Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flies for Italian capital Rome tomorrow on a four-day visit to attend the World Summit on Food Security 2009. The Prime Minister will also attend two events in Dubai on her way to the Italian capital. The three-day food security summit is going to be held from November 16 at a time when the global food security situation has worsened and continues to pose a serious threat to humanity.
Bangladesh is in serious need of decentralisation, experts said in policy papers and suggested the government to turn each district as the hub for a different sector. But problems have mounted in absence of comprehensive policy planning and mandatory implementation of development projects according to the guideline of such policy.
President Zillur Rahman has pardoned Shahdab Akbar who was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment in four graft case. Shahdab Akbar is the son of Awami League Presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury. Shahdab Akbar was sentenced during the emergency rule in absentia. Mr Akbar never surrendered to the court.
A secretary-level meeting between Bangladesh and India began at state guesthouse Padma in the capital on Saturday morning. Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes and his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao sat to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's upcoming visit to India.
Chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda Friday said the elections to the municipalities and union parishads will be completed by May and October next respectively. Elections to these local government bodies will be held next year for smooth completion of the ongoing developments works of the government and requests by the Union Parishad Chairmen Samity, he said.
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) is once again buying the major part of the country's oil needs at a very high premium rate from Malaysia, making an extra cost of around Tk 50 crore which still can be avoided, sources say.
The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, on Thursday said the government had decided to introduce a separate pay scale or pay commission for teachers. Referring to the Awami League’s election pledge to introduce a separate pay scale for teachers, Nahid said, ‘It will not be implemented now.’ In reply to a question, he told newsmen in his office the government was yet to set any date for the formation of the commission or pay sale for teachers. ‘We are now thinking about the implementation of the seventh pay scale for government employees announced yesterday,’ he said on Thursday.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the projects funded by World Bank would be implemented as per its guideline but no change would be made in the recent amendments to the Public Procurement Act. "The changes made in the Public Procurement Act would not be altered. However, where they [the WB] have any objection, they would follow their own guideline," Muhith told reporters after a meeting with the WB's new country director in Bangladesh Ellen Goldstein at his secretariat office.
Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Golam Rahman yesterday said punishment in anti-corruption cases should be non-bailable since it is not possible to take any effective measure against them as they managed to get bails. The ACC has filed a lot of cases against corrupt people but they remain at large due to long-standing legal process. They come out from jail one after another, he said while talking to reporters following a certificate distribution ceremony at the ACC.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Atiur Rahman on Thursday said the GDP (gross domestic product) growth would be at least 6 percent in the current 2009-10 fiscal year. He made the forecast at a function in Sherpur district where he launched a credit programme for marginal farmers. His prediction dispelled the gloomy forecast made recently by the International Monetary (IMF). An IMF mission last month projected a GDP growth of less than 6 per cent for the current financial year.
