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A slower-than-expected growth in revenue collection towards the fag end of the 2004-05 fiscal year has cast doubt whether the National Board of Revenue would be able to achieve the revised target for the fiscal.
   Sources hinted that the Board might see a significant shortfall even after the 5.5 per cent downward revision of the revenue earning target to Tk 30,500 crore from original target of Tk 32,190 crore.
   Provisional figures show revenue collection by the Board in July-May period amounted to Tk 25,998 crore, which is still Tk 4,500 crore short of the revised target of the whole fiscal year.
   Revenue officials themselves appeared sceptical about covering the shortfall by June earnings, as the previous 11 months’ collections averaged Tk 2363 crore.
    ‘Although last couple of months see a big push in revenue collection, it is unlikely that the last month’s collection would be too big to bridge the gap,’ said a senior official of the revenue board.
   The May collections stood at Tk 2877.35 crore, which was only 0.5 per cent more than the April earnings of Tk 2863 crore.
    The total collection in 11 months to May was, however, up by 14.45 per cent than that of the same period of the previous fiscal.
   Of the total collection, Tk7073.21 crore came from customs duties which was 10 per cent lower than year-ago earnings.
    The lower collection in customs front is a reflection of significant cuts in import tariffs.
   Collection from value added tax and income tax have marked an increase over the same period of the last fiscal.
   NBR collected Tk 9236.15 crore in July-May period while the collection was Tk 7637.2 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.
   Setting a higher revenue target in the budget and scaling it down at the end of the fiscal year has been a regular phenomenon over the years.
   The total revenue target in the outgoing 2004-05 fiscal year was originally set at Tk 41,300 crore combining both NBR and non-NBR receipts. But the target was revised down to Tk 39,200 crore. ‘The revenue target had to be scaled down due to reduction of tariff on some imported goods as well as disruption of economic activities owing to floods,’ Finance Minister Saifur Rahman said in his budget speech on June 9.
   In 2003-04, the NBR part of revenue target has been lowered to Tk 27,050 crore from original estimate of Tk 27,750 crore also at the end of the fiscal year.

More than 72 per cent of the respondents termed the budgetary provision of whitening black money ‘immoral,’ while the rest believed it is necessary to check capital flight, reveals an opinion poll conducted by a development organisation.
   About 80.5 per cent of the people surveyed thought the tax rate for legalizing untaxed money should be 25 per cent as they found the proposed 7.5 per cent rate would be disincentive for genuine taxpayers.
   The Centre for Sustainable Development conducted the opinion poll on the proposed national budget for 2005-06 fiscal year that surveyed 1003 people in divisional cities.
   Of the respondents, 53.1 per cent felt that the proposed budget has an election bias while the rest believed it was designed to strengthen the economy.
   Analysing the responses, the CFSD categorized that respondents from Dhaka and Rajshahi cities fell on the side of those who held critical views on the budget’s key issues, while those from Sylhet and Barisal seemed to have been convinced by the argument provided by the finance minister. Respondents from Khulna and Chittagong were evenly divided on the issues.
   On Tk 1200 crore agricultural subsidy, 53.2 per cent termed it ‘appropriate measure’ to help the farmers while the rest were skeptical about its real benefit to the farmers.
   In the poll, 72 per cent of the people considered tax on the mobile phone SIM card ‘not a good’ step.
   The CFSD survey that used standard Gallup poll techniques was supervised by water and environment scientist Ainun Nishat and economist AK Enamul Haque.

Least developed countries should be given duty-free market access to the developed and developing countries in sectors where they (LDCs) have comparative advantages. They should be offered lower tariffs for export of agricultural products and allowed to send human resources freely to industrialised nations by 2007.
   These were the major recommendations put forward by five non-governmental organisations to the government on Saturday, ahead of an LDC ministerial in Livingstone, Zambia, as a run-up to the Hong Kong ministerial of the WTO in December.
   The recommendations cover five broad areas — agriculture, services, development, non-agricultural market access and intellectual property rights. The NGOs recommended that LDCs should get technical assistance and be free from all non-tariff barriers so that they can broaden their farm products’ export market in rich countries.
   For non-agricultural market access, the NGOs suggested that effective technical assistance should be given to LDCs to help them address issues related to the implementation of the sanitary and phytosanitary measures and overcome technical barriers to trade.
   The organisations wanted the government to lobby strongly for relaxed rules of origin requirements as the current ones do not really benefit the poor countries. ‘In the development dimension, it is recommended that poor countries be allowed to protect (subsidise and implement tariffs) their produce to maintain their food security, agriculture and rural development,’ the NGOs said in their joint recommendations.
   Recommendations for services included relaxed visa requirements to facilitate the first demand — movement of labour. The NGOs also called for terminating the liberalisation process of essential services including primary health care, water supply and education. They also demanded suspension of the current bilateral request-offer process that the billed undemocratic.
   Regarding the intellectual property rights, they prescribed a reconciliation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. They also demanded suspension of patenting all life forms, besides demanding preservation of farmers’ rights to sow, exchange and protect their seeds. They stressed that any preference accorded to the least developed countries should be brought under the multilateral framework of the trade organisation, in order to make them legally binding and not readily retractable.
   The signatories to the set of recommendations are ActionAid Bangladesh, Jagrata Juba Sangha, Alliance for Food Sovereignty Campaign, Lokoj and Rupayan.

UN secretary general Kofi Annan is urging leaders of the world's richest countries to use the upcoming G8 meeting to set an example in addressing the broad challenges of globalisation, especially the fight against
   poverty.
   The elite group is scheduled to meet July 4-6 in Gleneagles, Scotland, two months before the World Summit at UN headquarters in New York where the Millennium Development Goals will be discussed.
   The Millennium Development Goals are an ambitious set of eight targets, including halving extreme poverty, and halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.
   A high-ranking UN official told reporters that the G8 meeting was an 'opportunity for those eight very important leaders to get their act together and give a lead to the rest of the world for the actual decisions to be taken in September.'
   In a letter to G8 heads of state released in New York on Friday, Annan said both developing and donor countries have obligations in tackling global poverty but stressed that rich countries need to increase development aid, provide wider debt relief and complete the Doha round of world trade talks.
   The letter also stressed the need to combat global warming, protect human rights, develop a global strategy to fight terrorism and strengthen the United Nations.

A meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Industries was held Saturday at the Sangsad Bhaban with committee chairman Mahmudul Hasan in the chair.
   The meeting discussed the report presented at the meeting aiming to remove different barriers in the industries, an official handout said here.
   The meeting was informed that the contribution of the industries sector to the GDP is increasing gradually. It put emphasis on producing diversified and value added products, creating employment opportunities and raising growth in the industries sector by investing more in the sector.
   The committee directed the ministry concerned and other organisations to take steps for ensuring overall development in the industries sector by identifying the problems of the sector.
   Committee members industries minister Motiur Rahman Nizami, Moahmmad Shamsur Rahman Sharif and Mohammad Abdul Mottalib attended the meeting. Industries secretary Mohammad Nurul Amin and other officials concerned were present.

The European Union on Friday called for tougher international rules to stop old ships being scrapped in poor countries where health and environmental laws are flouted.
   Denmark recently failed to stop an old passenger boat, Frederik XI, being sold to India for demolition.
   ‘The 25 EU member states (have) agreed to work for binding international rules for the dismantling of ships,’ Danish Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard said in a statement. ‘It’s very good news.’
   Europe wants the United Nations International Maritime Organisation to discuss the issue next month.

The Nestle Bangladesh Ltd launched milk product for children in Dhaka on Saturday.
   The managing director of Nestle Bangladesh, Carlo Cifiello, said it took two years to develop Nido Growing up Milk.
   He said price of new Nido would be 20 per cent higher than that of normal Nido milk.
   The director (marketing) of Nestle Bangladesh, Mohsin Uddin Ahmed said high duty on imported dairy products is one of the reasons of the high price.
   ‘The government policy to encourage local dairy farms is good but our farms are not capable of meeting the local needs’, he added.
   The nutrition director Aftab uz Zaman Khan said that the product would be produced in Australia and repacked at Nestle’s Bangladesh factory in Sreepur.
   He said milk consumption in Bangladesh is lowest in the region and suggested a lower price might make it accessible to all.

The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan on Saturday called upon all concerned to take steps for making the cooperative bank a modern financial institution by upgrading its services.
   ‘The government wants to turn the cooperative bank, the lone bank in the cooperative sector, into a full-fledged commercialbank for the welfare of the cooperators,’ he said while addressing as the chief guest the 28th annual conference of the cooperative bank at Mohanagar Nattyamanch here.
   Presided over by the chairman of the bank and deputy minister for land, Advocate Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu, the inaugural function was also addressed by the secretary-in-charge of Rural Development and Cooperative Division, Md Hedayetul Islam Chowdhury and the registrar of the cooperative directorate, Sheikh
   Altaf Ali.
   Bhuiyan described the role of the cooperative bank in providing all financial assistance to the cooperators and said the present government had agreed to deposit Tk 50 crore with the Bangladesh Bank for restarting its loan programme.
   Apart from this, he said, the government has already waived the interest on agricultural loan up to Tk 5,000. ‘
   The government has also undertaken various steps to infuse more dynamism into the activities of cooperative sector,’ he said.
   The minister called upon the cooperators to pay the installments of their cooperative loans on time and take the advantage of receiving loans again from the bank.

An Indian central bank panel on Friday recommended the country, which is sitting on a huge pile of foreign exchange reserves, should further relax capital controls and push forward more reforms in the currency market.
   To allow more hedging flexibility, the panel said residents should be allowed to cancel and rebook foreign currency swaps, while companies should deal in covered call and put options.
   And Indian banks should be allowed to accept deposits from non-resident Indians in more foreign currencies, including the Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar.
   India’s rupee is only partially convertible and last month, in a bid to curb speculation and develop a local long-term forward rupee-dollar curve, the central bank barred a foreign benchmark to price a key interest rate derivative used by companies to hedge foreign currency exposures.
   The Reserve Bank of India often intervenes to curb sharp currency swings, which has boosted foreign exchange reserves to $138 billion from about $25 billion five years back.
   Since the reserves could pay for 15 months of imports, analysts say the central bank should relax its strict capital controls, imposed decades ago when foreign currency was scarce.

Russia called on nations in the World Trade Organisation on Monday to be more flexible in talks on its membership bid, amid widespread concern about the slow pace of the negotiations.
   ‘Our pockets are already emptied to a large extent,’ Russia’s minister for economic development and trade, German Gref, told journalists after a meeting of the WTO’s working party on Russian accession in Geneva.
   ‘The results of the negotiations will largely hinge on our partners,’ he said, adding that negotiations were about ‘give and take’.
   Officials indicated there was still disagreement on a wide range of issues, including agricultural trade, aircraft imports, intellectual property and financial services, during a round of negotiations in Geneva this week.
   Russia reiterated that it wanted to seal an agreement on accession at a WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December.
   ‘I hope from the standpoint of Russia this will be a watershed,’ Gref said.
   The chairman of the working party, Iceland’s ambassador Stefan Johanesson, said: ‘I will do my utmost to accelerate the work and make progress. This has been a target and it has been a target for many.’
   However, concerns about the pace of the talks re-emerged this week and there was disappointment about the extent of new offers tabled by the Russian delegation during the latest round of negotiations.
   Australia, Canada, the European Union and the United States were among the trading partners that raised concerns at the 148-nation WTO this week.

The latest rise in oil prices, taking the price of a benchmark barrel past the 60-dollar mark for the first time, is having an impact on airline ticket prices as carriers slap on fresh fuel surcharges.
   For the fourth time in nearly a year, British Airways will increase ticket prices to cover the increase in its fuel costs, expected to reach 1.6 billion pounds in the current financial year, 450 million pounds more than in 2004-2005.
   As from Monday, British Airways will increase the fuel surcharge from 24 to 36 pounds (36 euros, 43.5 dollars) on long- haul flights.
   The oil price increase past the 60-dollar mark in New York this week has had an immediate effect on the bottom line of the airlines, for which fuel represents about 20 per cent of their overall costs.
   Several other carriers moved immediately to introduce or increase surcharges.
   Virgin Atlantic said it would increase surcharges from 24 to 36 pounds. The freight division of Lufthansa was expected to announce a price hike on Monday. The low cost German carrier Germanwings said it would introduce a fuel surcharge of three euros for the first time on all its tickets.
   Air France-KLM, which announced fare increases in March, was hesitating to slap on fresh surcharges having done so three times already since May 2004.
   The alliance has hedged 81 per cent of fuel price increases above 45 dollars a barrel for 2005 and 2006 and said there were no plans for the time being to hike long-haul surcharges beyond the present 34 dollars.
   In 2004-2005, Air France-KLM took in 300 million euros in surcharges for a total fuel bill of 2.65 billion euros, which is expected to increase this year to 3.37 billion euros.

India’s companies are getting increasingly ambitious. That means they need money. And that means they need a vibrant bond market.
   But to date corporate India has relied primarily on commercial loans, an easier but more expensive route to cash.
   Senior bond dealers say more instruments and new, preferably foreign, blood are needed if the market is to develop and become a key source of funds. Even the prime minister has expressed concern many companies cannot tap the bond market easily.
   Bank loans to Indian firms rose 11 per cent to 2.47 trillion rupees ($56.7 billion) in the year to March 2004, central bank data shows. But only 592 billion rupees was raised via bonds.
   Dealers say just a handful of banks trade actively. The only heavyweight investors in long-dated paper are one insurer and a few pension funds.
   Opening the debt market in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, permitting short-selling in government securities and reviving a comatose futures market would all help.
   Banks, insurers and mutual funds are the biggest players in the bond market, in which annual volumes have surged to 17.7 trillion rupees last year from under a trillion in the mid-1990s.
   Still, dealers say the market is at a nascent stage, with only a few liquid issues, while foreign investors face a $2.25 billion aggregate cap on holdings of rupee-denominated debt.
   ‘We do not have enough large players. The risk appetite for investors is virtually not there,’ said Jayesh Mehta, head of debt markets at DSP Merrill Lynch.
   The shortest and the fastest way to develop the debt market, Mehta said, is to open up investments to foreign institutional investors. These, he said, are serious players who will look for long-term investments in debt.

Deep misgivings about China's rising economic and political clout have helped fuel political resistance to a major Chinese oil company's bid to buy US producer Unocal, experts said yesterday.
   State-owned CNOOC Ltd's $18.5 billion bid for Unocal Corp on Wednesday, topping Chevron Corp's roughly $16.4 billion offer, came under swift fire from US lawmakers, who are calling for stringent investigations into the transaction even before a deal is reached.
   The Unocal issue arises at a time of record oil prices, unease over China's $160 billion trade surplus with the United States and an appetite in Congress to punish China with tariffs unless it revalues its currency.
   US defense officials are embroiled in a debate over how to evaluate China's military. The Pentagon's annual report on China's military modernisation has been delayed for weeks in an apparent dispute over how stark a picture to present.
   Mikkal Herberg, an analyst at the National Bureau of Asian Research in Seattle, said there were solid reasons to examine the financing of the Chinese firm's bid and ask whether it was a commercial transaction or an effort to corner oil supplies.
   Unocal is the ninth largest US oil and gas production company.
   'But this combines with all these other concerns about China currency, trade deficit and other things-to make another reason for China-bashing, which I'm worried about.'
   'If CNOOC wins the bidding war, then the government steps in and ultimately turns it down, that's going to be just a horrendous episode in US-China relations,' Herberg said.
   Top US officials assert that US-China ties have rarely been better, with cooperation on anti-terrorism and in diplomatic efforts to end North Korea's nuclear arms programmes. China is host of six-party talks on North Korea, which also include the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
   The administration of president George W.Bush, who will meet Chinese president Hu Jintao several times this year, has repeatedly staved off protectionism aimed at China.
   Zheng Bijian, a Chinese Communist Party opinion leader, toured the United States last week and met senior government officials with the message that China was seeking a 'peaceful rise' in its international position that would not challenge US interests.
   Brookings Institution scholar Kenneth Lieberthal, who handled China policy in the Clinton White House, said the political calm with China Bush enjoyed from the Sept. 11 attacks through his re- election was giving way to tension.
   'The top leaders of both counties continue to want the relationship to work well, but the politics of the relations below the highest level are becoming tougher,' he said.
   'We are fully engaged and yet there is a question as to how much we can trust each other's intentions, so when politics become tougher in one capital, that underlying distrust on the other side gets more horsepower behind it,' Lieberthal said.
   China's dramatic emergence has added to long-term troubles, such as the status of Taiwan, over which Beijing claims sovereignty but which Washington supplies with defensive arms.
   China's intensifying quest for oil to fuel its surging economy has led Beijing to embrace energy-rich countries the United States shuns, such as Iran and Sudan. If CNOOC does succeed, it would be the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese firm.
   'They are paying a price for access to (oil) markets which may not be in anybody's interest, like providing the Sudanese and the Libyans with advanced weaponry,' said Richard D'Amato, chairman of the US-China Commission, which advises Congress.
   Lieberthal said the Unocal bid marked a potentially good way for China to secure 'non-rogue' oil supplies, and a rejection could drive the Chinese closer to the pariahs.
   Some observers see hypocrisy in US officials complaining about investment barriers in China but crying foul when Chinese firms want to buy US businesses.
   But Gal Luft, executive director of Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, said it would be 'suicidal' at a time of $60-a-barrel oil for the United States to let a Chinese state-run firm control oil sources by buying Unocal.
   'It's not the government of Japan or France,' he said. 'We want to think about the fact that an American company falls in the hands of the Communist government of China.'

High oil prices and China's controversial fixed currency regime are expected to be the focus of discussions at a meeting of finance ministers from Asia and Europe this weekend.
   'The finance ministers will disuss the global economic imbalance, the challenges of maintaining global economic growth, such as rising oil prices and interest rates and necessary policies to deal with this' said a statement issued by organizers of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Saturday.
   ASEM is a grouping of 38 countries from the two regions with the European Union also maintaining a coordinating role in the meeting. 'What we are calling for is one, stable oil prices,' Mitja Mavko, an official of the Slovenia finance ministry, told reporters. 'We (also) want to avoid volatility.'
   Mavko said he expected to see a call for oil producing countries to increase production levels in a final communique to be issued after the meeting Sunday.
   'The only way to achieve (lower oil prices) is to increase production. I think they should,' said Rastislav Sulla, counsellor with the embassy of Slovakia.
   World oil prices climbed to a new closing high Friday just short of the 60-dollar mark in the face of projections about robust demand from China and the United States.
   Countries fear continuing oil price rises will affect economic growth and fuel inflation. The need to develop alternative sources of energy will also be under discussion, Mavko said.
   The annual meeting will also look at ways to deepen financial cooperation between Asia and Europe in the face of these challenges. Delegates will discuss how to set up a mechanism for emergency dialogue on 'sudden economic and financial matters,' according to the statement.
   While China's controversial yuan peg to the dollar is not on the formal agenda, it is expected to figure high in sideline discussions.
   The yuan, tied to the US dollar for the past decade at around 8.28, is widely seen, especially by Washington, as being undervalued.
   China has been under heavy pressure from the United States and Europe to ease the peg, which US and European officials contend gives Chinese exporters an unfair competitive advantage.
   Japan, one of the key advocates for a yuan revaluation, is expected to use the ASEM meeting to lobby further for China to take steps towards yuan flexibility.
   Japanese finance minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said earlier this month China should act sooner rather than later. He is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese finance minister Jin Renqing later Saturday, the first among finance ministers of the two countries in years.
   Until now, China has insisted it would adjust the yuan when such a move was deemed to be in the country's economic interest.
   It has also insisted it will not bow to political and speculative pressures to adjust the value of its currency.
   Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is scheduled to deliver a speech at the opening ceremony Sunday.

China is firmly opposed to a planned European Union probe into allegations it is dumping exports of 'safety shoes', which a commerce ministry spokesman said has no legal or factual basis.
   European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said earlier this month that he would open an investigation into whether Chinese exports of reinforced shoes were being sold in Europe at prices below production cost.
   The proposed investigation will last a maximum of nine months and could lead to the imposition of punitive duties.
   'China is firmly opposed to the European Union launching this anti-dumping investigation without a factual basis or a legal foundation,' commerce ministry spokesman Chong Quan said in a statement posted on the ministry Web site late on Friday.
   'China urges the EU to start with the facts, make prudent decisions and avoid trade frictions.'
   The EU's executive arm said in early June there had been a year-on-year rise of 681 per cent in imports of six categories of Chinese footwear in the first four months of this year, while prices slipped 28 per cent over the same period.
   But Quan said the statistics were a result of errors in data collection and processing methods, noting that Chinese customs figures showed an increase of only 23 per cent in quantity for the same period, with prices up 30 per cent.
   An increase in shipments of footwear to the West at the start of the year was driven by the abolition of a decades-old global quotas regime on January 1. A similar surge occurred for textiles and garments.
   Chinese officials said earlier this month they hope to reach an agreement for shoes that is similar to one hammered out over textiles.

Patients could no longer use government funds to help pay for Viagra and other drugs that enhance sexual performance under a measure passed by the US House of Representatives on Friday.
   The House voted 285-121 to ban Medicare or Medicaid payments for Pfizer Inc.'s (NYSE:PFE - news) Viagra and competing impotence treatments Levitra and Cialis.
   Opponents of the initiative pledged to work with the Senate this summer to strip it from a massive bill that funds federal health insurance programs, AIDS research and other health programs for the fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1.
   But Rep. Steve King (news, bio, voting record), the Iowa Republican who pushed the amendment through the House, said that without such prohibitions, 'we will be down the slippery slope of millions of people who believe the entitlement is taxpayer-funded recreational sex drugs.'
   The government is expected to spend $2 billion over the next 10 years on payments for Viagra, Levitra and Cialis, according to the Congressional Budget Office. King said US taxpayers had already spent more than $117 million for patients using the drugs.
   Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson (news, bio, voting record) of Connecticut, who chairs a congressional panel that oversees health care, said the measure unfairly targeted senior citizens and others who suffered from serious diseases.
   'These drugs are often medically necessary ... to help men who have lost sexual function caused by prostate cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, nerve damage or cardiac conditions,' Johnson said during House debate.

Rich countries must end subsidies to their cotton producers if African countries which grow the crop are to lift themselves from the spiral of poverty, the head of the IMF said Friday.
   Rodrigo Rato, in an article for the French daily Le Figaro, said African countries had accepted the need to reform their cotton sectors, and the International Monetary Fund was offering them loans on concessionary terms to do so.
   But he said they could not succeed so long as rich nations continued to drive down world prices with huge subsidies to their own cotton producers.
   'It goes without saying that Africa cannot get out of this situation alone,' Rato said.
   'In the framework of the negotiations under way at the WTO (World Trade Organisation), industrialised countries urgently need to end the subsidies which distort trade.'
   Rato's comments come at a time when there is an international push to alleviate poverty in Africa with aid and debt relief set to dominate a July 6-8 summit of the G8 -- the Group of Seven industrialised nations plus Russia.
   British Prime Minister Tony Blair wants rich nations to cancel up to 100 per cent of Africa's multilateral debt, pay out an extra $25 billion in annual aid to 2010 and open up Europe to African exports. Africa must practice good governance in return.
   Rato said eliminating the cotton subsidies and other distortionary factors would lead to a recovery in prices and encourage cotton production in countries where there was no subsidy.
   While African countries should avoid the temptation of diverting budgetary resources to compensate the cotton producing sector for their losses, some extra help might be necessary in the short term, Rato said.
   'It is...likely that in the near future exceptional financing will be necessary during a period of adjustment.'
   He said development aid by institutions and countries should also try to offer more support to reforms aimed at improving the efficiency of the cotton sector in Africa.
   'It is important to ensure that donors' assistance is directed where it is most needed and does not slow the reforms which modernise the industry. The IMF is ready, if necessary, to increase its concessionary loans to the region.'

Oracle Corp on Friday named a well-regarded dealmaker and former Microsoft Corp. chief financial officer as president and CFO to help it to pursue further software company acquisitions.
   Gregory Maffei served as Microsoft's CFO from July 1997 to January 2000 and oversaw the software giant's $35 billion cash and strategic investment portfolio.
   Maffei, most recently chairman and chief executive at telecommunications services company 360 networks, joins Oracle in July. He told Reuters that as a senior executive he would have a role in mergers and acquisitions.
   His hiring came about six months after Oracle's $10.6 billion acquisition of rival PeopleSoft, following a bitterly fought takeover battle. Oracle did four acquisitions this year and still has a shopping list.
   'With Greg, Oracle will become even more aggressive,' said Hochfeld Independent Research Group's Bert Hochfeld. 'Most people think he's going to help close some of the deals that Oracle is trying to close.'
   Maffei started at Microsoft in 1993 and held a number of positions, including vice president of corporate development, treasurer and director of business development and investments.
   He helped Microsoft navigate its transition from a desktop operating software company to an applications software company, and then to an Internet applications provider.
   Maffei was instrumental with Microsoft's investment in Apple Computer and the creation of cable network MSNBC, a joint venture between Microsoft and General Electric Co.-owned broadcaster NBC. Maffei said he would use these experiences to help Oracle extend its positions.

Russia thinks it can reach a deal to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by the end of the year, but its trade partners must accept reasonable terms, Economy Minister German Gref said yesterday.
   In a speech to the WTO, Gref said talks on the accession of Russia, a major oil producer and the largest economy still outside the 148-state body, had dragged on long enough.
   'It is time to wrap this up after 11 years of negotiations,' trade officials quoted him as telling the closed-door session of the negotiating body, the Working Party on Russia's accession.
   'But we also hope for flexibility from trade partners. We will not assume obligations that we cannot carry out, or which limit our rights,' he said. Both Russia and its leading trade partners have said they hope an accord on entry will be ready for trade ministers to sign at a WTO conference set for Hong Kong in December. Moscow's formal entry could come a few months later.
   But Russia and its trading partners put the onus on each other to see that this happens.
   'The government is intent on exerting every effort to complete ... negotiations by December,' Gref told journalists. 'But the keys to this process are in the pockets of our partners.'
   Diplomats said the accession talks have struggled recently, with problems in both bilateral bargaining with individual states and in the overall negotiations with the full membership.
   'That depends on what happens in Moscow,' said one senior European Union official when asked about the chances of a December deal.
   Russia had passed a number of good laws aimed at bringing its commercial rules into line with WTO practice, but now it was a question of seeing them applied.

World oil prices jumped to a record 60 dollars per barrel this week on concerns about possible supply shortages during the fourth quarter when refineries could struggle to meet strong demand for heating fuel.
   Copper reached a fresh historic high point in part owing to tight supplies, while sugar hit a four-year peak after the European Union agreed to slash guaranteed prices for the commodity's producers.
   The Commodities Research Bureau's index of 17 commodities climbed to 311.69 points on Friday, from 310.98 points the previous week.
   GOLD: On the London Bullion Market, gold hit 442.95 dollars at Friday's morning fixing, the highest level since March 16.
   A stronger US currency makes gold-denominated in dollars on world markets-more expensive for buyers and has thus traditionally led to a drop in prices.
   On the London Bullion Market, gold prices jumped to 440.55 dollars per ounce at the late fixing on Friday from 437.50 dollars the previous week.
   SILVER: On the London Bullion Market, silver prices dropped to 7.285 dollars per ounce at the late fixing Friday from 7.395 dollars the previous week.
   BASE METALS : Three-month aluminium prices fell to 1,753 dollars per tonne Friday from 1,768 dollars.
   Three-month nickel prices slumped to 14,875 dollars per tonne on Friday from 16,250 dollars.
   Three-month lead prices dropped to 945.50 dollars per tonne Friday from 979 dollars.
   Three-month zinc prices declined to 1,293 dollars per tonne Friday from 1,317 dollars.
   Three-month tin prices fell to 7,450 dollars per tonne Friday from 7,625 dollars.
   RUBBER: Rubber stretched to the highest level since November 2003 as the rainy season in Asia held back production.
   In Osaka, the RSS 3 August contract jumped to 164.80 US cents on Friday, from 156.90 cents a week earlier.
   Singapore's RSS 3 July contract rose to 148 US cents on Friday, from 144 cents.
   COFFEE: Analysts see a deficit of between 7.0 and 10 million bags of 60- kilogramme coffee this year.
   On LIFFE, Robusta quality for September delivery rose to 1,235 dollars per tonne on Friday from 1,200 dollars a week earlier. On New York's CSCE market, Arabica for September delivery dipped to 110.50 cents per pound on Friday, from 111.10 cents.
   GRAINS AND SOYA: On LIFFE, wheat for July delivery slipped to 63.75 pounds per tonne on Friday from 66.50 pounds a week earlier.
   In Chicago, the price of wheat for July delivery rose to 336.50 cents per bushel Friday from 326 cents.
   Maize for July delivery climbed to 230.25 cents per bushel on Friday from 227.25 cents.
   Soyabeans for July delivery jumped to 740 cents per bushel on Friday from 713 cents.
   July-dated soyabean meal-used in animal feed-gained to 231.20 dollars per tonne on Friday from 225.50 dollars.
   COTTON: New York's July contract rose to 49.35 cents per pound on Friday from 47.45 cents the previous week.
   The Cotton Outlook Index of physical cotton stood at 54.55 cents on Thursday from 52.60 cents a week earlier.
   WOOL: Wool prices firmed during a quiet trading week.
   The Australian Eastern index climbed to 7.07 Australian dollars per kilo on Thursday, from 7.05 Australian dollars a week earlier.
   The British Wooltops index was unchanged at 396 pence on Thursday.

FBCCI preliminary voter list on June 30
The biennial election to the board of directors of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry will be held on August 21 this year. Saturday was the last date for receiving nominations from the member organisations to update the list of general body members. About 300 member organisations will exercise their franchise in the polls. After scrutinising the nominations, the preliminary voter list will be published on June 30. FBCCI executives said the voters would have the opportunity to lodge objections to the appeal board of the FBCCI election board till 4:00pm on July 6 in case of any complaint against the preliminary list of voters. The appeal board will conduct hearing and dispose of the objections to the preliminary voter list from July 7-9 and the final voter list published on July 13. The last date of submission of the nomination papers for the election of 24 FBCCI directors has been fixed on July 20. Besides the 24 elected directors, 14 other directors will be inducted in the FBCCI board of directors through selection.
— UNB

Reverse repo
auction held
The reverse repo auction for commercial banks and financial institutions was held at Bangladesh Bank Saturday. Seventeen bids of 1-day tenor amounting to Tk 2,060 crore were received and accepted, said a Bangladesh Bank release. The rates of interest against the accepted bids were from 4.45 per cent to 4.50 per cent per annum.
— UNB

DSE finishes higher
Trading at Dhaka Stock Exchange closed higher Saturday with the gainers outnumbering the losers. The DSE All Share Price Index increased by 2.40 points or 0.18 per cent to close at 1325.45 points Saturday. The DSE-20 Index, however, decreased by 0.59 points or 0.03 per cent to close at 1864.19 points on the trading day. Of the total 163 issues traded Saturday, 71 gained, 67 declined and 25 remained unchanged. Some 2,365,439 shares and debentures worth Tk 19.06 crore changed hands on the day.
— UNB

CSE closes lower
Trading at Chittagong Stock Exchange All Share Price Index closed lower Saturday with the losers dominating the gainers. The CSE All Share Price Index decreased by 0.28 per cent to close at 3328.12 points from Thursday’s 3337.49 points. The CSE-30 Index however, enhanced by 0.44 per cent to close at 3143.16 points from 3129.29 points of the previous trading day. Of the total 71 issues traded Saturday, 29 gained, 32 declined and 10 remained unchanged. Some 2,529,139 shares and debentures worth Tk 5.45 crore changed hands today as against 1,965,742 shares valued at Tk 4.76 crore of the previous trading day.
— UNB

Honda China JV starts exports of car
Honda Automobile (China) Co Ltd, an automobile production joint venture, said Saturday it has started exporting its Jazz compact passenger cars to Europe. The joint venture between Honda Motor Co Ltd and Guangzhou Auto Group Co Ltd began mass production of the Jazz model in April at a plant exclusively dedicated to exports, the company said on its website. China’s automotive giant, the Dongfeng Motor Group Ltd, also has a 10 per cent stake in the joint venture. State press reports said the exports marked the first time that a Chinese made car has been exported to Europe. The first destinations include Germany and Italy, it added. Honda already exports Japanese-made Jazz cars to Europe. The China plant is based in southern Guangzhou city and is expected to produce about 10,000 cars this year. Production will reach 50,000 cars a year within five years time.
— AFP

Reforms necessary for Singapore’s
ports: Lee
Singapore’s ports must deliver faster and cheaper services if they are to remain competitive as global shipping lines consolidate, the city-state’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew said in comments published Saturday. Lee said Singapore’s port operator PSA Corp. should follow the example of Danish shipping group AP Moeller-Maersk, which recently bid to take over Royal PO Nedlloyd of the Netherlands, to strengthen its bargaining clout. ‘They will have the bargaining power to press their claims. PSA has to meet their needs to its best ability,’ Lee said in the Straits Times newspaper. He said other shipping lines would respond to the merger by forming similar alliances, sparking a wave of consolidation similar to that of airports and banks.
— AFP

S Korea probes foreign banks’ illegal trading
Deutsche Bank and three other foreign financial institutions have been investigated over possible irregularities in derivatives trading, financial regulators said Saturday. The Financial Supervisory Service said Deutsche, BNP Paribas, Barclays and JP Morgan were suspected of trading derivatives improperly with state firms. The watchdog investigated the banks on allegations they signed contracts unfavorable to state firms and failed to inform them of the risks involved. South Korean state companies invest in derivatives products to hedge foreign exchange risks and lower their interest-bearing burden in raising funds overseas.
— AFP

Hynix issues $500m bond in New York
South Korean microchip giant Hynix Semiconductor said Saturday it has floated bonds worth a smaller than expected $500 million in New York as part of efforts to repay debt. The bond sale was smaller than 750 million dollars planned by Hynix, but the company said it would ease the burden from short-term debt. ‘The bond issue proves foreign investors positively assess our restructuring efforts,’ the world’s second largest microchip maker said in a statement. Hynix will be allowed to emerge from creditor oversight if it successfully raises funds. Creditors own 81 per cent of the troubled company.
— AFP