Building a trillion-dollar economy
18 May 2026, 00:00 AM
Bangladesh’s ambition to become a $1 trillion economy by 2034 is bold, inspiring and politically powerful.
18 May 2026, 00:00 AM
How did the Sikders get so much from banks?
10 May 2026, 00:00 AM
The Sikder family story now dominating headlines is not merely about one business group’s rise and fall.
10 May 2026, 00:00 AM
Triple economic stress tests for Bangladesh
3 May 2026, 00:00 AM
Bangladesh’s economy is confronting three interconnected structural vulnerabilities: a surge in non-performing loans (NPLs), weakness in revenue mobilisation and a rise in debt-dependent fiscal management. These are no longer isolated technical concerns. Together, they amount to a systemic stress test of economic governance.
3 May 2026, 00:00 AM
Banking cannot continue the way it is
28 April 2026, 00:00 AM
After more than 35 years in commercial banking, I have seen a troubling pattern: persistently high non-performing loans, limited product innovation, weak risk management, a shortage of capable and transformational leadership, and undue interference by owner directors.
28 April 2026, 00:00 AM
How govt can stop the export slide
19 April 2026, 00:00 AM
Over nearly four decades, through persistence and sacrifice, Bangladesh has become a reliable exporting nation.
19 April 2026, 00:00 AM
Can a bank resolution framework work if discredited owners return?
16 April 2026, 12:00 PM
I worked with senior officials at Bangladesh Bank in developing the framework for the 2025 Bank Resolution Act, which is similar to India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, and analogous frameworks in Indonesia and a few other comparable economies.
16 April 2026, 12:00 PM
Good budget in bad times
12 April 2026, 00:00 AM
A national budget is not merely a financial plan. It reflects political commitment and sets the direction of travel.
12 April 2026, 00:00 AM
Demystifying CSR
6 April 2026, 00:00 AM
We often confuse charity with CSR (corporate social responsibility), and label all sorts of activities as CSR.
6 April 2026, 00:00 AM
Understanding country risk
Investors typically take 5 to 10 years of historical data as a basis for projections of the future. But in cases such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or Sri Lanka’s rapid economic deterioration, the past is not a metric that can be relied on for the future.
8 May 2022, 18:00 PM
How do you define a good boss?
Bosses indeed play a key role in determining a worker's happiness factor. More than half of the employees responding to an annual job-satisfaction survey admit they do not leave companies, they leave bosses.
10 April 2022, 18:00 PM
Old guards versus new guards
In today’s dynamic and ever-changing business environment the need to transform, reshape and restructure is a constant and no longer an option.
24 March 2022, 18:00 PM
How private sector can help public sector
The private sector is well-known for its efficiency but is also negatively viewed for its greed and an inherent nature that lacks focus on welfare. The public sector is considered to work for the benefit of the people but is often cited as being inefficient and wasteful.
1 March 2022, 18:00 PM
Bangladesh capital market: Looking back and forward
Fifty years of Bangladesh is marked with a few significant achievements. The country became a $400-plus billion economy in 2021. Per capita income rose to $2,554 in FY21, which is higher than our neighbouring countries, including India.
20 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Lessons learned to reshape the future
I took over as head of treasury and a country senior team member in the then ANZ Grindlays Bank in early 1988 and since then worked as a senior executive in three global banks at home and abroad.
7 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Marketing going beyond
Knowledge never stays still. There is a constant evolution of knowledge as insights are built upon previous ones and the pace of knowledge growth has never been faster than in the 21st century.
25 January 2022, 18:00 PM
CSR in the era of climate change and sustainability
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) puts the onus back on business enterprises themselves. Under this concept, it becomes the duty of businesses to be conscious of the kind of impact they have on various aspects of society from the economic, social, and environmental perspectives.
21 December 2021, 18:00 PM
Build your own brand
I take pride in sharing with my readers that I was taught branding at Kellogg School of Management by a certain Professor Philip Kotler. At the same time, my piece on “Branding Bangladesh” drew the attention of Simon Anholt, known to be a guru of this subject, who subsequently wrote a piece on nation branding in the local newspaper.
21 November 2021, 18:00 PM
Could we have avoided the fuel price hike?
There is an uproar, at least among civil society forums, the media and common people, regarding a recent government decision to increase the price of diesel and kerosene by Tk 15 per litre each.
13 November 2021, 18:00 PM
Retail banking needs a paradigm shift
The breakneck pace of innovation disrupting the financial sector has ushered in a level of uncertainty which the sector has not faced before. New entrants and a rapidly changing business model have provided customers with a multiplicity of options.
19 October 2021, 18:00 PM
Managing people through change
The world has changed. Radically new technologies, new forms of working, new customs, new standards, and the gamut of changes spurred on by the “new normal” have drastically changed the modern day workplace.
27 September 2021, 18:00 PM
Why loans turn bad
As of March 2021, the total outstanding loans in the banking sector in Bangladesh stood at Tk 111,1940 crore. Out of this, an amount of Tk 95,090 crore was classified, equivalent to 8.48 per cent of the total loans.
8 August 2021, 18:00 PM
Finance Bill 2021:a few welcoming moves
June 3 marked a remarkable date for Bangladesh as the finance minister presented the country’s 50th budget in parliament on the occasion of the 50th year of independence. As expected, the Tk 603,681 crore budget is the largest that has ever been proposed.
6 June 2021, 18:00 PM
Looking forward to better external sector management
A trade deficit may not be too bad even amidst the coronavirus challenges if you have a healthy foreign exchange reserve, strong remittance inflow, foreign direct investment, and aid flow. More importantly, when capital machinery or industrial raw materials import is the cause of this possible trade deficit.
25 May 2021, 18:00 PM
Customer experience revolution in retail banking
With disruptive innovations across the financial sector, new entrants and multiple options for customers, many might think that traditional banking has a bleak future.
28 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Creating an enabling ecosystem for fintech
Covid-19 has accelerated technology adoption across the board. A key sector that has witnessed a boom is financial services, viz. mobile financial service (MFS), cards, and other alternative payment methods. Fintech has unpredictably and truly arrived in Bangladesh.
20 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Strong cybersecurity to build trust in a digital world
Among perennial issues such as geopolitical, economic, climate and health, one of the biggest challenges for countries today is cybersecurity.
13 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Time to gear up alternate banking
Bangladesh has seen a significant rise in consumer banking or retail offering by banks or a few non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in recent days. During the coronavirus pandemic,
4 April 2021, 18:00 PM
A business leader of incorruptible integrity
I received a short message on my phone just before noon on July 1 but could not notice it properly due to office work.
3 July 2020, 18:00 PM