User talk:Afrozetalukder

International Fund Transfer. A Letter written to the Senior Vice President of IFIC bank of Bangladesh.

This is an excerpt from a letter written about remittance from Bangladesh to Thailand. In this letter the concerned, clearly categories a policy of the transfer of funds from one country to another. There was and still are lots of Bangladeshi students, studying in different Universities. Most of these students are sent money from home through some legal channel. In this case they need to open a file in the bank from which remittance will be sent to their account in the country in which the University is situated.

This particular letter was written 17th May in the C.E of 1998 in Dhaka. The person writing states that he had been receiving the wire transfer for the last three years and not single penny was deducted as fees or hidden charges, either by the sending bank or the receiving one.

It was only recently i.e. November 1997 that he saw discrepancy in the money transferred and money received in his account. For every transaction he got a sum of 25 U.S dollars less. This was money was being charged in by the routing bank located in New York. The Bangkok Bank PLC, New York, N.Y was some how doing this.

When the concerned wanted the reason the person in charge was very concerned for he was a wise man who had been in the profession Business of Bangladesh since the days of Pakistan. His son was a friend a neighbor of the letter write, a very honest and self reliant person. The most important of his character trait was he was very thrifty.

As the Senior Mr. Ali got to see the letter he was regretful and immediately asked for the reason and a few days later there was an explanation as to why this sort of activities do work. The person who enquired into the affairs found that the International Banking was changing this 10% was the charge for the service provided.

This should not have been the case for the service charges and the other fees were already being paid by the remitter and such fees imposed was probably out of the jurisdiction of the entity cutting on the fund transfer.

Now-a-days there is no rule on any type of banking anywhere and the common people are caught in the midst of wrangling of the credit fraud and other illegal fess and fund transfers as deemed necessary for the transaction these are mostly imposed arbitrarily by Bankers themselves without the approval of Central Bank or the Federal Bank, in other words the regulatory body. Things Fall Apart!

Sustainable Developpment
There is the Korean Companies that set Ready made Garments in Dhaka, Bangladesh. That was in 1980s, and the Net Asset Value of the sunk cost of those factories was about 12,000/- U.S dollars. Today Bangladesh Exports about 15 Billion US. Dollars but the question is whether this Export earning is Sustainable.

Firstly, the Clothes that do come are bought from surrounding countries in the form of bulk and there is a lot of demand from other states. Vietnam, Laos and Sri lanka are trying the get a chunk of this “meat pie”. It is always good to hear about the possibility of the earning to reach 25 Billion Dollars.

Recent, tragic incident in Rana Plaza was a big set back for Bangladesh to be under the GSP facility to be discouraged to Bangladesh. Although the GSP facility was not something that Bangladesh is enjoying as the RMG is not included in this category but there are some 200 items that are potential export item and these export will suffer.

The RMG is usually set by an entrepreneur and this is set up in a edifice which probably is not inspected by the BGMC or any other regulatory body. The supervisors who do check on the work condition of the country’s Garments Factories. There is another problem associated with these fabricated buildings they are not properly sanctioned as Ready Made Garments, RMG, factories. In Rana Plaza the building was found to be poorly constructed, the materials were siphoned from the sight and the Construciton Firm appointed did not continue with the work as they found it was non compliant with the Building Code.

The workers who come from the village usually girls in 16 to 19 years are the major age group and they are made to come from the village where they do not finish their Seconday School Certificate for most of them do drop out as their parents would want them to get married. These women are forced to get betrothed and therefore forced in marrieage which probably would not result in a happy conjugation.

Due to social conditions most of the victims choose to go and try their luck in RMG. Leaving, the village they come to City Council Areas and thus need to adopt to their survival. The water pollution made by the RMG and the Accessories company have been dumping waste to water ways and casuing irreversible damage to their riverine Eco System.

The Entrepreneurs are reluctant to invest in treating the waste as the price of Effluent Treatment Plant is “huge” for the investment of 25,000/ US dollars appears huge for they can do a way the “another way”. These factories are set haphazardly without any centralized planning and not approved by the Government Authority.

The US Ambassador was, however, very optimistic when he commented about the success that the Government of Bangladesh ability and willingness to get back the GSP facilitates to be back.

It is fine to get the GSP facilitates but the problem is whether the Economic Development or in this case the Sustainable Economic Development will be possible since the land taken away from the Farming Projects been turned into RMG factories. These facilities do not treat the water coming out of the system and thereby polluting the water bodies and therefore, Buriganga and Turag are the main sufferers.

If the water is not cleaned and put into the system of consumption as pure water after purifying these purification is being done by the Government and therefore in a way these RMGs are getting the spill over development for the sake of common people.

These waters that are ejected in to the network of water bodies are killing fishes, and other niches. Frogs, Birds are being decimated in demarcated areas. The other manufacturing companies are also causing damages to the natural ecological system for there is the “missing links” and these do cause a lot of ecological damage.

Bangladeshis might be filling their personal coiffures but at what cost? The potable water of the rivers are so polluted with heavy metals such mercury, Cadmium, Chromium etc. These heavy metals are responsible for loss in the health. Lead is found to bring in loss in “intelligence” of children and “Horlicks” is not a substitute. Chromium is said to cause cancer and the other metals can stop the healthy  growth in the children. Attention Deficit Disorder, and Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder, ADHD are said to be related to the ingestion of these metals whilst still in the mother in the form of Embryo.

The priority should be given to ecology and then only can we expect the sustainable development to take place. Killing the plough able land and the water bodies will only cost the economy so much so that there will be not enough resources to bring the change in the form of controlled development.