Morning Briefings Monday, March 21, 2016 MACRO Experts want urban policy for faster poverty reduction An urban policy is required for poverty alleviation, while giving a better life to the citizens, a top urbanisation expert said Sunday. The National Urban Policy was drafted back in 2011, but it has not been endorsed by the government yet. "This is 2016, unfortunately we have not seen the approval of the policy," said Prof. Nazrul Islam, honourary chairman of Dhaka think-tank Centre for Urban Studies, said. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137065 Francophonie envoys stress 'brand image' to expand trade Envoys from Francophonie countries in Dhaka Sunday said Bangladesh needs to build good brand image in French-speaking countries needed to expand foreign trade. "Bangladesh needs to build good image for foreign trade expansion, your country has to decide whether it wants to be identified as a country of cheap labour or a country of high- end goods maker," said Canadian High Commissioner to Dhaka Benoît-Pierre Laramée. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137064 Help build eco-friendly infrastructure: PM Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought Sunday cooperation from the country's architects in building infrastructures using local resources keeping in mind the environment and land resource constraint, reports UNB. "I seek your cooperation in building infrastructures suitable for the country using the local resources," she said. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137091 Experts seek public-private coordination to attain SDGs Speakers at a roundtable titled "Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Challenges for Bangladesh" on Sunday stressed the need for more coordination among public and private sectors as well as donors' participation to attain the SDGs. They also called for identifying the priority goals, integration of the goals in national planning process, and strengthening the government institutions with good governance to achieve the development targets. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137090 Cabinet body okays deal with UK firm Redline Security, a British security company, is set to get security management responsibility at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) as the cabinet committee on the government purchase approved Sunday its proposal to this effect. The purchase committee meeting was chaired by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed. Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) will sign a contract with Redline under a two-year project initiated to beef up HSIA security today (Monday). Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137103 Morning Briefings Monday, March 21, 2016 One-way cargoes threaten BD-India coastal shipping MV Harbour-1 of Nipa Paribahan would leave Chittagong Port for the Krishnapatnam Port of India with empty containers, Chittagong Port Authority said today. Shipping circles observed that sailing with at least 150 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers laden with goods on both ways of sailing and arrival would only make the direct coastal service commercially viable. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137093 OVERALL MARKET Arrest warrants against probe body chief, former SEC man The special tribunal on capital market issued Sunday arrest warrants against the chief of probe body on 1996 stock market scam Amirul Islam Chowdhury and a former executive director of the securities regulator M A Rashid for failing to appear before the tribunal as directed. The tribunal had earlier advised both of them to appear before it on Sunday for cross-examination in the case of Premium Securities, a brokerage firm which was disposed of by owners after 1996. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137101 Stocks end lower on DSE Stocks ended marginally lower Sunday, with falling turnover, as investors were cautious following the recent bank heist and appointment of a new governor in the central bank. Market insiders said most of the investors went on selling spree while some kept observing the market movement as recent heist of US$ 101 million from the Bangladesh Bank (BB) by hackers made investors nervous. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137054 BD National Ins to allocate 17.70 million shares Bangladesh National Insurance Company will allocate 17.70 million ordinary shares among successful applicants after the lottery of initial public offering (IPO) was held Sunday, officials said. The lottery programme was held at 3:00pm at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (lEB) in Dhaka. The IPO result is available on the websites of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) and the company. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137056 BANK 'Restoring BB staff’s morale, recovering $81m top priority’ Restoring the flagging confidence of the heist-haunted central bank's staff is one of three priority tasks the new governor of the Bangladesh Bank announced while taking office Sunday. On top of the dos Fazle Kabir mentioned is retrieving the US$81 million stolen out into the Philippines by cyber thieves from the BB reserves deposited with the US Federal Reserve Bank. He also cited bolstering the cyber-security mechanism as a priority job. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137099 Morning Briefings Monday, March 21, 2016 Tough task The task is challenging and difficult, head of the three-member official probe body on the Bangladesh Bank reserve heist Dr Mohammed Farashuddin said Sunday, as the digital burglary still remained a riddle. He made the remarks to newsmen after the maiden meeting of the committee at finance minister's residence in Hare Road where he said the terms of reference (ToR) of the task were discussed. "It's a very big and risky incident for the country," said the former governor of the central bank at the outset of their probe work after the weekend. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137095 CID targets tracking down of hackers, real beneficiaries The hackers and ultimate beneficiaries of the Bangladesh Bank account heist from the US Fed are the two targets of probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Police. With backing from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) the CID officially started Sunday its investigation into the case of US$101-million heist to this end. The FBI will provide necessary assistance, including technological one, to the CID investigators in accordance with the first official discussion between the two law-enforcement agencies held at the CID headquarters in Dhaka Sunday. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137100 New BB governor Fazle Kabir joins office The new governor of Bangladesh Bank Fazle Kabir has started his first day at work this noon, four days after he was appointed governor of the central bank by the government. Kabir returned from New York on Thursday and joined the bank today. His former office Sonali Bank arranged a farewell ceremony in his honor earlier in the morning, at Sonali Bank Ltd at Motijheel in Dhaka. At Bangladesh Bank, he told reporters: “Restoring the confidence of my new colleagues will be one of my main priorities, so that they can work without fear.” Link:http://www.thedailystar.net/business/new-governor-bb-fazle-kabir-joins-office- 1196911 Cyber security top priority: BB chief The new governor of Bangladesh Bank, Fazle Kabir, has vowed to strengthen the regulator's IT security system to prevent a repeat of cyber attacks that robbed the central bank of $101 million from its reserve account. “We are giving priority to initiatives to strengthen the IT security system and create protection against hacking,” Kabir told reporters after taking charge as the new governor yesterday. Link:http://www.thedailystar.net/business/cyber-security-top-priority-bb-chief- 1197199 Western Union, BKB conduct campaign During last Ramadan, Western Union, along with Bangladesh Krishi Bank implemented the wishes of five individuals under a promotion campaign titled "wish come true", said a statement. After a selection process that covered whole Bangladesh, individuals were chosen as winners based on their answersto the question on their biggest wish. The five winners were selected based on the uniqueness, sincerity and warmth of their answers. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137055 Morning Briefings Monday, March 21, 2016 The new geopolynomics of AIIB For the first time Bangladesh is a founding member of a multilateral development bank (MDB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), whose majority shareholders are developing countries. AIIB, which was launched on January 16 last, is set to start project lending operation in the second quarter of this year. In my previous write up on AIIB in this column, I focused exclusively on the wider economic implications of this new multilateral institution, which was described by the European Political Strategy Center (EPSC), an in-house think tank of the European Commission, as a "potential economic game changer in multilateral development finance". Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137102 Philippines ‘the dirty money haven’ When mystery hackers launched a stunning raid on Bangladesh's foreign reserves, a plot worthy of a John le Carre spy novel was sparked in the Philippines, exposing the Southeast Asian nation as a dirty money haven. The $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh central bank's American accounts last month was immediately sent via electronic transfer to the Philippines' RCBC bank, with the thieves deliberately targeting their laundering location. Link: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/03/21/137096 TANNERY INDUSTRIES Govt won't let raw hide enter Hazaribag from April 01 The government decided on Sunday not to allow entry of raw hide into tanneries in the capital's Hazaribag area from April 01 in a bid to speed up relocation process of the tanneries to Savar and prevent river pollution, officials said.