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The latest pay hike, as approved by the cabinet on Monday, will inflate government’s spending on salary account, but fail to offset real income eaten up by inflation in last seven years, economists say.
   The hike is still 8 to 10 per cent away from the level required to compensate the public servants for erosion in real value of the money they will draw, they view.
   Real earnings of the government officials and employees lost more than 40 per cent of their value due to inflation since the last pay scale enforced partly in 1997, says a study of the local research organisation, Centre for Policy Dialogue.
   Economists observed that latest pay hike has not adjusted real income erosion caused by increasing inflation.
   The 2005 pay scale will raise monthly salary by 53 per cent on an average for all public servants of 20 grades with retrospective effect from January 1.
   ‘It will neither protect the real income against spurring inflation, nor compensate the erosion of income for the last seven years,’ said Abdul Hye Mondal, a senior research fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
   He said that new pay scale was roughly 8 to 10 per cent lower than the required level of rise to protect real income.
   ‘The government has endorsed the lowest scale of pay hike as there is a pressure from the World Bank and IMF not to implement proposed pay-scale fully,’ Mondal told New Age on Monday.
   He was of the view that there should be a permanent pay commission to review pay structure regularly and accordingly adjust it with inflationary pressure.
   Mandal also ruled out the possibility of a fresh wave of price hike because of the new pay scale.
   ‘Speculations over the new pay scale have already pushed the price level to some extent during the last few months. So, there will be little impact in the market,’ he added.
   It was in 1997 when government partially implemented a new pay scale. Since then, there has been no adjustment of the government officers and employees salaries with the inflation.
   Pay and allowance exhausted 30.84 per cent of the total revenue spending in the first eight months of the current fiscal year.
   Finance ministry figures show spending on pay and allowance amounted to Tk 5263.4 crore against the annual target of Tk 8218 crore.
   Salary account is the single largest area of revenue spending, followed by subsidies and current transfers as well as interest payments.
   The government spent Tk493.2 crore on officers’ salary while payoffs to employees amounted to Tk2089.4 crore in July-February of 2004-05 fiscal.
   Allowances accounted for Tk2680 crore of the revenue expenditure in the period.
   Public spending on pay and allowance totalled Tk 7661.7 crore or 28.5 per cent of the revenue expenditure in the last fiscal.

Bangladeshi biscuits have made their way to foreign markets with encouraging growth in export volume, said officials of the Export Promotion Bureau.
   Local producers are producing world class biscuits and if aggressive marketing drive is undertaken they can increase export volume, officials of the bureau said.
   ‘Bangladeshi biscuits are being exported to advanced market including England and Australia and also in India and the Middle East,’ said Mir Sahabuddin Mohammed, vice- chairman of the EPB.
   He said the biscuit export figure could reach Tk 1 billion if quality is ensured and proper business strategy is adopted.
   According to EPB statistics released last week, exporters sent more than Tk 2 crore worth of biscuits during the first nine months of the current fiscal, which shows a big jump compared with Tk 23 lakh during the same period of the last fiscal year.
   The Export Promotion Bureau met local biscuits manufacturers on Sunday to discuss the potentials of the products.
   Exporters said local biscuits have great demand in India including north-east states of the country but they are facing some barriers.
   Exporters alleged that Indian authority doesn’t give tariff concession on salty or sweet-less biscuits which increases the export price.
   They also urged the government to provide export incentives.
   The EPB will place recommendations to the government very soon for some supporting measures to biscuits exporters.
   ‘We will review exporters demand and send our recommendation to the government soon in this regard,’ said the EBP vice-chairman.

Britain’s Cairn Energy could invest up to $80 million for exploration in Bangladesh next year, encouraged by settlement of dues for gas it developed on the Sangu field, a company official said on Monday.
   ‘We’ve always seen geological potential in Bangladesh but we stopped investing for a while because we were not paid on time,’ Michael Watts, director for exploration and new business at Cairn Energy, told Reuters at an industry seminar in Malaysia.
   ‘Last winter, we invested in development drilling and we’re looking next year to start investing in exploration again for two reasons: the arrears problem has gone away on the Sangu field and there is now growth in the domestic market,’ he added.
   Watts, speaking at the Asia Upstream 2005 conference in Kuala Lumpur, said Cairn was confident that Bangladesh’s growing domestic market for gas could absorb up to an additional 250 million cubic feet (mmcf) of supply a day.
   ‘We haven’t made any commitments yet, but I would put it somewhere between 50 and 80 million dollars on exploration and maybe additional development miles for the coming year.’
   Cairn has drilled three development wells on Sangu, Bangladesh’s only offshore gas field located in the Bay of Bengal nearly 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Chittagong.
   The Sangu field was discovered in February 1996 and first gas delivered on June 12, 1998.
   It provides roughly 12 per cent of the total gas supply, which has 15.33 trillion cubic feet of proven and recoverable gas reserve based on current estimates, energy officials said.
   Cairn has invested more than $50 million in the second development phase of Sangu, which produces up to 170 mmcf of gas per day, almost 90 per cent for the national grid.
   Watts said Bangladesh’s gas sector was underdeveloped, with just about 70 exploration wells.
   ‘The business climate has improved in Bangladesh in the last few years and I think 70 exploration wells is too few to say the country’s been really explored. It certainly needs to double that,’ Watts said.
   ‘We have to invest in tandem with the market. Otherwise, you are in a situation like we are in Papua New Guinea, where we’ve got a gas field but no market.’
   A lack of customers has stunted gas development in Papua New Guinea, which is believed to be home to some of the richest gas deposits in the Pacific.

Tourism industry hopes to see an influx of Chinese travellers after the Asian giant acknowledged Bangladesh as a preferred destination for its people.
   The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, announced this status for Bangladesh during his April 7-8 visit to Dhaka.
   ‘We are expecting a huge number of Chinese tourists to visit Bangladesh every year,’ said an official of the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation.
   The number of Chinese tourists may go up to around 50,000 a year following granting of the approved destinations status, officials at the state-run agency for tourism promotion said.
   The private tour operators are also upbeat about the Chinese tourists arrival in Bangladesh.
   ‘We also see high potential of growth in Chinese tourists in coming days,’ said Hasan Mansur, managing director of Guide Tours. He said that the industry would then need a good number of Chinese speaking guides to attend the Chinese tourists.
   Estimates suggest that about 20.2 million Chinese tourists travelled abroad in 2003 and the World Tourism Organisation forecasts China will have 100 million outbound tourists a year by 2020.
   Industry insiders believe that the Dhaka- Kunming direct air link, scheduled to be established on May 18, would encourage more Chinese travellers and traders, especially from southwest Yunnan province, to visit Bangladesh.
   Masud Hossain, chief executive of Bengal Tours, however, is not much optimistic about a big rise in Chinese tourists, given the inadequate infrastructure and logistic supports needed to entertain foreign tourists.
   ‘The logistics now available are not enough to handle a large number of tourists,’ he said.
   Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation has taken steps to develop a pool of Chinese-speaking guides. It has introduced a two-month course on Chinese language.
   Corporation officials said, a total of 2.46 lakh foreign tourists visited Bangladesh in 2003 and the number rose close to 3 lakh in 2004.
   European and Japanese visitors make up almost half of foreign tourists coming here.

In a bid to boost export, the Bangladesh Ceramic Wares Manufacturers Association has urged the government to reduce import duty on its raw materials in the next budget.
   The association also demanded post-import inspection of ceramic wares as well as no further increase of VAT in this sector.
   ‘The import duty on an average stands at 12 per cent at present that should be minimised to 5 per cent so that we can compete in international market with our products,’ said Rashed Mowdud Khan, president of the association.
   Besides, the import duty on some specific raw materials is 15 to 30 per cent and they have to pay 15 per cent VAT on produced wares, he added.
   Citing the Bangladesh Bank’s annual export receipts, he said the ceramic product export has increased to Tk 178.73 crore in 2003-2004 from Tk 66.16 crore in 1996-97.
   To increase the export volume, he also demanded the government to take steps to reduce the bank interest rate in this sector.
   Bangladeshi ceramic wares are exporting to 48 countries, including European Union, Scandinavian countries and US market while China, Poland, Thailand, Romania and Indonesia are the major competitors of Bangladesh, he added.
   ‘We are self-sufficient to cater our local demand,’ said Khan. ‘However the local market is over flooded with low-grade imported wares mostly from China.’ he said.
   Some 15 ceramic producing plants are now in Bangladesh that creted 7,000 direct employments.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka Joint Economic Commission announced here on Friday that they have agreed to usher in a free trade regime from June 12, 2005. The decision was taken as part of the recently concluded Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two SAARC members.
   Under the agreement, the two countries have agreed to offer preferential market access to each other’s exports by way of granting tariff concessions.
   Pakistan would gain duty-free access on 102 goods in the Lankan market. Similarly Sri Lanka would be able to enjoy duty-free market access on 206 products in the Pakistani market, including tea, rubber and coconut.
   Pakistan has also agreed to provide assistance in livestock breeding and consultancy services in agriculture, horticulture and food processing.
   The two countries will also cooperate in human resource development, information technology, agronomic management, education and port and shipping.
   The decision was announced after the conclusion of the 9th session of the Pakistan and Sri Lanka Economic Commission, which was attended by Pakistani commerce minister Humayun Akhtar Khan and his Lankan counterpart Jeyaraj Fernandopuille.
   The two leaders exchanged documents, confirming completion of necessary constitutional and domestic legal procedures for the effective implementation of the FTA.

Prime Bank Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding with Prime Insurance Company Ltd. in Dhaka recently, says a press release.
   As per the agreement, Prime Insurance will provide insurance coverage to Prime Bank’s fixed depositors and credit card holders.
   M Shahjahan Bhuiyan, managing director of Prime Bank and SM Fareedul Islam, acting managing director of Prime Insurance, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
   Nasiruddin Ahmed, Kazi Masihur Rahman, deputy managing directors, Motior Rahman, senior executive vice-president, Manash Kumar Ghosh, executive vice-president of Prime Bank and Nimmy Chowdhury, assistant managing director, Sujit Kumar Bhowmik, vice- president, Syed Forhad Abbas Hossain, senior assistant vice-president of Prime Insurance were
   also present in the signing ceremony.

Gulshan Spinning Mills Ltd has signed a corporate agreement with the cellphone operator CityCell, says a press release.
   According to the agreement, the spinning mills will get some exclusive services from CityCell.
   Telecommunication expenses of the mill will be reduced significantly as a result of competitive charges offered by CityCell.
   As per the deal, CityCell will also complement the employees and associates of the mill equally.
   MA Rahman, director of Gulshan Spinning Mills and Sharif Shah Jamal Raj, assistant vice-president (direct and corporate sales) of PBTL, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

Employees of United Parcel Service, Bangladesh, received training on ‘systems advancements and technical upgrading’ in Dhaka recently, says a press release.
   William Ng, director (industrial engineering), South Asia Pacific Region of United Parcel Service of United Percel Service, gave them training for UPS’ Bangladesh operations.
   He also gave them know-how on implementation of mainframe access maintaining security in the system through use of RSA tokens.
   RSA tokens provide secure access numbers that are changed every minute to maintain the high privacy and confidentiality of customer documents.
   UPS, which has built one of the world’s best-known brands, operates in more than 200 countries. Air Alliance Ltd. is the service partner of UPS in Bangladesh.

Uzbek Scientific Research Institute for Plant Protection and Jubok Agro-Biotech Ltd, Bangladesh recently signed a technical agreement on technology transfer for biological control of pest on various crops,
   says a press release.
   Rajaboy Ochilov, director of the Uzbek Scientific Research Institute and Hosain Al Masum, chairman of Jubok Agro Biotech, signed the agreement ceremonially in Taskhend, capital of Uzbekistan.
   Barno, scientist of Uzbek Research Institute and Abutaleb Sarker and Serajul Islam, directors of Juhok Agro-Biotech, among others, were also present in the signing ceremony.

The branch managers’ conference of Janata Bank was held at the bank’s Narayanganj area office on Saturday, says a press release.
   The managing director of the bank, SM Aminur Rahman, inaugurated the conference.
   In his speech, the managing director urged the branch managers to provide the customers with quality service for expanding the business of the bank.
   He also laid emphasis on recovering classified loans, increasing deposit and remittance.

M Shoeb Chowdhury has been selected as member of ICT Policy and Governance Committee of the UN's ICT task force, says a press release.
   A member of Low Cost Connectivity and Access and Enabling Environment Committee, Shoeb is the chief executive officer of the ICT giant Insoft and SKYbd and a director of Special Olympic Bangladesh. He is also a member for FBCCI, BCS, BASIS, ISPAB and American Chamber.

SKRP has launched its new product ‘Hitachi energy-saving lamp’ at a function in Dhaka on Sunday.
   Nazmul Islam, chief executive officer of SKRP Trade Syndicate and Hisaaki Mizushima, representative of Hitachi was present at the product launching ceremony on behalf of their repective organisations.
   The commerce ministry adviser, Md Barkat Ullah Bhulu, attended the function as chief guest while the president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Kutubuddin Ahmed, were present as special guest.

The 5th board meeting of Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd. was held in Dhaka recently, says a press release.
   The chairman, board of directors of the bank, Sajjatuz Jumma, presided over the meeting arranged at the bank’s board room.
   The meeting approved a number of investment proposals. Various issues relating to bank’s policy matters were also discussed in the meeting.
   The vice-chairmen of the bank, Alhaj Akkasuddin Mollah and Engr. Md Towhidur Rahman, the chairman and vice-chairman of the exicutive committee, Alhaj Mohammad Hasan and Alhaj Md Sanaullah Shahid, the chairman of the audit committee, Alhaj Anwer Hossain Khan, the directors, Alhaj Mohiuddin Ahmed, Alhaj Syed Nurul Arefeen, Mohammed Masud, Alhaj Mohammad Younus, the managing director, M Kamaluddin Chowdhury and the deputy managing director, Md Shafiquddin, were present in the meeting.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday slammed a US decision to impose quotas on three types of Chinese textile imports, saying the restrictions were ‘not beneficial’ to trade relations.
   ‘The restrictive measures taken by the United States against three Chinese textile products are not beneficial to the healthy development of Sino-US trade relations,’ Wen said, according to the Xinhua news agency.
   Under pressure to preserve jobs, the US government’s Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements on Friday said it was re-imposing a quota on three categories of Chinese textiles to curb a flood of imports.
   The three categories of Chinese textiles are cotton knit shirts and blouses, cotton trousers, and cotton- and man-made fibre underwear.
   The move is likely to sharply escalate trade tensions with the Asian giant.
   CITA is acting partly on its own initiative and partly in response to complaints from US textile manufacturers that Chinese imports have shot up since global quotas that regulated the trade were scrapped on January 1.
   Wen also said China will not bow to outside pressures to revalue its currency and said politicizing the issue helps nobody.
   ‘The renminbi’s foreign exchange rate reform is the sovereign (issue) of China,’ he said.
   ‘We respect the order of the market economy but (we) do not succumb to outside pressure.
   ‘Any pressure or speculation or politicizing (of) economic issues is not helpful to resolving the problem.’
   The yuan is currently fixed at about 8.28 to the dollar, a level that many of the country’s foreign trade partners argue is artificially low and unfairly boosts Chinese exports.
   Although Beijing has repeatedly assured the international community that it is preparing to move towards a more flexible currency regime, it has steadfastly refused to reveal a timetable.

A New Delhi-based non-government organisation has vowed to intensify a Kerala village council’s campaign against soft drink giants, Coke and Pepsi, saying the latter are squarely responsible not only for the receding ground water table, but also for spreading pollution and selling contaminated products.
   The Research Foundation for Science Technology and Ecology says it will continue to support the grassroots agitation against Pepsi and Coca Cola in Kerala and in other parts of the country.
   Villagers in Kerala’s Palaghat District have intensified their campaign for the removal of the Pepsi plant at Pudussery village.
   The locals also forced the closure of Coco Cola plant in neighbouring Plachimada village.
   Coca Cola’s license to operate the Plachimada plant was not renewed by the village council inspite of the state High Court ordering its opening.

China and India’s economic emergence will eventually lift them to a world leadership role alongside the United States, former Hong Kong governor and EU commissioner Chris Patten said Monday.
   In a keynote speech at a Singapore regional trade show, Patten also said the United States and European Union had no grounds to complain about the surge in Chinese textile exports this year that has raised concerns of a trade war.
   ‘What we are witnessing is the re-emergence of China and India as global heavyweights,’ said Patten, the British governor of Hong Kong from 1992 until the territory’s handover to China in 1997.
   ‘Now we are used to living in a world which has been shaped and led by the trans-Atlantic community—by America principally, but also Europe—and I just think we should sometimes consider how much longer that is going to be true.’
   Apart from being a major manufacturer, China was also rapidly becoming an important consumer market for the rest of the world, which will only heighten the importance of Beijing on the global stage, Patten said.
   ‘China has become the workshop of the world ... it’s also a big new market for what the rest of the world produces,’ Patten said in his speech to open the Tax Free World Association Asia Pacific Conference.
   ‘Within a decade, China will almost certainly become the world’s largest exporter and the world’s largest importer.’
   Turning to the simmering textile dispute, Patten said the US and EU had no reason to complain about the surge in Chinese textile exports, an expected result of scrapping the 31-year-old global quota system in January.
   ‘It does seem to me that America and Europe have nothing to grumble about,’ Patten said. ‘What’s happened in the textile area has been predicted for years ... it was certainly inevitable, given the scrapping of quotas in the beginning of the year.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the founder of the Russian oil giant Yukos who is on trial for tax evasion and embezzlement, has gone from being the quintessential post-Soviet business baron to the nation’s most famous prisoner.
   Pictures of the 41-year-old, who has been in jail since his arrest on October 25, 2003, and whose verdict hearing began on Monday, used to show the bespectacled billionaire hobnobbing with the likes of Bill Gates at charity events.
   Today they show him staring out from behind bars of a metal cage—the traditional place for defendants in Russian courtrooms.
   Prosecutors have requested a 10-year jail sentence for Khodorkovsky, and he faces the prospect of seeing his personal fortune confiscated and the company he built broken apart.
   How distant such a possibility seemed ahead of Khodorkovsky’s arrest in late October 2003.
   Prior to his arrest, Khodorkovsky was Russia’s richest man, with a worth that Fortune magazine estimated at 15 billion dollars (10 billion euros) — one of Russia’s most famous post-Soviet oligarchs.
   The onetime member of the Communist Komsomol youth movement, Khodorkovsky was among a handful of men who deftly adapted and took advantage of the chaos that accompanied the crumbling of the Soviet Union to emerge with incredible wealth.
   He failed at his first entrepreneurial venture, a cafe, made money by importing computers and at age 26, established Bank Menatep.
   Menatep made a killing by converting credit vouchers that Soviet firms used in barter transactions into hard currency and by 1995, Khodorkovsky was ready for his next step—getting a piece of the state’s vast oil industry.
   He gained control over Yukos through a shady privatization during which insiders picked up Russia’s choice natural resources assets for bargain-basement prices at questionable auctions.
   At the Menatep-organized auction, Khodorkovsky and his associates paid a reported 390 million dollars for Yukos, which before his arrest had a market capitalization of more than 30 billion dollars.
   The soft-spoken Khodorkovsky aggressively consolidated control over what eventually became Yukos, muscling out foreign minority shareholders.
   After the 1998 financial crisis, he invested massive amounts back into Yukos, which became the first Russian major to adopt international accounting standards and began to hire Western-trained managers.
   Prior to his arrest, Yukos was considered Russia’s most transparent and best-governed company, an investor darling that, in the words of one analyst was ‘the poster-child of post-default Russian reforms.’
   He arranged a merger with a smaller Russian rival Sibneft, which created the world’s fourth-largest oil and natural gas producer, and there was talk of a US major buying a stake in the new behemoth.
   Khodorkovsky established Open Russia, a philanthropic organization that spends 100 million dollars a year and began to be referred to as the Russian version of the US robber barons of the late 19th century.
   And then it all started to fall apart.

This year’s centenary Australian Tennis Open generated a gross economic benefit of 209.6 million dollars (161.3 million US) to the country, a Tennis Australia study showed.
   The study, by the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research and commissioned by Tennis Australia, found the fortnight tournament last January delivered more than 100,000 visitors to the city of Melbourne.
   Of that number an estimated 7.4 percent were from overseas and 20.2 percent came from interstate, the study found.
   The tournament, won by Russian Marat Safin and American Serena Williams, had a record fortnight attendance of 543,873 fans at Melbourne Park.
   It was the sixth successive year the tournament had exceeded half-million patrons.

Pakistan will go ahead with the $4.5 billion Iran-India gas pipeline project despite US opposition, President Pervez Musharraf has said.
   ‘We are short of energy. We want gas immediately. Our industry is suffering, investment coming to Pakistan is suffering, so Pakistan’s interest is to get gas fast. Iran is the fastest source,’ Xinhua quoted Musharraf as saying Sunday.
   The US has opposed the project due to Iran’s involvement. The 2,600 km gas pipeline from Iran to India will traverse through Pakistan.
   US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has warned the three countries against proceeding with the project which state department officials said could lead to imposition of sanctions against energy-deficient India and Pakistan.
   However, Musharraf was firm about going ahead
   with the project and said he would not be persuaded by the US to drop plans for the pipeline.
   He said he would take a decision by the year-end that would be based solely on Pakistan’s national interest. The pipeline is also seen as a cornerstone of a two-year-old peace process between India and Pakistan.

China’s burgeoning sports market will double in value to 10 billion dollars by the 2008 Olympics as more exposure to top events and rising living standards spark new interest, experts and officials said Monday.
   ‘The sports industry in China in 2004 was projected to be five billion dollars or more on mechandising and events, this is expected to double in the next three or four years,’ said Rick Dudley, chief executive of sports marketing company Octagon Worldwide.
   ‘China’s sporting industry is in its early stages, but is rapidly growing ... the Olympic Games I’ve heard will add an additional two percent to the GDP here.’
   Since Beijing was chosen to host the 2008 Games, the nation has held Masters Cup tennis, a Formula One race, the Asian Cup football finals as well as tours by NBA basketball teams and a raft of top notch golf events.

Gainers, losers at DSE
   A total of 168 issues were traded at the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Monday. Out of the issues, 128 advanced (A-85, B-15, G-1 and Z-27), 18 declined (A-9, B-1 and Z-8) and 22 remained unchanged (A-6, B-2 and Z-14).
   
   No price sensitive information for Lexco
   In response to a DSE query, the Lexco has informed that there is no undisclosed price sensitive information of the company for the recent unusual price hike.
   
   Beximco cos trading to be suspended
   Trading of the shares of the Beximco Pharma and Beximco Infusion will remain suspended on record date ie today.
   
   Eagle Box, Mona Food directors fined
   The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined the chairman, managing director and all directors of the Eagle Box and and Mona Food by Tk 1.00 lakh each for not holding annual general meeting of the companies.
   
   Rangpur Foundry share trading resumes today
   Trading of the shares of the Rangpur Foundry will resume today as announced earlier.
   
   Show-cause notice on Tulip Dairy
   The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued show-cause notices to the Tulip Dairy, its directors, managing director and company secretary in connection with the matter of non-submission of audited financial statements for the years ended June 30, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
   
   In Tech share trading on spot market
   Trading of the shares of the In Tech Online Ltd will be allowed only in the spot market today and trading of the shares will remain suspended tomorrow for finalisation of dematerialisation process.
   
   Mercantile Bank meeting
   The Mercantile Bank has informed that the 6th annual general meeting held on May 14 was adjourned keeping the agenda No 3 (relating to election of directors) unresolved. This agenda shall be dealt with in the adjourned meeting to be held tomorrow at 3:00pm at the Ball Room of the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka.
   
   BD Autocars degraded
   The BD Autocars will be placed in ‘Z’ category from existing ‘B’ category with effect from today as the company failed to distribute dividend warrant within the stipulated time as approved in the last annual general meeting held on December 30, 2004 as per SEC notification no SEC/CMRRCD/2001-12/308 dated 11.05.04.
   Sources : DSE, CSE

CSE finishes up
Trading at Chittagong Stock Exchange closed higher Monday with the gainers outnumbering the losers. The CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) increased by 47.47 points or 1.54 per cent to close at 3115.70 points from 3068.23 points on Sunday. The CSE-30 Index rose by 58.10 points or 2.03 per cent to close at 2916.60 points from Sunday's 2858.50 points. A total of 60 issues traded Monday, of which 48 gained, eight declined and four remained unchanged. Some 605,250 shares and debentures worth Tk 3.43 crore changed hands against 775,560 shares valued at Tk 4.67 crore on the previous trading day.
— UNB

New working hour for RMG workers protested
The Garment Sramik O Shilpa Rakkha Jatiya Mancha on Monday condemned the decision of the garment tri-partite labour law review committee to extend night working hours for female RMG workers. As per the decision, working hours for female workers have been extended from 8:00pm to 7:00am. The tri-partite committee has no right to take such inhuman decision violating the international labour law, leaders of the Manch said at a meeting. Chaired by the Mancha coordinator, Abul Hossain, the meeting was attended by its leaders Ali Reza Haider, Quamrul Ahsan and Mahbubur Rahman Ismail. The tri-partite committee made the decision at its 19th meeting on April 17. It is leant from sources that the committee will soon issue a circular in this regard. Rrepresentatives from garment owners association, government representative and labour leaders Zafrul Hasan, Shah Muhammad Abu Jafar and Mokhlesur Rahman represented workers.
— New Age

Heads of Toyota, GM meet amid speculation
The heads of Toyota and General Motors have met in a courtesy call that reaffirmed a longtime partnership but stopped short of producing any new deals on technology, a Toyota spokesman said Monday. Visiting General Motors Corp chief executive Richard Wagoner met with Toyota Motor Corp president Fujio Cho and president-elect Katsuaki Watanabe on Saturday over dinner in Toyota city, after Wagoner visited the nearby 2005 World Expo in Aichi. Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said Wagoner also met with Toyota Honorary Chairman Shoichiro Toyoda.
— AP

Former Yugoslav state launches
'Tito' water
A mineral water company in Croatia said on Monday that it was launching a new brand named after the late Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, who was Croatian. 'It has nothing to do with politics. It is purely a marketing move which could help us make a breakthrough in a rather saturated market,' Mirna Voda company chief Milorad Vladetic told AFP. Dubbed 'Titov Izvor' ('Tito's Spring'), the water comes from a spring near the Cetina river in southern Croatia. Initially it will be sold to supply water fountains in offices, but Vladetic said he hoped the water would become as internationally recognised as its namesake had been during the Cold War.
— AFP

UPS Inc to buy Overnite for $1.25b
Package-delivery company UPS Inc. on Monday said it is acquiring trucking firm Overnite Corp. for about $1.25 billion in cash, expanding its portfolio of ground-transportation services. Under the deal, Overnite stockholders will receive $43.25 for each Overnite share, representing a 46 per cent premium to Overnite's closing price of $29.58 on Friday. Richmond, Va.-based Overnite, which serves more than 60,000 customers throughout North America, earned $63.3 million on revenue of $1.65 billion in 2004. UPS, formerly known as United Parcel Services Inc., said Overnite's management team will remain in place. 'Overnite is a perfect strategic fit for our company,' UPS Chairman and Chief Executive Mike Eskew said.
— AP

S&P's downgrades Olympus
Standard and Poor's on Monday downgraded the long-term credit rating of Japanese electronics maker Olympus, saying its digital camera sales and restructuring were keeping it lagging. Olympus Corp last week announced it was slashing 4,000 jobs or 13 per cent of its work force, mostly in China, to meet fierce competition after reporting a consolidated loss for the year to March. Standard and Poor's lowered the Olympus long-term credit rating to BBB+ from A- and said the outlook was stable. 'The one-notch downgrade reflects the substantial decline in profitability of Olympus' imaging systems business, and weakened financial profile due to decreased cash flow generation and an increase in debt after consolidating ITX Corp,' said the rating agency's analyst Chizuko Satsukawa.
— AFP

Nikon profit soars
Japan's Nikon Corp said Monday its net profit jumped ten-fold to 24.14 billion yen (226 million dollars) in the year to March on robust global demand for high-quality digital cameras. Nikon said its net profit was also boosted by a 145 million dollars out-of-court settlement paid by ASML Holding of the Netherlands and other firms to settle patent disputes in its semiconductor equipment business. Nikon said sales rose 26.1 per cent to 638.47 billion yen. 'Rising global sales of digital cameras, as well as brisk sales of liquid crystal displays (LCD) and chip-making equipment, boosted our profits during the year,' said a Nikon spokesman. Nikon shipped 6.61 million digital cameras worldwide in the past year, up 22 per cent. The audio-visual segment, which includes sales of digital cameras, accounted for over 55 per cent of Nikon's overall sales.
— AFP

Benetton's
Q1 profit dips
Benetton Group SpA said its earnings fell 17 per cent in the first quarter as the Italian clothing company invested in its retail network even as sales slipped. Benetton said it had a net profit of 23 million euros ($29 million) in the first quarter, compared to 28 million euros ($35 million) in the first three months of 2004, and despite a tax bill that declined by almost half to 6 million euros ($7.6 million). Revenue was down 0.8 per cent to 378 million euros ($478 million) from 381 euros million ($481 million). Benetton shares, which have dropped 23 per cent in 2005, were up 13 euro cents (16 cents) at 7.51 euros ($9.49) on the Milan stock market.
— AP