Bangladesh Bank
Bangladesh (06/05)
Efforts to achieve Bangladesh's macroeconomic goals have been problematic. The privatization of public sector industries has proceeded at a slow pace--due in part to worker unrest in affected industries--although on June 30, 2002, the government took a bold step as it closed down the Adamjee Jute Mill, the country’s largest and most costly state-owned enterprise. The government also has proven unable to resist demands for wage hikes in government-owned industries. Economic growth has been further slowed by a largely dysfunctional banking system. This has impeded access to capital. State-owned banks, which control about three-fourths of deposits and loans, carry classified loan burdens of about 50%. ... [Read More]
Bangladesh
There are no financial penalties imposed on the basis of religious beliefs; however, religious minorities are disadvantaged in practice in such areas as access to jobs in government or the military, and in political office. The Government has appointed some Hindus to senior civil service positions. Non-Muslims are not barred legally from any government position. However, religious minorities remain underrepresented in most government jobs, especially at the higher levels of the civil and foreign services. Selection boards in the government services often lacked minority group representation. The government-owned Bangladesh Bank employs approximately 10 percent non-Muslims in its upper ranks. Hindus dominate the teaching profession, particularly at the high school and university levels. Some Hindus report that Muslims tend to favor Hindus in some professions, such as doctors, lawyers, and accountants. They attribute this circumstance to the education that the British offere ... [Read More]
Bangladesh
There are no financial penalties imposed on the basis of religious beliefs; however, religious minorities are disadvantaged in practice in such areas as access to jobs in government or the military, and political office. The Government has appointed some Hindus to senior civil service positions, and some recent promotion lists from the Ministry of the Establishment included from 3 to 7 percent Hindus and other minorities. However, religious minorities remain underrepresented in government jobs, especially at the higher levels of the civil and foreign services. The government-owned Bangladesh Bank employs about 10 percent non-Muslims in its upper ranks. Hindus dominate the teaching profession, particularly at the high school and university levels. Some Hindus report that Muslims tend to favor Hindus in some professions, for example, doctors, lawyers, and accountants. They attribute this to the education that the British offered during the 19th century, which Muslims boycotted but Hindus ... [Read More]
Bangladesh
There are no financial penalties imposed on the basis of religious beliefs; however, religious minorities are disadvantaged in practice in such areas as access to jobs in government or the military, and in political office. The Government has appointed some Hindus to senior civil service positions. However, religious minorities remain underrepresented in some government jobs, especially at the higher levels of the civil and foreign services. Selection boards in the government services often lacked minority group representation. The government-owned Bangladesh Bank employs approximately 10 percent non-Muslims in its upper ranks. Hindus dominate the teaching profession, particularly at the high school and university levels. Some Hindus report that Muslims tend to favor Hindus in some professions, such as doctors, lawyers, and accountants. They attribute this to the education that the British offered during the 19th century, which Muslims boycotted but Hindus embraced. Employee ... [Read More]
Background Notes: Bangladesh
Background Notes: BangladeshPA/PCSource: Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public AffairsDate: Oct 15, 199010/15/90Category: Country DataRegion: South AsiaCountry: BangladeshSubject: Cultural Exchange, Resource Management, Military Affairs, History, International Organizations, Trade/Economics[TEXT]Official Name: People's Republic of BangladeshPROFILEGeographyArea: 143,998 sq. km. (55,813 sq. mi., about the size of Wisconsin).Cities: Capital-Dhaka (pop. 5 million). Other cities-Chittagong (1.8million), Khulna (1.2 million), Rajshahi (700,000). Terrain: Mainlyflat a ... [Read More]
US Department Of State Post Report
The American Express Bank provides accommodation exchange services to U.S. Government employees within the Embassy. The bank is open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., each working day. Several foreign banks, including American Express, Citibank, and Standard Chartered Bank, operate in Dhaka. The Bangladesh Bank does not allow the exchange of taka for dollars, unless the customer has a ticket for travel outside of Bangladesh and an airplane ticket in hand. This is true for both cash and travelers checks. Many employees purchase excess dollars or travelers checks in dollars when traveling to the U.S. or regionally to have on hand. ... [Read More]
Bangladesh
With the exception of workers in the railway, postal, telegraph, and telephone departments, civil servants, police, and military personnel are forbidden to join unions in large part because of the highly political nature of those unions. Many civil servants who are forbidden to join unions, such as teachers and nurses, have formed associations that perform functions similar to labor unions, that is, providing for members' welfare, offering legal services, and airing grievances. However, collective bargaining is prohibited. Some workers have formed unregistered unions, particularly university employees and workers in the construction and transport (both public and private) industries. The Government banned trade union activity in the Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank, in early 1998. The ban followed an incident in which some labor unionists affiliated with the ruling party's trade union assaulted a senior bank official, after which there were clas ... [Read More]
Background Note: Bangladesh
Title: Background Note: BangladeshPASource: Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public AffairsDescription: Historical, Political and Economic Overviews of the Countries of the WorldDate: Dec, 15 199212/15/92Category: Country DataRegion: South AsiaCountry: BangladeshSubject: Travel, History, International Organizations, Trade/Economics, Military Affairs, Cultural Exchange, State Department[TEXT]Official Name: People's Republic of BangladeshPROFILEGeographyArea: 143,998 sq. km. (55,813 sq. mi., abou ... [Read More]
Alex Counts, "Microfinance And The Global Development Challenge," Economic Perspectives, February 2004
By 1983, enough had been learned and sufficient promise had been shown that the Grameen Bank Project was converted into an independent bank specializing in providing financial services to the landless poor, especially women. During the pilot phase (1976-1983), outreach grew from fewer than 100 clients to more than 45,000. Once the bank was launched, a period of sustained growth resulted in outreach of 850,000 by 1990, 2.4 million by 2000, and 3.0 million as of December 2003. Some 200 other providers in Bangladesh, many of them successful Grameen imitators, today reach another nine million families. ... [Read More]
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