Bangladeshi Migrants in Singapore

Seen on: YouTube

Migrant workers from Bangladesh are part of a growing number who are being ripped off in highly organised scams. Workers are leaving their homes for the promise of security in Singapore, only to discover they have been duped.

From Bangladesh to Spalding

The story of Monuhor Ali who escaped unrest to open an Indian restaurant.

Visually Bangladesh

The Tate has announced the shortlist for the Turner Prize 2008. Among them is British-Bangladeshi artist Runa Islam. She is nominated for two solo exhibitions in Norway and a showing of her work at the Venice Biennale 2007 in Italy.

The judges said "Islam's works manage to be at once analytical and emotionally-charged, formal and socially relevant".

Runa was born in 1970 in Dhaka. She now lives and works in London, UK.

Bangladesh: A Change of Policy

Bangladeshi Foreign Affairs Adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury has said, the country needs to re-adjust its foreign-policy as a new era begins in Asia.

He said Asia is progressing fast in an unprecedented speed. So, the policies of Bangladesh need to be realigned with the global changes. Otherwise, the country would lag behind, a foreign office press release quoted him as saying.

Iftekhar said: "Perhaps, we do not realize that there is more reverse transfer of resources to those developed countries, who buy from us. We pay many times more in duties to them, than we receive in aid."

On the other hand, it is the booming economies of Asia that might help shape the future of Bangladesh. Power players of contemporary times are China, Japan, South Korea, ASEAN, India and Gulf states, he added.

Via Xinhua

Cash Back Bangladesh

Independent film with a focus on British-Bangladeshi remittances and foreign-aid, and their impact on British and Bangladeshi society.

• By far, the largest overseas Bangladeshi communities that have settled in the West are in the UK (and increasingly the US,) with well over a quarter of a million people of Bangladeshi origin living in Britain.


• The total value of remittances sent by expatriates to the developing world was conservatively estimated to exceed $80 billion last year. As members of the largest overseas Bangladeshi community in the developed world, we have a particularly poignant interest in this topic.
  


• Remittances are conservatively estimated to contribute at least 4% of Bangladesh's GDP and have directly helped Bangladesh's balance of payments by contributing around a third of its foreign exchange needs. In monetary terms, remittance income is larger as a net gain than the near $5 billion foreign exchange earnings earned by the ready-made garment (RMG) sector, because the latter figure is significantly reduced when adjusted for the cost of materials and tax breaks.
  

Excerpts from a Memorandum submitted by the British Bangladeshi International Development Group (BBIDG) to the Select-Committee.


Via Bangladesh Blogger