Ministries Asked to Submit Bills and Release Funds by June 25th

A prolonged dispute over onboard container handling charges at Chattogram Port's General Cargo Berth (GCB) has been resolved following a consensus to raise the rate by Tk 175 per container. The decision, reached during a meeting chaired by Shipping Adviser Brigadier General (Retd) M Sakhawat Hossain, ended months of conflict between berth operators and shipping agents.

Fourteen Bangladeshi garment exporters remain unpaid for apparel shipments worth $7.6 million to Russia over the past year due to international transaction complications triggered by US sanctions. Attempts to reroute payments through China have failed, said Mohammad Hatem, President of BKMEA, who urged the government to resolve the issue by either adjusting the dues against Rooppur Nuclear Plant payments or introducing a barter system.

Bangladesh’s garment exports to the European Union—its largest market accounting for 79 percent of total RMG shipments—are facing intensified competition as regional rivals like China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Pakistan shift focus from the US to the EU amid a new US tariff regime. This diversion is expected to drive down prices and margins in the EU market

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has committed a $58 million long-term loan to Renata PLC, a prominent pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh, to ease its working capital constraints amid US dollar liquidity challenges. The funding aims to stabilize Renata’s supply chain by enabling secure access to imported Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), vital for uninterrupted medicine production.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) is facing scrutiny for proposing the purchase of 150 tablets at Tk 59,300 each for its Bangladesh Poverty and Livelihood Statistics (BPLS) project—over five times the price of tablets used in the 2022 Population and Housing Census.

Bangladesh saw a 37% year-on-year surge in remittance inflows in April, with migrant workers sending $2.6 billion in the first 29 days, up from $1.9 billion during the same period last year, according to Bangladesh Bank data.