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Bangladesh's 'Missing Billionaires': A wealth boom and Extreme Inequality
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13 Jun 2024, 13:57
Photo: Collected
A luxury residential building called 'Three' is being constructed in the Gulshan area of the capital. This newly constructed residential complex is the most expensive building in the capital, highlighting the country's economic inequality.
The construction of this 14-storey building is nearing completion, not far from the elite Gulshan Club in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, and on the lap of the tranquil Gulshan Lake.
The construction workers of the building detailed the latest status of its construction work.
Known as 'Three', the building is being constructed by the elite Bangladeshi real estate developer company BTI and is undoubtedly the most expensive residential building to be built in South Asia.
In addition to having the largest zip code, the building has 12 apartments - each over 7,000 square feet (650 square-meters). The building has all modern amenities including biometric security, elevators, AI-based lighting system.
All of the apartments were sold before construction began, even with a price tag of $200 million or $2.5 million by 2021, with apartment prices dropping to $1.8 million.
BTI chairman Faizur Rahman Khan also bought a flat in the building. Other potential owners are being carefully selected from more than 50 applications, mainly city businessmen.
Bangladesh's growing disposable income is not unknown. Crowded shopping malls such as Jamuna Future Park are one of the largest in South Asia. New billboards advertising everything from packaged food to cars and smartphones are proof of that.
But this BTI building is a bit different which speaks to the growing wealth of Bangladesh's rich community.
A Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study indicates that while the country's middle-class and affluent consumer (MAC) class is expanding rapidly – it to be reach 17 percent of the population by 2025, and the country's wealth inequality is simultaneously deepening.
Source: Al Jazeera
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Ashulia's viral video of dead bodies piled up in a van
A video of a pile of dead bodies in a van recently went viral on social media. The gruesome video was of some people who were killed during the quota reform movement.
After the video went viral, questions arose as to where the incident took place. Later, the fact check organization Rumor Scan said that the incident of pile of dead bodies in the van was in the area adjacent to Ashulia police station. However, their identity is not yet known.
The company confirmed the matter on Friday (August 29) night.
In the viral video, several bodies are seen piled up in a van. Besides, another body is being transferred by the police to the van. The bodies were later covered with a poster. At this time, some other policemen are also seen walking around. Although many have questioned whether those who were wearing police jackets were actually police.
According to Rumor Scan, the much-discussed video of the pile of dead bodies happened in the area adjacent to Ashulia police station. This incident happened on the afternoon of August 5. Besides, two people living around the scene claimed that the poster seen on the wall of the video is Abul Hossain Bhuiyan, candidate for ward number 7 of Dhamsona Union of Ashulia.
It is known that this poster on the wall is not available now. Immediately after August 5, all the walls were repainted.
Incidentally, in the anti-discrimination movement on July 15, the Chhatra League repeatedly attacked ordinary students in several universities including the capital Dhaka. At the same time, the police opened fire to quell the students' agitation.
Later, on August 4, there were reports of hundreds of people killed in clashes with government-backed leaders and activists and protesters with the police around a phase of the anti-discrimination student movement.
In this situation, Sheikh Hasina left the country on August 5 and went to India. Some of the MP ministers have fled abroad, some are hiding in the country and some have been arrested and remanded.
GFI reports / 80,000 crores smuggled from Bangladesh every year
Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based financial sector research organization, said that an average of 7.53 billion 37 million dollars or Tk 80,000 crores have been smuggled abroad from Bangladesh every year.
The organization says, 'Every year, an average of 80 thousand crore has been smuggled from this small third world country! A large part of which is smuggled in the guise of international trade.'
Economists say that the main challenge now is to recover the laundered money anyway. They also said that for the past few years, the economy of the country has been suffering from various factors including dollar crisis, fragile economy, inflation, one of the reasons of which is money laundering. Lakhs of crores have been smuggled to different countries of the world in various ways including global trade manipulation, hundi, smuggling.
According to the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), in the last one and a half years, more than 100 thousand crores have been smuggled to different countries of the world through only 24 loan scams embezzled from 19 domestic banks. Not only individual initiatives, several financial institutions and public, private banks are also indirectly involved in the money laundering process.
Several years ago, Bangladesh signed several agreements with many countries to recover the money smuggled. Economists say that the current government can continue those agreements and joint ventures with related countries.
Dhaka beholds 80mm rainfall in 3 hrs, most streets underwater
A total of 80 millimetres of rainfall has recorded in Dhaka from 6:00 am to 9:00 am on Tuesday (September 03). It has caused water-logging in various places. Apart from this, public transports has seen comparatively less due to the accumulation of water on the roads.
From morning, a picture shows that due to the rain, most of the people are waiting for the bus with umbrella. People who go to office are facing more problems.
BMD meteorologist Md Omar Faruk told the media that heavy rains hit Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions today, Tuesday with 80 millimeters of rainfall recorded in the capital in three hours.
Most of these two divisions are likely to receive rain. Other divisions may experience rain in some places. The sky of the capital has been cloudy since yesterday.
Many roads in the capital including Karwan Bazar, Shahjahanpur, Malibag Railgate, Mouchak, Moghbazar, West Tejturi Bazar, Tejkunipara, Dhanmondi, Border Bazar in West Shewrapara, Mollapara in South Manipur have already accumulated water. There is no end to the suffering of pedestrians.
Chief Advisor Calls Captain Shanto After Historic Victory
Chief Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus called national cricket team captain Najmul Hossain Shanto by phone to congratulate him and his team for their historic Test win against Pakistan on Tuesday (September 03).
"Heartiest congratulations on behalf of the government and myself. The whole nation is proud of you," the Chief Adviser told Shanto after Bangladesh completed a six-wicket victory in the Second Test in Rawalpindi to complete a 2-0 clean sweep victory in the two-Test series.
Dr Yunus said the Bangladesh team would be accorded a reception after they returned home.
Zillur Ranman appointed as RAB Additional Director General
37 officers who have been promoted to the post of DIG from Additional DIG working in various units of Bangladesh Police have been posted.
Tourist Police Superintendent (promoted to the post of Supernumerary DIG) Md Zillur Rahman has been appointed as Additional Director General (DIG) of RAB.
This appointment was made in a notification signed by the deputy secretary of the police-1 branch of the public security department Md Sheikh Mahabubur Rahman on Tuesday (September 3).
The notification said that this order will be implemented immediately.
Shahidi March: / Students Rally to Honor Fallen Heroes
The 'Shahidi March' of the anti-discrimination student movement is set to take place today.
The movement's central leaders will hold the march on Thursday (September 5) to honor those who lost their lives to violence during various stages of the ongoing student protests, which began with demands for government job quota reform and escalated to calls for the government’s resignation. The event also marks one month since the fall of the Awami League government.
This announcement was made during a press conference held on Wednesday (September 4) at the Dhaka University (DU) Student-Teacher Center (TSC).
According to the plan, the march will commence at 3 p.m. from Raju Bhaskorja at Dhaka University and will proceed through Newmarket, Manik Mia Avenue, Karwan Bazar, and Shahbagh, concluding at the central Shaheed Minar. Sarjis Alam, a lead coordinator of the movement, emphasized that this march serves as a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for justice.
"Starting tomorrow, Friday (September 6), we will take this march to divisional and district cities under the banner of the anti-discrimination movement," Alam added. "This is the moment to honor those who faced bullets for our cause. Tomorrow, students across the country will rise again."
Alam further expressed that the violence continues to haunt them, with survivors still bearing the physical and emotional scars. He urged the media to document these tragedies and emphasized that a victory march would only be possible once a new, just Bangladesh is realized.
Abu Bakr Majumdar, another coordinator, reiterated that those responsible for the killings would not go unpunished. He mentioned that a team is being assembled to identify the perpetrators, with a goal of combating corruption and extortion nationwide.
A lot of garment manufacturing may move to India from Bangladesh
Raymond CMD Gautam Singhania expects a large chunk of garment manufacturing to move India in the coming years due to the political turmoil in Bangladesh and believes his company is ready to tap into the opportunity with the investment it had made to supply to global players.
"We sell fabrics to Bangladesh, all that business is coming back here after the crisis. Once the business shifts here, it won't go back.
They don't have a fabric base. You will succeed when you are integrated - we have fabric base and garment base (in India). Today, the ball has been thrown, we have to catch it," he said.
Raymond had invested around Rs 200 crore to expand its garment manufacturing capacity, which Singhania expects will come handy given that the company is already supplying to large buyers. "We are the third largest garment manufacturer in the world; we do 10 million pieces a year. Two Chinese players are bigger; they have higher volumes, but they sell cheaper stuff. Today, all the marquee customers are with us. For example, Hugo Boss, CK, Macy's, JCPenney. Out of Rs 7,000 crore (revenue), Rs 1,200 crore will come from there, 95% of that is exported," he said.
While Raymond is seeking to expand its portfolio with sleepwear, inner-wear, and bolstering Ethinix, Singhania ruled out a re-entry into womenswear. "It's as different for me (as it is) to make cement and steel. We did a market survey and it showed that the male took very strong objection to Raymond extending it to womenswear," he said.
Source: TOI
