The annual credit gap in the women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) segment is estimated at Tk 60 billion ($ 0.77 billion) in Bangladesh, says a survey conducted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on women SME finance market.
And such limited access to finance is one of the main factors that disproportionately affects women entrepreneurs [...]

Bangladesh has ranked 10th among 167 countries with over 1.5 million people or 0.95 per cent of the population living in absolute modern day slavery, according to Global Slavery Index 2016.
As per the index, which ranks 167 countries, 58 per cent of 45.8 million slaves live in five countries — India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and [...]

Bangladesh and Thailand will conduct a joint feasibility study on signing the proposed bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between the countries for doubling two-way trade to US$ 2.0 billion in next five years.
The agreement in this connection came, among others, during the ministerial meeting of Joint Trade Committee (JTC) of Bangladesh and Thailand at a [...]

The Cambodian apex rice industry body has been meeting this week to discuss ways of nailing down a potentially massive deal with Bangladesh, which earlier this month inked a memorandum of understanding to purchase 1.0 million tonnes of Cambodian rice over the next five years.
Bangladesh has been shopping around to fill its silos after devastating [...]

It's been learnt that although some 2.43 million (24.3 lakh) potentially first-time voters were registered during the latest voter roll update, the number fell over a million short of the Election Commission (EC)'s 3.5 million forecast, reports UNB.
The door-to-door data collection for the update concluded on Wednesday, a process that lasted 16 days.
"Enumerators collected data [...]

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed her doubt as to whether those who deny the contributions of Bangabandhu to the Liberation War believe in the country's independence, reports BSS.
The PM made the remark while exchanging views with leaders of the Hindu community at her official residence Ganabhaban in the city on Thursday afternoon on the [...]

As old and new Amazon.com (AMZN.O) competitors gear up to report earnings, investors are eager to know how they plan to withstand the growth of the No. 1 online retailer.
So far this quarter, Amazon has been brought up in some 130 earnings calls from S&P 1500 .SPSUP components according to a Reuters analysis. About 50 [...]

Dozens of Yemenis and Iranians who won the chance to immigrate to the United States sued the US State Department on Friday for not processing their visa applications after President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban was reinstated.
The ban, which was blocked by lower courts before being partially reinstated by the Supreme Court in June, temporarily [...]

The Trump administration has issued its first written notification that the US intends to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
But in the notice to the United Nations the US state department said Washington would remain in the talks process.
President Donald Trump drew international condemnation in June when he first announced the US intention to [...]

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced four people have been charged over leaks as he launched a crackdown on disclosure of classified material.
He said the suspects stood accused of unlawfully divulging classified information or concealing contacts with foreign intelligence officers, says a report on BBC on Friday.
America's top prosecutor said the administration has tripled [...]