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To offset the impact of quota phase-out from January 1 this year, the government has planned to seek fresh market for Bangladeshi goods, particularly readymade garment in some 29 exclusive destinations.
   The new export markets the government is eyeing include the unexplored South American countries, where Bangladesh has no diplomatic missions.
   ‘Bangladeshi products can easily establish control over the market in these countries if we can start exporting our goods as per the demand of the respective markets,’ said the Export Promotion Bureau vice president Mir Shahabuddin Mohammad.
   He pointed out that Bangladesh’s RMG sector could find its ‘survival destinations’ in these countries.
   The country’s overall export has been facing a serious setback in the wake of the quota umbrella withdrawal as the export growth of RMG sector, the highest foreign currency earner, remained somewhat tepid in the last fiscal year.
   EPB sources said that though the RMG sector posted an overall 16 per cent growth in the first half of the year 2005, the export growth of woven products, the core of RMG, marked a sharp decline. Apart from this, export of frozen food, leather, home textiles, bicycle and tea could not reach the target in the last fiscal (2004-05).
   In such a circumstance, the Commerce Ministry and the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) are going to start negotiation with the Honorary Consuls General and Consuls of 29 countries to work out the modus operandi of starting export of Bangladeshi products to these destinations.
   The negotiation, first of its kind, will formally begin in the city on Sunday (August 21) through the holding of a roundtable discussion with the Honorary Consuls General and Consuls of the 29 countries at a city hotel, a Commerce Ministry official told UNB.
   The government side would strongly argue in favour of securing access for Bangladeshi products to the respective countries, the official said.
   He further informed that they would also discuss with the envoys about the possible ways for attracting foreign investment from their countries.
   Commerce Ministry sources said the ministry authorities in the meeting would make plea to the Consuls for duty-free access to some Bangladeshi products to the countries they represent.
   EPB Vice-President Mir Shahabuddin Mohammad said: ‘The roundtable is the beginning of the negotiation… we’ll continue discussion with the envoys and send our delegations to the destinations and hold fairs there aiming to attract the importers.’
   He said the country could not do anything worth mentioning in exporting goods to the 29 countries, as there were no diplomatic missions of Bangladesh for developing trade relationship.
   ‘But we still have opportunities to start exporting our products or expanding market in these countries through the Honorary Consuls Generals,’ Shahabuddin said.
   Citing an example that Chile imports shrimp worth US$ 700 million annually, he said that through the envoys, Bangladesh could easily capture a big portion of the frozen food market of Chile.
   The EPB chief executive said that a proposal for forming joint chamber of commerce with the South American countries would be put forward in the upcoming meet to commence business relationship with them.
   ‘Trade between Bangladesh and South American countries remains almost at zero level despite having great potential for our RMG, frozen foods, leather, raw jute and agriculture products,’ he said.
   Ministry sources said the roundtable is expected to be participated by honorary consuls generals of Australia, Belgium, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France (in Chittagong), Greece, Indonesia (in Chittagong), Italy (in Chittagong), Japan (in Chittagong), Republic of Korea (in Chittagong), Lebanon, Malaysia (in Chittagong), Republic of Maldives, Republic of Moldova, Malta, Malta (in Chittagong), Republic of Poland (in Chittagong), Romania, Russian Federation (in Chittagong), The Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka (in Chittagong), Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey (in Chittagong) and Uruguay.
   Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury will be the chief guest at the roundtable with business leaders, including the RMG sector representatives, taking part.
   END/UNB/SHR/SMR 1600 Hrs

The FBCCI’s outgoing president Abdul Awal Mintoo vows to carry forward his mission for political reforms engaging political parties, business community, civil society members and professional groups.
   ‘From the day one after I hand over my charge as the FBCCI chief, I will concentrate on my mission – political reform – as I believe it to be the first and foremost task to take the nation forward,’ Mintoo tells New Age Friday.
   ‘The move is not for or against any political party. It’s an initiative to create a unified position to put politics on right track, so that the country may achieve some goals by the year 2020,’ the trade leader says, giving a brief idea of the mission he pursues.
   Coming to the apex trade body as its president for the second term, Mintoo initiated a process to mobilise the opinion of the business community towards the reform in politics. The move was okayed by the FBCCI board, with a few members later backtracking on it and denying their involvement in the process.
   But the process has not stopped, as Mintoo said he has been in touch with various professional bodies apart from his fellows in the business community. He referred to a recent core group meeting of selected people representing various professions, where the reform agenda were adequately discussed.
   At the end of his second two-year term as the FBCCI president, Mintoo spoke about nomination process of the political parties, businesspeople coming straight to politics, trade bodies’ alignment with ruling party and government’s interference in the activities of trade and professional bodies.
   He said while giving nominations, the political parties consider how much money the candidates have. ‘Businesspeople can do politics, they may become MPs, but they must come through a political process, not just buying party tickets,’ he said, pinpointing the areas that need urgent reforms.
   Coming back to the trade body politics, he said, as the FBCCI president he maintained a relationship with the government to that extent he deemed necessary to carry forward the causes of the private sector.
   ‘Trade body leadership cannot be a lapdog of the ruling or opposition party. I had never been so.’
   Mintoo welcomed his successor, Mir Nasir Hossain, who was chosen as the next FBCCI chief through a consensus formula. ‘The FBCCI should have an elected leadership. But consensus is also not bad. Whoever will take over the leadership, I hope, they will carry out their responsibilities properly to help the private sector grow further.’
   Since there was no formal election in the FBCCI this year, the selection process, though based on consensus, might look somewhat low-profile. ‘But I believe that the new leadership would prove them worthy enough to dispel underestimation, if there is any,’ Mintoo said, expressing his full confidence in the new committee headed by Mir Nasir and wishing their all out success.
   Mintoo condemned the Wednesday’s series blasts that ripped through country, apprehending that such heinous acts would hit a blow to the country’s export, employment and investment—be it foreign or domestic.
   ‘If not dealt with an iron hand, it will lead to further social and political instability, and ultimately end up with a failed state as forewarned by many,’ Mintoo cautioned, urging all political parties to act upon unitedly and decisively to root out such elements from the soil.
   Though there was apparently less loss of life and property, but the perpetrators proved well their strength that if they wished, they could do more harm, he viewed.
   Criticising the repeated failure of the governments in identifying the perpetrators of bomb blasts over the years and putting them behind the bar, he said, ‘Whenever such incidents take place, ruling and opposition parties play blame game, giving the real culprits an easy way out.’
   The intensity of the latest spell of blowouts proved the hollowness of the government’s emphatic claim that there is no existence of terror network in the country and calls for urgent action with support from all political parties. ‘It is urgent for upholding our image as a nation. Otherwise, our future will be at stake.’
   The business leader hailed the latest import tariff cuts on several hundred items and hoped that it would have some impact on domestic prices. The National Board of Revenue on Tuesday slashed import duty on 3,352 items of agricultural, luxury and finished products, and industrial raw materials by 1.5–2 per cent through a statutory regulatory order.
   ‘This is of course a welcome step. But we feel sorry when we see that the government ignored our pre-budget suggestions, but acted promptly upon the advice of an international agency,’ the FBCCI chief said.
   The FBCCI, summing up suggestions drawn from various chambers and trade associations, put forward a set of pre-budget proposals that included lowering of import tariffs on basic raw materials to 5 per cent, intermediate goods to 10 per cent and zero duty on some items like cotton.
   Given the existing high rates of interest and fragile state of infrastructures and utility services, the industry felt the need for low import tariffs on industrial raw materials to survive the stiff global competition, he argued.
   ‘Most of those requests were ignored in the budget. But a letter from a multilateral agency worked miracle and prompted the government to act instantly,’ he said, pointing out that such steps, however good they may sound, undermine the budget and the parliament that passed it.
   ‘Then,’ he wondered, ‘should we opt for handing over our political and economic management to the World Bank, the IMF and the Asian Development Bank?’

The Wednesday’s nationwide serial bomb attacks cast a serious dent on the ongoing 5-day furniture fair at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre curtailing visitors to a great extent.
   ‘We expect 20,000 visitors a day in the fair that started Tuesday while only around 7,000 people are coming following the blasts,’ said Iqbal Khan, director of the event management company, Communicare Dot Events.
   The organisers hoped to sell or receive orders worth Tk 15 crore during the fair but the target may not be fulfilled.
   ‘Our total sell may be the one-third of our target due to the fall of visitors after the bomb blasts,’ said KM Akteruzzaman, chairman of the Bangladesh Furniture Industries Owners Association.
   The organisers extended the tenure of fair by a day due to the Saturday’s hartal called by the main opposition Awami League and its allies.
   The fair showcases wooden, cane, steel and plastic furniture, wooden floors, hospital equipment and furniture for children. A total of 57 companies are exhibiting their products in 127 stalls.
   Iqbal Khan said last year over 50,000 people visited the 3-day fair while only 30,000 visitors came to the fair till Friday, the fourth day of this year’s fair.
   An accounts officer of the Otobi Limited said, ‘We have a target to receive orders worth Tk 5 lakh a day but only one-fifth of our target was achieved.’
   Association chairman Akhteruzzaman said that the fair was aimed at promoting local furniture to the domestic users as an alternative to imported items.
   ‘We have the capacity to cater to the domestic demands and our carpenters can manufacture world-class furniture,’ he said. The fair intended to attract the foreign buyers also, he added.
   But the hope was shattered due to the Wednesday’s hooliganism, he said.

The World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, met top Indian leaders Friday to discuss ways of scaling up infrastructure development to improve the lives of millions of rural poor.
   The bank agreed as a first step to provide a loan of 325 million dollars for a water management project in the western state of Maharashtra, which was devastated by floods this month that killed more than 1,000 people.
   ‘One of the most important things I have been discussing with my hosts is how the World Bank can do more to support the critical challenge of scaling up rural infrastructure,’ Wolfowitz said.
   The World Bank chief, who arrived in New Delhi Friday after a stopover in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India’s Planning Commission economic thinktank.
   Ahluwalia told reporters he sought a one billion dollar loan from the bank for an ambitious 174-billion-rupee (four-billion-dollar) rural infrastructure programme called Bharat Nirman (Build India).
   ‘We have mentioned that India could easily absorb something of the order of a billion dollars in the Bharat Nirman programme,’ Ahluwalia said after meeting Wolfowitz.
   The Planning Commission sets five- to 10-year goals for economic and social development programmes, and works with the federal and state governments and domestic and multilateral agencies to achieve them.
   Chidambaram told the World Bank chief that one of the priorities of development was the restoration, renovation and repair of water storage facilities such as reservoirs and ponds as it could boost output in the farm sector, which employs two-thirds of India’s workforce.
   Wolfowitz, on his first swing through the impoverished South Asian region in his new post, said he discussed the progress of World Bank-funded development projects in India and infrastructure projects including water.
   He hailed India as a ‘rapidly emerging country of global importance,’ but lamented that poverty remained rampant despite the country’s success in information technology, industry and commerce.
   Indian finance ministry officials urged Wolfowitz to increase the bank’s annual lending of three billion dollars to help meet development goals. It was not known whether the bank agreed to the request.
   Wolfowitz’s visit coincided with the tabling of an employment bill in parliament aimed at guaranteeing 100 days of work to the rural poor.
   More than two-thirds of India’s 1.05 billion people live in the countryside—often in dire conditions—with some 350 to 400 million people overall living in poverty.
   India, whose economy grew 6.9 percent in the year to March 2005 and is seen expanding by seven to eight percent this year, has an unemployment rate of around eight percent but economists say the number is much higher.

A leading chamber has called for developing a vision for 2020 and beyond to build infrastructures, required for viable businesses to achieve the country’s overall economic progress through public-private partnership.
   The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in a recent issue of its monthly review, has recommended that the government and the business community should set some well-defined goals for development of industries, considering Bangladesh’s and its people’s inherent potentials compared to those of global players.
   ‘To build a prosperous country in the foreseeable future, we urgently need to have a vision targeting the year 2020 and beyond,’ reads the editorial of the Review.
   Accordingly, the DCCI is going to organise a ‘grand programme’ in the last week of this month, with a view to evolving a vision for overall development targeting 2021, the year the nation will celebrate the golden jubilee of independence.
   The president of Bangladesh, Iajuddin Ahmed has given consent to inaugurate the Vision-2021 mooted to be held at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium.
   The conference had been designed to give a ‘sense of direction’ to the private sector in the new millennium, the DCCI officials said.
   The participants, including professionals, intellectuals, experts, officials and members of the civil society as well as business people, are expected to give their inputs on issues ranging from utilities to tax regime, regulations to funding, education to manpower and from export-import policies to foreign relations for developing a home-grown vision.
   ‘Such a vision is missing and we do not know exactly what our destination in the next 15 years or so is,’ the DCCI president, Saiful Islam said, emphasising on coordinated efforts to create a friendly environment for business and economic activities.
   The DCCI review also stressed the need for taking up a holistic package programme to create entrepreneurs, ‘who can bring Bangladesh to a new height of development in every possible field’.
   It advocated for fixing a target of exports in the next decade and afterwards. ‘In recent years, we had been obsessed with the fear of losing market for our major export-earning readymade garments after January 2005 and we did look only for a short-term remedy through certain interim arrangement instead of taking a long-term mission to make the sector viable for many years,’ observed the in-house magazine of DCCI.
   It mentioned the country’s failure to diversify exports and said, ‘We have no other way than putting our past failures behind and forging ahead into a promising future by means of a pragmatic approach to achieving development goals.’
   Underlining the need for building infrastructures ready for coping with likely pressures in the next 30 years, the DCCI Review also proposed undertaking mega-projects such as, a Dhaka-Chittagong development corridor and a deep-sea port to meet additional requirements in the future.

The green sugarcane fields with excellent growth have made the farmers happy in Natore and in other parts of the district.
   The Natore sugar mills sources said a target of 4.4 lakh tonnes of sugarcane from 21,020 acres of land had been fixed in the mill zone area for the coming season and there was no scarcity of chemicals, fertilisers, pesticides and others inputs for sugarcane farming.
   The sugar mills authorities have distributes fertilisers and seeds among the farmers.
   The climatic condition remains favourable so far, creating a possibility for achieving bumper sugarcane production.

AKTEL, one of the GSM service providers of the country renovated its customer care centre at Gulshan-2 on Thursday, said a press release.
   The chief operating officer of AKTEL, Vijay Watson, inaugurated the modernised centre, by unveiling a foundation monument and cutting a cake.
   Considering the convenience and better services to its subscribers, this modern renovated customer care centre will accommodate a greater number of customers as a one-stop service point.
   The company continues its drive to launch new customer care centres in every major town of Bangladesh and will introduce more services with variety of products and packages.
   The general manager, marketing, Jose Raveendran, along with other senior officials of the company were present at the ceremony.

The subscribers of Banglalink mobile phone service providers would now be able to pay their bills at any of the Bank Asia Limited branches in the country, said a press release.
   The chief financial officer of Banglalink, Ezzeldin Heikal, and the senior executive vice-president and head of operations of Bank Asia Limited, Erfanuddin Ahmed, on Thursday in Dhaka, signed an agreement to this effect.
   Both the organisations would also enhance their business link by providing value added services to their clients, the release added.
   Other senior officials of Banglalink and Bank Asia also attended the ceremony.

Oil regained some upward momentum on Friday, nudging toward $64 a barrel, as lingering worries over the tight US gasoline supplies and a halt in Ecuador’s oil exports helped the market bounce back from a sharp mid-week rout.
   The prices plunged this week from last Friday’s record-high of $67.10 a barrel on signs that soaring crude prices were being felt in consumer prices and corporate revenues, potentially undermining the strong demand growth that has propelled gains.
   But the US crude oil CLc1 rose 29 cents, or 0.45 per cent, to $63.56 a barrel, as traders considered upside risks to the market ahead of the weekend. London Brent crude LCOc1 gained 20 cents to $62.60 a barrel.
   Although the peak-demand US driving season has only two weeks left to run, unusually low inventories of gasoline and a series of refinery glitches are keeping dealers on edge.
   ‘Overall, the supply levels are tight and constantly bullish to the market,’ said Kazunaga Maeno, a risk management official with Mitsubishi Corporation in Tokyo.
   While crude oil inventories remain relatively robust around the globe, a series of supply disruptions also has traders on alert, including below-par production in India and the North Sea after outages last month.
   OPEC, pumping at its highest rate in a quarter century, has little spare capacity to make up any shortfalls. Ecuador worsened the lost supply by announcing it had halted exports of about 1,44,000 barrels per day (bpd), most of which go to the United States, due to protests in Amazon provinces over the level of investment from foreign operators.
   With many oil companies opting to return windfall profits to shareholders or sit on growing cash piles, instead of investing in new refineries or exploration efforts, some analysts see little relief from current prices in the years to come.
   Top financial energy trader Goldman Sachs said on Thursday it expected crude oil to average around $60 a barrel in about five years, $15 above its previous forecast.
   Merrill Lynch hiked its long-term forecast by 40 per cent on Friday, but said it expected only $42-a-barrel crude toward the end of this decade, illustrating the widely different views on how the industry would respond to booming prices.

Thailand’s embattled national carrier Thai Airways International Friday said continual rises in world oil prices have forced it to raise its fuel surcharges on all flights, the second rise this month.
   Effective since August 16 for all tickets issued in Thailand, international return flight surcharges rose five dollars to 25 dollars for trips in the Asian and Middle East region, up from the 20 dollars surcharge effective August 1.
   Intercontinental flights, including Australia and New Zealand, would rise by 15 dollars to 50 dollars per ticket, airline chairman and acting president Somchainuk Engtrakul said in a statement.
   The surcharge on all domestic return flights rose 4.80 dollars to 14.50 dollars. The airline last increased surcharges on domestic flights on July 1.

The state-run Nepal Oil Corporation, battling mounting losses, hiked petrol, diesel, kerosene and air turbine fuel prices in what state media said was an attempt to keep pace with rising global costs.
   The monopoly supplier’s move was seen causing more hardship for the general public in the impoverished nation whose economy has been sapped by a deadly Maoist revolt. The company, which has a monopoly over imports and distribution of oil in the country, raised petrol prices by 8.06pc, diesel by 12.19pc, kerosene by 14.70pc and air turbine fuel by 10.41pc. The rise was the second this year by NOC, which has been steadily losing money against a backdrop of rising energy prices.
   The last time NOC hiked prices in January, it triggered a general strike and demonstrations.
   The corporation left the price of LPG, widely used for cooking unchanged, after raising it two months ago by nearly 13pc.

Pressure was growing on the European Union’s executive commission Friday to review a broad June textile agreement with Beijing after a new quota was breached and others looked set to be surpassed.
   A spokesman for the commission said that women’s blouses, or shirts, had reached their annual limit Friday, joining men’s trousers and pullovers in filling quotas agreed between the EU and Chinese authorities.
   ‘This morning the quota for category seven, blouses, was filled. Member states custom authorities will no longer issue import licences for this product,’ spokesman Rupert Krietemeyer told AFP, reading a statement.
   ‘It is likely that a number of other quotas will also fill in in the very near future,’ he added.
   Specifically, quotas for bras, T-shirts and linen were close to being met, which an EU source specified were 90 percent filled.
   The quotas for men’s trousers and pullovers were already reached earlier this month, leaving millions of garments stranded at EU customs and outraging some big EU retailers awaiting deliveries.
   Talks with Chinese authorities over the quota for pullover imports were under way and could be extended to trousers as well, the source said.
   The EU and China agreed to a broad textile trade agreement in June setting annual restrictions on 10 categories of Chinese imports, which had been surging since the beginning of the year following the end of an international quota system.
   Facing growing pressure from retailers, Brussels has said that it is willing to be flexible about quotas in talks with Beijing.
   The June deal, which averted a trade war with the growing Asian economic giant, was struck after the EU textile industry lobbied the European Commission to take action to hold back the wave of cheap Chinese imports flooding into the 25-nation block.
   But European retailers and a growing number of EU member states—mostly with small textile industries—are now pressuring the commission to review the quotas it negotiated only two months ago, in what was hailed at the time as an important diplomatic success for the EU.
   Ministers from Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden attacked the quotas on Chinese textiles in an editorial in the Financial Times on Thursday, saying they had ‘backfired’ and risked causing the bankruptcy of EU trading firms and job losses.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is sending a team to Harare next week for talks ahead of a key meeting that will decide whether to expel Zimbabwe from the lending club, the country’s finance minister said Friday.
   ‘We are being considered at the IMF board meeting on September 9 and these are routine consultations,’ Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa told AFP.
   The delegation is due to arrive on Monday, following up on a visit in June that took place during the government’s urban cleanup campaign in which shacks, homes, market stalls and small shops were destroyed.
   ‘We agreed on some measures and the IMF will assess how the government is resolving certain challenges,’ said Murerwa.
   Zimbabwe’s relations with the IMF have been stormy in recent years with the international body threatening to expel the southern African country over unsound economic policy.
   The country has made various commitments, including adjusting its exchange rate, to reverse economic decline and mend its relations with the IMF.
   Zimbabwe has fallen behind in IMF repayments on more than 300 million dollars of debt since 2001, but South Africa has said it is ready to step in with a loan to ensure that its neighbour retains its IMF membership.
   The IMF in June urged the government to take ‘decisive action’ to lower its deficit, which stands at between 17 to 22 percent of GDP, according to private eocnomists.
   ‘A rebuilding of relations with the international community is a critical part of the effort to reverse the economic decline,’ the mission said in a statement on its return from Harare.
   ‘We hope the authorities will work more closely with us to formulate and implement such a policy package, which would help stabilize the economy and improve the welfare of the Zimbabwean people,’ it said.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday that breaking up the powerful post office remained top priority as he geared up for next month’s early elections, which he called after MPs blocked the plan.
   ‘We are at a turning point of our era,’ Koizumi said. ‘Privatization of the post office is the first step toward the reconstruction of Japan’s politics and economy.’
   Many Japanese use the post office for savings and insurance, making it effectively the world’s biggest financial institution with more than three trillion dollars in assets.
   ‘We need this reform for the sake of economic recovery, political reform, financial reform, administrative reform, fiscal reform,’ Koizumi said as his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) released its platform for the September 11 vote.
   The upper house of parliament on August 8 rejected his bills to privatize the post office when 30 LDP defectors voted against it or did not show up.
   Koizumi then called the snap polls and vowed to be ‘ruthless’ in getting rid of opponents who killed the reform, the cornerstone of his agenda since taking office four years ago.
   Koizumi, the longest serving Japanese premier in two decades, has vowed to step down if his ruling coalition fails to win a majority in the upcoming election.
   The premier believes that splitting up Japan Post would give the private sector a chance to compete, stimulate an economy plagued by little growth and help clean up public finances.
   Japan Post’s massive assets are largely invested in bonds that are used to finance public-works projects popular in lawmakers’ constituencies.
   But privatization could mean job cuts and an end to government benefits for postal employees. Some critics fear that service could be curtailed in unprofitable rural areas where the Japan Post is particularly influential.
   The LDP, which has ruled Japan almost uninterrupted since the end of World War II, enjoys wide support from Japan Post’s 270,000 workers, who are reputed to be able to mobilize one million votes in a national election.
   ‘Political parties should not exist for the protection of vested interests,’ Koizumi said. ‘We are representing not certain groups but the entire people.’
   On the international front, the LDP platform said a re-elected Koizumi would work to ‘improve relations with neighboring nations including China and South Korea.’
   Tensions have been high this year with Seoul and Beijing which accuse Japan of not atoning for its World War II aggression 60 years after its surrender.
   The two countries have been outraged by Koizumi’s repeated visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead including 14 convicted war criminals.

UK farmers ramped up their protest against low milk prices Thursday as fresh evidence emerged that farmers are leaving the dairy industry and experts predict a billion litre milk shortage by 2007.
   About 300 protesters staged blockades at eight milk processors in Scotland. Protests are also taking place at about six processors in England.
   The protest—the second this month—is unlikely to stop milk from Robert Wiseman Dairies, First Milk Co-op, Sorn and Arla getting to supermarket shelves, lobby group Farmers for Action said.
   The group argues that lower prices are pushing farmers out of business. A litre of milk retails for about 55 pence (99 cents) with farmers pocketing about 18 pence, one pence less than it costs them to produce, John Cummings, a Farmers for Action spokesman told Reuters.
   Robert Wiseman Dairies—which asserted it would meet its obligations despite the protest—said that it pays farmers 20.1 pence per litre.
   Concerns about an exodus from dairy farming are backed up by a report by the University of Manchester.
   About 12 percent of 363 farmers first studied in April 2003 had stopped milking two years later, the report found.
   It predicted a shortage of more than one billion litres by 2007, with total UK output set to be about 13.3 billion litres.
   One in four Scottish dairy farmers have gone out of business in the past six years. With milk production at a 10-year low, the National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS) said that in the past decade supermarkets’ profit has increased by 8-10 pence per litre while farmers’ profit has fallen by six pence.
   ‘There are only 1,400 dairy farmers left in Scotland and the industry is now at breaking point. A quarter have gone to the wall in in the last five years and the remaining few will have no future unless they are paid a fair price,’ NFU Scotland President John Kinnaird said.

The World Bank’s decision to cut fees and boost limits for its biggest borrowers should help the lender cement a role in fast-growing nations such as China and Brazil, development analysts said Thursday.
   The sweetened terms raise the maximum amount the World Bank can lend a single country by $1 billion to a total $14.5 billion, and cut front-end fees by 25 basis points or 0.25 percentage point of the loan amount.
   With some middle-income countries questioning the relevance of the global lenders to their economic affairs, analysts said the move comes at an opportune time.
   John Williamson, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics, said the changes will make the lender more attractive to big emerging countries, many of which can tap private lenders or financial markets.
   ‘It’s going to make it marginally easier for the bank to retain a role in middle-income countries,’ said Williamson, a former World Bank chief economist for South Asia.
   ‘The bank is now facing much more competition than it used to,’ he said, adding that monitoring and policy criteria linked to World Bank loans can make them seem onerous.
   ‘Although it is still a low-cost borrower from a financial point of view, in some other ways it’s a high-cost borrower. It’s much more trouble to borrow from the World Bank than some of the other lenders.’
   China is the World Bank’s biggest borrower, with $11 billion in loans outstanding at the end of the 2005 fiscal year, followed by Mexico, Indonesia and Brazil.
   While none of these countries are bumping up against the current loan limit, and none requested the increase announced last week, the World Bank said it wanted to create some breathing room.
   ‘The change in the single large borrower limit simply gives the bank the flexibility to increase exposure to a large borrower if the country’s performance is sufficiently robust and the need should arise,’ said John Wilton, the World Bank’s acting chief financial officer and vice president for strategy, finance and risk management.
   ‘Our view is that such policy changes should be based on (the bank’s) financial capacity and not the pressure of a pending case,’ Wilton said.
   The World Bank’s borrowing limit increase is the first since a $13.5 billion ceiling was set in 1997. Its fee cut repeals part of a 100 basis point fee imposed in 1998.
   A former World Bank vice president for financial policy and resource mobilization, Johannes Linn, said cutting fees made sense, given lending risks had fallen and the bank’s financial health had improved.
   ‘It’s only appropriate that you share the reduced need for charges with the member countries,’ said Linn, now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, adding raising the borrowing limit was also a prudent move.

Oil held at a bit above $63 Thursday one day after accelerating inflation and slowing fuel demand in the United States triggered the biggest one-day fall in four months.
   Strong US inflation and an earnings warning from the world’s biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, this week gave traders a signal that record high oil prices were taking an economic toll. Prices have more than doubled in the past two years on doubts oil nations can pump enough to satisfy demand from the world’s biggest market, the United States, and the rapidly growing economies of China and India.
   But US demand in July suffered its biggest monthly drop in over three years, the American Petroleum Institute said on Wednesday. The news coincided with a higher-than-expected rise in July producer prices.
   US crude oil settled at $63.27, up 2 cents, after falling as much as a $1 as the market reflected on Wednesday’s $2.83 tumble, the biggest one-day fall since April. London Brent settled at $62.40, down 16 cents.
   Prices are now down nearly $4 a barrel from their record high last Friday and have averaged $53.65 a barrel this year, about $12 higher than in 2004. In 1980, the year after the Iranian revolution, prices averaged an inflation-adjusted $82 a barrel.
   Producer prices in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, climbed more than projected in July because of high electricity and oil costs, data on Thursday showed.
   Longer-term, there was little comfort for consumers. Investment bank Goldman Sachs raised its long-term US crude price forecast by $15 a barrel to $60 on Thursday.
   Constant worries of export disruptions to Middle East oil also underpinned prices. Most recently, Iran’s decision to restart its nuclear program in defiance of the West sparked concerns over supplies from OPEC’s second biggest producer.

Employees have three rest days every week; supermarket workers are dismissed one hour earlier at night; streets are only colored by neon lights after 9:00 p.m.; and night golfing lovers have to temporarily quit their hobby.
   All above can be soon seen in the Philippines as the country is controlling the energy-consuming appetite to offset the negative impact of the climbing world oil prices on its economy and social life.
   On Friday, the oil companies were summoned to join the government energy-saving campaign when the Department of Energy (DOE) signed a rule requiring them to shorten the operation time of their gas stations from 24 hours to 20 hours per day.
   ‘Of cause we will sacrifice business opportunities for it (DOE’s rule), but we have no other option but to follow the government’s call. We have to do something to prepare for another oil price hike,’ a manager of a Manila oil station told Xinhua.
   Likewise, all other energy consuming sectors, from the government to household level, have been covered by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration calls to cut down their working time and activities, which at least can save electricity and oil for now before the country finds ways to lower the oil price and generate more energy self-support.
   ‘To implement mandatory and voluntary measures for fuel demand restraint and efficient use of electricity will help combat adverse effects of relentless increase in world oil prices on the local economy,’ the DOE said in a statement.
   To strengthen the energy-saving enforcement, Cabinet economic secretaries announced at a Thursday press conference that they would submit a basket of policy proposals to the Congress to make them legalized, in practice, more binding than the executive orders, which can only rule the government agencies and affiliations.
   On the other hand, President Arroyo is seeking the cooperation from the public sectors through launching a oil summit on Friday with top officials of the big and small oil companies, heads of government-owned and -controlled corporations, and representatives of colleges and universities to forge common solutions to cushion the adverse impact of high oil prices on local economies.
   ‘We will continue to need full public understanding and cooperation. We have shown the best of national solidarity in past crises and there is no reason why we cannot calmly, collectively and successfully deal with this one,’ Arroyo Thursday told a national exporter conference.
   Unfortunately, the Congress, which is still occupied in the investigation of president-involved scandal cases, is slow to show its solidary support to the government’s initiatives.
   The Senate fell into split on Thursday on the proposal to grant emergency powers to President Arroyo to avert the emerging oil crisis with some lawmakers regarding the move out of shape in the current political and economic landscape.
   Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. even cited Arroyo’s resignation not additional powers to the president as the solution to the looming oil crisis.
   On the other hand, House Speaker Jose de Venecia expressed the willingness of the Lower House to take into consideration a wider power of the president to enforce her initiate measures in view of the seriousness of the energy problem.
   Even being considered as a way of scandal-ridden government to divert the public attention, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita’s alert that the escalating oil prices had become a ‘national security threat’ is not pure exaggeration.
   With rising crude oil prices, National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) has to re-calculate on its abacus for a ‘more realistic’ economic outlook this year.

East Asia could one day form a single currency, but exchange rates would first have to reflect economic conditions in individual countries more accurately, a top South Korean finance ministry official said Friday.
   ‘If we take appropriate steps, I think we may even be able to form a currency union, just like the European Union,’ Vice Finance Minister Kwon Tae-shin told participants in a seminar.
   Kwon said there were certain pre-requisites that had to be satisfied first.
   ‘Exchange rates must accurately reflect the economic situations of each country,’ said Kwon, who was previously the ministry’s highest official in charge of foreign exchange policy before spending about a year as a presidential aide.

Google Inc Thursday said it would sell up to 14.8 million shares, capitalizing on a stock that has tripled in one year to raise a further $4 billion, which analysts said was likely to be used for acquisitions.
   Shares of Google, the world’s most popular Internet search engine, fell as much as 3.5 percent following news of the offering, which would increase the amount of the company’s Class A common stock outstanding by about 8 percent.
   The announcement, made in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, came the day before Google’s one-year anniversary as a public company. Since the initial public offering at $85 a share, the company’s stock price has more than tripled.

Record high oil prices may be weighing on global investors, causing them to reconsider high- yielding but risky investments, several gauges showed Thursday.
   Calyon, HSBC, UBS and Westpac Bank said risk aversion has risen in recent days, in part driven by the rocketing price of oil, which is up a third from a year ago.
   Calyon, whose risk aversion measure edged up this month after sharp falls in June and July, said in a research note: ‘Crude oil prices and economic surprises, which have both been important drivers of the risk aversion barometer this year, will probably remain crucial for the index in the short term.’
   The price of crude oil on the New York futures market hit an all-time high of $67.10 per barrel CLc1 last week but has since fallen to $62.75.
   Westpac Bank’s risk aversion index this month has moved to neutral territory from extreme risk seeking levels.

Indian shares bounced back on Friday after falling on fears of a correction in the previous session, but weak global markets and caution ahead of the weekend may cap the upside, traders said.
   The 30-share BSE index rose 0.51 per cent to 7,851.02 points on active trade of 42 million shares. It has gained some 17 per cent since the start of June and is up 19 per cent this year, as foreign funds moved $7.3 billion into Indian stocks.
   The 50-issue NSE index gained 0.67 per cent to 2,404.55 by 0505 GMT.
   “The market is looking volatile, and investors may look to take profits at higher levels. The high oil prices are a concern, but strong foreign fund flows are providing enough liquidity,” said Deven Choksey, chairman of KRC Shares & Securities.
   Regional markets were weaker on worries about oil prices, which have bounced back to $63.73 a barrel. Crude hit a record $67.1 a week ago and US manufacturers have warned that high prices would crimp consumer spending.
   The Karachi 100 index was up 2.4 per cent at 7,269.11 points. The Colombo market was closed for a local holiday.
   Drug maker Lupin Ltd. rose 3.7 per cent to 773 rupees after it said late on Thursday it had received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for oral suspension of Cephalexin, used for treatment of respiratory tract infections.
   Spanco Telesystems and Solutions Ltd. jumped nearly 18 per cent to 144.50 rupees after it told the stock exchange its board would meet on Aug. 22 to consider a preferential offer of shares and warrants.
   Brescon Financial Services Ltd. rose 5 per cent to 114.70 rupees after The Times of India newspaper reported that Sunidhi Consultancy Ltd. was close to acquiring a 10 per cent stake. Company officials could not be reached for comment.
   Oil and Natural Gas Corp. rose 2.7 per cent to 1,015 rupees on firm global crude prices and on assurance it would resume normal output by April after a fire destroyed a platform in an offshore field last month.
   Two-wheeler makers gained on expectations of robust sales in the coming festival season after a good monsoon. Top player Hero Honda Motors Ltd. rose 1 per cent to 685.90 rupees and Bajaj Auto Ltd. gained 1.2 per cent to 1,438.70.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies in Asian trade Friday as the market had already anticipated a US index that showed a strong improvement in manufacturing, dealers said.
   The dollar was slightly down to 110.49 yen in Tokyo afternoon from 110.52 yen in late New York trade Thursday.
   The euro slipped to 1.2166 dollars from 1.2173 dollars and edged down to 134.42 yen from 134.57 yen.
   The Philly Fed index on manufacturing released Thursday rose to 17.5 in August from 9.6 in July, indicating strong improvement in the closely watched Philadelphia area.
   The figures pushed the dollar higher in New York trade but dealers in Tokyo said the market had already braced for the strong US industrial figures.
   ‘The markets had adjusted positions before the Fed index and now speculators are buying the dollar back,’ said Tetsuya Aida, a currency dealer at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.
   Dealers said the yen was weaker earlier because the Japanese stock markets seemed to be closing their winning streak which had followed upbeat assessments of the Japanese economy early last week by the government and central bank.
   ‘The yen strength had been supported by strong Japanese stock markets through funds from foreign investors’.
   The bullish tone of the stock markets has since abated somewhat,” Aida said.

Brazil ships raw sugar to India
The Geneva marketing arm of Brazil’s Coimex Group this week sold 38,000 tons of very high polarization (VHP) Brazilian raw sugar for prompt shipment to southern India, trade sources said on Thursday. The sources said the price of the deal was $255-260 per ton Cost and Freight and Free Out (CFFO). Coimex completed other sales to Indian buyers earlier this year, the sources said.
— Reuters

Malaysia tin up 1pc, regains $7,000 foothold
Tin jumped one percent in Malaysian trade today, regaining the previous psychologically key support of $7,000 a tonne after a rebound in London prices. The metal KLTIO rose $75 to end at $7,030 a tonne on a lower turnover of 86 tonnes, down from Thursday’s 155. “The price has returned to above $7,000 as we predicted, but there’s some adjustment in positions going on, so that reflected in the lower volume,” said a trader. Initial bids from Japanese, European and Malaysian buyers totalled 135 tonnes against offers of 105. The metal slipped below $7,000 on Thursday after a slump in tin futures on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday. LME’s three-month tin MSN3 jumped $350, or 5.2 percent, on Thursday to close at $7,100. The London price of tin often lends direction to the Malaysian market.
— Reuters

Australia-China free trade talks next
week
Australia and China will hold a second round of talks in Beijing next week on a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for a free trade agreement, Trade Minister Mark Vaile said on Thursday. Australian negotiators will outline barriers faced by Australian industry in doing business with China, Vaile said, as they seek a deal that could be worth more than $20 billion to the local economy. The talks from Monday to Wednesday will follow an introductory meeting in Sydney in May and will be the first opportunity to start detailed discussions with the Chinese and the possible structure of a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), he said. The Australian negotiating team has consulted widely with business and other groups over the past four months and a range of interests and concerns had also been raised in more than 260 written public submissions.
— Dawn

MG Rover’s Chinese owners import cooks
The new Chinese owners of the MG Rover plant in Birmingham have imported their own cooks to reopen its canteen after British cuisine failed to impress them, the Financial Times reported Friday. Nanjing Automobile, which hopes to build sports cars at the mothballed Longbridge plant, has also brought in “scores” of engineering and manufacturing specialists from its home base in the east of China. But it is the cooks who have raised eyebrows as well as concerns that the plant’s revival might not generate many new jobs in the West Midlands, the historic home of British automaking. “They don’t regard sandwiches as proper food and they don’t like the Chinese restaurants over here,” a Briton involved in negotiations with Nanjing Automobile was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
– AFP

Pakistan’s auto industry to help develop SMEs
Chairman Senate Mohammadmian Soomro has said that the government sees the auto industry as a nursery for nurturing small and medium enterprises required to support government’s poverty alleviation plans. During a visit to Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited on Wednesday, he said that investment by the company to produce 100,000 units in 2006 and increase production capacity would bring a relief to the consumers and reduce car delivery time. He said the auto industry had entered the era of maturity and hopefully it would further contribute to the industrialization in the country. Pak Suzuki managing director Kenichi Ayukawa said the government had assured the industry of closely monitoring the effects of changes in tariff and import rules and it would keep a close liaison with auto makers, says a press release.
— Dawn

Brunei’s economy expands 2.6pc
Brunei’s economy was estimated to have grown 2.6 percent in the March quarter from the previous year, the government said Thursday, with the expansion limited by a contraction in the oil and gas sector despite surging oil prices. The oil and gas sector, the main engine of the Southeast Asian monarchy’s economy, shrank 0.6 percent in the three months to March from the year before as production declined. Oil production fell to an average 206,142 barrels a day from 207,323, while liquefied natural gas (LNG) output dropped 0.7 percent in the same period. ‘Brunei Darussalam’s economy for the first quarter of 2005 is estimated to grow by 2.6 percent,’ the Department of Economic Planning and Development said in its latest economic bulletin. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2004, the economy contracted 0.9 percent, it added.
— AFP