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The Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday asked the National Board of Revenue to investigate customs corruption at Chittagong customs house, official sources said.
   The directives, signed by Fazle Wahed Khondoker, director, PMO, referred to a Bangla daily, which recently carried a news item on customs corruption and hike in bribery rates.
   Importers alleged that rate of bribery at Chittagong customs house has increased in recent times, which enhanced their cost of business.
   ‘Corruption by customs officials has long been rampant at Chittagong customs house, which has become exorbitant in recent times,’ an importer involved in steel business told New Age.
   ‘We do not get any response if allegations of corruption are informed to high officials of the customs house and NBR,’ he added.
   Recently, an intelligence report identified 11 customs officials of the Chittagong customs house like appraiser, principal appraiser, deputy commissioner and joint commissioner as most corrupt officials currently stationed at the house.
   The report, recently been submitted to the PMO for disciplinary action, candidly described the properties and crores of Taka bank balances of the alleged officials, sources said.
   Besides customs officials, a section of unscrupulous businessmen are directly benefited out of the customs corruption, while a large number of honest businessmen are suffering from the practice, it is learnt.
   The multilateral lending agencies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have long been asking the government to start initiatives against the customs corruption.
   The IMF in 2005 proposed to introduce a code of conduct for customs officials to check alleged corruption, while the WB in a report in 2002 recommended retrenching all customs officials for their alleged corruption.
   The NBR chairman, Khairuzzaman Chowdhury, in early 2005 asked all its employees to submit their wealth statement, which made the corrupt ones jittery, sources said.
   The chairman took action against a number of customs high officials as their huge bank balance was disclosed by the investigation of the central intelligence cell of the board.
   However, the move was stopped for unknown reason.
   Sources in the NBR said the investigation against corrupt customs officials, particularly those of the Chittagong customs house would soon be started.

Seven multinationals and three local banks and financial institutions have lined up to buy the state-run Rupali Bank, the Privatisation Commission (PC) said Monday.
   ‘We have received 10 Expression of Interests (EoIs) from seven multinational companies and three local firms,’ Enam Ahmed Chaudhury, Chairman of the PC, said.
   Of the 10 EoIs, three were submitted by local investors, two by investors from Oman, and one each by the investors from the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, India and United Kingdom.
   The PC had, earlier, called for submitting EoIs from both local and foreign buyers. The last date of submitting EoIs was Monday.
   Investors of Oman are SABRE Bank- Muscat Consortium and BankMuscat.
   The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), State Bank of India, MAA International investment Ltd of Malaysia, JJ Finance of Uk and Prince Bander Bin Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Saud also submitted the EoIs.
   Three local enterprises, Domestic Investors Consortium, National Housing Finance & Investment Ltd. and Summit Industrial & Mercantile Ltd have also expressed their interest to buy the bank.
   ‘We will make a short list of the EoIs examining legal aspects and merit of the EoIs submitted for purchasing the Rupali Bank,’ Enam Ahmed said.
   He said the PC will make the shortlist in ten days.
   The prospective buyers will have to collect tender documents between April 30 and May 4 by depositing a non-refundable fee of $ 2,000 after the shortlisting.
   Enam Ahmed said the response from the investors was high because of the road shows on privatising the bank that was organised by the PC during the past one month.
   The PC organised road shows in five countries from March 13 to 25 to attract multinational buyers for Rupali Bank. PC officials said 10 multinational buyers expressed interest during the show.

The Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi has said on Monday that the regulatory body will not intervene in the market.
   ‘The task of the SEC is to ensure transparent and rule-based transactions in the capital market, not to intervene when market goes down or surge up occasionally,’ he said.
   The SEC chief was addressing the quarterly luncheon meeting of the Bangladesh Leasing and Financing Companies Association on Monday at the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka.
   Terming the present market volatility temporary, he expressed optimism that market would be back in track in time.
   ‘There are several reasons for current downslide in the market, but one should not expect that SEC will intervene as it has no authority to do this,’ he added.
   Siddiqui was of the view that market usually faced such downslide every year due to the lag effect of dividend distribution coupled with the shortage of liquidity in the market.
   ‘Banks and financial institutions are offering as high as 13 per cent deposit rates while return in savings instruments becomes higher,’ he added.
   ‘The rate hike has some impact on the market trend,’ he added.
   Siddiqui also said that trade and investment financings were still largely dependent upon bank loans and the contribution of the capital market was very low.
   ‘We have to develop a vibrant capital market for the sake of the economy which is now at a take-off stage,’ he added.
   Siddiqi said that market has dearth of good shares and the government’s decision to offload shares of some good state-owned enterprises might meet the demand to some extent.
   Moreover, the latest move of SEC to allow direct listing will also help companies with very strong fundamentals to come into the market, he added.
   Presided over by the association chairman, A Quadir Choudhury, the meeting was attended by the chief executives of different financial institutions while the vice-chairman of the association, Anis A Khan, delivered the vote of thanks.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday temporarily suspended its earlier order regarding compliance of margin rule 1999 to prevent the market from further slide.
   Earlier, by an order issued on November 28, 2004 the commission made compulsory for the clients to pay in advance in cash/pay order/instantly cashable cheque while purchasing any securities through stock-broker/stock- dealer.
   ‘We have sent letters to the Dhaka Stock Exchange and the Chittagong Stock Exchange today to keep an abeyance on the earlier order until further notice, the SEC executive director, Mansur Alam, told New Age on Monday.
   He said the commission took the step as a measure to arrest the stock market from further slide.
   Due to the new order, the investors must not pay the money for buying shares in advance but they have to pay it after the execution of buy orders, he said.
   The commission and the bourses will remain vigilant to check any misuse of the new order, Mansur Alam said.
   The SEC issued the earlier order to check irregularities and to safeguard the interest of the brokers, he also said.
   Market people said the new order would encourage the investors to buy shares and thus rescue the market from fall to some extend.
   The country’s capital market has been going through a bearish trend since the beginning of this calendar year because of liquidity crisis originating from the government’s tight monetary stance.
   The Dhaka Stock Exchange general index lost more than 300 points during January 1 to April 10.
   The average turnover value at the bourse went down to a range of Tk 15-10 crore during this period. With the fall of the prices, the bourse lost Tk 2,682 crore in the market capitalisation during this period.
   Meanwhile, the stock prices at the DSE continued sliding as the share prices went down on Monday for the seventh consecutive day.
   DSE general index went down further losing 16.23 points or 1.18 per cent to close at 1,363.52 on Monday. On Sunday, the index that excludes Z category companies touched its lowest in twenty month.
   DSE20, comprising blue chips, went down by 8.46 points or 0.63 per cent to close at 1337.86.
   All share price index shed 11.93 points or 1.12 per cent to close at 1051.32.
   Market people said the general index lost at least 34 points in the first trading session of Monday but recovered some points at the second session on buying from institutional investors who came to avail
   the lower price at the later session.
   The new order from the SEC might have also increased buying by the general investors in that session, they said.
   Around 4.85 million shares and debentures worth Tk 14.78 crore were traded at the
   DSE on Monday while around 2.33 million shares and debentures worth Tk 14.78 crore changed hand on the previous day.
   A total of 184 issues were traded at the bourse on the day. Of them, 65 issues advanced, 89 declined and 30 remained unchanged.

A prolonged drought for last five months has thrown the tea industry into a deep crisis during the current season.
   Tea experts said Bangladesh tea industry had never witnessed such an unprecedented drought in last seven years.
   As a result, tea production might fall by 25 percent.
   Scientists in the Bangladesh Tea Research Institute said for normal production of tea, about 200 mm rainfall is recorded in November and December and 400 mm rainfall from January to March.
   There was no rainfall in five tea valleys of the country. Though all tea estates of the country are being affected by drought, its greater impact fell especially on Balishira Manu-Dalai, Lashkarpur and Juri in greater Sylhet.
   The scientists also said due to prolonged drought, the capacity of the tea plants to store water has come down to the wilting point and the absence of shady trees is destroying the young leaves of the plants and, in some cases, killing the tea plants.
   The normal pruning cycle that took four years instead of three years has also contributed to their situation, scientists feel.
   Tea planters said they generally produce 10 percent of the total yearly production within the month of April.

One of the country’s leading trade bodies proposed not to reduce import duty on luxury items and consumer items having local substitution capacity below 30 per cent as a strategy of effective international trade negotiation.
   They proposed duty-free import of raw material and capital machinery as well as a 3-tier duty structure for all other imports –-10 per cent for intermediate goods and 5 per cent for essential commodities, equipment and raw materials.
   ‘There’ll have no negotiating point if we bring down the highest slab of import duty ahead,’ Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) said in its pre-budget proposal to the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
   The NBR has already initiated the process of budget formulation for the next fiscal (2006-07), the present government’s last, and as per tradition they sought trade-body suggestions.
   The trade body argued for the tariff slab for a preparation period to have a structural change through expanding the base of local industries and diversification of products before they face the challenges of zero-tariff trade era.
   They considered the zero-tariff regime out of the present-day fashion of bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) or regional trade agreements like SAFTA, BIMST-EC, D-8 and OIC-TIPS.
   DCCI, which represents as a trade-promotion organisation over 4,000 members, mostly having small and medium enterprises (SMEs), put forward a 121-point proposal for consideration in the next budget to develop a strong economic footing.
   They sought enough allocation for research work on product development and diversification to meet the demand of international market.
   In the suggestions, they stressed the need for ‘cluster development’ to diversify and develop products of rural areas as well as stressed giving importance to training and other facilities to develop handicraft items.
   The Dhaka chamber also sought measures to build backward-and forward-linkage industries for manufacturing industries like electrical and electronics, and pharmaceutical products.
   It said the budget should give clear direction for developing and flourishing the 33 thrust sectors and 11 booster sectors declared under the Industrial and SME policies respectively.
   To solve the nagging power problem, the trade body sought clear policy, sector-stimulating budgetary allocation and tax waiver to attract private investment.
   On individual income tax, the chamber proposed to raise the exemption limit to Tk 175,000 from Tk 100,000 considering the devaluation of local currency against the US dollar and inflation.
   It could be raised to Tk 200,000 in cases of old-age people (above 60 years) and women, it added.
   The chamber also demanded income tax exemption for expenditure on obtaining ISO certification, environment and standard control, and research and development activities.

The National Board of Revenue is about to finalise a list of top 100 taxpayers, including enterprises from each zone and also the large taxpayers unit (LTU), by this week, NBR sources said.
   The list will be placed before the Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman who is likely to sit with the Board officials soon after his return from UNESCAP annual general meeting in Jakarta, on April 13.
   ‘We have prepared a list of about 500 taxpayers that will be submitted to the NBR Wednesday,’ a tax commissioner of a zone in the city told BDNEWS, preferring anonymity.
   The Board asked the zonal offices to submit the information in prescribed forms by April 10 (Monday).

India Monday pledged an extra 50 million dollars in aid to Afghanistan for a total of 650 million dollars since 2001 and said it would consider a new credit facility to boost trade.
   ‘I informed the president that India will provide additional assistance valued at 50 million dollars to Afghanistan,’ Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters after talks with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
   ‘That amount will thereby raise the total assistance we have committed to 650 million; the amount of 200 million dollars has already been spent on various projects,’ he said.
   India is one of the six top donors to post-Taliban Afghanistan and has engaged in many reconstruction projects in the war-ravaged country since November 2001 when the hardline Taliban militia were driven out of Kabul.
   Singh said India was also keen to boost trade with Afghanistan which would help energise its fledgling economy.
   ‘In order to encourage trade and investment ties, we shall consider establishing a line of credit of 50 million dollars,’ Singh added.
   Karzai, who arrived in New Delhi Sunday for a three-day visit, said he placed great emphasis on boosting trade and regional economic growth with India.
   ‘We are here to seek investment from India,’ Karzai told reporters.
   ‘If India is willing, we would be very happy to have Indian companies in Afghanistan,’ Karzai said, adding that his country could become a ‘launching pad’ for firms to trade with Central Asia.
   Karzai, who was last in India in February 2005, said his accompanying delegation included businessmen aiming to expand economic relations.
   Karzai is scheduled to address a meeting of businessmen later Monday to seek Indian investment and to inaugurate an Afghan craft fair in New Delhi on Tuesday, an Indian official said.
   In a joint statement, Singh and Karzai ‘condemned global terrorism as a threat to democracy and declared that there can be no compromise with its perpetrators’.
   Afghanistan’s relations with India’s long-time rival Pakistan have been hit by Kabul’s accusation that militants fighting in Afghanistan have been plotting their insurgency from Pakistan.
   Afghan and foreign troops are battling remnants of the Islamist Taliban movement that was ousted from power in late 2001 for failing to surrender Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks.
   Afghan officials in February handed their counterparts in Islamabad intelligence about Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants whom they said were based in Pakistan and engineering the insurgency in Afghanistan.
   Pakistan dismissed the information as outdated and ‘ridiculous’ and President Pervez Musharraf alleged Afghan intelligence was influenced by India.

Outsourcing is the way forward for the Philippines, with employment, revenues and investments from the sector expected to rise by at least 42 per cent this year, Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri said Monday.
   While call centers are now at the forefront, other big business process outsourcing firms are expanding their operations beyond call centers in the English-speaking Southeast Asian country, Neri said in a statement.
   He cited a study jointly sponsored by the trade department’s Board of Investments and the industry groups Business Process Association of the Philippines, and the Commission on Information, Communication and Technology that forecast outsourcing jobs rising by 44 per cent this year compared to 2005.
   The study also projected outsourcing revenues growing by 52 per cent, and investments surging by 42 per cent in 2006, he said.
   He said the study forecast investments would be around 12 billion pesos ($234.83 million) this year and by 2010, up to 1.2 million people would be employed in the sector from 233,000 people at present.
   ‘Outsourcing is a sector with much dynamism. Companies are also getting more creative to respond to industry demand. For example, some firms are buying warehouses because of the lack of office space,’ Neri said.

Singapore’s economy grew 9.1 percent in the first quarter of 2006 from a year ago as the manufacturing and services industries delivered strong performances, the government said Monday.
   The gross domestic product (GDP) expansion, based on advance estimates, was faster than the 8.7 percent growth recorded in the fourth quarter of 2005 and was within a forecast range of 7.5-10 percent by economists.
   On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted annualised basis, GDP grew 1.2 percent, sharply slower than the previous quarter’s 12.5 percent expansion, the trade ministry said.
   ‘The Singapore economy grew at a faster pace in the first quarter of 2006,’ the ministry said in its estimate, computed largely on data from the first two months of the year.
   ‘The manufacturing sector is estimated to have grown by 16.0 percent (year-on-year) in the first quarter, underpinned largely by strong growth in the electronics, biomedical and transport engineering clusters,’ it said.
   Manufacturing growth was better than the 14.2 percent registered in the fourth quarter of last year.
   The ministry said the construction sector continued to decline, contracting at an estimated 0.6 percent.

British caterer Compass Group informed stock market authorities on Monday of the sale of its travel concession catering unit, Select Service Partner, for a total of 1.822 billion pounds (2.627 billion euros, 3.180 billion
   dollars).
   SSP’s roadside catering services arm, Moto, would be sold to a consortium led by Austalia’s Macquarie Bank. The rest of SSP would be purchased by European investment group EQT Partners, Compass said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange, having released details of the deal over the weekend.
   Compass said that it expected the sale, which is subject to approvals from shareholders and regulators, to complete around June this year. SSP is a major player in the travel catering market, running over 2,000 outlets at some 600 airports, railway stations and motorway services in Britain, continental Europe and the United States.

International companies vying for a piece of China’s growth miracle have hit unexpected trouble in the form of ‘economic nationalism’ and foreign dominance fears, Chinese state media said Monday.
   A broad coalition of officials and businesspeople have voiced concern that massive sales of China’s assets could lead to foreign monopolies in key sectors, the China Daily Business Weekly newspaper reported.
   ‘If China lets multinationals’ malicious mergers and acquisitions go ahead freely, China can only act as labor in the global supply chain,’ said Li Deshui, China’s former chief statistician, according to the paper.
   The mood change has come about due to a combination of national pride and protectionist urges, partly in response to growing US and European resistance to low-cost Chinese exports, the paper said.
   The more patriotic atmosphere may already have thrown a number of important acquisitions into limbo, the paper said.
   It cited plans by US fund Carlyle Group to acquire Xugong Group, China’s largest construction equipment maker, for three billion yuan (370 million dollars), in the nation’s largest private equity buyout yet.
   The deal has stalled, and people familiar with the situation suggested the commerce ministry was refusing to approve it unless Carlyle promised not to sell its majority stake to another foreign group in the future, the paper said.
   If the new less welcoming sentiment persists, it will happen at an awkward time in China’s growing economic interaction with the rest of the world.
   Many foreign investors now prefer acquisitions of existing Chinese enterprises rather than Greenfield investments, where operations have to be built from scratch, because it saves time.
   China reported 66 billion dollars’ worth of mergers and acquisitions last year, up 12 per cent from the year before, making it number one in Asia outside Japan.
   Significantly, in the same period foreign Greenfield investment fell 0.5 per cent to 60.3 billion dollars, according to commerce ministry figures.
   Fei Guoping, director of the China Mergers and Acquisitions Association under the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, warned against putting up barriers to foreign acquisitions, saying it would hurt China’s development.
   ‘These emotions about foreign capital are the last thing we want,’ he told the paper.
   ‘What we want is to make sane progress in building a merger and acquisition review system based on national economic security.’
   The basic problem is the lack of a law and a government agency charged with assessing the implications major deals may have for national security, Fei said.

The possibility of mass strikes loom on the horizon for Zimbabwe’s embattled economy as workers demand higher wages to cushion them against soaring living costs because of hyper-inflation and shortages of foreign currencies.
   Wage talks opened two weeks ago and were expected to continue until the end of the month in Zimbabwe, where large-scale labour action could become a reality for the first time in eight years, according to unionists.
   Zimbabwe’s inflation reached an all-time high of 913.6 per cent on Friday with no end in sight for price hikes, analysts added, bringing more hardship to the southern African country.
   ‘Although there have not been many strikes for some time now, industrial actions are most likely to happen this year,’ union spokesman Collin Gwiyo told AFP on Thursday.
   ‘The salaries that most workers get are an embarrassment. By the time we get to August there will be a series of wage and salary deadlocks,’ said Gwiyo, acting secretary general of the major Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
   Independent economic analyst Best Doroh added: ‘It’s obvious that the potential for deadlock between employers and employees is quite high.’
   ‘The purchasing power of wages for the factory worker even those for civil servants have been severely eroded,’ Doroh told AFP.
   Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate rose from 613.2 per cent in January to the record high Friday, blamed partly by central bank governor Gideon Gono on the printing of money to service debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
   Gono revealed in February that the central bank resorted to printing 21 trillion Zimbabwean dollars (211 million US dollars) to buy foreign currency to clear the country’s arrears with the IMF.
   Zimbabwe last month paid nine million US dollars to the IMF to avert expulsion from the global lender over the long-overdue arrears.
   Analysts however said Zimbabwe’s galloping inflation was the sign of a failed economy, with economist David Mupamhadzi saying ‘we are now feeling those effects of printing the money.’

Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser, hosting a meeting of EU and Asian finance ministers, led calls Sunday for a ‘gradual’ revaluation of the Chinese yuan.
   ‘A more gradual flexibility of the yuan would be a good thing to have in order also to try to work on the reduction of the global imbalances’ in the world economy, Grasser told journalists after the Asia-Europe Meeting of finance ministers.
   His comment struck a contrast with Washington’s approach of piling pressure on Beijing to rapidly push ahead with further revaluation of the yuan.
   Further highlighting the more diplomatic approach, Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm told journalists on the sidelines of the meeting that ‘the Chinese will decide for themselves’ about further revaluation.
   Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda stressed that ‘gradual’ revaluation of the yuan was in the interest of China and the world economy.
   ‘I do hope that currencies would become more flexible but I would, at the same time, I would like to emphasize that only graduate adjustment is appropriate for a country like China which is still an emerging economy,’ he said.
   ‘What is good for the Chinese economy, I must say, is good for the global economy because China has become such a big engine for the global economic growth,’ he added.
   ‘In short I think there is room for further flexibility of the Chinese currency but by what measures and to what extent should be decided by the Chinese authorities.’
   Last July, Chinese authorities abandoned the yuan’s peg with the dollar and linked the currency to a basket of others.
   The move immediately resulted in a 2.1 per cent appreciation in the value of the yuan, which had been pegged at about 8.28 yuan to the dollar for the past decade, but is now traded at around 8.08 yuan to the dollar.
   The step was widely seen as a political move by China to appease trading partners like the United States and was broadly praised by governments and economists as the ‘first step’ toward greater flexibility in China’s foreign exchange regime.

Malaysia on Monday pledged to take an aggressive stance on companies using pirated software, with surprise raids on private offices as part of the crackdown.
   ‘Let me warn recalcitrant companies not to treat this lightly as ... you will be caught and be brought to court to face the full penalty of the law,’ said Roslan Mahayudin from the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry.
   Roslan said Malaysia had succeeded in lowering the piracy rate in private businesses from around 70 per cent a few years ago to 61 per cent in 2004, but that the battle was ‘far from over’.
   ‘We are aggressive in fighting piracy to ensure that the piracy rate is as low as possible,’ said the ministry’s acting director general.
   In a campaign launched last year, enforcement authorities have been targetting the senior management of companies caught using unlicensed software.
   Firms have until April 30 to stop using pirated programs, after which enforcement officers working with global watchdog Business Software Alliance (BSA) will conduct raids on their offices.
   ‘The ministry and the BSA’s representatives will be making surprise random visits to companies around the country,’ Roslan said.
   The authorities were ‘serious about the charging and prosecution of corporate software pirates, including holding directors and senior management of companies responsible. No one will be exempted,’ he said.
   Offenders face up to five years in jail and fines of up to 20,000 ringgit (5,450 dollars) for each infringement under Malaysia’s copyright laws.

Japan resumed talks Monday to reach a free trade deal with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) after an eight-month stalemate, the foreign ministry said.
   Japan will also hold bilateral talks during the three-day meeting with Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, ASEAN’s least developed states, in hopes of finding ways for Tokyo to help bridge the income gap in the regional bloc.
   ASEAN and Japan opened negotiations in April 2005 which came to a halt after a second round in August.
   Japan is now looking only to secure a free-trade deal and not a more comprehensive accord that would include measures to settle trade disputes and protect intellectual property, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun has reported.
   But the foreign ministry said Japan still aimed to seal a comprehensive agreement with ASEAN.
   Japan has focused diplomatic efforts on Southeast Asia at a time that its relations with closer neighbors China and South Korea are strained, largely over wartime history.
   Japan last week proposed the formation of a vast Asian economic free-trade zone including China, India, ASEAN and South Korea, a market that would cover half the population and rival the European Union and NAFTA markets.
   Japan has signed free trade pacts with Singapore and Mexico and reached similar broad agreements with Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.
   It is also negotiating with South Korea, Indonesia, Chile and plans to open talks this summer with the Gulf Cooperation Council of six Arab monarchies.

TV on the move is being pushed as the next ‘must-have’ portable entertainment accessory by telecom companies. The only snag is that while its proving a hit in Asia, it’s not taking off as fast as some had predicted elsewhere.
   With so much money—and potential new audiences—at stake, it was not surprising, therefore, that the future of mobile entertainment was a red-hot topic at the influential ‘MIPTV featuring MILIA’ audiovisual trade show here last week.
   Packed high-level brainstorming sessions learnt that recent key mobile television trials in Europe all show that people are happy to watch TV on the tinier mobile screens.
   Maximum daily consumption, however, was around 20 minutes, though the trials in France, Spain and Britain did reveal that over half of those participating would be happy to pay for their daily mobile TV fix.
   The problem is that despite all the mobile hype around the globe, it is still early days for the fledgling mobile sector.
   ‘We believe there is a huge opportunity for mobile TV but the medium is still in its infancy,’ British Vodafones Andrew Stalbow pointed out to conference participants.
   No one knows for sure yet what type of content viewers really want to watch or how long they will spend on the smaller screens.
   But with two billion mobile phones in use around the world today and revenues from mobile content forecast to hit 42.3 billion dollars by 2010, the stakes are high.
   Optimism was also in the air during the five-day show, stoked by the results of market research.
   One recent study by eMarketer predicts that the number of people watching TV on their mobile phones in the United States, Europe and Asia will hit the 60 million mark by 2009.
   These prospects have encouraged telecom companies to sink a lot of money into such projects.
   In Europe, Britain and France are leading the move into providing live TV broadcasts to cell phone users with Germany planning to test its markets in the next few months.
   But it is the digital powerhouses in Asia that are at the forefront of this mobile revolution so there was huge interest here in what is happening on the other side of the world.
   South Korea launched the worlds first commercial mobile TV service year last May and now has some 44,000 subscribers who pay 13 dollars per month to receive it.

World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy urged the United States, European Union and emerging countries to make efforts to reach a trade agreement before an April 30 deadline, in comments published Monday.
   Lamy told the French business newspaper Les Echos: ‘The distance between the offers and requirements of the main actors at the WTO, although substantially reduced, remains too wide.’
   The leading members of the WTO much reach an agreement before April 30 if they are to conclude negotiations for a new global trade agreement in Doha, Qatar, this year.
   ‘Things won’t be any simpler in one, two or three months,’ Lamy said.

China will extend its anti-dumping duties on cold-rolled stainless steel sheets imported from Japan and South Korea for five years, the commerce ministry said.
   ‘Lifting the duties may lead to a renewed dumping of such goods and may cause damage to China’s domestic steel industry,’ the ministry said in a statement on its website.
   The duties, which were first levied in April 2000, range between 17 and 58 per cent, according to earlier commerce ministry statements.
   The ministry has conducted a one-year investigation into the trading practices of Japan and South Korea as part of a review of the anti-dumping measures.
   It said the move would be effective immediately and that the duties would be levied at the same levels as previously.

World oil prices rebounded on Monday as geo-political concerns and tight US gasoline supplies overshadowed news concerning major crude exporter Nigeria, dealers said.
   New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, added 43 cents to 67.82 dollars per barrel in electronic deals before the market’s official opening.
   In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for May delivery rose by 25 cents to 67.54 dollars per barrel in electronic trade.
   Prices had eased Friday on profit-taking triggered by expectations that Nigeria, Africa’s biggest exporter of crude, may soon recover production lost to attacks by militants.
   ‘The situations in Nigeria, Iran and Iraq remain uncertain,’ Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo, said Monday.
   ‘Fears of supply disruptions from these oil-producing nations remain.’
   Iran is at the centre of an excalating row with Western powers wanting to rein
   in its nuclear ambitions, while Iraq is embroiled in insurgency.
   Emori added that tight gasoline supplies in the United States—the world’s biggest energy guzzler—ahead of the summer driving season that starts in late May, is adding pressure on prices to trend higher.
   The US Department of Energy had reported Wednesday that US gasoline reserves dived by 4.4 million barrels to 211.8 million barrels in the week to March 31.

Keya Soap Chemicals start production
   Keya Cosmetics Ltd has informed that Keya Soap Chemicals Ltd, first ever most modern Soap Noodles producing unit of the country implemented at total project cost of Tk 70 crore (approximately), a backward linkage industry of the company has started commercial production from April 1 and the Keya Soap Chemicals Ltd may stands subsidiary company of Keya Cosmetics Ltd.
   
   Dividend
   Two renounces company has announced their dividend for the year 2005.
   Reckitt Benckiser (Bd) Ltd has recommended 42 per cent cash dividend.
   While People’s Leasing and Financial Services Ltd has recommended 45 per cent stock dividend (i.e. 9 bonus shares against 20 shares) for the year 2005. The annual general meeting of the company is scheduled to be held on May 29 at 3.30 pm at Bangladesh China Friendship Centre at Sher-E-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka. Record Date is on May 7. The company also informed that an extra-ordinary general meeting of the company will be held on May 29 at 3:00 pm. at the same venue for enhancement of the authorized capital of the company from existing Tk 50 crore to Tk 100 crore.
   
   Net Asset Value
   On the close of operation 5 companies reported their Net Asset Value.
   
   * 1st Mutual Fund reported Net Asset Value of Tk. 1.07 per share against face value of Tk. 1.00, 31, 2006 Aims
   * ICB AMCL Islamic Mutual Fund has reported Net Asset Value of Tk 103.30 per unit on current market price basis against face value of Tk 100, March 30, 2006
    * Grameen Mutual Fund One reported Net Asset Value of Tk. 10.41 per share against face value of Tk. 10.00, March 31, 2006
    * ICB AMCL Unit Fund reported Net Asset Value of Tk 128.02 on the basis of cost price and Tk 126.12 on the basis of current market price. Per unit sale and re-purchase prices have been re-fixed as Tk 129 and Tk 126 respectively on April 5 April, 2006
   * 2006 ICB AMCL Pension Holders’ Unit Fund reported Net Asset Value of Tk.104.10 on the basis of cost price and Tk 91.11 on the basis of current market price. Per unit sale and re-purchase prices shall remain unchanged, on April 5.
   
   Trade resumption
   Trading of the shares of Singer Bangladesh Ltd will resume on April 12 after Record Date.
   Source: DSE, CSE

BKMEA to make 30 factories compliant
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association is going to launch a new project to make 30 factories fully compliant. The initiative has been taken to meet the buyers’ requirement. SouthAsia Enterprise Develop-ment Facility and Nari Uddug Kendra will jointly execute the project to be started in late next month. The factories will be awarded international standard certificates like ISO-9001 after successful adoption of the social compliance conditions, sources in the BKMEA said. Selection of the 30 factories will be made from among 100 factories on which a study has been conducted by NUK last year.
— UNB

Call to create compensation commission
Speakers at a roundtable Monday called for creating a workers’ compensation commission and a joint monitoring cell with the participation of representatives from the government, owners and workers to ensure the labour safety and rights. Addressing the discussion, they also demanded establishment of a minimum wage commission for garment workers. The roundtable was organised by Bangladesh National Council (BNC) of Textile, garment and leather workers and Fare Trade Alliance commemorating the first anniversary of the Spectrum sweater factory tragedy to be observed Tuesday. AL presidium member Tofail Ahmed, Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal General Secretary Jafrul Hasan, Human Rights activist Hamida Hossain, BGMEA vice president Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury spoke in the meeting.
— BDNews