Bangladesh
ranks 108th out of 156 countries in the global happiness ranking list
ahead of its neighbour India (111), showing that Bangladeshis are
happier than Indians.
This interesting fact came out in the
second annual The World Happiness Report 2013 released by the United
Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
In Saarc countries, Pakistan ranked 81 in the happiness index while Nepal 135, Sri Lanka 137, and Afghanistan 143.
The
report published by the United Nations Sustainable Development
Solutions Network found that the happiest people in the world live in
Northern Europe.
Denmark is the happiest country in the world,
with its relatively close neighbours: Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands
and Sweden making up the top five.
The other top-10 countries
also include: Canada (6th), Finland (7th), Austria (8th), Iceland (9th)
and Australia (10th). At the bottom of the happiness table was Togo,
while other African countries making up the lowest five positions with
Benin (155th), Central African Republic (154th), Burundi (153rd) and
Rwanda (152nd).
The report showed that the key to living a happy
life include living in a country with a high real GDP per capita, good
life expectancy, having someone to depend on, freedom to make life
choices, freedom from corruption and generosity.
The UN report
also showed that mental illness is a major factor in creating misery.
According to the report, 10 percent of the entire population suffers
from some form of depression or anxiety, but fewer than one-third of the
population seek treatment. Even then, the report states that
governments do not spend that much to address this problem. – UNB -
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Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) chief Kazi Salahuddin retained his place as the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) president after getting re-elected from an uncontested election during the SAFF executive meeting held at Hotel Annapurna in Kathmandu, Nepal on Tuesday evening.
Kazi Salahuddin first got elected as SAFF president back in 3rd October 2009 and he has been holding on the leading position since then after the departure of first ever president of this football organization Ganesh Thapa, who reigned as the SAFF leader for 11 years starting from 1999.
Under the influence of Salahuddin, SAFF was introduced with two new competitions which are the SAFF women’s championship and the SAFF U-16 championship.
The previous SAFF president Ganesh Thapa, who is currently the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) president and also one of the five vice presidents of the Asian Football Federation (AFC), appreciated BFF chief for his efforts and revealed the executive committee was happy with his overall leadership activities.
“Current president Kazi Salahuddin is doing very good and we asked him to continue the helm. There is no problem in the committee about it,” said Ganesh Thapa.
“I feel very honoured and in this term, my aim is to improve the age-based football teams and take them to a new level,” said BFF chief after the confirmation from executive committee.
However, the executive committee also discussed about different issues regarding the SAFF events.
AFC general secretary Alex Soosay and representatives of eight SAFF nations were also present in the meeting.
Among the new decisions, the most important one was the venue approval of 2015 SAFF Championship.
The SAFF executive committee decided that India will host the next edition of SAFF Championship while they are yet to decide the hosts of 2017 SAFF Championship.
It was also decided that the 3rd edition of SAFF women’s football championship will be held on September or October next year (2014) in Pakistan.
All the eight SAFF nations were invited to bid for the hosting of U-16 SAFF football championship in 2014 while the possible start of the U-19 SAFF Championship was declared as well. The U-19 event will start from 2015.
He
said, “Other facts we should take into consideration is that China has
shifted to high-skilled manufacturing in almost every sector while the
domestic production of India is very strong. These factors have been
contributing to failure in creating demand for Bangladeshi products.”
Dr Mansur also noted that the non-tariff barrier is an obstacle to the rise of imports from Bangladesh.
“In reality, NTBs in access to India are major constraints, which is disfavoring exports from Bangladesh,” he said.
An
optimistic Dr Mansur, however, mentioned that the country’s trade
integration with the neighbouring countries is not much pessimistic as
India supplies cotton and other raw materials to Dhaka while China
supplies capital machinery.
From China, Bangladesh’s import
spending in last FY was $ 6.3 billion while, from India, the value of
imported goods was $ 4.7 billion.
“Import payments to these two
countries amounted to around $ 11 billion. So, the remaining amount is
not a big deal. We could achieve more integration in trade with the
remaining countries by enhancing bilateral trade gradually,” he said.
He noted that petroleum imports are causing Bangladesh to spend a big amount every year.
Bangladesh
has long been an import-dependent country. Its export income is mainly
driven by readymade garments from the western countries. Other exports
are jute and jute goods, primary commodities, light engineering, shrimp
and pharmaceuticals.
In FY 2012-13, the value of Bangladesh’s total trade was $ 60.5 billion— $33.5 billion imports and $27 billion exports.
The country’s total deficit in international trade, however, was $7 billion in the last FY.
The comparison of export and imports from and to Bangladesh with 10 countries is as above.
The
SAFTA Agreement was signed on 6 January 2004 during the 12th SAARC
Summit held in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Agreement entered into force on 1
January 2006, and the Trade Liberalization Programme commenced from 1st
July 2006.
SAFTA was established taking into consideration the
asymmetries in development within the region and bearing in mind the
need to fix realistic and achievable targets.
Following the
Agreement coming into force, the SAFTA Ministerial Council (SMC) has
been established comprising the Commerce Ministers of the member-states.
To assist the SMC, a SAFTA Committee of Experts (SCOE) has been formed.
SCOE is expected to submit its report to SMC every six months. The
SAFTA Agreement states that the “the SMC shall meet at least once every
year or more often as and when considered necessary by the Contracting
States. Each Contracting State shall chair the SMC for a period of one
year on rotational basis in alphabetical order.”
The August 21-22
SCOE meeting in Colombo observed that there is huge potential to raise
trade among the member- states. The surging SAFTA market has a huge
consumer headcount at 1.6 Bn, and therefore is ‘highly promising’.
In
fact, SAARC’s grouping of 8 states is the biggest of all regional
organizations in the world, consisting of 23 percent of world
population, and therefore is world’s biggest regional economic grouping.
With India’s new push to increase SAARC trade to $ 40 bln by 2015 and
recent developments in Indo-Pakistan trade expansion, the vision of
SAARC Economic Union by 2020 has gained new impetus, the SAFTA web
portal reads. - See more at:
http://www.daily-sun.com/details_Bangladesh-lags-behind-in-regional-trade_613_1_1_1_1.html#sthash.9xjDsYad.dpuf
Bangladesh
is far behind in the race of trade integration with 10 neighbouring
countries, including giant economies like China and India, though the
volume of country’s international trade has increased significantly in
recent years.
The other countries are Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Pakistan and the Maldives.
Statistics
available from office of the chief controller of imports and exports
(CCIE) show the country’s import payments amounted to $13.8 billion to
neighbouring 10 nations while the value of exports was only $1.3 billion
in the 2012-13 fiscal, resulting in a trade deficit of $12.5 billion.
Talking
with daily sun, experts identified several factors, including absence
of product variety and quality in Bangladesh, unexplored market in China
and India, Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) in India, indifference of big
neighbours in multilateral trade arrangements and establishing monopoly
in bilateral trade and the weak South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA)
arrangements for the widening trade gap.
Former president of
the Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry Annisul Huq said the product
variety in Bangladesh is not rich, which fails to attract consumers from
China, India and other neighbouring nations.
“What we produce?
garments! …this product is also produced by China and India; and the
common target is capturing the market in the West. We don’t feel like
going for a huge variety of products to boost exports,” Huq said.
“In
China, the market is totally unknown to our manufacturers. Besides, we
still stay backward while manufacturers across the world putting more
emphasis on producing more quality products,” he added.
Huq said
weak SAFTA arrangements are also causing imbalance in cross-border trade
with neighbouring countries. “The equation is simple. Big neighbors are
not interested in multilateral trade and much attentive on establishing
supremacy in bilateral trade,” he said.
Commenting on this
issue, Executive Director of Policy Research Institute Dr Ahsan H Mansur
said the political confrontation between big neighbors – India and
Pakistan – is disappointing member-countries like Bangladesh in getting
proper outcome from SAFTA.
“Safta could not work properly due to political rivalry between Pakistan and India,” Dr Mansur said.
He
said, “Other facts we should take into consideration is that China has
shifted to high-skilled manufacturing in almost every sector while the
domestic production of India is very strong. These factors have been
contributing to failure in creating demand for Bangladeshi products.”
Dr Mansur also noted that the non-tariff barrier is an obstacle to the rise of imports from Bangladesh.
“In reality, NTBs in access to India are major constraints, which is disfavoring exports from Bangladesh,” he said.
An
optimistic Dr Mansur, however, mentioned that the country’s trade
integration with the neighbouring countries is not much pessimistic as
India supplies cotton and other raw materials to Dhaka while China
supplies capital machinery.
From China, Bangladesh’s import
spending in last FY was $ 6.3 billion while, from India, the value of
imported goods was $ 4.7 billion.
“Import payments to these two
countries amounted to around $ 11 billion. So, the remaining amount is
not a big deal. We could achieve more integration in trade with the
remaining countries by enhancing bilateral trade gradually,” he said.
He noted that petroleum imports are causing Bangladesh to spend a big amount every year.
Bangladesh
has long been an import-dependent country. Its export income is mainly
driven by readymade garments from the western countries. Other exports
are jute and jute goods, primary commodities, light engineering, shrimp
and pharmaceuticals.
In FY 2012-13, the value of Bangladesh’s total trade was $ 60.5 billion— $33.5 billion imports and $27 billion exports.
The country’s total deficit in international trade, however, was $7 billion in the last FY.
The comparison of export and imports from and to Bangladesh with 10 countries is as above.
The
SAFTA Agreement was signed on 6 January 2004 during the 12th SAARC
Summit held in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Agreement entered into force on 1
January 2006, and the Trade Liberalization Programme commenced from 1st
July 2006.
SAFTA was established taking into consideration the
asymmetries in development within the region and bearing in mind the
need to fix realistic and achievable targets.
Following the
Agreement coming into force, the SAFTA Ministerial Council (SMC) has
been established comprising the Commerce Ministers of the member-states.
To assist the SMC, a SAFTA Committee of Experts (SCOE) has been formed.
SCOE is expected to submit its report to SMC every six months. The
SAFTA Agreement states that the “the SMC shall meet at least once every
year or more often as and when considered necessary by the Contracting
States. Each Contracting State shall chair the SMC for a period of one
year on rotational basis in alphabetical order.”
The August 21-22
SCOE meeting in Colombo observed that there is huge potential to raise
trade among the member- states. The surging SAFTA market has a huge
consumer headcount at 1.6 Bn, and therefore is ‘highly promising’.
In
fact, SAARC’s grouping of 8 states is the biggest of all regional
organizations in the world, consisting of 23 percent of world
population, and therefore is world’s biggest regional economic grouping.
With India’s new push to increase SAARC trade to $ 40 bln by 2015 and
recent developments in Indo-Pakistan trade expansion, the vision of
SAARC Economic Union by 2020 has gained new impetus, the SAFTA web
portal reads. - See more at:
http://www.daily-sun.com/details_Bangladesh-lags-behind-in-regional-trade_613_1_1_1_1.html#sthash.9xjDsYad.dpuf
Bangladesh
is far behind in the race of trade integration with 10 neighbouring
countries, including giant economies like China and India, though the
volume of country’s international trade has increased significantly in
recent years.
The other countries are Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Pakistan and the Maldives.
Statistics
available from office of the chief controller of imports and exports
(CCIE) show the country’s import payments amounted to $13.8 billion to
neighbouring 10 nations while the value of exports was only $1.3 billion
in the 2012-13 fiscal, resulting in a trade deficit of $12.5 billion.
Talking
with daily sun, experts identified several factors, including absence
of product variety and quality in Bangladesh, unexplored market in China
and India, Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) in India, indifference of big
neighbours in multilateral trade arrangements and establishing monopoly
in bilateral trade and the weak South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA)
arrangements for the widening trade gap.
Former president of
the Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry Annisul Huq said the product
variety in Bangladesh is not rich, which fails to attract consumers from
China, India and other neighbouring nations.
“What we produce?
garments! …this product is also produced by China and India; and the
common target is capturing the market in the West. We don’t feel like
going for a huge variety of products to boost exports,” Huq said.
“In
China, the market is totally unknown to our manufacturers. Besides, we
still stay backward while manufacturers across the world putting more
emphasis on producing more quality products,” he added.
Huq said
weak SAFTA arrangements are also causing imbalance in cross-border trade
with neighbouring countries. “The equation is simple. Big neighbors are
not interested in multilateral trade and much attentive on establishing
supremacy in bilateral trade,” he said.
Commenting on this
issue, Executive Director of Policy Research Institute Dr Ahsan H Mansur
said the political confrontation between big neighbors – India and
Pakistan – is disappointing member-countries like Bangladesh in getting
proper outcome from SAFTA.
“Safta could not work properly due to political rivalry between Pakistan and India,” Dr Mansur said.
He
said, “Other facts we should take into consideration is that China has
shifted to high-skilled manufacturing in almost every sector while the
domestic production of India is very strong. These factors have been
contributing to failure in creating demand for Bangladeshi products.”
Dr Mansur also noted that the non-tariff barrier is an obstacle to the rise of imports from Bangladesh.
“In reality, NTBs in access to India are major constraints, which is disfavoring exports from Bangladesh,” he said.
An
optimistic Dr Mansur, however, mentioned that the country’s trade
integration with the neighbouring countries is not much pessimistic as
India supplies cotton and other raw materials to Dhaka while China
supplies capital machinery.
From China, Bangladesh’s import
spending in last FY was $ 6.3 billion while, from India, the value of
imported goods was $ 4.7 billion.
“Import payments to these two
countries amounted to around $ 11 billion. So, the remaining amount is
not a big deal. We could achieve more integration in trade with the
remaining countries by enhancing bilateral trade gradually,” he said.
He noted that petroleum imports are causing Bangladesh to spend a big amount every year.
Bangladesh
has long been an import-dependent country. Its export income is mainly
driven by readymade garments from the western countries. Other exports
are jute and jute goods, primary commodities, light engineering, shrimp
and pharmaceuticals.
In FY 2012-13, the value of Bangladesh’s total trade was $ 60.5 billion— $33.5 billion imports and $27 billion exports.
The country’s total deficit in international trade, however, was $7 billion in the last FY.
The comparison of export and imports from and to Bangladesh with 10 countries is as above.
The
SAFTA Agreement was signed on 6 January 2004 during the 12th SAARC
Summit held in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Agreement entered into force on 1
January 2006, and the Trade Liberalization Programme commenced from 1st
July 2006.
SAFTA was established taking into consideration the
asymmetries in development within the region and bearing in mind the
need to fix realistic and achievable targets.
Following the
Agreement coming into force, the SAFTA Ministerial Council (SMC) has
been established comprising the Commerce Ministers of the member-states.
To assist the SMC, a SAFTA Committee of Experts (SCOE) has been formed.
SCOE is expected to submit its report to SMC every six months. The
SAFTA Agreement states that the “the SMC shall meet at least once every
year or more often as and when considered necessary by the Contracting
States. Each Contracting State shall chair the SMC for a period of one
year on rotational basis in alphabetical order.”
The August 21-22
SCOE meeting in Colombo observed that there is huge potential to raise
trade among the member- states. The surging SAFTA market has a huge
consumer headcount at 1.6 Bn, and therefore is ‘highly promising’.
In
fact, SAARC’s grouping of 8 states is the biggest of all regional
organizations in the world, consisting of 23 percent of world
population, and therefore is world’s biggest regional economic grouping.
With India’s new push to increase SAARC trade to $ 40 bln by 2015 and
recent developments in Indo-Pakistan trade expansion, the vision of
SAARC Economic Union by 2020 has gained new impetus, the SAFTA web
portal reads. - See more at:
http://www.daily-sun.com/details_Bangladesh-lags-behind-in-regional-trade_613_1_1_1_1.html#sthash.9xjDsYad.dpuf
Bangladesh
is far behind in the race of trade integration with 10 neighbouring
countries, including giant economies like China and India, though the
volume of country’s international trade has increased significantly in
recent years.
The other countries are Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Pakistan and the Maldives.
Statistics
available from office of the chief controller of imports and exports
(CCIE) show the country’s import payments amounted to $13.8 billion to
neighbouring 10 nations while the value of exports was only $1.3 billion
in the 2012-13 fiscal, resulting in a trade deficit of $12.5 billion.
Talking
with daily sun, experts identified several factors, including absence
of product variety and quality in Bangladesh, unexplored market in China
and India, Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) in India, indifference of big
neighbours in multilateral trade arrangements and establishing monopoly
in bilateral trade and the weak South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA)
arrangements for the widening trade gap.
Former president of
the Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry Annisul Huq said the product
variety in Bangladesh is not rich, which fails to attract consumers from
China, India and other neighbouring nations.
“What we produce?
garments! …this product is also produced by China and India; and the
common target is capturing the market in the West. We don’t feel like
going for a huge variety of products to boost exports,” Huq said.
“In
China, the market is totally unknown to our manufacturers. Besides, we
still stay backward while manufacturers across the world putting more
emphasis on producing more quality products,” he added.
Huq said
weak SAFTA arrangements are also causing imbalance in cross-border trade
with neighbouring countries. “The equation is simple. Big neighbors are
not interested in multilateral trade and much attentive on establishing
supremacy in bilateral trade,” he said.
Commenting on this
issue, Executive Director of Policy Research Institute Dr Ahsan H Mansur
said the political confrontation between big neighbors – India and
Pakistan – is disappointing member-countries like Bangladesh in getting
proper outcome from SAFTA.
“Safta could not work properly due to political rivalry between Pakistan and India,” Dr Mansur said.
He
said, “Other facts we should take into consideration is that China has
shifted to high-skilled manufacturing in almost every sector while the
domestic production of India is very strong. These factors have been
contributing to failure in creating demand for Bangladeshi products.”
Dr Mansur also noted that the non-tariff barrier is an obstacle to the rise of imports from Bangladesh.
“In reality, NTBs in access to India are major constraints, which is disfavoring exports from Bangladesh,” he said.
An
optimistic Dr Mansur, however, mentioned that the country’s trade
integration with the neighbouring countries is not much pessimistic as
India supplies cotton and other raw materials to Dhaka while China
supplies capital machinery.
From China, Bangladesh’s import
spending in last FY was $ 6.3 billion while, from India, the value of
imported goods was $ 4.7 billion.
“Import payments to these two
countries amounted to around $ 11 billion. So, the remaining amount is
not a big deal. We could achieve more integration in trade with the
remaining countries by enhancing bilateral trade gradually,” he said.
He noted that petroleum imports are causing Bangladesh to spend a big amount every year.
Bangladesh
has long been an import-dependent country. Its export income is mainly
driven by readymade garments from the western countries. Other exports
are jute and jute goods, primary commodities, light engineering, shrimp
and pharmaceuticals.
In FY 2012-13, the value of Bangladesh’s total trade was $ 60.5 billion— $33.5 billion imports and $27 billion exports.
The country’s total deficit in international trade, however, was $7 billion in the last FY.
The comparison of export and imports from and to Bangladesh with 10 countries is as above.
The
SAFTA Agreement was signed on 6 January 2004 during the 12th SAARC
Summit held in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Agreement entered into force on 1
January 2006, and the Trade Liberalization Programme commenced from 1st
July 2006.
SAFTA was established taking into consideration the
asymmetries in development within the region and bearing in mind the
need to fix realistic and achievable targets.
Following the
Agreement coming into force, the SAFTA Ministerial Council (SMC) has
been established comprising the Commerce Ministers of the member-states.
To assist the SMC, a SAFTA Committee of Experts (SCOE) has been formed.
SCOE is expected to submit its report to SMC every six months. The
SAFTA Agreement states that the “the SMC shall meet at least once every
year or more often as and when considered necessary by the Contracting
States. Each Contracting State shall chair the SMC for a period of one
year on rotational basis in alphabetical order.”
The August 21-22
SCOE meeting in Colombo observed that there is huge potential to raise
trade among the member- states. The surging SAFTA market has a huge
consumer headcount at 1.6 Bn, and therefore is ‘highly promising’.
In
fact, SAARC’s grouping of 8 states is the biggest of all regional
organizations in the world, consisting of 23 percent of world
population, and therefore is world’s biggest regional economic grouping.
With India’s new push to increase SAARC trade to $ 40 bln by 2015 and
recent developments in Indo-Pakistan trade expansion, the vision of
SAARC Economic Union by 2020 has gained new impetus, the SAFTA web
portal reads. - See more at:
http://www.daily-sun.com/details_Bangladesh-lags-behind-in-regional-trade_613_1_1_1_1.html#sthash.9xjDsYad.dpuf
