brand awareness without a large monetary investment, can become the source of conflicts if not managed properly. Using these multiple platforms are not always efficacious and often carry a unique set of risks. Here are some dos and don'ts of social media marketing.

DO Seeing is Believing

From classic television commercials to todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s YouTube and Snapchat, it's no secret that videos have become an integral part of our lives. In this era of modern technology, the use of video in branding and content marketing is especially on the rise. Video marketing provides marketers with an attractive and versatile medium to engage with their audience. According to an upcoming report from HubSpot Research, 54% of consumers want to

see videos from brands in comparison to email newsletters or image-based content. With our attention spans getting shorter by the day, video marketing helps deliver a brand’s message effectively in a short amount of time while stimulating an emotional chord through visual and auditory elements.

DON’T The Take on Public Policy, Never Pick a Side

Being a brand with an agenda can be immensely tempting. However, recent studies have proven that taking a political stance keeps the brand from growing and alienates a large percentage of their buyer base. Based on a survey of 1,003 consumers in the US conducted in 2017, a staggering 71% believe that brands should not be taking sides in a political debate. While some people assume that brands can strengthen loyalty by partaking in explicit political activities or agendas that align with the interests of their core customers, unfortunately, this does not benefit the business and its branding. Loyalty is vital for sustaining current demand, not for growing a brand.

DO Timing is Everything

While consumer brands should steer clear of political agendas and endorsing parties, they must prioritize using their platform for the greater good of their marketing strategy. Studies suggest that a majority of consumers believe that by speaking out about relevant timely events that align with the values deeply rooted in their campaign, brands can push society forward and make a positive impact. Before engaging social issues, brands must first understand their own identity beyond the products they sell. They must find ways to incorporate their values into the social issues they are standing up for. Consumers want the companies they support to harness their power and utilize their platform for good, instead of remaining indifferent about social injustices.

ACCORDING TO AN UPCOMING REPORT FROM HUBSPOT RESEARCH, 54% OF CONSUMERS WANT TO SEE VIDEOS FROM BRANDS IN COMPARISON TO EMAIL NEWSLETTERS OR IMAGE-BASED CONTENT. DON’T The Aristocracy of the Customer

The importance of responding to and engaging with customers on social media can easily be considered vital in terms of the growth and success of a brand. However, it is important to refrain from getting into public feuds with combative consumers. There are numerous ways in which you can damage your online reputation. Appearing misogynistic and making jokes about dire, timely circumstances in the news are only some of the many ways cultural marketing can be sensitive. Nothing will cause a brand’s marketing efforts lead to a total waste than negative, offensive, and distasteful statements.

DO Consistency is Key Shortened attention spans combined with rapidly growing social networks have made publishing more important than ever. A critical social media strategy regarding building a brand and reaching the target audience is to post regularly. Each brand has their own sense of style, strategy, area of expertise, as well as demographics. Content curation is an excellent way of organizing a steady flow of social

media posts about different topics closely related to your industry without the risk of being repetitive. If a brand’s posts on social media are infrequent, they will quickly shift to the dark corners of their audience’s minds. However, if they post too often, they will risk becoming a nuisance by overcrowding the feeds of their customers. Therefore, it is imperative to find that right balance and comprehend the right amount of posts and the respective topics a brand should be providing for its followers each day.

DON’T Cordiality is Always Appreciated

Efficient brand marketing strategy revolves around articulation differentiation against competitors. A 2017 survey from Sprout Social demonstrates that most consumers frown upon petty competitiveness across social media. A whopping 67% said they find it annoying when brands make fun of the competition. Brands should avoid seeking ways to promote themselves by dragging their competitors in a negative light. Kicking a competitor when they're down is a risky strategy, as the brands can also possess the risk of being in a similar situation. Competitive advertising and mocking your competitors will only add value to the brands being attacked, which is why it is important to focus on your own marketing strategy and highlighting your own value. In today’s world, social media undoubtedly plays a pivotal role in terms of brand value and content marketing. As the people become more and more reliant on technology, social media continues to be an important factor regarding successful marketing campaigns. While ideal for promoting your brand, expanding your reach, and increasing followers, these networks can also become a brand’s downfall if not utilized correctly.

Source: Hubspot Research, Statista, Sprout Social

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World Cup

The Urban Tales of Tourism For the first time in many years, all eyes will be on Russia – not for its political controversies but for something almost wholesome. Eleven Russian cities will be hosting FIFA’s marquee event, a first for any Eastern European country. By official accounts, 683 billion rubles ($11 billion) have been poured into World Cup preparations, with transport infrastructure ($6.11 billion), stadium construction ($3.45 billion) and accommodation ($ 680 million)

By Sadiaa Haque

accounting for the lion’s share of expenditures. The Russian government estimates an increase of between $26 billion and $30.8 billion to the country’s GDP from 2013-2023, fueled by a boost in tourism, large-scale infrastructural improvements and returns on longer-term government investments. More than 1.5 million foreign tourists are expected to visit Russia during the World Cup. According to the 2018 FIFA World Cup website, USA, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, Argentina,

Peru, China, Australia and England make up the top ten foreign ticket buyers, while the country accounting for the most ticket sales is Russia itself. In the first week of matches alone, more than 2.5 million fans have watched games in designated viewing areas across the 11 host cities. Russian officials hope that the World Cup will generate interest in its lower-profile cities, such as Kazan, Samara, Saransk and Nizhny Novgorod. In Saransk, the government

has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars into constructing a stadium, building more high-rises and developing transport infrastructure. Nizhny Novgorod – long barred to foreigners because of its connections with military production and weapons manufacturing – has seen an almost-overnight makeover with vibrant graffiti courtesy of the city’s local artists. Even the popular Black Sea resort of Sochi received a summer boon with a spike of visitors from

By official accounts, 683 billion rubles ($11 billion) have been poured into World Cup preparations, with transport infrastructure ($6.11 billion), stadium construction ($3.45 billion) and accommodation ($ 680 million) accounting for the lion’s share of expenditures.

Brazil and Australia. Experts, however, remain cautious. Weeks before the first kickoff, Moody’s Investors Service predicted the event to make only a short-term contribution to tourism industry revenue, despite the World Cup windfall. Host cities off the beaten path are unlikely to draw tourists after the event, as some locations are too remote, their weather too harsh, and their overall appeal falling well short of other, more established destinations. www.ibtbd.net

Looking Back

BRAZIL AND SOUTH AFRICA

The long-term economic impact of mega-sporting events are difficult to foresee and tourist influxes hardly paint a full picture. During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, government figures put the number of foreign tourists at 1 million, far exceeding the pre-tournament projection of 600,000. Despite the increase in foreign tourism, the Wall Street Journal reported an 11% fall in Brazil’s domestic travel industry from 26% down to 15%. Ultimately, the revenue generated by foreign tourists represented only 2.5% of the $15 billion invested in hosting the event. In South Africa, 309,000 visitors entered the country during the 2010 World Cup, a figure less than half of the monthly average of 620,000 for the rest of the year. Similar to Brazil in 2014, World Cup returns were only a fraction of the total investment -- little more than 10% ($323 million) of the $3 billion spent. Dr. Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist and economics professor at Smith College, summarized the tourism conundrum thus: “every time you get a World Cup tourist, you get one less regular tourist. Generally speaking, the World Cup does not benefit the hosts’ tourism industry.” That’s not to say mega-sporting events never generate significant gains in tourism. Since hosting the Summer Olympics in 1992, Barcelona has seen a tenfold increase in foreign visitors but the rise can easily be attributed to institutional factors. Perceived tourist friendliness of destinations, based on safety conditions, visa regulations, flight connectivity and visiting costs, greatly impact incoming tourist flows.

For Russia, post-World Cup tourism may well be constrained by crime rates, relatively high travel costs, lack of suitable mid-tier accommodation, stringent visa regulations, and political tensions with other nations, such as the UK. Industry experts argue that any economic boost arising from the World Cup will be a mere blip in the radar compared to the nation’s $1.3 trillion economies. According to Moody’s, overall credit impact for the Russian corporate sector would be limited and “sectors (hotels, trade, transport, etc.) that will benefit most from increased tourist flows are not key growth drivers in most hosting local economies.” So what’s really in it for Russia?

A Multi-Billion Dollar Charm Oﬀensive

Hosted three months after the presidential election, the World Cup will showcase Russia’s revival under Putin’s leadership, especially as the country attempts to recoup its reputational losses from its biggest trading partner, the EU. Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia’s wrangles with the West have only multiplied. In March, relations with the UK became more tenuous following Russian involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former double agent in exile in Salisbury, and his daughter, Yulia. After briefly considering boycotting the World Cup, England eventually demurred to barring high-level representatives from attending the event. In May, Dutch-led investigators announced that the missile system that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine came from a Russia-based military unit. Conscious of its reputation and wary

of the unsavory global attention brought on Brazil during the 2014 World Cup, the government has made piecemeal attempts at detracting from its negative international image. Movie theaters were given the go-ahead to screen Leto, a new film by Kirill Serebrennikov, who has been under house arrest since August 2017. Putin’s most vociferous critic, the leading opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was released hours before the World Cup, following a 30-day sentence for staging illegal protests. While the world may be willing to look past politics this month, it will take more than a sporting extravaganza to rid Russia of its bad juju. Political notoriety aside, Russia as a travel destination has often been likened to a cold, intimidating tourist trap. Link Russia with football and you get hooliganism (à la Russian crowd violence in Euro 2016) and racism from a small but all-too-visible cross-section of Russian fans. As part of its rebranding efforts, the Russian government has taken great pains to project a friendlier face to incoming arrivals. Hordes of English-speaking volunteers roam the streets in each host city to aid wayward travelers and actively promote the various attractions of each city. Russian police and the National Guard have been directed to patrol the cities to ward off hooligans. Russian workers in key companies such as FIFA, Russian Railways and Moscow Metro have also been trained on how to smile at customers. As former sports minister Vitaly Mutko noted, “we want to show the world the new Russia, open and hospitable in every sense.” But whether the World Cup goodwill will persist – and more importantly whether Russia’s massive PR campaign will fool anyone – remains to be seen.

Export Prospect

SOLE OF EXPORT INDUSTRY By Mehrin Karim

THE

Footwear was Bangladesh's leading export item at $827 million in FY 2017. Currently, the sector has a high potential for capturing a larger share of the global market, which is about $240 billion annually for all types of footwear including leather, manmade leather, and denim or others fabrics. In recent years, Vietnam and Cambodia have been forging ahead in seizing big chunks of the EU and North American markets with strategies that are worth noting and emulating. Footwear exports from Bangladesh rose by 22.96% from FY 14 to FY 17 as shown in Figure 1. The Footwear sector plays a significant role in the economy of Bangladesh in terms of its contribution to export and domestic market. However, it faces tough competition from China, the world’s leading footwear exporter at 53% share; this is followed by Vietnam and Cambodia which are the two other thriving exporters. Bangladesh barely holds three percent of this market as shown in Figure 2.

FIG 1. FOOTWEAR EXPORTS OF BANGLADESH (USD MILLION)

827 673

714

550 419

FY 13

FY 14

FY 15

FY 16

FY 17

Source: World Top Exports

Over the recent years, it can be observed that the world’s largest footwear manufacturer China, is now withdrawing from the global leather goods market and Bangladesh should be ready with huge potential to attract foreign investment in the sector. China’s annual leather footwear production had dropped by 5.29% in 2013 and 7.45% in 2014. The main reasons for China’s focus shift are the rising labor cost. In consequence, Bangladeshi manufacturers are now planning to fill the vacuum in the international footwear market being left by China but Vietnam and Cambodia are ahead in this game as we will find out. Bangladesh is also emerging as a leading supplier of non-leather footwear at low prices and standard quality. The country is now supplying sports shoes, sandals, flip-flops and boots to a number of leading global retailers including H&M, Decathlon, Kappa, www.ibtbd.net

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footwear industry is the key exporting industry, with its strategic products are shoes, sandals and priority to sneakers and canvas shoes, fashion leather footwear, high-quality briefcase, bag, and wallets, and supporting industries, quality leather and leatherette. Moreover, there is a necessity to focus on building capacity to design and develop new products. Vietnam signed the (now nearly defunct) Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal and other FTAs expecting they would present more opportunities in production and business for Vietnam's enterprises, including firms from the textile, garment, leather and footwear industries. The outlook for Vietnamese footwear is positive, especially when export tariffs to EU and other TPP countries (probably in a truncated TPP) will be reduced to 0% and Vietnam abides by the geographic origin regulation for its products. The Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (Lefaso) reported that the sector obtained $16.2 billion from export last year, up 8.8% from 2015. Of which, $13 billion was from footwear and the remaining was from handbags and leather items, marking respective annual increases of 8.2% and 11.1%.Footwear currently ranks fourth and suitcase-bag-briefcase ranks tenth among Vietnam’s top 10 foreign currency earners. Currently, Vietnam’s footwear industry has 812 enterprises and more than 624,000 employees (75% of whom are female); 70% of big exporting enterprises are joint ventures or 100% foreign capital. 90% of Vietnam’s footwear products are processed products that are dependent on technical devices, technology, design, and sources for imported supplies of raw materials, accessories. As for the Cambodia footwear sector, it can be noted that the footwear sector continued to record strong growth in 2015, with exports increasing by 21.8% to a total of $538 million. The countries of the Skechers, Fila, and Puma. Non-leather footwear exports stood at $171.57 million in FY14. Presently there are 110 export-oriented factories manufacture footwear in Bangladesh. Of them, Apex, FB, Picard Bangladesh, Jenny’s, Akij, RMM Bengal, and Bay have their own tanneries and leather processing units. Reasons behind the fast rise in demand for synthetic footwear include the non-compliance issues surrounding the leather industry, and the price of synthetic or polysynthetic leather footwear being three times cheaper than the genuine leather ones. The Vietnam-European Union free trade agreement which will take effect in 2018 and allow Vietnamese footwear makers more chances to boost export. To take advantage of those agreements, the local leather and footwear industry prepare material at home to join preferential tariffs from the deal when exporting their products to the US, the European Union, and some other markets. The master plan to develop footwear in Vietnam, from 2020 to 2025, emphasizes that the

Footwear exports from Bangladesh rose by 22.96% from FY 14 to FY 17 as shown in Figure 1. The Footwear sector plays a significant role in the economy of Bangladesh in terms of its contribution to export and domestic market. European Union (EU) were the main destination markets for footwear exports, with a 56% share, followed by the US, which represents an 18% share. Japan is also an important market for Cambodia. In 2015, combined garment and footwear exports accounted for 78% of the country’s total merchandise exports. The garment and footwear sector is Cambodia’s largest formal private sector employer, as it currently employs more than 620,000 workers, 86% of whom are female, and with a large majority being relatively young.

According to the Cambodian Investment Board (CIB), 78 new garment and footwear investment projects were approved in 2014. These projects were largely funded by investors from mainland China and Hong Kong, with a small proportion from Taiwan and other economies. Most were in the form of sole ownership (85%), and only about 15% in the form of joint ventures. The new garment and footwear projects approved in 2014 accounted for $452 million of fixed assets (a slight decline compared to 2013). Investments in the garment and footwear sector represented 28% of the total newly approved investment in fixed asset value in 2014. The growing footwear industry over the past decade led hundreds of thousands of young Cambodians to migrate to the city seeking paid employment. Some factories offered extra financial incentives to some workers to attract labor, while base wages of entry-level workers have often remained aligned with the statutory minimum wage. Cambodia’s minimum wage for the garment and footwear industry was first introduced in 1997 when it was set at $40 per month. The rate has since increased to $128 per month, effective from January 1, 2015. The minimum wage is guaranteed for every full-time worker in the garment and footwear industry; part-time workers need to be paid in proportion to their working time. Brexit could pose short-term risks to Cambodian garment and footwear exports via its effect on Britain’s exchange rate, while longer-term risks are posed by the potential loss of tariff-free access to the UK market. The World Bank has upgraded Bangladesh and Cambodia from a least developed country (LDC); this may presage a similar upgrade from the UN. If this occurs, both countries could ultimately lose its access

The writer can be reached at mehrin.karim07@gmail.com.

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Bangladesh is also emerging as a leading supplier of non-leather footwear at low prices and standard quality. The country is now supplying sports shoes, sandals, flip-flops and boots to a number of leading global retailers including H&M, Decathlon, Kappa, Skechers, Fila, and Puma. Non-leather footwear exports stood at $171.57 million in FY14.

to the EU’s EBA scheme for LDCs. This will not be recognized until the next three years, as there are transitional arrangements in place. The garment and footwear sector has some time to prepare for an environment in which its competitive advantage is reduced through loss of EBA status, but it will need to adapt to this reality over the medium-term. Another lesson that can be learned is rather than aiming for a revival of manufacturing across the entire economy, China's policymakers let selected industries and geographic regions take the lead in ramping up manufacturing. The lead sectors were export-oriented consumer goods (such as textiles, shoes, and toys) and infrastructure and real estate- related industries (such as steel, cement, glass, construction equipment, and ship-building). Letting some sectors and regions serve as pioneers enable the country's leaders to start ramping up manufacturing in those segments of the economy with already enjoying some comparative advantage. These early movers also become showcase examples from which other industries and regions could learn from. In Bangladesh, the per capita usage of footwear is rising and the per capita consumption of footwear, including leather, is 3-pairs, which was 1.7-pairs five years back. The local footwear market that was worth Tk .16,000 crore in 2016 is growing at a rate of 10-15% annually. The country uses 30 crore pairs of footwear annually. Currently, Bangladesh exports footwear to over 50 countries, including the EU, China, Japan, Korea, Canada and North America. The EU is the largest export destination of Bangladesh’s footwear industry. And the majority of leather (54%) is exported to the EU market. Bangladesh lacks world-class backward linkage industries. Production outsourcing by leading global footwear brands has driven export growth in China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Along with outsourcing comes FDI and the development of a well-integrated supply chain. Leather and non-leather footwear require a more complex and sophisticated supply chain to become globally competitive. The global clothing and footwear markets are dominated by leading retail companies through outsourcing much of their production to developing countries Bangladesh should concentrate more on global reputation and branding like Vietnam and India. They achieved this global reputation for their modern technology, processing plants, and product-related skilled man powers. So to get the global reputation, we should take proper private and govt. initiatives in the field of leather technology. Branding is the most important aspect to get the global market reputation in the footwear sector. Nike, Rebook, Hushpuppy and some other is a world-famous reputation for footwear.

Interview

THE RINGMASTER AKM Zabed

Chief Marketing Officer Anwar Group of Industries

You have had 15 years of experience in multinational and local companies. Could you detail your journey?

I started my career with ACI Consumer Brands, and I used to look after Savlon and the full range. I also worked for Tetley tea, as I worked as a Brand Developer. I also worked initially on the ACI Salt, as well as some other brands that launched later such as the Supershop Swapno & ACI Flour. From there, I went to Euro Cola and I worked for Globe Beverages and Globe Biscuits. Tiger, the energy drink was also re-launched during my time there and its market was splendid. After that, I shifted to Acme Food and Beverage where I handled Acme Juice and Drinking Water, and I also launched Acme Tea, Spices, and other new products. After that, I went to work for Real Estate Company BTI. Then I went for an training organized & sponsored by the state department of USA. It was called the Professional Change Program. I went to the University of Oklahoma, where I had an attachment with McKinney Partnership, which is one of the largest interior firms in the USA & also had a training in State Department of USA. After coming back from there, I went back again to study on entrepreneurship in 2015. During my stay in the US, I also worked for SUBWAY. After coming back from USA, I joined Keya Cosmetics as the Chief Operating Officer and I re-launched products like the Keya Beauty Soap, Detergent Powder, Bar Soap, Talcum Powder, Lip Gel etc. From there, I joined Anwar Group Industries, where I have been working as the Group Chief Marketing Officer. Here, I am looking after Steel, Cement, Polymer, Cement Sheet, Landmark, Automobiles, Furniture Businesses.

That is an impressive portfolio. It seems that you have mostly been working for FMCG. What are the changes and the trends in the last couple of years in Bangladesh? Two years ago, BCG published a report about the huge consumer base that nobody could see coming. What has your experience been like?

Basically, during the beginning stages of my career, the brands were mostly depended on trades

As an industry and a category, our Anwar Ispat has tremendous potential. In Bangladesh, only 34% people have second homes. Two-thirds of the people don't have second home. We are shifting from least developed country to developing country.â&#x20AC;?

or channels. By channels, I mean the distributors and dealers and by trade, I mean the retailers. The pull for a new brand used to work 8% cases. But as of now, the scenario has changed a lot. Now you'll find that the factor is around 30% in Bangladesh. The trade has come down to 70%, which is a huge shift. The brands are being created and consumers are aware of it and they have choices to make. That's a big change, I would say. This was regarding the consumers. If I talk about the retailers, in earlier days of my career, it was more of a wholesale based distribution. We used to focus on wholesale, and distribute the products to the dealers through them. Now it is more of distributor & retail-based distribution. In earlier times, we didn't find professional channels, but now they are highly professional, analytical and educated. In terms of standards, there has been a huge shift in this industry.

You played a pivotal role in many re-launchings. Tell us about the trends you have seen so far. What has been the biggest challenges while re-launching a product that has already been on the market but couldn't gather enough hype? How do you overcome these challenges?

We should start from the bottom. We should figure out if we need to make any changes to the product in terms of quality, packaging, pricing, distribution or communication regarding our strategies, then we should do that. Last, but not least, the most important thing is the consumers. What are their needs? Find out the need gap and you can design the whole business process and value change accordingly. And you cater

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each one from the bottom. I think here, strategy plays a very vital role. If you make even a single mistake in your strategy, the whole process is gonna collapse. Therefore, I would say that the business analysis plays the major role here, whether it's about launching a product or re-launching one.

Anwar Group has a very checkered and elaborate portfolio, from ICT to cars and even real estate. How do you maintain all this? How do you balance it out? From the very beginning of my career, I have worked in brand development apart from looking after an existing brand. The pressure-taking is built-in, that doesn't bother me much. Coming here, I found this to be the oldest group probably in the subcontinent being founded in 1834. I had learned a lot while working with international brands, and while studying and working in the US. The work structure there is very systematic, and that helped me a lot. After joining Anwar Group, I tried to streamline the way things are done, in a more modern and systemic and methodical manner to ensure bringing out excellence. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important that our colleagues are well-aware of this vision and accommodate the changes that are going to be implemented. Henceforth, communicating the message to them in a timely manner was important. Initially, I focused on the big businesses like the steel, the cement, cement sheet and the polymer. After that, I focused on real estate, furniture, Automobiles etc. By this time, everything is pretty much methodically systematic and organized professionally. This is how I tried to manage things here, and I didn't particularly find much challenges.

Is there a particular product of the existing portfolio that excites you the most?

there will be immense infrastructural need to be mitigated. Which is why, steel, cement, or polymer has huge potential here. Regarding cement sheets, it can be deemed revolutionary as it has changed the lives of many people. It is having a big impact is dairy poultry and hatcheries, where the cost has been reduced due to the sheetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lowering the temperature. Cement sheets as a category lower the cost by 25% and enhance the productivity by 30% which means it has an over 50% impact on the business. I am very excited about this, as it can do wonders. Ever since our GDP has been exhibiting an upward trend, income has increased. We are being inclined to purchase from the good brands like Athena's Furniture. Regarding cars, we had Ford earlier, as well as Volvo. As we all know, Ford is one of the largest selling brands, while Volvo is one of the safest cars in the world. We recently brought Peugeot from France, which is also outstanding. The feedback has surpassed our expectations. Ford is more of a mass brand, but Peugeot is more sophisticated to be for popular segment, while Volvo is the premium. So we have three brands for three different classes.

You mentioned how one of your missions was to make the business more process-driven. Internationally, more and more businesses are becoming data-driven and analytical. In market research and in case of data analysis, what kind of activities do you have right now? I was professionally born and brought up with data. Throughout my entire career, I never worked without a research agency. Whatever we are doing here, all of it is based on data. I am trying to run this business the way I used to run an FMCG business. Though this business is not nearly as fast-moving as FMCG ones. I am trying to bring the same flavor here. That industry is way too big, detailed, analytical and methodical. I am just trying to implement the same thing in this kind of an industry, which as per as my knowledge goes, not many brands are doing. Not many companies are

doing the things we are doing.

Can you give me an example of any of the cases or businesses that actually gave you an upper hand?

For all brands, the higher contributing area has a higher target and vice versa where we have improved a lot. I tried to find out the potential markets as per the industry. There may be markets where I'm not doing good but the market is big and has potential. For certain category, Barisal and Noakhali districts have a high potential. Studying those markets have helped us gain insights that could benefit the business hugely. We have started doing the same thing for all brands. We have studied every category, and we know which market has what kind of potential, and what opportunity gaps are there.

Many CMOs of Australia are thinking that they are still not capable of bringing growth in the company. According to them its the Chief Salesperson who can add to the disruptive growth of the company. Do you agree with this? What is the role of the CMO in contributing to the growth of a company?

When I was in America, I thought the same thing. However, that is only true for the mature market. It is not true for a developing country like ours. The market in terms of life cycle, it is actually in the introductory stage. It has to go through the trials and tribulations. For us, it is the truth. Secondly, when it comes to growth, the CMO has the role of giving a strategic input. Coming here, I had my own homework. I figured out how to make this process modern, analytical & methodical. We didn't have any hiccups in sales, but we had growth. Until this year, we are growing at a rate of over 40%. The focus should be derived accordingly as per the market potential. Third of all, I tend to go by business as per profitability. Where I make more money, I give more time there. As a CMO, I spend time as per business

Where do you see yourself 10 years down the line?

attractiveness and set targets for the products accordingly. We focus on and push high margin products more.

What are the main challenges of a CMO in terms of things like paradigm shifts and digital media?

A Chief Marketing Officer works as a Chief

From being a CMO, I have dreams and the confidence that I will be promoted to be the CEO, and maybe even to run my own business someday. I used to teach in many private universities. After getting out of IBA in Dhaka University, I used to teach Marketing courses in different private universities just to keep myself updated. I did consultancy for many brands and agencies as a strategic planner. Maybe consultancy and teaching could be good options for me.

Basically, during the beginning stages of my career, the brands were mostly depended on trades or channels. By channels, I mean the distributors and dealers and by trade, I mean the retailers. The pull for a new brand used to work 8% cases. But as of now, the scenario has changed a lot. Now you'll find that the factor is around 30% in Bangladesh. The trade has come down to 70%, which is a huge shift.â&#x20AC;?

Business Officer. From that point of view, the challenge I mostly face is ensuring profitability. This is because all the raw materials cost has increased by a lot, roughly 30%. We must revise the wages every year as well, as they have gone high as per the inflation rate, by 8% minimum up to 18%. The cost of transportation has increased as well, from 50% to 400%. For this, we really need a good support from the government. As we are a developing country, you have to patronize the manufacturing. You have to ensure the consistent power supply for this. We are paying for it every month. We also need to address the bureaucracies we face for starting a business and getting all the permissions. We have to address the logistical issues very seriously, especially those of which are associated with transportation of goods. Timely and safe delivery of product is not a matter of productivity but also shows how much committed we are about the services we offer. Without fixing your backward linkage, you simply cannot work on your forward linkage.

What advice do you have for the young students who want to build a career in marketing?

First of all, I have a little dissatisfaction regarding the current youth. During our time, we were very dedicated and serious about learning. The youth of today should be dedicated, and they should have an urge to deep-down study and learn. They should be more focused. They are also very fickle and need to be stable. They have to learn the process and then grow. Only then they can survive and go to the next stage. I would request the upcoming professionals to be serious about their studies and focus on practical practices along with theoretical learning. Just being focused and dedicated will not let them achieve the feat they want to. They must not forget that the sky's the limit.

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Special Interview

THE RISE OF THE TRADESMEN Emphasizing Training to Close the Skills Gap Nusrat Feroz Aman

Director and Chief Patron AYAT Education and AYAT Skill Development Center

By Apanuba Puhama

What are some of the courses and services provided by the center? How do you believe that these skills will provide marginalized workers with financial security?

Established in 2015, Ayat Skill Development Center (ASDC) strives to promote the development of a skilled workforce, especially for the youth of remote and disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. The courses are designed and conducted at ASDC to help the students gather employable and market-ready skills which help them to find appropriate jobs with a proper pay. We provide training â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not only on high market demand areas, but our training programs are also accredited by the government system i.e. Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB). Our courses in this category are especially for the construction and readymade garment (RMG) sectors. In this category, our offered courses

are for electricians, sewing machine operators (SMO- RMG) and for the welding, plumbing and pipefitting technicians. We have recently initiated a driving and auto mechanics school and tailoring for the women of the community for sectoral and self-employment. The tailoring programs are targeted for the women who dropped out of school and are sitting at home, as well as young housewives, for home-based income generations. Considering the skill gap at the mid-level in manufacturing and healthcare sectors, we have started specialized training and formal courses in the areas of palliative/end life and hospice care. Our forthcoming projects are a college of nursing and health sciences and advanced courses for professionals in the IT sector. This specialized training will definitely help the trainees in gaining more financial security and in establishing a strong footage in the job market with better bargaining power, higher pay, and better status in respective fields. The technical and soft skills the workforce obtains through training with ASDC to help them

prepare to become desirable to both local and international job markets. We work to provide our graduates with decent jobs as they complete their training with ASDC. This year we have organized a series of programs under the title ‘Dignifying Life through Palliative Care’ to promote and popularize the Palliative care issues in Bangladesh as an emerging health care issue of this country with a huge aging population (1:5 by 2030). ASDC has conducted an international workshop on Palliative Care with the title of “End-of Life-Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)-Train the-Trainer Program” for the senior nursing professionals and an orientation program for young physicians of public health providers/hospitals in Dhaka, Bangladesh in collaboration with esteemed faculty and trainers from Simmons College of Nursing, and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Boston, MA, USA dated from 8 January, 2018 to 12 January, 2018. In this regard, we have engaged youth community and lead media (print and electronic) houses of the country. We also receive the commitment of our Parliament members and government offices and lead ministries including Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Finance.

Tell us about your practical lab. How does hands-on and technical training help the trainees advance in various sectors? Practical Training is the heart of all our activities. At Ayat Skill Development Center, the training never ceases to theoretical learning and job placement. ASDC

This year we have organized a series of programs under the title ‘Dignifying Life through Palliative Care’ to promote and popularize the Palliative care issues in Bangladesh as an emerging health care issue of this country with a huge aging population (1:5 by 2030).”

offers a 360-degree learning approach combined with the theoretical part that is backed by hands-on training at the center and then the real practical learning happens through structured apprentice/ internship/attachment programs with reputed construction, manufacturing factories of Bangladesh. In order to accommodate the available timing of the young professionals, we offer shift based/customized up-skills training courses. Our practical labs are equipped with the latest and required equipment and facilities for practical classes taken by qualified and BTEB certified trainers and instructors having a professional academic degree in each field. Our trainers are keen to monitor the quality of training and also to cater the individual special need (applicable to the slow learner or persons with disability). Our main strength is our ‘commitment’ to do a good job with a difference. The result is evidently a high pass rate and recruitment rate (95 and 87%) respectively. In addition, we maintain a follow up system with employers to assess the standard of our trainees and also to be at the side of our trainees to safeguard their need and interest. We maintain good contact with the reputed employers and always on the lookout of potential employers for job placement and also to keep us up to date on the new demand in the field. ASDC database is used for recording information and follow up of the latest status of our trainees. We believe in evidence-based learning.

ASDC has had a lot of success with skill development in the RMG sector. How can that be applied to other sectors, especially in regards to empowering women?

Ayat Skill Development Center has been working intensively and enthusiastically for the betterment of women in Bangladesh. Women empowerment is to make them able so that they can make own independent decisions for their personal development. The status of women in the Bangladeshi society is still backward because of the gender www.ibtbd.net

inequality and cultural perception. They should not be treated as weak gender of the society as they occupy almost half of the population of the country. ASDC provides free training to the young women under the special program (like GiZ supported) and also ensures an equal share in all of our training programs. ASDC provides them employable and life skills training and assist them in getting in a safe work environment and safe training facilities while they are associated with our programs. The AV document ‘I Can Too – is a story of a girl with a disability who with her will removed the barriers and make her place in the job market and also established her position in the mainstream of the society, not as a burden, rather a strength to her family and to the society.

You heavily focus on empowering women and helping them excel in various sectors. What are some of your future initiatives for women?

Our upcoming projects will take the women issues one step forward, a driving school to be started soon in August/18 to give space for female learners. Our college of nursing and health sciences will be dominated by female learners and the advanced computer-based courses (AutoCAD in construction and RMG) will definitely help them to make better professional choices in the respective field of work in the formal sector and will also build capacity for self-employment options.

How do you believe that a more egalitarian environment will transcend into other industries?

Running a mere ‘training center’ with routine business is not our motto. We believe in our ability and work on our strengths. We are creating examples and our commitments to the society are helping others to think differently with a fresh look and motivated soul. Our belief in human rights and capacity help us creating an impact that is also inspiring others who are not only coming forward to support our programs but also to consider to include our approaches in their

business areas like an ergonomic assessment for occupational safety and health in RMG factories. The growing economy of Bangladesh, the sectoral interdependence and close net, inclusiveness, and equality are all associated factors to create that environment which will ultimately contribute making a greater impact in the business sectors and to reach larger sections of the population of this country.

Employment Investment Program (BGMEA-SEIP) project in 2017 started with the objective of developing unskilled and semi-skilled labor force into productive and skilled operator in RMG sector. Under this agreement, ASDC has been providing skills training on Sewing Machine Operator (Woven Garments) of RMG sector. In 2017, Ayat Skill Development Center (ASDC) signed a contract with GIZ on March 2017, to conduct skills training and job placement services for the persons with disabilities (PWDs) for the Readymade Garments (RMG) sector under Promotion of Social and Environmental Standards in the Industry (PSES II) project of GIZ. Most of our trainees were employed in large factories like Vintex Apparels, Alim Knit Apparels, Shinshin Apparels and Aman Spinning Mills Ltd. This year, our students' attachment program with ‘Shanta Holdings’ is a good example of a partnership that allows our construction sector trainees to gain real-life quality training which will help better job placement with better pay and open up scope for overseas work. Our affiliation with SREDA (Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority, under the Ministry of Energy and Power of Bangladesh Government from 2016 allow us to mobilize remote community people and high school learners on the use of solar power in daily life/households functions. The school program with SREDA is to sensitize the future adults in the conservation of energy which is critical for Bangladesh. ASDC attachment program for Diploma Engineering (4 years) students is for enabling the students to acquire practical training which is one of the pre-requisites of completion of the 8th semester of their academic pursuit. ASDC partnership with Winrock International in 2015 enabled us to work together on raising awareness on child protection and trafficking of young people of Bangladesh. Finally, I can assure that our steps may look small at this stage, but our vision is pushing us constantly to the long road for making a bigger impact in the coming days.

Our main strength is our ‘commitment’ to do a good job with a difference. The result is evidently a high pass rate and recruitment rate (95 and 87%) respectively. In addition, we maintain a follow up system with employers to assess the standard of our trainees and also to be at the side of our trainees to safeguard their need and interest.” Could you elaborate on your affiliations and partnerships with organizations? How have they helped with driving a skill development training center forward?

ASDC works in partnership with Govt. bodies and in affiliation with some national and international organizations – some are backed by formal documentation and some are voluntary. In May 2017, the MOU signed with SUDOKKHO, the ‘Skills and Employment Program in Bangladesh (SEP-B) under partnership for implementing skills development training in RMG and construction sector. Under this program, ASDC has taken up initiatives to provide training/ courses on Sewing Machine Operation, House Wiring Electrician, Welder, Grill Maker and Plumber, as well as a Pipefitter. The partnership built with Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association- Skills for

Cover Focus

The Hire Power How BRAC’s Skills Development Programme’s comprehensive approach to technical education will create sustainable employment

By Ashfaque Zaman Latifa Akhter Shimu is a sparking change is a male dominated Light Engineering Sector that employs 600,000 people across Bangladesh. She is the proud owner of a light engineering workshop in Tongi, which she has successfully been running for two decades. Latifa has made her profitable business into a family trade, training her husband to join her workshop. This decision helped her sustain when she had taken a sabbatical to raise her children. The promising sector currently produces over 10,000 products and contributes to 2% of the GDP. When Latifa returned to her workshop, she had realized that her lack of knowledge was lead to dimmer prospects in her business. Latifa enrolled in the BRAC’s training

program, PROGRESS (pro-poor growth of rural enterprises through sustainable skills development), a projects of SDP with the donor group, the European Union. She learned bookkeeping skills, how to network with potential clients, and help her business expand. She is now an information secretary of the Bangladesh Engineering Industry Owners Association. Latifa radiates the progress that only technical education and market knowledge can support in a competitive market. PROGRESS is one of the many projects in BRAC’s Skill Development Programme (SDP), which is equipping a nation with the knowledge and tools to create a more progressive and proficient technical sector.

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Photo Courtesy: BRAC

BUILDING BRIDGES ON A SOLID FOUNDATION

The Bangladesh Government has now recognized that technical education is a viable solution to meet the ever-increasing employee pool; their commendable work has led to an increase in technical education from a mere 1% to 14%. While infrastructure identifies the areas of growth, it is not enough to create an inclusive employment pool. Asif Saleh points out that a tripartite agreement between the government, private sectors, and workers will propel a qualified environment, “The government needs to make sure that certain regulatory standards are in place and they must heavily consider the requirements of the private sector in this context. If you spend a massive amount of training on a set skill that does not translate to a job in the respective sector, there is a disconnect across the employment field.” Thought the unemployment rate of 4.37% does not seem like much, but there is an average of 2.2 million people enter the labor force every year. “Our work goes beyond providing skills because we understand that connecting the government’s infrastructure to private sector employment involves forging partnerships. And we are there to provide the software for the government.” SDP is currently working with a number of RMG factories, setting up training centers right next to their factories. He explains that the best way to incentivize training is to ensure that people will get a job, “A guaranteed job helps us sell the training. Moreover, some factories provide costs or raw materials making it easier to facilitate the course. We are also focusing on the economic zones and tailoring the education to fit the needs of prevalent industries and sectors in that regions.”

PLACING THE RED TAPE ON THE INFORMAL SECTOR

Recent studies have indicated that 8 out of 10 persons in the labor force are a part of the informal economy; collectively they equate to more than 64% of the GDP. Tasmiah Tabassum Rahman explains that informal sector grows organically and formalizing it will take a matter of time: “Policies and processes to merge these sectors can only occur when you understand the complexities of employment on a national scale, the rate of which it is growing, and what is causing this growth.” She uses the RMG sector, which employs 3.5 million people to illustrate this example. “The government has some set

Asif Saleh

Senior Director Strategy, Communications and Empowerment BRAC & BRAC International

standards that a garment industry has to meet and this includes auditing, taxes, and inspections. You cannot just say that these will apply to a micro-enterprise such as a local tailor shop. This is not a one size fits all scenario.” Tasmiah wants to see a change of perspective, “Establishing a formal system in the informal economy should not be about standards. It needs to be looking at the lack of systems they are under; a primary concern is the lack of taxation.” Today’s digitized economy requires a TIN and national identification for processes such as loans. Many of these people lack the knowledge or access to create accounts and procure loans. “The government needs to step in and make these processes easier. Most of these small enterprises will not want to deal with such lengthy amounts of paperwork and will

ultimately remain in a completely informal setting. It is ultimately about showing them long-term benefits through ease of process.”

ADJUSTING THE FRAME OF MIND

A recent study has shown that 60% of RMG workers only receive one to two week of training. Asif equates the lack of focus on skills is the result of a finger pointing, “The conundrum starts with the private sector stating that there is a dearth of skilled workers. On the other hand, there is massive unemployment and underemployment. When asked if they are willing to pay better wages for skilled labor, they are not very keen.” Bangladesh has one of the lowest minimum wages in the sector, $68, compared to India and Cambodia, where is $140 and $137

Tasmiah T Rahman

Head of Programme, Skills Development BRAC

respectively. “For many people, skills training is extremely costly and the ultimate goal is to earn a higher living. It is common that a person entering skills training is hesitant because of the opportunity cost of leaving their current livelihood and lack of guarantee of a better job.” BRAC ISD is one of the 14,000 training centers across Bangladesh. The program has tried a number of incentives in order to attract people to their training course: “We have provided bus services, stipends, and other incentives to bring people to our centers and there were still a large number of dropout. In most cases, the long-term benefits were not foreseeable.” Tasmiah pointed out her interactions with students enrolled in the BRAC ISD program and it is very common for them to pursue vocational training after obtaining a degree, “Many students have a college degree but join because they have no jobs.There are recent cases where students have to gone to Saudi Arabia and are now working there because foreign income is more lucrative.” A private education is expensive in consideration to the income bracket. The minimum salary for a government job in Bangladesh is Tk. 15,250, which may not be worth the large investment of a four year degree. She draws attention to the family dynamic for being a hindering factor for many job opportunities. “You often see that many factory managers are from neighboring nations such as India and Sri Lanka. This is because employees and parents do not want to say that they themselves or their children work in factories. They do not even bother to apply. It will commonly be looked down upon that someone with a degree is not employed in a stereotypical white-collar job.” Asif wants to change the perception of vocational training and he evaluates the practicality of it for employment: “There are 300,000 students graduating from universities every year and more than half of them are unemployed. The large number that comes from poor families have invested a huge chunk of their finances in education thinking a degree will get them out of poverty. However, they are graduating with no employable skills and there is have massive frustration when they do not find jobs.” The youth (age 15-24) is the largest growing demographic in the country; the 41% of them that are unemployed highlight the need for expanding mindsets to other forms of employment. “There are 400,000 people appearing for the BCS and entering university every year. The sad fact is, there are only about 2,000 jobs within these qualified fields and a vast majority settle for a job that is below their capacity.”

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LOOKING BEYOND THE TRADITIONAL FOR MORE OPPORTUNITY

BRAC has tackled and scaled development solutions for over 45 years and it allows them to continually scale to newer opportunities. Asif was surprised at the success that SDP is having with madrasas. “Our pilot program in madrasas are receiving a positive response. These children come from a very poor background and will not be able to afford university. Skills training gives them a scope for jobs as opposed to opening another madrasa.” There are 9,319 Alia madrasas with approximately 2.4 million students throughout the nations; only three of which are registered with the government. The NGO is also focused on creating quality in aspiring sectors such as mobile and tech. Asif emphasized a greater focus on the tech sector, “Bangladesh is rapidly digitizing and the demand for these jobs are also increasing demand for tech solution as well as mobile servicing. This service sector is particularly lucrative because companies are fond of hiring freelance workers for set tasks.” The IT sector generated $1.1 billion in revenue last year and is projected to expand to $4.8 billion by 2025.

WHEN 130,000 SQUARE KILOMETERS IS NOT ENOUGH

Bangladesh ranks ninth in remittance, earning nations with $13.53 billion in 2017. Asif infers that skilled workers will not only increase this amount, “We need to promote portable skills such as construction or hospitality into our workforce so that they can find better jobs outside the country. The government has conducted a commendable survey to find new countries and possibilities for migrant workers in those areas.” A primary reason for remittance lagging behind the Philippines, Indonesia, and India is the result of a lack of skills. BRAC SDP, supported by a strategic partnership between Governments of UK and Australia and BRAC, currently

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Photo Courtesy: BRAC

developing a hospitality program in Cox’s Bazar that will help train workers for the tourism sector in that area. The program is focused on decentralizing training facilities away from Dhaka. “Our training facilities will have assessors who can provide markers that recognize prior learning and experience to certify individuals on their area of expertise. We want our students to have the skill set to work within the country or migrate.” Tasmiah and her team look into potential sectors that will grow in the coming years, “We have already identified that the caregiving industry in areas such as Japan, the US, and Scandinavian countries will have an increasingly elderly population. These jobs are traditionally taken by the immigrant population in the respective nation.” The global elderly population (aged 60+) is expected to increase to 1.8 billion by 2030. This demographic shift is growing fastest in East Asia; the region is projects to have 439 million elderly persons in the next decade. “This opportunity will also be beneficial for women as current trends

show that 80% of women domestic workforce is female. If we can equip them with skills to provide care, they will be able to procure a much higher income through migration. The number of female migrants has increased by over 200% in the last five years.” Japan accepts up to 1,000 foreign nurses and care workers from the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam per year through the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). “These partnerships agreements are one of the key steps that will ensure better jobs for migrants from Bangladesh.”

SHARDS OF A BROKEN GLASS CEILING

The National Budget has allocated its 29.65% of its total budget for women’s development; this would mean a whopping Tk. 1,37,742 crore. BRAC has always been a female-centered organization since its inception. Tasmiah states, “All of the SDP programs focus on women. STAR has more than 40% women, and our light engineering project has a target of

reaching 40% female learner as well. We are also working a number pf project designs that target only women.” This is because certain trades are stereotyped as female trades; i.e. tailoring and RMG sector. But the labour market should have equal access to both men and women in all trades. Thus, BRAC is in the process of creating examples in the labour market that will showcase female workers in trades that are traditionally occupied by men. Nevertheless, there are a number of challenges when placing women in a training programs which include the sensitivity of the trainer: “If you look at the most obvious example, the local bazaars, they will not want to hire women because they don’t want to take the responsibility or risk of harassment after it becomes dark. Gender training, responsibility for equal rights and recognition, and behavioral changes all are necessary to foster an environment that allows for women to work.” She contends that working with employers to build solutions and an egalitarian culture is the solution. “If I were to take 200 women to an electric

Photo Courtesy: BRAC

company to build bulbs, many employers would want to know the incentives. Are they going to receive any government stipends? What is the value addition in hiring women? And this dialogue needs to change.”

CURRICULUM VITAE OF A CONSTANT INNOVATOR

BRAC’s outreach throughout the nation is their greatest strength; its grounded approach creates the most effective results. Asif Saleh postulates, “Our good working relationship with the private sector and government put us in position to facilitate an effective recipe for skilling Bangladesh which can help the larger skills ecosystem in the country.” SDP currently works in 46 districts throughout the country and plans to expand its venture. Tasmiah adds, “We take many factors into consideration when creating a training center, especially in rural areas where it is more expensive. The location, access, and quality must be worth the investment for potential students given

that this is a significant financial output.” The NGO takes on a very customized approach to a traditional matter such as apprenticeship training, modifying it to the most suitable context of the local region. Tasmiah details that each workshop or program works to create opportunity with considerations to the employment dynamic of the area, “We have programs that are 360 hours through a span of six months. These students can either learn a number of skills from building their own businesses to prevocational examination preparation in order to sit for government certification.” Many of BRAC’s donor projects are geared towards the supply side and the generation of employment. However, this is not enough to ensure that the worker is ready for the market. “SDP also works on creating an enabling environment. Our trainees or master craftsmen are taught the traits of a market and how to foster vocational growth. We also teach workers what a decent job is so they can negotiate a certain level of pay, worker rights, and

standard conditions. In terms of the employer, we draw their attention to the ILO’s definition of a decent job in order to promote healthier working conditions.” Asif details that nudging a potential employee with the benefit markers of a formal economic system helps, “When you are trying to convince them to invest time and energy in obtaining certification or formal recognition of their prior learning, you must also instill a sense of confidence in the individuals. Once we demonstrate that certifications allow them to demand a higher salary, and prove their skill level, they are more willing to participate in the program.”

REAL-TIME RESUME: SOLUTIONS THROUGH DIGITAL INTERVENTIONS

With any white collar job, an interview board has already seen the candidate’s history before they enter the boardroom. However, would you ask a carpenter to make a chair or a welder www.ibtbd.net

Photo Courtesy: BRAC

to mold a bed frame as a reference? Asif expounds on the BRAC’s project with a large international company, “We have partnered with them in order to create a system of job matching. The employers rating system will help monitor the duration, quality, and experience of a worker. The program has been built to create an automatic resume for each candidate.” The project’s success would change the

mannerism of hiring across all sectors, many of which still use the rudimentary concept of putting up a notice. Tasmiah compares this to services such as Uber or Airbnb, “If you are looking for a tailor with a particular specialty. The service will help you find a number of tailors with their history.” It is also exciting because it will work as a tracking system for workers. SDP usually places

graduates in a job and tracks them for a duration of three to six months. “Monitoring candidates for a prolonged period becomes a challenge because they are highly mobile and often change their number. We are only able to track about 50% for longer periods of time. SDP will now be able to do thorough impact assessments of our numerous projects and programs.”

Photo Essay

FROM SCRAPS TO STANDARDS Photographs by Din M. Shibly

Anwar Ispatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s production of quality steel

Text by Irfan Aziz

Anwar Ispat has been pioneering the rolling industry of Bangladesh for around half a century. They were the first to introduce 60-grade products in the mild steel market of Bangladesh and ever since that they continue to set the standards in the Bangladesh market through the implementation of cutting-edge technology. Anwar Ispat has been bridging the gap between Bangladesh and its foreign counterparts by introducing technological sophistication used globally. This includes the introduction of patented equipment from countries like USA and Belgium. With its relentless dedication, Anwar Ispat has been catering to the needs of Bangladesh while also successfully penetrating the export market. ICE Business times witnessed the intricate production process that accounts for Anwar Ispatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world-class billets and bars.

The process begins with the collection of scrap metals which is usually imported from abroad at Tk. 40/kilo.

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The whole process can be divided into two broad categories Manufacturing the Billets and Rolling. Rolling is the process through which the billets are transformed to TMT bars, the finished good. This step involves groove cutting done by CNC large machines which accounts for the patterns seen on the rods and also notching done by CNC notching machines which account for branding the rods with the company logo. One thing to note that these machines are adjustable to multiple plates that cater to the groove cutting and notching of rods with varying diameters.

The next step involves feeding the scrap into the furnace. The furnace can reach temperatures up to 1600 degrees.

Quality testing has experienced a lot of sophistication over the years. The spectrometer is one such marvel, it can analyze a sample and tell the percentage of the 28 elements present in it in a matter of seconds.

Deficiency of key elements in the billets is mitigated by the use of various sponges, ex: Iron sponge for iron deficiency. If any element is present in excess, various chemicals are used to bring it to levels accepted by the standards.

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The semi-finished TMT bars that reach temperatures excess of 900 degrees Centigrade are then passed through 18 continuers where they receive Thermomechanical treatment (TMT) which helps the temperature to gradually decreased to zero.

As soon as all the aforementioned steps have been taken care of, the bars are then cut to 12m each (as per customer requirement) and then taken away to the storage facility to be delivered. .

Climate Finance

Photography By Din M Shibly

PREDICTING THE STORM AHEAD Investing in the Atmosphere for a Better Future By Shama Shafiq

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Bangladesh’s geographical location has directly placed it in the crossfires of climate change. The low-lying delta ecosystem which subsists on a network of rivers has left our country vulnerable to natural disasters like tropical cyclones, floods, and tidal surges. Germanwatch, a non-profit research organization, in its 2018 Global Climate Change Risk Index over the period 1997-2016, ranked Bangladesh sixth among the countries most affected by climate change. While the physical impacts of climate change e.g. typhoons are quite evident and cause visible destruction, the economic impacts seem inconspicuous but can wreak serious havoc in monetary terms. And in the long run, climate change may bring about irreversible economic damage ranging from unreliable agricultural production, frequent floods inundating surrounding lands, persisting poverty, to a reduction in the national GDP. The sobering reality of the situation becomes tangible by putting a number on the plethora of economic losses due to natural disasters – “the direct annual costs from natural disasters to the national economy in terms of damages to infrastructure and livelihoods and losses from forgone production have been estimated at 0.5% to 1% of GDP”. Although these statistics stresses the actuality of the relationship between Bangladesh and climate change, it cannot account for the tragedies and the loss of lives engendered by past natural disasters. While there are apt actions that can be taken to hinder destructive forces of climate change, financing them is the opening move. Climate finance financing via national, regional and international entities for climate change mitigation – is the preliminary weapon in the arsenal of the battle against climate change. A few mentionable international institutions aiding Bangladesh in climate finance are - Green Climate Fund (GCF), Global Environment Facility (GEF), Adaptation Fund, Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Program (ASAP), and Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) among others. With the cooperation and assistance of the international and financial institutions, the Government of Bangladesh is armed to take proper actions to curb climate change. Thus, in response to the adverse economic

effects, the Government of Bangladesh in association with the Finance Division has decided to allocate a significant amount of the national budget to the ministries that are to tackle the fallout of climate change. The ministry of finance has published the second annual Climate Protection and Development: Budget Report (2018-2019), delineating the distribution of resources. Climate Financing for Sustainable Development: Budget Report provides a synopsis of the monetary actions that are to be taken to address climate change in the fiscal years of 2018-2019. This Budget Report encompasses twenty ministries and their respective climate change concerning allocations. The following are the twenty ministries that have been included in the report - Ministry of Environment and Forests; Ministry of Water Resources; Ministry of Agriculture; Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock; Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief; Rural Development and Cooperatives Division; Ministry of Housing and Public Works; Ministry of Women and Children Affairs; Energy and Mineral

Resources Division; Local Government Division; Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs; Ministry of Primary and Mass Education; Ministry of Land; Ministry of Industries; Health Services Division; Power Division; Ministry of Food; Secondary and Higher Education Division; Ministry of Social Welfare; Road Transport and Highways Division. According to the Budget Report, the cumulative budget allocation of these twenty ministries accounts for 45.84% of the total national budget of FY2018-19, and out of this 45.84%, 8.82% is pertinent to climate change. From FY 2014-15 to FY 2018-19 the total CC relevant percentage increased slightly by 0.19 percentage point for these ministries. The climate-relevant allocation for operating budget decreased from 11.62% in FY 2014-15 to 9.48% in FY 2018-19 while that for development budget increased from 5.37% to 8.26% over the same period. In this time span, the resultant increase of the climate-relevant allocation is 0.75% of the GDP of FY 2018-19, from TK. 10,113.39 crore to TK. 18,948.76 crore.

Trend of Climate Relevance in Twenty Ministry/Divison Budgets

Source: Finance Division, Ministry of Finance

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The report also presents the distribution of allocation for each thematic area. It shows that among the six thematic areas, the maximum allocation was made to Food Security, Social Protection, and Health, followed by Infrastructure and Comprehensive Disaster Management. Working in tandem with the government, businesses are likely to play a major role in transitioning Bangladesh towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy, benefiting from the necessity of climate-smart infrastructure and technology. Increased fiscal budget designated towards climate change will prompt potential investments. The climate budget report will bring lucrative investment opportunities in climate-smart technologies, allowing business owners to account for the climate risks looming over their business models. The Government of Bangladesh is cognizant of the fact that unless and until proper procedures are

According to the Budget Report, the cumulative budget allocation of these twenty ministries accounts for 45.84% of the total national budget of FY2018-19, and out of this 45.84%, 8.82% is pertinent to climate change. From FY 2014-15 to FY 2018-19 the total CC relevant percentage increased slightly by 0.19 percentage point for these ministries.

implemented Bangladesh is doomed to be a casualty in this war against climate change. Intent on developing comprehensive plans, policies, and strategies, the government is also allocating resources to build climate resilience. Bangladesh is heavily dependent on nature to meet its demands. Agriculture and fishery among others have become this countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main sources of livelihood. While the prediction of a few degrees change in temperature may seem trivial right now, the reality of that prediction begs to differ. If appropriate actions are not taken to address these concerns, Bangladesh may face catastrophic calamities both in the physical and economic realm. It is absolutely crucial to confronting the complications of climate change, not only to sustain a stable economy and attract foreign investments, but also to ensure our survival as a nation. Sources: Climate Financing Budget Report 2018-19, World Economic Forum, UNDP Bangladesh

Travel

Anything But Idle

Boredom is not something you will face in Cancún. One of the most exhilarating sites while in Playa Del Carmen is Xel-Ha. You can swim with dolphins, zip line over rocky blue waters and snorkel with colorful fish. The all-in-one pass gives you access to all the action, including an all you can eat buffet. Set in a natural scene, Xel-Ha doesn’t feel like an amusement park built from steel and plastic. The wooden boardwalks guide your path through the park and then you’re greeted by blue waters and iguanas just walking around. These creatures are like the pigeons of New York, they are everywhere.

By Saraf Khan

OVER THE EDGE, LIES AN OASIS At the edge of Quintana Roo, Mexico lies a sublime metropolis called CancĂşn. A place overpopulated with tourists, merchants, and artists. From the airport to the hotel the scenery is just breathtaking, and stacks of hotels hidden within the beauty of the palm trees and the long beaches. The ideal time to go to any city in Mexico is mid-December, during that season the sun is not glaring above and humidity is at a year-round low, making it pleasant to roam. The beaches of Quintana Roo are all filled with white glittery sand and making the contrast of the blue waters to the land an incredible sight.

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The Mesoamerican Marvel: A Civilization Ahead of its Time

A large portion of ancient history is buried under the sandy surface of Tulum, just 40 minutes south of Playa Del Carmen. The moment you walk into through the stone arches into the ancient Mayan village, you can see what used to be a highly advanced society. The wildest phenomenon that archaeologists and scientists still haven’t been able to comprehend is how through years of natural disasters several of their architecture still remain standing strong. While all their structures have lasted the ancient Mayans mysteriously started to dissolve by 900 A.D. According to a local tour guide many Mexicans like to believe that the spirits of the Mayan rulers still roam around the grounds protecting what once was theirs and anyone that disrespects any part of their physical legacy is rumored to end in turmoil. Due to these superstitions tourists are not allowed to set foot in any of the stone buildings, many say it’s the best way to keep tourists from ruining or damaging the sacred architecture.

Pico de Galore: Mexican Staples Start at the Stomach

You know that Mexican know their cuisine when refried beans become a delectable breakfast lunch or dinner. For the most authentic taste, Taco Bell just won’t do; you have to go to the source of this 9,000-year-old culinary tradition. Seems obvious enough but it’s the experience that makes the food taste all that much better. From the freshly caught seafood to the imperfectly built tacos, Mexicans believe that every bite has to be a burst of flavor. One of the most joyous parts of having a meal in Cancún is that food and entertainment are an all in one package. The fun-filled evenings at a restaurant range from live singers to dancers to a waiter juggling three coconuts in his hands while he balances a can of cola on his head. A nice fact to keep handy about Cancún, they are prepared for the influx of tourist; a majority of places accept all forms of major credit and debit cards. Even though most resorts and hotels have lunch or all inclusive, going to Lorenzillo’s by the marina and having their seafood paella while looking out onto the Caribbean Seas is scenic for the eyes and the stomach.

Leagues of Tranquility Your heart beats faster with the sound of the roaring waves. As you approach the drop off point the instructors yell out instructions, but all you can think of is, will the oxygen tanks work? The gear is more than twice your own weight, but everything is weightless down under. You put your gear on and somehow hold in your anxiety and make it to the edge of the boat. You sit and are asked to lean back and then all at once, splash! Everything is silent, all you can hear is the murmur of your breath. Your body descends into the unknown abyss. Your mind almost at a state of panic finally comprehends the miracle that is there in front of your eyes. It’s a completely different world down here, everything except for your breath is silent. Some find the silence deafening, but that’s what makes the true beauty of underwater truly enjoyable. Suddenly, you are welcomed by a small group of rainbow scaled fish to their world, they welcome you with a nod and quickly proceed back into their swimming path. Just around the corner of this sunken Volkswagen beetle car are the coral reefs, stiff and stubborn but more colorful than the rainbows, they are older than mankind itself, they apparently grow only a centimeter per year, it takes them millions of years to get to the size you’ll see in pretty tourism brochures. It takes a human mind immense amounts of effort to completely fathom the beauty that is the underwater.

A Nation of Many Sombreros

Mexico is the 13th largest economy in the world and tourism serves as a most necessary component of the country’s progress. Their main income in is from crude oil, worth about $37 billion in revenue in the year 2014, cars and car parts equaling to an estimated $56 billion making them the 12th largest export economy. Despite being wealthy and a country in North America, Mexico and Mexicans have been looked down upon by many countries around the world. The living standards are similar to Bangladesh in the sense that the difference between the upper class and lower class is enormous. That is why are more than 12 million registered immigrants living in the United States. Only by visiting Mexico one can truly experience the love and hospitality they are ready to share. Cancun is a must have on your travel bucket list, if it isn’t there already, add it in!

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a Broad Brand of Choices Tech

By Abhijit Asad

Boasting over 1,600 exhibitors from more than two dozen countries, Computex 2018, one of the world’s most celebrated technology-centric expos, gave us a glimpse of the future as it has for decades. Running from June 4 to June 9 in Taipei, Taiwan, this year’s computex was nothing short of outstanding, complete with displays of extravagant new hardware prototypes and the revival of old rivalries between age-old competitors, with no shortage of stunning updates whatsoever. We’re taking a look at some of the best and most interesting things that came out of it.

COMPUTEX 2018 INTRODUCES THE BEST OF THE TECH WORLD

Running from June 4 to June 9 in Taipei, Taiwan, this year’s computex was nothing short of outstanding, complete with displays of extravagant new hardware prototypes and the revival of old rivalries between age-old competitors, with no shortage of stunning updates whatsoever.

Asus

Taiwan-native tech giant Asus has definitely been one of the biggest names at this year’s Computex, revealing a variety of different technologies across the board. Starting with the reveal of the sleek yet powerful ROG Strix Hero II gaming laptop that features top-notch specs while managing to remain reasonably affordable, Asus moved on to show off its spectacular new Zenbook Pro 15 laptop, which features a large 5.5” touchscreen in place of its touchpad. The utilitarian potential of the new machine is massive because unlike Apple

MacBook Pro’s anemic and gimmicky Touch Bar (which came at the expense of the device’s function keys), the large touchscreen has the real estate to be actually useful. Asus also revealed an experimental prototype dual-screen laptop (with the second screen replacing the traditional keyboard and touchpad in its entirety) under the codename of Project Precog, which would also feature an implementation of artificial intelligence to enhance the user experience – which would frankly be very much welcomed, because while attempts at producing such devices have been made

before, none of them were particularly pleasant to use. The computer giant’s run didn’t stop at laptops, as they went on to introduce a gaming-centric Android smartphone under their renowned ROG (Republic Of Gamers) label, which not only sports dazzling state-of-the-art hardware specs, but also an astounding vapor chamber-based cooling system to ensure consistent performance and low thermal output. While it certainly doesn’t come cheap, it makes Razer’s attempt at making such a device look pathetic, and is most certainly capable of eclipsing the opposition with aplomb.

Intel and AMD

It may seem strange that the names of these bitter rivals are being mentioned under one subheading, and not because of any strange collaborations like the strange Core i7-8809G CPU (which featured both Intel and AMD components) either, but it’s probably the most interesting story from this year’s Computex. Intel got their twenty minutes of fame by revealing what appeared to be a new prototype 28-core processor running at a staggering 5 GHz. With no announcement of an actual release date anywhere in sight, however, experienced observers were quick to notice that the custom system being used to demonstrate the new CPU was put together rather awkwardly, with a separate 1000W external air-conditioning unit next to it being used to cool the absurdly hot CPU, instead of relying on a conventional internal cooling solution. Several experts derided it as a ‘con job’, and pointed out

that the new ‘prototype’ was probably an existing server-grade CPU that has been overclocked to run at a very high speed, and stabilized only by the presence of an exotic and overpowered cooling solution that would never be used in any real-life conditions. However, it still managed to receive a good deal of public and media attention, until AMD revealed their hand, and Intel’s luck summarily ran out. AMD’s Computex 2018 centerpiece was the Threadripper 2 processor – a monstrous sequel to last year’s already-massive 16-core Threadripper CPU, which instantly became

revered as a holy grail for high-end desktop computers, particularly those suited for video editing and intensive 3D rendering. Threadripper 2 upped the ante on its predecessor by doubling the core count to 32, effectively doubling its output in the process. Not only did AMD demolish Intel’s jury-rigged 28-core prototype in terms of sheer processing power, but it also revealed several vital details about the Threadripper 2 that seemed almost too good to be true. The new CPU would support air cooling (with reputed manufacturers such as Cooler Master working as AMD’s hardware partners to create rock-solid air-cooling

solutions) instead of requiring exorbitant and impractical cooling solutions, it would be fully compatible with existing Threadripper motherboards (meaning current Threadripper users can simply swap out their old CPU for a new Threadripper 2 without needing to shell out big bucks for a new motherboard, something that Intel is notorious for), and, most importantly, it would be released in the third quarter of 2018 – whereas Intel had not even managed to reveal a release date for their CPU. The situation reached a rather comedic end, when after a short time of the reveal of Threadripper 2, a team of technicians from Intel arrived at the venue, took their demo systems apart, and left the venue with the 28-core prototype CPUs. It took AMD a decade to reach a position to make this kind of defiant comeback, but the excellence of their Zen platform is continuing to pay off in spades since the release of Ryzen. While Intel still holds dominance in the market, it is evident that AMD has not come to the fight unprepared.

Qualcomm Things are also quite exciting on the mobile frontier, with Qualcomm unveiling a new Snapdragon 850 CPU, that would doubtlessly show up on many upcoming phones, tablets, and laptops to come. What makes the Snapdragon 850 particularly exciting is that it has been specifically optimized for Windows, which translates into significant improvements in processing power and battery

life across the board for laptops. The new chip also offers superior wireless connectivity (thanks to its built-in x20 LTE modem) and highly impressive sleep-wake timings and is capable of smooth 4K video capture and playback. It is expected to make an appearance in commercial devices later this year, with one of the first ones coming from Samsung.

Nvidia

Nvidia isn’t just the world’s leading designer of GPU technologies now, with its cutting-edge processors being used in countless data centers and computer clusters for research purposes, not to mention in applications such as deep learning for artificial intelligence systems. While Nvidia did not reveal any new GPUs in this year’s Computex, it did unveil a highly interesting new project fresh from the depths of its labs – a new AI computer by the whimsical name of Jetson Xavier, with a shockingly compact form factor, but no shortage of processing power. Due to its unorthodox architecture, the Jetson Xavier comes with a custom set of software tools collective called the Isaac platform, which focuses on the development and training of AI systems. Isaac features software interfaces galore, excellent performance optimization, and even provides a virtual sandbox environment for testing artificial intelligence quite extensively. While the JX does not come cheap, it is still expected to cost significantly less than equivalent workstations, and it will doubtless make AI development much more accessible to the masses.

www.ibtbd.net

Immigration Matters

BARRED IN THE LAND OF THE FREE By Sarah Khan Ever since the election of Donald Trump, much has been going awry in the Big Apple; in fact, racial discrimination and hate crimes became second nature for America. According to an analysis of FBI hate crime statistics, racial or ethnic bias increased the day after President Trump won the 2016 election, from 10 to 27%. Needless to say, that Trump’s reign has made life a living nightmare for immigrants in the US, and it didn’t take too long for ‘great America’ to take the level of discrimination up a notch.

In April and May, nearly 2,000 immigrant children were separated from their parents in April and May, states Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In early June, news of immigrant families being separated and detained spread like wildfire. All of these were taking place under the false allegations that they were caught trying to cross the southern border. The family detention is basically a ploy to mask the fact that Trump administration was prosecuting border crossing offenses. Even though the law or court ruling on family separation has been enforced, the Trump administration hasn’t revoked this policy. Ever since this ‘zero-tolerance’ policy went effective, immigrant families, particularly adults are looking at a future which leads to deportation. While some may have the privilege of relatives looking after their children in their absence, others are forced to leave theirs behind at shelters. In the wake of this policy, both adults and children are traumatized in more ways than one. Since the justice department can’t prosecute children and parents together, it’s led to an influx of family separations. The ordeal has indeed struck a chord in the hearts and minds of people in America, giving birth to the tagline ‘Families Belong Together’. People in New York City, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and in several other towns and cities, thousands of Americans protested against Trump administration policies that separated more than 2,000 undocumented immigrant children and left a vast majority of such children still held in federal facilities. At the moment, the federal government is already working to build temporary facilities on military bases to accommodate thousands of migrant families. The DHS has asked the Pentagon to provide space for 2,000 detainees within 45 days. Its ultimate goal is to create space in order to detain 12,000 more people in family detention since the current facilities in family detention is only capable of housing 1,500. Some of the detention facilities are facing challenges in providing basic amenities, one of which happens to be medical support. In an interview with HuffPost, staff members at Federal Correctional Complex, Victorville, stated that initial medical screenings of the detainees were rushed and that comprehensive checkups for all the detainees will not be completed within the two-week period that’s standard procedure. This

has led to an outbreak of scabies and chickenpox among the detainees; thus creating an avenue for more widespread infectious diseases. Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, states that since 2014, families along with children have sought refuge in the US due to the rise in gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. While the US laws are in favor of providing asylum or refugee status to these immigrants, the Trump administration stresses that this will only give entry to smugglers and other national threats. In the US, the illegal entry does in fact count as a misdemeanor for first-time offenders and a conviction may lead to deportation. Now under Trump’s rule, deportation

trillion. Additionally, labor force participation of immigrants in the US is comparatively higher than native-born Americans. What’s unfortunate is that despite being an asset to the economy, immigrants continue to consistently early less than native Americans. Moreover, educated immigrants, preferably ones with a college degree earn about 2.8% per more than native Americans, states a recent US Labor Department Data. According to an analysis by Small Business Administration, 10.5% US immigrants own a business in comparison to 9.3% of native Americans; and not just that but they are also capable of starting businesses at a higher rate. Among every 10,000 immigrants in the US, around 62 will start a business, twice the rate for the native-born. But it doesn’t all quite end here; immigrants were responsible for establishing one-quarter of the companies in America between 1990-2005. One-third of the companies that were publicly recognized between 2006-2012 had at least one immigrant founder. 51% of immigrant founders were part of 87 privately held companies which are currently valued at over $1 billion. So far, immigrants are contributing to sectors like buildings and ground maintenance, construction, programming (computer, production, food prepping and catering, physical and social sciences, transportation and material moving as well as architecture and engineering, far more than native Americans. A 2017 Pew Research Center study states that there were 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in 2014 and 71%, or 8 million of those 11.3 million, participating in the U.S. labor force. In comparison to the 49% in 2014, this is a significantly higher percentage than the U.S. population participation rate, estimates Bureau of Labor Statistics. While America’s Fuhrer continues to impose the strict immigration policies, he loses sight of the fact that this poses a serious faux pas for his government, in terms of revenue. If the family detention ends with deportation, jobs occupied by migrants will be left behind. In addition to that, states like California, Florida, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Texas will incur severe losses, as these six states are home to the majority of unauthorized immigrants.

The DHS has asked the Pentagon to provide space for 2,000 detainees within 45 days. Its ultimate goal is to create space in order to detain 12,000 more people in family detention since the current facilities in family detention is only capable of housing 1,500. can be conducted by DHS more swiftly especially for misdemeanors. The current scenario with family detention has indeed left the world gutted. Not only because children as young as infants and toddlers are being torn apart from their families but also because the removal of immigrants brings about an imbalance to the US economy. What Trump and his posse fail to realize is that immigrants play a pivotal role in the country’s labor force. At the moment, there are 25 million immigrants working in multifarious job sectors in America. This includes undocumented immigrants, temporary residents, refugees as well as legal residents. In an article by Fortune, a report by the right-leaning American Action Forum stated that removing all undocumented workers and barring their reentry would cost somewhere between $400 billion and $600 billion while reducing real GDP by over $1

Capital Market BOURSE UPDATE

Fortnightly Report of DSE, 3rd June To 12th June 2018 Top 20 securities by turnover value in Tk. Sl. Name of securities No. 1 Alif Industries Limited 2 United Power Generation & Distribution Company Limited 3 Monno Ceramic Industries Ltd. 4 Bangladesh Export Import Company Ltd. 5 Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd. 6 Intraco Refueling Station Limited 7 Grameenphone Ltd. 8 Khulna Power Company Ltd. 9 Legacy Footwear Ltd. 10 Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd.

A A

Total Turnover in shares 14,359,728 4,993,323

Total Turnover Tk. in mn 1,500.48 1,143.79

% of Total Turnover Tk. 4.37 3.33

A A A N A A A A

6,400,359 37,448,036 3,422,997 19,527,718 2,214,935 13,096,189 8,643,481 274,124

1,103.34 1,025.13 970.84 929.67 874.87 861.34 775.49 713.19

3.21 2.98 2.83 2.71 2.55 2.51 2.26 2.08

Total Turnover Tk. in mn

Total Turnover in shares

1,025.13 309.93 929.67 146.25 1,500.48 861.34 368.26 205.37 547.70 182.55

37,448,036 25,083,537 19,527,718 15,092,964 14,359,728 13,096,189 12,094,987 10,866,801 10,548,520 10,516,756

Category

Top 20 securities by turnover in shares Sl. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Name of securities

Category

Bangladesh Export Import Company Ltd. Alif Manufacturing Company Ltd. Intraco Refueling Station Limited Keya Cosmetics Ltd. Alif Industries Limited Khulna Power Company Ltd. Western Marine Shipyard Limited Safko Spinnings Mills Ltd. Nahee Aluminum Composite Panel Ltd. Mercantile Bank Ltd.

A A N A A A A B A A

% of Total Turnover shares 5.49 3.68 2.86 2.21 2.11 1.92 1.77 1.59 1.55 1.54

Top 20 gainer securities (based on closing price) Sl. No.

Name of securities

Category

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Libra Infusions Limited BD.Autocars Ltd. Pharma Aids Ltd. Aziz Pipes Ltd. Apex Spinning & Knitting Mills Limited Monno Jute Stafflers Ltd. Monno Ceramic Industries Ltd. Aramit Limited Stylecraft Limited Renwick Jajneswar & Co (Bd) Ltd.

A B A B A A A A A A

Current Fortnight Closing Price 818.60 180.40 586.30 170.50 151.10 2,842.60 195.30 410.00 2,302.80 718.80

last Fortnight Closing Price 505.00 117.60 438.40 131.70 117.10 2,209.70 156.90 331.10 1,860.40 586.50

last Fortnight Closing Price 2,508.30 42.00 52.00 8.60 16.10 25.20 40.90 87.60 414.80 62.00

change % 62.10 53.40 33.74 29.46 29.04 28.64 24.47 23.83 23.78 22.56

Turnover Tk. in mn 236.59 460.68 688.67 256.29 164.64 133.64 1,103.34 169.49 248.90 97.19

Daily Avg. Turnover Tk.in mn 29.57 57.59 86.08 32.04 20.58 16.71 137.92 21.19 31.11 12.15

Top 20 loser securities (based on closing price)

1 2

Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd. Advent Pharma Limited

A N

Current Fortnight Closing Price 1,465.80 36.50

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Intraco Refueling Station Limited AIBL 1st Islamic Mutual Fund Provati Insurance Company ltd. Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd. Golden Harvest Agro Industries Ltd. aamra networks limited Grameenphone Ltd. Rupali Life Insurance Co.Ltd.

N A A A A A A A

45.60 7.70 14.50 22.70 36.90 79.10 374.60 56.30

Sl. No.

Name of securities

Source: Dhaka Stock Exchange

Category

(41.56) (13.10)

713.19 312.51

Daily Avg. Turnover Tk.in mn 89.15 39.06

(12.31) (10.47) (9.94) (9.92) (9.78) (9.70) (9.69) (9.19)

929.67 14.55 3.63 44.64 166.33 346.58 874.87 337.59

116.21 1.82 0.45 5.58 20.79 43.32 109.36 42.20

change %

Turnover Tk. in mn

Disclaimer: Dhaka Stock Exchange does not hold any responsibility for these date.