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The government’s implementing agencies reran their previous records of failure in utilising development allocations in full, which an official monitoring report attributed to delays in procurement, court injunctions and frequent transfers of project chiefs.
   The government’s 45 ministries and divisions could spend 91 per cent of the money of the Tk 20,500 crore revised annual development programme in the last fiscal, with the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and the cabinet division being able to exhaust their full allocations.
   The planning division, a planning ministry wing authorised for ADP project approval, ended up as the second lowest performer spending little over 5 per cent of its allocation of Tk 186.42 crore, a planning ministry report said.
   The ADP implementation status of the Public Service Commission was zero in the last fiscal that ended on June 30, revealed the report, prepared by the implementation, monitoring and evaluation division of the planning ministry.
   The report took stock of the performance of various ministries and departments in implementing development outlay in terms of spending the allocated money.
   Implementing agencies spent Tk 18,726 crore or 91 per cent of the full year’s revised development outlay of Tk 20,500 crore, slashed down from the original outlay of Tk 22,000 crore.
   About 90 per cent of the ADP’s local component of Tk 14,475 crore was spent, while spending rate was 92 per cent for project aid estimated to be Tk 6,025 crore.
   Twenty-three ministries and divisions spent above 91 per cent of allocations, while 15 spent between 45 and 91 per cent and four ministries fell below 45 per cent.
   The poor-performing ministries and division that spent less than 45 per cent of development allocations include ministries of shipping, information, land and the economic relations division under the finance ministry.
   The housing and public works ministry spent Tk 81.08 crore in full allocated against 20 projects, while the cabinet division exhausted its allocation of Tk 1.50 crore for one project.
   The report identified delays in procuring project materials, sluggishness in construction, court injunctions and frequent transfers of project directors as major reasons for the delays in project implementation.
   Except for one or two occasions, all the subsequent governments had showed a tendency of venturing on inflated ADPs, which later proved highly ambitious and ended up in downsizing towards the end of fiscal years. Revised ADPs were also remained unmet.
   In FY04, the original ADP size was Tk 20,300 crore, which was revised down to Tk 19,000 crore. But at the end of the year, only Tk 16,817 crore was spent.
   While implementing agencies often blame the planning ministry and the finance ministry for inordinate delays in project approval and fund release, the finance minister puts the blame on the low implementation capacity of the ministries and departments concerned.
   Lacklustre performance of domestic revenue sector and delayed disbursement of pledged foreign assistance are also cited as reasons for low rate of ADP implementation.
   When asked, a planning ministry high official told New Age that it is pressing all implementing authorities to expedite their development works to spend 100 per cent of the ADP.
   ‘The government, has, meanwhile undertaken programme to expedite project approval process through lessening a number of administrative layers. The programme will reduce approval period to only 70 days from an average of 105 days at present,’ he said.

Bangladesh eyes expanding its market in Pakistan and Singapore as the foreign secretary goes to these countries for consultations with his counterparts next week.
   The Bangladesh-Singapore foreign secretary level talks will be held in Singapore on August 14-15 and in Pakistan on August 19-20.
   ‘For Singapore, it’s the first ever foreign secretary level consultation and we’ll focus on enhancing bilateral trade and investment and economic cooperation in potential sectors,’ the foreign secretary, Hemayetuddin, told diplomatic correspondents on Thursday.
   From Singapore, the foreign secretary will go to Islamabad where he will also attend a SAARC standing committee meeting before the foreign secretary level talks.
   ‘In Pakistan, we’ll will seek duty free access of more items as Bangladesh already submitted a list of 10 categories containing 102 exportable items for preferential treatment,’ Hemayetuddin said.
   Pakistan has already granted duty-free access to Bangladeshi tea and raw jute and it brought a positive result for Bangladesh, he said.
   Foreign office sources said that Bangladesh would seek duty-free access of different products including ceramics, pharmaceuticals and leather goods in Pakistan’s market.
   ‘Obviously these are the issues to be discussed at the joint economic commission meet of the two countries, but we’ll push up the issues at the foreign secretary level meet,’ Hemayetuddin said.
   For the consultation in Singapore, the foreign secretary said it would be basically a follow-up of prime minister Khaleda Zia’s March 20-22 visit to the city state.
   Hemayetuddin said Dhaka would seek more Singaporean investment in Bangladesh and the talks would cover the whole range of bilateral issues including trade, investment, liberalisation of visa regime and export of manpower.
   He said he would request Singapore to import more items like agricultural products and fresh vegetables from Bangladesh as emphasised by the prime minister during her last visit.
   In the 2004-05 fiscal, Bangladesh exported fresh vegetables and fruits worth $1 million to Singapore.
   Bangladesh would also raise the issue of reducing airfreight charges to facilitate export of agriculture products and also seek technical cooperation for training of Bangladeshi marine cadets, port officials and seamen.
   He said Dhaka will also seek more scholarship for Bangladeshi students and Singapore’s cooperation in horticulture, especially in orchid production.

Crude oil prices rose to a new high of $65.23 a barrel in Asian trading Thursday after the U.S. midweek inventories report showed a decline in gasoline stocks and on concerns that a string of refinery shutdowns in the U.S. will make it difficult for gasoline supplies to meet peak summer demand.
   Prices were also lifted by heightened tensions between Iran, OPEC’s No. 2 producer, and Western countries, as the Islamic republic resumed full operations at its uranium conversion plant. On Thursday, it warned that threats of U.N. sanctions against Tehran would lead to a “path of confrontation.”
   Mid-afternoon in Singapore, light, sweet crude rose 33 cents to $65.23 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the contract rose $1.83 to close at $64.90 a barrel, after climbing to an intraday $65 high.
   Gasoline was trading at a high of $1.9136, up by 1.73 cents, while heating oil rose 1.25 cent to $1.8513.
   Crude futures have risen 14 percent in the last three weeks, driven by an array of concerns about supply disruptions: U.S. and Venezuelan refinery outages, the Atlantic hurricane season’s impact on production in the Gulf of Mexico, the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd as well as Iran.
   “Hedge funds continue to roll over their large energy investments from September to October, and many are predicting prices of $65-$70 per barrel as they take more length,” said Energyintel analyst George Orwel in a research note.
   While oil prices are about 46 percent higher than a year ago, they would need to surpass $90 a barrel to exceed the inflation-adjusted peak set in 1980.
   Analysts said the market is discounting fundamentals that show global oil supply is adequate, and demand growth is slower than expected. Instead, short-term worries have dominated the market, as a flurry of speculative buyers entered the market betting that demand will outstrip supply.
   “In such a market environment where the price is so reactive to short-term events, it’s hard for participants to want to sell,” said energy analyst Victor Shum at Texas-headquartered Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.
   “This build up in momentum has attracted a lot of investment money into the market,” Shum said. “The focus has been on declining gasoline stocks especially as this is the U.S. summer driving season. The fundamental supply-demand situation has been secondary.”
   The weekly U.S. petroleum supply snapshot on Wednesday showed a drop in gasoline stocks by 2.1 million barrels to 203.1 million barrels, likely the result of at least seven U.S. refinery outages in less than three weeks.
   It was sixth decline in a row for gasoline inventories, and that fueled concern among some traders.
   Energy markets have been extremely jumpy about a spate of refinery outages in recent weeks. Some traders said the recent U.S refinery troubles — the latest reported at BP PLC’s plant in Texas City on Wednesday — is evidence the industry and its aging infrastructure are having difficulty maintaining output at high levels.
   But analysts and industry officials said refinery snags are not out of the ordinary for this time of year, when plants run hard to meet peak gasoline demand.
   On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration also reported a rise in crude inventories but it seemed to be disregarded by market players, because the stocks build occurred mostly in the U.S. West Coast, analysts said.
   Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, will meet Thursday to discuss a resolution to urge Iran to stop nuclear processing, which Europe and the United States fear will lead to weapons of mass destruction.
   Iran’s envoy to the agency warned that referring the matter to the U.N. Security Council — which could result in sanctions against them — would lead to a “path of confrontation.” Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful, aiming only to produce electricity.

Months of controversy that saw China rebuffed in its attempt to enter the US oil industry culminated Wednesday in Unocal Corp. shareholders accepting a takeover bid by US rival Chevron Corp.
   After state-owned Chinese oil group CNOOC angrily withdrew its bid for Unocal last week, the path was left clear for Chevron’s bid of more than 17 billion dollars in cash and stock.
   At a special meeting, Unocal shareholders voted to create the world’s fourth largest publicly traded energy company in terms of oil and gas production. Chevron now gains Unocal’s prized assets in Asia.
   Unocal said that 77.2 percent of holders of its outstanding stock, which amounts to 210.26 million shares, voted to approve the merger.
   The merger was then finalised, on a day that oil prices hit 65 dollars a barrel for the first time in a major windfall to the major energy companies.
   The vast majority of shareholders elected to accept payment from Chevron of 69 dollars in cash for their Unocal shares. The rest wanted payment exclusively in Chevron stock, or a mixture of cash and stock.
   ‘This is an important milestone for Chevron, and I want to welcome Unocal employees to our company,’ Chevron chief executive David O’Reilly said in a statement.
   ‘Chevron has proven technical and financial capabilities to maximize the full value of Unocal’s world-class assets, and Unocal’s talented employees worldwide will enhance our organizational capability,’ he said.
   China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) said last week it was abandoning its bid for Unocal worth 18.5 billion dollars in cash because of ‘unprecedented political opposition’ in Washington.
   Chevron first made an offer for Unocal worth about 61 dollars per share in April.
   But CNOOC, keen to gain control of Unocal’s drilling and exploration activities in Asia, entered the race in June with an offer of 67 dollars per share, prompting Chevron to raise its offer.
   CNOOC’s intervention sparked an almighty political furore in Washington as US lawmakers, egged on by Chevron, denounced the prospect of the ninth largest US oil group falling into Chinese communist hands.
   CNOOC said it was ready to raise its offer but decided against it because of the political storm whipped up around its bid.
   Beijing has made clear its displeasure in the Chinese state press.
   ‘The high-profile takeover battle demonstrated to the world that the United States is not a free economy as it claimed to be,’ the official China Daily said in an editorial last Thursday.
   ‘An asset for sale has not gone to the buyer that most prized it because of regulatory concerns fuelled by bogus fears and hidden interests,’ it said.
   Unocal would have been a prized acquisition for China as the booming country seeks to gain access to new sources of energy to fuel its breakneck growth.
   But it is Chevron instead that wins control of Unocal’s operations, which lie largely outside the United States, particularly in Asia.
   Unocal has major operations in military-ruled Myanmar, making it the object of vilification for local and foreign pro-democracy campaigners.
   Chevron stock rose 2.06 percent to close in New York at 62.48 dollars and Unocal shares were up 0.84 percent at 66.10 dollars.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has cancelled over 28,000 applications, opened through beneficiary owners accounts by three merchant banks to purchase primary shares of the Meghna Life Insurance Co Ltd.
   Bangladesh Mutual Securities Ltd., Capital Market Services Ltd. and Raspit Securities and Management Ltd. were the merchant banks that used fictitious names and addresses to open these accounts to obtain primary shares of company, an SEC statement said Thursday.
   Of the three merchant banks, Bangladesh Mutual Securities opened 23,200 accounts, Capital Market Services over 3,300 and Raspit Securities opened 1486 accounts, sources said.
   SEC sources said the commission detected these accounts after a probe into the fake BO accounts of the merchant banks.
   Based on the probe, the SEC postponed the lottery for Meghna Life shares, which was scheduled for August 4.
   The SEC instructed the company to conduct the lottery on August 11 excluding the applications opened through Omnibus BO accounts with the three merchant banks.
   ‘We have cancelled all the applications, because most of these were fake,’ a senior SEC official told BDNEWS, requesting anonymity.
   Meghna life received a total of 1,27,156 applications for primary shares worth Tk 705.45 million as against shares worth Tk 45 million floated for public subscription.
   The total number of applications excluded from lottery was however 33,916, including those cancelled by the SEC. The others were cancelled for flaws in application procedures.

KARACHI, Aug 10: An increase of almost four per cent, amounting to $1.4 billion, in Pakistan’s stock of foreign debt to $36.6 billion by March this year is found to be sustainable as additional loan carries an interest rate of 1.7 per cent with a maturity period of 19.9 years and has a grant component of 52.7 per cent.
   “It is the burden of debt or debt servicing relative to the country’s payment capacity that is the relevant indicator,” the State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Hussain argues in an interview while making it abundantly clear that “debt in absolute amount cannot remain static or constant but keeps on growing in a developing country.”
   Pakistan has acquired foreign loans up to 2000 at an average interest rate of 6.3 per cent with an average of 12.5 years maturity period. The grant element was only 19.9 per cent. A substantial amount of foreign loans in 90s were contracted on commercial terms with much higher interest rate and a low maturity period.
   No wonder then, during a few years of 90s, the outflow of foreign exchange remained higher than the inflow, because of the commercial loans borrowed on very high rates and low maturity period.
   Pakistan’s rising debt stock coupled with an unprecedented $6 billion trade deficit in 04-05 attracted attention of all those who were interested in the country’s economy and questions were raised on the possible implications on balance of payment and exchange value of the rupee in the coming days. Earlier this month — to be specific on August 4 — President General Pervez Musharraf was briefed on Pakistan’s debt strategy by all the top persons of the national economic team.

The Arab Bangladesh Bank Limited recently signed deals with the Pragati Life Insurance Limited to receive health insurance services of their employees.
   Under the insurance plan, the Pragati will provide hospitalisation insurance coverage to the employees of AB Bank and reimburse the expenses incurred for hospital treatment on account of room rent, consultation fees, diagnostic bills, surgical charges, medicine cost, ambulance charges etc within the benefit limit of the respective employees.

The City Bank Limited recently signed deal with Pragati Life Insurance Limited to take insurance coverage to its two new insurance linked monthly savings products.
   The managing director of the City Bank, Abbas Uddin Ahmed, and the managing director and actuary of Pragati Life, M Shefaque Ahmed, signed the contract on behalf of their respective organisations.
   Under the two new saving schemes, namely, Lakhapati Savings Scheme (LSS) and Junior Savers Scheme (JSS), a account holder can build up a savings per unit of Tk 1 lakh or 2 lakh respectively by making a small monthly deposit for a period of 6 or 10 years.
   The main attraction of these schemes are that during the deposit period if an account holder dies, the insurance company will pay Tk 1 lakh or 2 lakh respectively per unit under LSS and JSS up to a maximum of Tk. 6 lakh.
   AHM Nazmul Quadir, deputy managing director, Nurul Akbar Khan, head of the International. Banking division of the City Bank Limited, ABM Saiful Haque Masud, head of group Insurance division and FEVP, Munshi Md Monirul Alam Tapan of Pragati Life Insurance Limited along with senior officials of both the organisations were present on the occasion.

A 3-day training course on 'Marketing and Sales Promotion' was concluded on August 10, organised by the DCCI Business Institute (DBI) at the institute premises.
   The DCCI director, Kamrul Islam, distributed the certificates among the participants.
   The joint secretary (Project & Training) and course co-ordinator, Hasanur Rahman Chowdhury, moderated the certificate awarding session. Md Shamsuddin Azad, assistant secretary and resource person, Md Sheik Saadi, were present on the occasion.
   Farruque M Masud, manager procurement, Prime Group, Sarwar Ahmed, executive director, Syngenta Bangladesh Limited, Sujit R Saha, director, Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management and Md Sheik Saadi, director, Marketing and Promotion, Business Training Center conducted the course as resource persons.
   The course aimed at familiarising the participants with the following topics: marketing and sales promotion - an introduction, market segmentation, targeting and positioning, competition analysis and competitive advantage, product planning and pricing strategy, distribution management, promotion- introduction to integrated marketing communication, advertising and sales promotion and marketing and sales promotion plan preparation.
   A total of 32 participants from different business organisations attended the training course, says a press release.

Japan’s current account surplus shrank much more than expected in June as exports rose only modestly, though the decline is unlikely to dampen recent optimism over a growing economic recovery.
   The surplus was down 15.3 per cent from the same month a year earlier at 1.0866 trillion yen ($9.82 billion), the government said on Thursday, much lower than forecasts in a Reuters poll of a 4.8 per cent fall to 1.2210 trillion yen.
   High oil prices pushed up imports while export growth remained slow, though the economy as a whole has benefited from strong domestic demand and improving personal consumption, offsetting the slowness in exports.
   ‘The biggest factor behind the smaller current account surplus is higher oil prices squeezing the trade surplus on a nominal basis,’ said Takeshi Minami, an economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.
   ‘But in real terms, the surplus hasn’t shrunk that much and external demand is reasonably firm.’
   Both the government and the Bank of Japan upgraded their monthly economic assessments this week, and economists expect further proof from April-June gross domestic product figures due on Friday that the economy is growing strongly on robust domestic demand.
   In addition, external demand is expected to have contributed to growth for the first time in three quarters. A Reuters poll of 26 economists last week produced a median forecast for annualised
   growth of 2.0 per cent in the quarter, following a revised 4.9 per cent expansion in the first three months of the year.
   In a further sign of optimism, the Nikkei stock average was up one per cent in morning trade at a four-year high and the benchmark 10- year Japanese government bond yield 0 JPTSY JBTC was up 1.5 basis points at 1.450 per cent.
   The current account figures showed that exports were up 3.7 per cent year-on-year in June but imports jumped 13.1 per cent, resulting in a 23.1 per cent year-on-year fall in the trade surplus to 999.0 billion yen.
   From the previous month, the current account surplus rose 4.4 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis, and was down 8.9 per cent in the first six months of 2005 from the same period a year earlier at 8.7518 trillion yen, the Ministry of Finance said.
   ‘The current account surplus is still pretty much flat, tracking the trend in the trade balance as exports aren’t recovering that strongly yet and higher oil prices are boosting the value of imports,’ said Yoshiki Shinke, an economist at Dai- ichi Life Research Institute.
   While some economists noted that exports of raw materials and machinery are up but those of high-tech goods remain weak, signs have emerged from other trade data that the slowdown in export growth may be turning a corner.
   Figures last month showed exports to China rose 2.3 per cent from a year earlier in June after a flat reading in May, suggesting the effects of Beijing’s efforts to cool its economy were moderating.
   ‘Looking ahead, the adjustment in the global technology sector has largely run its course and exports are unlikely to drop,’ said Takeshi Minami, economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.
   ‘The Japanese economy is likely to be supported by both domestic and external demand,’ he said. ($1=110.64 Yen)

Japanese markets extended a rally Thursday as investors bet Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will win public support in elections he called early in a risky bid to boost his economic reforms.
   The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s headline Nikkei-225 index soared to a four-year high Thursday on the back of a four-day winning streak, although dealers said that forecasts of strong June quarter economic growth were also a key factor.
   The yen has also strengthened, standing in afternoon trade at 110.26 to the dollar, up sharply from 111.95 on Monday morning just before Koizumi lost a parliament vote on his key reform and called the September 11 election.
   The roaring strength of the markets comes amid media surveys showing rising public approval for Koizumi since he called the polls and stepped up his purge of opponents within his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
   ‘Foreign investors believe Koizumi’s postal and structural reforms are very positive things for the Japanese economy,’ said Kenji Yumoto, chief economist at Japan Research Institute.
   Dissent within the LDP led to the defeat of Koizumi’s signature plan to break up the powerful post office, which sits on more than three trillion dollars in assets making it effectively the world’s biggest bank.
   Koizumi believes privatizing the massive institution would stir up the economy and clean up the nation’s finances, as Japan Post’s assets are largely in bonds that let the government finance wasteful but popular projects.
   He defied party stalwarts who warned him he could be setting the stage for a historic defeat of the long-ruling LDP as few voters would share his passion for fighting Japan Post, which is said to be able to mobilize one million votes.
   Koizumi, the longest serving Japanese premier in a generation, stressed in a weekly e-mail newsletter Thursday that the election would be a referendum on postal reforms.
   ‘I am aware that there are many people who say that there are things that are more important than privatization. Still, if we are unable to achieve privatization of the postal services, then what major reforms can we accomplish?’ Koizumi said.
   Hiroyuki Nakai, senior economist at Tokai-Tokyo Research Center, said Japanese investors are catching up with foreigners to buy shares after seeing Koizumi’s fortunes rise.
   ‘Usually, foreign investors will take a wait-and-see stance ahead of the outcome of a major election,’ Nakai said. ‘But this time they are aggressively buying Japanese shares because they believe the Koizumi government will continue.’
   ‘Strong public support vindicated investors that ... Koizumi is very likely to stay in office,’ Nakai said.
   To be sure, the markets were buoyed by other supporting factors, including brighter economic news pointing to Japanese recovery.
   The market is upbeat about the Japanese April-June gross domestic product data to be released Friday, analysts said.
   Earlier this week, the Japanese government and central bank separately upgraded their assessments of the world’s second-biggest economy.
   Japan’s leading business newspaper, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, said in an editorial that some analysts were convinced there was political pressure that led to the upbeat assessments just after the election was called.
   The liberal Mainichi Shimbun newspaper cautioned the public to see through ‘the Koizumi theater’ in which the premier simplifies issues to lure public support.
   ‘In the early battle of opinion polls, Prime Minister Koizumi came out victorious. But there is a month left until the elections. We must review policies of various political camps so as not to make the election a mere popularity contest,’ the Mainichi said.

Germany’s economy, written off by most for the past four years, is springing to life, but the upturn will probably come too late to help Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder win this September’s election.
   The scent of recovery is everywhere. In July, the ZEW institute’s investor confidence index hit a 10-month high, the Ifo business climate indicator rose to a 5-month peak and German exports are hugging record levels.
   Even the long-dormant domestic economy is showing positive signs. Domestic consumer goods orders have risen for an unprecedented nine consecutive months. Year-on-year, car registrations have been positive every month since April, according to the VDA automobile manufacturers’ association.
   ‘I think things are going better. The economy has turned around. But for the general public you need really strong numbers to make your point,’ said Goldman Sachs economist Dirk Schumacher.
   Even the construction sector, which has been in recession for 10 years, has stabilised this spring.
   Construction orders in May rose at their fastest annual rate since March 2002, and April-June output was up 2.2 percent, suggesting the sector could be the wild card in second quarter growth data due to be released Thursday. Most economists expect the Federal Statistics Office to report German gross domestic product was flat in the three months to June after it grew one percent in the first quarter, its fastest quarterly rate in 4 years.
   But even if gross domestic product (GDP) data did produce a positive surprise, Schroeder’s government probably would not be able to benefit, economists said.
   ‘I think the upside risks to the second quarter are limited. It (GDP growth) could be 0.2 percent, but I don’t think the government can capitalise on that,’ said Andreas Rees, an economist at HVB Group in Munich.
   Goldman Sachs’ Schumacher said: ‘Maybe there will be a positive surprise. But the number will still be weaker than in Q1. It’s not clear you can get the message across that things are getting better when GDP is slowing’.
   Opinion polls suggest Schroeder’s Social Democrats (SPD) have closed the gap on Angela Merkel’s opposition conservatives (CDU/CSU) to 14 points from 20 at the start of the campaign.
   Schroeder has even risen above Merkel in terms of personal popularity. But voters still trust the challenger more when it comes to creating jobs—their main concern, a Forschungsgruppe Wahlen poll for ZDF television showed last week.
   The economic calendar until polling day on Sept. 18 suggests the SPD will have to look for other issues to score points with. Most economists expect growth to pick up again in the third quarter, but the evidence won’t become available until later.
   ‘The public’s focus is on the labour market and it’s hard to see how you can get a meaningful improvement there in the next six weeks,’ Schumacher said.
   Headline unemployment was 4.77 million in July, up 68,000 on June as school leavers swelled the count. August’s figures, due to be published Aug. 31., will be better, based on previous year’s movements. But unemployment will still be some 600,000 higher than when Schroeder took office in 1998.
   Underlying, seasonally-adjusted unemployment, which fell for a fourth month in July, is given little or no prominence in German media, affording the government little solace.
   July industrial production and orders data will be released at the beginning of September, just before polling day, but some economists believe the figures could be negative as the start of school holidays have their usual volatile effect.
   Forsa polling institute head Manfred Guellner was quoted on Wednesday as saying Schroeder had no chance of retaining power. ‘Even if one counts the undecided, the SPD will get 33 percent at most,’ he told Die Zeit newspaper in an interview.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. reported a 67 per cent jump in quarterly earnings on higher profits at its Fox movie and cable network divisions.
   The powerful media and entertainment group posted net income in its fiscal fourth quarter of 717 million dollars, or 22 cents a share, compared to earnings of 15 cents a share a year ago.
   Revenue rose 12 percent to 6.1 billion dollars.
   The results were well ahead of analysts’ expectations for profit of 17 cents a share on revenue of 5.86 billion dollars.
   News Corp. finished its fiscal year sitting on a cash pile of more than six billion dollars, facilitating a three-billion-dollar stock buyback plan as well as strategic investments in new media.
   “So while we generated record financial results this past year, I believe we have made the right strategic and operational moves to secure our momentum heading into fiscal 2006,’ the Australian-born Murdoch said in a statement.
   Investors have been unfazed by high-level changes at News Corp. after Murdoch’s eldest son, Lachlan, surprisingly quit his executive posts with the global media giant in late July to return to Australia.
   Father and son denied media reports that the departure was related to a dispute over family inheritance changes in favour of Rupert Murdoch’s two infant children with his third wife, Chinese-born Wendi Deng.
   On the earnings front, News Corp. said quarterly revenue from its film businesses such as 20th Century Fox declined 14 percent to 1.19 billion dollars, but operating income rose 15 percent to 109 million dollars.
   Television revenue rose six percent to 1.36 billion dollars. Cable-network income increased 14 percent to 137 million dollars.
   Among TV highlights, News Corp’s Italian SKY Italia delivered its first profitable quarter.
   Asian network STAR received approval to launch a ‘Direct-to-Home’ satellite television service in India, while in the United States, DIRECTV added 1.6 million subscribers.
   Revenues from newspapers, where it all started for Rupert Murdoch in Australia in the 1950s, rose 26 percent to 1.15 billion dollars. Operating income more than doubled to 252 million dollars.

An Ariane 5 rocket carrying a 6.5-tonne Thai communications satellite, the heaviest ever, was launched Thursday with the promise of bringing high-speed Internet to the remotest corners of Asia.
   Shin Satellite says the orbiter will deliver broadband connections to Asian villages and Australian outback towns that lie far off fibre-optic cable grids, under a footprint that will stretch from India to China to New Zealand.
   Worth more than 400 million dollars, the IPSTAR-1 is the world’s largest civilian communications satellite, says the company owned by the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
   The launch at 0825 GMT, having been delayed from its 0639 GMT launch with 15 seconds left in the countdown because of technical problems.
   The launch was broadcast live on Thai television by a government-run station and one owned by Shin Corp, the company that Thaksin founded before he entered politics. Footage showed Thai officials clapping and cheering as the rocket took off and released its booster rockets.
   The satellite, built in the United States by Space Systems/Loral, was launched in French Guyana by the European agency Arianespace.
   Shin Satellite, along with many analysts and technology watchers, was upbeat about a smooth, on-schedule launch after a series of testing problems pushed back the original 2004 launch.
   John Tanner, global technology editor for Hong Kong-based Telecom Asia magazine, said the delays came as no surprise in what was a major technological feat.
   ‘Essentially, IPSTAR-1 is one of the most complex satellites ever designed, with about 10 times as many components as a standard satellite,’ he said.
   ‘That means more hardware to test, and more anomalies that pop up during the tests. Shin Satellite is playing it very carefully. They only get one shot at this. If the satellite goes up and fails, they’re in very big trouble.’
   KGI Securities’ head of research in Bangkok, Pat Pattaphongse said that while some investors were skeptical because of the hiccups and delays, market sentiment was broadly optimistic.
   ‘If you look at the recent share price reaction, I think people are starting to believe it will come through this time,’ he said.
   Shin Satellite shares closed Wednesday at 15.20 baht, up from a five-month low of 13.30 baht on July 20 after the last scheduled launch was postponed.
   Shares rose 2.96 percent on July 25, after the company said a technical problem had been fixed and announced the August 11 launch date, and rose by another 2.70 percent on August 8.
   Pat said broadband Internet and telephone connections by satellite had broad market potential, especially in remote and rural areas of India and China, where infrastructure lags behind the rapid development seen in cities.
   Shin Satellite is targeting two million to four million people across the region, with its satellite expected to stay operational in orbit for 12 years.
   The service area covers 14 countries, with data routed through 18 ‘gateways’, similar to switching stations used in telephone systems, that can be adjusted to improve or weaken the signal, the Shin Satellite spokesman said.
   Some gateways are in major cities like Bangkok and Mumbai, others in Australian outback towns like Broken Hill and Kalgoorlie.
   The company sold 8,136 of its special satellite dishes and modems in the second quarter of 2005, against 5,500 for all of 2004 — but it hopes subscriptions will sky-rocket once the service is up and running.
   ‘With almost 20 times higher bandwidth (45 gigabits per second) than conventional satellites ... the company expects user terminal sales volume will grow exponentially after the launch,’ Shin Satellite said in a filing Tuesday.
   The fast, hi-tech service doesn’t come cheap, said a spokesman, who added: ‘We’re not selling to farmers in Asia.’
   Receivers now sell at about 1,000 dollars, but prices are expected to fall to 300 dollars as the number of subscribers pick up.

World leading palm oil producer Malaysia has unveiled plans to pump up exports and domestic consumption of biofuels and a leading role in the green-fuels industry by ramping up sales to Europe.
   Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi presented the plan late on Wednesday to promote diesel mixed with palm oil at local pumps in a bid to cut a soaring fuel import bill as crude prices climb.
   The proposed blend for local consumption is 5 percent palm oil to 95 percent diesel. Officials said Malaysia could reduce about 500,000 tonnes of diesel imports a year this way.
   Global demand for green fuels was 2.5 million tonnes last year and was expected to expand 25 percent a year, Abdullah said.
   Last month, the government raised pump prices for the fourth time in eight months to cut back on fuel subsidies, estimated to cost 14.48 billion ringgit ($3.87 billion) this year.
   Malaysia consumes up to 190,000 barrels of diesel and gas oil per day and it exports about 86 percent of the roughly 14 million tonnes of palm oil it produces a year. Officials said palm oil, at 1,300 ringgit a tonne, cost about a third less than diesel, priced up to 2,000 ringgit per tonne.
   Biofuels are taking on renewed global importance as countries seek to cut environmentally hazardous emissions.
   Malaysia is a net exporter of oil and gas but because of the subsidies, surging global oil prices are draining state coffers, which Abdullah said would get a boost from biofuel exports.
   ‘As it is, biofuel from palm is as an energy source for transportation and industry in several EU countries,’ Abdullah said, adding that German trains are powered with biofuel and electricity plants use palm derivative stearin for fuel.
   Some Malaysian firms such as IOI Corp IOIB.KL and Kuok Oil & Grains have already started building refineries in Europe to process the additional palm oil expected to land in that market for biofuel manufacturing purposes.
   Rapeseed oil now makes up between 80 and 85 percent of the biodiesel produced by the EU, with soybean oil and a marginal quantity of palm oil accounting for the rest.
   The EU imports about 3.5 million tonnes of refined and crude palm oil every year, chiefly from Malaysia and Indonesia, and could supply up to a fifth of EU biodiesel demand by 2010, Fediol, a vegetable oils trade organisation, said in May.
   Fediol data shows that total biodiesel output by the 15 Western EU members rose to an estimated 1.85 million tonnes last year, from 1.45 million in 2003 and 1.05 million tonnes in 2002. ($1= 3.746 Malaysian ringgit)

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday praised Nigeria’s economic progress under its ambitious reform
   program, but the financial institution warned that the African country’s transformation still faced ‘formidable
   challenges.’
   In an annual review, the IMF executive board also welcomed Nigeria’s efforts to improve transparency in its key oil and gas sectors.
   ‘Executive Directors commended the authorities for Nigerias strong economic performance in 2004 under the homegrown reform program,’ the Washington-based organization said in a statement.
   ‘A number of key priorities of the program have been achieved, including enhanced predictability and transparency of policies, growth in the non-oil economy including the agricultural sector, and reduced vulnerability to oil price shocks,’ it said.
   ‘Moreover, fiscal restraint allowed much of the oil windfall to be saved in 2004, resulting in lower inflation and a sharp increase in international reserves.’

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo on Thursday warned that the record high oil prices were a ‘challenge to our economic survival,’ and called on the public to take all steps to conserve fuel.
   ‘This is not a simple test of our resiliency as a people but a real challenge to our economic survival,’ Arroyo said in a statement after crude oil rose above 65 dollars a barrel in Asian trading.
   She warned that the nation must ‘clearly appreciate the looming crisis.’
   ‘The entire nation, all sectors and communities, must engage in a serious, consistent effort to conserve energy and support all means to bring down our overall consumption ... and exploit alternative sources of fuel,’ she added.

China chalked up its second- biggest trade surplus on record in July, handing fresh ammunition to critics who say last month’s 2.1 per cent yuan revaluation will prove too small to bring the country’s imports and exports into better balance.
   The $10.4 billion surplus in July took the cumulative total for the first seven months to $50 billion, already dwarfing the surplus for all of 2004 of $32 billion.
   Economists said the widening surplus reflected not only the competitiveness of China’s export industries at a time of strengthening global demand but also government policies to restrain investment, which are dampening imports.
   The rising surplus was one reason why Beijing revalued the yuan on July 21 to 8.11 per dollar from the rate of 8.28 where it had been pegged for more than seven years.

Sri Lanka raised its 2005 budget deficit forecast Wednesday to 8.5 percent of gross domestic product from 7.6 percent, citing costs related to rebuilding the island’s tsunami-battered coastline.
   Last year’s tsunami flattened entire towns and villages, and hammered the fisheries and tourism sectors, which are key contributors to the island’s GDP. Investment planned in the 2005 budget were pushed on to the back burner by the disaster.
   ‘(Before the tsunami) we were planning on investing $2.2 billion on coastal areas that were hit by the tsunami over the next 3-4 years,’ Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundara told a news conference.
   Jayasundara said Sri Lanka had expected the investment to boost government revenue by stimulating the economy.
   The loss of projected revenue was weighing on the budget along with the huge cost of reconstruction and the government was trying to find a way to manage its finances without adding significantly to national debt, he said.
   Sri Lanka’s Central Bank, which makes separate forecasts from the finance ministry, raised its own 2005 budget deficit target in May to 9.0 percent of GDP. It has also lowered its GDP growth forecast for 2005 to 5.3 percent from 6.0 percent.
   Sri Lanka’s GDP was 2,023 billion rupees ($20.2 billion) in 2004, according to provisional data.

German Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement on Thursday called on the European Central Bank (ECB) to cut its interest rate, saying it was ‘remarkably’ more reserved than other central banks.
   ‘I expect the ECB to take into account growth by lowering (interest) rates, in the context of monetary stability,’ he told the daily Passauer Neue Presse.
   The ECB has held its rate unchanged at two percent since June 2003 in spite of calls for it to show greater flexibility.
   Clement drew a comparison with the Swedish Central Bank and the Bank of England which ‘have reacted in an appropriate way to the state of growth with rate cuts.’
   In June the Swedish Central Bank cuts its rate to a historic low of 1.5 percent, while the Bank of England this month shaved its rate from 4.75 percent to 4.5 percent.
   Clement said pay policy had as big a responsibility as monetary policy in respect of growth.
   It was the duty of the social partners to ‘strengthen demand with higher wages where there was room for manoeuvre for pay increases.’ Earlier this month the ECB left its rate unchanged.
   Its president, Jean-Claude Trichet, defended the decision by the bank to maintain its key eurozone interest rates, saying they were ‘appropriate’ and noting signs of a pick-up in the eurozone economy.

A steady decline in market share for US automakers is forcing the automotive capital of the world to look to Tokyo for new investments.
   Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm recently ret urned from a five- day economic mission to Japan, where she met with executives at Toyota Motor Corp. to discuss a potential assembly plant in the state.
   While a decision on another Toyota US plant may be many months away, the governor said she wanted to assure the Japanese car maker that Michigan is the best location option.
   ‘They were very interested in what we had to say and they are very interested in making sure that Michigan is on the list, which wouldn’t have happened a few years ago,’ Granholm said.
   Granholm’s goal of attracting foreign investment has become more urgent in recent months as US companies General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler have lowered vehicle output in the state as a result of weak demand.
   Michigan has lost more than 24,000 factory jobs within the past 12 months and the unemployment rate hovers at 6.8 percent, far above the five percent national average.
   But she faces an uphill battle to attract Japan’s largest automaker.

Tokyo's Nikkei share average rose 1.16 per cent by midsession on Thursday, having touched its highest intraday level in four years, as renewed confidence in the world's second-largest economy sparked broad buying.
   Investors scooped up sectors seen as lagging the Nikkei's recent rise -- such as brokers, insurers, retailers and banks -- while energy firms such as Nippon Oil Corp rose on record-high crude prices.
   Takashi Matsumoto, senior strategist at Okasan Securities, said that a second straight day of strong buying by foreign investors helped ignite the rise in the Nikkei.
   'The volume of foreign buy orders was the highest this year ... foreigners are seen as bullish on Japan right now, and that is setting the mood,' he said.
   'The fact that the economy is seen as emerging from its soft patch is a big factor supporting Japanese stocks.'
   Orders for Japanese stocks placed through 12 foreign securities houses before the start of trading showed an intention to buy a net 58.3 million shares, market sources said.
   That was the highest level of net buying since at least 2001, according to data from private research firm Traders and Company.
   The Nikkei finished the morning up 140.63 points at 12,238.71. It earlier hit 12,255.80, its highest level since Aug. 8, 2001, when it rose as high as 12,293.39.
   The broader TOPIX index gained 1.25 per cent, or 15.30 points, to 1,243.15. Earlier it hit 1,244.00, its highest level since July 16, 2001, when it reached 1,247.10.
   All but two of the TOPIX's 33 sector sub-indices rose into positive territory.
   Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. rose 8.1 per cent to 1,139 yen, becoming the top per centage gainer in the Nikkei 225, after it posted the sector's strongest growth in net premium income for the last quarter.
   Japan' second-biggest non-life insurance firm also benefited after brokerage Merrill Lynch said in a note on Wednesday that Mitsui Sumitomo is 'superior in terms of growth prospects for overseas operations and future earnings momentum.'
   Mitsui's rise, along with advances by other insurers, helped push the insurance sector sub-index up 5.3 per cent, making it the best performer among the 33 sectors.
   Brokerage Nikko Cordial Corp gained 6.3 per cent to 554 yen, extending recent gains after it said last week it would return 50 per cent of its annual group recurring profit to shareholders in the form of dividends, up from its previous target of more than 35 per cent.
   'I think the Nikkei's rise will soon hit its peak,' said Tatsuyuki Kawasaki, director of equities trading at Kaneyama Securities.
   Kawasaki said he expected the Nikkei to find resistance at a 5 per cent deviation from its 25-day moving average.
   That would be at 12,378.87, based on the moving average as of Wednesday.
   Other technical indicators were also suggesting a limited upside in the near-term. The Nikkei's 14-day relative strength index was at 78.9, above the overbought 70 line.
   Energy issues also rose, after NYMEX crude for September delivery climbed above $65 a barrel in ACCESS electronic trade to a record high after a drop in U.S. gasoline supplies.
   Nippon Oil, the country's top refiner, rose 5.3 per cent to 878 yen.
   Oil and natural gas developer Inpex Corp. rose 2.4 per cent to 846,000 yen. Expectations for higher profits also helped the company. It plans to announce quarterly earnings later in the day.
   Investors were also looking to Japan's gross domestic product (GDP) figures for the April-June quarter on Friday for further evidence of strong economic growth.
   A Reuters poll showed economists expect Japan's economy grew 0.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter for an annualised pace of 2.0 per cent.
   Trade was active, with 1.19 billion shares changing hands, the highest morning total since June 10. Gainers more than doubled the number of decliners, 1,008 to 482.

PHP eyes overseas glass market
Officials of the PHP Float Glass Industries Ltd, a newly established glass manufacturing company based in Chittagong, Thursday said that they are exploring overseas market to export glass from Bangladesh. Bangladesh now imports glass worth some Tk 300 to 350 crore a year, said the managing director of the PHP Group, Mohammed Mohsin, at the inaugural ceremony of a stall in the three-day housing fair styled ‘BD-RED Fair 2005’. Earlier, the PHP Group Chairman, Sufi Mizanur Rahman, formally inaugurated the stall. The PHP Float Glass Industries Ltd, is a concern of the PHP Group and has set up the glass manufacturing factory at Sitakunda in Chittagong. Speaking at the inauguration, Mohsin said the PHP produces glass with 2mm to 12mm thickness which has generated huge response in the domestic market. ‘Based on the responses of the local market, we have started exploring foreign markets for possible export,’ the PHP MD said.
— New Age

Thai eager to import medicine from Bangladesh
Thailand expressed its eagerness to import medicine from Bangladesh in the future.Thai Health Minister Dr Suchai Charoenratanakul revealed this during a meeting with Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain in Bangkok Thursday (Thursday).During the meeting, the Bangladesh minister apprised the Thai minister of the growth of pharmaceuticals industry in Bangladesh saying that internationally standard medicines are now manufactured in the country. The Thai Health Minister said an expert delegation from his country would soon arrive in Bangladesh to visit the pharmaceuticals factories. He also expressed his country’s interest to recruit health workers, including nurses, from Bangladesh. Earlier, Dr Mosharraf held talks with his Canadian counterpart Carolyn Bennett discussing matters of mutual interests. The Bangladesh Health Minister is visiting Thailand to attend the “Ministerial Consultative Meeting on Health Promotion Bangkok Chapter, Political Leadership for Action” being held in the Thai capital, Bangkok. Health ministers from various countries of the world approved the “Bangkok Chapter for Health Promotion” on the concluding day of the two-day meeting Thursday.
— UNB

USA eager to assist Ctg port development
The USA has expressed its eagerness to assist the development of Chittagong port. Manager for Asia of US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) Stecci E Bonnafons expressed the eagerness at a meeting with the directors of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCCI) at the Chamber auditorium. Stecci E Bonnafons also promised assistance in the development of the power sector, software and other sectors. He said, the USA is seeking to promote trade around the world. The CCCI also asked Bonnafons to take quick decisions on setting up a commercial centre in Chittagong and allowing duty-free access of Bangladeshi products access to the US market.
— BDNEWS

Reverse repo
auction held
The reverse repo auction for commercial banks and financial institutions was held at the Bangladesh Bank Thursday. Eleven bids of 4-day tenor amounting to Tk 458 crore were received and all the bids were accepted, said a BB release. The rates of interest against the accepted bids were 5.50 per cent per annum.
— UNB

EPZs see export growth
In the last fiscal 2004-05, export increased by 14.38 per cent, employment 56.90 per cent and investment 3.02 per cent in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) of the country. The enterprises of the EPZs have exported goods worth of US$ 1548.68 million during the last fiscal year against the target of $ 1400 million, exceeding the target by $ 148.68 million and crossing the billion dollar mark for the 5th consecutive year. Export earnings from Chittagong EPZ for the year stands at US$ 772.39 million while that of Dhaka EPZ $ 757.73 million, Comilla EPZ $ 9.66 million, Mongla EPZ $ 7.83 million and from Ishwardi EPZ $ 1.09 million. The amount was $ 1353.91 million in the previous fiscal year (2003-04). Thus the exports from the EPZs in FY 2004-05 at $ 1548.68 million was $ 194.77 million or 14.38 per cent more. A BEPZA press release said the operating industries of six EPZs have generated new employment for 15,802 Bangladeshi nationals during the last financial year. Of them, 8,721 persons are employed in Chittagong EPZ, 7,310 in Dhaka EPZ, 320 in Comilla EPZ and 20 in Ishwardi EPZ.
— UNB

Yahoo to pay $1b for stake in China’s Alibaba
Yahoo! Inc. agreed to pay $1 billion in cash for a 40 per cent stake in Alibaba.com, China’s biggest online retailer, to catch up with EBay Inc. in the world’s second- largest Internet market. Yahoo, owner of the world’s most-visited Web site, will become Alibaba’s biggest investor, the companies said in a joint statement Thursday. Alibaba will take over Sunnyvale, California- based Yahoo’s China operations, with Jack Ma, chief executive of the Chinese company, leading the new venture. The biggest investment by an overseas company in China’s Internet industry will give Yahoo 43 per cent of an online auction market forecast by Beijing-based iResearch Inc. to expand sixfold to $2.6 billion by 2007, closing in on EBay’s 50 per cent share. The alliance will also help to sell Yahoo’s search-engine services in a market with 100 million users, half the number of the U.S.
— Bloomberg

Whirlpool sweetens Maytag offer again
Appliance maker Whirlpool Corp. on Wednesday raised its takeover offer for Maytag Corp. a third time, to $21 a share, moving to derail its smaller rival’s $14-a-share buyout by a private equity firm. The sweetened offer of nearly $1.7 billion in cash and stock followed Whirlpool’s Monday bid of $20 a share, or $1.6 billion, which was $2 higher than its previous offer. Whirlpool would assume $977 million of Maytag’s debt. Maytag’s stock was up nearly 2 per cent after the news. Whirlpool has to put pressure on the Maytag board to focus on the superior value of its bid,” said Longbow Research analyst David MacGregor, who has estimated that buying Maytag could add nearly $3 a share to Whirlpool’s earnings by 2007.
— Reuters