Post on 21-Apr-2015
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Introduction
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic
of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located
in South Asia. Total area of this country is
147,570 km2
56,977 sq miles. It is bordered by India on
all sides except for a small border with
Burma (Myanmar) to the far southeast and
by the Bay of Bengal to the south. The
capital (and largest city) is Dhaka; also it is
the hub of all cultural, political and religious
affairs. Together with the Indian state of
West Bengal, it makes up the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. The name
Bangladesh means "Country of Bengal" in the official Bengali language.
Population:
Total population
Population aged 0-14 (%)
Population aged 15-64 (%)
Population aged 65+ (%)
1950 37 895 41.2 54.8 3.9 1955 43 444 42.4 54.1 3.5 1960 50 102 43.6 53.1 3.3 1965 57 792 44.7 52.0 3.3 1970 66 881 44.7 51.8 3.4 1975 70 582 45.8 50.7 3.5 1980 80 624 45.0 51.4 3.6 1985 92 284 43.9 52.5 3.6 1990 105 256 42.5 53.8 3.7 1995 117 487 40.3 55.9 3.8 2000 129 592 37.3 58.7 4.0 2005 140 588 34.3 61.4 4.3 2010 148 692 31.3 64.1 4.6
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Naturally there is some uncertainty
about the population, especially in a
developing country such as
Bangladesh with high illiteracy and a
large rural population. For instance,
in 2005 there was not a consensus
whether Bangladesh or Russia had
a larger population. The UN's ESA
ranked Russia 7th in the world and Bangladesh 8th. However, the CIA World Fact
book ranked Bangladesh 7th and Russia 8th in the same year. The point is now
moot as the population of Russia is in decline while that of Bangladesh is growing.
The baseline for population studies on Bangladesh is the official census which is
conducted every 10 years, the last being in 2011. Bangladesh had high rates of
population growth in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then however it has seen a
marked reduction in its total fertility rate. Over a period of three decades it dropped
from almost 7 to 2.4 in 2005-2010
Per Capita Income:
Bangladesh gradually decreased its dependency on foreign grant and loan from
85% (In 1988) to 2% (In 2010) for its annual development budget. Its per capita
income in 2010 was US$641 compared to the world average of $8,985. But, if
purchasing power parity (PPP) is taken into account, Bangladesh's economy is the
44th largest in the world at US$257 billion according to the IMF.
Although two-thirds of Bangladeshis are farmers, more than three quarters of
Bangladesh‟s export earnings come from the garment industry, which began
attracting foreign investors in the 1980s due to cheap labor and low conversion cost.
In 2009–10 fiscal years the industry exported US$ 12.6 billion worth of products
where in 2002 the exported amount was US$ 5 billion. Recently Bangladesh has
been ranked as the 4th largest clothing exporter by the WTO (The World Trade
Organization).
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Bangladesh Inflation Rate
The inflation rate in Bangladesh was last reported at 11.3 percent in August of 2011.
This page includes a chart with historical data for Bangladesh's Inflation Rate.
Inflation rate refers to a general rise in prices measured against a standard level of
purchasing power. The most well-known measures of Inflation are the CPI which
measures consumer prices, and the GDP deflator, which measures inflation in the
whole of the domestic economy.
GDP, GDP Growth:
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Bangladesh expanded 5.83 percent in the
second quarter of 2010 over the previous quarter. Historically, from 1994 until 2010,
Bangladesh's average quarterly GDP Growth was 5.47 percent reaching an
historical high of 6.63 percent in June of 2006 and a record low of 4.08 percent in
June of 1994. Bangladesh is considered as a developing economy which has
recorded GDP growth above 5% during the last few years. Microcredit has been a
major driver of economic development in Bangladesh and although three fifths of
Bangladeshis are employed in the
agriculture sector, three quarters of exports
revenues come from garment industry. The
biggest obstacles to sustainable
development in Bangladesh are
overpopulation, poor infrastructure,
corruption, political instability and a slow implementation of economic reforms.
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Corruption:
It is defined as the actions of making someone or something morally depraved with
dishonesty or fraudulent conduct.
There are in all seven factors that should be considered when analyzing the risks
that could be encountered related to the corruption of a country like Bangladesh,
these are:
1. Location:
The foreign countries which want to
invest their money in Bangladesh
need to remember that, Bangladesh
is a bribe seeking country. They
assume Bangladesh as a risky country, because if they want to do business
here, bribing is mandatory, so this extra money will get attached to the investors
production cost which will reduce their competitiveness.
2. Accounting Standards:
In refer to accounting standard, Bangladesh is very risky country. Corruption in
Bangladesh is so severe that, the auditing firms it selves are corrupted to perform
accurate audit of the both public and private organization. In Bangladesh, the
audit firm takes monetary benefits from the top management of particular
organization, and makes audits to support those corrupted management
employees.
3. Anti-corruption policy credibility and enforceability:
In Bangladesh, there is an anti-corruption commission (ACC) which is not
working as it should have. The Bangladeshi government is using it as puppet and
they are forced to harass and embarrass the opposition parties only. The ACC is
filing cases only to people who are against the
Government, however, they are releasing the criminals who get support from
Awami League government
.
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4. Cultural Differences:
Bangladesh does have cultural
differences with foreign countries.
When foreign investors want to
invest their money in Bangladesh,
they have to make sure that the
investors get accustomed with the
differences between countries.
For example, the Citi NY is a
multinational bank, which has branches all over the world. In most of the
countries, their employees work from 8 a.m. to 5p.m, however, in Bangladesh,
the Citi NY employees work from 9a.m to 8p.m. Thus, due to cultural differences,
the process of operations sometimes needs to get
changed.
5. Political leadership:
Bangladesh is a risky country in referring about political
leadership. Many politicians, bureaucrats and
government officials are involved in corruption which
reduces the efficiency of Bangladesh.
Example: Ten Trucks Arms Cases
The accused criminals include Jamaat
e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman
Nizami, who is former industries
minister, and former state minister for
home Lutfozzaman Babar. These
indicate that Bangladeshi political
leadership is in deep trouble. Instead of
solving problems, Bangladeshi politicians are creating trouble.
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6. Political Change:
In Bangladesh, the government officials are scared to take any decisions as
the government changes. They think, if they approve a big project of the country,
they can suffer lawsuit from anti-corruption bureau. Therefore, Bangladesh is a
risky country as their bureaucrats are not strong enough to take any major
decisions unlike China and EU countries.
7. At Home:
In papers, Bangladesh is against corruption, but in reality, it is one leading
corrupted country of the world. There
are no such laws that the
Bangladeshi companies cannot give
bribe to other domestic and
international companies. Therefore, it
is a risky country.
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Bureaucracy
“A bureaucracy is an organization of non-
elected officials of a government or
organizations who implement the rules, laws,
and functions of their institution, and are
occasionally characterized by officials and red
tape”. Before entering into a country for
business, it is very important to analyze the
structure as well as the nature of the
bureaucracy in that particular country.
Accountability of Public Officials
It is very important to consider the
accountability of the public officials,
means whether they are
accountable or not. If we consider
Bangladesh in this perspective, the
public officials are highly
accountable to their respective
supervisor.
Bangladesh has a parliamentary
form of government with the prime
minister as its chief executive and
the president as the head of state. The prime minister heads the cabinet that is
collectively responsible to the national parliament. The ministries fulfill policy-
making and oversight functions at the national level, and have staff at the district
level that provide law and order, land administration, service delivery and
program implementation. Loosely coordinated by the District Commissioner.
There are also local governments: municipal corporations in cities; district
councils; and Thana (police station) committees. They have some elected
representatives and perform limited but diverse administrative and development
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functions. The district still remains the most commonly used unit of
administration. For administrative convenience, some contiguous districts are
considered to comprise a division, while a district is subdivided into several police
stations (Thanas). Thus, division, district, and Thana comprise the administrative
sub-units of the country; several Thanas constitute a district, and some ten to
twelve districts constitute a division. So, this procedure explains the
accountability of public officials to their respective supervisor.
Caliber of Officialdom:
It is very important to investigate the calibers of the public officials and the kind of
training they receive before joining to the job of a particular country before
entering into the market, because at the time of doing the business you have to
communicate with them. In Bangladesh the Public Service Commission of
Bangladesh provides high quality of training to their officials. Having good
educational background, intelligence, strong training and most importantly very
good communication skill is must for the public officials of the country. It helps
them to communicate with officials of the country and taking the advantage from
them. For example: Recently Bangladesh government totally failed to take the
advantage about the deed of “Tista River” as well as the transit only because of
not having the enough caliber comparing with the Indian officials. As a result,
Indian government is taking the advantage at continuous basis from the
Bangladesh.
Politicization of Bureaucratic Department:
Sometime we see that some
of the high officials of the
department engaged with the
politics which is not good at
all. So, before entering into
the country for doing the
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business it should be considered by the investor. In Bangladesh we see this kind
of unethical practice by some of the public officials in department of different
office. For example: In Bangladesh we see government officer in Sonali Bank are
involved with different political party like CBA ( ). These people don‟t do any
work for the country but destroy the money of the country by doing unethical
activities. So this country is not a very good country to invest.
Transparency of Decision Making:
Government officials
should explain
everything to the
public about their
decision making,
because this is the
right of the public to
what is happening in
the country and what
the government is
going to do. In Bangladesh we don‟t see this kind of practice by the government
officials. People of this country don‟t have any idea about the activity of the
government. For example: at recent time what was the actual deed made with
the Indian government about the “Tista river” and Transit. They (government) are
not ensuring the transparency to the people. It is very dangerous not maintaining
the transparency. So investing in this country is riskier.
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FDI (foreign Direct Investment)
Bangladesh has seen a dramatic increase in
foreign direct investment. A number of
multinational corporations and local big
business houses such as Beximco, Square,
Akij, Ispahani, Navana Group, Transcom
Group, Habib Group, KDS Group, T.K Group
Of Industries, Dragon Group and multinationals
such as Unocal Corporation and Chevron, have
made major investments, with the natural gas
sector being a priority. In December 2005, the
Central Bank of Bangladesh projected GDP
growth around 6.5%. In order to enhance economic growth, the government set up
several export processing zones to attract foreign investment. These are managed
by the Bangladesh Export
Processing Zone Authority.
One significant contributor to the
development of the economy has
been the widespread propagation
of microcredit by Muhammad
Yunus (awarded the Nobel peace
prize in 2006) through the
Grameen Bank. By the late 1990s,
Grameen Bank had 2.3 million
members, along with 2.5 million
members of other similar
organizations.
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Legal safeguard:
Elite Interest
The term Elite is originally from the Latin, ligers, which means "to elect". The elites
are a relatively small dominant group within a large society, which enjoys a
privileged status in comparison to other individuals' status in the society. The word
elite were used in seventeenth century to describe commodities of particular
excellence; and the usage was later extended to refer to superior social group. In
case of Bangladesh, It has a small urban elite and rudimentary political culture.
Compared with other developing countries, Bangladesh is religiously, linguistically,
and socially homogeneous of a population of 127,567,000 (1998 estimate). During
the British colonial period, Zamindars were elite group.
Business elites are the major influential group with immense economic contribution
to the national economy in a developing country like Bangladesh, and in a way
having the power of manipulating the socio-political agendas of the nation. As
example: we can mention about “Salman F Rahman”. He has powerful influence on
government. He was the culprit for destruction of share market in 1996. But no
action was taken against him. So in this case Bangladesh is in risky position.
The group or individual who has influence on government and is related with the
politics or political party is called political elite. There are many in Bangladesh like
“Sahara khatun”, Col. Faruk etc. They have influence on the government decision
though they do many wrong or illegal deeds for which no action was taken. As a
result the foreigner investor might get it difficult to continue their normal business in
Bangladesh. So Bangladesh is in riskier position.
The media refers to channels of mass communications such as the radio,
newspapers, television and the internet. The media has power over all of us to a
greater or lesser extent. In Bangladesh the high profile intellectuals and business
elites are mainly dominating this sector as being either the entrepreneur or the Chief
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Executive Like Kaniz Almas, Mahabubul Haque in Prothom Alo, Mosaddek Ali Falu,
etc
Judicial Independence & Effectiveness:
Serves as a safeguard for the rights and privileges
provided by the Constitution and prevents executive and
legislative encroachment upon those rights. It serves as a
foundation for the rule of law and democracy. The rule of
law means that all authority and power must come from
an ultimate source of law. Under an independent judicial
system, the courts and its officers are free from
inappropriate intervention in the judiciary's affairs. With
this independence, the judiciary can safeguard people's
rights and freedoms which ensure equal protection for all.
The effectiveness of the law and the respect that people
have for the law and the government which enacts it is dependent upon the
judiciary's independence to mete out fair decisions. In case of Bangladesh situation
is moderate. Sometimes government influence the judiciary sector and sometimes
not. Government interferes when the issue is about the opposition party. Like
present government influence the judiciary regarding the suit or case about the
leader of the BNP like Tareq Zia, Salauddin Quader Chowdhary. In this case
Bangladesh is little less risky than other country like Myanmar where government
has complete influence on judiciary sector.
Legal Culture:
Legal Culture indicates the process and length of judiciary process that whether it is
slow or fast process. In case of Bangladesh the culture is slow. Bureaucracy of
Bangladesh is so much complicated that any dispute or complain takes too much
time to dismiss. In case of judiciary suit or case takes lot of time to have the verdict.
Specially, the murder case and dispute regarding land and property in Bangladesh.
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It took 10 to 15 years to have the result. In Some cases the criminal of murder case
is lost for forever.
Legislative Sophistication:
It indicates the understanding level of the people who deal with the legislative issue
in a country. It explains the importance of understanding what are the rules and
regulations need to perform in international business including different terms
related with the international business. For example in joint venture business the
conflict might arise between two parties and to solve this problem the legislative
body must have to have the clear understanding regarding the joint venture and its
international rules and regulation. Another example might be hedging which is one
of the most important financial terms in international business. Hedging ensures the
right amount of money is paid in future date which was set up in the past date. No
matter the value of the money goes up or down. So these are the important rules,
regulation and laws related with the international business must be clear to the
legislative body and have to be up to date about the those regulations. If we
consider Bangladesh, in perspective of legislative sophistication, it is not a riskier
country in respect of other country because there are some knowledgeable
legislative bodies available like Mahabubul Alam (Attorney General), Barister
Moudud Ahmed etc.
Potential for Counteraction:
Right to take action against the illegal decision and action of competitor in same
industry considered as potential for counter action. Like in the telecommunication
market in Bangladesh, the competition becomes so tough that new entrants become
impossible and price cutting become too tight. But government is not taking any
steps against the counter competition and any company does not have any rights to
take legal action to prevent those steps. Another example can be Bangladeshi
garments Factory. Owners sell the product at the price which is below the cost. But
other companies can‟t take action. On the other hand RFL Company suit against
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TFL Company for copying their trade name. But TFL Company could take legal
action against it also. So Bangladesh is in Moderate risky in this sector.
Criminal Activities:
This is defined as activities which are against the rules and regulation of the country.
Criminal activities are crimes against humanities, society and the well-being of the
country. Drugs business, killing, robbery, kidnapping, extortions are prime examples
of criminal works.
In Bangladesh, we face a large amount of unlawful acts which are influenced and
supported by our political parties that is Awami League and BNP. These parties use
the criminals for their sake and destroying or polluting the nation.
Political criminal activities:
Murder of Mayor Lokman Hossain:
On first November, 2011, Narsinghdi
municipality mayor Mr. Lokman Hossain
was shot by masked men in front of the
local Awami League office. He died later in
Dhaka Medical College Hospital and within
hours, the police arrested BNP's
Narsinghdi unit chief Khairul Kabir Khokon.
After that accident, Jatuoy Chatra League
of Narsinghdi, vandalized Narsinghdi circuit house and its rail station. Also, in the
following day, an intercity train was also torched by demonstrators.
The investigation is going on, and it was observed that, AL people were solely
responsible for his murder. Mr. Lokman Hossain was very popular in his city, so his
friends and other AL leaders were jealous of his popularity. Moreover, they were
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unhappy with some of his decisions about improving his city. Mr. Mayor believed
that, to develop Narsinghdi, he needed help and support from both Awami League
as well as BNP. That was a prime reason of his death.
Murder of a personnel who is also a Mayor and vandalizing government structures,
torching and destroying are also examples of political criminal activities. (Narsingdi
Mayor Killing: Suranjit won't talk about Lokman murder, 2011)
Political protection to criminals:
The law enforcement agencies of Bangladesh are trying and able to arrest the most
wanted criminals of the country. However, they capture those criminals; still they
cannot legally punish them for their misdeed. The reason, those criminals get good
support from political parties especially Awami League, the present government.
The criminals who are detained in jails are getting bails from courts identifying
themselves as Awami League supporters and activists. (Dhaka Become Vulnerable
To Criminal Activities, 2009)
Organized criminal activities:
This is defined as performing illegal activities in a planned
way. Organized crime is very common in Argentina, Brazil
and European countries; moreover, the size of the economy
controlled by organized crime worldwide is around 500
billion. Fortunately, the organized crime in Bangladesh is
insignificant. However, there are some incidents where
Bangladesh criminals especially the robbers used their intellectuals in negative
purpose.
Example:
Robbers tunnel through Brac Bank lockers
In the year 2008, robbers broke down 75 safe
deposit lockers in the Dhanmondi branch of BRAC
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Bank Ltd and stole gold ornaments and other valuables which worth approximately
several Crores of Taka. The branch of Brac Bank is situated on the first floor of a
building which houses Hotel Nidmahal Residential right above the bank. According
to Police, the robbers entered the locker room cutting through its ceiling, as they
found a large hole cut through the floor of a hotel room right above the locker room.
Police assumed that the robbers rented six rooms of the hotel and entered the
bank's locker room through the hole on the floor of the room right above it. They also
suspect the robbers stayed in the hotel for more than a month to plan the robbery.
Police detained four Nidmahal staffs for interrogation, suspecting their involvement
in the heist. Police also revealed, they are intensively interrogating the detainees
Shah Alam, Supon Barua, Sujan, and Monir, who were actively involved in robbery.
The incident suggested that it was a planned crime and the criminals knew about
the location of the bolts as well as the valuables, I believe, the criminals were helped
by some Brac officials who informed them about the bolt‟s position which
encouraged those thieves to perform such a notorious crime.
(Robbers tunnel to bank locker, 2008)
Fraud
It is defined as deception deliberately practiced in order to secure
unfair or unlawful gain. (Houghton Mifflin Company, n.d)
In Bangladesh, fraud is very common; people tend to fraud people to
order to have financial gain. Banks and Educational institutions are
primarily involved in fraud which is really sad for our country and its
people.
Examples:
Massive fraud by Brac Bank in Bangladesh
One of the leading financial institutions in
Bangladesh, named Brack Bank, which is
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owned by one of the largest NGOs in the world, Brac, is into massive fraud that is
looting millions of Taka.
Brac Bank is drawing millions of Taka from the Customers‟ accounts by creating
secret lien facilities. Such case of massive fraud was discovered when a customer
received a statement of his account, where he was surprised to see that the bank
has created lien worth TK. 10 million and drew the amount in the name of the
customer, even without notifying him. When the matter was brought to the attention
of authorities of Brac Bank, they tried to justify such fraudulent actions saying, "It
was done for the sake of customer's safety".
Moreover, Brac Bank not only creates and withdraws money from the customer's
account secretly through clean fraud, it also levies all interests accrued from the
amount of lien on the customer, which is not only unethical and illegal but goes
beyond the minimum level of banker-customer trust. Furthermore, such huge
amounts of money drawn from the customer's accounts secretly are passed by Brac
Bank to a number of hidden businesses, which are operated by the mid-level
management of the Brac NGO. (Massive fraud by Brac Bank in Bangladesh, 2009)
Fraud 'educational institution' continuing in Bangladesh
Pearl Fashion Institute [PFI] is an Indian-
owned company operating in Bangladesh
for past few years, thus selling degrees
to innocent students by appealing them
with false hopes and promises. PFI
pretends to be a legitimate institution in
Bangladesh, with 'affiliation' agreement
with Nottingham Trent University in UK. It
also receives millions of Taka from Bangladeshi students for its various graduation
courses in textile technology. But, in reality, PFI has no license from Bangladesh
government. However, Pearl Fashion Institute only holds a Trade License issue by
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Dhaka City Corporation to operate as a Vocational Training Center in the country.
None of the foreign teachers of PFI, including Ms. Garima Srivastava, who runs the
PFI show in Bangladesh, possess any work permit. All of the foreign teachers at PFI
are working illegally. (How fraud 'institution' continuing in Bangladesh, 2011)
Unique cultural issues
Culture is what we have been taught by the
society through our ancestors. Culture is
differentiated regionally. Bangladeshi culture
is the same as the Asian culture with some
exceptions. There are some unique cultural
activities which are done by the Bangladeshi
are:
Mother language day
This is a unique part of Bengali culture. On
21th of February all the Bangladeshi pay
tribute to those people who have given
their life to set Bangla as their mother
tongue. On this day to pay tribute to the
lost, everyone walk to Saheed minar and
leave a flower. A beautiful song “Amar
Bhaier Rokte Rangano Ekushay
February” has been written by Abdul Gaffar Choudhury. To give respect to those
who have fight for language UNESCO has declared 21st February as International
Mother Language day. This day is considered as a prideful as well as a sad day for
the country, thus it would not be a good idea to engage in conversation about other
language than bangle.
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Pohela Boishakh
Pohela Boishak is the first day of Bangla
calendar, which is usually the 14th April.
Bangladeshi people starts their celebration
with the dawn, they go to the Ramna Park
where the celebration starts with
Rabindranath Tagore's song. Then they go to
their relatives place to meet. Bangladeshi
people likes to celebrate this day as well as
they would like to do business on the day, because
they believe that if they can do business on the first day then they would also be
able to do a good business throughout the year.
Religious festivals
There are many religious festivals such as Eid and puja which are celebrated by all
religion people. On these festivals day Bangladeshi people like to spend the day
with their family and friends. Which means they take break from work on these days,
thus it is a risky country as they would not work on these days.
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Personal Threats
Bangladesh is a third world country thus it cannot ensure safety measure that are in
other countries. Bangladesh is a poor country thus it have a lot of lack ages, so
before investing in to the country you should think about the following factors:
Pollution
Bangladesh is one of the most polluted country of the
world, thus there is higher chance to fall sick. For
foreigner it would be a highly risky country to live,
because if they fall sick then they would not be able to
work.
Theft and Robbery
Theft and Robbery is common scenario of Bangladesh.
Thus it is a risky country for foreigner to do business,
because when people go to any country for doing
business they bring a lot of business documents and
good amount of money with them. So they become an
easy target for robbers.
For example Eszter a foreigner was robbed within six of her arrival. After settling
into a hotel in Gulshan 1, Eszter and her travel companion decided to have dinner at
eight. As it was nearby, the hotel‟s receptionist recommended them to travel by
rickshaw rather than CNG. Once outside, a local told the rickshaw driver where to
go – but, unbeknown to Eszter and Andrew, the driver proceeded in the direction of
Banani. As the rickshaw approached Kamal Attaturk Avenue along Banani‟s Road
11, a hand stretched out from a passing car and grabbed Eszter‟s bag, which was
strapped diagonally across her waist. She hit the road like a brick, but for a few
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seconds desperately tried to resist losing the contents of her bag. In this accident
Eszter lost her bag, passport, credit cards – and 20 percent of her skin.
Street awareness
In Bangladesh people do not follow any traffic
signals for which road accidents are common in
Bangladesh. Thus in Bangladesh people cross
the street at their own risk, because they are
reluctant of using foot over. While driving or
walking in Bangladeshi roads you have to be
careful and always keep distance from others or
else you might die due to other‟s
fault.
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Extremist Groups of Bangladesh:
Bangladesh, the world's third largest
Muslim-majority nation, is facing
challenges from violent Islamist groups.
The Awami League (AL) government in
Bangladesh on April 2009 blacklisted
12 militant organizations. The
organizations are Harkat-ul Jihad Islami
(HuJI) Bangladesh, Jamaat-ul
Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Jagrata
Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB),
Shahadat-e-al Haqima (SAH), Hizbut Touhid, Islami Samaj, Ulema Anjuman al
Baiyinaat, Hizb-ut Tahrir, Islamic Democratic Party, Touhid Trust, Tamir ud-Deen,
Alla‟r Dal. Of these 12 groups, four including HUJI, SAH, JMJB and JMB were
banned during the regime of BNP-Jamaat coalition. To build trust in the political
process, Bangladesh needs to strengthen its democratic institutions and develop a
culture of transparency in the government that fosters accountability and restrains
corruption.
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen
Bangladesh (JMB)
Origin
The Jama'atul Mujahideen
Bangladesh (JMB) is reported to
have been formed in 1998 in the
Jamalpur district. Its existence came
to notice on May 20, 2002 with the
arrest of eight Islamist militants at
Parbatipur in the Dinajpur district along with 25 petrol bombs and documents
detailing the outfit's activities. Subsequently, on February 13, 2003, the JMB is
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reported to have carried out seven bomb explosions in the Chhoto Gurgola area of
Dinajpur town in which three persons were wounded.
Activities
This extremist group blasts their Bombs with the help of suicide bomber and leaves
threatening leaflet. On August 17, 2005, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
staged a spectacular series of coordinated bombings across the nation, detonating
approximately 400 devices within the space of 45 minutes in 63 of the country's 64
districts, but killing only three people. One of the objectives of JMB is to free
Muslims of the influence of 'anti-Islam forces' and practices that brought women out
of their houses. Espousing a radical variant of Islam, the outfit is opposed to cultural
functions, cinema halls, shrines and NGOs.
Leader:
Maulana Saidur Rahman is known to be currently heading the JMB after the March
30, 2007 execution of the top six militant leaders. Although there is no authenticity
about the size of the strength of SAH, the group‟s leader Kawsar claimed that the
outfit has 10 thousand commandos and 25 thousand fighters working in the country
to bring Islamic revolution.
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B)
Formation
The Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B)
was established in 1992, reportedly with assistance
from Osama bin Laden‟s International Islamic Front
(IIF). On April 30, 1992, several of the HuJI-B
leaders addressed a press conference at the Jatiya
Press Club in capital Dhaka and demanded that
Bangladesh be converted into an Islamic State. The
outfit‟s activities, however, were noticed in June
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1996 after the Awami League (AL) came to power. The HuJI-B was proscribed by
the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led coalition Government on October 17,
2005.
Leadership
The HuJI-B is led by Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid. Imtiaz Quddus is the
general secretary of the outfit. The outfit's operations commander, Mufti Abdul
Hannan was arrested in Dhaka on October 1, 2005.
Cadres
Although there is no authoritative information on the actual cadre strength, most
reports mention it to be around 15,000. Several of these recruits were trained in the
Kormi and Kasia areas of Bangladesh. Further, many hundred recruits were
reportedly trained at various training camps in Afghanistan, primarily during the reign
of the Taliban.
Hizbut Touhid:
Hizbut Touhid was established in 1994 at Korotia
village in Tangail district of Bangladesh. The
organization is led by Bayezid Khan Panni of
Tangail alies Selim Panni who claimed himself to
be the „Imam-Uz-Zaman,‟meaning someone just
after the prophet of Islam. Hizbut Touhid aspires to
establish a world under the leadership of Imam Uz
Zaman. It is against democracy and democratic institutions as it considers them to
be the rules of evil. Also, the organization opposes leadership of women in politics
and also working of women. It also feels that the Muslims who are not following the
ideology of Hizbut Touhid are not real Muslim. The organization believes that every
men and women in Islam are armies of Allah and they should behave like armies in
every walk of their lives. Hizbut Chief Panni has written many books like „Dazzal‟
and „This Islam is not at all Islam‟. In the book „Dazzal‟ Panni argues that Jews and
Christian should be eliminated by the Muslims. The groups promotes armed struggle
25
for establishment of Islamic rule in the world. Books and leaflets written by its Imam
Panni are the main guiding force for the group. CDs, books and leaflets are widely
distributed among people to attract cadres. Through these leaflets the group urges
people to join them to establish Islamic rule, rejecting all „manmade‟ laws.
Hizb-ut Tehrir:
Hizbut Tehrir Bangladesh is part of the
global Sunni political party that aspires to
establish Khilafat by uniting all Islamic
countries. Like its counter parts worldwide
it wants to establish Shariah in
Bangladesh. Hizb-ut Tehrir has three
clear goals: to establish a community of
like-minded Hizb-ut Tehrir members in
host states, to sway public opinion in one
or more host states to facilitate change of government, and, finally, to establishment
a new government that will implement Islamic laws. Recently, Hizb-ut Tehrir has
published “Islamic Manifesto” for Bangladesh demanding a Khilafat, implementation
of Shariah law,–no foreign ownership of any of the country‟s resources and most
important- no agreement can be signed with India other than ceasefire agreement.
Tehrir is also against participating in elections as it views elections are contrary to
Shariah law. The Chief of Tehrir in Bangladesh is Mohiuddin Ahmed. It‟s cadres are
mostly university students
26
Precautionary Measures
International Travel:
1. Before coming to Bangladesh the foreigners
should request for a security risk briefing. It is
the company‟s duty to inform their delegates
for a foreign risk briefing. If s/he don‟t have
proper idea regarding Bangladesh then it will
be difficult for them to work properly.
Example: In risk briefing for Bangladesh the
foreigners are asked to wear Salwar Kameez
because it is the traditional dress of
Bangladesh. And if the foreigners wear
western clothes in Bangladesh the uneducated
lower class people will keep staring at them which can be a little uneasy for them.
Then the instructor guides them where to deal with people and where not, in what
vehicles to ride and in what not to ride etc.
2. While travelling the foreigners should not display their company‟s logo. If the
foreigners carry such company‟s Logo which is very famous and big then s/he might
get kidnapped. If s/he is being kidnapped then it will the company‟s responsibility to
give the money to the kidnapper and make the foreigner free. But this is not
common in Bangladesh.
3. Foreigners should not discuss about their business identity or purpose with fellow
passengers. Bangladeshi people like to interfere in other people‟s personal matter
so the keep asking questions and questions. But the foreigners should not reply
them.
4. Foreigners should arrange to have someone familiar to pick them up at the airport
because the CNG and Taxi drivers of Bangladesh are involved in kidnapping gang.
27
They will take away all the money and belongings of them and sometimes they can
kill you as well.
5. Before coming to Bangladesh the foreigners should leave a copy of their detailed
itinerary with a friend, family or secretary so that if their passports get lost they can
have the photocopy to give that to the police.
Document and Currency:
Foreigners should not carry confidential company documents self during travel
because if by any chance the documents get lost then s/he will be accused wrongly.
The foreigners should memorize their passports details so that they don‟t need to
take out their passports again and again to fill up forms.
Medical Safety:
Foreigners should carry common medicines as per doctors‟ advice. They should at
least have some anti-allergic medicines because there is lots of dust in the roads of
Dhaka city. Foreigners might get allergy / cold because of this.
Hotel Safety:
The foreigners should stay in reputed hotels like The Shonargaon Hotel, Ruposhi
Bangla hotel, Raddison Hotel; The Westin etc. the cheap hotels at Bangladesh are
not safe at all. In those hotels the staffs may be involved with robbery gangs. They
will take all their money and then kill him/her. In Bangladesh the foreigners should
stay in between third to eight floor. Because if hotel is in fire then the fire brigade
service won‟t be able to blow off fire above 8th floor as Bangladesh doesn‟t have that
technology yet.
Street Awareness;
The foreigners should know the uniform of law enforcement agencies like police,
RAB because if they fall in any danger then they can go to the nearest police station
or the nearest police for help. Foreigners should not travel in high crime rate areas.
28
Those areas are very much risky and the police are also involved in kidnapping,
drug dealing business. So foreigners should not travel to Gulistan, Mirpur Pir Majar
etc.
Transportation:
The foreigners should hire rent-a-car or company‟s car, or car from tours and travel.
The foreigners should not ride the yellow cab or CNGs. The drivers of those
transports are sometimes involved in criminal activities.
PLANT SECURITY:
Safe-Houses:
Safe houses are especially building
secured houses which are built to
keep people safe during any
disaster or any war or uprising
when the foreigners can‟t get out of
the country. Safe houses are kept
safe and the people won‟t know
that where the safe house is. But
the foreigners can stay there for 3
months as all the daily necessary
things are being kept there. Safe
houses are commonly used by multinational companies. Nowadays all the big
multinational companies and embassies have safe houses.
29
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2011Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Bangladesh
Dhaka Become Vulnerable To Criminal Activities. (2009, August 20). Retrieved December 1, 2011, from 2011 - Zimbio, Inc: http://www.zimbio.com/Bangladesh/articles/hgpkE2lNRNF/Dhaka+Become+Vulnera ble+Criminal+Activities Houghton Mifflin Company. (n.d). The free dictionary by Farlex. Retrieved Decemeber 01, 2011, from 2011 Farlex, Inc.: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fraud How fraud 'institution' continuing in Bangladesh. ( 2011, May 25). Retrieved December 01, 2011, from 2011 Weekly Blitz: http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1457/how- fraud-institution-continuing-in-bangladesh Massive fraud by Brac Bank in Bangladesh. ( 2009, March 18). Retrieved December 1, 2011, from 2011 Weekly Blitz: http://www.weeklyblitz.net/215/massive-fraud-by- brac-bank-in-bangladesh Mugged, Dragged and Scarred: harrowing tale from foreigner in Dhaka. (23, August
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