Regional development planning and disparity in Bangladesh

This study sheds some light on the regional development planning and regional disparity in Bangladesh and also analyzes spatial disparity of development through several factors to picturize the poverty situation in different regions of the country. In fact, this paper tries to represent the scenario of planning in micro-regional level. Findings from the paper reveal that, some regions of Bangladesh are still underdeveloped because of the fact that they continuously receive marginal share of public expenditure and national budget of the country. Gini Index for the total budget shows an incompatible level of income inequality to the people across various regions in Bangladesh. Northern and West regions of the country are mostly deprived of proper development planning and allocation of efficient budget. Overall, this article deeply provides a briefing for field people involved in regional planning processes in the rural areas. Bangladesh is yet to decentralize empirical power to the local government authority to ensure proper budget allocation and distribution. Allocation in ADP for health, education and agriculture sector should be enhanced urgently. Generating regional data will be much effective to fabricate more dynamic development planning and to understand the current situations of the lack-lusture regions of the country. Key Words: Bangladesh, Development, Planning, Budget, Expenditure, Regions, Poverty

E-marketing and the hotel business promotion: Prospect and challenges in selected hotels in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria

This research study was designed to critically examine the prospects and challenges of e-marketing in the hotel business promotion. The study intensively revealed the challenges of e-marketing in hotel business and proffered solutions to it. This research was conducted using all the four hotel business (Prosperous Royal Hotel and Resort, Queen’s Court Hotel, Pathfinder Hotel and Holiday Inn, Koltotel Plaza & Suit) within Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. Analysis of data collected through questionnaires was carried out using inferential statistics of percentage and frequency in determining the significance of hypotheses formulated. The result of the hypotheses shows that there is significant need for the adoption of e-marketing in the hotel business because it has been a subject in the creation of awareness and advertising of its products around the world, it also revealed the fact that e-marketing organizational challenges is to gain agreement with hotel managements regarding how to proceed with operations, innovations and exploration in the business which needs to be resolved based on the opportunities and success ahead. It was concluded that e-marketing is an essential tools in the hotel business promotion for development. It was recommended based on the findings that to gain competitive advantage in the demanding hotel business, e-marketing must be the forerunner, it also notes that it is important nowadays for any of these industries to have its own website, promote its products through social networks. Keywords: E-marketing, Hotel Business, Promotion, Prospect and Challenge

Resolving the disconnect between market actors, agents and brokers and small-holder fresh produce farmers in Agribusiness

Farming contributes a good portion of African GDP and employs a substantial percentage of Africa’s labour force. African farming is characterised by smallholder farmers who sell to market actors’ agents and brokers. As a result, farmers complain of low returns on investments and cartel behaviour which discourage younger generation in venturing into farming or taking farming as business. The objective of this paper is to review the literature and suggest a model that could address the disconnect, based on the collective entrepreneurship theory. Keywords: small-holder farmers, market actors’ agents and brokers, cartel behaviour, collective entrepreneurship theory, African farming, agri-business, agro-food chains