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The Indian delegation, headed by ICC president Sanjay Budhia, while meeting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on Monday, expressed willingness to set up an SEZ there. For this, it has sought a suitable 150 acre plot in that country, wherein it may attract Indian investments worth $5 billion, suggested the chamber.

Direct investment from India could help Bangladesh reduce its trade deficit with India. Massive investments from Indian corporates, including prominent ICC members will create surplus capacity which would not only improve availability of manufactured goods and diversify its basket of goods for re-export to India, said ICC.

During its discussion with the Bangladesh authorities, the Indian delegation has pointed out that sectors like energy, power (both hydel and thermal), steel, communication, healthcare, fertiliser, oil & gas, limestone and forest-based industries like paper, export of plantation crops, spices, fruits, vegetables, flower, herbs and processed foods are some of the areas which can drive a stronger bilateral economic relations between the two countries.

The top three operators -- Grameenphone, Banglalink and AKTEL -- have withdrawn their Tk 0.25 special tariff. The three operators control more than 90 percent of the market, or 40.14 million customers. The total market size is 45.21 million customers.The mobile operators had previously charged Tk 0.25. Now they are charging a minimum of Tk 0.40 to Tk 0.49 per minute. Grameenphone and Banglalink have recently increased their 'start-up' prices to Tk 900, which ranged from Tk 450 to Tk 500 a month ago. "Bangladesh has the lowest call rates in the world, which means that return on investment takes a very long time. This is why most mobile operators today are still not profitable," Ahmed Abou Doma, chief executive officer and managing director of Banglalink, said yesterday.

Egypt-based Orascom Telecom's subsidiary Banglalink entered the market in 2005. Even after having the market's second largest customer base, the company is yet to enjoy profits mainly because they had to bear the huge subsidised connection costs.

Till December 2007, Aktel was churning profits. But after paying a big fine for conducting illegal VoIP (voice over internet protocol) operations, like other companies, Aktel started to incur losses from early 2008. However, among the top three players, only Grameenphone is now enjoying profits. But it has also revised its tariff plan to continue the trend.

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The country's overall trade deficit rose to $3.451 billion during the period from $2.838 billion of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.During the period, export earnings stood at $9.073 billion against the import payments of $12.524 billion, according to the central bank statistics."Due to larger current account transfers of $5.784 billion the current account balance recorded a surplus of $464 million during July-January, 2008-09 against the surplus of $168 million during July-January, 2007-08," the central bank said in its Major Economic Indicators: Monthly Update-March, 2009, released recently.The overall balance also showed a larger surplus of $618 million during the period under review against the deficit of $45 million during July-January period of the previous fiscal, the Monthly Update added.

"Both the government and the central bank are now working to help mitigate the impact on the ongoing economic meltdown in our economy," the central bank official said.He also added that the BB has taken some measures including slashing interest rate on lending in five specific areas and relaxation of loan rescheduling rules to four affected export-oriented sectors.

Meanwhile, remittances from Bangladeshi expatriates stood at $7.029 billion in nine months of this fiscal, growing by 24.43 per cent from that of the corresponding period of last fiscal.The country received $7.029 billion during the July-March period of fiscal 2008-09 against $5.649 billion of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, the BB's data showed.However, the flow of net foreign direct investment (FDI) rose to $764 million during the period from $430 million of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, according to the Update.On the other hand, the flow of portfolio investment has recorded a deficit of $67 million during the period under review due to the ongoing global financial meltdown, they added.The net receipts of foreign aid stood also lower at $580.62 million during the period against $669.15 million of the corresponding period of previous fiscal, the BB officials confirmed.

The annual growth in the number of workers leaving Bangladesh for overseas jobs slowed sharply to 5.1 percent in 2008 compared to 118.2 percent in 2007.Among the major destinations for overseas employment, new jobs for Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia fell by 35.3 percent in 2008. Kuwait has reduced hiring Bangladeshi workers since late 2006. In 2008 new jobs for Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait fell by 92.4 percent and in Bahrain by 19.8 percent.New job opportunities also declined in 2008 in Malaysia by 51.8 percent and in Brunei by 11.1 percent on economic downturn.The recession is also badly affecting new Bangladeshi job seekers in Europe. Jobs fell by 36.7 percent in Italy and 2.1 percent in the UK in 2008.Job opportunities however grew by 202.6 percent in Oman, 85.2 percent in the UAE, 68.9 percent in Qatar and 47.6 percent in Singapore.The central bank officials' forecast indicates a lower remittance inflow in the next few months as a significant number of workers returned home.

According to the latest revisions by the World Bank, India, China and Mexico retain their position as the top recipients of remittances among developing countries. The top 10 recipients list also includes Philippines, Poland, Nigeria, Romania, Egypt, Bangladesh and Pakistan.