30-12-2020

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30 , 2020 8
Islamic Finance and Investment Ltd (IFIL), country's first Shariah Based Non-Bank Financial Institution
(NBFI), has won the 'Best Quality Management Body Bangladesh 2020' awarded by world renowned
Magazine 'Business Tabloid-UK'. Rezakul Haider, Chairman of the Board of Directors of IFIL and Managing
Director & CEO A. Z. M. Saleh are seen with the Trophy and Certificate of the award. Photo: Courtesy
BCB Ltd. has inaugurated its 69th Branch
"Dewan Bazar Branch" at Chattagram
Bangladesh Commerce Bank
(BCB)Ltd. has inaugurated its 69th
Branch as "Dewan Bazar Branch" at
Chattagram on 29th December 2020,
Thuesday in virtual platform with all
the latest banking facilities. The
inauguration program was presided by
Omar Farooque Hon'ble Managing
Director & CEO of the Bank. The
Chairman of the Board of Directors of
the Bank Dr. Engr. Rashid Ahmed
Chowdhury as Chief Guest was present
& inaugurates the program. Additional
Managing Director of the Bank Zafar
Alam delivered his speech as a special
guest. Deputy Managing Director Kazi
Md. Rezaul Karim also delivered their
Padma riverbank turns attractive tourist
spot after RCC's beautification work
RAJSHAHI : Padma
riverbank adjacent to the
Shaheb Bazar area of the
divisional town has turned
into an attractive tourist and
recreational spot as the
Rajshahi City Corporation
(RCC) recently implemented
a beautification project
there.Under the project
amusement spots, open
stage, gallery, park, bridge,
walkway and other needbased
infrastructures were
constructed at a cost of
around Tk 42.2 million,
reports BSS.
City Mayor AHM
Khairuzzaman Liton during
a visit to the site on Sunday
expressed his firm resolve to
restore the scenic beauty of
the river bank and enhance
the cleanliness drive in the
area to facilitate large
numbers of people to enjoy
their visit in a comfortable
atmosphere.
He inspected construction
works of two over-bridges
adjacent to the respective
sluice gates on the river
banks which are being built
at a cost of around Taka 94
lakh.
Mayor Liton said the new
infrastructure and facilities
are encouraging an increased
speech on the occasion. Among others
Senior Executives of the Head Office,
Manager of this Branch and many
prominent people of the area and
respected customers were also present
on the occasion, a press release said.
Dr. Engr. Rashid Ahmed Chowdhury
expressed his hope that the Dewan
Bazar Branch will be able to win the
hearts of the customers by providing
good service. He hoped that this new
branch with the most modern facilities
would play an appropriate role in
furthering the economy of the region.
He also described Dewan Bazar as a
growing business area and said that the
number of people to pass
their leisure with families
and friends enjoying the
beauty of the Padma.
Borokuthi river bank and
Lalon Shah River Resort
were also decorated with a
new look to attract more
visitors and facilitate the
cultural organisations to
arrange various programmes
to attract the visitors.
Some renovation works are
going on and those works are
expected to be completed
within the next couple of
months.
Meanwhile, the
Bangladesh Water
Development Board
(BWDB) has also
implemented a riverbank
protection project adjacent to
the city under which
protection works on 2,650
metre areas from Bulanpur
to Harupur.
Superintending Engineer
Mukhlesur Rahman said
river protection works from
Harupur to Sonaikandi were
completed to protect more
than 5.0 km area from
erosion.
Bangabandhu Hi-tech
Park is also being
constructed near the
protected area; he said
adding that the entire area
has become an amusement
park upon successful
completion of the 5.0km
bank protection work.
Apart from this, Rajshahi
city has got a new look amid
a massive plantation of fruit
and forest trees and
decorative plants and trees
and other beautification
works drawing the attention
of the commoners,
particularly the visitors.
Some 32,446 trees were
planted besides creating
scores of green zones
through councillors, officers
and employees of the city
corporation. Tree plantation
activities on vacant places,
road dividers and footpaths
are being conducted in the
current year. 6,000 flower
and other ornamental and
decorative tree saplings were
already planted till August
last, he added.
Now, road dividers and
islands on around 24-
kilometer roads in the city
were greened. Varieties of
decorative and beautification
trees were planted on the
dividers, islands and
footpaths of the city's main
roads.
branch is committed to provide all
kinds of banking services to the
customers of the area through banking
rules. To ensure the highest quality of
service to the customers, he instructed
all the officers of the branch including
the branch manager. Managing
Director and CEO of the Bank Omar
Farooque said that the services of BCBL
will be spread out in all areas of the
country as well as he emphasized on
customer service and informed all
present in the meeting about various
activities of the Bank in all areas of
business sector.Finally, the great mercy
of the great Allah Ta'ala is sought for
the activities and progress of the bank.
Vietnam's industrial
production up 3.36
pct in 2020
HANOI : Vietnam's
national index of industrial
production rose 3.36 percent
year on year in 2020,
according to the country's
General Statistics Office on
Tuesday, reports BSS.
The processing and
manufacturing sector, the
main driver of the surge, went
up 5.82 percent, contributing
1.25 percentage points to the
overall growth.
The electricity production
and distribution sector grew
3.92 percent, contributing
0.19 percentage points, and
water supply and waste
management grew 5.51
percent, contributing 0.04
percentage points.
Regarding key products,
between January and
December,
phone
components witnessed the
largest year-on-year output
expansion at 22 percent,
followed by television sets (up
20.7 percent), and rolled steel
(up 16.4 percent).
Industrial products with
significant output reductions
included refined sugar (down
22.9 percent), beer (down
13.9 percent), liquefied
petroleum gas (down 13
percent) and crude oil (down
12.6 percent).
Jobless Americans may have to wait
for desperately needed help
WASHINGTON: The United States
government has agreed to another
massive stimulus package to keep its
listing economy afloat as the
coronavirus pandemic rages on, but
help for the unemployed people most in
need may not come right away, reports
BSS.
Congress's decision to wait until the
last minute to pass the $900 billion
measure, followed by President Donald
Trump's days-long hesitation to sign the
bill into law, means two programs
supporting millions of unemployed
Americans briefly expired, and experts
warn states may take weeks to restart
payments.
"Everything about unemployment
insurance and having 53 different
systems is difficult, and it does means
some states may drop the ball," said
Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst
at the National Employment Law
Project.
The new stimulus measure follows up
on the CARES Act passed in March, a
massive bill that expanded benefits to
freelance workers and allowed
unemployed people to receive aid for an
extended period of time.
But those programs expired on
December 26, a victim of both the
months Congress took to reach its
agreement last week and the president's
refusal to sign it before finally
capitulating on Sunday.
The hold-up may have cost
unemployed people a week of benefits,
and could lead to a gap stretching as
long as three weeks in which the jobless
won't get paid, experts say - the last
thing Americans who have been out of
work for months need.
"I've been running with zero income
for the past couple of weeks. Anytime
that you don't have income hurts," said
Carson Noel, an Arizona resident who
hasn't been able to work in the live
events industry since the pandemic
struck and used up all of his benefits in
October.
The world's largest economy ground
to a sudden halt in March when states
ordered businesses shut to stop the
transmission of Covid-19 - efforts that
did grievous economic damage and
didn't prevent the country's outbreak
from becoming the largest on the planet.
Costing $2.2 trillion, the CARES Act
has been credited with keeping the US
from an even worse downturn, in part
by supporting consumption through the
expanded unemployment programs.
The new package "providing
coronavirus emergency response and
relief" is part of a larger spending bill
and gives jobless people an extra $300
in weekly payments.
Americans will also get stimulus
checks totaling as much as $600 per
person, though Trump has called for
them to be raised to $2,000.
It also extends until March 14
programs created under the CARES Act
for the long-term unemployed and gig
workers like 51-year-old Noel, who was
evicted from his apartment after using
up all of his benefits in October.
Now living with a family member, he
relies on his dwindling savings to get by,
and though the restoration of the
unemployment payments is a relief, he'd
rather be working.
"I don't want to sit at home," he said.
Unemployment aid in the US is
administered by individual states and
territories, and many systems are
overwhelmed and reliant on badly
outdated technology that few believe
can easily reactivate a benefit program
that had just been deactivated.
"The fact that they have to roll
everybody off and they have to roll
everybody back on, it's not going to go
smoothly in any circumstances," said
Andrew Stettner of progressive think
tank The Century Foundation, which
estimated 12 million people were
depending on these programs that
would have lapsed had the new stimulus
bill not been passed.
Prime Bank launches real-time
remittance service; RemitPrime
Prime Bank has recently
launched a state-of-the-art
real-time remittance service-
RemitPrime- for its
subsidiaries in Singapore and
the United Kingdom (UK).
This is the first real-time,
online platform launched by a
Bangladeshi Bank abroad, a
press release said.
Through RemitPrime, the
expatriate Bangladeshis can
transfer remittance in realtime
to any account of Prime
Bank and to any bKash wallet
across the country. For all
other banks, remittance will
be transferred instantly as per
the BEFTN* transaction
cycle. Along with the
remittance, the new service
also ensures payment of 2%
incentive instantly*.
RemitPrime also provides
real-time information on the
transaction to its users.
The expatriates from
Bangladesh, India, and the
Philippines, residing in
Singapore, can now send
money to their respective
home countries through
RemitPrime services by
downloading Prime Bank's
Interment Banking mobile
app 'Prime Bank App' from
'Apple's App Store' and
'Google's Play Store' or by
logging
in
www.remitprime.com. Prime
Bank has plans to extend its
online remittance payment
services to major remittance
corridors like US, EU, Gulf
Countries, Japan, Korea,
Malaysia and so on.
Prime Bank's Acting
Managing Director and CEO
Faisal Rahman said, "Our
customers maintaining
account with Prime Bank will
enjoy real-time fund transfer
against their remittance from
abroad. We also can make
transfer to bKash Accounts in
real-time with RemitPrime.
With this new service, our
customers are enjoying the
convenience of receiving
remittance at their doorsteps
round-the-clock. We believe
these services will inspire
expatriate Bangladeshis to
send more money through
legal channel and boost up
the flow of remittance into the
country. The remitters from
other major corridors like
KSA, Malaysia, and other
countries will also receive
similar facilities soon."
Highlighting the
capabilities of the
RemitPrime mobile
applications, Shams Abdullah
Muhaimin, Prime Bank's
Head of Transaction Banking,
said: "RemitPrime platform is
built on a machine learning
technology which has
automated majority of
manual activities. The system
can process thousands of
transactions in minutes with
real-time fund transfer to
beneficiary accounts 24X7.
The mobile app version of the
application is first of its kind
launched by a local bank into
overseas. The system can now
be offered as a white-label
solution to different overseas
remittance service providers
working in Bangladesh
corridor."
Prime Bank has two
remittance subsidiaries, one
is in Singapore - Prime
Exchange Co. Pte Ltd- which
has 3 branches located at
Desker Road, Jurong East
and at Joo Koon. Another is
in the UK named PBL
Exchange (UK) Ltd having
three branches in London,
Birmingham and Oldham
and 35 agent locations well
distributed throughout the
UK. This new service has
already gained huge
popularity among the
expatriates in Singapore who
are relying on the online
service to send money to their
near and dear ones in
Bangladesh quickly,
especially at this time of
COVID-19.
Social Islami Bank Ltd (SIBL) inaugurated 58, 59 60, 61 and 62nd Subbranches respectively in
Marichcha Bazar, Jumchari Bazar of Cox's Bazar, B Ed. College Road and Saltgola of Chattogram
City Corporation and Churamon Kati of Jashore recently. Managing Director & CEO Quazi Osman
Ali inaugurated the subbranches as chief guest from SIBL Head Office through virtual platform. Abu
Naser Chowdhury, Md. Sirajul Hoque and Md. Shamsul Hoque, Deputy Managing Directors, Md.
Moniruzzaman, Head of Marketing & Brand Communication, Sayed Mohammed Sohel, Regional
Head (C.C), Chattogram, Md. Shakil Anwar, Vice President of BC & GBD, Manager of Cox's Bazar,
Chawkbazar, Sheikh Mujib Road and Jashore Branch and local dignitaries also attended the program.
Photo: Courtesy