Business

Middle East crisis adds $4.12b to Bangladesh's energy costs in eight months, adviser says

Finance adviser Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir says the government is also pursuing the Matarbari energy hub as it manages fuel supply and inflation.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 19 Oct 2026, 21:28

Finance and planning adviser Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir at a journalist briefing in Lalmonirhat on 24 March 2026. Press Information Department (PID), Bangladesh

The Middle East crisis has added about $4.12 billion to Bangladesh's energy costs over the past eight months, Prime Minister's finance and planning adviser Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir said on Monday.

Speaking at the launch of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association's ESG platform in Dhaka, Titumir said the government was working to develop the Matarbari area into a regional energy hub.

He said about eight million people had fallen below the poverty line because the previous government did not take effective action, and that social protection programmes were part of the current government's response.

Titumir described three challenges facing the government: a fragile inherited economy, inflation and a shortage of jobs for educated young people. He said the government would seek to raise investment in production, increase domestic revenue without raising tax rates, and spend more on education and health.

He also said Bangladesh had a strong chance of graduating from the least-developed country list in 2029, and that three years had been set aside for preparation because the previous administration had not done enough.

BGMEA launched the platform to monitor environmental, social and governance practices in garment factories. The association said 326 factories had joined in the first phase.

Sources & further reading

Spotted an error? Read our corrections policy

Keep reading

NEXT STORY Politics

Shashi Tharoor rejects comparison of India's voter-roll protests with Bangladesh

The Congress MP said India is "not Bangladesh or France" and that the opposition wants free and fair elections, not a change of government.

ScrollBeat Desk19 Oct 2026, 22:19Open this article

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor at the Thiruvananthapuram book fair in December 2013. File photo. Fotokannan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday rejected Union minister Kiren Rijiju's comparison of India's opposition protests with unrest in Bangladesh and France, saying the demand is for free and fair elections rather than a change of government.

Rijiju, the parliamentary affairs minister, posted a video montage on X on Saturday showing opposition figures using the phrase "regime change", and wrote: "India is not Bangladesh." He said Indian youth would build the country, not destroy it.

The exchange comes amid protests over the Special Intensive Revision of India's electoral rolls. Opposition parties say more than 13 crore names have been dropped from the rolls; the Election Commission says it is removing duplicate and ineligible entries and denies wrongdoing.

Speaking in Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor said: "I think that India is not Bangladesh and India is not France. I don't see these analogies as particularly relevant." He said the opposition would never condone violence such as the burning of buses and police stations in France, and believed only in peaceful protest.

He said there was "no point distorting a phrase like regime change", adding: "What we are calling for is free and fair elections." He described the issue as constitutional and said it was not an attempt to topple the government.

Tharoor said his criticism was aimed at how the Election Commission is conducting itself, not at the institution. "Democracy is not a gift of anybody. We, the ordinary citizens of India, are the custodians of it," he said.

Rijiju's remark referred to Bangladesh's 2024 uprising, which BJP leaders have repeatedly invoked during the row. Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted as prime minister, and her son Sajeeb Wazed have separately alleged foreign involvement in her removal.

NEXT STORY World

Houthi missiles kill 53 recruits at Yemen army camp in Shabwa

The provincial government says more than 200 others were wounded in Monday's strike on al-Alam camp, the deadliest single loss of life since fighting reignited in September.

ScrollBeat Desk19 Oct 2026, 22:18Open this article

The old city of Ataq, capital of Yemen's Shabwa province, where wounded recruits from the al-Alam camp missile attack were taken to hospital. File photo taken in December 2009. Email4mobile / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

At least 53 people were killed and more than 200 wounded when three ballistic missiles struck a training camp for Yemeni government forces in the southern province of Shabwa on Monday, the provincial authority said.

The missiles hit al-Alam camp in Jardan district, near the provincial capital Ataq, where new recruits for the internal security forces were undergoing training. The Shabwa authority described the death toll as preliminary and said hospitals were struggling to cope with the wounded.

The Houthis claimed responsibility. Their military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said the group had targeted what he called a Saudi-backed base and warned that any site with a Saudi military presence would remain a target.

Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, said the dead were new recruits and promised a firm response. He accused the Houthis of resorting to what he called terrorist attacks when under pressure.

Fahad al-Khalifi, the deputy governor of Shabwa, said hospitals in the province were overwhelmed and the most seriously injured were being transferred to Hadramout and Aden. The provincial authority appealed for blood donations.

The attack is the largest single loss of life since Yemen's civil war reignited in September, when the Houthis pushed south along the Red Sea coast towards the Bab al-Mandab shipping route. Government forces backed by Saudi Arabia have since launched a counteroffensive.