Africa

By Staff Correspondent
Jan 20 2019 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

Bangladesh will see the third quickest growth in the number of high net-worth individuals in the world in the next five years, according to a new report of New York-based research firm Wealth-X.

The country’s high net worth (HNW) population with a net worth of $1 million to $30 million will expand by a compound annual rate of 11.4 percent between now and 2023, showed the firm’s inaugural High Net Worth Handbook 2019.

The report, published on Wednesday, says Nigeria is set to see its HNW population balloon by a compound annual rate of 16.3 percent, followed by Egypt at 12.5 percent.

In the ranking of the 10 fastest-growing HNW population countries, Bangladesh is ahead of Vietnam, Poland, China, Kenya, India, the Philippines and Ukraine.

The study drew on research from more than 540,000 HNW individuals to forecast its outlook for global wealth growth over the next five years.

Last year, the world’s HNW population rose by 1.9 percent to 22.4 million, an increment below the rate of global economic growth. Their combined wealth also grew by 1.8 percent to $61.3 trillion.

Backed by strong GDP growth and relatively more stable equity markets compared with other regions, Europe, the Middle East and North America saw positive growth in their HNW populations in 2018.

Asia, which saw its billionaires and UHNW populations grow faster than any other region in 2017, saw less than 1 percent growth in its HNW population and its wealth last year. While Asia’s GDP grew by more than 8 percent last year, its stock markets plunged by more than 11 percent during the same year.

In 2018, the US remained by far the dominant HNW nation with 8.67 million individuals. China has the second-largest HNW population, at just under 1.9 million individuals.

Japan, with just over 1.6 million HNW individuals, comes in third place. European economic powerhouse Germany has the fourth highest HNW population, followed by the UK and France.

Canada, South Korea, Australia and Italy came in the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th places respectively.

The top 10 countries accounted for 75.2 percent of the global HNW population and 73.8 percent of the total HNW wealth last year. In absolute terms, the top 10 countries added more than 387,000 HNW individuals compared with 2017, with combined net worth in the countries rising by an annual $1 trillion.

With the world’s population passing the 8-billion threshold by 2023, the report expects the number of HNW individuals to exceed 30.1 million, an increase of more than 7.7 million compared with 2018. The amount of HNW wealth is projected to rise to $82.2 trillion, meaning wealth of an additional $20.9 trillion would be created over the next five years.

The top 10 HNW cities are New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Tokyo, Washington DC, London and Paris.

The majority of the HNW individuals have finance, banking and investment as their primary industry. Manufacturing and technology came second and third in terms of the top HNW industries.

Business services as an industry is in the top five industries. The fifth industry for the HNW population is construction and engineering.

The proportion of wealthy individuals whose fortunes are predominantly self-made continues to increase, and this is largely due to environments of free enterprise that foster accelerated wealth creation and the dynamism from technology-related industries.

In 2018, 83.8 percent of wealthy individuals were self-made and the proportion of inherited wealth dropped to 4.5 percent.

The proportion of women HNW individuals continued to rise gradually over recent years and increased further in 2018 to a record high of just below 16 percent.

Outside of wealth creation, and with some fitting symmetry, philanthropic activities are one of the main activities of the global ultra wealthy population; and to a lesser extent, HNW individuals. After a dip following the global financial crisis a decade ago, global philanthropic giving has recovered and reached record heights.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post Bangladesh to see 3rd fastest rise of the rich appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Reuters file photo

By Afp, United Nations
Jan 20 2019 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday criticized as “too slow” Myanmar’s efforts to allow the return of Rohingya Muslim refugees, describing the lack of progress as a source of “enormous frustration.”

More than 720,000 Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh after they were driven out of Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state during a military campaign in 2017 that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar has agreed to take back some of the refugees in a deal reached with Bangladesh, but the United Nations insists that the safety of the Rohingya be a condition for their return.

“I feel an enormous frustration with the lack of progress in relation to Myanmar and with the suffering of the people,” Guterres told a news conference.

“We insist on the need to create conditions for them to be willing to go back,” he said. “Things have been too slow.”

Myanmar’s government this month postponed a planned visit by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi who was due to travel to Rakhine.

UN envoy Christine Schraner Burgener is expected to hold talks in Myanmar later this month and report to the Security Council on the steps taken to address the refugee crisis, UN diplomats said.

After a closed-door council meeting on Myanmar on Wednesday, German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen said there was “extremely limited progress” on the ground and that the council was “very concerned” by the situation.

Britain in December circulated a draft Security Council resolution on Myanmar that would have set a deadline for authorities to roll out a strategy for addressing the Rohingya crisis.

China, backed by Russia, however raised strong objections and refused to take part in negotiations, suggesting it was ready to use its veto at the council to block the measure.

China, which has close ties with Myanmar’s military, has argued that the crisis in Rakhine is linked to poverty and has opposed any step to put pressure on the authorities.

Rohingya in Buddhist-majority Myanmar have suffered decades of persecution and are denied citizenship rights.

Myanmar has denied that it has singled out the Rohingya and described its army operations as a campaign to root out terrorists.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post ‘Frustrated’ UN chief criticises Myanmar appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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A partial view of camp settlements where Rohingya refugees have sought shelter. PHOTO: FOOD SECURITY CLUSTER

By Mohammad Zaman
Jan 19 2019 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

To date, much has been written and said about the Rohingya crisis. The regime in Naypyidaw has literally flouted all international laws and evaded pressures from the international community. Myanmar is now accusing Bangladesh for the delay in repatriation and at the same time plotting more atrocities against Rohingyas in Rakhine state. Last week, the Rakhine state government issued notice further blocking the United Nations and other aid agencies from travelling to five townships affected by the conflict. Sadly, many believed that the agreement for repatriation signed back in November 2017 will take care of this human tragedy.

We must not forget that the Rohingya crisis is trapped into many strands of regional and international politics. The new foreign minister AK Abdul Momen, in his debut statement on the Rohingya crisis, said that the “much-talked-about Rohingya issue will not be solved easily.” The foreign minister referred to this international tangle, and remarked that “interest of everybody including India and China will be hampered,” if the Rohingya crisis continues. The foreign minister further urged the international community “to step forward for a logical solution to this crisis.” The foreign minister also directed to conduct a study to understand the impacts of Rohingyas on Bangladesh economy, society and security systems.

The Rohingya crisis as it is unfolding gradually has many faces that should be of concern to the Bangladeshi people and the government. In July 2017, prior to influx of the Rohingya refugees, the combined estimated population of Teknaf and Ukhiya was slightly over four lakh. The sudden gush of an additional eight lakh Myanmar refugees by December 2017 was overwhelming. The numbers keep rising even today. The presence of this massive number of refugees has impacted on everyday carrying capacity of the region; today, this is felt on all aspects of life and cultures—both for the hosts and refugees themselves.

An immediate impact was on land and local resources—for instance, the massive loss of forests and changes in land use from forest/agriculture to housing and camp sites for resettlement of the refugees. In addition, many reported on the growing social, economic, environmental and health impacts of Rohingya refugee resettlement. The unplanned and makeshift settlements at the early stage of the surge on hill slopes and forestlands led to vulnerabilities for landslides and other forms of risks and disasters for all.

By July 2018, when I made a short visit to the camp sites, a more orderly system of settlement and camp administration was already established jointly by the Bangladesh government and United Nations High Commission for Refugees through registration, re-grouping and relocation in formally constituted 34 camps, with internal roads, markets, mosques, relief distribution centres, and clinics. Close to 100 national and international NGOs—for instance, Medecins San Frontieres, World Vision, BRAC, Gono Shahthaya Kendro, and others—work as service providers in various fields. In addition, there are literally thousands of aid workers assisting the operations.

The Rohingya crisis, without any doubt, has put a huge pressure on Bangladesh’s economy and society. Thanks to the government and international aid agencies supporting the operations, the initial stage of crisis management—for instance, provision for shelter, food, medicine, etc.—helped to cope with the immediate needs. During a meeting in Cox’s Bazar, an international refugee resettlement expert—who previously worked in South Sudan, Syria and Jordan—told me that unlike other refugee camps in countries with unstable or weak governments, the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps provide “good practice” examples for refugee support and administration” due to a stable system of government and administration in Bangladesh.

Having said this, the flip side of the Rohingya refugee issue is that the repatriation remains elusive at this point, because the environment is not right for repatriation. The Rakhine State has been rocked by successive rounds of violence and extensive military crackdown, following the attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the group demanding greater autonomy for Rakhine State. Instead of implementing the repatriation agreement and addressing the root causes of the crisis (e.g., citizenship, freedom of movement, livelihoods), the Myanmar Army has once more escalated their genocidal activities in recent months. On top of this, the Myanmar army now claims presence of ARSA training base inside Bangladesh, which was strongly refuted by the Bangladesh government. The activities of the Myanmar Army, including mobilisation of troops to Rakhine border with Bangladesh, raises a host of security issues and concerns. It appears from reports in Myanmar that the regime will force out the last Rohingya in their fight against terrorism.

Thus, the Rohingya issue has raised many external stakes. The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) reportedly deployed additional force to patrol the country’s 54 km border with Myanmar fearing intrusion through the Naf River and other border areas. The situation seems tense. Amid this, there are also internal security issues such as recent passport forgery cases by some Rohingyas, who were deported by Saudi Arabia. In Cox’s Bazar, it is almost common knowledge that many Rohingyas left for Malaysia in the 1990s with Bangladesh passports availed to them through the network of local dalals or agents in collusion with passport officials. Finally, there are also reported cases of Myanmar agents in Cox’s Bazar camps and in the country for collecting intelligence data.

Aside from the security issues, there are social dimensions of the emerging issues—for instance, tension between the host communities and the refugee population regarding benefits and livelihood issues due to loss of land and access to forests. The government has taken some measures to quell this, but those may not be enough, because the Rohingya refugees are going to stay longer than initially anticipated. Given zero progress with repatriation and the current attitude of the Myanmar government, Bangladesh should work with the international community to find viable and just solutions to this crisis.

Since an acceptable solution may take many more years, the government in the meantime should undertake a long-term plan for support and sustenance of the refugees and host communities through economic and social development programmes using the resources received from the various development partners and agencies such as the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and other bilateral organisations. The impact study commissioned by the foreign minister should look into all of the socio-economic and security aspects holistically and help make a long-term plan for refugee resettlement and repatriation options as well.

Mohammad Zaman is an international development consultant and advisory professor, National Research Centre for Resettlement, Hohai University, Nanjing, China. Email: mqzaman.bc@gmail.com

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post Rohingya crisis: Issues and challenges that have emerged appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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This report is produced by UNB United News of Bangladesh and IPS Inter Press Service.

By Mohammad Zoglul Kamal
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Jan 18 2019 (UNB and IPS)

Polythene bags are everywhere – literally – and the world is not sure how to deal with them. Shopping bags made from polythene have become ubiquitous, showing up everywhere from the summit of Mount Everest to the deep ocean floors to polar ice caps.

The main concern is the environmental challenge they pose. There have been attempts to create environment-friendly alternatives but nothing has worked – until now. A Bangladeshi scientist says the South Asian country has the answer.

Professor Dr Mubarak Ahmed Khan and his team have created a type of polythene from jute cellulose that looks and feels like plastic but – according to him – is ‘completely’ biodegradable.

“This means, the bag will not cause any harm to the environment when it decomposes,” Dr Mubarak, a scientific adviser to Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, told UNB. “The colour used in the bag is extracted from vegetables and the binder is the same edible one used in capsules.”

The bag, named ‘Sonali’ after the moniker of jute, can support more weight than conventional polythene bags, he says. It can survive about five hours in water and gradually melts after this period. It takes the bag five to six months to decompose on land.

“If the bag is thrown into water, it’ll decompose and become food for fish because it has cellulose. Burn it, you’ll get ashes that can be used as fertiliser,” he says. “It’s compostable and biodegradable.”

Dr Mubarak says the so-called biodegradable polythene bags that are coming to the market are mostly made from starch and they contain plastic. “What makes our biopolymer stand out is that it doesn’t have any plastic in it,” he says.

A lasting affair

Polythene bags are cheap to make and durable. By 1979, shortly after they became available, polythene bags controlled 80% of Europe’s bag market, according to UN Environment. In the following years, they replaced almost all paper bags around the world.

Last year, the UN estimated that polythene shopping bags were being produced at a rate of one trillion a year.

But they take hundreds of years to decompose. After breaking down, polythene bags turn into microplastics and nanoparticles that contaminate the soil and water. Scientist Jacquie McGlade told a UN conference that microplastics had been detected in environments as remote as a Mongolian mountain lake and deep sea sediments.

Humans are affected when these particles enter the food chain. The adverse effect of polythene on the marine life is well documented. They are said to have the same effect on human beings just as they have on the environment.

A 2016 UN report called Frontiers noted that the presence of microplastic in foodstuffs could potentially increase direct exposure of plastic-associated chemicals to humans and may present an attributable risk to human health.

Last year, scientists found microplastics in human stools for the first time. The finding suggests that they may be widespread in our food chain.

“Polythene is like poison,” Dr Mubarak says. “One should not drink it even if it is given for free.”

The ‘Golden’ Hope

There is no data on the daily or annual demand and production of polythene bags in Bangladesh. An environmental organisation estimated last year that the residents of capital Dhaka use 14-15 million pieces of polythene bags every day.

Polythene is considered to be one of the main reasons for the clogging of drains. In 2002, Bangladesh banned thin polythene, becoming the first country in the world to do so.

Eight years later, the government formulated the Mandatory Jute Packaging Act making the use of jute bags compulsory instead of plastic sacks for packing paddy, rice, wheat, maize, sugar and fertiliser.

But lax implementation of the law means polythene bags are still widely available and used throughout the country.

Dr Mubarak says he chose jute because of its abundance in Bangladesh. Only 30% cellulose can be extracted from a full-grown tree but jute has 70% cellulose and needs about three months to mature.

It took the scientist and his team about a decade to invent Sonali Bag.

“We started around 2008 and had a breakthrough about seven years later. We finally made it in 2017,” he says. The research was government funded.

Bangladesh is in talks with a foreign company for sourcing machines to start commercial production. Dr Mubarak says cost is one of the barriers to the bag’s popularity. “The price will come down when we go into mass production,” he says.

“But if you consider the environmental cost, then a Tk-10 Sonali Bag is cheap,” the scientist says. “Because of its properties, it can be a substitute not just for traditional polythene bags, but also other plastics.”

The post Bangladesh has the answer to polythene menace appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

This report is produced by UNB United News of Bangladesh and IPS Inter Press Service.

The post Bangladesh has the answer to polythene menace appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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