Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said Spanish investments will be welcomed in any sector of Bangladesh for mutual benefits as Spain's ambassador to Bangladesh Francisco de Asis Benitez Salas paid a farewell call on her. "They (Spain's entrepreneurs) are welcomed. They can invest in any sector of their choice in Bangladesh," PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim quoted her as saying in the meeting with the Spanish envoy at her official residence Ganabhaban here. While briefing reporters after the meeting, Karim said Salas expressed his country's keenness to invest in Bangladesh including its agro based industries. "Many entrepreneurs are keen to visit Bangladesh and invest here," the Spanish ambassador said. He said the quality of hospital and agro equipment of Spain is very good. During the meeting, both of the Bangladesh premier and the Spanish envoy expressed satisfaction over the existing relationship between the two countries and hoped that this relationship will be strengthened further. The Bangladesh premier has sought GSP+ facilities from the Spain even after its graduation as a developing nation in 2026. She said 60,000 Bangladeshis have been working in Spain and they are contributing to both economies. The prime minister recalled her visit to Madrid of Spain in December, 2019 to join the COP25.   The Spanish envoy highly appreciated the unprecedented development of Bangladesh particularly in the sectors of social, political, financial and women development in the last 15 years under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In reply, the prime minister said her government has been working tirelessly for overall development of Bangladesh following the footprints of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. About women empowerment and development, Sheikh Hasina said Bangabandhu had first initiated reserved seats in the parliament for women and taken various measures to make the women self reliant economically aimed at empowering them. "We had to face a lot of difficulties to empower women. But, we have overcome," she said. The Spanish envoy praised the management of Bangladesh during the Covid-19 period for which the casualties were very low. In response, the prime minister said, "We gave topmost priorities in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic". PM's Ambassador-at-Large Mohammad Ziauddin and PM's Principal Secretary M. Tofazzel Hossain Miah were present.   Source: BSS

Meta on Thursday (Nov 30) warned that deceptive online campaigns based in China were taking aim at 2024 elections in the United States and elsewhere. The tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram said it has taken down five coordinated influence networks out of China this year. "Foreign threat actors are attempting to reach people across the Internet ahead of next year's elections, and we need to remain alert," Meta global threat intelligence lead Ben Nimmo said during a briefing about its latest security report. Meta said that it removed 4,789 Facebook fake accounts that were part of one campaign posting about national politics and relations with China. The accounts in the network praised China; bashed its critics, and copy-pasted real online posts by US politicians with the potential to stoke partisan divisions, according to the threat report. "As election campaigns ramp up, we should expect foreign influence operations to try and leverage authentic parties and debate rather than creating original content themselves," Nimmo said. "We anticipate that if relations with China become an election topic in a particular country, we may see China-based influence operations pivot to target those debates." Meta tracked the source of the networks to China but did not attribute them to the government. The most prolific source of such networks continues to be Russia, with operations based in that country focusing primarily on undermining support for its war against Ukraine, according to Meta. Websites associated with Russia-based campaigns recently shifted to using the war between Hamas and Israel to tarnish the image of the United States, the security report indicated. Source: CNA

National Bureau of Statistics said some regions in Guizhou province had falsified data, while county governments in Shaanxi province had intervened in data gathering The bureau inspected several provinces in summer amid an effort to improve data accuracy, while another round of visits started earlier last month China’s statistics authority has issued a fresh warning to local authorities over fabricating statistics and intervening in data gathering to overinflate performance as part of a latest bid to improve data accuracy and help refine Beijing’s economic decision-making. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday indicated that some regions in the southwestern province of Guizhou were still falsifying data, while it said that some county governments in the northwestern Shaanxi province had intervened in data gathering. But the bureau did not provide names and the data involved, or reveal any punishments, according to two statements published on its website. Analysts have long been concerned over the accuracy and authenticity of China’s data, as well as a lack of transparency, while internally, Beijing needs reliable figures to guide its policy direction. The bureau inspected several provinces in summer, including Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hunan, Guizhou and Shaanxi, to ensure raw economic data was being gleaned from genuine businesses and had not been inflated by officials. A new round of visits started earlier last month, with another six provinces as well as the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Natural Resources inspected. A twice-a-decade nationwide economic census of businesses and households has also started, which is hoped would provide information on the post-Covid landscape as well as highlight the losses businesses suffered due to China’s zero-Covid policy. “Data reliability is fundamentally important for rational policymaking, as well as for business decision-making,” said Chen Zhiwu, chair professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong. “It’s definitely in the government’s interest to ensure maximum data reliability.” In meetings with local officials, the statistics bureau said that some city and county level officials in Henan province lacked a full understanding of the “extreme criticality and exigencies” of data authenticity. They had also delayed amending falsified data, according to media reports in China. NBS director Kang Yi was also quoted as saying that some county governments padded gross domestic product and other economic statistics as part of “macroeconomic management”. Local officials tend to inflate economic figures to boost their promotion prospects or because they are under pressure to meet economic growth targets. The widening local government debt crisis has also led to increased efforts to falsify data. Amid rising debt, property slump, data may be China’s next financial hurdle In a rare move in October, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress warned some asset quality data at small and medium-sized financial institutions did not “truly reflect the actual situation”. Beijing has previously punished officials and overhauled data collection and reporting systems, including centralised data preparation and announcements at state and provincial levels. Chen at the University of Hong Kong said a structural way would be to make the statistics bureaus independent of political interference. “This is doable if Beijing is really serious about rational policymaking,” he added. The NBS has collected an increasing amount of its data, including industrial output, directly from large enterprises or through surveys. Source: South China Morning Post

Ambassador Yao Wen Attends Inauguration Ceremony of Chinese Economic and Idustrial Zone and Signing Ceremony of Enterprises Intending to Invest in CEIZ. Mr. Yao Wen, Ambassador of China to Bangladesh, attended the inauguration ceremony of Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone (CEIZ) and the signing ceremony of the enterprises intending to invest in CEIZ in Chattogram. Dr. Shaikh Mohammad Jobayed Hossain, Joint Secretary of BEZA, Mr. Li Changgui, Vice President of CRBC, Mr. Song Yang, Counsellor of Chinese Embassy in Bangladesh attended the ceremonies. Ambassador Yao highlighted the pioneering significance of CEIZ, and urged CRBC to formulate more favorable investment policies and complete the construction of CEIZ at an early date. He noted that Chinese enterprises will build more industrial zones in the future, which will serve as a platform for the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and enhance China-Bangladesh economic cooperation.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has observed that, Bangladesh economy is on the right track.  On Friday, October 13, IMF Director for the Asia and Pacific Department (APD) Krishna Srinivasan said it on mentioning various measures of the government to address macroeconomic challenges. Krishna Srinivasan said,  "I think, the economy is on right track in terms of meeting the objective of programme, getting inflation under control and addressing macroeconomic challenges given in difficult global environment." He said this at a press conference on 'Economic Outlook for Asia Pacific' as part of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF.   "They have tightened monetary policy to reduce inflation. They have allowed more flexible exchange rate." Also mentioned that, every countries of the region including Bangladesh has been facing challenges due to global crisis.  "In coming years, strengthening multilateral and regional cooperation and mitigating the effects of geo-economic fragmentation are vital for Asia's economic outlool," he added.  He said, lower nontariff trade barriers, boost connectivity, and improve business environments are essential to attract more foreign and domestic investment across the region