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Diesel-run light and heavy commercial vehicles of Nissan will be assembled for the first time in the country at Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory, run by the Bangladesh army.
   Pacific Motors Limited, sole distributor of Nissan vehicles, signed an agreement with the BMTF on Sunday for assembling 32 vans, which can be used as covered van or human hauler, initially.
   The PML will also set up within a few days an assembling plant with a capacity to deliver around 3000 vehicles a year at the BMTF’s Gazipur plant, said PML managing director Faisal Morshed Khan at the signing ceremony.
   He said initially BMTF would assemble 32 vehicles within 120 days under the current deal and separate agreements would be made in future with BMTF for assembling more vehicles.
   The equipments for the plant are expected to arrive in the country from Japan within a day or two, Khan said.
   ‘We are expecting to assemble around 300 to 500 vehicles annually in first three to four years.
   Later, our production may go up to 3000 vehicles a year, depending on the demand of the market’, he said.
   Khan said that the price of the vehicles would be cheaper than other completely built-up vehicles as they would
   import vehicles in completely knocked down (CKD) and semi knocked down (SKD) conditions for assembling
   in the country and the labour would be cheap.
   Besides, import duty of vehicles in CKD and SKD conditions is friendly.
   He, however, said that assembling was not their main focus. ‘We want to manufacture products [vehicles] within a few years and sell those not only in Bangladesh but elsewhere,’ Khan said.
   He said that a delegation of Nissan visited recently the BMTF and termed the standard of the factory as same as those in Japan.
   Khan said that they would also take initiatives to assemble CNG run buses and trucks at the BMTF for selling those to local transport sector at competitive prices.
   ‘It is a large market and there is a lot of opportunity,’ he said adding that a large number of vehicles come from India and around 2000 vehicles from Japan annually.
   For example, he said, a business man alone imports 300 trucks a month from India.
    ‘The financial deal is yet to be finalised. It will be based on the demand of the user-end,’ said Khan, asked about the deal with BMTF.
   BMTF managing director Brigadier General Khan Mohammad Nuruzzaman said that it was the start of a new era for the factory as it would assemble vehicles commercially for the first time.
   He said that after the government handed over the factory, which was sick and loss making, to Bangladesh Army in 2000, it has so far assembled and made bodies of army vehicles, produced line hardware for Rural Electrification Board and Power Development Board and accessories for government and private industries.
   ‘This is for the first time we are going for commercial assembling of vehicles for private sector.
   We have the skilled manpower, establishment, machinery and necessary infrastructure,’ he said.
   Nuruzzaman said that they have a capacity to assemble three three-tonne army truck in a single shift of a day.
   He said that they would make a delivery of a Nissan van within next seven to 10 days after assembling.
   An official of BMTF said that they had assembled around 1000 three-tonne army truck over the last three to four years.

Six top executives of the Dhabi Group arrive in Dhaka Tuesday on a five-day visit to make initial selection of sites and sectors for the planned investment of the UAE royal family owned conglomerate in Bangladesh.
   Chief executive officer of the group Bashir A Tahir will lead the delegation that will also include the CEOs of Bank Al-falah Limited, and Warid International, both owned
   by the Dhabi Group, and financial advisor to Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, who is the group’s chairman.
   The Dhabi team is scheduled to meet the minister for post and telecommunications, Aminul Haque, on March 2 and the governor of the Bangladesh Bank, Fakhruddin Ahmed, the following day, according to the schedule available with the Board of Investment.
   The Dhabi executives will also meet the executive chairman of the BoI, Mahmudur Rahman, and hold detailed
   discussion on the group’s investment offers and areas
   of interest, the board sources said.
   Besides, the delegation is likely to meet a number of ministers and top officials of the government to apprise them of their interests and take stock of facilities and incentives available for foreign investors.
   They are expected to visit some spots, including Chittagong, and talk to a number of leading businessmen to build a platform for their future investment.
   On completion of the visit, the delegation will prepare a report and present it to the group’s chairman for creating the ground for his planned visit to Bangladesh in the near future. A formal proposal for investment will be made when Al Nahayan visits Bangladesh, the group said in a letter to the board.
   ‘Hopefully, things will take a shape in the next couple of months to bring Dhabi Group investment here,’ a top official of the investment promotion agency told New Age on Sunday.

The parliamentary standing committee on Ministry of Agriculture expressed discontent on Sunday as the finance ministry is yet to release Tk 381 crore, which would be used to provide subsidy to the farmers for purchasing diesel for their power tillers.
   The committee also asked the agriculture ministry to strengthen monitoring system so that the farmers get diesel in subsidized price.
   The finance ministry is yet to give a nod to the proposal to grant the Tk 381 crore diesel subsidy for farmers sent to the ministry on January 1, members of the parliamentary body was told at a meeting.
   The delay in disbursing subsidy for diesel and taking benefit by the middlemen will put adverse impact on crop production, GM Kader, MP, of Jatiya Party (Ershad) told the meeting. ‘We are trying our best,’ state minister for agriculture Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told the meeting, facing the members’ commotion against the delay in providing diesel subsidy to the marginal farmers.
   The members of the Jatiya Sangsad body also asked the agriculture ministry to describe the criteria for selecting eligible farmers for the subsidy.
   ‘The block supervisors have been asked to sent lists of the eligible farmers,’ the state minister told the committee.
   The committee also asked the concerned authorities to take effective measures to fill in the vacancies in Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute.
   Chairman of the committee Abdul Mannan presided over the meeting while members agriculture minister MK Anwar, Golam Mohammad Qader, Shafi Ahmed Chowdhury, Moulana Abdul Aziz and M Motahar Hossain attended it.
   The committee also asked the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation to submit a report on the existing condition of 421 storehouses of the corporation in the next meeting of the committee.

The Japan Bangladesh Bio-Diesel Company Limited will set up a bio-diesel plant in Bangladesh with a capacity of producing 60,000 litres of fuel a day.
   ‘The plant will be set up at Vhulta in Narayanganj at the cost of $6 million and would take around 16 months to come into operation,’ said Mohammad Selim, Chairman of the JB group at a press conference on Saturday.
   The JB group has formed a joint collaboration with Frontier Japan, a Japanese company to produce bio-diesel, a renewable fuel for diesel engines derived from vegetables oils or animal fats.
   The bio-diesel which will be produced in Bangladesh will be exported to Japan as its use is growing in the Asia’s economic powerhouse, Selim said, adding that they would also eye local market for the environment-friendly fuel within a few years.
   Initially the raw materials of the fuel will be imported from Malaysia and Indonesia as those are not available in Bangladesh.
   Selim, however, said that they have a plan to create palm tree gardens in different parts of the country to produce the raw materials locally.
   He said that they will set up more plants in the country if the first one becomes successful.
   Marketing Manager of Frontier Japan, Yuichi Terunuma also spoke at the function.

Members of some developed, developing and LDCs are meeting in Mombassa, Kenya on March 2-5 to reach an understanding on resolving the differences among them on the issues relating to market access of agriculture and non-agriculture products, trade facilitations, services and WTO rules.
   Countries attending the meeting include Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, USA, EU and some African countries.
   Bangladesh commerce minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury is leaving Dhaka Monday to attend the meeting.
   The mini-ministerial meeting is being held with a view to achieving a positive result at the sixth WTO ministerial meeting to be held in Hong Kong, China on December 13-18 this year.
   Sources at the commerce ministry said the mini-ministerial meeting will provide the participating countries to take stock of the progress in the ongoing WTO negotiations in Geneva, on different key issues mainly market access of agriculture and non-agriculture products, trade facilitations, services and WTO rules.

Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed that foreign companies operating here should get listed with the country’s stock market for making the nascent capital market vibrant.
   The SEC chairman, Mirza Azizul Islam, made the proposal at the monthly luncheon meeting of the Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) at a local hotel Sunday.
   ‘We are trying to ease the process of enlistment for the convenience of the investors,’ he said.
   He apprised the foreign investors that the authorities were trying their best to bring transparency and vibrancy in the capital market, which gained momentum following some government measures in the financial sector.
   The market regulator, SEC, has started a closer collaboration with the market players and investors for improving the capital market situation further.

Process is on to handover an aviation heritage to an American collector secretly.
   The stunning four-propelled seaplane GOOSE C-31 owned by the Flying Club of Bangladesh will be soon hand over to a person after a deal has been reached in a nontransparent manner. Moreover, the nation cannot afford to give away history, an official source commented on condition of anonymity.
   Grumman, an America aviation giant, was the manufacturer of the Goose planes. Made in 1943 the plane was restored in 1967. It was bought to Dhaka in August 1967 by defunct Government Flights and flew till the end of June 1976.
   The four-propelled flying boat is a rare collectors item and found in air museums in Canada and the United States.
   With ageing aircrafts, difficult to maintain its fleet - the department was abolished and the seaplane became the property of Flying Club of Bangladesh. These exquisite flying boats, including couple of Widgeons, were in the air with VIP dignitaries, including Pakistan’s president Ayub Khan and many others.
   Since then, it was abandoned and lying under open sky at the old Tejgaon airport. Few months back, it was deliberately shifted to the flying club premise, adjacent to the Zia International airport-after a non-descriptive American citizen shown keen interest in swapping it with full inventory of spares.
   The American managed to convince the flying club that he would swap the flying boat with much-need spares for their poorly maintained Cessna training aircrafts. A flying Goose at the present market would sale at US $600,000, according to aircraft websites.
   A retired technician of the amphibian plane, presently living in the United States, remarked that the hand over of Goose would tantamount to trafficking a heritage of the country.
   Earlier in 1993 and 1994, four aircrafts, including 3 Widgeon amphibian aircraft and a short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft, were handed over to an Alaskan company and swapped with three training planes. All the items are collectors item.
   A private collector saved one Auster J-5F Aiglet Trainer from the hammers and gas cutter at Dulai-khal. The training plane crash-landed at Cox’s Bazar in 1962.
   Bangladesh Air Force have in their collection “Balaka” AN-28 Anatov executive plane donated by Russia in 1973 for exclusive use of Bangladesh President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Saturday that early conclusion of free trade agreement (FTA) with China will help increase the volume of trade between the two countries.
   He was talking to a Chinese delegation led by Assistant Minister for Commerce YiXiaozh-lin here on Saturday to discuss matters of mutual interest.
   An official announcement said that the premier said that FTA will not only open new avenues for the private sector but also set destinations, which will be a win-win situation for both the countries. Aziz said Pakistan was free economy where any foreigner could operate and run business like local entrepreneur. He said Pakistan would welcome Chinese participation in the privatisation process as well as investment in water, infrastructure, and human development, fisheries and energy sectors.
   He informed the Chinese minister that industrial parks are being established in the country and Pakistan would welcome Chinese investors to establish industrial enterprises in these parks, which would not only cater to domestic requirements but also export goods.
   The Chinese minister apprised the prime minister on the progress made in the talks held between him and his Pakistani counterpart on various issues including early harvest FTA (Free Trade Agreem-ent), and exploration of avenues for further economic cooperation between the two countries.
   The prime minister said that Chinese products are well known with Pakistani consumers and Pakistan appreciates the professional and efficient work done by Chinese contracting firms.
   He also briefed the Chinese minister on various reforms carried out by his government, which he termed as an ongoing process and remarked: ‘History will tell that these were one of the most meaningful reforms.’

Indonesia said on Sunday it had lodged a protest against a Malaysian oil production sharing contract with Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch/Shell in an offshore area Jakarta claims as its territory.
   The Energy Ministry’s director general for oil and gas, Iin Arifin Takhyan, told Reuters the disputed area was in Ambalat in offshore East Kalimantan.
   ‘The Foreign Ministry has lodged a protest to Malaysia because (Malaysian state firm) Petronas has awarded the exploration concession to Shell in our territory,’ he said.
   Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said Indonesia would do everything in its power to safeguard its rights to oil and gas blocks in the area.
   ‘Indonesia believes that Malaysia has no right to give concessions in that area. Awarding a concession by Petronas to Shell is a violation of Indonesian territory,’ he said. ‘Indonesia will do its utmost to safeguard its interests.’
   Neither official gave further details.
   Earlier this month Petronas awarded two new blocks, ND6 and ND7 off Borneo island, to local unit Petronas Carigali and Shell Malaysia, part of Royal Dutch/Shell. Malaysia is Southeast Asia’s second-biggest crude producer after Indonesia.

Sufferings of Hashi Khatun and Shakera Begum-two distressed women- have eased as they have become self-emplyed with the help of Islami Bank Foundation.
   Islami Bank Foundation, a subsidiary of organisation of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, came forward to help them realize their dreams, says a press release.
   Hashi and Shakera was given various training at the Distressed Women Rehabilitation Centre of Islami Bank Foundation for their rehabilitation.
   Hailing from Bogra at village Rahman Nagar, Hashi Khatun, got married at her teen. But her marriage did not last long due to torture by her husband. One day, Hashi was compelled to leave her husband's house. While fleeing, she ran over by train and lost her one leg.
   She was given certificate and cash money after completion of training on sewing and embroidery. Now she is doing embroidery and sewing works at his village home at Bogra.
   Shakera Begum daughter of a poor family at Gharsanga village under Khulna was attacked with Polio and became paralysed.
   She got married with dowry at the age of 17. After five years of her marriage, she was forced to leave husband's house due to her paralysis.
   Then she went to the Distressed Women Rehabilitation Centre and took training there. She is now self-employed and doing sewing nad embroidery work at her village.

Indian Airlines (IA) is expected to conclude its price negotiations with Airbus in the next 10 days and the proposal would be placed before the cabinet committee on economic affairs next month, according to civil aviation secretary Ajay Prasad.
   “We expect the negotiations with Airbus for 43 aircraft to be completed in 10 days after which it would be placed before the cabinet committee on economic affairs.
   The orders are expected to be placed by March-April,” Prasad said on the sidelines of an aviation summit meet here today. As part of its expansion plans, IA board had decided to go for 43 Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft.
   He said a proposal to hive of engineering units of IA and Air-India as separate units were under consideration as international companies have evinced interest in setting up joint ventures in India.
   Earlier, Prasad said opening international routes to private airlines was to increase the market share by Indian
   carriers.

Indians are waiting to see whether Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram can repeat Monday the ‘dream budget’ for which he was famed when he held the same portfolio eight years ago.
   But economists say that may be tough for the finance minister, who will be presenting his first full budget since the Congress party won power last May.
   With the need to keep the 24-party ruling coalition united and retain the support of communist allies hostile to reforms, Chidambaran faces a difficult juggling act to balance hopes of industry, investors and ordinary citizens.
   ‘He’s going to have come out with a budget which looks good. The mood is very positive. He doesn’t want to dampen investment sentiment,’ government economics advisor Saumitra Chaudhuri, from the ratings agency ICRA, told AFP.
   ‘But it’s going to be a bit of a tightrope walk. It’s not going to be a ‘big bang’ budget. He has to survive the (post-budget) sniping and backbiting.’
   Still, with the economy set to grow around seven per cent, making it the fastest expanding major economy after China, shares and foreign investment at record highs, inflation falling and foreign exchange coffers brimming, Chidambaram could not have a better backdrop for his budget.
   ‘The economy is rocking,’ Omkar Goswami, head of private consulting group CRG Advisory, said.
   Markets still fondly remember Chidambaram’s 1997 ‘dream budget’ that slashed import tariffs and taxes and was seen as giving a major push to reform.
   This time, he must honour government pledges to implement ‘reforms with a human face’ aimed at ensuring India’s new prosperity reaches the masses and seen as having powered Congress to its upset win over the Hindu nationalists.
   But Chidambaram’s freedom to spend is curbed by a fiscal responsibility law obliging the government to shave the central government deficit, which was 4.8 per cent of GDP in the last fiscal year, by 0.3 per centage points each year.
   India’s annual economic survey Friday, traditionally seen as a pointer to the budget’s contents, made a powerful pitch for across-the-board reform to woo investment, particularly from abroad.
   It said India needed to ease foreign investment caps, relax rigid labour laws and cut duties to international levels if it was to hit even the lower end of its 7.0-8.0 per cent long-term growth target.
   Economists say without major reforms, India will never attain the growth needed to make a significant dent in poverty levels.
   The survey singled out mining and insurance as potential targets for lifting foreign investment ceilings. The government has already hiked investment caps in the fast-expanding telecommunications sector and booming aviation market.
   It also identified the hitherto sheltered retail sector as another area that ‘can invite established global retail brands into the Indian market, thereby creating a greater outlet for sourcing and marketing Indian products.’
   Until now, India has banned foreign ownership of retail firms but global retailers are increasingly banging on the doors of the country of over one billion people to gain access to what they say is a lucrative market.
   The report called for improvement of India’s potholed roads, shabby airports, congested ports and blackout-plagued power system—a need accepted across the political spectrum.
   ‘We’re clearly going to see a boost to infrastructure,’ said Dhirendra Kumar, chief executive officer of Value Research.

Qatar was due to sign on Sunday an eight billion dollar deal with Royal Dutch/Shell to supply liquefied natural gas to the United States after laying the cornerstone for a mega project to supply LNG to Britain.
   The deal with the Anglo-Dutch energy giant, under which Qatar will supply eight million tons of LNG annually to the United States, will be announced on the eve of a Doha Gas Conference opening Monday, industry sources said.
   Another major deal, with France’s Total, is expected to be unveiled on the first day of the four-day conference, which will be attended by executives from international energy majors.
   Qatar’s crown prince on Sunday laid the cornerstone for a gas project worth 12.8 billion dollars which provides for the supply of Qatari LNG to Britain by 2007 in a joint venture with ExxonMobil.
   The ceremony at Ras Laffan Industrial City, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital Doha, was attended by Britain’s Prince Andrew alongside Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
   Under the Qatargas II project, Qatar will supply 15.6 million tons of LNG to Britain annually over 25 years starting in winter 2007, a statement said.

China’s breakneck economic growth is causing dangerous shortfalls in coal, its most important energy source, with potential consequences for the entire world, state media warned Sunday.
   Scarcity in the essential power resource is so severe officials even worry aloud it could cause social instability among the 1.3 billion Chinese, the China Business Weekly reported.
   ‘The imbalance between coal demand and supply will become more acute this year,’ the National Development and Reform Commission said, according to the paper.
   ‘Easing the tightened coal supply will be the first priority for us.’
   China is the world’s largest consumer and producer of coal, which accounts for about two thirds of its overall energy needs.
   The impact of the coal shortage could be global, as soaring domestic demand could force the government to cut off export quotas, in turn pushing up global prices of coal, the paper said.
   The nation’s coal consumption this year is expected to rise by 120 million tonnes, or six per cent, to 2.1 billion tonnes, according to estimates by the China Coal Industry Association.
   The problem is the opening of new mines is likely to result in no more than an additional 100 million tonnes of coal in the course of 2005, the paper said.
   One of the first sectors to be affected when coal supplies are under pressure is the power industry, which consumes about half of China’s coal output.

Sri Lanka should not count on aid promised by countries and international lenders after the December tsunamis until the money actually arrives, a senior reconstruction official says.
   The central bank has said it expects more than 500 million dollars in aid pledged by various countries and lenders such as the World Bank to help pay for reconstruction costs estimated at 1.8 billion dollars.
   Nearly 31,000 people died after the waves hit the island on December 26. However a senior government official involved in reconstruction, Mano Tittawella, said there is already concern that the actual aid will be less than expected since many donors had already backed out of pledges.
   ‘They are only pledges. Nobody comes and gives money like that,’ Tittawella was quoted as saying in the Sunday Times. He added that the government was unveiling a revised tsunami reconstruction plan on Tuesday.
   On Saturday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also said it fears promised financial support may not be delivered given past experiences in disaster aid.
   In the December 2003 earthquake that killed more than 30,000 people in the Iranian city of Bam, aid pledges from countries and donors totalled more than one billion dollars but only about 34 million dollars was actually received.
   ‘Aid pledges by donors have been impressive but commitments for 2005 still need to be firmed up,’ the IMF said in a report assessing the economic impact of the tsunamis regionwide.
   An IMF source said its emergency assistance amounting to 160 million dollars was not linked to Sri Lanka’s bilateral aid package. But he said talks on a 567 million-dollar poverty reduction and growth fund, delayed since April 2003, could be affected if the pledged aid money does not materialize.
   The IMF also said reconstruction and growth forecasts made by Sri Lanka for this year could be off target if the aid money does not arrive and any shortfall could have negative implications for the economy.
   The central bank hopes that reconstruction and foreign aid will more than offset the losses from reduced tourism and fishing earnings. Last week it forecast economic growth this year of 5.5 per cent.

Impoverished Palestinian refugees are looking to a conference in London this week to yield a desperately needed injection of cash but worry that any windfalls could be frittered away by corrupt officials.
   ‘We expect that more money will accompany renewed hopes for peace but I doubt that it will reach us,’ said Hanieh al-Hurrub, speaking from her sparsely furnished flat at the Dheisheh refugee camp on the outskirts of the southern West Bank town of Bethlehem.
   ‘In our experience, officials at the ministry of social affairs have no clue about our needs and fail to distribute money to the poorest. Go wonder where the money goes,’ she added.
   She and her sister Jamila both lost their right to work in Israel after their brother was arrested and sentenced to jail three years ago for his militant activities with the radical Hamas group.
   ‘We can hardly make ends meet,’ said Hanieh who lives with her ailing mother in a household which lacks a bread winner.
   She said she had not even heard of the much-trumpeted conference in London to discuss reforms of the Palestinian Authority but expressed skepticism over positive outcomes for ‘people like us: poor and refugees.’
   While the two-day conference from March 1 is ostensibly designed to prepare the Palestinians for statehood, it is also expected to see renewed short-term donor pledges, particularly in budget support. Representatives from the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia—the four countries that drafted the peace roadmap—are expected to attend the gathering.
   A fully-fledged pledging conference could be held next summer if conditions are ripe for economic growth, a World Bank official told AFP.
   Total donor support to the Palestinian economy averaged 896 million dollars in 2003, down from 1.25 billion dollars in 2002.

Good whisky brands typically take 21 years to mature, and almost the same period of time has been needed for the China market to become ripe for Scotland’s most famous contribution to world culture.
   Visit any trendy bar or karaoke club in Beijing, and chances are you will see a group of 30-somethings, men and women, gathered around a bottle of Scotch.
   The ever-more hectic nightlife of China’s big cities accounts for huge leaps in sales, according to Geoffrey Kau, a manager at Riche Monde (China) Ltd, which distributes the Johnnie Walker brand in the mainland.
   ‘People mix it with green tea, and they can easily finish a bottle within an hour,’ he said, sitting next to three cases of freshly-imported Black Label. One-bottle-an-hour karaoke visitors were a main factor helping Riche Monde to double whiskey sales in Beijing to 14,000 cases last year, he said.
   Chinese markets also helped boost the global sales volume of Chivas Regal by 12 per cent in 2004, according to the owner of the brand, French wine and spirits giant Pernod Ricard.
   ‘Chivas Regal reported increased sales for all regions, with a spectacular acceleration in Chinese Asia,’ Pernod Ricard said in a statement earlier this month.
   Industry-wide, market analyst Datamonitor estimates China sales last year increased at least 20 per cent, possibly twice as much, from 294 million yuan (35 million dollars) in 2003.
   With growth rates like these, the world’s whisky producers feel compelled to pay increasing attention to the Chinese market, even though genuine connoisseurship is infrequent even among sophisticated urbanites. ‘They don’t really know the taste,’ said Kau. ‘They just follow the trend, and know it’s a popular product to drink.’
   The lack of Chinese interest in the culture and history of whisky is confirmed by tastings of Irish, Scotch and Bourbon organized by Beijing’s John Bull Pub.
   ‘Each time, the people who turn up are 95 per cent foreigners, and just one or two Chinese,’ said Frank Siegel, the pub’s owner.
   The imported drink of choice for China’s nouveaux riches remains cognac, but in the long term it may face a disadvantage, as it is not linked to the youthfulness and energy conjured up by whiskey, according to analysts.
   ‘Cognac in China is associated with very old men drinking it in oak-paneled rooms,’ said John Band, a researcher with Datamonitor, who recently completed a study on China’s whisky market.
   Retailers in the Chinese capital also recognized the youngish profile of people who drink whisky.

South Korea has started to deliver a final shipment of food aid promised to North Korea last year despite a row about the communist state’s drive for nuclear weapons, officials said Sunday About 6,500 tonnes of corn, the last batch of 100,000 tonnes that Seoul pledged the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) last year, would be shipped this week, they said.
   The Agriculture and Fisheries Marketing Corporation said the corn would reach North Korea’s western port of Nampo from China on Wednesday or Thursday.
   ‘South Korea remains committed to continuing to offer humanitarian assistance to North Korea in a desire to promote South-North cooperation,’ a Seoul official said on condition of anonymity.
   But angry activists on Sunday burned North Korean flags in protest at its drive for nuclear weapons and urged Seoul to stop aid.

Malaysia will fast-track the construction of a planned airport terminal for Asia’s growing budget aviation market in a bid to become a regional hub, reports said Sunday.
   The construction of the terminal for low-cost airlines, which would be able to handle 10 million passengers a year, would begin in April and be completed within 14 months, Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy said.
   He told the Bernama news agency the government had decided to speed up the 100 million ringgit (26 million dollars) project to help turn the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) into a regional aviation hub.
   The new terminal would feature 23 bays that would enable it to take up to four times as many passengers as a similar terminal being planned at Singapore’s Changi Airport, he said. It could be expanded in the future to accommodate up to 50 million passengers a year, with bays for another 48 aircraft, he said.
   ‘With the KLIA LLC (low-cost carrier) terminal, it has put us ahead in terms of LCC development in the region...(it) would eventually become the regional LCC’s operating hub,,’ Chan said.
   The government said the new KLIA terminal would help, not hinder, pioneer budget carrier AirAsia, which had lobbied for the former main airport, Subang, to become the low-cost hub to keep expenses down.
   AirAsia’s chief executive Tony Fernandes was quoted as saying the government has assured that operating costs at KLIA would be the same as in Subang, and expected to be much lower than Changi’s budget terminal.
   ‘We believe that by operating from Subang, we can reduce the cost by 30 per cent. However, we believe now it would be the same if we operate at KLIA,’ he said.

Asian currencies were generally stronger against the US dollar last week with the yen firming slightly over lingering US deficit concerns, and the South Korean Won briefly hitting an 87-month high.
   JAPANESE YEN: The yen slightly firmed against the dollar during the week with lingering concerns that the massive US current account and budget deficits would prompt the region to sell down its reserve dollar holdings, dealers said.
   The Japanese unit stood at 105.28 yen to the greenback Friday afternoon, compared with 105.45 a week earlier.
   Earlier in the week the dollar was hit after reports that South Korea and Taiwan planned to sell down some of their huge dollar reserves but the US unit then steadied when they insisted this was not the case.
   South Korea, however, said that it planned to diversify its foreign reserves so as to ensure better returns, a move analysts believe could still pressure the dollar going forward.
   The dollar on Wednesday recovered some of the ground lost as the market took on board much weaker-than-expected Japanese trade figures for January.
   But it was weaker Thursday and Friday with lingering concerns over US deficits despite new spikes in oil prices.
   “Higher crude oil prices tend to prompt yen selling but because of concerns over the US twin deficits, the dollar is not gaining strength,” said Hideyuki Tsukamoto, foreign exchange manager at Mizuho Bank.
   AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR: The Australian dollar is expected to consolidate recent gains next week amid widespread expectations the central bank will lift interest rates for the first time in 15 months. The currency ended the week at 78.88 US cents, up from the previous week’s 78.43 US cents.
   Macquarie Bank divisional director Geoff Bowmer said a 0.25 point rate rise to 5.5 per cent had already been factored in by the market but the crucial factor was what the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said about the prospect of further hikes in coming months.
   “What is important is what the RBA says around that rate rise... and what the market then thinks will happen in April, May and June,” he said. “If it looks then that the RBA are on hold, then the Aussie might suffer a bit more.”
   NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR: The kiwi ended the week at 72.20 US cents up from the previous week’s close of 71.73 US cents.
   HONG KONG DOLLAR: Hong Kong’s US-pegged dollar was at 7.80 to the greenback on Friday, the same level it traded at a week earlier.
   SINGAPORE DOLLAR: The US dollar was at 1.6329 Singapore dollars on Friday from 1.6415 the previous week.
   INDONESIAN RUPIAH: The Indonesian rupiah closed slightly higher at 9,265-9,270 to the US dollar compared with 9,250-9,255 a week earlier.
   PHILIPPINE PESO: The Philippine peso weakened to 54.76 to the US dollar on February 24 from 54.695 to the US dollar on February 18. There was no trading on February 25, a national holiday.

SKOP's 48-hr industrial strike on April 5-6
Sramik Karmochari Oikkyo Parishad (SKOP) Sunday announced fresh agitation programmes, including a two-day industrial strike, demanding full execution of the agreement signed with the government and reopening of the closed mills and factories. According to the programmes, SKOP will organise a grand rally of the workers and employees at Paltan Maidan in Dhaka on April 1, enforce a countrywide 48 hours worker-employees strike on April 5 & 6, and rallies and demonstration at all districts and industrial areas on April 6. Announcing the programmes from a press conference at the TUC office, SKOP leaders said the government signed an agreement in the face of protests on 8 January 2004 to protect the workers' rights and committed to implementing the agreement within the next four months. ‘But 13 months have been elapsed, the government did not implement any of the clauses of the agreement,’ said Abdul Kader Hawlader, president of Jatiya Sramik Jote while reading out a written statement.
— BDNEWS

Nizami firm on iodised salt
Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami asked the officials to gear up activities of the salt committees, formed at district and upazila levels, to supply properly iodized salt to all the consumers. He also ordered investigation to ascertain whether iodine is mixed in proper proportion with the salt by forming mobile courts, consisting of the representatives of BSCIC, BSTI and District Salt Committees, in every district. The Minister issued the instructions while presiding over a review meeting on the progress of the projects undertaken in the current fiscal year under Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the conference room of the Ministry today. The meeting also discussed financial condition and status of implementation of the projects. It was informed that Tk 320.56 crore, including Tk 129.36 crore of the government and Tk 191.20 crore in project aid, was allocated for 13 ADP projects under five organisations of the Industries Ministry.
— UNB

DSE closes lower
Trading at Dhaka Stock Exchange closed lower Sunday with the losers dominating the gainers. The DSE General Share Index decreased by 1.711 points or 0.09312 per cent to close at 1836.1522 points. A total of 178 issues traded Sunday. Of them, 56 gained, 93 declined and 29 remained unchanged.
— New Age

CSE ends down
Trading at Chittagong Stock Exchange closed lower Sunday with the losers dominating the gainers. The CSE All Share Price Index declined by 7.69 points or 0.22 per cent to close at 3365.80 points from 3373.49 points on Saturday. The CSE-30 Index also decreased by 11.33 points or 0.35 per cent to close at 3209.96 points from Saturday's 3221.29 points. Of the 76 issues traded today, 25 gained, 42 declined and nine remained unchanged. Some 1,520,170 shares and debentures worth Tk 6.30 crore changed hands against 1,793,794 shares valued at Tk 6.21 crore on the previous trading day. The market capitalisation stood at Tk 203.45 billion as against Tk 203.85 billion on Saturday.
— UNB

WTO's Hong Kong meet to see huge protest
More than 5,000 anti-globalisation activists from across the world are expected to demonstrate at a key World Trade Organisation (WTO) meet in Hong Kong in December, organisers said in reports Sunday. The estimate was reached at a planning meeting of 250 campaigners from local and international non-governmental organisations here at the weekend, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported. 'We expect 5,000 to join our demonstration,' said Apo Leong, spokesman for the Hong Kong People's Alliance on the World Trade Organisation. Hong Kong police have said they were stocking up on rubber bullets and other riot equipment to prevent any violent protests. In 1999 the WTO ministerial conference in Seattle was disrupted by activists who smashed windows, sprayed graffiti and set rubbish skips alight. Some 15,000 people are expected to attend the meeting, including 8,000 government representatives and 1,000 journalists, the government said.
— AFP

M&S cuts prices by average of 24pc
Marks & Spencer has cut prices in London and the regions by an average of 24 per cent, according to research from a City investment bank. Dresdner Kleinwort Benson said: ‘In spite of the snow in the UK, it still feels very early to be cutting prices of spring merchandise.’ Stuart Rose, head of M&S, said last year its prices were too high. A spokeswoman told The Independent on Sunday: ‘It's not exactly discounting. It's our new lower-entry price points.’ DrKW said the cuts are either to clear stock or could indicate a longer term ‘step change in pricing in certain areas’ at M&S. ‘Either way, this cannot be good news for M&S' margin,’ it added. Many analysts believe February is proving to be a difficult month for retailers and British Retail Consortium figures, due in a few weeks, are expected to reflect the tough trading environment.
— BBC

Tata Metaliks mulls steel-making foray
Tata Metaliks Ltd is considering foray into steel making. Tata Metaliks chairman T Mukherjee said the company has applied for land from the Bengal government for the proposed diversification. ‘It is a single-product company at present, even as we customise our products. As a long-term vision, Tata Metaliks wants to get into manufacturing of long products,’ Mukherjee said. Tata Metaliks plans to source sponge iron and mix it with the liquid iron produced by it to manufacture long products like billets. Billets, a semi-finished steel, are used to produce structurals and TMT bars used in the construction industry.
—Telegraph