Former President of the Republic of the Philippines (1992-1998)
Chairman of the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation [RPDEV] and
Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia [BFA]
The AIUB Journal of Business and Economics [AJBE] is going to start the seventh volume with the current issue – the thirteen consecutive issues in the history of AIUB since January 2002. In celebration of this grand occasion, the editorial board of AJBE has decided to publish the commentary of H.E. Mr. Fidel Valdez Ramos, Former President of the Republic of Philippines (1992-1998); and Chairman of the Ramos Peace and development Foundation [RPDEV] and the Boao Forum for Asia [BFA], entitled “Benazir’s Assassination: Implications for the Philippines and Asia” published as Special to the Manila Bulletin on the 06 January 2008-Sunday issue. As the Vice-Chancellor of AIUB and Editor of AJBE, I thank him for writing a magnificent article on one of the most important issues of the world.
Vice Chancellor of AIUB
American International University-Bangladesh [AIUB]
American International University-Bangladesh [AIUB]
This, truly, is an exciting time for the AIUB Journal of Business and Economics (AJBE) ; not only because it has spent six eventful years in the scholarly publications portal, but also because the journal has established reputation as a peer reviewed journal with certain qualities : a shorter time lag between submission and decision, high quality refereeing aimed at continuous development of research, vibrant and active international distribution and network of authors and referees, and a stronger competition amongst submitted manuscripts. My promotion to the position of Associate Editor is new, but the two very important offices that have led this glorious journey for the last five years deserve a commentary of their own; the Vice Chancellor’s Office, led by Carmen Z. Lamagna, and the Office of Research and Publications, led by Md. Abdur Rahman. Together with the editorial board, they have fought against all odds in establishing a purely peer reviewed outlet for scholarly contributions in the fields of Business and Economics. While we celebrate AJBE’s fifth birthday, Carmen Lamagna and Abdur Rahman, in this commentary, summarize its achievements through the five years, which we believe will be interesting as well as useful for its readers and stakeholders.
American International University-Bangladesh [AIUB]
American International University-Bangladesh [AIUB]
Cardiff University, UK
We examine the process of collecting, analyzing and disseminating student feedback in a representative university, and its effectiveness in aligning human resource policy of performance based teacher evaluation. We find that questionnaire based student feedback has inherent limitations which is why it is generally not treated as a strong determinant of performance of teachers. This in turns imply that student feedback remains unexplored as a quality assurance tool, and in general it is not considered as a highly weighed factor in aligning human resource policy in higher education sector. We identify the limitations and suggest some remedies, which could possibly be changes in norms, or even policy.
North South University, Bangladesh
It has been documented that despite institutional and organizational differences, Banks and Credit Unions compete with each other in local deposit and lending market of United States. This current study uses US data and tries to compare relative efficiencies of banks and credit unions using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. We measured total efficiency and scale efficiency for both types of institutions. We have found that both types of institutions are more or less equally efficient. Performances of credit unions are more homogeneous than banks. When subdivided according to asset size we could not find any substantial difference between different subgroups of banks and credit unions.
IBA, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ready Made Garment (RMG) products have been the major export product of Bangladesh. This article portrays the evolution of this industry in our country and it also casts light on the contributory factors behind this phenomenal growth. The impact of the origination of the MFA and its conclusion has also been analyzed here in the paper. The study is based on information from sources such as various relevant publications and also opinions from many experts. It reveals that brave entrepreneurial efforts, availability of low-cost labor force have been the primary causative factors behind the triumphant development of the RMG industry in Bangladesh. The Multi Fiber Arrangement (MFA) initially had been a blessing for our RMG industry to flourish. However, with the MFA being brought to an end, our RMG sector is now posed towards a new challenge in the new millennium. In order to cope with the changes, our RMG industry ought to strategically walk by enhancing productivity, developing strong backward linkages and diversifying its production.
Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
This literature survey shows that arsenic in drinking water is a global problem on all five continents, where as many as 170 million people in over 70 countries have been affected. The sinking of tube-wells for drinking water in Bangladesh has in the past been promoted as a means of avoiding waterborne diseases associated with the consumption of untreated surface water. Unfortunately, the recent discovery of arsenic in groundwater in Bangladesh used for drinking purposes has led to describe the situation as a major public health emergency. This arsenic contamination in tube-wells drinking water has reached upto 2000µg/l. Relatively poor rural people are more affected by this contamination. Arsenic pollution negatively contributes to the poverty situation in Bangladesh. The provision of safe drinking water is one of the prior conditions for overall socioeconomic development. Arsenic removal processes and alternative sources for drinking water are discussed. The recent innovation of Sono 3-Kolshi filter could be a landmark for mitigation of arsenic in the drinking water. A sustainable development framework is conceptualized for the study where the three sub-systems of economy, society/community and environment interact in non-linear way.
Rajshahi University, Bangladesh
The main objective of the study is to identify the effectiveness of ADP of BRAC in awareness elevation among rural adolescent girls in Bangladesh. Currently BRAC operates four categories of core programs like economic, education, health and social development program. Adolescent Development Program is a part of Education Program of BRAC, which mainly works for raising awareness among adolescent girls in terms of health, culture, leadership and social issues. This paper deals with two main questions-Does ADP truly raise awareness among rural girls? Does ADP truly fulfill the satisfaction and expectation of Adolescent girls? The study is based on analysis of primary data. Interview, questionnaire, and observation were taken as data collection techniques and survey and case study were taken as methods. The study got an important finding that the adolescent girls were more conscious about their health, their surroundings, different social issues like early marriage, drug addiction, and reproductive health as well as the cultural activities after involving ADP. This study also found that none of the adolescent girls were highly satisfied with the activities of BRAC.
American International University-Bangladesh [AIUB]
We address the issue of convergence in agricultural productivity among districts in Bangladesh. We employed cross-section convergence test, and convergence, and panel unit root convergence test. The coefficient of the initial productivity level is negative and significant in convergence test indicating convergence in agricultural productivity. The result of convergence test shows that there has been a decrease in the cross-districts dispersion of productivity in agriculture over the entire time period. The panel unit root test supports the conventional test, and therefore, we may conclude that dispersion of productivity is stationary providing strong evidence that the districts do exhibit long run convergence.
