One step ahead
August 30, 2010
Sarwar Ahmed
As you step out of the lift at the entrance of an outstandingly modern, crisp and clean office, you see an oil painting of a lion and a lamb lazing together. If the painting is a paradox, so is the story of Imdad Haque, a 55-year-old Bangladeshi who locked horns with his future. He has offices sprawling from New York to Moscow, Hamburg, Vienna, Ankara, Dubai, Singapore and recently in Dhaka.
Since early in life, Imdad was a go-getter, a value instilled in him by his late father. His father was an army personnel, and Imdad helping, were the first to train the youth of Read more
The hidden costs of traffic
August 22, 2010
Brendan Weston
The city’s traffic has grown increasingly crowded and chaotic for more than a decade, and is a disaster even by the standards of less developed countries (LDCs). Productivity is suffering, as workers with once-short commuting distances now make glacial progress in gridlocked daytime traffic that averages barely five miles an hour. Crowded into dilapidated, steamy, fume-belching private buses, they arrive to work tired, perspiring, short of breath and tainted by dust. Those with cars inch along, tapping their horns their cell phone out and A/C blasting, getting atrocious fuel Read more
Bridging the divide
August 19, 2010
Sarwar Ahmed
It was hot and humid with an overcast sky. As we stopped to talk to farmers about progress of rice transplantation near Soling More Bazar, at Mowna, Gazipur, the water flowing through the wayside ditch was not the usual mud colour. It was bluish-black, with a disagreeable smell.
In the midst of rice fields, how on earth did this meandering dyed wastewater flow? In the distant horizon, a manufacturing unit was visible, where the dyed waste was being dumped in the open, creating this unnatural Read more
Sub-standards and testing
August 19, 2010
BSTI reform via private partners
Habibullah N Karim
On August 5, the commerce minister and the prime minister’s economic adviser shared views with members of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the impediments in the path of bolstering exports to India, our largest neighbour with whom we happen to have a very hefty trade deficit.
Despite bilateral negotiations and even some unilateral trade concessions from India, our exports remain a fraction of the more than $3 billion that India annually exports to us. Does this mean we don’t have anything the Indians want? Nothing can be farther from the truth — as seen in the Read more
The ex-factor
July 11, 2010
Sarwar Ahmed
As the bus took a late evening break at a restaurant during our journey to Bogra, we wanted to eat light as dinner wasn’t too far off. We asked the young boy who waited on us, what was available. Off he went reciting rapid-fire, a list of tummy filling, yummy items. Anything light to eat? I asked. A chicken sandwich he suggested with a big smile, though a chicken kebab would be more palatable, he went on. So we settled for the kebab, which was done well and did taste more of spices than of chicken meat. Russel, as he was being called, Read more
Eyes on green banking
June 6, 2010
Mamun Rashid
A green bank is a bank that promotes environmental and social responsibility but operates as a traditional community bank and provides excellent services to investors and clients. Its progressive approach to the community and the earth sets it apart from other banks.
It is more about focusing on ‘mother planet and its sustainability’, shifting from a traditional approach on ‘profit’ or even ‘people’. Green banking is not just another corporate social responsibility Read more
Branding Bangladesh
April 26, 2010
Mamun Rashid
“A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors” — that is how marketing guru Philip Kotler defines “Brand”. In other words, a brand is basically a name used to identify and distinguish a specific product, service, or business.
Nation branding is substantially different from product branding and can be explained in many different ways. Nowadays we hear catchy tag lines used by several nations for promoting tourism in their countries, for Read more
Population, a growth engine
March 9, 2010
Rohan Samarajiva
I was surprised, during my last stay in Dhaka, to read a magazine article about Bangladesh’s “population problem” that made no reference to demographic structure. Modern scholarship no longer sees population solely as a burden, understanding that the relevant question is not about the size of the population as such, but about its demographic structure, the way the population is distributed across different age groups.
When the demographic structure is such that there is a “boom”, or an unusually large generation in the Read more
Digital innovation fair: An assessment
March 8, 2010
Habibullah N Karim
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on March 4 inaugurated the first-ever government sponsored ICT fair of the country at Bangabandhu Novo Theatre complex in Dhaka.
The country has had many ICT fairs since the late eighties but those are all sponsored and organised by the private sector. The Digital Innovation Fair is the first by the government, of the government and for the government — mostly.
Since taking the reins of the government in January last year, the AL-led coalition has been vigorously advocating the virtues of going digital. The vision of Read more
Bangladesh IT industry going global
January 6, 2010
From The Daily Star
Bangladesh IT industry going global
Habibullah N Karim
The information technology industry in Bangladesh has gradually come of age and today accounts for more than Taka 25 billion or USD350 million in annual revenues.
It is still a tiny blip compared to a GDP nearing USD100 billion but it’s a noticeable blip that is growing markedly every year.
Twenty years ago the IT industry was predominantly a hardware vendors market with little or no value addition locally. Today there are more than Read more
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