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Bangladesh will seek comprehensive assistance from Japan to establish a number of industrial clusters for small and medium enterprises when the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, will visit Tokyo from July 12.
   At the official talks, the prime minister will ask her Japanese counterpart for ‘financial, technical and managerial assistance’ to help Bangladesh develop a strong base for SMEs, official sources said.
   The industries ministry and the national taskforce on SME development have already prepared a primary proposal for the prime minister to present in Japan.
   ‘The PM is expected to request the Japanese government to assist Bangladesh in promoting SMEs with a concept of industrial cluster village,’ said one senior official working with the taskforce.
   Japan's success in industrial development came through the concept of industrial clusters or special zone that offers one-stop utility and infrastructure supports to industries of similar category.
   Industrial clusters ensure collective approaches for procurement and marketing of products as well as give access buyers an easy access. Cluster concept makes it easy to have a centralised quality control system, storage facility and effluent treatment for common use that ensures better product standards at lower cost.
   Citing potentials of Dholaikhal for engineering and automobile parts, Mirpur for sari and fashion garment, and some areas in the country’s northern region for agro-processing industries, officials said if Japanese assistance is available, a number of industrial clusters can be built in different parts of the country for various sectors.
   ‘The primary proposal listed some potential industrial sectors including agro-processing, light engineering, computer software and fashion garment,’ he said.
   ‘Bangladesh expects technological, financial and managerial assistance from Japan in the development of SME sector, seen vital for rural employment generation and poverty reduction,’ said the official.
   The government has declared SME as a thrust sector and emphasised on its development with domestic resources and external supports.
   Estimates suggest that there are around 60 lakh small and medium enterprises that account for around 25 to 30 per cent of total GDP and 80 per cent of industrial jobs.

Stocks remained stagnant within a negative territory throughout the past week ahead of a series of new public offers expected shortly.
   The DSE general index closed at 1692.54, down by 20.63 points or 1.28 per cent in the past week that ended on Friday.
   The All Share Price Index that includes browbeaten companies slipped 16.78 points or 1.28 per cent to 1293.84 while the DSE top index shed 27.54 points or 1.47 per cent to 1845.03 points.
   In Chittagong Stock Exchange, All Share Price Index closed at 3289.19 points, down by 19.52 points or 0.59 percent.
   Transactions at the Dhaka bourse slipped notably during the week when the subscription of Meghna Life Insurance public offering went on.
   The week’s average turnover dropped to Tk 17.5 crore from the previous week’s Tk 25.13 crore.
   Brokers reasoned that trading activities declined as funds are set to redirect in the primary market that is waiting for nine initial public offerings worth about Tk 100 crore,
   They said all eyes are now set to IPO subscriptions.
    ‘At present, I think market is a bit stagnant because of the pace of inflow of IPOs,’ said Ahmed Rashid, vice president of the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
   ‘Investors do not bring fresh funds for IPOs. Usually they redirect the funds from secondary market to primary market,’ he told New Age.
   Eight of the nine IPOs-in-waiting are from financial sector with the Summit Power Limited is the lone real sector company.
   Of the eight IPOs, four are from the insurance sector, three from lease financing, and one is mutual fund.
   Asked about the viability of the companies from financial sector, Rashid said that investors have confidence in banks and leasing companies as these companies maintain higher level of transparency due to enhanced monitoring of the Bangladesh Bank.
   However, he expressed doubts over the viability of the insurance sector, which is regulated by the Ministry of Commerce.
   ‘There is a gray area in this sector,’ he said.
   Despite better financial health, most of the insurance companies do not disclose true financial positions due to absence of proper monitoring, he said stressing the need for strengthening of regulation.
   ‘The sector should come under the ministry of finance and be regulated by the Bangladesh Bank,’ the DSE top official said emphatically.
   Apart from IPO issue, brokers observed that the big players like institutions seem less active.
   ‘When big players start moving, small players also feel encouraged,’ said Kaiser Islam, managing director of the LRK Securities.
   Brokers predicated that market is set to remain flat till the closing of the public subscription.
   However, the market sentiment is revolving around the Beximco Pharma’s bid on raising fund from the London Stock Exchange.
   The drug maker has planned to raise £27 million or about Tk 315 crore through an instrument called global depository receipt (GDR) and would join alternative investment market of the LSE.
   ‘If Beximco Pharma can make it happen, it will give a big push to the market,’ Kaiser said.
   During the past week, banks and pharmaceutical sectors were in the most active list.
   Most active stocks, which controlled 45 per cent of the total turnover, included Beximco Pharma, Southeast Bank, Square Pharma, Exim Bank, Pubali Bank, Dhaka Bank, Prime Bank, Lafarge Surma, National Bank and Appex Footwear.

Group of Eight leaders voiced concern Friday about the risk to economic growth posed by volatile oil prices, according to a copy a final statement obtained here.
   Following momentum last year, ‘growth is expected to remain robust, although at a more moderate pace’, the statement said as the leaders of the most powerful countries wrapped up a summit in Scotland.
   ‘But challenges remain, especially persistant global imbalances and high and volatile oil prices,’ it said.
   The leaders of the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia called for fiscal and structural reform measures they could take to foster growth and restoring global imbalances.
   ‘We discussed the risks that sustained high energy prices pose for global economic growth,’ it said. ‘Oil demand is currently projected to continue its strong growth,’ it said.
   The G8 leaders also have called for the abolition of agricultural export subsidies by a ‘credible end date,’ according to a draft of their summit communique.
   ‘We are also committed to eliminating all forms of export subsidies and establishing disciplines on all export measures with equivalent effect by a credible end date,’ said the draft text, obtained by the news agency on the final day of a three-day Group of Eight summit here.

The Export Promotion Bureau feels that the Maldives, though not a very big market, could be a destination for a good number of Bangladeshi products.
   The bureau studied $400 million commodity import market in the tiny island state and found that Bangladeshi exporters have enough room to trade in toiletries, medicines, spices and dry-food in Maldives market.
   ‘Cloth, crockery, children dresses, shoes, ornaments, plastic items, handicrafts, lathers goods, electronic products and household items have good opportunity in that market,’ the EPB study found.
   The bureau has communicated with a number of exporters’ associations and advised them to explore the market of Maldives.
   Export promotion officials said that Male’s import tariff structure is favourable.
   Currently, Maldivian importers source most of the commodities and products from Singapore, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and United Arab Emirates.
    Maldives depends on import to meet its needs for water and electricity as well farm products and fruits like banana, papaya and vegetables.
   The EPB officials said at present around 8,000 Bangladeshis stay in Maldives, most of them working in tourism industry and some in garment factories. The Bangladeshi community also offers a good prospect for Bangladeshi products.
   Tourism is the largest industry accounting for 20 per cent of the country’s GDP and more than 60 per cent of its foreign exchange receipts.
   Over 90 per cent of government tax revenue of Maldives comes from import duties and tourism-related taxes.
   Fishing is a second leading sector while garment, boat building and handicrafts feature its industrial line that shares 18 per cent of GDP.

Crude oil prices rose on Friday as traders assessed the economic impact of the bomb blasts in London and possible supply disruptions at refineries in the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Dennis lashed Haiti and bore down on the US coast.
   In mid-afternoon trading in Singapore, light, sweet crude for August delivery was up 46 cents to $61.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Heating oil fell marginally to $1.7734 a gallon, while unleaded gasoline inched up slightly to $1.8150.
   At London’s International Petroleum Exchange, Brent futures rose 70 cents to $59.98 a barrel.
   Oil prices plunged nearly $5 Thursday in New York trading, falling from above $62 to $57.20 a barrel, before recovering to close at $60.73, down 55 cents from the previous day.
   The fall in prices was partly because of fears of an economic slowdown caused by a potential tourism decline following Thursday’s bomb blasts on London’s subway and a double-decker bus, which killed at least 37 people and left 700 injured.
   Analysts said the market had been shaken initially by the attacks, and that traders rushed to take profits before the price plunged further.
   But as the market digested the impact of the attacks, bargain-hunters began to resume buying, and were likely to focus on the fundamentals following the US government’s weekly petroleum supply snapshot, analysts said.
   As Hurricane Dennis forged further into the Gulf of Mexico, traders worried that the storm could disrupt production at refineries. The hurricane killed four people in southwestern Haiti on Thursday, lashing Caribbean coastlines with fierce 130 mph winds and rain. Forecasters cautioned the storm could hit the United States anywhere from Florida to Louisiana by Sunday or Monday.
   Power outages caused by Tropical Storm Cindy on Wednesday disrupted a minor amount of oil production and refining operations in the Gulf of Mexico and sent oil prices to a settlement record above $61 a barrel.

Pakistan on Thursday signed an agreement with Iran for a gas pipeline project, with gas supply from Iran expected to begin within three years, state media said.
   The Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Pakistan’s petroleum secretary, Ahmed Waqar as saying, ‘The two sides have agreed to the terms and conditions of the project, we hope to start receiving gas from Iran within the next three year.’
   Waqar and Iranian deputy minister for international affairs, MH Nejhad Hossiniyan, signed a memorandum of understanding in Islamabad, it said.
   ‘After many years, we have signed an MoU, which is the first written document about gas export from Iran to Pakistan,’ Iran’s petroleum minister, Bijan Namdar Zanghaneh, said after the signing ceremony.
   ‘By the year 2010 we will be facing shortage of gas in Pakistan, for which we have started planning,’ said Pakistan’s petroleum minister, Amanullah Khan Jadoon.
   ‘Pakistan is very keen about Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project and would like it to start as soon as possible. The key is speed and transparency.’
   The 2,600-kilometre overland gas pipeline project, with an estimated cost of about $4.5 billion, has been strongly opposed by the United States, because of its concerns about Tehran’s nuclear programme.
   India’s oil minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar was in Pakistan in June and his visit concluded with the setting up of a joint working group, to thrash out the details of the proposed pipeline project, which would also transport gas to India via Pakistan.
   Negotiations for the pipeline began in 1994, but made little headway because of tensions between Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars since gaining independence in 1947 from Britain.
   However, since January 2004, the two energy-starved countries have been engaged in a peace process and relations are at their best for years.
   The pipeline will supply gas from the massive South Pars offshore fields in the Gulf.

China pledged more than $400 million in investments, grants and loans to Cambodia during a visit by the prime minister, Hun Sen, Cambodia’s foreign minister said on Friday.
   The massive package is the latest from China, whose influence has grown sharply in
   aid-dependent Cambodia in recent years.
   Speaking on his return from China, where he and the premier attended a Greater Mekong Sub region summit, the foreign minister, Hor Namhong told reporters that a raft of agreements were signed between Hun Sen and China’s premier, Wen Jiabao.
   ‘The prime minister talked directly with the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao and also signed documents, which are very important for our country,’ he said.
   About $300 million is to be funded for the construction of a 180-megawatt hydropower station in south-eastern Kampot province, which borders Vietnam, Hor Namhong said.
   It was not clear whether this meant China would fully build the station itself.
   He said the new plant would mean a lowering of electricity prices in the kingdom, which was among the highest in the region.
   ‘Altogether, investment money, non-conditional aid and loans from China are estimated at more than $400 million, It’s a huge amount and this short visit provided a lot of benefit to our country,’ he said.
   The remainder of the money would be used for road construction, a new council of ministers building, naval ships, to be used to combat smuggling and drug trafficking and irrigation pumps to help alleviate droughts.
   China also donated 30 fire engines to the kingdom, he added.
   Hun Sen in June, backed China’s often-criticised development plans for the river Mekong, which flows through Cambodia, saying that he did not believe the Asian giant would harm the interests of downstream countries.
   The observers have warned that warming relations between the two countries may result in the government stonewalling a much-delayed UN-backed tribunal for surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.
   China was a key backer of the 1975-79 regime, headed by Pol Pot, which oversaw the deaths of up to two million people.

A three-day long half-yearly ‘Managers’ Conference 2005’ of The City Bank Limited, was inaugurated on Thursday at the Convention Hall of UTC Bhaban in Karwan Bazar, Dhaka.
   The overall activities of the bank for the last six months were reviewed and the business strategies for remaining six months were discussed elaborately.
   Inaugurated by the director of the bank, Rajibul Huq Choudhury, the conference was also addressed by the vice chairman, Aziz Al-Kaiser, director, Rubel Aziz and managing director, Abbas Uddin Ahmed.
   The vice-chairman in his speech declared 2005 as the year of challenge, suggesting the bankers to increase their efficiency and standard of customer service.
   He believed that the managers would be able to uphold the position of the bank, through their continuous efforts and prudent activities.
   Welcoming the participants, Abbas Uddin Ahmed, gave a vivid account of the increasing performance of the bank in different areas, especially, product development and deposit mobilisation, diversified investment portfolio, including expansion of small and medium scale credit, trade finance and various other productive sector of the economy.
   He also listed the areas that needed greater thrust, including sectors like — export related activities, consequences loans and others.
   Abbas Uddin said the bank procured a total deposit of Tk 2,374.64 crore during the first half, which is 16 per cent higher than the previous half year of 2004.
   Expressing satisfaction at the half-yearly operational performance of the bank, he expected that with the combined efforts of all the executives, officers and employees of the bank, the year 2005 would be a glorious year.
   The managers of 77 branches, director, Rafiqul Islam Khan, deputy managing director, AHM Nazmul Quadir and other executives from the head office, were present during the occasion.

The South Asia Enterprise Development Facility and Bangladesh Enterprise Institute will hold a seminar on ‘Promoting and Facilitating Trade between Bangladesh and North East India’ today at the Hyatt Regency in Kolkata, India.
   According to press release, SEDF and BET initiated the project a year back to highlight issues, related to non-trade barriers to various stakeholders, both private and public in Bangladesh and North East India, in order to advocate enhanced trade between the territories.
   The seminar will focus on issues that are seen as non-trade barriers to trade, including harmonisation and classification, land customs stations infrastructure and facilities, transit and transportation facilities, and visa and transport in Bangladesh and North East India; a keynote paper presentation by the researcher, Mostafa Abid Khan, followed by discussion on the topic.
   Former ambassador and the president of BET, Farooq Sobhan, will preside over the seminar and the programme manager for business enabling environment of SEDF, Marion Lezama, will deliver the introductory speech.
   Along with the secretaries from both Bangladesh and India’s commerce ministries, director generals from Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute and Bureau of Indian Standards, various private sector representatives, including Kolkata Chamber of Commerce and Industry, North East Chamber of Commerce and Industry, North East Federation of Indian Trade, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, will attend the seminar.

Sri Lanka has secured a 500 million dollar soft loan from China to build a highly controversial coal power station and improve the island’s transport sector, energy minister Susil Premajayantha said Friday.
   Chinese experts were expected here over the weekend to finalise plans for the 300-megawatt coal plant along the northwest coast which had been on hold for nearly 10 years amid protests from environmentalists.
   “Definitely before the end of the year we are going to start the work (on the power project),” the minister told reporters here.
   The coal power project had been held up by protests from environmental lobbies, local fishing communities and religious leaders who oppose the location of the plant.
   The main electricity utility argues that the island needs to sharply increase tariffs unlesss a cheaper coal-fired electricity generator is commissioned soon.
   Premajayantha said they will set up the power facility at the original location identified in previous studies by the local authorities. There was no immediate reaction from the environmental lobbies.
   He did not give details of the Chinese loan but said it was on “concessionary terms” and would also cover the building of a highway between Colombo and Kandy, a distance of 72 miles (112 kilometres). The money will also be used to upgrade the existing rail track between the Colombo international airport and the city centre, a distance of about 35 kilometres (21 miles).
   Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Sri Lanka in April and toured a tsunami-hit town in southern town and inspected work on a Chinese-funded fisheries harbour.

The 30th meeting of the board of directors of Asia Pacific General Insurance Company Limited was held on Wednesday.
   Presided over by the chairman of company, AHM Mostafa Kamal, the meeting discussed on IPO matters of the company, reviewed the half-yearly business performance that ended in June and opening of new branches for expanding business.
   The managing director and other directors of the company also attended the meeting.

Thailand’s government will announce short-term measures next week to stimulate the economy, the prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra said Friday, after several economists cut their growth forecasts for 2005.
   Thaksin said the stimulus package, to be unveiled after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, would help Thais cope with rising energy costs and a crippling drought.
   ‘We have to face many short-term problems, especially high oil prices and drought, which have pushed up living costs.
   We need some short-term measures,’ Thaksin told reporters.
   ‘We want to ease the increased burden, to make it easier for people to make a living,’ he said, without giving details of the measures.
   Thailand’s battered stock market, which closed at an 8-month low on Thursday, has been under pressure from concerns about slowing economic growth and the impact of rising oil prices.
   The baht was trading on Friday around 42.03 per dollar, an intra-day low, and its weakest level since August 2003.
   The currency has fallen more than 7 per cent so far in 2005 against the dollar. Analysts polled by Reuters predicted that gross domestic product would probably expand around 4.0 per cent in 2005, down from 4.8 per cent projected in May and against 6.1 per cent growth in 2004.
   ABN-AMRO offered the most bearish outlook, forecasting GDP would grow just 2.8 per cent this year, sharply lower than the 4.5 per cent it had expected in May.

Following Saudi Arabia’s requests to increase the professionalism of the immigrant domestic helps, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies will soon open a training centre to equip the future employees with better skill before they leave for the Kingdom.
   ‘We are going to launch orientation programmes for the Saudi-bound domestic helps that will help them fit into the social, cultural and work environment of the Kingdom,’ the president of BAIRA, Muhammad Mosharraf Hossain, told the news agency on Friday.
   ‘Many of our domestic helps send abroad do not know how to work in the new workplace keeping pace with an unfamiliar society, cultural and work environment,’ he said adding: ‘I think the initiative will obviously help produce quality of maidservants who could easily fit into Saudi homes and will reduce the complaints from Saudi sponsors.’
   The chairman of the Saudi Arabian National Recruitment Committee, Waleed Al-Swaidan was likely to inaugurate the new facility offered to the domestic helps in Dhaka in mid-August, he added.
   The Saudi recruitment bureau has announced that it will work on an agreement with BAIRA regarding the conditions of domestic staff in Saudi Arabia, fixing the monthly salary at SR500, more than $100, on a contract of three years.
   Currently, the requirement of Bangladeshi national domestic helps in Saudi Arabia is nearly 2 million per year, BAIRA sources said.
   ‘Our main objective of this orientation programme is to make them familiar with the social, cultural and work environment and create awareness in this regard,’ the BAIRA president said.
   ‘We have already set up a training centre in Dhaka’s Kakrail area and very much hopeful that we can open it by mid-August,’ he added.

Telekom Malaysia’s Sri Lankan mobile unit raised $85 million in the country’s biggest-ever IPO on Thursday, the issue manager said, as the heavily bid offering wrapped up just hours after it opened.
   Investors heavily oversubscribed to the issue of Sri Lanka’s largest mobile operator, Dialog Telekom, at the ceiling price of 12 rupees a share, said issue manager, Chamali Kariyawasam of investment bank NDB in Colombo.
   Dialog Telekom, which commands 60 per cent of the local mobile market, plans to use part of the sale proceeds to expand its network infrastructure and traffic handling capacity, aimed at adding 500,000 customers to its 1.5 million subscriber base.
   Dialog Telekom’s issue of just under 10 per cent of the company is intended to start trading on the Colombo exchange on July 28, although it could commence in the first week of August pending the share allocation process, the issue managers said.
   Analysts had expected to see the issue several times oversubscribed and said it would likely entice other foreign investors to look at the Sri Lankan bourse.
   Foreign direct investment in Sri Lanka has been subdued for years by the island’s two-decade civil war between Tamil Tiger rebels and the state, which is now in limbo thanks to a 2002 ceasefire, and by the island’s volatile politics.

London’s financial district, known as the City, operated Thursday in almost normal fashion after a fatal explosion close to where many traders work.
   Most City workers were already at their desks when the rush-hour blasts hit London’s transport network, shutting down much of it at around 0800 GMT.
   At least 33 people were confirmed dead in the morning wave of coordinated strikes, police said, while an ambulance official said 345 people were injured, 45 of them seriously.
   A total seven people died in a first explosion at 8:51 am (0751 GMT) in an underground railway tunnel near Moorgate on the edge of London’s financial district.
   In just under an hour three further attacks struck, killing 21 people near King’s Cross and five at Edgware Road station. At 9:47 am, a bomb ripped through the top of a double decker bus at Upper Woburn square, near to Russell Square, killing an unknown number of people.
   The London Stock Exchange (LSE) and nearby offices were evacuated after the first blast hit near Moorgate, close by Liverpool Street station.
   “There have companies that have been evacuating close to the site in the Liverpool Street” area, an LSE spokesman said.
   The LSE remained open but took action—such as asking traders to switch off certain electronic trading systems—to prevent a more volatile market response to the unfolding tragedy.
   Meanwhile, trade at London’s oil market, the International Petroleum Exchange, functioned as normal.
   And the London Metal Exchange, the capital’s metals market based in the heart of the City, closed physical “shout” trading, but electronic trade continued.
   However, investment banks evacuated buildings near to areas where the bombs went off.
   The streets of the City were calm and deserted at lunchtime.
   Richard Hunter, of broker Hargreaves Lansdown whose offices are located near Bank station, said: “It’s eerily calm apart from sirens and helicopters every two minutes hovering overhead. There’s barely any traffic on the roads.”
   However the brokers, bankers and insurance workers carried on as usual.
   “We keep working as normally as we can,” said Bache Financial broker David Nesbitt, adding that “we are a bit short of staff” as many could not make it into work with no means of transportation.
   And Alan Smith, broker with Deutsche Asset Management, said:
   “Maybe we haven’t been as productive as usual but (it has been) business as usual.”
   Others remained more philosophical about the impact on their day.
   “Life has to go on,” said Anthony, a 32-year-old worker based near Blackfriars. “The main question is how to get home tonight.”
   Later on in the day, thousands of workers opted to leave work early, cramming the capital’s streets as they struggled to get home via alternative transport—with many deciding to walk.
   The series of blasts occurred one day after the capital won its bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, and as G8 leaders from the world’s richest nations were meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland.

London’s financial district was a sea of pinstripe suits Thursday as workers tried to get home in a city crippled by bombings, all the while vowing one thing: to not change a single habit in response to the attacks.
   “I always get the Underground and I’m not going to stop. I don’t want them to win. Not in any way,” said a 55-year-old insurance broker, the model of a London businessman in a soberly-cut dark suit and pink tie.
   “We’ve got a choice—do we let them affect us or not? I know what I think,” said the man, giving his name only as Paul as he strode off for a rendezvous with his daughter who, he hoped, had secured a prized vacant taxi to take them to their distant eastern suburb.
   The series of bombs which struck London earlier in the day, as well as killing at least 37 people, knocked out the entire Underground rail network, while no buses were running in the centre of the city either.
   Eight hours after three blasts ripped through three Underground trains, while another all but destroyed a bus, the City financial district just to the east of the London’s centre was a curious sight.
   With no buses and far fewer private cars than normal, the narrow, historic streets, usually clogged with crawling traffic, were flowing freely.
   In contrast, the pavements were awash with smartly-dressed business people plotting how to get home, or simply sitting around waiting for the crowds to thin and talking in hushed voices about the horrors of the day.
   IT consultant Stephen Marstone and his civil servant girlfriends Helen Kelman were sitting on a bench in the shadow of the Bank of England building, making a mental roll of their friends and whether they could all be accounted for.
   At least one had had a narrow escape, said Martsone, 27.
   “She was in a taxi just in front of the bus that exploded. She told me she heard a bang, looked around and the bus looked like a tin with its top blown off,” he said.
   “She got out of the cab and just ran. She was hysterical when I talked to her.”
   As he and 28-year-old Kelman talked to dozens of friends over the day, they said, they could sense a shifting mood.
   “There was a lot of anger. People were leaving for work, saying goodbye to their families and then—that was it. Lives destroyed,” said Marstone.
   “Now I think there is more defiance, a decision to not let it change us.”
   The situation was particularly difficult for those whose loved ones were waiting for news a long way away.
   Relatives and friends of Andrew Henwood, 29, an IT worker, and his 30-year-old web designer girfriend Tracey Heath, both from Johannesburg, had a fraught few hours after the blasts.

International travel bookings are expected to soften slightly as Thursday's deadly explosions in London stoke tourists' terrorism fears. A slump in trans-Atlantic tourism would hurt what has been a bright spot for the beleaguered airline industry, though analysts said the impact should be minor and short-lived, reflecting travelers' increasing resilience to unsettling world events.
   Any negative effects for the travel industry will likely be most acute in London, where dozens were killed and more than 700 were wounded on Thursday by explosions set off in the city's subway system and on a double-decker bus.
   Industry officials said that based on recent experiences with terror attacks - most notably the commuter train bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid in March 2004 - trips to the affected region wane somewhat and would-be travelers hold off on making future plans.
   Robin Tauck, the president of Tauck World Discovery, an upscale tour operator based in Norwalk, Conn., said that trips to Spain have experienced 'a soft period of sales in 2004 and 2005.'
   Tauck, which has a group of tourists in London and has other trips planned for later this summer, said no guests have canceled upcoming trips.
   'People are watching the news and making their own decisions,' Tauck said. That is in stark comparison with the reaction that followed the attacks of Sept. 11, which prompted 11,000 Tauck customers to cancel their trips and 8,000 of them to return home from abroad.
   Bob Whitley, president of the United States Tour Operators Association, said members reported Thursday that some travelers scheduled to leave for Europe this week are postponing their trips, though there has been no evidence so far of mass cancellations.
   Whitley and other industry officials said the fallout would have been more severe had the attacks affected air travel.
   Hospitality and leisure analyst Anthony Rodolakis at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Tampa, Fla., said the attacks nevertheless will crimp what has been a strong period of growth for London's tourism industry.
   Hotel room rates surged by 9.7 percent in April, compared with a year earlier, and the city's hotel occupancy rate climbed 3.6 percent during the same period, Rodolakis said.
   With London hotels more than 80 percent full, PriceWaterhouseCoopers had forecast room rates to continue growing at a strong pace in 2005, but now 'all bets are off,' Rodolakis said.

Russia blasted Canada yesterday over what the Kremlin described as incomprehensible Canadian conditions for supporting Russian entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
   President Vladimir Putin asked Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to intervene in the row during their meeting at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko told journalists.
   ‘There are many declarations of future support’ for Moscow’s WTO entry bid, Prikhodko said.
   ‘But unfortunately sometimes these declarations do not make themselves felt in negotiating positions. This is the case with Canada.’
   ‘To be honest, we are worried,’ Prikhodko said. ‘The president openly said that we do not understand why demands by our Canadian partners include elements that, for example, are not of direct concern to Canada itself.’
   For example, there are ‘demands for liberalisation of access to the Russian market for Canadian whiskey or medicine,’ Prikhodko said.
   ‘I don’t know how good Canadian whiskey is, but it’s not the most important element for us,’ he said.
   After Putin’s request for clarification, ‘the Canadian premier said he will soon meet with the trade minister and sort out why there are these zig zags and promised his personal intervention.’

World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks aimed at shaping outlines of a new global trade pact by the end of this year are blocked on the key farm and goods tariff issues, diplomats said yesterday.
   They said negotiations on both dossiers this week in the 148- nation WTO’s nearly four-year-old Doha Round had failed to break logjams on how import tariffs would be cut on agricultural produce and industrial goods.
   ‘It’s not looking good at all,’ said one developed country envoy, who asked not to be identified.
   ‘There is going to have to be something pretty dramatic happening in the next few days, or any momentum we might have had in this round will be lost.’
   There had been hope that some initiative — at least on the major problem of farm subsidies in the United States and the European Union that poorer countries want removed quickly — might emerge from the summit of the Group of Eight industrial powers in Gleneagles, Scotland.
   But the summit was disrupted on Thursday when bombs rocked London and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was chairing the meeting, had to fly back to the capital.
   The chairman of the farm talks, Tim Groser of New Zealand, on Wednesday cut off what had been planned as a week of discussions. He told negotiators he was looking for ‘political involvement’ to break the impasse, trade sources said.

Dipak Sarkar will almost certainly never see one of India’s shining new shopping malls or ultramodern infotech centres, much less go inside one. But the three-year- old stonebreaker’s work and sweat will go into many.
   As India joins the G8 table for the first time on Thursday, its racing economic growth, among the fastest in the world, often masks the almost unimaginable poverty that drives millions of children into slave labour, teenage girls to sell their bodies for $1, and kills countless numbers by starvation and disease.
   ‘There are up to 50 percent of Indians who are struggling to survive,’ said Sanjay Bapat, who runs an anti-poverty portal, www.indianngos.com from the financial capital of Bombay for aid agencies and companies who want to help the poor.
    ‘I see children who have more flies on their bodies than clothes. One meal a day is terrific. Two is unthinkable. But the sense of urgency to fight this is completely lacking.’
   At an age when he should be learning to play with toys, Dipak, face locked in grim concentration and too busy to spare more than a few words, pounds river rocks into pebbles with a chunk of truck axle weighing almost a kilo (two lb).
   He works an hour a day, helping his parents fill a lorry with gravel destined for the building sites of India’s economic boom.
   ‘I want to go to school,’ he says, stooping to pile another load of stones into his black singlet. It takes two or three grown men two weeks to fill a lorry, worth 800-1,000 rupees ($18- $22).
   Within sight of Dipak’s pile of stones, a cheerful billboard with a perfect, smiling mother dressed in white promotes a new luxury resort - ‘A family entertainment zone’. Dipak’s mother taught him how to smash stones without smashing his fingers.
   In the wide beds of the Balason and other rivers around this town in eastern India, near Nepal, thousands of people, mainly children and old women, spend their days crushing rocks and dragging wicker baskets of heavy wet sand from the shallow water.
   Families live in one-room, dirt floor bamboo huts. Black plastic help keeps the monsoon out.
   About 30 percent of India’s more than one billion people live below the official poverty line of 2,100-2,400 calories a day.
   But by the global definition of earning a dollar a day, that figure jumps to about half the population — more than 500 million, larger than the entire population of the European Union.
   And that is more than the poor in Africa, the focus of poverty talks at the summit in Scotland of the Group of Eight — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States — where Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met leaders yesterday.
   Not far from where Dipak works, 45-year-old grandmother Rani Shah sits in the stifling humidity surrounded by marigolds, waiting for one of her regulars to turn up at her brothel in Siliguri’s Khalpara red light district, a squalid slum with excrement blackening the open drains.
   The roughly 1,000 girls here, brought by poverty and sometimes people trafficking and many looking younger than 18, earn $1-$2 a session, a bit more if they agree not to use a
   condom and risk becoming infected with HIV/AIDS.
    ‘I have to do this work for my family,’ Rani says, dressed in a red sari and smiling warmly. ‘I can’t do anything else.’
   Rani, who has lived in Khalpara most of her life, used to be a dancer like her mother, but she can’t dance any more because of her heart condition, kidney stones and diabetes.
   She earns about 600-700 rupees ($14-$16) a week from her two or three regulars — ‘all gentlemen’ — including her truckdriver ‘husband’ when he can spare time from his regular family.

Hundreds of commuters spent Thursday night stranded in London and some have accused hoteliers of cashing in on the crisis in the capital.
   Prices at a number of London’s hotels increased by more than double on Thursday night, the BBC has learned.
   Lastminute.com was warning customers about the price rises two hours after the first blast.
   A Trading Standards Institute spokesman said profiteering after an act of terrorism was reprehensible. With the transport networks down and no way of returning home, one businessman from Manchester told the BBC he had paid £250 for an £80 room.
   A spokesman for the British Hospitality Association, which represents hotels, said he was surprised by the increases.
   Commuters said they were appalled, and thousands chose to walk for hours to reach home rather than stay the night in a hotel.
   London’s hotels were 80% full before the blasts, and on Wednesday the UK tourist industry was celebrating the news of London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

Japanese Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said today global financial markets have so far reacted calmly to the bomb attacks in London but he was monitoring development carefully.
   ‘There have been various movements in the market, but so far market participants have reacted calmly,’ Tanigaki told a news conference after a cabinet meeting.
   ‘I cannot immediately determine what further impact there could be, but it cannot be positive. Therefore I would like to monitor developments carefully.’
   Sterling and London share prices fell on Thursday after the explosions in the London public transport system that killed at least 37 people. But the dollar, which also initially fell on worries about possible attacks in the United States, recouped much of its losses and U.S. shares staged a dramatic reversal rally.
   Japan’s Economics Minister Heizo Takenaka told a separate news conference it was too early to say how the Japanese economy could be affected by the London explosions.

Just over a week after the Bundestag, the lower house of German parliament, passed a law that will oblige the heads of listed companies to publish full details of their annual pay, the legislation was also approved in the Bundesrat or the upper house on Friday
   Under the new law, one of the last major projects under the current administration under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder ahead of the likely general election in the autumn, the heads of around 1,000 listed companies are obliged to publish the exact amount of their annual salaries.
   The law was drawn up after top companies such as car makers, BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Porsche refused to make public the contents of their chief executives’ pay-packets voluntarily.
   However, the full effects are unlikely to be felt immediately, since companies will be compelled to publish full details of their management salaries in their 2006 annual reports, which are to be published in spring of 2007.

British and European stocks rebounded on Friday, recovering from the heavy losses of the day before as series of blasts ripped into London’s transport system, sending alarms to world’s financial markets.
   London’s financial markets stood up defiantly Friday to the deadly attacks of the day before, rising in early trade.
   At least 37 people were killed in the bomb blasts and 700 were left injured in four fatal bomb explosions in the British capital in Thursday morning rush-hour.
   London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed down 1.38 per cent to 5,158.30 points on Thursday after falling more than 3.0 per cent in the immediate aftermath of the series of explosions.
   But in Friday morning trade it rose 0.70 per cent to 5,194.20 points.
   ‘Markets have shown they can withstand the terrorist atrocities of 9/11, the Madrid bombing of March 2004 and now London,’ the Financial Times said in its leader.
   ‘The London markets generally coped well with the situation,’ The Times reported. ‘City institutions insisted it was business as usual.’
   Many newspapers were quick to point out that the bomb attacks did not target the financial market infrastructure, in contrast with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington that destroyed the World Trade Center.
   European stock markets rallied in early dealing on Friday, recovering from heavy losses the day before.
   In Frankfurt the DAX 30 won 0.93 per cent to 4,572.33 points Friday, in Paris the CAC 40 jumped 1.27 per cent to 4,274.08 points and the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares climbed 1.25 per cent to 3,209.63.
   The euro stood at 1.1905 dollars.
   Asian stocks recover
   Asian stock markets remained calm Friday after the deadly bombings, with investors viewing the attacks as a one-off, although most bourses ebbed on local issues or technical trading.
   Stocks closed little changed on Friday, recovering from earlier losses prompted by London blasts.
   Dealers said the bombings were not expected to impact on the global economy and while investors were mindful of the tragedy their attention had returned to market fundamentals by early afternoon.
   Shares rallied in the Philippines on bargain hunting amid deep concerns for the leadership of President Gloria Arroyo who asked her cabinet to resign while Tokyo was lower following a steep fall in core private-sector machinery orders.
   Elsewhere, the markets were marking time with a watchful eye on oil prices which were again pushed beyond 61 dollars a barrel amid speculation it could rise beyond 70 dollars a barrel.
   Japan’s benchmark Nikkei-225 index gave up early gains to close 0.21 per cent lower at 11,565.99 points.
   Indian shares shrug off security concerns
   Indian share prices rose 0.94 per cent Friday, shrugging off global security concerns after multiple bomb blasts in London with sustained buying in Sensex heavyweights by overseas funds improving sentiment, dealers said.
   The Mumbai stock exchange’s 30-share Sensex rose 66.95 to close above the 7,200 level at 7,212.08.

Saudi delegation meets FBCCI today
The delegation of the Saudi National Recruitment Committee from Saudi Arabia will meet the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry today (Saturday). The six-member business delegation led by Walid A Solaiman will meet FBCCI president Abdul Awal Mintoo and other officials of the federation at its Motijheel office. Top industrialists and businessmen of the country will be also present in the meeting. The FBCCI hoped that the meeting will play an important role in exporting manpower to Saudi Arabia
— Press Release

Colombia restricts Asian textile imports
Colombia has imposed restrictions on textile imports from Panama and nine Asian countries, which will now be stopped from entering the country if their declared value falls below government-set minimum prices, the government said yesterday. Minimum prices have been set for textiles from China, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, North Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Thailand, the government’s Tax and Customs Department (DIAN) said in a news release. Colombia’s textile industry is facing tough competition from imports just as it pushes to boost its own sales abroad. Colombia’s imports of clothing and textiles totaled $261 million from January to April, up 13 percent from the same period of last year.
— Reuters

BOJ seen upbeat on economy
The Bank of Japan is set to adopt a brighter view on the economy next week after a strong business survey, but will likely keep its ultra-loose policy as most of its board still views any change as premature, analysts said. Policy Board members, meeting next Tuesday and Wednesday, are expected to stay locked in disagreement over their funds target, with two again seeking a cut and the other seven voting against changes that they believe could look like credit tightening. ‘The view within the BOJ should be more upbeat as a result of the tankan survey, but I don’t think it will mean a change in policy,’ said Seiji Adachi, senior economist at Deutsche Securities. ‘The majority of the members will still vote against change.’ The BOJ’s tankan survey last week showed business sentiment improving and companies upgrading their capital spending plans for the year to March 2006. In addition, a report by BOJ branch managers on Wednesday showed most of Japan’s regional economies were faring better now than they were in April.
— Reuters

Call money rate stable at high level
The call money rate remained stable at its high level today due to liquidity crisis with a few private commercial banks, fund managers of leading commercial banks said. The call money rate rose to its high at 17.00 per cent in line with its previous closing on Wednesday. But in most deals, the rate ranged between 10 per cent and 15 per cent, fund managers said. The call money rate touched its low at 4.50 per cent in deals among nationalized commercial banks and private banks.
— BSS

Pharmaceutical industry goes into production
Production in the City Corporation Pharmaceuticals, a medicine manufacturing industrial project of the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), began today. Mayor of Chittagong A B M Mohiuddin Chowdhury inaugurated the production activities of the pharmaceutical industry, set up at a cost of Taka 5 crore in city’s Sagarika area. Primarily, 16 varieties of improved quality medicines will be produced at the unit, CCC officials told the inaugural meeting. With local ward commissioner M Manjur Alam in the chair, the function was addressed, among others, by Awami League leaders Ataur Rahman Khan Kaiser, M A Mannan, Chittagong City Development Advisory Council Chairman Eng Mahmud-ul-Islam, CCC Health Advisor Dr Nurjahan Bhuiyan and CCC Acting Chief Executive Officer Abul Kashem. Speaking on the occasion, Mayor Mohiuddin said the new pharmaceutical industry will add a new dimension to the healthcare services of the corporation. He said at present six maternity hospitals, 21 charitable dispensaries, 26 urban primary healthcare centers, six homeopathic charitable dispensaries and one homeopathic college are providing healthcare to the city dwellers.
— BSS

New rules to impact Pakistan stocks
Pakistani stocks await amendments in stock financing rules which dealers said Friday would determine market behaviour next week. Pakistani bourses are seeking a relaxation on margin financing rules, which the regulatory authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, will incorporate in full by August amid the reservations of brokers and investors. For the week ending July 8 the benchmark Karachi Stock Exchange index of 100 shares rose 124.34 points or 1.66 percent to close at 7588.94. Average daily volume for the past week was 178.53 million shares valued at 18.94 billion rupees or 315.60 million dollars compared to 206.01 million shares worth 21.25 billion rupees the previous week. The domestic market did not show any fallout impact following Thursday’s bomb attacks in London.
— AFP

Morgan Stanley to pay $44m to departing CEO
Ousted Morgan Stanley chief executive Philip Purcell may receive about 44 million dollars in fiscal 2005 and 2006 combined, according to a regulatory filing. Purcell, who resigned under pressure from the investment bank on June 30, could earn more or less than 22 million dollars a year based on the company’s performance, the company said in its filing Thursday. Morgan Stanley will also pay Purcell 250,000 dollars a year in benefits and 250,000 dollars for charitable giving for the rest of his life, the filing said.
— AFP

OPEC chief to resume talks on boosting output
OPEC president Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah said Friday that he would resume consultations with the cartel’s ministers Saturday on soaring world oil prices and a possible boost to output. “Beginning tomorrow, we will start to consult with our colleagues for the prices and to see exactly what would be the situation,” he told reporters. “We will continue consultations with the members in order to (discuss) increasing our production,” he said. World prices had further risen after the cartel halted on June 30 the consultations which the OPEC president had started six days earlier to calm soaring oil prices.
— AFP