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Gross foreign exchange reserve with the Bangladesh Bank still hovers below the $3 billion level despite some improvement seen towards the end of the first half of the current fiscal year.
   Robust growth in remittance inflow and late disbursement of a World Bank credit instalment could not stop the reserve dipping to $2.8 billion as on Thursday, the last working day of the 2005 calendar year.
   The amount is well below the $3.7 billion benchmark reserve equivalent of two-and-half-months’ import bills set by the government’s mid-term macroeconomic framework.
   The gross reserve with the central bank was $3.2 billion at the end of December 2004.
   The reserve situation continued to deteriorate from the beginning of the current fiscal and at one stage dropped below $2.5 billion at the end of November.
   As the government finally received the $200 million loan assistance from the World Bank under the third instalment of development support credit, reserve started picking up during the last week of December.
   With other funds, including $50 million from the Dhabi Group as licence fee for operating new mobile phone company in Bangladesh, reserve situation saw a turnaround.
   Lower level of reserve indicates that balance of payment is under pressure.
   ‘Today’s reserve position is due to the release of a foreign loan and it would rise further with the release of another soon,’ the Bangladesh Bank governor, Salehuddin Ahmed, told UNB Thursday. ‘The reserve position is now at a comfortable level, but not that it’s very good.’
   The third phase of World Bank’s Development Support Credit (DSC) worth $200 million was deposited with the central bank Wednesday to pull the reserve level from Wednesday’s $ 2.6 billion.
   The governor said the disbursement of the credits as a budgetary support would help reduce government borrowing from the banking system as well as improve the balance sheet, which outside world cares for their trade and investment operations with a country.
   Meanwhile, forex market remains volatile on the last trading day of the year 2005 with limited supply of dollar against higher demand.
   Banks are now desperately trying to increase their remittance income to overcome the dollar shortage.
   ‘Ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, more remittance is likely to come and we hope it will give us some relief in new year,’ said a fund manger of a private bank.
   A senior official of a nationalised commercial bank said that there is already an upward trend of remittance that would increase further before Eid.
   In the inter-bank market, banks, however, continued to purchase other major currencies like euro and pound sterling as cross currency to ease pressure from dollar demand.
   Agrani Bank on Thursday sold some $2 million in the market, but the amount was seen insufficient to cater to the demand.
   Bangladesh Bank injected around $1 billion in the market throughout the year, said central bank sources.
   The huge import payment, mostly in the public sector, forced the leading nationalised commercial banks to purchase dollar from the market as the banks exhausted their dollar reserves in December and restricted the supply of greenback.
   Few private banks were also found selling dollar at higher rates to cash in from the surging demand.
   On the last trading day, inter-bank exchange rate was Tk 66.20 per dollar while the highest quoted rate for import L/C was
   Tk 68.40.

A total of 16 more state enterprises will bell handed over to private sector in the remaining six months of this fiscal year, as the Privatization Commission does not foresee any major hindrance coming out of election hubbub ahead.
   Meanwhile, six industries have been turned over to private entrepreneurs in the year 2005.
   The ongoing privatization process is expected to keep pace next year with the performance in the outgoing year in divesting the state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which was claimed to be ‘very good’.
   ‘We’ve done a good job during the outgoing year and are expecting another good year in 2006,’ the Privatization Commission chairman, Enam Ahmed Chowdhury, told the news agency Thursday.
   He said an apprehended political unrest ahead of the next general election might affect the process but at a very minimum level, not in a very big deal, as both the ruling BNP and the main opposition Awami League have been ‘very much willing’ in this regard.
   ‘We’ll carry out our programme as usual… the important thing is that both the opposition Awami League and the ruling party are very much eager about privatization of the SOEs,’ he said.
   The industries that were handed over this year are Nabarun Jute Mills Limited, Narayanganj, Hafiz Textile Mills Limited, Chittagong, Sangu Valley Timber Industries, Chittagong, Fish Net Industry, BSIC Industrial City, Ashoktala, Comilla, Fish Net Industry, Chittagong, and Eastern Industries Limited, Tejgaon, Dhaka.
   The rest of the companies listed for privatization for this fiscal year are Particle Board Veneering Plant, Chittagong, Bangladesh Can Company Limited, Chittagong, Standard Asiatic Oil Company Limited, Rupali Bank Limited, Arco Industries Limited, Chittagong, Tiger Wire Products Limited, Farashganj Road, Dhaka, SAF Industries Limited, Noapara, Jessore, and Dhaka Match Factory Limited, Shyampur, Dhaka.
   A total of 26 state-run industries were sold out to the private entrepreneurs during the past four years in this government’s tenure.
   After taking power the 4-party alliance government listed a total of 46 industries to sell while the previous AL government had listed 48 through the Privatization Commission.
   Besides, different ministries handed over different industries under their supervision to the Privatization Commission. Some ministries, however, later took back their respective industries from the Privatization Commission.
   The Commission already has floated Letter of Intent (LOI) for six industries while land of an industry has been handed over to the Textile Directorate. Two industries are now waiting to be handed over to the Army and Navy.

Speakers at a discussion Thursday said that international NGOs refrained from playing positive role to secure Bangladesh’s interests as a least developed country at the World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Hong Kong.
   The observation came at a discussion on ‘Reflections, Critique and Assessment for Future Actions of WTO’. Most of the NGOs which had participated in the Hong Kong meet joined the discussion at Dhaka Reporters Unity auditorium.
   They said only two international NGOs - the International Gender and Trade Network and the Focus on the South - had played positive role to protect interests of the LDCs, especially in WTO agreement. But other international NGOs had played a lenient role to ensure Bangladesh’s interest at the meeting.
   They emphasised on taking aggressive steps in the forthcoming Geneva Meeting and the Washington Meeting where most of the fundamental decisions would be taken within six months.
   Among others, Workers Party leader Haider Akbar Khan Rono, Rashed Al Mahamud Titumir of the Unnayan Annesha, Director of Karmojibi Nari Ziaul Haque Mukta, Director of Gono Shastha Kendro Maksud Al Islam, Ahmed Swapan Mahmud of Voice and MA Awal spoke at the discussion while Farhad Mazhar was the moderator of the discussion.
   Farhad Mazhar said the country was not benefited from the multilateral agreement like WTO due to the lapses in the bilateral agreement, including TIFA with the developed country.
   He said country’s food sovereignty would be dwindled after implementation of the agriculture agreement in WTO.
   Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir said that Bangladesh had exported 382-402 kinds of commodity to the USA in the last five years.
   ‘According to the new rule for duty - free market access - 80-85 per cent of export items will be excluded from the facility,’ Titumir said.
   Ziaul Haque Mukta said Brazil and India who led G-20 had betrayed with the interest of the LDCs before the final decision in the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting, although G-20, G-33 and LDCs formed G-110 in Hong Kong Ministerial to put pressure on the developed countries for gaining more interest of G-110.
   According to the WTO rules, India and China would lose the low cost generic drug market from 2006, said Maksud Al Islam.
   Bangladesh, as a member of the LDC, can gain their (India and China) market, he added.

Money laundering is flourishing in the United Arab Emirates where fraudsters can pull off complex tax scams or buy speed boats with paper bags of cash with relative ease, officials say.
   The Gulf Arab state, which has no income tax, is now a hub for so- called missing trader fraud that robs European Union governments of billions of euros in value-added tax revenue, diplomats told a money laundering conference Wednesday.
   Some of that money has trickled through to networks of Islamic militants, they said.
   The UAE has been cracking down on money laundering, particularly since the Sept 11 attacks on the United States, but dirty money is still around, especially in Dubai, booming financial hub of the world’s top oil exporting region.
   ‘Partly this is a problem of success... Although Dubai is a fantastic place for legitimate businesses to work, it is also a fantastic place for criminals to work,’ said Robert Deane, deputy head of the British embassy in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi.
   Businessmen say less sophisticated money laundering has long thrived in a country that is now trying to position itself as an offshore tax-haven to rival the Bahamas or Switzerland.
   ‘When your customer’s ‘accountant’ turns up to pay for a new boat with a patch over his eye, a Russian accent and brown-paper envelopes stuffed with cash, you know something’s up,’ an executive in the leisure boat business told Reuters in Dubai.
   The West has been piling pressure on the Arab world to crack down on money laundering since the Sept 11 attacks, fearing that militant groups such as al Qaeda could tap into these funds.
   US authorities fined Dutch bank ABN AMRO $80 million earlier this month for failing to comply with US anti- money laundering laws, including through its operations in Dubai.
   ‘I would like to emphasize that the UAE always seeks to be one of the cooperative countries with the international community and supportive of international efforts to counter money laundering and combat terrorist financing,’ central bank governor Sultan Nasser
   al-Suweidi said.
   Now European governments have set their sights on tax dodgers and British embassy officials told the conference in the emirate of Fujairah that much of this cash was being laundered through the UAE.

Bangladesh Bank has relaxed for three months the compulsory reporting of cash transaction worth or above Tk 5 lakh and waived all public deposits from the ceiling.
   In a circular issued on Thursday, the central bank set first three months of 2006 as optional for reporting on such transactions in the banks.
   Commercial banks will have to compulsorily report on all such transactions from April 1, 2006, instead of January 1.
   Any cash deposit worth or above Tk five lakh by government has been relieved from compulsory reporting.
   In its aggressive effort to check illegal fund transfers through banking channels, central bank fixed Tk five lakh cash transaction as minimum ceiling for compulsory reporting in connection with suspicious transactions.
   Central bank officials, however, made it clear that any cash transaction worth or above Tk 5 lakh is not suspicious transaction.

Country’s tannery leaders urged the government to lend them Tk 500 crore 10 days ahead of the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha and ensure security for smooth procurement of hides and skins of the sacrificial animals this year.
   They said the country would lose huge hides and skins through smuggling if the nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) do not provide them adequate loan on time.
   General Secretary of the Bangladesh Tannery Association Abdul Hai told BDNEWS that the country procured at least 20 crore square feet hides and skins in a year and about 40 per cent of the total skins come during the Eid-ul-Azha.
   Earlier, although the NCBs disbursed Tk 192 crore as loan among tannery owners for purchase of hides and skins during Eid-ul-Azha last year, many owners had to face problems to have loan in due time.
   The banks did not give any loan to the defaulters following the directives of the Bangladesh Bank last year, bank sources said.
   The tannery industry, a big export-oriented sector in the country along with 25,000 workers, earned about Tk 1,700 crore from leather export this year.

Brand Kolkata, take a bow. According to the latest study conducted by staffing firm Team Lease Services Pvt Ltd, the ‘city of joy’ is now a better destination for job-seekers than ‘garden city’ Bangalore.
   As per the Team Lease-Gallup Employment Outlook Survey — Wave 4, 2005 — based on interviews with HR heads or CEOs, ‘hiring activity’ in Kolkata will exceed that in Bangalore during November 2005-April 2006.
   According to the study, the employment outlook index (EOI) for Kolkata currently stands at 76 points, a rise of 27 points from the time a similar exercise was undertaken six months back.
   Bangalore, by contrast, presently has a EOI of 74 points, a marginal rise of 5 points in the last six months.

Terming the current state of development as nothing but an eye-catching hullabaloo, speakers Thursday said the returns of economic growth are channelling to the shopping malls rather than the rural areas.
   ‘The current state of development is the development of shopping malls which do not really reflect that the country is approaching towards progress,’ economist Atitur Rahman said at the award giving ceremony of pastoral journalist Monajatuddin-2004 at the national press club, Dhaka.
   Atiur made this observation while referring to the contribution of journalist Monajatuddin in the path of development, and said the returns of economic growth are channelling to build shopping malls, luxurious apartments and purchasing BMWs instead of flowing to rural areas, where people are encountering endemic poverty like monga.
   ‘The duration of monga is now from the Bangla month of ‘Baishakh’ to ‘Kartik’,’ he said, adding, a total of 3.5 per cent people of the country live on begging and 30 per cent people become victims of Monga
   every year.
   ‘Neither Monajat nor we or anyone else dreamt of such a pale Bangladesh after three decades of independence,’ he regretted.
   Journalist Fayez Ahmed said speaking and revealing the truth are difficult tasks. ‘But Monajat endeavoured to unmask the truth.’
   He said newsmen like Monajat are very much needed at this moment to unearth the inner snaps of the militants.
   The outgoing president of the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association, AAMS Arefin Siddique, termed late Monajat as a man of professional excellence and said journalists should not only disclose the truth but also defeat the false.
   Former secretary Mohammad Sirajuddin, Monajat’s spouse Nasima, journalist Mukul Mustafiz also spoke on the occasion.
   Shamim Al Amin, staff correspondent of the daily Prothom Alo was awarded the Monajatuddin Award 2004 for his investigative two reports - Influential occupied thousands of acres of newly emerged char land in Noakhali inflicting sufferings to the grassroots people and Women in the border areas are more vulnerable to AIDS.
   The BRAC sponsored the award worth Tk 25,000.
   Born on June 27, 1945, journalist Monajatuddin died in December 29, 1995 by felling from a ferry while crossing the river Jamuna.

The leaders of Gonomukti and Combine Movement for Saving National Resources Thursday demanded the government to revitalise the BADC for reaching agricultural inputs at the doorsteps of the farmers at fair price in due time.
   They also criticised the government for importing fertiliser through private traders in lieu of BCIC or BADC that created a huge scope for corruption.
   Gonomukti and Combine Movement for Saving National Resources held a demonstration at Muktangan demanding immediate arrest of the people responsible for recent fertiliser crisis.
   They also voiced for immediate solution to the crisis as the season of IRRI and Boro cultivation is on.
   ‘The BNP government in 1996 shot dead 18 farmers who were on a movement against such a fertiliser scam,’ said the leaders of the left leaning platform, adding that engaging the party men in importing fertiliser is the root of the crisis.
   Among others, Bazlur Rashid Firoz, Badrul Alam, Shamsuzzaman Milon and Kamrul Alam Sabuj spoke at the rally.
   Later, a procession was brought out towards the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation.

The prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, has said that textile industry is the core industry of Pakistan and due to textile vision adopted by the government has provided substantial development ofthe sector.
   Talking to a delegation of All Pakistan Textile Manufacturing Association (APTMA) here at prime minister House, he urged the private sector to focus on value addition.
   He asked them to do research and study the world trends and the best practices adopted world over with a view to increase competitiveness of their goods to get better share of market.
   The prime minister Shaukat Aziz said government’s policies of deregulation, privatization and liberalization coupled with sustainability of policies and transparency in procedures have created an upsurge in economy and provided a very conducive atmosphere for the private sector.
   He said the private sector needs to strive more to take full advantage of the government policies.
   The prime minister asked textile manufactures to do analysis to identify comparative advantages, and come up with concrete suggestions for the cotton policy.
   He appreciated the innovations and use of new technology adopted by the Textile Industry and identified some areas of concern.
   The prime minister said the ginning industry has not been adequately developed, and there is a need to produce contamination free cotton and produce skilled manpower having the kind of expertise required for development of textile industry.

The rupee slipped a tad Thursday, weighed down by the dollar’s rise to a two-week high versus the yen on an above-consensus reading of US consumer sentiment and year-end demand for the dollar from local firms.
   In morning trade, the rupee was at 45.175/185 per dollar, a touch weaker than Wednesday’s 45.15/16 close.
   ‘The yen and sterling are weaker against the dollar and we should see some year-end demand (for dollars) as well,’ a forex trading head at a state-run bank said. ‘We should see the rupee moving in a 45.15 to 45.30 range Thursday.’
   In Asian trade, the dollar fetched 117.95/98 yen, just off a two-week high of 117.98, buoyed by consumer data that suggested the US economy remained on a sound footing.
   The dollar has risen about 15 per cent against the yen and euro this year, riding on the Federal Reserve’s 13 straight rate increases which have given it a distinct yield advantage.
   Traders will also be eyeing a $7.3 billion export deposit redemption as the central bank is set to sell nearly $2 billion from its forex reserves to the deposit issuer, State Bank of India, Thursday.
   The rupee outflows for the purchases could push up the overnight funds rate and trigger some dollar selling by other banks to fund their cash requirements.

United Commercial Bank Limited has unveiled its new logo to rejuvenate the banker-customer relationship and to bring newness. The bank has already appeared in media with the new logo.
   The UCB chairman, MA Sabur, said that the newness of the logo would rejuvenate the officials, employees and customers of the bank. The bank’s managing director, Hamidul Huq, said the change has been made in response to the demands of time.
   With the new logo United Commercial Bank Ltd wants to reach to the peak of customer-service as one of the pioneers in the country’s private bank sector.

cDr Rekesh Gupta recently joined the Apollo Hospitals Dhaka as an Orthopedics Trainer Consultant, said a press release.
   Dr Gupta was a senior consultant and associate professor at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Science Rohtak, India.

The 100 per cent export oriented jute yarn manufacturing industry, Jute Spinners Ltd has declared 17.5 per cent dividend for the year 2004-05, a press release said.
   The dividend was declared at the 26th annual general meeting of the company held today at the CIRDAP auditorium with the company chairman and managing director, Muhammad Shams-ul Haque, in the chair. The company earned Tk 44.71 lakh as net profit from jute yarn export in the last financial year.

For the first time in more than three decades Japan’s economy, the world’s second largest, is set to be surpassed in size by the rest of Asia.
   That milestone, says Lehman Brothers economist Robert Subbaraman, signals the arrival of the Asian consumer as a key growth driver and probably marks the turning point for Asia’s export-led economic model.
   While only a small number of Asia’s more than 3 billion people are moving up to middle-class income levels, analysts say the numbers are growing faster than any other region worldwide, fuelling a consumption boom.
   ‘A sea change is happening in terms of growth of the middle class in Asia,’ said Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, economic adviser to Mastercard International which tracks consumer trends in Asia.
   ‘More and more people are shifting from consumption for basic necessities to discretionary consumption—like taking a holiday abroad, going out to restaurants, visiting malls.’
   Hedrick-Wong describes the Asian middle class as those who earn more than $5,000 per year. As many as 80 million people in China, 15 million in Thailand, 12 million each in India and Indonesia, 9 million in Malaysia and 6 million in the Philippines make the grade by that measure.
   Another 200 million or so in India now have annual income above $1,500 and they are buying shampoos, toothpaste, bicycles and other basic consumer goods.
   In China, an economic census found the country had under- reported its booming services industries and GDP was 16.8 per cent larger than previous estimates in 2004 — setting China on course to become the world’s fourth-largest economy in 2005.
   Lehman Brothers calculated the rest of Asia including India will exceed Japan’s nominal gross domestic product, converted into dollars, in 2005. According to Reuters calculations based on International Monetary Fund data, this has not happened since the late 1960s.
   Goldman Sachs says the implications of this will be felt as soon as next year, saying in a report that even if the US economy slows, Asian consumers are likely to pick up the slack and help Asia, excluding Japan, grow 7.5 per cent in 2006, compared with 4.1 per cent worldwide.
   The Asian consumption upturn could still hit a roadblock if oil prices stay around current levels or if bird flu escalates into a pandemic. But for now, signs abound that the traditionally high-saving Asian consumers have loosened their purse strings.
   ‘Consumption to GDP ratios are generally low in emerging Asia the flip side of high gross domestic saving rates,’ Subbaraman said.
   ‘As countries develop they should become less heavy investment-based and more consumption-based.’
   The ‘tiger’ economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong relied on exports to become some of the world’s richest nations, emulating Japan’s success story following World War Two.
   The 210 million people in those five economies now form the core of Asia’s middle class.

Iran remains committed to a proposed $7 billion natural gas pipeline running to India via Pakistan, its deputy oil minister said Thursday.
   ‘We will continue to do our best to implement it,’ Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian told reporters at a news conference.
   The pipeline faces opposition from the United States which accuses Iran of seeking nuclear arms, funding anti-Israeli militias and stirring militant attacks against US forces in Iraq.
   But Nejad-Hosseinian, speaking after talks with Indian officials in New Delhi, said: ‘I don’t think Pakistan and India will yield to pressure of the United States. This pipeline will bring peace to the region.’
   India and Iran said in a joint statement at the news conference they were discussing options on price structure for the gas, which would be taken forward at a March meeting between oil ministers of the three countries in Tehran. ‘We are going to prepare a draft agreement in March which will include the structure of the project, framework agreement, responsibility of each
   government and framework of price formula,’ Nejad-Hosseinian said.
   Pakistan and India said this month they hoped to start building the pipeline from Iran by 2007 despite US objections. The proposal has been on the drawing board for years but uneasy relations between the nuclear- armed rivals prevented progress.
   The project is expected to be owned and operated by a consortium of Iran’s National Iranian Gas Export Co. and National Iranian Oil Co., GAIL (India) Ltd. and Pakistani as well as international energy companies.

Most private firms in China are violating the basic rights of employees, with more than 80 per cent of companies refusing to sign contracts with workers, a government survey showed Thursday.
   Even among the firms that do sign contracts with employees, many only protect the rights of the employers while outlining the obligations of workers, according to the survey, which was published in the state-run China Daily.
   Some of those contracts also specifically state that the company holds no responsibility in the event of an employee sustaining an illness or injury in the workplace.
   The National People’s Congress, China’s top legislative body surveyed more than 2,000 companies over recent months on their adherence to labour laws and presented its findings to this week’s standing committee session.
   ‘The legal rights of employees were frequently violated in more than 80 per cent of private companies,’ the China Daily quoted standing committee vice chairwoman He Luli as telling the session on Wednesday.
   He said workers were especially exploited in the real estate, light industry, clothing and catering sectors.
   Under a 1995 labour law, a contract between employer and employee is mandatory.
   But with most companies ignoring the law, workers often cannot seek termination benefits, have no rights to medical treatment and do not get the required employers’ contributions to pension funds, the China Daily said.
   Workers have little choice but to accept jobs without contracts that protect their rights simply because jobs are so hard to find, it added.
   The number of unemployed urban Chinese is expected to rise to 17 million next year, while there is currently a pool of 150 million surplus workers in rural areas, the China Daily said, citing government figures.
   There are more than two million private firms in China, many of which are foreign owned or involved in joint ventures with overseas investors.
   The government survey did not distinguish between foreign and local firms in the survey but the China Daily said overseas companies were involved in the exploitation.
   Foreign-funded clothing enterprises last year accounted for 45.34 per cent of the total output by value in the sector, it said, citing the industry as an example where overseas firms were violating workers’ rights.
   The survey also found that 13 per cent of employees’ salaries were lower than the national minimum wage and eight per cent of workers did not receive payments on time or at all.
   More than 100 billion yuan ($12.1 billion) was owed in unpaid wages to migrant labourers in China last year, the China Daily said, citing figures from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Japan will start to develop a massive oilfield in Iran next year despite opposition from the United States about the investment in the Islamic republic, a report said Thursday.
   Japan signed a two-billion-dollar deal with Tehran in February 2004 to develop the massive Azadegan oilfield in southwestern Iran to try to ensure stable oil supplies for the resource-poor Asian nation.
   Inpex, the Japanese oil firm which acquired the development rights, plans to start work in early 2006, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported, quoting unnamed Inpex officials.
   Production is expected to start in 2008, a year later than initially scheduled, the report said.
   Washington has repeatedly objected to Tokyo about the project, keeping the Japanese government, the largest shareholder in Inpex, prudent over when work should begin.
   ‘Inpex may lose its (development) rights if it fails to start the project soon,’ an Inpex official was quoted as saying in the report.
   European and Chinese firms are also interested in acquiring shares in the Iranian oil development, it noted.
   The company already has begun preparing for constructing drilling and other facilities with an environmental assessment approved in July, the report said.

The commerce minister, Humayun Akhtar Khan, said recently, the European Union EU member states are expected to vote for suspension of anti-dumping duty on Pakistan’s bed-linen exports.
   The European Commission had earlier lowered its proposal of the levy to 7.6pc in December 2005, but president, general Pervez Musharraf and prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, requested the EU and European Commission member states to suspend the duty after the October 8 devastating earthquake, Humayun Akhtar told a press conference.
   He said a trade diplomacy was launched with European Union member states to suspend the anti-dumping duty and it is expected that EU member states will vote on the suspension of duty in January.
   ‘As a result of joint efforts of the government and exporters, the anti-dumping duty on bed-linen has not only been lowered but the case for suspension of duty has been strengthened’, he added.
   He said the government evolved a strategy in consultation with Pakistani bed linen exporters to counter the Eurocoton’s request of 45pc which substantially reduced anti-dumping margin of 13.1pc imposed by the EC in March 2004.
   In 2004 Pakistan intensified its lobbying with EU member states to withdraw this levy. The review resulted in a
   lower proposed anti-dumping duty of 9.9pc against
   13.1pc in September this year, he added.
   In October 2002, he said, the Eurocoton (textile association in the lodged a complaint with the European Commission alleging dumping by Pakistani bed linen exporters.
   The commerce minister said Pakistan immediately launched efforts and managed to engage in trade diplomacy with the EC and held several interactions with EC and EU member-states at various level during 2003 and 2004.
   He said several meetings were held with his EC counterparts on this issue to prove that Pakistani exporters were not dumping bed sheets and in any case, due to the dislocation of substantial number of workers from this industry, bed linen from Pakistan will not be a source of injury to the EU industry.

Germany’s president Horst Koehler has urged companies to give workers a fair share of profits, joining a debate on pay in Europe’s biggest economy ahead of wage negotiations due to start early in 2006.
   ‘The time has come to discuss giving workers a share of profits or of productive assets,’ said Koehler in an interview in weekly magazine Stern released Wednesday.
   ‘With globalisation, such an involvement can help to bridge a widening gap between rich and poor.’
   He added that it was also the government’s role to look after some three million unqualified people among the country’s unemployed, suggesting a combined wage model where part of the pay comes from firms, the other from the state.
   ‘They still need work. They could not live off low, market- defined wages, which means they need a top up on their salary,’ he said. ‘This will be a government task.’
   German engineering sector firms and unions are set to begin wage talks in February for some 3.5 million employees of large automakers and other smaller firms and a war of words has steadily intensified over the appropriate level of pay.
   While the European Central Bank made it clear it does not want current inflation levels to feed through into wage demands, politicians’ calls for better pay have intensified.
   German Economy Minister Michael Glos urged companies in a Tuesday interview with Europe’s best-selling daily Bild to pay their employees fairly to boost consumer spending, rather than squeeze them to cut costs and improve shareholders’ value.
   Koehler also said that Germany needed to reduce state- prescribed non-wage labour costs.

Investigators from Indonesia’s anti-corruption commission have detained the government’s former investment chief in a graft probe, his lawyer said Thursday.
   Lawyer Sugeng Teguh Santoso said Toemion was detained late Wednesday over an investigation into funds used by the Investment Coordinating Board, known as BKPM, to promote Indonesia to foreign businessmen.
   An official from the anti-graft commission, Tumpak Panggabean, told reporters late on Wednesday that Toemion was being investigated because of irregularities over a project linked to investment promotion from 2003-2004 which was awarded to a local firm without a tender.

Oil prices were steady Thursday after sharp gains the previous day on forecasts of drops in US crude and distillate product stocks and on expectations that OPEC will cut output at its January meeting.
   U.S. light crude for February was trading three cents up at $59.85 a barrel Thursday, after jumping $1.66 on Wednesday. London Brent crude was five cents up at $57.69 a barrel, after gaining $1.35 the previous day.
   The market was bolstered by forecasts that U.S. government data due on Thursday will show an 800,000 barrel drop in US crude stocks and a 700,000 barrel fall in distillate inventories last week, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.
   The weekly data will be released one day later than usual because of the Christmas holiday.
   Both crude and distillates, including heating oil, are in surplus over last year. The expected drop in distillate stocks could be tempered by milder weather this week in the US Northeast, the world's largest heating oil consuming region.
   Overall US heating fuel demand is forecast to be about 28 per cent below normal in the week to Dec. 31, with heating oil demand in the Northeast region about a quarter less than usual, the US National Weather Service said.
   Fund investors have helped drive oil's rally amid worries over tightly stretched supplies as demand grows in big consumers such as the United States and China.
   Growing expectations that producers cartel OPEC will cut production when it meets at the end of January added support.
   OPEC heavyweight Iran viewed a one million barrel per day cut by the cartel as a "good figure" when the cartel meets on Jan 31, the country's oil minister said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday.
   OPEC is likely to decide to cut production from the second quarter of 2006 on expectations the call on its oil will decline by 2 million barrels per day, OPEC president Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah said on Monday.

The dollar steadied against the euro and the yen on Thursday in subdued trade, with many dealers away from their desks for the holiday season, and ahead of a raft of US data.
   The euro firmed to 1.1845 dollars in early European trading from 1.1834 dollars late on Wednesday in New York.
   The dollar stood at 117.92 yen, compared with 117.88 yen on Wednesday. “Volumes remained light on thin trading conditions and a lack of interest ahead of the year-end,” noted Sucden analysts.
   Investors were awaiting economic data out of the United States later on Thursday, including weekly jobless claims, December Chicago purchasing managers index and November existing home sales.
   Market participants remained focused on the outlook for interest rates.
   The US currency gained slightly after Wednesday’s news that US consumer confidence recovered in December to its highest level since Hurricane Katrina hit in August, with the main index rising to 103.6 from 98.3 in November.
   The data raised expectations that the US Federal Reserve’s cycle of interest rate hikes may continue. Fed officials had hinted at their last policy meeting that conditions for an end to the cycle were emerging.
   “The market returned to the trend of dollar-buying,” noted Mitsuru Sahara, vice president of foreign exchange at UFJ Bank.

Spot trade
   Trading of the shares of Bata Shoe will be allowed only in the Spot Market with cum benefit from January 1 to 3 and trading of the shares will remain suspended on record date on January 4.
   
   Transaction
   A & A Investment Ltd, one of the directors of National Bank Ltd, has reported its intention to sell 1,396 shares out of its holdings of 8,378 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   Source: DSE, CSE

Dredging in Mongla Port channel
soon: Akbar
The 24th meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Shipping was held Thursday at the conference room of the Mongla port with its chairman Golam Mohammad Siraj in the chair. Committee members shipping minister, Akbar Hossain, whip Ashraf Hossain, Khulna city mayor, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, Talukder Abdul Khaleque, Mohammad Nasirul Hoque Sabu, Abul Hossain Khan, Shamsuddin Ahmed, ABM Fazle Karim Chowdhury, M Nurul Islam and Panchanan Biswas attended the meeting, an official handout said. The shipping minister said step would be taken for dredging to save the navigability of Mongla port. He further said the row row ferry would be introduced on Dhaka-Mowa route to bring dynamism in the Mongla port. Akbar urged the businessmen and workers of the areas to be more active and sincere to boost the activities of the port.Later, the members of the committee visited the Posur channels And the Hiron point of Mongla port.
— BSS

IDCOL’s
role lauded
Economist Wahiduddin Mahmud has lauded IDCOL for its role in the private sector infrastructure development in Bangladesh. Professor Mahmud said Infrastructure Development Company Limited is an innovative institution and is filling a very useful gap in the financial system of the country. He observed that IDCOL is utilizing the government and donor’s fund efficiently for infrastructure development. Professor Mahmud also opined that IDCOL could intermediate foreign commercial funds using its credibility and the capability to assess the quality of such investments.He said this during the certificate award ceremony of the 9th Project Finance Course organized by IDCOL. M Fouzul Kabir Khan, executive director and chief executive officer of IDCOL, chaired the function, a press Release said Thursdayday. A total of thirty persons, including three from various government ministries and department, 27 from commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions, participated in the course. IDCOL has already trained a total of 319 bankers, government officials, private entrepreneurs and lawyers in its 9 project finance and 3 financial modeling courses, the release added.
— BSS

Work on Dhaka-Jaidevpur railway next week
Work on the Dhaka-Jaidevpur 35-km duel gauge railway project, aiming to improve train services with the capital and the railway’s eastern and western zones, starts next week. This was disclosed at a meeting at Rail Bhaban with the communications minister, Nazmul Huda in the chair Thursday. The meeting was informed that the project, involving Tk 317 crore, will be implemented on priority basis within the tenure of the present government. The DG of Bangladesh Railway AFM Mustafizur Rahman, high officials of railway, project directors and senior officials of the communications ministry were present at the meeting.
— UNB

Hanif Zakaria made Emirates’ area manager
Hanif Zakaria has been appointed as the new Emirates area manager for Bangladesh, said a press release. Prior to this assignment, Zakaria was the sales manager of Emirates Bangladesh. Since his arrival in Dhaka in July 2005, Zakaria has been promoting the airline within the country. Under his brief leadership, Emirates Bangladesh is now offering more capacity to travellers following a de-link of the airline’s flights to Kuala Lumpur. He is also introducing unified timings for Emirates flights from Dhaka. He started his career with the airline in 1989 as sales executive in Saudi Arabia. Zakaria was born in Dhaka and studied in Chittagong. He moved to Pakistan and is now a resident of the UAE and Canada.
— New Age

Reverse repo
auction held
The reverse repo auction for commercial banks and financial institutions was held at the Bangladesh Bank on Thursday, December 29, 2005. One bid of 3day tenor amounting to Tic. 9.00 crore, One bid of 4-day tenor amounting to TIc 180.00 crore and two bids of 7-thy tenor amounting to total of Tk. 491.00 crore in grand total four bids amounting to Tk. 680.00 crore were received and those were accepted. The rates of interest against the accepted bids were 530 per cent per annum for 3-day tenor, 5.60 per cent per annum for 4-day tenor and 515 per cent per annum for 7-day tenor.
— New Age

Vietnam sees 17pc rise in tourist arrivals
Vietnam recorded a 17 per cent increase in foreign tourist arrivals in 2005 despite fears over the spread of bird flu, the country’s tourism authority said Thursday. A total of 3.43 million international visitors arrived this year, mostly from China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United States, said the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. Arrivals from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand also rose because of growing air traffic links, VNAT said, adding that visa exemption agreements with a number of countries added to the trend. Tourism revenue grew 15.4 per cent to 1.88 billion dollars, it said. ‘Some good results in controlling the spread of bird flu in recent months has reassured foreign visitors about the government’s determination in this regard,’ VNAT external affairs department director Nguyen Van Hung told the news agency. Vietnam has seen outbreaks of bird flu since late 2003, with 93 human cases and 42 deaths.
— AFP

Hong Kong visitor arrivals up
5.6pc in Nov
Hong Kong’s visitor arrivals grew 5.6 per cent year-on-year to 2.06 million in November, officials said Thursday. Long-haul markets continued to show the strongest growth with the number of visitors from Europe, Africa and the Middle East up 20.3 per cent to 163,392. Travellers from mainland China accounted for a majority of the arrivals in November, up 2.8 per cent to 1.07 million. Arrivals for the 11 months to November grew 7.3 per cent to 21 million. ‘While our long-haul regions continue to show the strongest growth, we also saw encouraging performances from such key short-haul markets as the Philippines and Singapore, which we expect will be sustained to the end of the year,’ Hong Kong Tourism Board executive director Clara Chong said.
— AFP