KATHMANDU, July 30 : The main South Asian regional group on Tuesday took new steps toward eliminating tariffs to boost trade in the region, reports AFP. Senior officials from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries began a three-day meeting here to set an agenda for bringing down tariffs. The inter-governmental group on trade liberalisation will make recommendations to the governments of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka on how to free up trade. The meeting was inaugurated by SAARC Secretary General Naeem U Hasan who stressed the importance of regional cooperation for developing regional trade and commerce through concessional tariffs. The member nations set up the South Asian Preferential...
A three-day 'Education@UK Fair 2003' organised by the British Council (BC) begins in the city on January 23. Education Minister Dr. Osman Farruk will inaugurate the fair at the Winter Garden of Dhaka Sheraton Hotel at 10:30am.
...A folded sari -- available to every woman in Bangladesh -- can filter drinking water clean of the particles carrying cholera, cutting in half the number of cases of the disease, researchers reported yesterday.
...Biman Bangladesh Airlines will carry 2,740 Hajj pilgrims from Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport (CSAIA) to Saudi Arabia from January 24. This is the second time that the Hajj pilgrims will be carried from the CSAIA to the Kingdom directly. Last year Biman carried 822 Hajj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia in three direct flights from Chittagong, Biman sources said yesterday.
...A move is underway to allow limited re-export of three products to other countries.
...Shipping Minister Akbar Hossain yesterday invited Korean shipbuilders to start shipbuilding under joint venture here, saying that Bangladesh would be able to make high-tech, economically viable ships in collaboration with them.
...Australia will provide 10,000 dollars under its Direct Aid Programme (DAP) as an immediate response to the growing emergency caused by severe cold wave sweeping over Bangladesh, says a press release.
Australia will donate the amount to International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to purchase and distribute blankets, second-hand clothes and high protein biscuits for the needy people in the hardest hit districts of north and north- western region of the country.
India has proposed creation of a South Asian Union (SAU), which will not only be an economic grouping but will also acquire a "political and strategic dimension".
...Vietnam has decided to re-open its mission in Dhaka after 23 years, Foreign Secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury disclosed yesterday.
...Canadian Minister for International Co-operation Susan Whelan visited Goari Muktir Bazar Mohila Samity of Valuka under Mymensingh on January 7 to acquaint herself with microcredit and social development programme of Palli Daridro Bimochon Foundation (PDBF), says a press release.
...Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar left Dhaka yesterday for London to attend a three-day conference of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
The 'Speakers and Presiding Officers' Conference' of the CPA begins at the State of Jersey on Friday.
After the conference, the Speaker, as the President of CPA, will visit the CPA headquarters in London and exchange views with its leaders and officials.
Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar will also take initiatives for holding the CPA 'Speakers and Presiding Officers Conference' in Bangladesh next year.
