ICE Business Times, October 2015

OCTOBER 2015 TK. 100

www.icebusinesstimes.net

Exploring the legacy of SIR FAZLE HASAN ABED

TRIUMPHS of

Space Age Entreprenurship

MEET TECH GIANT ELON MUSK

The Chinese Bubble Bursts

A RED FLAG OR NOT?

aVisionary Business Analytics

NO MORE TRYING TO FIND A NEEDLE IN THE HAYSTACK

Raw Hide Procurement Mayhem

SKIN, WHERE ART THOU?

CONTENTS October 2015

51

COVER STORY

Exploring the legacy of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed 6 8 9

From the Editor Around the World by Numbers Word of Mouth

Columns: 14 Muhammad Zamir 18 Shamsul Huq Zahid 20 Asaduzzaman

27

Photo Story: GLOBATT

42

The Dilemma with GSP

60

Leading from the Front: Interview with Faraaz A. Rahim, Head of Business Development at Rahimafrooz Storage Power Division

63 66 68

The Scholastic View: Interview with Madiha Murshed

70 73 74 76 78 80 86

Inside Out: DHL Cementing Growth: Interview with Asadul Haque Sufyani, Cheif Marketing Officer, Seven Rings Cement House in Order To Push the Envelope Further The Musk of Tesla How Disney Sold Marvel to the World No More Sedentary Lifestyle From Balenciagas to Burgeoning Businesses A Visit to the National Mushroom Development Institute

CONTENTS October 2015

63

The Scholastic View:

Interview with Madiha Murshed

60

Leading from the Front:

56

Taking on the World:

Interview with Faraaz A. Rahim, Head of Business Development at Rahimafrooz Storage Power Division

Interview with Asif Saleh,

25

Expanding Investment Portfolios:

Director, Strategy, Communication and Empowerment, BRAC and BRAC International

Interview with Dr. Muhammad Abdul Mazid Chairman, CSE

22 25 27 33 35 38

Skin, Where Art Thou?

Expanding Investment Portfolios: Interview with Dr. Muhammad Abdul Mazid ,Chairman, CSE Photo Story: GLOBATT Boosting the Bourse No More Trying to Find a Needle in a Haystack A Red Flag or Not?

82

Into the Cradle of Western Civilization

40 42 48 51 56

Against the Wind The Dilemma with GSP Snailing Forward Cover: Triumphs of a Visionary Taking on the World: Interview with Asif Saleh, Director, Strategy, Communication and Empowerment, BRAC and BRAC International

FROM THE EDITOR The world right now is passing through a critical juncture. Pundits from around the world have already warned emerging economies to fasten their seatbelt at the wake of economic tumults from east to west. Due to wider collaboration, the interdependence among nations has reached a new high.

Shocks from Greece to China to Russia posit that day to day development in the world economy is increasingly becoming complex.

Much of traditional tools and financial resources have already been exhausted to resolve those intricate issues. Falling oil prices across the globe, brewing war and mass unrest in the middle eastern countries and subsequent refugee crisis in Europe and bursting of Chinese stock bubble-everything seem like a series of unfortunate event taking the world one step closer towards much worse economic downturn than that it has already experienced.

The global financial meltdown was followed by years of weak growth and concerns over rising inequality. The path to renewed and stronger growth remains something hard to pin down. Amid that condition, the sharp rise of aggregate demand, debt problems and aging population and divergence in growth patterns-these were a few of the important factors that can cause a paradigm shift in the world economic landscape, as McKinsey & Company has identified in one of their recent studies. Success or failure regarding solving these issues will determine the long-term growth of both developed and developing economies.

Emerging economies are urbanizing rapidly and rural populations are responding sharply to the rise in industrial opportunities and

Cover Photograph: ICE Today Archive by

Din M Shibly

OCTOBER 2015 TK. 100

www.icebusinesstimes.net

Vol. 6 No. 2

Exploring the legacy of SIR FAZLE HASAN ABED

TRIUMPHS of Write to us at

editor@icebusinesstimes.net, or send us a note at www.facebook.com/icebusinesstimes www.twitter.com/BusinessTimesBD

Be sure to visit our website for online viewing at www.icebusinesstimes.net

overall growth. Financial-sector reforms have also helped these economies foster more market-driven and robust capital markets. The focus in developed economies has shifted towards the creation of investment opportunities and easing of restrictions on services in emerging markets. As such, Bangladesh and its citizens have moved with the tide of Globalization, to develop the economy and raise their standards of living even amidst the political turmoil that has plagued the country since its birth. However, this access to an unfettered international free market has also benefited multinational corporations in the western world who have much to gain from our country.

ICE Business Times’ October issue is special in a sense that we are covering the living legend, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. A Knight, whose resolve and steel has helped Bangladesh move forward in the right direction time and again.

With a successful business as well as humanitarian model, the founder of the biggest social enterprise of the world taught everyone how to make the best use of people’s power to eradicate problems like poverty, illiteracy or illness. On one side, local companies are trying out new territories and making the tagline “Made in Bangladesh” popular around the world; we are yet to learn from the world how to become competitive in the global frontier. On another side, people like Sir Abed has already pioneered to emerge as icons to follow for better understanding of globalization: a more successful way of bringing people from different nation together for their mutual benefits. Read on to know and enlighten yourself.

Space Age Entreprenurship

MEET TECH GIANT ELON MUSK

The Chinese Bubble Bursts

A RED FLAG OR NOT?

aVisionary Business Analytics

NO MORE TRYING TO FIND A NEEDLE IN THE HAYSTACK

Raw Hide Procurement Mayhem

SKIN, WHERE ART THOU?

October 2015

Publisher & Editor : Director, International Publications : Executive Director : Managing Editor : Associate Editor : Assistant Editor : Staff Feature Writer : Designer : Head of Business Development : Finance & Accounts : Sales & Distribution : Customer Care

Abul Khair Zeenat Chowdhury Nawshin Khair Tawhidur Rashid Nisha Sharmeen Ali Irad Mustafa Asaduzzaman Sk. Yeahhia Toufiqul Alam Md. Abdul Alim Md. Manik Mollah Md. Raju Hossain : Md. Suman Raihan

Published by Abul Khair on behalf of ICE Media Limited, Kushal Centre, Plot 29, Sector 3, Uttara C/A, Dhaka- 1230 and printed at M.K. Printers,189/1, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208 Editorial and Commercial office: 3rd Floor, House: 4, Block: B, Road: 23 A, Banani, Dhaka 1213 Advertising, Sales, Subscription and Distribution: 01812656969, 01819412035, 01920335953, 01716783698, 01913818402 Tel: 09666773313 Fax: 88-02-8901205 Editorial & Marketing Queries: editor@icebusinesstimes.net, businesstimes.1@gmail.com

INTERNATIONAL

Around the World by Numbers

40% $18bn

India, the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter has pledged to the UN to source 40% of its electricity from renewable and other low carbon sources by 2030.

$500m

The World Bank has agreed to loan $500m to Tunisia to help finance economic reforms and face the consequences of two big militant attacks targeting its tourism industry.

(£11.8bn)

$49

Volkswagen faces up to $18 billion in fines from the US after admitting that 11 million of its vehicles were fitted with devices that allowed them to cheat emissions tests.

Oil prices rose above $49 a barrel at the end of September as an emerging risk premium over the situation in Syria countered further signs of economic slowdown in Asia and Rising U.S. Inventories.

13 million Apple sold more than 13 million iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus units during their debut weekend, while the company is preparing to launch the device in 40 more markets, with 130 countries set to offer the iPhones by the end of the year.

8

100

Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. have announced that they intend on shutting down 100 Dunkin’ Donuts stores in the US in 2015 and 2016, sending its shares down by almost 13% after the announcement.

1000 CFA francs Top cocoa grower the Ivory Coast will announce a minimum farmer price of 1000 CFA francs ($1.70) per kg at the opening of the 2015/16 marketing season.

2.8%

WTO lowered its trade growth forecast to 2.8% from 3% for 2015 due to falling import demand and lower commodity prices in the global market. It has also lowered the trade growth projections for 2016 to 3.9% to 4%.

WORD OF MOUTH

Happening Bangladesh will establish as a ship exporting country

“Bangladesh enters into the era of building warship�

Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina A Special report by Business Times with support from ISPR: Bangladesh at its own behest now has the capacity to build war ship and the shipyard in Khulna is now getting order from other countries. Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina on 6th September said at Khulna Shipyard Limited (KSL) would play a pioneering role in making modern war ship.

She also said that after the dispute resolution in maritime boundary with Myanmar and India, the demand of the time is to maintain the security of maritime resources and safely extracting marine resources.

She expressed with vehemence that Bangladesh will be an established name among ship exporters worldwide. Terming KSL as a strategic asset, she emphasized on efforts to make technology transfer from friendly countries and on building skilled human resources. Earlier that morning, she inaugurated fleet tankers Shadip and Hatia and hoped that Bangladesh would be a ship building country. Prime minister also said that 3 crore people are living along the costal belt, who are engaged in a lot of economic activities and henceforth, their security is also important.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

9

WORD OF MOUTH

REACTION TIFCA and GSP dilemma

TIFCA is pointless without reinstating GSP: Tofail Ahmed Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed MP said that the Trade and investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TIFCA) will be pointless unless Bangladesh get back the GSP (General system of preference) to the US market. The minister dispelled the information while talking to a host of reporters after a meeting with visiting United States Trade Representative ( USTR) team at secretariat which was followed by signing of annual performance agreements ( APAs) between the ministry and different agencies. A meeting on TIFCA is expected to take place in coming November this year.

Tofial Amhed said that USTR team admitted that the apparel units had made significant progress complying with different safety issues. The minister also said, “the 10 WTO ministerial conference will take place in Nairobi, Kenya from December 15-18 . There we will raise the issues of duty free and quota free market access, rules of origin, the agreement of trade elated aspects of Intellectual Property rights ( TRIPS) and services waiver.”

An eight member delegation led by Assistant US Trade Representative Michael J. Delaney met commerce minister. Michael J. Delany was delivering wrap up speech for the press and the business people at EMK center where he pointed out a number of issues to get back the trade benefit but said the goal of GSP action plan and the Compact are important.

He expressed hope that the next TIFCA meeting would be an appropriate forum for a discussion to find way to make progress together in addressing other trade issues will be an appropriate.

The sources also said that USTR is now demanding formation of an umbrella association comprising all the welfare associations in the industries located in the country’s export processing zones (EPZs) after backtracking its earlier stance on trade unions there.

The 16 conditions including workers safety, freedom of association and safety of labor right activists, tied to restoration of the GSP facility in the US market. Mentioning the Global market of for RMG products becomes more and more competitive , he said in the end having healthy relationship with union can strengthen business and attract international buyers who track labor standard s which means it can be good for business .

In the meantime, USTR team Visited Chittagong EPZ and talk to the workers. The Workers told to the USTR that they had no tension about safety in the Chittagong EPZs the minister also informed.

It is worth mentioned that RMG is the major of our export pie and exported 30 billion every year in traditional and non-traditional market. There are at least 300 factories and 40, 00,000 direct employment in RMG sector.

10

UPCOMMING Bangladesh’s first ever 5-day long banking fair will commence from 24th November at Bangla Academy premise With a view to build a banking nation and increase financial literacy among common people, the Central Bank is organizing a first-of-its kind Banking Fair which will remain open from 11 am to 9 pm sources of Bangladesh Bank confirms to ICE Business Times. The fair is a part of the dream of Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Aitur Rahman so that every citizen of this country has at least one bank account, which will create a new and more transparent milieu of financial transaction.

The goal of the fair is to enhancing entrepreneurship development, empowerment of women, Green Banking, SME Banking, School Banking and bringing the third gender and disadvantages section of people into Banking network. The different department of Bangladesh Bank including Complaint Center of the Bangladesh Bank will have their stalls. Commercial Banks, Dhaka university, Jahangirnagar University, BIMB, Economic Research institutes and Private universities will have their stalls too. The visitors of the fair will know the banking facilities of Bangladesh and can open their account. Electronic, print and digital media will give extensive coverage of the fair. To shares various insights about the financial and banking sector of the country, a number of seminars will take place along with the arrangement of cultural entertainment.

Former Governors of Bangladesh Bank Dr Mohammed Farashuddin; Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed and scholars like Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Prof. Rehman Sobhan and renowned banker Ibrahim Khaled will be present at the fair.

WORD OF MOUTH

happening

1 1. New Office Bearers of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) have officially taken the charge of the trade organization for the term 2015-16 at its 32nd Annual General Meeting held on September 22.

2. Bangladesh Bank (BB) has announced its second five-year strategic plan aiming to facilitate achieving inclusive economic growth with creating employment opportunities and poverty eradication in Bangladesh.

2

3. Bangladesh Bank held seminar on the development of secondary market in association with BRAC Bank and Bloomberg.

4. Chief executives of etihad airways partner airlines gather in rome for leadership summit-(left to right) Bruno Matheu, Chief Operating Officer Equity Partners, Etihad Airways; Roy Kinnear, CEO, Air Seychelles; Stefan Pichler, CEO, airberlin; James Hogan, President and CEO, Etihad Airways; Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Chairman, Alitalia; Maurizio Merlo, CEO, Etihad Regional; Cramer Ball, CEO, Jet Airways; Dane Kondic, CEO Air Serbia.

3 4

5. 2nd Anniversary of Modhumoti Bank Limited

5 www.icebusinesstimes.net

11

WORD OF MOUTH

DigitaL BANGLADESH Chittagong Chamber

The GAS limbo requires urgent solutions

The President of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce & Industries Mahabub Alam made fervent call to the Energy & Power adviser of the Prime minister Toufique Elahi Chowdhury for the immediate solutions of the gas crisis and to increase the pressure of supplied gas during peak hours, said a press release of CCCI. The press release also said that there is an acute gas crisis in the Chittagong metropolitan area as well as the pressure of Gas is very low. Due to this small and medium scale industries are facing production debacle. The Chamber president cited in the letter that there is a demand of 500 to 550 million cft gas in Chittagong while the port city is getting only 228 million cft gas.

Against the backdrop of severe Gas crisis, the President wrote a letter to the Energy and Power adviser which said that due to this problem the export oriented RMG and Knit garments units and other industries are failing to meet production target and losing the export order and shipments.

Since they are burdened with high interest from banks, liabilities are being occurred in case of payments to suppliers and employees. The crisis also affects gas consumption of households, hospital and clinics and CNG Gas stations.

12

Internet Week gives IT and ITES sector a new momentum

The much-hyped Internet week event across the country and its multi-faceted sideline programs have caused quite a stir among the millions of Internet user, ITES services users and end users. A number of events took place from 5th to 12th of the September where there were more than 50 stalls including the burgeoning ITES services, e-Commerce and e-tailing. A large number of jubilant and IT savvy crowd thronged to the venue at Bannai and simultaneously in line with the program of the capital, there were exciting events organized at Rajshai, Shylet and the 460 Upzila and UDC centers of the country. Apart from this there were high end seminars and idea sharing sessions which engrossed the audience with new insights.

In an instant reaction Zunaid Ahmed Palak, honorable State minister for ICT sais to ICE Business Times that Digital Bangladesh is a reality now. “We are now striving to create skilled human resources in IT sector and Government is very serious about it. ICT Division will create opportunities for businesses worth $1 billion.� The State Minister also opined that the ongoing activities taken up by the government and private sector will create around 1 million IT-related jobs.

President of BASIS Shameem Ashan expressed his satisfaction at the outcome of the event, for which they partnered with ICT division of the government. He was optimistic that through this event they had reached to 1.5 crore internet users and mobilize different mobile and apps companies.

WORD OF MOUTH

FDI

Bangladesh Investment Road Show UK 2015 to rev up investment portfolio

Recently a two day long Investment Road Show event to raise awareness and attract foreign investors to Bangladesh was held at the Main Hall of East Wintergarden, Canary Wharf, in London UK. Syed Abdus Samad, Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh’s Board of Investment; Abdul Matlub Ahmad President, FBCCI; Atiur Rahman, Governor, Bangladesh Bank; Iqbal Ahmed OBE, President, UK Bangladesh Catalysts of Commerce and Industry; Gavin Serkin, Emerging Markets Editor-at-large, Bloomberg; Dr. Towfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury, Honorable Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh on Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and Md Abdul Hannan, Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to the UK spoke on the occasion. There were session like “Regulatory Framework in Bangladesh for Investment”, where Md. Nojibur Rahman, Chairman, National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh presented a key note paper . In another session Md. Saiful Islam, Managing Director of Picard Bangladesh Ltd. presented a key note paper on the Prospect of Leather & Leather Goods in Bangladesh. In that session FBCCI President Abdul Matlub Ahmad said that the leather industry has crossed the export record of $ 1 billion mark in 2013-14. Bangladesh earned $ 1.30 billion from exports of leather, leather goods and footwear in 2014-15 fiscal.

In a way of expressing his reaction to ICE Business Times Abdul Matlub Ahmad said, “from a country known mostly for its catastrophic disasters, Bangladesh now has emerged as a tiger among the Asian countries. The response among the foreign investors is quite satisfactory and we are on the right track.”

Regulation in banking

“Asian standard on banking supervision is required” Bangladesh has proposed to develop an Asian standard on banking supervision and regulation like that of the European one in addition to Basel framework. Bangladesh Bank (BB) Deputy Governor has floated the idea at Asia Regional Conference on Banking Supervision and Regulation held in Tokyo on September 14-15. It was a high level regional conference on banking supervision and regulation where more than 20 counties attended to discuss on enhancing supervision mechanism and formulating best fitted regulations for their jurisdictions.

Resolution of a global bank and proposal for a similar standard in supervision for consolidation was appreciated at the discussion. Chowdhury also participated in the panel discussion for good governance. The discussions of conference were separated into three sessions –Banking Supervision and Commercial Bank Governance: Issues and Challenges in the Post-financial Crisis Environment, Success and Challenges on in IMF/JSA Technical Assistance on Banking Supervision and Emerging Regulatory Issues in Cross-border and Consolidated Supervision.

Recognition Seamark’s CEO and Chairman Iqbal Ahmed OBE has won the Business Person of the Year in the prestigious Asian Achievers Awards on Friday, 18th September, at the London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane Mayfair.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

13

COLUMN

Muhammad Zamir

BANGLADESH CAN LEARN FROM CHINA October 01, 2015 marks the 66th anniversary of the birth of the People’s Republic of China. We are also passing through the 40th year of bilateral relations. I have followed with great admiration the continuous progress of China on the world stage and watched it emerge as a giant that casts a long strategic shadow all over the world.

Beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats and foreign occupation in the 19th and the early 20th centuries, China revealed itself as a regional power after Mao Zedong emerged victorious in 1949. The new China, encouraged by its glorious past, struggled to overcome its existing challenges and move forward with the help of its new socialist system.

Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping and the subsequent leadership after 1978 however shifted their focus towards a more market oriented economic development process. This released the creative energy of the Chinese people and by the year 2000 their national output had quadrupled. Since then, for much of its population, living standards have improved dramatically. The room for personal choice has also expanded because of advances in information technology. Nevertheless, political controls have also remained decisive.

This synergy has since found expression

14

Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping and the subsequent leadership after 1978 however shifted their focus towards a more market oriented economic development process. This released the creative energy of the Chinese people and by the year 2000 their national output had quadrupled.

in the phrase ‘Chinese Dream’. It has enhanced China’s global outreach and participation in international organizations.

Internal reforms since then have contributed to China’s achievement of major economic status. These include phasing out of collectivized agriculture, gradual liberalization of prices, fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy of state enterprises, creation of a diversified banking system, development of the stock market paradigm, rapid growth of the private sector and opening up to foreign trade and investment. All these measures have enabled China (on a PPP basis that adjusts for price differences) to become in 2013 the second largest economy in the world after the United States, having overtaken Japan. China is also second to the USA in the value of services it produces.

This rapid economic expansion has, however, resulted in unwanted challenges- deterioration in the environment, notably air pollution, soil erosion and the steady fall of the water table, especially in the northern regions of the country. These factors have combined to create uncertain conditions which have led to loss of critically important arable land (in a country with such a large population) because of

MUHAMMAD ZAMIR

erosion and rapid economic development. China, because of manufacturing necessity, has also ended up being the largest importer of fossil fuel- oil, coal and natural gas. These adverse consequences have now persuaded the Chinese authorities to seek additional energy production capacity from sources other than fossil fuel, focusing more on nuclear and alternative energy development by using renewable energy.

In 2010-11, China faced high inflation resulting largely from its credit-fuelled stimulus programme.

Several tightening measures have since helped to control it. There was however a downside to this- the GDP growth slowed to less than 8.0% for 2012. The economic slowdown in the USA and Europe also partially contributed to this downturn.

Chinese planners, who are implementing the government’s 12th Five Year Plan, are trying to overcome the challenges through economic reforms and the increasing of domestic consumption in order to make the Chinese economy less dependent on exports in the future.

This rebalancing effort is being monitored very carefully by the rest of the world.

China’s latest once in a decade leadership change took place in 2013. In March 2013 Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang were elected by the Chinese National People’s Congress as the President and Premier of the country. This new team appears to have taken the common decision to implement a broad-ranging administrative re-structuring plan to forestall any possibility of China sliding down the greased pole of economic progress. The Chinese measures are principally directed towards reducing loss and diverting savings to more productive areas.

Effort is also being made to ensure that anticipated reforms do not suffer because of bureaucratic tangles. The Chinese President has made it clear that the government aims to cut, reduce and simplify the process of review and approval of

In March 2013 Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang were elected by the Chinese National People’s Congress as the President and Premier of the country. This new team appears to have taken the common decision to implement a broad-ranging administrative re-structuring plan to forestall any possibility of China sliding down the greased pole of economic progress.

investment projects to minimize the possibility of inconvenience and high costs involved when enterprises and individuals try to obtain the required services necessary for their entrepreneurial efforts. Another important feature has been the decision to decentralize effectively and to increase funding for local government units.

It is being hoped that successful realization of these factors will facilitate the Chinese people to achieve their ‘Dream’. Efforts are also underway to create the necessary administrative structure that will deal with the fallout of any social instability that may arise because of the exercise. The Chinese leadership believes that if their plan can be implemented, it will also help the 300 million migrant workers who are struggling to integrate into urban China and will stop the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.

One can only hope that policy planners in Bangladesh will try to seriously study how China is trying to tackle their problems. We need to do it because we have similar issues in our own country.

Bangladesh and China have enjoyed traditional bonds of friendship and multi-faceted cooperation for nearly four decades. Our bilateral relations have steadily been consolidated through our common commitment to peaceful co-existence, mutual trust and respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in internal affairs.

Bangladesh has also consistently supported China’s core issues related to its national interest- it’s ‘One China Policy’ with regard to Taiwan and Tibet being an integral part of China.

Economic cooperation and trade constitute important features of our comprehensive bilateral partnership.

Both countries are actively engaged in the sectors of agriculture, transportation and infrastructure development on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. Aware of the growing trade imbalance,

www.icebusinesstimes.net

15

COLUMN

Bangladesh has also requested China to provide preferential tariff treatment to more Bangladeshi products and to boost bilateral investment. China understands that this is necessary in the growing interdependence that characterizes today’s worldparticularly in matters of trade, FDI and financial inflow.

Another area where China’s cooperation with Bangladesh could be intensified is in the ready-made garments sector and in the expansion of the renewable energy process. The RMG industry in Bangladesh could definitely gain in general from Chinese investment. The Chinese manufacturers would also benefit from lower production and transportation costs. Their support would be particularly appreciated in the increase and diversification of the manufacturing capacity of accessories that are required for this sector.

Similarly, we could gain from the Chinese technical experience and assistance in the fields related to bio-gas, bio-fuel, wind and solar power. Bangladesh has already started its long journey on the path of renewable energy. We have taken a few strides. This however has to gain in speed and dimension. China could help us in this regard.

This effort towards bilateral cooperation has been particularly meaningful in Bangladesh accessing to research carried out by Chinese scientists and agronomists in the sphere of agriculture- in hybrid rice cultivation technology, agricultural machinery technology, exchange of crop resource data, advances made in agro-processing and in the sphere of training of technical personnel.

The two sides have also agreed to carry out sustainable cooperation on water resources management, hydrological data sharing and flood control of the Yarluzangbu River (the Brahmaputra) in view of its importance for disaster reduction in Bangladesh. At the request of Bangladesh, China has also agreed to provide assistance for dredging of riverbeds in Bangladesh and for capacity building through training of

16

Another area where China’s cooperation with Bangladesh could be intensified is in the ready-made garments sector and in the expansion of the renewable energy process. The RMG industry in Bangladesh could definitely gain in general from Chinese investment.

The author is a former career diplomat who has worked as Ambassador in various countries in Europe. He can be reached at muhammadzamir0@gmail.com

required technical personnel.

Bangladesh and China are also working together to facilitate cooperation in information and media technology, culture, health, sports and tourism. Consistent with the interest of both countries in safeguarding respective national security and promoting peace and stability in the region, there is also cooperation between their armed forces and their law enforcement departments.

China and Bangladesh have also, at every opportunity, reiterated their belief in strengthening regional cooperation within South Asia. They have also agreed to actively participate in and promote the BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India, and Myanmar Economic Corridor) regional economic cooperation process.

Bangladesh needs to take this process forward by actively engaging with China’s efforts to create a strategic regional integration. This may be done through the establishment of overland connectivity- direct road and rail links to China via Myanmar.

Bangladesh can, and needs to learn from China on how to move forward from its present status to a high middle-income country with all the attributes associated with development.

COLUMN

Shamsul Huq Zahid

In the Grip of Double-Trouble The number of commercial banks in the country, many tend to believe, is more than what the market needs. When the grand-alliance government granted permission to its ‘own’ men to open new banks after coming to power in 2009, experts and stakeholders as well feared that the there would be a fierce competition among the old and new banks to grab funds and the new entrants would trail far behind.

But their fear, at least for now, appears unfounded for the chests of both old and new banks are overflowing with deposits. In fact, they are having serious problem with excess funds the demand for which has been on the wane in recent years.

The excess liquidity is considered yet another addition to the list of problems facing the banking sector. Suffering from a prolonged drought as far as domestic investment is concerned, most banks are more or less clueless about their surplus liquidity. Both private and public sector banks are already in dire straits with their bulging stock of non-performing loans (NPLs). However, the problem is acute in the case of the state-owned banks.

The public sector banks are, however, a bit unlucky as far as the media focus on NPL is concerned. The classified loan situation with these banks has turned

18

Suffering from a prolonged drought as far as domestic investment is concerned, most banks are more or less clueless about their surplus liquidity.

worse and a couple of them are facing substantial capital shortfall. Under the circumstances, the government has been forced to make available a considerable amount of taxpayers’ money to a number of banks under its ownership to help compensate for the erosion in their capital base, at least, partially. All these developments have made the public sector banks the centre of media attention.

A couple of loan scams of unprecedented scale in the state-owned Sonali Bank and the BASIC Bank and the government’s unwillingness to expose a few key suspects in those scams have made the public sector banks more vulnerable to media bashing.

But the state of affairs with a number of private sector banks as far as their classified loans are concerned is not beyond worries. The NPL in private banks has been rising after somewhat a manipulated fall in its volume of at the end of calendar year 2013. The central bank, to be honest, had offered the banks an opportunity to window dress their NPL the way they liked.

Only a week before the end of the year 2013, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) had issued a directive relaxing the loan rescheduling facility for six months until June 30, 2014. Banks were allowed to reschedule loans by fixing

SHAMSUL HUQ ZAHID

the rates of down payment and time-limit for repayment on the basis of ‘customer-banker’ relationship.

The banks were given, what many preferred to call, the ‘breathing space’ in view of the loss of business due to ‘unprecedented’ political trouble centering the national polls in the latter half of 2013.

The ‘relaxation’ had offered the banks the opportunity to window dress their respective NPLs and present relatively healthy financials for the year 2013.

The size of the NPL was 13% in September, 2013. It had come down to less than 10%---8.93%, to be exact---after putting into effect a relatively relaxed loan-rescheduling facility. The central bank had to digest criticism for offering the facility the actual effect which was very much short-lived.

Interestingly, according to banking sector insiders, the relaxed loan rescheduling facility though officially ended on June 30, 2014, is still being availed by banks, occasionally. The BB pretends not knowing it.

The average NPL of the total banking system, as of June last, was over 10%, that too after lots of rescheduling.

Banking insiders say the NPL estimates in the case of most private banks do not represent the actual picture. The actual size of NPL in a number of banks would be two to three times more than what is officially shown. Rigorous audit by foreign firms might help one get the actual picture of the financial health of local private as well as public sector banks. A number of banks avoid inclusion of a number of large classified loans in their financials, at times, very much within the knowledge of the officials concerned of the central bank.

Had the banks included the actual volume of NPL in their balance sheets, the provisioning need would have left a good number of them in the red.

What can be said in a nutshell is that the financials of most banks in the country do not depict the true picture of their individual financial health.

Against this backdrop, the central

What can be said in a nutshell is that the financials of most banks in the country do not depict the true picture of their individual financial health.

bank has rather unwillingly come out with a ‘loan restructuring policy’, apparently to help a section of big borrowers in distress with their soured loans.

In fact these borrowers, including one business house that has earned infamy as a chronic bank loan defaulter and initiated the idea of loan restructuring, have exploited all the avenues of loan rescheduling and are now left with no other option.

The business house in question mooted the restructuring idea and used political connections to persuade the central bank to announce the loan restructuring guideline.

The Bangladesh Bank, given the experience the public sector banks of neighbouring India is having with the restructured loan facilities, had no reason to offer the same to the big loan defaulters in Bangladesh.

Certainly, it had given the facility under pressure. But banking sector people in the know of things are almost certain about failure of the move.

Bangladesh has banks more than what it needs. The quality and background of the sponsors barring a few are not helpful to the development of a healthy banking sector. The top management teams in the public and private banks, in many cases, are not adequately efficient to handle modern day banking. However, the situation, in terms of quality of manpower, has been improving of late.

The central bank and banks, both private and public, apparently, are not faithfully sticking to the path that helps the sound growth of the banking sector. The quality of governance in the sector is not up to the required standard. However, it is hard to look at the sector in isolation.

The state of overall governance in the country has a bearing on the quality of governance in various other sectors of nation life.

The writer is a senior journalist.

He can be reached at zahidmar10@gmail.com

www.icebusinesstimes.net

19

COLUMN

Asaduzzaman

The Economic Resurrection of Asia I would like to put into record that Resurrection was the last novel written by Leo Tolstoy where he explored the Gerogist Philosophy. Tolstoy had become a very strong advocate of this philosophy towards the end of his life. Though I am also writing on resurrection, this piece would talk of a different kind i.e. of Asia. Joseph John Spengler an American economist, statistician, and historian of economic thought forecasted some time ago that the future of the world lies in Asia’s hands. He was famous for writing "Economic Thought of Islam: Ibn Khaldun," where he predicted which continent was going to control and gain hegemony over the world, saying that China would be the frontrunner in the race.

His prediction was not wrong. China has now been declared the No.1 economy in the world in terms of exports. India is booming and Japan has a solid base of finance and in totality, Asia-once a mere pawn, considered a poverty-stricken economy, is now a bishop in the global economic chess board. From a philosophical point of view, one may call it an upside down or down side up case or a quiet revolution; nevertheless, when it comes to the economics involved, one thing is clear and that is, this resurrection of Asia is no miracle at all.

As we know from the history of economic thought that Fan Li, an adviser to King Goujian of Yue of China in 517 BC , wrote on economic issues and developed a set of

20

China and India today represent Asia’s two largest and most dynamic societies which are emerging as new trend setters in international relations.

'golden' business rules. In India, Chanakya in 350 BC wrote the Arthashastra, a treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy; in Greco-Roman era, it was Plato and his pupil Aristotle who had an enduring effect on Western philosophy.

Ancient Athens was a slave-based society, but also developed an embryonic model of democracy. Xenophon's 430–354 BC, Oeconomicus in 360 BC was a dialogue principally about household management and agriculture. Plato's dialogue The Republic in 380–360 BC described an ideal city-state run by philosopher-kings and contained references to specialization of labor and production. Plato was the first to advocate the credit theory of money, that is, money as a unit of account for debt.

Aristotle's Politics in 350 BC analyzed different forms of the state: monarchy, aristocracy, constitutional government, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as a critique of Plato's model of a philosopher-kings. Aristotle viewed this model as an oligarchical anathema. The roots of Economics can be seen with Aristotle saying, "It is clearly better that property should be private". However, the homo economicus was started with the father of the modern economics Adam Smith who first elucidate the cause of wealth of the nations and propagandist of laissez faire.

Homo economicus is man-driven by the economic needs and choices. The only

ASADUZZAMAN

Nobel laureate in economics from Asia Prof. Amatry Sen opposed this. Prof Sen published “Poverty and Famines”, a book in which he argued that famine occurs not only from a lack of food, but from inequalities built into mechanisms for distributing food. Sen also argued that the Bengal famine was caused by an urban economic boom that raised food prices, thereby causing millions of rural workers to starve to death when their wages did not keep up. The book also covered various issues of Bangladesh very prominently and he said that information and freedom of press is required to protect the society from starvation and Famine.

Lastly, Prof. Joseph Stiglitz put forth social distribution and knowledge based economy where he warned about the global economic order after which he resigned from his position at the World Bank. Whatever the case it may be, Asia has captured the world’s attention being lead by China, followed by India and Japan. It all started with a milieu at the threshold of the new millennium where slowly but steadily Asia took the lights of world economic stage. In the name of regional and trans-continental agreement and many other newly-sprung concepts, Asia is now witnessed as the new nativity of new global economic order.

China and India today represent Asia’s two largest and most dynamic societies which are emerging as new trend setters in international relations. Especially, with their annual GDP growth rates standing respectively with almost double digits these nations are recognized as the fastest growing economies.

According to World Bank estimates and assessments on the basis of purchasing power parity, China and India have already become respectively the second and fourth largest economies of the world surpassing developed countries.

From the global perspective, China and India today represent two unique new players—presenting an extraordinary combination of a very large GDP while still showing significant poverty and pockets of unrest and a very low per capita income and living standards. This unique combination raises several

As in South Asia, there is more distrust than trust, more of a conflict mindset than reorganization and seizing of economic benefits and at the same time, a bad prognosis where visionary thinking is counted as a ultra vires in the society.

Asaduzzaman is the feature writer of ICE Business Times

questions about their becoming major drivers in international economic trends. However, in the politico-strategic sphere, their recent economic success has resulted in both seeking an expanded space in regional as well as international decision-making, something that is becoming a matter for worldwide concern where Asia is controlling 5.5 trillion out of the worlds 17.8 trillion merchandise trading (according to the WTO) where the share of merchandise export is 52% and in regional trade it is 31.1 % only. The hectic negotiation and reorganization is going on BRICS, AIIB and Asia-Pacific RIM, the old route of world trade of merchandise and silk route through Afghanistan and in the coming days there will be more new vistas.

Last but not least a new branch of economics is Cultural economics that studies the relation of culture to economic outcomes where 'culture' is defined by shared beliefs and preferences of respective groups and applications include the study of religion, social norms, social identity, fertility, beliefs in redistributive justice, ideology, hatred, terrorism, trust, and the culture of economics. A general analytical theme is how ideas and behaviors are spread among individuals through the formation of social capital, social networks and processes such associal learning, as in the theory of social evolution and information cascades. As in South Asia, there is more distrust than trust, more of a conflict mindset than reorganization and seizing of economic benefits and at the same time, a bad prognosis where visionary thinking is counted as a ultra vires in the society.

Administrator turned politician, Shashi Tharoor termed it as midnight midstream. It’s a cry of the moment that we bridge the gap and reap more by being inclusive. We must get out of the mental poverty trap so that we can head towards the real economic resurrection that beacons us.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

21

IN THE LOOP

Skin, Where Art Thou?

Doldrums in raw hide procurement this year may spell disaster for footwear and leather export sector

By Rokeya Zaman

22

Photographs by Ashraf Uddin Apu

RAW HIDE PROCUREMENT

The footwear and leather industry is considered the next RMG in Bangladesh as it is a foreign currency earner with the potentiality for further growth.

Presently showing earnings of $1 billion in exports, the industry is in doldrums due to collection of raw hide in the event of Eid–Ul–Azha. Raw hide is the primary raw material for this expanding industry but that market is swarming with large number of operators and groups with conflicting interests along with a grey market dynamics. Due to this, the supply chain is fraught with many problems that require time-appropriate solutions. As per the statistics from the Export promotion Bureau, Bangladesh’s leather exports fell 21.36% to $397.54 million in last fiscal year from $505.54 million.

This year raw hide collection has fallen at least 60% in comparison with that of last year due to the shortage of supply from the three northern districts. The tanners and relevant others have fixed raw hide prices at 36.36% lower than that of the previous year. Last year maximum procurement prices of rawhide were fixed at Tk 70-75 per sft. in Dhaka and Tk 60-65 per sft. outside the capital while in 2013, the prices were Tk.85-90 per sft. for Dhaka and Tk. 75-80 per sft. outside the capital. The three bodies of this sector,

www.icebusinesstimes.net

23

RAW HIDE PROCUREMENT

Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA), National Hide and Skin Merchants Association (NHSMA) and Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather–Goods and Footwear Exporters Association (BFLLEFA) have announced the lower price this year. The sources claimed that 12 million animals are slaughtered in the country annually, of which 7 million are cows. The supply of Indian cows to Bangladesh, according to an earlier estimate is usually 3 to 3.5 million annually, of which 2 million are brought on the eve of the slaughtering festival.

President of Bangladesh Tanners Association, Shaeen Ahmed said to ICE Business Times that the market for this business is worth more than Tk. 2500 crore.

Nevertheless, the main issue is the lack of available funds as local banks which were committed to provide Tk. 600 crore worth of loans, disbursed only about Tk. 250 crore. “We fixed a rate but later we ended up buying at more than 12 to 15% higher than that. This supply chain is very critical and we need a systematic recourse to crowd out the seasonal parties who really make the market unstable leading to the volatility in prices. The low rate is due to a response to the international market as it is dependent on the price of oil. We need to correct this shortfall in the supply chain and thus will require government help for working capital.”

24

M.A Taher President of BFLLEFA this reporter that until tanneries are being shifted to Savar, there would be issues for footwear and leather sector. “There are requirements of Tk. 5500 crore for relocation, but the support from banks is nothing to write home about.

Though individually some of us managed to receive loans but the entire rescheduling process is going to require a lot more funds.”

He said that across the globe footwear and leather sector is a business of $240 billion out of which 75% is controlled by China which has slid down to 65% recently as their labor costs have gone up. Out of this, 10% of the total orders are going to Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and we are also getting some orders. There are products like Footwear of hide and Skin, Artificial leather, and cloth leather and leather products.

He said that the main problem remains with the embargo of the EU on environmental issues and due to a slump in the European markets, European countries are inclined to buy artificial leathers shoes at a cheaper price, rather the original leather shows. “Therefore”, he goes on to say, “buying of leather has fallen down but this sector has a bright future and we have expertise and we would like to appeal to government for special funds for the leather sector.”

SPECIAL INTERVIEW

Expanding Investment Portfolio

Dr. Muhammad Abdul Mazid

Chairman, Chittagong Stock Exchange Limited

DR. MUHAMMAD ABDUL MAZID, Chairman, Chittagong Stock Exchange Limited completed his Masters in English from Dhaka University in 1977 and later his PHD from Victoria University, Delaware on the Agriculture Economy in Bangladesh. He was the Director of ERD and the Ex-Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR). He was also a former member of board of directors Padma Oil Company, Bangladesh Petroleum Institute, Sheraton Hotel, Jiban Bima Corporation, Bangladesh Insurance Acedemy, Janata Bank and also Bangladesh Bank.

Mazid is an avid reader, prolific writer and an international personality.

He is a member of the Bangladesh Diabetic Samity, Asiatic Society, Bangla Academy and International Business Forum of Bangladesh. His has over 20 publications relating to economic research and development, financial management, fiscal budgets and even some literary and nonfiction work. A good number of his research articles which also been published in prestigious research, academic and institutional journals locally and abroad.

Due to his numerous bodies of work he has received a host of awards which include the Khulna Shaitya Parishad Purashkar (1978), Khulna Writers Club Padak

www.icebusinesstimes.net

25

DR. MUHAMMAD ABDUL MAZID

shareholder. A partner for a day or two does not help the company to form and grow its capital. If the company gets the investment for a longer term it can utilize it better. If the company does not get the benefits of long term investments how can one expect dividends from that company.

(2002), Lions Club Celebrity Padak (2007) and Nawab Sir Salimullah Gold Medal (2008). IBT recently caught up with him to get to know about the upcoming Capital Market Fair of CSE scheduled to be held on 8-9 October in Chittagong.

What are the specialties of Chittagong Stock Exchange? What can you tell us about the Captial Market Fair you are organizing?

The Chittagong Stock Exchange was established in 1995 and from its inception it has been digitally and technologically effective. With the systems and software in place it is like any other modern stock exchange. However, due to comparatively lower market share we are unable to fully utilize this sophisticated platform. There are limitations present in our capital market which are there because there isn’t enough automation. Stock market manipulations can be prevented through more modernization, accelerating the inter connectivity and ensuring the availability of more relevant information. As for the Capital Market Fair, we will hold four high-end seminar topics centered around contemporary capital market issues.

The honorable chairman of the Bangladesh Security Exchange Commission will grace the occasion as our Chief Guest. Coinciding with this event we shall observe the 20th anniversary of Chittagong Stock Exchange.

Our Capital Market is heavily rumor influenced. How can we raise the awareness of investors so they don’t make decision based on just rumors?

That is an area that still needs to be worked on. An investor might be fooled if he lacks financial literacy and knowledge. Due to this lack of knowledge he is driven mostly by hearsay and speculations. Having patience and remaining steady are something that investors need to learn when dealing with the capital market. If you buy a share of a company, stick with it as a

26

There are limitations present in our capital market which are there because there isn’t enough automation.

Stock market manipulations can be prevented through more modernization, accelerating the inter connectivity and ensuring the availability of more relevant information.

What will be the impact of Demutualization?

It is very simple. After demutualization 25 % of CSE shares are to be bought by a strategic partner. This strategic partner should be alone be able to bear 25 % of the share. To attract a good partner of such a stature CSE has had to raise its business capital, capability and turnover. If the Exchange has an image problem or poor financial performance, then it will be difficult to get a sound strategic partner.

What is your plan to educate the SME traders in the Bourse?

For the SME traders our Managing Director has prepared a working paper. We are working seriously for wooing the SME traders in the market to educate them. The Capital Market Fairs is being organized to educate the SME traders also.

You are trying to branding Bangladesh abroad?

We are striving to rope in both local and foreign investors. We have facilities of internet trading, online trading and we are searching strategic partner. After demutualization, administration is separated from business. One of our foremost tasks is to activate the inactive stake holders. We are aware of the thresholds, benchmarks and bars and rules and regulations and continuously we trying to comply.

The second way is to tie up with the right kind of strategic partners. We have taken various activities in that pursuit and we are in dialogue for establishing good relationship with big stock markets of the world. We are in communication with stock markets in Singapore, and London.

PHOTO STORY

Genesis of a Glocal Brand Photographs By Din Muhammad Shibly & Kazi Mukul

www.icebusinesstimes.net

27

PHOTO STORY

GLOBATT, a concern of the Rahimafrooz Group, was established in 1954 and its Battery Division now operates two automotive battery plants with a combined capacity of four million batteries. It is also the country’s largest manufacturer and supplier of industrial batteries.

GLOBATT batteries are made with Ca-Ca-Tin Expanded Metal Technology, using 100% virgin lead sourced from leading smelters of the world.

Every raw material in GLOBATT is from AA rated companies in their respective fields. Empowered by ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications, GLOBATT keeps on optimizing the supply chain and pursuing on strict quality control.

GLOBATT is exported to 50 countries across the globe and is emerging as market leaders in some of its markets as well, in a short span of time.

28

GLOBATT

Today’s Rahimafrooz is a dream that A C Abdur Rahim turned into a reality. The business growth, the social commitment, and the great diversity the company is enjoying are the outcomes of one lifetime of hard work and passion of Rahim.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

29

PHOTO STORY

30

GLOBATT

Over the decades, Rahimafrooz has grown in size, scale, and diversity.

The Group today has Eight Operating Companies (SBUs), a few other business ventures, and a not for profit social enterprise. As of 2015, the Group currently employs more than three thousand people directly and a further fifty thousand indirectly suppliers Contractors, dealers and retailers.

Rahimafrooz operates in four broad segments – Storage Power, Automotive & Electronics, Energy and Retail.

Ranging from automotive aftermarket products, energy and power solutions, to a world class retail chain – the team at Rahimafrooz is committed to ensuring the best in quality standards and living the Group’s five core values – Integrity, Excellence, Customer Delight , Innovation and Inspiring People.

Rahimafrooz has been a partner in the development journey of this nation for more than fifty-five years now. Rahimafrooz is ‘enriching lives with your trust’.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

31

GLOBATT

32

UPDATE

Boosting the Bourse

Photograph by Samiul Wares

Two-day long Capital market fair begins at Chittagong on 8th October In a bid to rise financial literacy , sound investment plan , encouraging SME investors , image building and sensitize the investors about the capital market Chittagong Stock exchange is organizing 5th Capital market fair at GEC convention centre on 8th and 9th October as well as the two decades celebration of the second bourse of the country.

The highlights

Seminars on :

•

•

• •

•

A host of program and high end seminar on capital market Road blocks with investors and companies Sharpen the edges of the listed companies and investors and bridging the gaps 100 stalls of Stakeholders of CSE, Merchants Bank , Listed company like western Marine , Banks and others Companies

• • •

Exchange traded fund (ETF) – A investment product in Bangladesh – 8th October Personal Portfolio Management – 9th October Opportunities in initial public offerings ( IPO) Capital Market Reform , Recent , Past and future

The organizers are expecting 15 to 20000 visitors every day where services like BO account opening and secondary investment facilities are opened for investors. There will be events like raffle draw every day evening .

The Island Securities Ltd. one of the leading securities company will facilitate the services and register the name of interested persons for training sessions on Investors awareness, Financial analysis, How to read Balance sheet, Financial management for non financial people, efficiency improvement of enterprises, Career planning and co-investment scheme .

www.icebusinesstimes.net

33

BUSINESS ANALYTICS

No More Trying to Find a Needle in the Haystack With more and more enterprises going global, the need for business analytics goes up.

By Mohammad Kashif & SM Shihab Siddiqui

B

BACKDROP The golden rule of business has always been to try something, optimize what works and rinse and repeat. In that sense, business analytics, the act of monitoring business fundamentals and optimizing outcomes, has existed for as long as man has done business.

However, with the widespread adoption of technology in the business world, the discipline has taken a drastically different form.

It’s estimated that about 2.5 billion gigabytes (GB) of data was generated just in 2012. This number has been sitting on an exponential curve in recent years and is set to continue into the future.

Businesses from Bangladesh to Brazil are realizing this and capturing, analyzing and acting on the data being generated.

Companies in the recent past have used rudimentary analytics

such as analyzing sales data to uncover products that the customers want, conduct product testing by making small modifications and monitoring and adjusting for change. But business analytics in the modern era consists of a lot more variety and seamlessly combines company and market data, synthesizes them and produces insights.

Company data can be broadly categorized into revenue/sales, operational and financial data.

Revenue data consists of product-wise sales data categorized by parameters such as price, volume, markup, location of sale or any other parameters deemed important.

Operations meanwhile consist of cost parameters such as indirect costs (marketing, admin, distribution and miscellaneous expenses). These help the company to minimize costs,

www.icebusinesstimes.net

35

MARKET RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

while the revenue parameters work to maximize turnover, leading to higher spread and profits for the company. The financial aspect of business analytics involves optimizing cash flow cycles for smooth operations and analyzing and presenting business data to investors to minimize cost of funds and foster growth among other things.

The second part of the cog is market data, which involves capturing, analyzing and acting on data about consumer behavior, competitor actions and market trends.

Consumer data comes from many points and consists of purchasing characteristics, payment patterns and various levels of cross-segment patterns such as inter-category preference characteristics (e.g. mobile phone preference vis-a-vis mobile telephony behavior). Data on competitors include operating dynamics, product characteristics and positioning in relation to one’s own firm. Finally, market trends include which products are currently in demand, which are projected to pick up and what fundamental changes are taking place in the industry.

These two sets of data are synthesized and actionable insights are extracted from them. Then, when sufficient time has passed and the company has access to repeated data on same factors (such as region-wise sales over 10 years) , it can move on to time series analysis and actually predict market behavior in advance and get ahead by adjusting for them before their competitors.

BUSINESS ANALYTICS IN BANGLADESH Businesses in Bangladesh are catching up to this trend and innovative CEOs of organizations ranging from large conglomerates to small, nimble startups are changing their operating models to fully utilize dividends from business analytics.

36

In general, any business that has a presence online or keeps logs of transactions can apply business analytics to help their business grow.

For instance, Fortuna Shoes, a subsidiary of one of the largest conglomerates in Bangladesh, utilizes the data it generates to optimize sales, reduce costs and design products that the consumers want. It uses its own version of an industrial internet to optimize lead times.

Production speed and quality for instance is carefully managed by gathering data from each point in the system and synchronizing it with delivery schedules; both international and domestic. All this takes place in Fortuna's proprietary business analytics platform. This allows bottlenecks in the production process to be dealt with quickly and shoes to be produced in a manner conforming to Just In Time (JIT) production.

Similarly, textile mills that use real time monitoring of inputs, factory environment and output can rectify production issues ‘on the go’; helping them to minimize waste and ensure product quality.

For Fortuna Shoes, the system continues from the factory gate to the final sales point. Distribution spots communicate with point of sale (POS) terminals across Bangladesh and feed sales data into the company's central analytics platform. This allows management to analyze sales patterns by parameters like location, timing, cross-sectional buying patterns and demographic wise preference characteristics such as age-shoe color, age-shoe type preferences and a whole host of other parameters.

For example, when a certain type of shoe sells more in Sylhet, there can be interesting analysis made as to whether it’s something that's in fashion in the UK (with the presence

of a large Sylheti community in UK) so that upon validation, the company can bring in similar items and fill in latent demand which may otherwise have not been spotted.

Business analytics is being performed by emerging startups as well, especially in the domain of ecommerce. With commerce increasingly moving online, companies like Bikroy, Daraz, ZuumZuum and others have large amounts of data that they use to extract insights out of. This includes purchase and demographic data and various combinations of product preferences, stratified by age, gender, locations, income and many other metrics among other things.

They can in turn use these bits of information to keep minimal levels of inventory and mitigate shortfalls at the same time, ensuring smooth operations and helping the business grow by effectively servicing existing customers, while accommodating for new ones.

In general, any business that has a presence online or keeps logs of transactions can apply business analytics to help their business grow. So firms ranging from traditional retailers to consumer goods producers to online businesses to institutions like hospitals or textile mills can use data to extract insights from their businesses operations and use the learnings to modify, evolve and better their business fundamentals and drive business growth.

Exciting times lie ahead of Bangladeshi businesses. In an increasingly competitive market with a target audience of 160 million, business analytics is going to be an increasingly valuable asset for companies to get ahead and stay there.

Mohammad Kashif is an Assistant Vice President at LightCastle Partners, a market data firm and can be reached at kashif.choudhury@lightcastlebd.com SM Shihab Siddiqui is an Associate at a consulting firm and can be reached at shihab017@hotmail.com

THE CHINA BUBBLE BURSTS

A Red Flag or Not? The Chinese Economic bubble burst triggering widespread panic in the global economy.

By Sheahan Nasir Bhuiyan

O 38

On Monday, August 24th 2015, China, the world’s second biggest economy, faced one of its biggest stock market crises. Stock prices were down by 8.5% at the Shanghai Composite index, the biggest single day drop in the markets since 2007. China’s state owned media vehicle, The People’s Daily, used the term “Black Monday” to describe the day’s events. Comparisons were drawn by some against some of the worst stock market crashes in the world. The drop wiped out whatever gains the market has made throughout the year. The current richest man in Asia, Wang Jianlin alone suffered losses of approximately $13 billion as a result of this crash.

The effects were also felt far and away with most markets opening at much lower levels. The DAX in Germany was down by more than 20% since its peak. The Nikkei Index in Japan rolled down by 4.6% while The Dow experienced losses of about 4%. Apart from stocks, currencies in emerging markets have tumbled down.

Commodities were not safe either, with Brent crude, the benchmark for oil prices worldwide, trading below $45 a barrel for the first

time in six years. Even the price of gold, considered to be a safe commodity during times of economic hardships, has taken a hit. At that point the only stable assets were government bonds issued by the likes of the United States and Germany.

Markets have since recovered some of their losses amidst deep concerns regarding China’s economy. After all, it is the second biggest in the world, accounting for 15% of global GDP and contributes around half of global growth. The actual nature of the Chinese economy has been thrown into the limelight. Many analysts have long been questioning the official growth rate posted by the Chinese Government and the crash goes to show their skepticism may be well-founded. Furthermore, China’s large investments in developing economies, especially in Africa, has prompted fears that a economic meltdown in China will lead to downturns in those economies as well.

In order to understand this crash, we must go back to August 11th.

The Chinese Government made a surprise announcement to devalue their national currency,

INTERNATIONAL STOCK MARKET

EXTRA INSIGHT the Yuan, which set off a chain of events, ultimately resulting in the market crash of August 24th. In the process, it is estimated that a total of $5 trillion has been wiped out from global stock prices. The devaluation was accompanied by a national agenda to increase participation in the stock market with the government encouraging citizens to invest in shares, funnelling a significant amount of funding into stocks. The Government intervened heavily by cutting interest rates to record lows, encouraging brokerage to buy billions of stocks and stopping the issuance of new shares to drive up current prices. Surprisingly, this rally came at a time when reports showed that the Chinese economy was slowing down. Despite the Government’s efforts, the weakened currency, along with rising investments and falling economic growth has created a bubble which burst on “Black Monday”, triggering widespread panic in the global economy.

However, it is important to note that the Chinese economy is very different from its Western counterparts and although this incident has revealed its potential weaknesses, it will be a mistake to expect similar consequences as those faced during the events that set off the global recession in 2008. China places far more importance in their property market than the stock market unlike Western economies. Properties account for up to a quarter of GDP and in the past few months, the market has shown good signs after going through a patchy phase.

Despite encouragement from the government, only 5% of household wealth is tied up in stocks compared to nearly a third in the U.S. Moreover, stocks represent a very small portion of financing in Chinese companies as debts and bank loans provide most of the investments required. A stock market crash therefore, does not mean a loss in financing activities.

With such little wealth tied up in

The stock market value of companies like Twitter and Telsa is reminiscent of the 2000 Dotcom bubble.

NASDAQ US TECHNOLOGY INDEX

+55% since 2012

Where future financial bubbles could arise

Low interest rates and central bank bond In China, looser purchases trigger a surge in values of monetary policy and stocks and real estate. easy credit drive real BALANCE SHEET TOTALS OF estate prices up.

IMPORTANT CENTRAL BANKS IN THE US, EUROZONE, GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN

+150% since 2008

+38%

since 2009

Nobel Prize economist Robert Shiller fears the real estate market in Brazil is overheating.

HOUSE PRICES IN RIO DE JANEIRO +230% since 2008

HOUSE PRICES IN CHINESE CITIES

In countries like Britain and Germany, investors are sitting in a particularly dense center of concrete gold.

LONDON APARTMENT PRICES +13% since 2012

stock markets, the crash had minor impact amongst citizens. Very few ordinary Chinese will experience severe losses from this crash, just like very few people benefit from a market boom. This bodes well for the economy as China is reliant on its retail shoppers, and their spending has not decreased after the market crash. Tim Cook, on hearing about the market crash, has proclaimed that Apple has experienced strong growth throughout July and August in China. The fact that many Chinese are snapping up Apple products despite the market crash should allay any fears of a potential economic downturn.

Not that this means all is well in the long run though. China still faces a multitude of issues which may haunt them in the future. Part of the problem lies in the fact that there are many disputes between the numbers released by the government and the numbers estimated by analysts. The growth rate posted by the government of 7% is laughable according to sceptics, who place is at a more modest 2-3%. Debt has been claimed to be at nearly 250% of GDP and the working age group is slowly shrinking. Many analysts claim that China would eventually have to resort to

Leading stock indices like Germany’s Dax climb from record to record.

The share prices of mid-sized companies on the MDax are rising particularly fast.

MDax +83%

since 2012

free-market interventions to fix these issues but based on the Government’s interventions mentioned earlier, it seems unlikely.

Despite their claims of introducing more free market reforms, especially after the market crash, it seems the Government is very reluctant to relinquish its control.

What does all this mean for Bangladesh? Trade between the two nations reached $8.6 billion in 2014, although it is heavily skewered towards the Chinese side.

China provides 29% of Bangladesh’s total imports while exports amounted to only 1.7% of the total. This scenario is unlikely to change anytime in the near future, especially after the crash. China will want to increase its exports further to combat its falling growth rate. At the same time, imports will likely remain unchanged as the crash has not resulted in a reduced demand for consumer products and Bangladesh mostly exports garments and leather products to China. However, rising labor costs in China are slowly shifting the volume of garments trade over to Bangladesh.

If this trend continues, it is very likely that Bangladesh may start enjoying higher exports to China.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

39

INTERNATIONAL BANKING

Against the Wind Japan’s Banking Sector: struggling yet growing

By Sushmita Saha

40

O

The Japanese Banking sector has had a tough ride battling two decade long deflation and low-interest rate movement.

Besides, an alarming ageing population and lack of innovation in business attribute to make the way more difficult for the banks to make profit. Not losing hope, the banking sector has taken few measures to combat this situation.

According to The Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 revealed by The World Economic Forum lately, Japan secured 6th position among 140 economies under 12 pillars of competitiveness. Excellent infrastructure, early adoption of new technologies and high-quality research institutions are the factor Japan’s competitiveness is based on. In addition, the growth of the

banking sector while dealing with a rocky period of a low interest rate environment to ageing population acts as cherry on top.

The banking sector of Japan had a roller coaster ride owing to 20 years of deflation. The central bank, Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) stance of undertaking a loose monetary policy to tackle deflation led towards creating a low interest rate environment.

Japan’s interest rates have remained unchanged at 0.1% since late 2008. In 2014, real interest rates plummeted to -0.4%.

On account of low interest rates, the Japanese banks are not privileged to make profit from the loans. Though the low interest rate was supposed to be a boon for the Japanese lenders in terms

Q

JAPAN’S BANKING SECTOR

of having a heavy lending demand, lack of implementation of structural reforms is the reason the lending demand among individual and institutional investors is decreasing.

“There is too much liquidity and a large lending supply, while demand for loans is quite low among consumers and corporate due to a sluggish economic environment.”

Explained by Nobuyuki Hirano, the president of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), the top bank of Japan in terms of total assets.

Population ageing is another headwind the Japanese economy is currently facing. An alarming fact shared by Kazuyoshi Terakado, the head of Regional Banks Association of Japan illustrates that the population of Japan, as a whole, is expected to fall 20 percent in the coming decades. This indicates a weaker consumption and lower investment.

Driven by these unfavorable factors, there has been a slight deterioration of the Tier-1 capital (Core capital of a bank: common stocks and retained earnings) of Japan’s mega banks- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group year-on-year in 2015, although, their combined net income rose by 1%. The question arises: How these mega banks are managing to growth in spite of shrinking domestic loan profitability?

Diversifying revenue sources is the strategy Japanese banks adopted to offset the impact of domestic economic situation worsening.

Overseas lending and fee income by these mega banks are making up the loss of domestic loan profitability in Japan. The Tokyo-based banks have announces acquisitions abroad worth about $6 billion this year. Not only that, they are encouraging domestic sales of investment products as domestic investors are more interested in shifting some of their saving into more riskier assets.

In an interview, the chief executive officer of MUFG Nobuyuki Hirano revealed plans to spend at least $2.5 billion in the U.S. alone to beef up the bank's asset-management business. While this is an appropriate and timely decision by one of the country’s most respected companies, it leaves a ray of doubt whether Japan Inc.’s cautious and top-down management style can coexist with faster-paced and more profit-driven Western investment houses. The purchase Lehman’s Asia and Europe operations by fellow megabank Nomura in 2008 is a case in point.

The regional banks of Japan invested their excess deposits in the Japanese

The central bank, Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) stance of undertaking a loose monetary policy to tackle deflation led towards creating a low interest rate environment.

Japan’s interest rates have remained unchanged at 0.1% since late 2008.

Government Bonds (JGB) earning a margin between the near-zero rates they pay the depositors and the 1-2% they could get on the bonds.

However, the ultra-low yield on GJBs is causing potential risks to financial stability for the regional banks. With 10-year JGB yields at 0.34%, regional banks are investing in overseas sovereign debt or buying real-estate fund on lookout for a yield pick-up.

Due to a downward lending pressure, there has been a rush in mergers in the past one year. Last November, the two Greater Tokyo area based banks, the Bank of Yokohama and Higashi-Nippon Bank merged.

However, the renowned credit rating agency Moody’s opined that the overseas expansion will continue to pose unfamiliar risks.

The biggest learning for Bangladesh from Japanese Banking Industry is monetary policy alone cannot solve a country’s macroeconomic woes.

The current lending rate of Bangladesh is the two-years lowest 11.93%. A cut in lending rate requires a bank to raise the volume of loans made in order to demonstrate a substantial asset figure.

Having an investment-friendly interest rate was essential for boosting up the investment scenario and ultimately reinforcing the balance sheets of the banks’, however, without proper infrastructure and regulation, the purpose cannot be served.

Less female participation is a headwind to the progression of Japanese economy which means a substantial portion of Japanese population is unproductive. The economy will not gear up unless female participation is ensured. In Bangladesh, a growing tendency of female participation in the form of entrepreneurship is evident.

Banking service in the rural areas must be reinforced to tap the latent talent in the remote areas.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

41

Q

THE BIG QUESTION

What needs to BE DONE to get back GSP in the US market?

So Much more!

By Nurul Islam

T 42

The visit of Michael Delaney, Assistant US Trade Representative, in last month came at a time when the issue of getting back preferential trade benefits in the US market under GSP facility took a new turn.

The Obama administration updated

its eligible countries list for GSP facility in August, leaving Bangladesh out even after more than two years of suspending the privilege in 2013 amid factory safety and workers rights concerns.

The decision had little impact in terms of

Bangladesh’s export to the US as the main product multi-billion dollar readymade garment never enjoyed the facility.

It, however, sent a negative signal across the world as the privilege was revoked on the ground of factory

LABOR SAFETY

safety concerns following the worst-ever building collapse, Rana Plaza, in April 2013 that killed more than 1100 workers.

The new update frustrated the government. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, who is always a critic to the US decision, venting his anger said: “I don’t support taking any steps for reviving the GSP facility. We’ve fulfilled our conditions. We’ve nothing more to do.” But days before Delaney’s arrival on September 19, the government issued the long pending implementation rules of the revised labor law.

And then the government again claimed that all conditions have been fulfilled now under the 16 point action plan rolled out by the US authority after the GSP suspension. But Bangladesh, in fact, did not fulfill those conditions, was the clear message the US Trade Representative Delaney left before leaving Dhaka on September 23.

The Assistant Trade Representative at a lecture at the EMK Centre said they found an assessment by “some” in Bangladesh that the action plan had already been fulfilled.

“But the fact is that our own tracking of the items in the plan indicates that more needs to be done.”

44

BANGLADESH ACTION PLAN 2013

The United States government encourages the government of Bangladesh to take significant actions to provide a basis for reinstating Bangladesh’s GSP benefits, including by implementing commitments under the Action plan by taking the following actions:

Government Inspections for Labor, Fire and Building Standards • Develop, in consultation with the International Labor Organization (ILO), and implement in line with already agreed targets, a plan to increase the number of government labor, fire and building inspectors, improve their training, establish clear procedures for independent and credible inspections, and expand the resources at their disposal to conduct effective inspections in the readymade garment (RMG), knitwear, and shrimp sectors, including within Export Processing Zones (EPZs).

• Increase fines and other sanctions, including loss of import and export

licenses, applied for failure to comply with labor, fire, or building standards to levels sufficient to deter future violations.

• Develop, in consultation with the ILO, and implement in line with already agreed targets, a plan to assess the structural building and fire safety of all active RMG/knitwear factories and initiate remedial actions, close or relocate inadequate factories, where appropriate.

• Create a publicly accessible database/matrix of all RMG/knitwear factories as a platform for reporting labor, fire, and building inspections, including information on the factories and locations, violations identified, fines and sanctions administered, factories closed or relocated, violations remediated, and the names of the lead inspectors.

• Establish directly or in consultation with civil society an effective complaint mechanism, including a hotline, for workers to confidentially and anonymously report fire, building safety, and worker rights violations.

REGAINING SAFETY

Ready Made Garments (RMG)/Knitwear Sector • Enact and implement, in consultation with the ILO, labor law reforms to address key concerns related to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

• Continue to expeditiously register unions that present applications that meet administrative requirements, and ensure protection of unions and their members from anti-union discrimination and reprisal.

• Publicly report information on the status and final outcomes of individual union registration applications, including the time taken to process the applications and the basis for denial if relevant, and information on collective bargaining agreements concluded.

• Register non-governmental labor organizations that meet administrative requirements, including the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) and Social Activities for the Environment (SAFE). Drop or expeditiously resolve pending criminal charges against labor activists to ensure workers and their supporters do not face harassment or intimidation.

Advance a transparent investigation into the murder of Aminul Islam and report on the findings of this investigation.

• Publicly report on the database/matrix identified above on anti-union discrimination or other unfair labor practice complaints received and labor inspections completed, including information on factories and locations, status of investigations, violations identified, fines and sanctions levied, remediation of violations, and the names of the lead inspectors.

• Develop and implement mechanisms, including a training program for industrial police officers who oversee the RMG sector on

workers’ freedom of association and assembly, in coordination with the ILO, to prevent harassment, intimidation and violence against labor activists and unions.

Export Processing Zones (EPZ) • Repeal or commit to a timeline for expeditiously bringing the EPZ law into conformity with international standards so that workers within EPZ factories enjoy the same freedom of association and collective bargaining rights as other workers in the country.

Create a government-working group and begin the repeal or overhaul of the EPZ law, in coordination with the ILO. • Issue regulations that, until the EPZ law has been repealed or overhauled, will ensure the protection of EPZ workers’ freedom of association, including by prohibiting “blacklisting” and other forms of exclusion from the zones for labor activities.

• Issue regulations that, until the EPZ law is repealed or overhauled, will ensure transparency in the enforcement of the existing EPZ law and that require the same inspection standards and procedures as in the rest of the RMG sector.

Shrimp Processing Sector • Actively support ILO and other worker-employer initiatives in the shrimp sector, such as the March 2013 Memorandum of Agreement, to ensure the strengthening of freedom of association, including addressing anti-union discrimination and unfair labor practices.

• Publicly report on anti-union discrimination or other unfair labor practice complaints received and labor inspections completed, including information on factories and locations, status of investigations, violations identified, fines and sanctions levied, remediation of violations, and the names of the lead inspectors.

What was he trying to say?

“There has been a concrete improvement regarding workers safety.

However, there are other elements of the action plan that must be addressed such as freedom of association, greater transparency with respect to unfair labor practices, and union registration both outsides and inside the EPZs. These are the areas where improvements must be made in order to fulfill the action plan,” Delaney made it clear.

He led an interagency US government delegation during the visit and had extensive meetings with business, government, and labor groups to prepare for the upcoming review meeting that the Sustainability Compact partners in November this year. The Compact was rolled out by the European Union of which the US was also a partner after the Rana Plaza disaster.

The team also gathered information related to the factory safety and workers rights issues.

Delaney said the “US wants Bangladesh to succeed”, and that’s why provided a road map back to GSP status that laid out the specific steps that needed to be taken in order for GSP benefits to be restored.

He said anyone can read the GSP Action Plan and determine whether and to what degree action has been taken to resolve each issue. “Everything in the Action Plan is important,

www.icebusinesstimes.net

45

LABOR SAFETY

achievable, and transparent,” he maintained.

The US has conducted three separate reviews since June 2013 of Bangladesh’s progress on the Action Plan. These reviews acknowledged that progress had been made on a number of the action items. For example, the Ministry of Labor has substantially increased the number of labor inspectors and more than 2000 clothing factories have been inspected by the two private sector-led initiatives, the Alliance and the Accord.

But there is still “important work to be done”, Delaney said. “Inspections of remaining RMG factories, including many operated by subcontractors to RMG-exporting firms, still need to be conducted”.

Freedom of Association in the EPZs is “a very significant” element of both the GSP Action Plan and the Sustainability Compact. “This is an issue on which we have been discussing with the government of Bangladesh for many years under the GSP program,” he said.

Efforts to harmonize the law in the EPZs with international standards on freedom of association or collective bargaining will help achieve another GSP element.

Ensuring workers’ have a voice, regardless of whether they work inside or outside an EPZ, will be key. “We saw very good progress initially on union registrations, with an unprecedented number of unions successfully registering. Now however, there seems to be slowing in this area, with an increasing number of union registrations being denied”. In addition, Delaney said, the US sought transparency -- ways the government can share what it is doing with the interested actors.

The core issues that underlie the GSP review and the Sustainability Compact are removing obstacles to union registration, eliminating unfair labor practices and the harassment of and violence against labor activists, worker safety issues, and improving labor law and regulations – including with respect the EPZs. He said there were examples of factory owners who were showing that working with unions can be part of “a successful business” strategy here in Bangladesh, allying fears of factory owners that

46

unions can ruin their businesses. “These reforms are rightfully key components to an effective development strategy,” he said.

Launched in 1976, the GSP program promotes economic growth and sustainable development by providing duty-free access to the US market for up to 5,000 products from beneficiary developing countries. Countries must meet certain eligibility criteria in order to participate. “These criteria are transparent and applied equally to all countries,” Delaney said. He said President Obama revoked Bangladesh’s GSP after six years of “intensive public review and engagement” with the government of Bangladesh.

Some have suggested that that decision was somehow based on politics. But Delaney said it was a “fact-based decision that followed a public, transparent, multi-year review of worker rights and worker safety in Bangladesh”.

He, however, said Bangladesh-US economic partnership can grow under the Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement (TICFA), outside the context of GSP. Dhaka-Washington singed Ticfa in November 2013, under which countries can discuss mutual interests in trade, raise concerns, and resolve them. But Delaney said Bangladesh can sustain the growth in its clothing exports and move up to higher value-added segments of the RMG sector, by completing the remaining elements of the GSP Action Plan.

The RMG sector has driven Bangladesh’s remarkable development over the last 20 years. Only time can tell how this whole GSP story will turn in the end, for better or worse of Bangladesh’s RMG sector.

Launched in 1976, the GSP program promotes economic growth and sustainable development by providing duty-free access to the US market for up to 5,000 products from beneficiary developing countries.

GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

SNAILING FORWARD BANGLDESH JUMPS UP TWO PEGS IN THE WEF GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS REPORT 2015-2016 IBT Report

T

The Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) is a yearly report published by the World Economic Forum. Since 2004, the Global Competitiveness Report has ranked countries based on the Global Competitiveness Index developed by Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Elsa V. Artadi.

Before that, the macroeconomic ranks were based on Jeffrey Sachs's Growth Development Index and the microeconomic ranks were based on Michael Porter's Business Competitiveness Index. The Global Competitiveness Index integrates the macroeconomic and the micro/business aspects of competitiveness into a single index.

The report assesses a country’s ability to provide high levels of prosperity to its citizens. This in turn depends on how productively its resources are being utilized. Therefore, the Global Competitiveness Index is designed to measure the set of institutions, policies,

Dr. Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Additional Director, Research of Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), which is the local partner of the survey said to the ICE Business times that as part of that survey they sent questionnaires to 300 companies in Bangladesh, mainly large and medium sized including some multinational companies, of which 56 companies responded. According to him, Bangladesh's upward ranking in some main indicators like Infrastructure, Macro economic sector, Primary education, Institution and good governance is noteworthy, though in the last two the progress has been really sluggish. Apart from this there were some country which did not participated due to war and other reason, that gave Bangladesh some advantages to rank higher in some indicators. The efficiency indicators are like Financial sector, Market efficiency, Market size, Technological readiness, Human resources, etc .

Detailing his finding he said that in previous years, businessmen's demand have changed over the years. Now they are more aware about efficiency issues apart from their basic demand for better supply in sectors like infrastructure and energy supply. Since the ever rising cost of production is making the competition stiffer than ever, the entrepreneurs are much aware about the importance of attaining a better productivity. They also urged on various facilities in relation to market, financing, tax rate and skill building and human resources development.

48

and factors that can lead an economy to prosperity. As a nation develops, wages tend to be on the rise, and in order to sustain this labor productivity must improve for the nation to be competitive.

Also, what creates productivity in Switzerland is not necessarily the same for what drives it in India. Thus, the GCI separates countries into three specific stages: factor-driven, efficiency-driven, and innovation-driven, each implying a growing degree of complexity in the operation of the economy.

In the 2015-2016 report, an in-depth overview of the competitiveness performance of 140 economies is provided, and thus the GCI continues to be the most comprehensive assessment of its kind globally. It contains a detailed profile for each of the economies included in the study, as well as an extensive section of data tables with global rankings covering over 100 indicators.

In the report Switzerland came in at no.

1, followed by Singapore. The other economies in the list of top 10 are the USA (3rd), Germany (4th), Netharlands (5th), Japan (6th), Hong Kong (7th), Finland (8th), Sweden (9th) and United Kingdom (10th). In South Asia, India jumped up 17 places to 55th, while Sri Lanka moved up five notches to 68th, Pakistan advanced three steps to the 126th and Nepal gained two steps to 100th.

Bangladesh which is still classified in the “factor driven” stage of development moved up two notches indicating progress in the country’s economic efficiency and sophistication. It ranked 107 this year (out of 140 countries) from last year’s position of 109 (among 144 countries) in the report with a score of 3.76.

Bangladesh improved significantly in terms of indicators regarding microeconomic stability (49th position in 2015, up from 72nd position in 2014), infrastructure (123rd position from 127th) and market size (stands at 40th position from 44th). However, deteriorations were observed in a few indicators, including institutions (stands at 132nd position from 131st), financial market sophistication (90th from 88th), goods market efficiency (101st position from 84th), the report showed.

SLOW PROGRESS

Bangladesh’s position GDP (PPP) per capita (intíl $), 1990ñ2014

Key indicators, 2014

Bangladesh

10,000

Population (millions)...................................... 158.2 GDP (US$ billions) ........................................ 185.4 GDP per capita (US$) ................................... 1,172 GDP (PPP) as share (%) of world total ............ 0.50

Emerging and Developing Asia

8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0

Global Competitiveness Index

Rank (out of 140)

Score (1ñ7)

Institutions

GCI 2015ñ2016 .................................................... 107 ..... 3.8

GCI 2014ñ2015 (out of 144)...................................

GCI 2013ñ2014 (out of 148)...................................

GCI 2012ñ2013 (out of 144)...................................

109......

110......

118......

7

Innovation

3.7 3.7 3.6

Infrastructure

6 5

Business sophistication

Macroeconomic environment

4 3 2

Market size

Basic requirements (60.0%) ................................. 109 ...... 3.9 1st pillar: Institutions ...............................................

2nd pillar: Infrastructure ..........................................

3rd pillar: Macroeconomic environment .................

4th pillar: Health and primary education .................

132......

123......

49......

101......

2.9 2.6 5.0 5.2

122......

101......

121......

90......

127......

40......

Financial market development

11th pillar: Business sophistication ........................

12th pillar: Innovation .............................................

Bangladesh

Emerging and Developing Asia

Stage of development

3.0

117......

127......

Goods market ef ciency Labor market ef ciency

2.9 4.1 3.7 3.6 2.6 4.7

Innovation and sophistication factors (5.0%) 123 ....

Higher education and training

Technological readiness

Efficiency enhancers (35.0%) .............................. 105 ...... 3.6

5th pillar: Higher education and training ...............

6th pillar: Goods market efficiency..........................

7th pillar: Labor market efficiency ...........................

8th pillar: Financial market development ................

9th pillar: Technological readiness ..........................

10th pillar: Market size..............................................

Health and primary education

1

3.4 2.7

1

Transition 1ñ2

Factor driven

Transition 2ñ3

2

3

Efficiency driven

Innovation driven

The most problematic factors for doing business Corruption .........................................................................

Inadequate supply of infrastructure....................................

Government instability/coups ............................................

Inefficient government bureaucracy ...................................

Access to financing .............................................................

Policy instability ...................................................................

Inadequately educated workforce........................................

Tax rates..............................................................................

Complexity of tax regulations...............................................

Crime and theft ...................................................................

Foreign currency regulations................................................

Inflation................................................................................

Poor work ethic in labor force..............................................

Insufficient capacity to innovate ...........................................

Restrictive labor regulations.................................................

Poor public health ............................................................... *

Score*

18.7 18.3 12.7 11.8 9.7 4.7 3.9 3.7 3.1 2.9 2.7 2.6 2.6 1.0 1.0 0.5

From the list of factors, respondents were asked to select the five most problematic for doing business in their country and to rank them between 1 (most problematic) and 5. The score corresponds to the responses weighted according to their rankings.

0

5

10

15

20

25

www.icebusinesstimes.net

30

49

COVER STORY

Triumphs of aVisionary Exploring the legacy of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed

By Asaduzzaman and Irad Mustafa

www.icebusinesstimes.net

51

COVER STORY

On 16th December 1971, Bangladesh, a nation ravaged by the atrocities of war for nine long months, had finally earned its independence. However, what remained in the aftermath was a country in ruins with its economy and infrastructure in tatters. The nation lost almost everything in its pursuit of freedom. Having achieved it, the country made an effort to start from square one and build itself up again in the face of daunting odds. Much of what has been accomplished since then can be owed to a group of visionaries who had taken a leap of faith to embark on a mission to rise up and shine.

Sie Fazle Hasan Abed was one of

52

those rare gems who had a dream.

Born in 1936 in the Habiganj district of Sylhet and educated in both Dhaka and Glasgow Universities, he initially worked at Shell Oil as an accountant. After observing the horrors of the Bangladesh liberation war, however, Sir Abed left his job in London and devoted himself to the cause of Bangladesh’s war of independence and started raising funds for an awareness campaign called Help Bangladesh. The war had made an imprint on him which had considerably changed the direction of his life. In 1972 Sir Abed and his friends set up a new organisation called the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee

(BRAC) which focused on the needs of the poor, resettling and rehabilitating the returning refugees from India. The following year it was renamed to Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and is now the largest non-government developmental organization in the developing world. Since 2009 the abbreviated form BRAC has been officially accepted as its name.

Today, BRAC is renowned worldwide for being a global leader for creating opportunities as a means to end poverty. With more than 120,000 employees, the world's largest NGO has touched the lives of an estimated 135 million people in 11 countries using a wide array of

SIR FAZLE HASAN ABED

BRAC has received worldwide recognition for its contribution in Bangladesh's achievement in halving poverty and hunger levels since 1990

anti-poverty tools such as microfinance, education, healthcare, legal rights training and more. It has a vision to make a world free from all forms exploitation and discrimination where everyone has the opportunity to realize their potential by nurturing values like integrity, innovation, inclusiveness and effectiveness.

Alongside the likes of Grameen Bank and ASA, BRAC was a pioneer in the era-defining 70s wave of Bangladeshi micro-finance and micro-credit organizations. Since then they have outgrown their old counterparts and now assume an unparalleled position on the international development stage in terms of impact, innovation and sustainability. Having received numerous accolades for his achievements with BRAC, Sir Abed on The Global Journal, a Switzerland based magazine, was quoted saying, “I hope this will encourage BRAC to continue its work with innovation and efficiency towards creating more opportunities for the poor. I thank the BRAC family for their effort and dedication for making BRAC what it is today.”

BRAC’s realization came in the early 80s that in order achieve poverty alleviation and improved nutrition they needed to engage in agriculture.

BRAC focused on organizing poor women and providing them with improved breeds of poultry birds and cattle and training for disease management. It set up a poultry and dairy industry to complete the value chain in subsistence poultry and dairy farming, while ensuring better prices for small farmers. BRAC has been working with the government to increase crop production. Additionally, it conducts farmer participatory experiments in the poverty-stricken and flood-prone north-west region as well as saline-affected coastal areas where it delivers advanced technologies to farmers. It has also introduced sunflower and maize

cultivation in the coastal areas.

Cultivation of these crops has since grown fast. BRAC is developing the value chain for maize and poultry in Tanzania. It is also conducting adaptive research to develop a seed system for orange-flesh sweet potato, a nutrition-enriched variety developed by the Harvest Plus programme, in Uganda. Not only has BRAC’s agricultural and development innovations improved food security for millions but it has also contributed to a significant decline in poverty levels through the direct impact it makes on farmers and small communities across the globe.

BRAC has received worldwide recognition for its contribution in Bangladesh's achievement in halving poverty and hunger levels since 1990, keeping in line with the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

Through its sustained efforts in the fields of hunger and poverty eradication and food security, Sir Abed and BRAC have produced miracles. By concentrating on producing scalable solutions, BRAC’s food programmes have been turned into sustainable social enterprises that provide inputs and access to stable markets for the rural poor.

Globally accredited as a change maker, Sir Abed was recently the recipient for the World Food Prize which is an international award acknowledging individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn, President of the World Food Prize Foundation, announced this year’s winner at a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC. Sir Abed upon receiving the award which has been referred to as the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture stated, “Being selected to receive the 2015 World Food Prize is a great honor. I consider this award recognition of the work of BRAC,

www.icebusinesstimes.net

53

SIR FAZLE HASAN ABED

which I have had the privilege to lead over the last 43 years. The real heroes in our story are the poor themselves and, in particular, women struggling with poverty. In situations of extreme poverty, it is usually the women in the family who have to make do with scarce resources. When we saw this at BRAC, we realized that women needed to be the agents of change in our development effort. Only by putting the poorest, and women in particular, in charge of their own destinies, will absolute poverty and deprivation be removed from the face of the earth.”

Thanks to Sir Abed’s genius, BRAC has helped over 70 million women, and a total of more than 110 million people in 69,000 villages. Over 80,000 volunteers and 120,000 employees work for BRAC in a continually increasing number of countries which includes USA, UK, Netherlands, Haiti, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines and so on. BRAC has introduced an Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program in Uganda which is designed to empower teenage girls.

The ELA clubs provide safe spaces for them to socialize and receive mentoring and life skill training.

BRAC combines the approach with financial literacy training and customized micro loan, which socially and financially empowers adolescent girls. In the year 2014 a total 94,659 girls received skills, livelihood and financial literacy training, 280 adolescent health prompters (1409 girls and 140 boys) were trained on general adolescent health issues through a network of 140 clubs. In ELA micro finance, loans distributed increased from USD 4 million to USD 10 million.

In Afghanistan BRAC’s education programs aim to bring systemic reform, to improve aces, retention and learner outcomes through community based schools, teachers training, mobilization of the

54

Awards and Accolades In his developmental journey across the world, Sir Fazle has been honoured with numerous other national and international awards for his achievements, including the Trust Women Hero Award (2014), Spanish Order of Civil Merit (2014), Leo Tolstoy International Gold Medal (2014), CEU Open Society Prize (2013), Inaugural WISE Prize for Education (2011), Entrepreneur for the World Award (2009), David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award (2008), Inaugural Clinton Global Citizen Award (2007), Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership (2007), Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation (PKSF) Award for lifetime achievement in social development and poverty alleviation (2007), UNDP Mahbub ul Haq Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Development (2004), Gates Award for Global Health (2004), Gleitsman Foundation International Activist Award (2003), Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneurship Award (2003), Olof Palme Prize (2001), he is also recognized by Ashoka as one of the 'global greats' and is a founding member of its prestigious Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2009, came his appointment as the Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George by the British Crown in recognition of his services to poverty reduction in Bangladesh and on the Global stage.

community Shura (religious) leaders, support from ministry of Education (MoE) and advocating government level policy changes.

BRAC Afghanistan is currently operating two education projects, namely the Girls Education Challenges (GEC) which has educated 170,000 girls through

5,670 schools. Inspired by BRAC’s programmes, others are already using similar approaches with successes seen in at least eight countries.

BRAC’s revenue expenditure for the year ended December 2014 was $537 million and out of which 31.89 % is for Microfinance, 11.50 % for Health, 12.09% for Education, 5.77% for Water Sanitation and Hygiene, 1.24 % in Agriculture and Food security, 5.74 % in Ultra Poor and 27.99 % in Social Enterprise.

So it goes without saying that BRAC has made a monumental impact in Bangladesh's future. Be it a school, a training center for women, or a workshop for women and family planning, there are very few areas in the countryside nowadays where the BRAC logo cannot be seen. In 1972, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed set out to accomplish an enormous task. In trying to make his dream a reality, he has multiplied his activities tenfold all the while maintaining the same quality and efficiency. Indeed, he is the leader from a country like Bangladesh who has taught the world how to reap benefits from the people’s power to usher in changes in their own lives. Perhaps the coinage of the term ‘globalization’ has become clichéd over the time but great minds like Sir Abed will work as an immense source of inspiration for anyone working to create a better future. As Carlos Santana, the famous Mexican-American singer once said, “One day there will be no borders, no boundaries, no flags and no countries and the only passport will be the heart.” Sir Fazle Hasan Abed is that one mighty heart who has bound nations together; taught them how to remain closer through thick and thin and work together for a better tomorrow which can dream of a poverty-free, educated society.

INTERVIEW

TAKING ON THE WORLD

Asif Saleh

Director, Strategy, Communication and Empowerment, BRAC and BRAC International

Asif Saleh oversees strategy, communications, advocacy, ICT and social innovation labs at BRAC. He is in charge of the empowerment cluster, which includes gender justice and diversity, migration and human rights and legal aid services. Prior to joining BRAC, he was an executive director at Goldman Sachs and also worked for Glaxo Wellcome, NorTel and IBM. Upon his return to Bangladesh in 2008, he worked as a policy specialist for the UNDP-funded project access to information (a2i) programme at the Prime Minister’s office. Saleh is the founder of Drishtipat, a global organization with chapters across the world focusing on human and economic rights of Bangladeshi people. He contributes regularly to local and international dailies. Saleh was recognized for his work by Asia Society’s Asia 21 program in 2008, the Bangladeshi American Foundation in 2007, and was selected as an Asia 21 Fellow in 2012. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and an MBA in management from NYU Stern School of Business. He is currently a mentor of the Unreasonable Institute, a member of the advisory board of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust

56

ASIF SALEH

(BLAST) and a board member of Institute of Informatics and Development (IID). He was also named one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders in 2013. Recently he was caught up with IBT and here are the excerpts.

Akhter Hamid Khan the doyen of social thinking has put forth a model of microcredit and socioeconomic development which was earlier taken by BRAC. However, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed’s one is a unique and holistic model. Now it is a the largest NGO in the world whose globalization started with civil strife ridden Afghanistan.

What is your take on this?

BRAC started in a war-torn Bangladesh as a relief organization. Fundamentally what shaped the organisation in the early days was the vision to deal with the long-term task of improving the lives of the rural poor. We started with adult literacy programme and training rural women and men on income generating activities. Soon however, we realized that in order to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty, education for children is essential.

This led to the birth of the non-formal primary education programme.

With our education intervention in Afghanistan, we were able to build on what we had learned in Bangladesh. There was room to expand into other sectors in the post-war Afghanistan. That is when, in 2002, BRAC took its solutions beyond Bangladesh, and BRAC International came into being. Thirteen years into our journey in international development, we have expanded into 11 countries. We have affiliated organizations in the USA and UK. BRAC goes where there is an urgent need for development and not many organizations are willing to go. It includes post-conflict

Fundamentally what shaped the organization in the early days was the vision to deal with the long-term task of improving the lives of the rural poor.

countries as well as countries that have faced large-scale disaster. The Muslim Mindanao is a remote region in Philippines where BRAC works with some of the most marginalized groups. It is the largest NGO in Uganda with a strong manpower of 2600 . It is also one of the largest NGOs in Tanzania. In Afghanistan, we had to stop our microfinance operations due to security reasons.

In 2013, BRAC was ranked the number one NGO in the world by The Global Journal, beating 500 global NGOs like CARE and Oxfam. The criteria were innovation, scale and sustainability. The unique thing about BRAC is it raises 75% of its programming costs through its own funds. It is mostly a self-sustaining organization with an annual budget of over a billion dollar. It has helped drive change by providing the poor with the right tools, whether it is through education, health or microfinance.

Its various programmes and investments like BRAC Bank, which was initiated with the goal to serve small and medium enterprises (SME), along with its subsidiaries like bKash together form an aggressive tool for empowerment.

Fundamentally what ties this all together is that BRAC’s large scale system thinking. Wherever there was a gap in the system for the poor to get a support and government or private sector was unwilling or unable to step in, BRAC stepped in and played a role.

Such holistic way of looking at a problem and the subsequent execution and operational excellence is what makes BRAC stand apart from other traditional development organizations.

Unlike other NGOs, BRAC is known to have non-traditional approaches. like the unique bottom-up approach. It started in remote Sulla, and now it has a

www.icebusinesstimes.net

57

ASIF SALEH

global reach where you are working in different continents with different cultures and languages.

I believe that change has to come from within; it needs to be initiated by the people themselves. An organization can only provide them with the right tools. The BRAC model worked in Bangladesh because community is such an integral part of its solution. Our programmes were designed in a way where the community played a very strong part.

Capacity building of a community is absolutely a must. For example, the teachers in our schools are all from the respective communities. We train these secondary graduate housewives as teachers, and today there are over 4 million students who have graduated out of BRAC’s primary schools. It is a similar case with Aarong where we train artisans from villages all over Bangladesh. Some go on to become producers, employing groups of artisans. Even if Aarong ever stops existing, the capacity of these people would have already been built. That is a example of the sustainable impact of the organization.

Poverty and certain socio-economic challenges are universal. It is the approach to these solutions that have to be contextualized. What worked in Afghanistan may not work in Uganda.

To talk about a simple innovation that we fostered in our schools in Afghanistan to increase girls’ attendance, we recruited and trained elderly women from the community called khala (meaning ‘aunt’ in Bangla) to act as their stewards. We were dealing with young Afghan girls who cannot come to school due to distance and security issues. We now have 200,000 girls in our schools there. The innovative project ensures girl’s safety while also creating employment for these guardians. This was an innovation exported to Afghanistan from Bangladesh and it worked. We are utilizing the community for the best results. There are various approaches we follow to prevent dropouts in schools and it

58

varies from country to country. The Bangladesh economy is quite unique that in our GDP there are 3.25% contribution is from Community , Social and personal services where BRAC is the single largest operator .

There is no organisation whose scale is as wide as BRAC’s. BRAC is quite unique in the sense that it is a combination of social enterprises, grant based development programmes and its various social investments. In the recent history, we haven’t measured BRAC’s contribution to national economy but with such wide scale operations for its various activities in such large scale it has gotten be very large.

Poverty and certain socio-economic challenges are universal. It is the approach to these solutions that have to be contextualized.

BRAC is been underatking projects in African nations like Tanzania. Is running an operation there comparable to what is being done in Bangladesh?

Comparing Bangladesh with Tanzania is quite interesting. In Bangladesh one of the reasons for its success is the government gives a lot of space for NGO’s to operate and is not as restricitve as in other countries and that’s where social innovation takes place. In Tanzania we were told that you cannot work in the health sector at all as it is restricted to non-govt players. We started with microfinance because access to financial services is essential for the poor. We then started education for girls, followed by livelihood projects and other income generating activities. One of our successful projects is Adolescent Clubs for young girls where they are given safe spaces to learn and play.

These clubs also provide financial education, giving out small scale loans for their own needs. This has been a very unique model in East Africa. Unlike BRAC in Bangladesh, our International operations have less resources. BRAC international generates its own resources, mostly by fundraising activities.

INTERVIEW

Leading From the Front

Faraaz A. Rahim

Head of Business Development at Rahimafrooz Storage Power Division

Born in a family of businessmen and brought up in an environment which demanded creativity, Faraaz Abdur Rahim now spearheads GLOBATT. The company which is a concern of Rahimafrooz Group is now Bangladesh’s largest manufacturer and supplier of automotive and industrial batteries.

Having equaled global standards, GLOBATT is also exporting its products to 58 countries,which is helping to enhance the overall image of our country. Faraaz is a third generation entrepreneur and the grandson of A. C.Abdur Rahim and the son of Niaz Rahim. His grandfather took over Lucas and Dunlop and established Rahimafrooz in 1954 and his father is awell-known figure in the business community for his innovative thinking, CSR & retail activities.

At present, Faraaz Abdur Rahim is the Head of Business Development at Rahimafrooz Storage Power Division. He completed hisdegrees from Boston University, School Of Management and joined Rahimafrooz Bangladesh Limited as a management intern. He has worked in Rahimafrooz Superstores Limited (Agora) from July 2008 to March 2009 after which he joined Brummer & Partners Asset Management from March

60

FARAAZ A. RAHIM

2009 to May 2010. However, his real chance to shine arrived when he joined Rahimafrooz GLOBATT Limited, where he worked from June 2010 to December 2014 as the Manager of International Marketing. GLOBATT is known for delving into various markets with their automotive batteries, with reportedly the first exports of any engineered goods from Bangladesh to China in November 2010. He has also pioneered exports in European and Australian markets and doubled orders from the SAARC regionswithin a year. Mr. Faraaz managed conferences & trade fairs, vendor & market development activities in international markets and became instrumental in helping market this Bangladeshi born Global battery brand.

You are exporting GLOBATT, a Bangladeshi born Global battery brand to 58 countries. What is recipe of this success?

Rahimafrooz as a battery manufacturer in Bangladesh made its entry into the global market in 1992. It started GLOBATT in 2009, after which the management decided to have a dedicated factory just for exports. The factory is situated in Ishwardi Export Processing Zone (IEPZ). The difference of this new plant is that it is a state of the art facility that makes Sealed Maintenance Free (SMF) batteries, whereas others are still producing the conventional dry charge batteries only. After inaugurating the plant, Rahimafrooz started with exports to Sri Lanka, Singapore and India.

This is how the journey had started.

We are currently exporting to 58 countries and in 2012-2013 we received a trophy in recognition of our export achievements. We are the second leading battery brand in Singapore and among the top in Sri Lankan imported brands with monthly exports to Japan. We are prominent in Nepal and sell good volumes in the Middle Eastern

GLOBATT, from a company in a small country, is now present in many first world countries. Today we are known as a reputed battery company to almost all the major players of the lead acid battery industry in this region and across the globe.

region also. In terms of automotive battery volumes, we can say that our revenue comprises about 60-65% from exports and 35-40% from the local market.

GLOBATT, from a company in a small country, is now present in many first world countries. Today we are known as a reputed battery company to almost all the major players of the lead acid battery industry in this regain and across the globe. We have taken part in many fairs& conferences and utilized our previous global networks. What has worked in our favor was our confidence and delivery of quality when we were tested. In our country, GLOBATT was sold selectively due to Export Processing Zone (EPZ) limitations, but from mid-2015 we have fully equipped ourselves to sell this global standard battery to its home country citizens as well. We are now selling GLOBATT through our distribution network in the local market.

However, since most people in Bangladesh are unaware of the benefits and characteristics of a Maintenance Free battery, the local market is still dominated by the conventional dry charge batteries.

Now 0we have to create awareness among the people and make them understand the difference and benefits of this upgraded product technology. Once they understand how their battery and car-cranking worries can be eliminated using our batteries, I don’t think they will look back at a dry charge battery again.

What is the story regarding your venture into the Chinese market?

Before I joined GLOBATT in 2010, I was with Brummer & Partners Asset Management. I was told that GLOBATT wanted to export to China. I knew it would be a challenging project and I decided to take the challenge. I was selected as the export manager for China at that point.When I joined, Chinese was all Greek to us and we had no

www.icebusinesstimes.net

61

FARAAZ A. RAHIM

clue about the market. I had never been in China before. That was the scenario at 2010. Just visiting China was an eye-opener in itself. It is the biggest automotive battery market and we wanted to export our battery to“the� country that exports to the rest of the world. So we started with identifying people who were interested to import batteries and paid many visits to them, travelled across the Chinese land, got used to their food, culture and habits, made friends with people in the industry, acquired the habit of sipping on green tea for no reason at all, among so many other things. This was a slow start and in China we had exported two of our brands: GLOBATT and ALEPH. We also held conferences and did many trade fairs. There were over 300 battery manufacturers in China. One has to have a good quality product, competitive prices, and the ability to prove its worthiness to be able to enter this market.

The biggest impediment was the import duty on batteries and to increase consistency and volume of exports, we have approached the government authorities in both countries to allow duty free entry for batteries into China from Bangladesh. Then the commercial secretary, Mr. Ruhidas Jodder, had helped us with some guidance and follow ups. The Chinese have appreciated our product and have full trust on our capacity to cater to their market; we are just waiting for the inter-country relations to further strengthen our business initiatives.

What role can our Government play in this area?

In exports, of course the first thing is to improve our trade relations with different countries, where large potential markets exist. We also need to improve the infrastructural and bureaucratic systems and work on some policy supports as well, which is needed for seamless operations. Battery is a techno-chemically engineered

62

product, and requires travelingto Chittagong portvia trucks on broken, unfit roads. The rail line is also not fit for battery transport and containers are not permitted on Jamuna Bridge. The resources are scarce, options limited andfar below standard.

Though we are an import dependent country, there lies a vast opportunity in exports outside the garments sector also. The government should realize that and facilitate the endeavors of those sectors as well.

Of course Garments earns the highest revenue because of low cost; nevertheless, there are other products like pharmaceuticals, batteries, plastics goods, food items, etc. The government gives incentives to garments and they should consider doing the same for other industries, especially for high end or engineered goods that are capable of establishing the image of the country positively in the world.

Governments in China and Korea focuses on engineered goods and are supporting their businesses with good trade relations, tax incentives, disruption-free power supply, deep sea ports with excellent facilities, and of course well-paved and managed roads.

The ground rule is to first produce locally then journey globally but in your case, the opposite happened.

We are a value driven company and our values are Integrity, Excellence, Customer Delight, Innovation and Inspiring people. We established GLOBATT with innovation and of course a dream to have our own brand prominence in various parts of the world with a product that will ensure customer delight.

We have a strong team of R&D that was further strengthened through our technical collaboration with a German technical consulting company, headed by the ex R&D chief of Jonson Control, the largest battery company in the world. The consultant visits our factories every quarter, audits the processes and

practices, prescribes what needs to be done to further improve product performance,etc. Basically, we aimed for a product with globally sustainable standardsthat is accepted by customers wherever it is sold. This is how we came up with our Maintenance Free battery range, with a completely global approach to it.

While gaining momentum in the global markets, we felt the desire to make this superior quality product available for its own people in Bangladesh. That is when we began giving efforts to make the Bangladeshi born Global brand enter its home market. GLOBATT focus into the local market will be unique and with separate attention on the brand and related services as well.

Today, we are the only company in Bangladesh that produces Maintenance Free batteries and one of the very few in the SAARC region.

How do you rope in new customers?

Firstly, we create awareness among the final users on the actual benefits of the battery. We also try to educate the dealers about environmental safety features that come from a Maintenance Free battery. The strategy is to establish a few key markets, which eventually have ripple effects across. We keep upgrading our services, extend benefits, and engage mobile service teamswhere needed to ensure our customers are always attended.

We are also providing training to the trade and equipping our field technicians with better and more capable equipment.

We believe that awareness of the product benefits, consciousness of quality and environment, and product availability are the key tools to increase the number of customers using GLOBATT.

INTERVIEW

The Scholastic View

Madiha Murshed

Managing Director Scholastica

Since 2008, Madiha Murshed has served as the Managing Director at Scholastica, one of the larger English-medium private schools in Bangladesh, which was established in 1977 by her mother, Mrs. Yasmeen Murshed. Currently the school has over 5,000 students. She is also the Executive Director at S.P.E.E.D, which is an adult training center for teachers and professionals in Dhaka.

Madiha graduated from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in May 2002 with a Masters in International Affairs, and a concentration in Economic and Political Development.

She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Development Economics from Harvard College in June 1999. IBT recently caught up with Madiha to get her take on the private schooling sector in Bangladesh and to learn about how Scholastica has kept up with the changes and developments in this sector.

Most people in our country consider an English medium private education to be a luxury. Why is this so? Would reducing fees help rebrand them as a necessity eventually?

Just like most countries around the world, our

www.icebusinesstimes.net

63

MADIHA MURSHED

government provides public education at no cost. Many public schools are of very good quality, and do in fact provide a good grounding in English. It is important to differentiate between private schools and English medium schools, because as you know, nowadays there are some semi-private schools (MPOs) that teach in English too.

A separate issue is to talk about private schools in Bangladesh. Like other countries around the world, private schools in Bangladesh face certain cost structures due to which they have to charge a certain level of fees. It is true that these fees might not be affordable for many Bangladeshis. However, many schools including Scholastica have financial assistance programs or scholarship programs which allow us to cast a wider net, providing support to students who have a financial need. Also, I think the real issue is that the quality of schools—whether private or public—varies a good deal. It is important for all of us who work in education to ensure we are trying to provide the best possible quality in education, whether or not we work for private or public schools.

What’s your take on Scholastica’s journey as one of the top private schools in Bangladesh?

Having started in 1977, Scholastica is one of the oldest private schools and is currently on its 38th year.

Right from the beginning, Mrs Murshed, my mother, broke a lot of ground and, as a result Scholastica had a lot of “firsts”, and in many ways it has been a pioneer in education in Bangladesh. Under my mother’s leadership, Scholastica was the first to introduce science labs, she was one of the earliest to arrange international trips for our students, and Scholastica was, I believe, the first private school to build its own custom-designed campus. In the last almost 40 years we have stayed abreast of changes

64

It is important for all of us who work in education to ensure we are trying to provide the best possible quality in education, whether or not we work for private or public schools. and developments in private education in Bangladesh. To this day we still remain pioneers as I can name some recent things which we have done which we were among the first few private schools to introduce such as installing smartboards in classrooms.

How have things changed since Mrs. Murshed stepped down? What changes have you brought in after you took the helm?

There have been many developments and improvements over the years when my mother was in charge, and I have tried to carry on that legacy. It’s something that’s a part of the natural growth of any organization so it’s not about when my mother was in charge or when I took over; the school has been evolving every year. The school has expanded over the years, and the

most important thing to see here is that we grew and institutionalized the organization by putting systems and procedures into place that would allow us to uphold a high quality while still being quite large.

In the early years, decisions were being made by a small group of people, and now it has become an institution which has systems, policies and procedures. Now we have an ERM System, a handbook regarding service rules, different policies and procedure for different tasks and so on. Over the years we’ve also gained experience regarding what works and what doesn’t so we have our own education philosophy which gets incorporated into these systems and processes. The school is still run by many of the same peoplefrom the early days, and we valuetheir experience and wisdom, it’s just become more institutionalized. This is essential as this change will sustain it for the next 40 years.

How does the private tutoring culture affect Scholastica and the other private schools?

Private tutoring is a bane to education. It’s something that’s happening all over Asia and it’s very harmful. There are two common arguments for it. Firstly, that individual children may be struggling in school hence they need the extra help. Secondly, some parents think the teachers in school aren’t good enough. For the first scenario, when students need the extra help schools should be willing to provide it, which they do. It’s our responsibility to educate our children and if they need any sort of extra support it should be provided free of charge. We do that to the best of our ability in Scholastica.

With respect to the second argument, again it’s the school’s responsibility to ensure that the teachers are teaching properly, and I can say that we do many things like training and performance management to ensure our standards of teaching remain high.

MADIHA MURSHED

By making a space for private tutoring, you’re making schooling worse as some teachers may reserve their best efforts for when they will tutor privately. Our government has actually enacted rules to limit private tutoring. These rules will help to strengthen the quality of the education provided by our schools. I support the government in its efforts and wish we could eradicate this way of thinking, that private tutoring is necessary to do well in school. In fact, every year we have students who get excellent results in their public exams without the help of private tutors and relying only on our school teachers, so I know it’s possible! We work hard to raise awareness of this amongst our students and parents.

Another aspect I’d like to touch upon is that students need so much more than just studying, they need after school programs so they can develop other talents and if they get stuck doing private tuitioning then they won’t get to explore other avenues that expand their horizons and develop their whole personalities. I don’t mean to say studying is not important – of course good grades are extremely important, but students need to do more than only getting good grades. Our school curriculum is designed to ensure that students are given the support they need to do well in school, and in their public exams—students should spend their time beyond that in pursuing other hobbies and interests! That is what the ideal situation would be.

There’s a widespread notion that English medium students need to improve the state of their Bangla and their knowledge regarding Bangladesh. In this regard, have steps been taken to improve the Bangla curriculum?

I take that allegation very seriously and we do a lot of work in Scholastica to ensure our student’s Bangla

Our school curriculum is designed to ensure that students are given the support they need to do well in school, and in their public exams—students should spend their time beyond that in pursuing other hobbies and interests!

That is what the ideal situation would be.

is of a high standard. We are Bangladeshis, after all, and it is so important that our students speak Bangla well and respect their mother tongue. We’ve put in a lot of effort in terms of curriculum planning and making our teaching methods more interesting for students. We have been using NTCB books for a long time and continue to do so. In addition, with regards to our Bangladesh studies curriculum, we’ve been using books which were written by us for the past 3-4 years. They’re attractive and well researched and provide a better coverage of Bangladeshi history than our previous textbooks. Bangla literature is being taught in a more creative way, we’ve increased the number of periods dedicated to Bangla and we also have extracurricular reading programs and Bangla book fairs. Years ago our

students weren’t reading full novels in Bangla and now they read two novels every year. In the course of their time in Scholastica, students will read about 10 to 15 Bangla novels, so our students are graduating having read Shorotchondro, Satyajit Ray, Syed Mujtaba Ali, Jahanara Imam and Tagore, among others. We’re trying to make Bangla fun so the novels they’re reading are entertaining while being age-appropriate. Afterwards, we don’t just have Q/A session and make students write essays, but students also get to engage in interactive activities, analyze the novels creatively, and do artwork inspired by the books.

There’s also the problem where students don’t realize what they might be missing out on if they don’t practice their Bangla and keep it up. So we send a lot emails to parents, hold awareness programs and we talk to them about reinforcing the importance of having a proper grasp of Bangla. And of course it goes without saying that we hold all kinds of events to commemorate important national days and Bengali events, we also conduct plays in Bangla. All of this will hopefully create greater appreciation and respect for the language among the students.

These are all the ways in which we ensure that the standard of Bangla taught in our school is high.

What other ventures has Scholastica involved itself in?

Scholastica itself is a venture of Ascent Group which is run by my family and our senior management team. We’ve developed several other sister concerns. The first of these was our printing press which was established about 20 years ago to produce our exercise copies and textbooks and now it’s come into its own,working not just for Scholastica but for other institutions and organizations as well. We are also involved in textbook publication, and teacher training through SPEED, among other things.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

65

“

M Nooruddin Chowdhury Country Director DHL Freight Forwarding Ltd Bangladesh

W

66

Photo Courtesy of DHL Global Forwarding, Bangladesh

INSIDE OUT

Our freight forwarding services not only include standardized transport but also multimodal and sector-specific solutions as well as solutions for individualized industrial projects.

�

What are the foremost drawbacks DHL faces here? Do you feel the need to customize your services while operating locally?

DHL Global Forwarding is a division of the Deutsche Post DHL Group that provides air, ocean, road and rail freight forwarding services. Our freight forwarding services not only

include standardized transport but also multimodal and sectorspecific solutions as well as solutions for individualized industrial projects Our business model is very asset-light, as it is based on the brokerage of transport services between our customers and freight carriers. Our global presence ensures network

M NOORUDDIN CHOWDHURY

optimization and the ability to meet the increasing demand for efficient routing and multimodal transport to meet our customers’ needs.

More importantly, we have the flexibility to tailor our service offerings to effectively support our customers regardless of the market or industry they operate in.

How do you manage and retain a global brand like DHL? Is Bangladesh a difficult market?

Bangladesh is a country with immense potential as well as business opportunities and we want to provide our services to businesses on every scale. The geographical linkage to countries like India, Nepal, Bhutan and even China opens up huge trading opportunities for the country. We are confident that the economy in Bangladesh will grow on the back of the expanding export and import volumes of RMG (Ready Made Garments), pharmaceuticals, life sciences products and footwear. With our global footprint and expertise in facilitating global trade, DHL is well-placed to provide logistics support to local organizations and enable them to operate in the global market.

What new initiatives should be taken to maximise productivity in the logistics sector?

The RMG supply chain is very crucial in Bangladesh and we are particularly focused on servicing and supporting this industry locally.

DHL Global Forwarding services help our customers from the RMG sector receive raw material from their suppliers through various mode of transportation such as road, rail, air or sea. Aside from working with our customers to reduce the cost of transportation, we enable them to manage, reduce and offset their carbon emissions. DHL has contributed to the RMG sector in many ways like facilitating trade, supporting supply chain and

We have the flexibility to tailor our service offerings to effectively support our customers regardless of the market or industry they operate in.

enabling cost efficient transport systems and will continue to do more in future.

What are the new frontiers for DHL in Bangladesh in logistic business?

The future of logistics and freight forwarding is bright. Our success lies in the satisfaction and successes that our customers gain. We invest heavily in our office and warehouse

infrastructure, as well as training for our employees so that our customers can benefit in the long haul.

We are confident that the economy in Bangladesh will grow on the back of the expanding export and import volumes of garments , pharmaceuticals, life sciences products and footwear. We have the solutions to meet customers’ needs in these sectors but we will continue to enhance our service offerings to keep pace with the dynamic business environment in the region and globally.

How exciting is logistic sector for career building? What’s your advice for those who would like to venture into logistic business?

Logistics is an exciting industry to be in and the opportunities for growth are very high. As companies are concentrating more on their core functions, they are seeking third parties to add value to their business operations and manage their supply chain requirements.

However, there is a lack of talent in the logistics industry in Bangladesh and that’s why we invest so much in training our employees to maintain our service standards.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

67

CORPORATE CAFÉ

Asadul Haque Sufyani, Cheif Marketing Officer of Seven Rings Cement talks about the rapidly growing ifrastructure industry and the marketing mix of Seven Ring Cements

By Tamzidur Rahman

68

H

Cementing the Growth How has your journey been from being the General Manager of sales, marketing and distribution to becoming the CMO of Seven Rings Cement?

The passage to becoming the CMO was not very smooth. In a developing country like Bangladesh, the competition is uneven. I actually started my career in the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, in Branding and Marketing where I gained a lot of experience in the field. This helped enrich my

skills. After which I joined Bengal Group to look after their media businesses and hotel projects.

That was an entirely new kind of experience compared to my previous place. Afterwards I worked for Robi back when it was called Aktel.

Pharmaceuticals to telecomm – the diverse fields gave me a better idea of marketing in Bangladesh. And then finally I landed the seven rings cement gig. The experience that I had acquired previously teamed with hard work helped me get to

ASADUL HAQUE SUFYANI

where I am from my preceding position as the General Manager of Sales, Marketing and Distribution.

the country. All things considered, this will help immensely in the current market.

Bangladesh, especially Dhaka, is currently going through an infrastructure revolution – how has that affected the overall trade of Seven Rings since the beginning of production here in Bangladesh back in 2011?

Bangladesh is currently witnessing an infrastructure revolution, as you say – new roads and bridges are being built, more buildings than ever before being constructed, etc.

But like all things there are positive as well as negative aspects to the whole thing. There is a growth of 12-13% annually. Currently the demand stands at 19 million tonnes this annum although the production capacity stands at 33 million tonnes. Resulting in higher supply than demand – this is not necessarily a positive thing. There is enormous competition with a consequential price war taking place. This affects the business – everybody wants to grab major shares of the market. Marketing has become very strategic and complex because of this, making things more challenging than ever. If this continues then a lot of smaller companies will have to shut down in a decade or so. On a more positive note, at the rate the market and the industry are growing, one seldom has to worry about the excess output. In a few years, a lot more cement will be required for the ongoing development. Other industries like brick, steel, ceramics, etc. will also benefit due to this. Yes, times are tough now but things will start to look up in no time. Currently our production output from the two factories in Dhaka and Khulna is 2.9 million tonnes. We’re planning on building a new factory in Chittagong which will increase our production capacity and make us the largest cement manufacturing company in

Where does the main revenue come from?

Seven Rings Cement doesn’t only produce cements but also trades in raw materials which are supplied to various companies locally. Although when it comes to the actual cement product, we consistently cater to everyone starting from house owners to national level industrial construction requirements. That’s pretty much everybody. Around 60% of our revenues come from the general mass market – everyday

Seven Rings Cement doesn’t only produce cements but also trades in raw materials which are supplied to various companies locally. someone or the other is constructing a building. The general mass consists of urban professionals to simple store owners. The knowledge I acquired from my previous marketing experiences assists me to better understand consumer behaviour of the mass.

Admittedly, cement is in demand now more than ever – but isn’t it a rather difficult product to market?

Regardless of all the demand, cement is a difficult product to market.

Cement is a dead product with no attractive features, irrespective of how functional. It is simply dust in a bag. It is a necessity that is only required at exclusively specific times.

Here, ground level marketing is very

important. For instance, pharmaceuticals don’t openly advertise to the mass but go directly to the doctors and physicians using a one-to-one approach. Medical products aren’t items one will ever be required to buy without consulting a medical specialist first.

Similarly, we use the one to one approach on the salespeople and sales outlets of cement. If one wants to build a new house they won’t buy cement without consulting somebody who knows about it.

Therefore, it’s important that we advertise to the ground level sales groups and construction companies.

Our main customers aren’t the consumers but the sales outlets. The outlets provide to the consumers and manufacturers. Thus, we go with BTL (below the line) marketing more. It is not to that we completely ignore ATL (above the line) approach; we have billboards and television advertisements in order to promote on a broader level. ATL promotes knowledge and keeps the mass consumers informed about us while BTL ensures sales.

How has the journey of Seven Rings been at a glance?

Seven Rings Cement operates under the Hong Kong based Shun Shing Group. Shun Shing Group has established businesses in 13 countries around the world. Seven Rings Cement now ranks in the top 3 as per the BCMA (Bangladesh Cement Manufacturing Association).

In 2009 we were ranked 12th in terms of Sales and Marketing. But within a few years we reached where we are now among the 34 companies in Bangladesh. The fact that Seven Rings Cement have consistently stayed among the top 3 ever since it got there is commendable on its part. The credit goes to the team who are extremely hard working and dynamic.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

69

REAL ESTATE

House in Order Realtors of Bangladesh are looking ahead as the business is in better shape

By Hasnain Ahmed

70

T

The real estate industry is a growth center for the development of any economy. The demand of housing in urban areas in developing countries like Bangladesh has been dramatically increasing over the years.

Rural people are migrating to find jobs, and many wealthy people are moving to urban areas like Dhaka city for enjoying the modern facilities of the city life.

In recent times, the private real estate firms have taken several initiatives to mitigate this problem by ensuring maximum

usage of land in a planned way.

Although majority of the population is segmented into middle and low income groups, housing for all has been a fallacy in Bangladesh. The private sector housing real estate developers have met a small proportion of the national housing demand in the last few years. The gap between demand and supply is still very wide. Despite inadequate policy preparations, these real estate developers have been successfully running their business. However, the middle

HOUSING BUSINESS

and low income households are still untapped. With the larger proportion of people living in this income group, the private housing real estate sector has a huge scope to grow in this country. The positive notion is supported by many key indicators such as increasing house rent, inadequate and costly land, easier financing availability and more.

Despite political instability, poor infrastructure, corruption, insufficient power supplies & slow implementation of economic reforms, the building construction industry is considered to be one of the fastest growing and largest sectors in Bangladesh. The number of people employed by the construction sector is expected to rise to 3.32 million by 2020 (Report by WCC).

The growth rate of real estate, renting and business service sector has increased over the years.

However, compared to overall GDP growth, this sector has expanded at a slower rate, which explains the downward trend in real estate as a percentage of overall GDP. The notable socio-economic progress and accelerated urbanization in Dhaka city alone has provided the impetus for an ever increasing demand for housing by its dwellers. For the last two decades, the demand for better and sophisticated housing, more specifically the demand for apartments and flats have witnessed phenomenal increase. The aspiration and the status symbol of owning an apartment, the profitability aspect on part of the real estate companies, population pressure and other various factors have led to a rapid expansion of the real estate industry. This major expansion has brought about many privileges in terms of providing housing for the increasing population, creating employment, providing revenue to the government and other positive external benefits to its linkage industries. However, such an expansion has been characterized by

Although majority of the population is segmented into middle and low income groups, housing for all has been a fallacy in Bangladesh. The private sector housing real estate developers have met a small proportion of the national housing demand in the last few years.

a bubble in this sector in terms of the apartment price that has prevailed over this time span. One of the fundamental factors that have contributed to this price bubble has been the influence and the prevalence of easy credit from the financial sectors of the country to the apartment owners. Financial liberalizations, excessive lending with low interest rates and convenient terms and conditions on housing & mortgage loans allowed individuals to opt for apartment purchases. This phenomenon has fueled the apartment prices by a high magnitude and the prices have gone quite beyond the purchasing capability of the middle and low income group.

There is no control of the govt. over the price increase of land within Dhaka city. Increased land price have a direct impact on apartment price. Also, price of bricks, granular sand, cement, rod & other construction materials have had a rapidincrease. Consequently, price increase of apartments became an obvious outcome. As a result of such price hike, a good amount of undocumented money has been utilized in acquiring land, apartments, buildings, shops etc. in past few years. However, the usage of black or undocumented money in the real estate sector cannot be measured precisely because no authentic information is available anywhere.

Apart from such undocumented money, foreign remittance is a significant source of fund to purchase any real estate property along with personal and family savings and bank loans. But, any consolidated figure about how much foreign remittance is invested per year in real estate sector is not available.

Apart from meeting the housing needs, the real estate sector contributes to the govt. exchequer through registration fees, VAT, Advance Income Tax (AIT), stamp duty, property handover tax etc.

Also, the construction industry is a

www.icebusinesstimes.net

71

REAL ESTATE

labor intensive industry, whose capacity of absorbing labor is manifolds. The industry provides many jobs for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers both in the formal and informal sectors. For the migrants from the rural areas, the construction industry is often a stepping stone to urban life. Real estate sector is a major part of the construction sector. Most of the labor force engaged in the construction sector is basically engaged in the real estate sector. Thus real estate sector is also contributing a lot in the overall economy of Bangladesh.

With increasing housing demand and rising population, apartment culture has grown up in Dhaka sharply. Apartments were first introduced by the formal private developers in early 80s in Dhaka.Currently, consumers are more interested to buy flats than build their own houses. People who already own a house or flat are still very willing to buy another property which actually adds in the growth in the demand. Buyers from the 40-50 years age group are more willing to build their own houses in upcoming years. Younger segments are willing to purchase flats rather than building their own houses. But in most cases they do not have any immediate plan.While still not optimal in terms of speed and efficiency in Bangladesh, the growth of the Internetis making a difference in the way people shop for flats, apartments and commercial property because they no longer have to run around expending energy and time in pursuit of evaluating property for sale.

According to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, there were 33 million Internet users in the nation in 2013.

In 2014, 72-percent of all home shoppers used the Internet to find a home and 82-percent of real estate professionals used the internet to do everything from service clients to advertise properties. Record-setting

72

online and mobile marketing efforts are projected to explode going into 2016.

The real estate sector of Bangladesh is playing a vital role in mitigating housing needs as well as contributing to the economy. It is felt by all concerned parties that a long term policy for the facilitation of sustainable growth of this industry is to be formulated very quickly as the industry is said to be entering into its maturity stage. For such policy formulation, it is very important that proper data is available and accessible to all concerned parties.

An ever increasing younger population would be the major driver of

huge demand for housing in the near future. For assessing the overall business scenario, taking proper investment decisions and formulating long term strategies, REHAB should immediately take some measure to create a central data depository for gathering data.

Only this can ensure correct decision making regarding this sector in the future.Therefore, sustainable contribution from private sector players as well as from the govt. would be required to tackle the growing housing shortage in Bangladesh, especially in Dhaka City.

APP OF THE MONTH

To Push the Envelope Further

https://www.pushbullet.com

By Abhijit Asad

http://couplete.me

Pushbullet

Couplete

Did you ever wish for an easy way to have all your gadgets talk to each other and exchange links, files, notifications etc. without requiring you to frantically jump from one device to another? Well, consider your prayers answered.

Pushbullet not only does all of the above, but runs with the idea even further to create an intricate web of harmony between your devices. For example, if you have Pushbullet installed on your desktop computer (in standalone app form or browser extension form) and your phone, any text messages you receive on your phone will pop up on your desktop in the form of a persistent notification. You can even click the notification and type out a reply to the text message on your computer keyboard without even touching your phone the entire time. And the notification sync is not just limited to text messages, but to any app on your phone (you can even blacklist the ones you don’t want to get pushed).

Like the sound of it? It gets better. Reading an interesting article on your desktop web browser, but are getting called away to a meeting across town? Use Pushbullet to slide the link of the article over to your tablet and continue reading it from there. Need to note down the address of the place before you set out? Check it out from the comfort of your desktop browser, and Pushbullet the address to your phone in the form of a text snippet, which would get synced across all your devices automatically.

The sheer level of convenience and efficiency Pushbullet introduces cannot be understated.

If the name of the app wasn’t a dead giveaway already, Couplete is a complete app for couples. Whether you are a pair of freshly minted lovebirds or married with children, Couplete manages to be relevant for anyone with a significant other. It manages to strike a perfect balance between utility and cuteness with a very well-designed interface.

Couplete lets you assign pet names for your partner and yourself, and its date counter allows you to check out at a glance for how long you two have been a couple, which, although not hugely significant at all times, is always something to marvel about. The app also allows the addition of special commemorative dates for the relationship in its very own calendar, which gets synced across both halves of the couple instantenously.

The home screen of the app lets you jot down upcoming/elapsed dated events of your lives in the form of ‘stories’, which can be further annotated by memorable images. The app also has a secure built-in chat module that allows couples to exchange messages and media without having to resort to another app.

Sometimes, if you’re feeling more loving than usual, you can even send ‘love letters’ using the app to your plus one, complete with their own virtual envelopes.

One of the best things about Couplete is that it sports its own security in the form of a PIN code to secure the app against prying eyes, allowing you to keep your relationship as private as you want.

(Android, iOS, Windows, Mac OS X, browsers)

(Android and iOS)

www.icebusinesstimes.net

73

TECH GIANT

The Musk of Tesla

space-age entrepreneurship at its finest

I 74

Cloud Strife. Squall Leonhard. Elon Musk. Zidane Tribal.

It is quite interesting to note that Elon Musk’s exotic-sounding name does not sound even remotely out of place when it is sneaked into a list of protagonists from the Final Fantasy series of video games. That's alright though, because while he doesn’t have a giant sword, a suit of powered armour (yet), or even a prehensile tail, Musk is not all that different from many fictional heroes – he is also on a mission to save the world.

For the uninitiated, Elon Musk is the CEO and cofounder of Tesla Motors, a shockingly avant-garde automobile company that has already managed to set itself apart by selling and manufacturing only electric vehicles (the name of the company is a throwback/tribute to eccentric Serbian-American electrical wizard Nikola Tesla). It took the company a while to take off, but its most recent cars have managed to take the automobile industry by storm. The new Tesla Model S is not just a beauty to

TECH GIANT

SpaceX

has already earned the distinct honour of being the first private company of its kind to successfully deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

behold, but it is also environment-friendly, and has been rated to be the safest vehicle on the road by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the USA. A stunning feat of engineering perfection, the Model S aced every test thrown at it by the NHTSA with flying colours, soundly trouncing its fossil fuel-powered competitors. While electric cars are still far from going mainstream, Tesla is well on its way to building a massive infrastructure for them, and recently, it was announced that Japanese automobile behemoth Toyota would be taking a staggering USD 50 million stake in Tesla Motors, proving once and for all that electricity-powered vehicles are indeed the future of automotive technology. Electric cars have been around for a while, but it was Tesla that made them cool, popular, cost-effective and practical. Needless to say, under Musk’s able leadership, the future looks rather dazzling for this company.

As if that wasn’t enough, Musk is also the chairman of a green energy company by the name of SolarCity, as well as the founder and CEO of the private space venture SpaceX – both of which have managed to make waves in their own strange and beautiful ways. SpaceX has already earned the distinct honour of being the first private company of its kind to successfully deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

At only 41 years of age, the South African-born and American-bred Musk is already worth more than USD 6.7 billion, and the number seems quite adamant on rising even further in the future. It may even come as a surprise to many that SpaceX, SolarCity and Tesla Motors are not Musk’s first or only projects. One of his foremost

cofounded ventures was a money transfer service by the name of PayPal, formed at the turn of the millennium. Although he did not retain his role as PayPal’s CEO for very long, when the company was acquired by ecommerce giant eBay in late 2002, Musk had still been its largest shareholder (holding ownership of 11.7% of PayPal’s shares), which allowed him to walk away with USD 165 million from the acquisition.

After such a humongous win, most people would probably have called it quits right there and retired off to a private island somewhere. But not Elon Musk. He had already decided by then that a life of rest and relaxation was not on the bill for him, and it was then that he went for some apparently drastic decisions, using his new wealth to found SpaceX and Tesla Motors. It was not smooth sailing from there, however, and he even took a massive risk once to save both Tesla Motors and SpaceX from going bankrupt, by investing his own money behind the companies and nursing them back to health.

While he is not a out-of-the-womb showman like the late Steve Jobs, Elon Musk holds a different kind of charisma altogether within his largely impassive expression. Instead of relying on the power of a reality distortion field, Musk states facts without mincing words, and his candour and sincerity has earned him the respect of peers, rivals and fans alike. He was even named among the world’s 100 most

influential people back in 2013 by the Time magazine.

Musk’s latest brainchild is the Hyperloop, a radical new concept for a high-velocity transport system with a dizzying average speed of almost 1,200 km/h. What makes Hyperloop exceptional is that it would utilize sealed and pressurized tubes as ‘rail’ for transferring capsules with no propulsive power of their own. Musk is planning to build a fully functional prototype Hyperloop in the near future, because someone has to make the skeptics sit up and take notice, and what better man to do it than the real-world equivalent of Tony Stark?

In the world of today, with the mushrooming emergence of me-too startups having become a recurrent and regular thing, Elon Musk has chosen to embrace the future instead of languishing in the present. Musk’s innovations are focused on paving the way for changes in technology that will eventually become the mainstream. Instead of treating rivals like threats, Musk merely shrugs and urges them to adopt newer technologies to that they can actually make a difference collectively, with the people of the world emerging victorious from the competition. Recently, he has even made the groundbreaking announcement of freely allowing rival companies to make use of Tesla’s technology patents to accelerate the development of the electric automobile industry.

Musk’s game is futurism, and he will stop at nothing to see a world that is as green as it is full of life-improving technology. And it’s not just this world that he is out to save – Musk has already mentioned that he wishes to establish an 80,000-strong human colony established on Mars by as early as 2040. Even among his entrepreneurial peers, Musk continues to set himself apart with his over-the-top concepts, stubborn resilience and a fierce desire to turn science fiction ideas into a palpable reality – something that he has already proven himself to be very much capable of doing.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

75

THE BUSINESS OF ENTERTAINMENT

By Zeba Fariba

O

76

On the 31st of August, 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4.24 billion. This confused people all over the globe. They saw very little wisdom in this decision and prophesied either a failure or little success. This acquisition gave them the rights to heroes very much believed too subpar, such as Iron Man or Captain America.

Back then most had not even heard of Thor or The Guardians of the Galaxy. Especially compared to DC’s Batman or Superman and even Marvel’s very own Spiderman and X-Men, this was considered a bit of a challenge for Disney.

However, Disney has delivered well. Today we know that The Avengers became the third highest grossing film of all time during its theatrical run and its sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron became the sixth highest grossing film of all time. And all of this is due to Disney’s very creative and at times ingenious manner of tackling the problem at hand.

Disney’s answer was to create what would be known as The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and this not only included movies but also television series, One-Shots and even comic book tie-ins, resulting in a giant tied-in franchise. At present this universe has 22 movies of which 12 have already been released. The MCU ended up being so successful that Disney was able to recently acquire partial rights to Spiderman from Sony Motion Pictures.

By allowing such an expansive universe to be created, Disney solved multiple problems in one swoop. One of the major ones

How Disney Sold Marvel to the World

HOLLYWOOD MOVIES

being their comparatively lackluster cast of superheroes. By combining each of these heroes in one single movie, they managed to get people interested and curious. By having links between each movie people began to actively consume them all, even if their quality was not always the same. Essentially, Disney took the aspect of continuity in television series and applied them to movies thus creating a formula that will always result in profit from every single one of their films. When one thinks about it, the solution was simple yet very creative.

This also eliminated the disdain people were starting to have towards sequels as a whole by the end of the 00’s. Many famous and beloved movie franchises such as The Matrix and The Pirates of the Caribbean made sequels which were considered massive disappointments. But as a result of the MCU, even if a sequel does not receive very favorable reviews (such as Thor: The Dark World), it will still be a success because the audiences have already become invested in the characters.

The MCU also included Television series such as Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and of course the critically acclaimed Marvel’s Daredevil. This was a very clever move because it expanded the intended audience of the MCU. Marvel’s Daredevil was very gritty and dark and thus targeted an older niche audience, some of whom might not have liked the light playful atmosphere of the MCU movies, but as a result of the series they too have become engrossed by the universe.

There is also the fact that creation of such separate universes has been something that has been going on in comics for a very long time. So the MCU has garnered much favor from those that are active fans of comics.

Thus their active advocacy of the MCU has led to many of the more mainstream audience becoming more knowledgeable and in turn interested in the characters of this universe.

So what Disney has essentially done

Release Worldwide Gross US Gross

: 5/1/15 : $458,924,272 : $191,271,109

Iron Man 3 Release Worldwide Gross US Gross

: 5/3/13 : $409,013,994 : $174,144,585

Guardians of the Galaxy Release : 8/1/14 Worldwide Gross : $333,176,600 US Gross : $94,320,883

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Release : 4/4/14 Worldwide Gross : $259,766,572 US Gross : $95,023,721

is taken a business problem and solved it in a traditional manner with modern twists. We all know that reinventing and re-launching a not-so-successful product is one of the oldest tricks in the entrepreneurial book. But Disney has taken that and has implemented the act of making new universes, something regularly done in comics but not so known in other fields, merged them together and created the MCU. The result is the creation of a large, detailed franchise that is actively consumed by an extremely large audience of many different demographics. Thus we see that Disney took a very common business practice, merged it with a concept known to a niche audience and created successfully what might be hailed as the almost perfect product.

This is the reason why businesses need to think creatively. The old theories and strategies will not work anymore in this modern fast paced era where people tend to forget anything that is not seen as extremely memorable. Businesses need to reinvent themselves, rethink their views, and take a fresh perspective into the world. Who knows where the next great idea might sprout from?

UPCOMING RELEASES Captain America: Civil War Doctor Strange Guardians of the Galaxy Untitled Spider-Man Thor: Ragnarok Avengers: Infinity War Part I Black Panther Captain Marvel Avengers: Infinity War Part II Inhumans

www.icebusinesstimes.net

Release Date

5/6/16 11/4/16 2 5/5/17 7/28/17 11/3/17 5/4/18 7/6/18 11/2/18 5/3/19 7/12/19

77

IBT PROMOTION

NO MORE SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE Six Seasons Hotel Introducing Health Club & Loyalty Membership Program

Address:

House-19, Road- 96, Gulshan-2, Dhaka.

For Reservation-01987009828 E-mail- info.sixseasonshotel.com Web- www.sixseasonshotel.com Facebookwww.facebook.com/sixseasonshotel

78

Six Seasons Hotel has added a new elevation to its service by newly introducing the Health Club Membership at Seasons Fitness Center. The Seasons Fitness Center at Six Seasons Hotel, offers a wide range of fully equipped fitness facilities and state-of-the-art gymnasium on level-14 with steam, sauna,15th floor rooftop 15 meter first hanging infinity swimming pool in Dhaka and relaxation areas to all members. This program offers are for single and couples. Guests can choose single package for one year membership at Tk 100,000 NET, six months at Tk 55,000 NET, three months at Tk 30,000 NET and one month membership at Tk 15,000 NET. This program also offering couple package for one year membership at Tk 175,000 NET, six months at Tk 95,000 NET, three months at Tk 52,000 NET and one month membership at Tk 25,000 NET. Also, it has daily use package at Tk 1,200 Net for single and Tk 2,000 NET for couples.

When one joins the Health Club, he or she will get a consultation with a Fitness Instructor to help get started.

The gym operation hours are from 06:00 am to 11:00 pm and swimming pool is open from 07:00 am to 09:00 pm daily.

The Loyalty Membership program aimed at giving a more rewarding experience to the guests. Guests can take their pick from the Silver, Gold and Platinum cards in offer.

Members can enjoy complimentary buffet lunch or dinner for two in designated restaurants, complimentary one night weekend stay for two, complimentary coffee and pastry and cake on 6 on 96 cafĂŠ, discounts in all F&B outlets, Seasons fitness center, Saran Rom Thai Spa and much more. Silver membership card fee is Tk 35,000 NET per year, Gold membership card fee is Tk 55,000 NET per year, and Platinum membership card fee is Tk 75,000 NET per year.

STARDOM

From Balenciagas to Burgeoning Businesses

Three of Hollywood's biggest female celebrities are turning their fame into handsome fortunes

By Ashfaque Zaman

80

GIRL POWER

When an internet search is conducted regarding any famous female celebrities, the most ‘in-depth’ reporting we seem to obtain is of their massive closets, couture dresses and dating scandals.

However, despite the lack of spotlight regarding these aspects of their lives, 3 of these female celebrities are turning their fame into a handsome fortune.

When Jessica Alba shared her desire to create an environmentally friendly business she was advised to endorse a perfume because it would be a safer investment.

However, the Fantastic Four star stuck by her organic company, starting out with environmentally friendly diapers. Since the company’s inauguration in 2011, it has expanded to organic foods, supplements, personal care and cleaning products; as of 2014 it has expanded its net worth to a billion dollars.

Alba is now initiating a series of beauty products that will consist of an 83-piece collection, including 17 skincare products and a 66-piece makeup range.

While most of the world is tuning into Keeping up with the Kardashians, keeping up with an entrepreneur like Kim will take a much more than a subscription to the E! Network. She has built an $85 million business, which includes a clothing line and boutique (Dash), a mobile game and app, beauty and hair products, a selfie book and countless endorsements not to mention $100 million family deal for their reality series.

Her successful apps Shoe Dazzle and Kim Kardashian: Hollywood have raked in 10 million and 220 million respectively, with Kim taking 15% of the revenue.

Jessica Simpson reached fame with the reality show ‘A Simple Life’ along with her rather impressive voice and by bringing back those infamously short daisy dukes.

However, her clothing line is nothing short of breaking the bank as it expands exponentially. The Jessica Simpson Collection features

A FEW SENTENCES THAT REACH AN INTERNATIONAL FOLLOWING Jessica Alba- 8.65 million Kim Kardashian- 35.3 million Jessica Simpson- 7.22 million

A PICTURE IS A THOUSAND WORDS AND APPARENTLY MILLIONS OF VIEWS. Jessica Alba- 6 million Kim Kardashian- 46.3 million Jessica Simpson- 1.8 million

A PROFILE TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES TO CREATE BUT LEAVES A LASTING IMPRESSION. Jessica Alba- 26.27 million Kim Kardashian- 5.4 million Jessica Simpson- 2.86 million

products from 30 retail categories that range from the primarily popular shoes line to sunglasses, dresses and jewelry. The ten-year-old company is now making a profit of $1 billion at retail on an annual basis. The singer/actress has completely shifted her focus to expanding the clothing line and at this point, shows no signs of slowing down.

These women may have reached fame with their idolized bodies, flawless features and sometimes controversial personal lives but the one benefactor that allows for all of their businesses to continuously bring in exponentially higher revenues is the fact that they are relatable as both women and as people with the universal human desire for greater aspirations.

Jessica Alba has stated that she uses every product from her company because she would not want any parent to give their children a product that she would not allow in her own home. Kim allows cameras into literally every

aspect of her life with her uninhibited demeanor and mantra of ‘being yourself and doing what makes you happy’. The reality star may have a tantalizing love life but when it comes to staying away from dubious ventures like drugs and reckless behavior, Mrs. West has been a model citizen. The ideology that one can ascertain and accumulate from this is that the glamorous entrepreneurially successful lifestyle that Kim has achieved is extremely improbable but this very idea of ‘making it big’ is a goal that millions would strive for.

Celebrities such as Gwen Stefani, Victoria Beckham and the Olsen twins have highly successful clothing lines however the prices of their designer duds means that you’d require the backing of wealthy bank accounts to attain them. Simpson, on the other hand, stated that her clothing line does not cater towards the elites of NYC and LA. Her desire was to create a clothing line that was both affordable and available for women of all sizes. She expressed that her vision was to create a line that both her grandmother would appreciate and her daughter would want to wear.

These women share a glimpse of their limelight with their consumers by making a part of their admired lifestyles attainable.

A simple tweet of 140 characters or less as well as other social media mediums are making these entrepreneurs an even stronger presence; Kim Kardashian charges $25,000 for any product that she mentions on the Twitter. The numbers of followers of their respective social media pages is just as staggering as their accumulated wealth. Their presence in social media is one of integral components through which advertising is conducted. Giving their staggering number of fans, these free applications simultaneously allow them to reach a vast audience without any expense and further enhance the relatable factor that allows them to be highly successful.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

81

TRAVEL

Into the Cradle of the Western Civilization Greece might have made a lot of negative headlines due to its national bankruptcy. Nevertheless the lure of its historical and cultural importance to any globe trotter is totally irresistible

By Badruzzahan Ahmed

O

82

Picture this. An absolute blue backdrop. Blinding white specks of buildings. And completely dazzling Mediterranean sunlight that seems to blanket it all. And of course, do not forget for a second that what lies before your eyes is thousands of years old, and the realization that the history of the world that we know of today, was in many ways shaped deeply by actions initiated at these very places.

That, dear readers, is Greece.

Strategically located at the cross roads of Asia, Europe and Africa, it is no wonder that Greece is tremendously rich in both history and culture. In fact, ancient Greece is considered the cradle of the Western Civilization. It is the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, significant scientific and mathematical principles, the Olympic Games and this list could go on forever. Surely we all have come across the names of

GO TO GREECE

philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, and have been enchanted by the tales of the Trojan War or about the heroic conquests of Alexander the Great. Many of us might have even read Greek Mythology as bedtime stories! All of these and much more, have originated in Greece. It is hence no wonder that Greece boasts 17 UNESCO Heritage Sites, the highest than any other country in Europe.

Greece is layered in deep history, from its very First Civilizations to Classical Greece; its Hellenistic and Roman eras, followed by the Ottoman rule till its independence in 1829. However, today Greece is a democratic country, peaceful yet struggling with the late 2000-s recession and the European sovereign debt crisis.

Greece is not for a traveler with limited time. All major travel guides and websites will suggest the main highlights such as the Parthenon and the Acropolis, public squares like the Monastiraki and Syntagma

Square and museums like National Archaeological Museum and the Acropolis Museum, most of which lies within Athens. However, much of the deeper essence of real Greece lies outside of Athens or “Athina” (in Greek), named after the Goddess Athena, patron goddess of the city.

Athens today is a bustling capital thriving mostly on its tourist industry.

A visit to Greece is not complete without having seen Delphi which is easily accessed from Athens for a day-trip. Delphi is considered as one of the most important sites of the God Apollo, and fabled as the “center of the Universe”. According to Greek mythology, the God Zeus determined the site of Delphi as the center of “Gaia” (or Grandmother Earth) when he sent two eagles flying from the western and eastern extremities, and Delphi was chosen to be where their paths crossed. Indulge on a day-trip along the Attic Coast till its southern-most point to Cape Sounion.

Here stand the ruins of the magnificent Temple of Poseidon, perched on a point such that it conveys to visitors a feeling of what it might have felt for the Greek Gods to command the eternally blue Aegean Sea. Connected to mainland Greece by the narrow Corinth Canal (interesting enough to make a stop!) is the region of Peloponnese. The “small-town” ambience of its cities will leave its visitors charmed and mesmerized. Peloponnese has star-rated archaeological sites such as Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympics (and a must-see!), the Palamidi Fortress, Mycenae and Epidaurus. Yet southern Greece is best experienced when one chooses to get lost among the countless alleys of towns such as Nafplio (a good base to explore the surrounding sites) and Argos, occasionally stumbling upon hidden cafes and restaurants serving authentic Greek cuisine and drinks. And of course,

www.icebusinesstimes.net

83

TRAVEL

Peloponnese is also the home of Sparta, the legendary military powerhouse of Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars in 499 BC, and made even more famous by the 2006 Hollywood movie “300”.

The gem of Central Greece is none other than the stunning Meteora.

Literally translating to “suspended in the air”, Meteora is a marvel of nature, made more well-known to the world after the 1981 James Bond movie “For Your Eyes Only”. Meteora is a set of rocks (or rocks large enough that they appear to be like mountains!) weathered and shaped over thousands of years. Perched on these rocks are 24 monasteries which make it one of the largest complexes of Greek Orthodox monasteries, accessible in the ancient days only by foot. However, vehicles now can access to most of the monasteries. I can personally assure you that Meteora is nothing like anything you might have seen before or might ever see, and that neither words nor photographs do justice to it. The hike up can be made from the nearby villages of

84

Kastaraki or Kalambaka. Even though your feet might be killing you at the end of the almost 10 km hike, walking is far more exciting as it takes you through a series of enchanting views while the rocks twist and turn around you.

A visit to Greece’s islands would be the cherry-on-the-top finale. The sparkling white houses against the brilliant blue skies and waters leaves the visitors with unforgettable memories. Santorini is by far the most popular destination, if not the most beautiful (you honestly cannot compare!). It is almost 8 hours by ferry from Piraeus, the main ferry port of Athens. For a traveler on a budget and time constraint, Aegina (1 hour by ferry from Piraeus) provides a good alternative for the island experience.

Greece is not only famous for its spectacular sites, but also well-known among travelers for the hospitality and warmth of its people.

Greeks, irrespective of how history may portray them as fearless warriors, are generally relaxed and friendly as a nation. You will be

offered smiles or help abundantly at every corner, and sometimes even a cup of coffee or a drink from someone whom you might have just met. English is well spoken in most popular tourist destinations, but be assured that they will be helpful even if there is a language barrier. I remember the one time I was lost, asked for directions to a kind man who did not speak English, and ended up being walked to the nearest Metro Station by him. And that is only the most minimum act of hospitality of the Greeks.

So the next time you are planning a trip that you hope will give you a complete experience of culture, history, supreme cuisine and welcoming people, let the stunning Greece be on the top of your list. It truly is a destination like no other that leaves you in a dilemma of having raised your travel expectations to standards that will forever be hard to overcome. Let the birth cradle of the Western Civilization embrace you for an unforgettable experience, painted eternally in blue and white.

GO TO GREECE

Useful Travel Tips: l

l

l l l

l

l

Photographs by Badruzzahan Ahmed

The peak seasons for tourism in Greece are between April to October. As strange as it may sound, many shops, restaurants and even some hotels operate only during this period! Also transports such as ferries may be less frequent. However, traveling in the off season has its perks. Hotels can be bargained and all sites are comparatively empty and much more peaceful.

When visiting the main archaeological sites in Athens, it is possible to buy a combined ticket, valid for 4 days, for six different sites together for 12 Euros which includes both the Acropolis, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and four other sites.

Single ticket to the Acropolis costs 12 Euros. (as of March 2015) Students from any nationality (including Bangladesh!) can enter all sites for half the price upon presenting a valid Student ID. The cheapest food would be "Gyros" or "Souvlaki", usually available for 1.5-2 Euros.

Trying a Greek coffee is a must! And same applies for the Greek salad! Some authentic Greek restaurants will serve "roasted Feta Cheese". This is an absolute must try!

Even though the Greeks are very friendly and helpful, certain areas in Athens needs to be avoided after dark. One such area is the Omonia.

Wearing sun-block is a must if Greece is traveled between May to September.

www.icebusinesstimes.net

85

FEATURE

A Visit To The National Mushroom Development Institute

BY Jeffrey Gantner

Once a week my driver would hand me a big plastic see-through container crammed to the brim with mushrooms. Needless to say I had to learn a lot of new recipes besides pasta sauce.

One day I asked him why he kept buying me mushrooms. He told me that he wasn’t buying them, that he grew them and had plenty to share. When I asked how he learned to do that, he said he went to mushroom school. I thought, a mushroom school in Dhaka? Then he asked me if I’d like to go. Of course! I said.

86

The mushroom school is actually the National Mushroom Development Institute, part of the Ministry of Agriculture. It’s a lab, farm, classroom and retailer, all in one location in Savar. The Institute is wedged between tea stalls and you’ve to keep your eyes peeled for the entrance, especially if you don’t read Bengali. Look for the cartoon mushroom sign painted in national colours.

The Institute offers both formal and informal classes. The latter are distinguished by their whirlwind curriculum.

Basics of mushroom cultivation are taught in a few hours each day to a handful of students, of which I was hoping to be one.

I removed my shoes (mushrooms hate dust) and approached the reception desk. The clerk was surprised to see me, a foreigner, standing there.

She sent me down the hall to the director, a busy, pleasant man with a firm handshake. He seemed to be juggling a hundred responsibilities. When I walked into his office he hung up the phone and turned his attention to me, whether out of wonder or interest I couldn’t tell. Still, he offered a soft chair and a cup of fresh tea. Some locals were there, signing up for the informal class. All of them were trying hard not to stare at me but failing. They were here to

MUSHROOM CULTIVATION

learn how to grow mushrooms for profit. I, on the other hand, had come because I was curious.

I was told that classes are taught, naturally, in Bengali only. The director paused and looked at me as if to gauge my understanding of Bengali. I have very little knowledge of Bengali, certainly not enough to learn anything by. You can imagine the potential for catastrophe in the classroom. I’d have to settle for a guided tour.

Ms Sultana, my de facto guide, leads me outside to the adjacent one- room building. Light seeps in through the open doorway. A handful of people are seated on the ground, working. Ms Sultana explains that they’re preparing the substrate, the growing medium for the mushrooms.

A mammoth mixer is blending rice husks and saw dust in the proper ratio. Workers pack a measured amount of the mixture in bread loaf-sized plastic bags. Then they tie a spout into the bag and cap it with a wad of cotton to filter the air. (Rice straw, cheap and plentiful in Bangladesh, is also used as substrate after it’s been pasteurized. There is a pasteurization chamber on site.)

Next, the bags are placed into an autoclave, a sterilizer that resembles a pizza oven. Highpressure steam kills any contamiinants. Then the sterile bags are inoculated. Inoculation is the process of ‘seeding’ the bags with mushroom spore. Under favourable conditions – temperature, humidity, lighting – fuzzy threadlike mycelium develops inside the bags.

Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus that produces, among other structures, mushrooms What if you want to grow mushrooms but can’t afford to buy a fancy sterilizer? Luckily, the Institute builds an inexpensive, compact version of its autoclave.

This affordable variant, designed by the director, is assembled from ordinary sheet metal. Add a small boiler, a short length of hose, a gas

For more information about the National Mushroom Development Institute visit http://namdec.gov.bd/

flame to boil the water and, while perhaps not as elegant, presto!

This lower-tech autoclave does the same thing as its big brother using the same principles.

In the next building we put on clean flip flops and tiptoe over wet floors to a sanitized laboratory. A young man in a lab coat (what else) is inoculating bags of substrate. In a habitual rhythm he scrapes a spoonful from a ‘mother’ and transfers it into virgin bags fresh from the autoclave. These bags are then moved into a climate controlled room. They’ll be misted with water and sit for a month or more while the mycelium percolates.

Nearly 200 types of mushrooms grow in Bangladesh. But I’ll only see a fraction of these inside the growing rooms, a clutch of low concrete buildings. Doors and windows are kept open to encourage airflow.

Direct sunlight cannot penetrate the rooms. Soon-to-be flowering bags are stacked high on steel shelves, sharing space with oyster mush

rooms in varying stages of development. Oyster mushrooms resemble lily pads or warped umbrellas the colour of snow and cotton candy.

They have a slightly fishy aroma and flavour and make an agreeable meat substitute.

Ms Sultana introduces me to one of the men in charge of the growing rooms. He grabs a bag chalky white with mature mycelium and, with the fluid gesticulations of a hand model, makes two semi-circular cuts in the plastic with a razor blade. These are the openings through which the mushrooms will sprout and flower. At this stage the bags must be continually misted with fresh water lest they dry out.

The man shows me to another building where woody medicinal mushrooms called reishi are growing. Reishi mushrooms are hard to the touch, like a wooden spoon, and look like something out of Star Wars. Another much cooler, darker room is stacked to the rafters with prized Japanese shiitake. I ask where they grow the magic ones but no one gets the joke.

My tour ends inside a small shop stocked with products from HWL, a local herbalist. The shopkeeper piles onto the table things that I never knew could be made from mushroom extract (personal care products, teas, pills) but no fresh mushrooms. Stocks have become erratic as the temperature has soared: Turns out mushrooms hate hot weather as much as they hate dust.

So I thank Ms Sultana for the tour, buy two bags of dried oysters and call it a day. The shopkeeper asks if I’d like to try the mushroom powder. When I ask him what it’s for he says it’s for good health and that you add it to your morning eggs. And then he flexes his biceps like the Schwarzenegger of Bangladesh.

I take the powder.

Jeffrey Gantner is a freelance creative & technical writer. He can be reached at jeff@jeffgantnerwriter.com

www.icebusinesstimes.net

87