Total discovers gas in sea off Bangladesh

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/02/26/news0422.htm

Total discovers gas in sea off Bangladesh

REUTERS, Dhaka

French oil firm Total SA has discovered natural gas in an offshore field about 420 kilometres (263 miles) southeast from Dhaka, a Bangladesh official said yesterday.

“We have had confirmation from the firm about the presence of natural gas in two blocks which also covered an island in the sea,” said Mohammad Muqtadir Ali, a director at the state-run Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation or Petrobangla.

“It is a great relief for us as the country at present is facing up to 250 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas shortages a day,” Muqtadir told Reuters.

The firm said that both oil and gas might be there and was satisfied with the data they acquired through seismic survey, the official said.

The European oil giant Total spent nearly $20 million to conduct the three dimensional survey in those structures in the sea near the Myanmar border covering 18,367 square kilometres.

“If the acquired data matches the commercial viability, it will be one of the biggest natural gas discoveries (in the region) and if everything goes smoothly then production will be started by early 2012,” Muqtadir said.

Total, the operator of these two blocks holds a 30 percent share while Irish oil company Tullow owns 32 percent shares followed by Thai energy firm PTTEP with 30 percent. US companies Oakland and Rexwood hold the remaining shares.

Blocks 17 and 18 are close to Myanmar’s gas blocks where that country discovered around 6.0 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas.

Bangladesh with more than 13 tcf of gas reserves is currently producing about 1,800 mmcf of gas per day against the demand of more than 2,050 mmcfd.

Xian Zhu suggests export diversification to face global financial crisis

http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=116632

Xian Zhu suggests export diversification to face global financial crisis; He requests to incorporate environmental issues in proposed industrial policy
UNB, DHAKA

World Bank country director Xian Zhu yesterday suggested Bangladesh to emphasise on labour-intensive light engineering industries and diversify export to keep it away from current global financial crisis.

“I think Bangladesh should concentrate on labour-intensive light engineering industries and diversify export not depending only on readymade garments to face current global financial crisis,” Xian Zhu said while talking to Industries Minister Dilip Barua at his office last morning.

The WB country director pledged all-out cooperation to face global financial crisis if Bangladesh seeks any specific support.
He hoped Bangladesh might turn into a middle-income country before 2021 if it can utilise its cheap labour force through making them trained and skilled.

The WB country director requested the Industries Minister to incorporate environmental issues in the proposed ‘industrial policy’ so that sound environment is not hampered in the name of industrialisation.

Xian Zhu suggested the Industries Minister to take idea from the policies of neighbouring countries – Japan, China, Malaysia and Vietnam in formulating industrial policy for Bangladesh.

While discussing on the flow of FDI Xian Zhu said: “I think the procedure of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), especially land acquisition process, should be more simplified to attract investors.

Industries Minister Dilip Barua said the government is heading towards a comprehensive industrial policy for the expected industrial growth in the country.

“We need a modern industrial set up to ensure industrialisation and WB might provide technical support in this regard,” he said.

The Minister said the government has been working to develop the country into a middle-income one by 2021 and has taken preparation to formulate a coordinated industrial policy.

Emphasising on stable political situation the Minister said the government would try its best to ensure an industrial-friendly and stable political situation in next five years.

Korea to help Ruppur nuclear power plant, solar energy, coal extraction in Bangladesh

http://www.bssnews.net/newsDetails.php?cat=8&id=19091&PHPSESSID=0e60f5599176483cebe993bac97ce548

Korea to help Ruppur nuclear power plant, solar energy, coal extraction in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb 24 (BSS) – Korean government is keen to provide assistance to Ruppur Nuclear Power Plant as well as solar energy and coal extraction to meet nation’s growing need of energy.

Ambassador of Republic of South Korea to Bangladesh Suk Bum Park expressed his country’s interest when he called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban office here tonight.

During the meeting, they discussed matters of mutual interest especially trade and commerce relations between the two countries, the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told reporters after the meeting.

Azad said, the Korean envoy also expressed interest to recruit more manpower from Bangladesh.

Referring to the Korean EPZ in Bangladesh, Park thanked the Prime Minister for providing export and business friendly atmosphere in the export processing zone that help to increase production in the factories owned by Koran entrepreneurs.

He conveyed the Korean president’s greetings to Sheikh Hasina for becoming the Prime Minister after her party’s landslide victory on December 29 general election and invited her to visit Korea with convenient time.

In response, the Prime Minister thanked the Korean president conveyed through the envoy for congratulating her as well as inviting to visit Korea.

The Korean ambassador expressed the hope that friendly relations between the two countries would further strengthen under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina in the days to come.

Secretary to the Prime Minister’s office Mollah Wahiduzzaman was present.

WB assisting govt to light up rural Bangladesh

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/02/25/news0250.htm

WB assisting govt to light up rural Bangladesh

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

The World Bank is supporting a government initiative to increase rural people’s access to electricity through the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development (RERED) project.

Under this project, more than 520,000 consumers in rural areas have received electricity connections since January 2003.

The Rural Electrification Board (REB) has so far constructed and renovated about 19,500 km of electricity distribution lines, which has helped REB reduce its system loss. Electricity in rural areas is used mainly for domestic and rural market lighting, operating small and medium enterprises, irrigation pumps and sometimes industries.

The government has embarked on a renewable energy scheme to provide electricity to remote areas where grid expansion is either difficult or expensive. Through the Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (IDCOL), the project is promoting Solar Home Systems (SHS). A SHS uses solar panel to generate electricity from sunlight, which can then stored in a rechargeable battery. This battery allows a household to switch on 3 to 4 light bulbs and one black and white television for at least 4 hours a day. The SHS scheme has been a highly successful program. So far more than 250,000 SHSs have been installed in rural Bangladesh by IDCOL through various NGOs working as Partner Organizations (POs).

Among other renewable energy options, the project has supported a 250kW biomass power plant as a pilot project. This biomass power plant is now under operation and supplies electricity to more than 300 consumers. This plant uses rice husk as fuel to generate electricity.

The successful operation of this plant has generated interest among local sponsors and IDCOL has received many more project proposals to finance similar types of plants in rural areas.

IDCOL is now in the process of financing another small biogas power plant. Upon the success of these projects, IDCOL will be able to use these power plants to training, demonstrate and create awareness among the local investors.

This has the potential to open up a new era where areas isolated from the national grid could generate their own electricity based on biomass and biogas fuels.

The Bangladesh government has requested for additional financing to install an additional 300,000 SHSs under the project. In response to this request, an IDA team has recently conducted a preliminary analysis of the suitability of bank financing.

The bank team has discussed with government and IDCOL counterparts whether in addition to SHS, other renewable energy based power plants, using biomass or biogas should be included in the project scope. IDCOL’s interest to finance projects promoting energy efficiency and energy conservation was also discussed.

If documented properly, these projects can be used to attract carbon financing. The team is expected to carry out a detailed appraisal in March 2009 to mobilize additional resources to continue funding this highly successful program.

Bangladesh hopes to get big chunk of shipbuilding reconstruction works

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2009/02/24/59635.html

Bangladesh hopes to get big chunk of shipbuilding reconstruction works

FE Report

Bangladeshi built ship. SOURCE: DailyStar

Bangladesh has the opportunity to grab a huge shipbuilding reconstruction works worldwide as about 55 per cent ships with less than 500 TEU capacities (more than 20 years old) need to be replaced within the next two to five years.

“With recession taking its toll in every region of the world, we feel an urgent need to explore such opportunity after taking part in the recent SMM Istanbul Shipbuilding Fair, an internationally acclaimed event,” said a statement of Maritimus Limited, a local shipbuilding company funded by a group of London-based non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs).

The company said with Maritimus showing the way, one can surely hope for a big chunk of that rewarding task to make its way into Bangladeshi hands in the years to come.

SMM Istanbul Fair was attended by personnel from some of the most prestigious companies across the globe.

Maritimus’ business models, organizational structures and compliance with international standards earned appreciation at the fair.

The company is in the process of signing MOU with a few international shipbuilding companies in order to engage in joint ventures, secure orders and attract international customers to its shipyard in Narayanganj.

The company also held meetings with the officials of Bangladesh Embassy in Turkey and the British Government.

The UK Trade & Investment has lent its support for the company, as this is an initiative of British-Bangladeshi entrepreneurs.

Chairman of the company Barrister A.M. Rafiqul Islam said: We can visualize Bangladeshi hands creating ocean-going vessels for the world’s biggest buyers in the very near future as the country has the adequate capacities.

Rahimafrooz eyes battery exports to rich nations

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Rahimafrooz eyes battery exports to rich nations

Sayeda Akter

Rahimafrooz is set to double its annual automotive battery production capacity to reach 25 lakh units, designed to capture a market share in developed countries by May.

The Tk 110 crore project, Rahimafrooz Globatt Ltd, nears completion and is under the company’s global expansion plans.

“We are going to double our annual production capacities for automotive batteries by May. The product has been designed specially to capture the rich nation markets, including North America, Europe, Korea, Australia,” said Munawar Misbah Moin, group director of the company.

“This is the first-ever initiative of the company’s global expansion plan, under which we are producing batteries targeting the markets in developed countries,” he said.

Rahimafrooz is also going to start exporting the newly produced automotive batteries to those countries by June for the first time, said Munawar.

“The Global Expansion Plan was a result of our success in the export market,” he said. “Now we need concentrated initiatives to reach the mature global markets and grow to create global footprints,” he maintained.

The project received the country’s first-ever equity investment from Frontier Fund, a local partner of Brummer and Partners, Sweden’s largest hedge fund manager, in January to develop its automotive battery export business.

An equity fund is generally invested in firms by purchasing certain equity shares of those companies and sharing their profit with the investors. Investors can recover the fund only when the companies sell their shareholdings to other investors.

Thirty percent of the project cost has been raised from equity investments from Global Holdings Ltd and Brummer and Partners.

“We have established a world class manufacturing plant under the global strategic plan for our expansion plan,” he said.

Rahimafrooz Globatt Ltd, situated in Ishwardi EPZ, uses the latest technology including business software solution applications and services.

As many as 400 people have been employed in the project, an environment-friendly venture, Munawar said.

“After the first phase of the project, we dream to establish global plants, although it will not be an easy task under the existing rules and regulations set by the government,” said Munawar.

Currently, Rahimafrooz produces 12 lakh pieces of automotive batteries per year, which are used to meet the local demand and are exported to different countries.

Rahimafrooz was founded in 1954 by late AC Abdur Rahim. It started its journey as a small trading company, but over the decades, it has grown in size, scale, and diversification.

Currently, the group has seven operating companies, three other business ventures and a non-profit social enterprise.

Rahimafrooz is the pioneer in producing industrial batteries, solar power and IPS (instant power system) in the country. The company also spearheaded the export of batteries to more than 40 countries.

The new batteries will be suited to the needs of the developed nations and their markets.

Now the company exports batteries to 18 countries, including India and Singapore, on a regular basis, which is produced specially for the regional nations and their infrastructure.

Rahimafrooz has sales and distribution units in several Indian cities, including Ahmedabad, Delhi and Calcutta.

Tk 200 crore textile unit opens in Narayanganj

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/02/24/news0167.htm

Tk 200 crore textile unit opens in Narayanganj

Chaity Group, a leading textile and garments manufacturing industry of the country has set up a composite textile unit at Sonargaon under the Narayanganj district.

The unit named as Chaity Composite Ltd built at the cost of Tk 200 crore was inaugurated by Managing Director of South-East Bank Neaz Ahmed in presence of foreign and local dignitaries on Thursday, said a press release.

Equipped with most modern European machinery, the textile unit has a production capacity of 40 tons per day.

The unit will produce fabrics of world class quality both for local and foreign markets and save a huge amount of hard- earned foreign currencies against import of fabrics every year, officials of Chaity group said.

In his speech, Neaz Ahmed said the launching of Chaity Composite Textile is a miles stone in the country’s fast-growing textile sector.

“This will reduce dependency on foreign fabrics and save a huge amount of foreign currencies every year”, he said.

Abul Kalam, Managing Director of the Chaity Group said Bangladesh is now competing in the world textile markets.

To face the challenge, it needs more such modern textile units that can produce international quality fabrics.

Later, the group celebrated its 18th founding anniversary through various programmes.

Bangladesh’s software industry turns suitable harbour for outsourcing

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=77052

Bangladesh’s software industry turns suitable harbour for outsourcing
Xinhua, Dhaka

Global market recession makes Bangladesh’s software industry a very suitable harbour for outsourcing as many western and European companies shifted their focus on the country for low-cost IT services, sector insiders said yesterday.

They said the country’s software export has achieved hefty growth in recent months, as more than 400 software and IT companies are exporting their services to around 30 countries in the world.

President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) Habibullah N Karim told Xinhua: “Global economic downturn hastened export growth of our software industry.”

“Bangladesh’s software industry will become a $500 million export earning sector by 2013-2014 fiscal year (July 2013-June 2014) if the current trend of robust growth continues,” he said.

With nearly 100 percent growth, Karim said Bangladesh fetched over $14 million from export of software in the first five months of the current 2008-09 fiscal year.

The country set $30 million of software export target for the current fiscal year after the sector earned $24 million in 2007-08 fiscal year which was $2.24 million in 2000-01 fiscal year, he said.

Karim said Bangladesh has already become a large ground of potential human resources with bright aptitude, quality and natural ability in software development during the last few years.

Bangladesh’s approximately 20 billion taka (about $285.71 million) software industry currently employs nearly 20,000 skilled and semi-skilled professionals, he said.

A leading exporter Nahid Ahmed said although a majority of the companies are exporting software services to the North America, recently there has been encouraging performance by a good number of firms in European and East Asian markets, mainly Japan.

Following global companies’ interest about Bangladesh’s software industry, he said many local and foreign IT firms are investing for developing high-quality software taking advantage of low-cost work force here.

“We’ve found many global companies over the last few months to come and invest in the country as they think developing software here will help them to reduce their cost of operation and remain competitive in global market in the wake of economic downturn,” Ahmed said.

Among the hundreds of export-focused companies, according to BASIS, at least 30 companies have been set up either as joint venture or as ODC (Offshore Development Centre) with hundred percent foreign investment in the country in the recent past.

The BASIS, national trade association of software & IT services companies of Bangladesh, in its website also said the European Union has already ranked the South Asian country as one of the top20 outsourcing destinations in the world.

To meet the high quality standard of offshore jobs and comply with the expectation of overseas clients, the companies in Bangladesh are rightly focusing on putting in place global standard practices and processes, said Ahmed, also secretary general of BASIS.

Sector insiders said the country’s new government’s dream to make digital Bangladesh by 2021 will also help local software industry to grow as it is expected to provide more budgetary supports like tax and duty cut to woo more investment in the IT sector.

The Bangladeshi government currently provides 60 percent of the salary/allowance cost for recruiting interns (fresh graduates) by any software companies.

Bangladesh, which is now connected to Submarine Cable Network South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe-4 (SEA-ME-WE-4), has already brought all of its major cities and towns under high-speed and low-priced fibre optic backbone.

Nearing a shipbuilding boom!

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=77025

Editorial
Nearing a shipbuilding boom!
Full support should be accorded to the enterprise

IT is indeed encouraging to note that shipbuilding to cater to overseas buyers is becoming a fast growing sector for Bangladesh. Already we have exported a number of ocean going cargo vessels and orders for more are in the pipeline. To be precise, Bangladesh has $500 million worth of export orders in hand to deliver ships by 2010. It augurs well that contribution by the sector would comprise 3 to 4 percent of GDP by 2015, and that export earning can go up to $2 billion in near future. It will be no mean feat considering the tough competition coming from major shipbuilders of Europe and Asia. Right now, the continued faith of foreign buyers in our ability to deliver only reinforces our confidence that we no more lag behind in heavy industrial production and that our quality matches that of any reputable international manufacturer. Therefore, to stay in the market as an important player, we shall have to modernise and innovate constantly.

It needs no emphasising that Bangladesh economy is at present dependent on an array of traditional items. It badly needs diversification to become sustainable. The shipbuilding sector has the potential to expand our export basket fetching much-needed foreign currency as well as generating employment. We believe that with a vigorous marketing plan, the new crop of entrepreneurs will be able to obtain a big slice of the 400 billion dollar global shipbuilding business. If we can do that, this sector would no doubt play a major role in helping us attain the mid-income country status within the stipulated time. But it also needs to be stressed that to meet buyers’ requirements in conformity with international standards, skill development is the most pertinent issue that both entrepreneurs and the government will have to look into concertedly.

Shipbuilding is predominantly a technology-driven sector where constant improvement of engineering skill keeps one ahead of the others in competition. The government, for its part, remains pledge-bound to extend full support to the sector through reforming or enacting new policies so that shipbuilding can lift the country’s image besides earning precious foreign currency.

New BRRI irrigation tech to save Tk 5b annually

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2009/02/23/59535.html

New BRRI irrigation tech to save Tk 5b annually

S M Jahangir

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has developed a technology that can help the country save Tk 5.0 billion annually on account of irrigating rice field.

The Alternate Wet and Drying (AWD) method of rice cultivation can lessen the overall use of water by up to 30 per cent for irrigation, the BRRI sources said.

According to the BRRI, rice farmers are able to save their irrigation cost ranging between Tk 1200 and Tk 1400 per acre through applying the AWD irrigation method.

After its successful test, the Irrigation and Water Management Division (IWMD) of the BRRI started the field-level demonstrations on the AWD method during the current ‘Boro’ cropping season at seven different places of the country, a senior BRRI official told the FE.

About the new irrigation technology, the BRRI official said farmers require to irrigate their rice fields with only two to three inches of water and to wait until the fields become dry.

At this stage, they have to irrigate the rice fields with two to three inches of water again, instead of the traditional ‘flooding practice’ of irrigation, the BRRI officials said.

The AWD method not only helps cut the irrigation cost, but it also reduce weed and pests attacks in rice fields, they claimed.

Terming the new irrigating technology a ’significant’ achievement, they said it has come as an aid in the wake of falling groundwater level, supply scarcity of fuel and electricity for irrigation and rising cost of rice production.

The BRRI officials have laid emphasis on the need for transferring the new irrigation technology to farmers’ level within a shortest possible of time.

Keeping this in view, the Irrigation and Water Management Division of the BRRI in collaboration with the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) organised a training programme at its Kapasia Training Centre, Gazipur recently.

More than 50 participants including 30 farmers and 20 Sub Assistant Agricultural Officers took part in the programme.

The BRRI Director General Md Firoze Shah Sikder and senior officials of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) the BRRI and the DAE were present on the occasion.

Highlighting the impor tance of the AWD technology, the participants of the programmers said the sooner the technology can be reached the farmers’ level, the better the country will benefit out of it.

Minister sees shipbuilding as bright spot

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Minister sees shipbuilding as bright spot

Commerce Minister Faruk Khan, third from left, visits Western Marine's shipyard off the Karnaphuli river in Chittagong yesterday.Photo: STARStaff Correspondent, Ctg

Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said yesterday the shipbuilding sector emerged as a new bright spot for Bangladesh with broad prospects for growth.

Describing the government as business-friendly, the minister assured businessmen of “all-out support” by making new policy and bringing changes to the law to accelerate development of the sector, which promises to be Bangladesh’s “surest path” to a mid-income country status.

Khan was speaking as the chief guest at a ceremony during a goodwill visit by the Parliamentary Friendship Group of German Bundestag to Western Marine Shipyard Limited on the other bank of the river Karnaphuli at Shikalbaha in Patiya upazila.

Acting Head of German Delegation Dr Norman Peach, Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam, German Ambassador Frank Meyke were the special guests at the ceremony. Western Marine Chairman Md Saiful Islam presided over the function.

“Shipbuilding is in the blood of local people as we have a rich history in this sector. People here in Chittagong had built sailing ships 500 to 600 years ago,” said the minister in his speech.

All it requires is modern technology and skilled manpower to meet increasing demand for ocean-going vessels, Khan said.

The minister hoped the sector would help boost bilateral trade between Bangladesh and European countries.

There exists a friendly environment for trade, commerce and investment as Bangladesh has started a “new journey” to establish a “secular, democratic and stable” country, he said.

The minister reiterated the government’s commitment, as made in its election manifesto, to support shipbuilding as a priority sector. “We have a business-friendly policy and believe in the free-market economy. We will do our best to promote the sector,” Khan pledged.

In a presentation on trade and investment opportunities in the shipbuilding sector, Western Marine Managing Director Md Sakhawat Hossain said the contributions by the industry would take up 3-4 percent of GDP by 2015.

If Bangladesh can grab 1 percent of the $400 billion global market of small vessels, the amount will rise to $4 billion, he said.

According to Western Marine Chairman Md Saiful Islam, Bangladesh has bagged $500 million export orders for ships to deliver by 2010.

“Earnings will rise to $2 billion if this momentum is maintained,” he said.

Western Marine has received orders for 12 ocean-going ships from a Dutch company.

Dr Norman Peach, acting head of the German Delegation, hoped that the industry would help the economy in the region.

Pointing to wide opportunities for bilateral trade and commerce between Bangladesh and Germany, Peach said the sector in Bangladesh would also open a new trade and investment window for German enterprises.

German Ambassador Frank Meyek referred to a stable political situation and reform measures taken over the last two years and said the reforms would help build efficiency with reduced ‘turnout’ time for vessels, which has led to a tremendous positive effect for Bangladesh to boost international trade.

The Daily Star Publisher and Editor Mahfuz Anam said the emerging shipbuilding industry is important not only for earning revenue but also for technology transfer.

Anam hoped that the development of the shipbuilding sector could help the country rebuild its image in the international arena with a new reputation as a shipbuilding nation. The media could play a vital role in promote the sector, he said.

CCC Mayor Mohiuddin Chowdhury has said it is a matter of pride that Bangladesh is now able to export ocean-going vessels to European countries.

Govt to help expand shipbuilding industry

http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=116133

Govt to help expand shipbuilding industry
STAFF CORRESPONDENT, CHITTAGONG

Feb 21: Commerce Minister Lt. Col. (Retd) Faruk Khan today said the present government would provide adequate cooperation for expanding the shipbuilding industry in Bangladesh.

“The expanding shipbuilding industry can help take our economy towards development,” he said.

The Commerce Minister said this when he was addressing as chief guest in a ceremony arranged by Western Marine Limited, shipbuilding company at its dock at Patiya in Chittagong this morning. The programme was arranged for a visit of the parliamentary delegation from Germany. Mayor of Chittagong City Corporation Alhaj A B M Mohiuddin Chowdhury was present as special guest.

Faruk Khan said, “Bangladesh government has already declared shipbuilding as a thrust sector. It was our commitment in the Election Manifesto (Clause-9.3) to support shipbuilding as a special case.”

“As the Commerce Minister, I from my side will do everything possible to help grow this sector and accelerate its required developments,” he added.

Among others, Professor Dr Norman Pis, the head of parliamentary delegation of Germany, Frank Meyke, Ambassador of Germany, Commodore Reaj Uddin Ahmed, Chairman of Chittagong Port Authority and chairman of Western Marine Limited Mohammed Saiful Islam spoke on the occasion. Later the guests and the German delegation visited the shipyard and expressed their satisfaction over the activities of Western Marine in Chittagong.

It may be mentioned that the Western Marine Limited, country’s leading shipbuilding company received an order worth $130 million (Tk 900 crore) from a German shipping company–Grona Shipping, to build 12 ships, each with a capacity of 5,200 tons.

Bangladeshi Strawberry kicks off at Agora

http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=116136

Bangladeshi Strawberry kicks off at Agora
Economic Reporter

Strawberry, the red and tasty fruit of winter dominant country now grown and available for the customers of Bangladesh.

Strawberry is now cultivated in Bangladesh in a large scale. The insider of this business expects that within years we will be able to export strawberry after meeting the local demand.

The pioneer of strawberry cultivation in Bangladesh Professor Dr. M Monzur Hossain inaugurated the Strawberry Marketing Programme at Agora-Gulshan, the largest superstore chain, on February 19, 2009. Managing Director of Rahimafrooz Superstores Limited Niaz Rahim and senor officials, invited guests, dignitaries, consumer and customer of Agora were also present in the inauguration program.

While sharing the experience Professor Dr. Manzur Hossain said that the first batch of plant from Japan failed to give any result.  With the experience of this failure he used tissue culture from somoclonol variation and successfully prepare nine types of plant. Among the nine types of plant he concentrated his research on three types of strawberry plant and he become successful.  He finally strives on Rabi-3 which is catering to the weather of Bangladesh.

Seed-potato farming using tissue culture gains popularity in N-districts

http://www.bssnews.net/newsDetails.php?cat=2&id=18291&PHPSESSID=282fc318447babe688995658bda6a259

Seed-potato farming using tissue culture gains popularity in N-districts

By Dr Aynal Haque

RAJSHAHI, Bangladesh, Feb 20 (BSS)- The farming of foundation seed of potato through using tissue culture technology has been gaining popularity everywhere in the northern region for the last couple of years.

Farmers said, the private entrepreneurs are showing interest to boost the mother potato-seed production locally after using the modern technology side by side the government institutions.

Apart from this, the potato growers are also showing their interest in cultivating potato through using the foundation seed as they have been reaping more yields.

Joint Director of Horticulture Improvement Center under Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) Sarder Salah Uddin said, the existing crisis of breeder potato-seed could be solved easily through successful expansion of tissue culture technology at the grassroots.

He said, there has been a bright prospect of enhancing the production of breeder seed through best uses of the innovated technology and the farmers have a vital role to make the prospect into realistic.

He said, BADC has undertaken a programme for producing 25,000 metric tons of seed-potato through applying tissue culture technology by 2012 in the country. To make the effort a complete success, two more tissue culture laboratories would be set up.

The Bengal Seeds Company Limited has undertaken a program for producing 948 metric tons of different category seed potato through applying tissue culture technology during the current season and the plants are growing well.

Professor Dr Monzur Hossain of Botany Department of Rajshahi University said, “We have started developing technology of the tissue culture method in 1987 and innovated the method of producing tissue culture potato-seed”.

Since then, he said we are disseminating the developed technology among both the private and public level seed producing farms significantly.

In addition to comparatively higher production and hygienic, the tissue culture seed is 100 percent virus and disease free, healthy, high quality and along with environment-friendly, Dr Monzur said.

Depicting the salient features of the technology, he mentioned that potato production could be enhanced at least 50 percent more on the existing acreage if only the quality seed are ensured among the growers.

He said, since the qualitative and quantitative production completely depends on quality seed, therefore importance should be given on encouraging the farmers on the best uses of the developed technology to enhance the quality seed production side by side with the state level efforts.

Monzur said, the BADC has been supplying only 12,000 metric tons of quality seed-potato among the farmers as a whole against the annual demand of six lakh metric tons at present.

To meet-up the local demands, the nation has to depend on import from abroad through spending huge hard-earned foreign currencies. “We can reduce dependence on import enhancing domestic production through proper and best uses of the modern technologies in the farming,” he said adding that the tissue culture is one of the potential and proven technologies.

“Field level officials and employees concerned have a vital role in making this effort a total success”, he said adding that there is no alternative to increase local production.

Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Rajshahi Braja Haridas said, the private entrepreneurs and farmers have been showing their keen interest in producing the potato-seed after using the tissue culture technology.

He, however, said due importance should be given on more production of the seed along with easy availability among the farmers and urged the successful farmers to disseminate their acquired knowledge among the fellow farmers.

The DAE has set a target of producing 58,99,250 metric tons of potato from 3,37,100 hectares of land in 16 districts of Rajshahi division during the current harvesting season.

The early variety potato has already appeared in plenty in the local markets as farmers cultivated those much ahead than that of the traditional periods in the region this year, sources said.

Bangla processing software launched

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Bangla processing software launched

The Centre for Research on Bangla Language Processing at BRAC University launches the first Bangla language processing software package in Dhaka yesterday. Photo: CRBLPStar Business Desk

The Centre for Research on Bangla Language Processing (CRBLP) at BRAC University yesterday launched the first official release of a Bangla language processing software package.

The software package includes text to speech (TTS) and optical character recognition (OCR) named “Katha” and BanglaOCR, respectively, according to a press statement.

CRBLP has been working on Bangla language processing since 2004.

The TTS system can help tackle illiteracy problems, empower the visually impaired and increase the possibilities of improved human-machine interaction, CRBLP said.

Bangla OCR takes scanned images of a printed document as input and converts it into editable text.

The TTS and OCR will run on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX. There is also a web-enabled front-end for the TTS, making the tools available anytime, anywhere.

Although such software exists for other languages, this is the first release for Bangla in Bangladesh. All the software are released under an open source licence.

Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, pro-vice-chancellor of BRAC University, was present as the chief guest.

The centre is supported by grants from the PAN Localisation Project (PanL10n) of the International Development Research Corporation (IDRC) of Canada and Microsoft Corporation of USA.