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Vietnam's prime minister says he is ready to visit the United States to promote ties between the two countries and work with President Donald Trump's new administration, particularly over trade, reports Reuters. Vietnam had been one of the top potential beneficiaries of the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement canceled by Trump, but it has also been building links to the United States amid a maritime dispute with China. "Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed he is ready to visit US to promote Vietnam-US tie," the Vietnamese government said on its official Facebook page on Friday. Phuc also expressed his wish that the United States continues to be Vietnam's leading trade partner. The former prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited the United States in February 2016 to attend a US-ASEAN summit, but the last official state visit was in 2008. In a telephone call shortly after his election last year, Trump told Phuc he wanted to further strengthen fast-warming ties between the two countries. Vietnam advanced ties with the United States to a new level under former US President Barack Obama, keen on the United States maintaining its security presence in Asia in the face of territorial claims by neighboring China. China claims most of the South China Sea, while Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei claim parts of the sea that commands strategic sea lanes and has rich fishing grounds along with oil and gas deposits. Washington lifted a US lethal arms embargo on Vietnam last May, allowing closer defence links and some joint military exercises.....

Published at: 2017-03-10 00:00:04

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday there could never be peace in Syria as long as there was an Iranian presence there. "We discussed at length the matter of Iran, its objectives and intentions in Syria, and I clarified that there cannot be a peace deal in Syria when Iran is there and declares its intention to destroy Israel," Netanyahu said in footage supplied by his office after their meeting. Iran, Israel's arch-enemy, has been embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's staunchest backer and has provided militia fighters to help him in the country's civil war. "(Iran) is arming itself and its forces against Israel including from Syria territory and is, in fact, gaining a foothold to continue the fight against Israel," he said in reply to a reporter's question. "There cannot be peace when they continue the war and therefore they have to be removed." Russia, also Assad's ally, is seen as holding the balance of power in achieving a deal on Syria's future. In Geneva last week, the first UN-led Syria peace talks in a year ended without a breakthrough. Israeli leaders have pointed to Tehran's steadily increasing influence in the region during the six-year-old Syrian conflict, whether via its own Revolutionary Guard forces or Shi'ite Muslim proxies, especially Hezbollah. Last year, Avi Dichter, the chair of Israel's foreign affairs and defense committee, said Iran had tried several times in the past to move forces into the Syrian Golan Heights, next to territory that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Dichter said those moves were repelled, but gave no details. Netanyahu has said that Israel has carried out dozens of strikes to prevent weapons smuggling to the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah via Syria. Two years ago, Israel and Russia agreed to coordinate military actions over Syria in order to avoid accidentally trading fire.  ....

Published at: 2017-03-10 00:00:04

A 25-km-long tailback was created on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway, following a road accident at Postakamuri Charpara in Mirzapur upazila under Tangail on Wednesday morning, inflicting serious sufferings on thousands of passengers.      — UNB  ....

Published at: 2017-03-09 00:00:04

A leading business forum has called for amending the recently-enacted BIDA Act to increase power of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and give it supremacy over all other related departments. At the same time, the forum has proposed alignment of all laws and regulations related to investment in the country to make those legally binding for other ministries and departments to accept the BIDA's regulating authority. Prominent business think-tank International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB) made the proposals on Wednesday in the capital at a seminar on 'Role of BIDA and proposed One- Stop Service Act: Investment Climate in Bangladesh'. Presently the new law has given the BIDA regulatory authority over private investors and only advisory authority over other government departments, the IBFB said in its keynote presentation adding that there are numerous public sector businesses involved in manufacturing and services. The Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Act 2016 was passed in the parliament in July last year creating the new national investment authority through merger of the Board of Investment and the Privatisation Commission. The new entity has already proposed a One- Stop Service Act to boost investment in the country by reducing bureaucratic tangles.    Focusing on the proposed 'One-Stop Service Act', IBFB officials observed that there are a number of related laws and regulations that should be aligned to make the proposed law effective. The laws are Foreign Exchange Regulating Act 1947, Customs Act, Immigration Act, Trade Control Act, Land Registration Act, Companies Act, Overseas Employment Act, ADR Law etc. At the same time, Intellectual Property Rights, enforcement of verdict and overseas legal system, Law of Contract, Income Tax Act, Competition Commission Act, Import Policy, Export Policy and Banking Policy also need to be aligned to make the law effective, they added. The IBFB said all these laws and regulations should be aligned to make it legally binding for other ministries and departments to accept regulating authority of the BIDA.    Simultaneously, Export Processing Zones and Special Economic Zones should also come under the BIDA to boost investment in these specialised zones, said M S Siddiqui, Legal Economist and Director of IBFB who presented the keynote paper at the seminar. The proposed One-Stop Service Centre may also be established under the existing BIDA Act if the law is given supremacy over other relevant laws, he added. Executive Chairman of BIDA Kazi M Aminul Islam, who attended the seminar as chief guest, said his organisation is currently working to promote investment in the remotest parts of the country. "Until now, investment promotion in Bangladesh has been centred in Dhaka. But, investment is a countrywide issue", Mr Islam said. "So, now we are planning to take our investment promotion initiatives to the remotest parts of the country", he said. The BIDA Executive Chairman observed that the actual task of investment generation lies with the private sector while his organisation's responsibility is to facilitate such investment.    "Generating investment is not the job of BIDA. Rather, we will focus on investor services and advocacy", Mr Islam said, adding, "Through their investment experiences, investors will be able to tell the world that Bangladesh is a good place for investment".       Member of the Planning Commission Professor Dr. Shamsul Alam in his speech observed that policy continuity is not a major problem for Bangladesh when it comes to ensuring a business-friendly environment. "The real problems are absence of strong, independent and transparent institutions and infrastructural bottlenecks", he said.   "We also need to bring more multinational companies to the local capital market and there is also a need for setting up a secondary bond market in the country", he added. Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute Dr. Ahsan H Mansur said Bangladesh's goal of becoming a high income country by 2041 is an ambitious one requiring investment in all areas to be led by private sector and helped by public sector. mehdi.finexpress@gmail.com....

Published at: 2017-03-09 00:00:04

Intergovernmental body OECD has requested Bangladesh to sign a multilateral convention to implement tax-treaty-related measures in a global combat to prevent base erosion and profit shifting, especially to tax havens. Tax avoidance through Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BESP) is being considered a global problem which requires global solutions, says OECD. A large group of countries, including G20 and OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, and developing nations have worked out a comprehensive package of effective measures against BESP, says a letter sent to Finance Minister AMA Muhith recently. "It is crucial for all jurisdictions to sign the instrument together in order to close loopholes in treaties quickly and in a harmonised matter. Your government's signature of the multilateral instrument will send a strong signal of its commitment to prevent BESP and create a better functioning tax system," OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria wrote. Mr Gurria invited Mr Muhith to attend a high-level ceremony in Paris in June to sign the instrument and said the OECD is ready to provide all necessary technical support in the process of signing, ratification, and implementation of the convention. He requested a confirmation from Mr Muhith by March 10 regarding Bangladesh's intention to sign the multilateral instrument. A senior official at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) told the FE that the officials concerned were working on the matter to decide about signing the treaty. The tax-treaty-related measures are aimed at countering the abuse of bilateral tax treaties, improving dispute resolution, and updating the global tax-treaty network which is composed of more than 3000 bilateral treaties, according to a document forwarded by OECD to the ministry. It said a swift and simultaneous implementation of the tax-treaty-related measures is crucial to combating tax avoidance by multinational enterprises (MNEs). The BESP is estimated to cause global revenue loss of US$100 to $240 billion per annum. The multilateral instrument provides the opportunity to modify existing treaties without the need for costly and time-consuming bilateral renegotiations while providing flexibility to accommodate different tax policies. After signing the instrument, the countries have to provide list of the bilateral treaties to be covered by the convention and of the reservations and options they intend to choose. The multilateral convention will modify tax treaties between two or more parties, the document says. The BESP refers to tax-planning strategies that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to artificially shift profits to low-or no-tax locations where there is little or no economic activity, resulting in little or no overall corporate tax being paid. In recent years wealthy people have reportedly invested billions of dollars in tax heavens by siphoning off money from their countries. Last year, the famous Panama Paper leak unearthed a large investment in offshore companies by wealthy and influential people to avoid tax.  syful-islam@outlook.com....

Published at: 2017-03-09 00:00:04