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The Chittagong Port Authority chairman, A M M Shahadot Hossain, on Monday said the image of the port was being tarnished home and abroad due to the ‘baseless remarks and misleading information’ from different quarters in the recent period.
   ’Such activities are absolutely unexpected, as the port is being run with more ccountability, sincerity and expertise than ever before,’ he told a press conference at the Port Rest House Monday on the occasion of 119th Port Day.
   He said that the activities of the port had not been suspended even for a single hour over any discontent of the workers during the last three years, which had been a common phenomenon earlier, thanks to the expert management of the authority.
   He also said that revenue earning of the port had also increased by Tk 92.42 crore while the expenditure had reduced by Tk 5.65 crore in the last fiscal year.
   The port chief informed that the country’s prime seaport had handled 7.46 lakh TEUs of
   container in the fiscal year 2004-05, which had been higher by 14.05 per cent than the previous year. Handling of ships had also increased by about 200 during the period.
   He listed a number of measures taken by the authority to upgrade the service standards of the port to an international level, which include commissioning of 138 sophisticated equipments under a self-funding project involving Tk 357 crore, construction of New Mooring Container Terminal with an expenditure of Tk 433 crore, establishing power generation plant with an expenditure of Tk 23 crore, computerizing operational activities, introduction of ISPS code and one stop service, formation of Maritime Council and Port Service Improvement Committee and setting up Close Circuit Televisions.
   ’The authority is also providing financial assistance to the Chittagong Development Authority and the Chittagong City Corporation to improve the road infrastructure for the convenience of the city dwellers,’ he added.
   He also said that the CPA had taken projects to construct a flyover from Barik Building to Saltghola Crossing, four-kilometer marine-drive way from Shah Amanat Bridge to Sadarghat jetty, two container terminals at Chaktai and jetty number 13 areas and a container depot at Gazipur.
   CPA member (operation) Kamrul Hassan, member (finance) Abul Kashem, member (engineering) Lutful Kabir and chief of the planning department Hadi Hossain was present, among others, at the press conference.

The country’s capital market is unlikely to see a turnaround until the government relaxes tight monetary stance being pursued under IMF advice, analysts say, terming the market regulator’s initiative as stopgap without any long-term impact.
   The Securities and Exchange Commission has taken up some initiatives, including temporary relaxation of margin rules and amending the merchant banking rules, to prevent the market from further sliding.
   The margin rules were eased to allow investors to buy shares without making full payment in advance, while revision of merchant banking provisions allowed merchant banks to manage portfolio using their own funds. Previously, merchant banks were allowed to manage portfolio with only clients’ fund.
   But those will only put some marginal impacts on the stock market that has been witnessing a bearish trend for the liquidity crisis stemmed from the government’s tight monetary stance since the beginning of this year, stock market analysts said.
   Dhaka University professor of economics, Abu Ahmed, said the SEC steps might have marginal positive impact on the stock market.
   ‘These may help bring some sort of stability in the market that has already hit the bottom,’ he said.
   ‘So long as the government maintains its tight monetary stance, the market is unlikely to see any boost. The monetary policy has resulted in acute shortage of fund in the capital market,’ said Ahmed, who is also chairman of the state-owned Bangladesh Shilpa Bank.
   Increased interest rates on bank deposits and government saving certificates have prompted many investors to withdraw their money from the stock market and put that on safer sources, he said.
   ‘The central bank policy based on the International Monetary Fund suggestions is anti capital-market,’ he said, adding that such monetary stance is not appropriate for a country like Bangladesh.
   The Dhaka Stock Exchange chief executive officer, Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, said the amendment of merchant banking rules would increase the capital flow to the stock market to some extent.
   ‘It will bring marginal improvement to the liquidity situation, but not any significant change in the long run,’ he said.
   Khan, however, noted relaxed margin rules seemed to have put a brake on institutional selling.
   The Dhaka Stock Exchange general index lost 342 points between January 1 and April 16. The bourse lost Tk 3,180 crore in its market capitalisation during this period.

The imposition of unreasonably high taxes on the diamond industry by the government has allowed smuggled diamonds to capture the Tk 100 crore Bangladeshi market.
   Sources said that each day a huge number of Indian women enter the country wearing or carrying heavy diamond-ornaments. These are later sold in Bangladesh through an influential network of traders. At the same time customs officials often harass legal jewelers.
   Some diamond businessmen alleged that no Bangladeshi government has really helped the industry with the only progress was the legalizing of diamond imports a couple of years ago. However such imports faced the impossible burden of a 63 per cent tax rate.
   Though the rate of tax was later reduced to 36 percent after consistent pressure from businessmen, the price of diamonds in the country is still much higher than that of India, causing frequent trafficking of the precious gemstones. Concerned businessmen think if there was a proper government policy the current Tk 100 crore diamond market could grow to Tk 1000 crore.
   President of Jewelery Samity, the proprietor of Chandrima Jewellers, MA Wadud Khan, said the government must impose a reasonable tax on diamond imports, keeping in mind the rate in neighbouring countries. If not, the industry would be completely run by smugglers.

South Africa’s lumbering gold mining industry is smiling broadly as commodity prices hit quarter-century highs on world markets, opening up new frontiers once thought financially unviable.
   Gold charged to a new high of $645 an ounce in London on Thursday before cooling off to finish the week on Friday at 623.50 dollars.
   The commodity continued its bull run, buoyed by rising oil prices and geopolitical fears as tensions rise over Iran’s nuclear programme.
   The price of platinum reached 1,131.50 dollars an ounce on the London Platinum and Palladium Market on Thursday, a new record for the star metal in South Africa’s commodities industry.
   Analysts this week predicted rosier times ahead for the gold mining sector, still one of the cornerstones of the South African economy and the world’s largest producer of the precious metal.
   ‘What a difference a year has made,’ said Roger Baxter, chief economist at South Africa’s Chamber of Mines, referring to the hard time experienced by the industry in 2005.
   ‘The positive rise in gold prices means that suddenly you are looking at a very different set of circumstances.’
   Baxter said he believed higher prices could put a brake on declining gold production in South Africa, which last year dipped by 13 per cent to reach its lowest levels since 1923 of 296.3 tonnes.
   The country’s gold mines went through a tough period of restructuring last year as mining houses cut jobs and streamlined operations, buckling under a stronger local currency, foreign exchange controls and declining resources.
   The rise in gold price, coupled with a stabilisation in the local rand against international currencies, are opening new frontiers once thought unviable said Baxter.
   The rise in prices has initiated what analysts refer to as the ‘reserve play effect’ which means that mines have more money available to access previously unmined reserves and turn them into resources.
   ‘The reserve play effect will allow the South African gold mining industry to mine a larger ore reserve compared to last year when it was constrained by costs and price pressures,’ Baxter said.
   But higher prices have not only benefitted underground operations.
   Mining house DRDGold, South Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer is recycling old mine dumps around Johannesburg to extract gold through new technology which slipped through the extraction process decades ago.
   ‘While there was a lower gold price, surface operations helped to keep our underground mining operations alive,’ said DRDGold spokesman Ilja Graulich.
   ‘Obviously with a higher gold price lower grade gold dumps become more viable (to recycle),’ Graulich told AFP, who said his company was currently recycling some 20 dumps over next eight years.
   But analysts also warned that the effects of higher gold prices would only be felt as long as the local currency remained stable and did not strengthen against the dollar and the euro.
   ‘Obviously the higher gold price is going to be beneficial for the mining industry,’ said Joshua Cohen, market analyst at the Johannesburg-based Econometrix Treasury Management.
   ‘The problem is that when the rand strengthens at the same time it cancels that effect. The weaker the rand, the greater the revenue,’ he told AFP.
   The Chamber of Mines said it feared that rising oil prices, which hit historic peaks of 74 dollars a barrel this week, could offset the gains made by gold mining.
   ‘Unfortunately higher crude oil prices will result in higher local fuel prices which will push up inflation and raise the costs of mining,’ it said.
   Some analysts also disputed predictions that gold prices would bounce as high as the record 850 dollars an ounce within the next two years.
   ‘The price is rising too fast. It’s not that it can’t go higher, but I have some concerns,’ Nick Godwin, mining analyst at the Johannesburg-based T-sec brokerage told AFP.
   ‘There’s going to be a crash. When it will happen we don’t know but shares are going to get hurt,’ he said.
   ‘Don’t think this party is going to go on for ever.’

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, Monday stressed the need for making the best use of the friendly and historic relations between Bangladesh and Brunei for welfare of both the nations by enhancing bilateral trade.
   She also urged the authorities of Brunei Darussalam to take more manpower from Bangladesh and make investments here availing of the prevailing opportunities, when the newly appointed High Commissioner of Brunei, Dato Seri Laila Jasa Haji Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Hamid, called on her at the Prime Minister’s Office.
   Besides trade and investment, the establishment of direct air link between Bangladesh and Brunei was discussed with importance during the meeting.
   The Prime Minister said direct air link would not only enhance people to people contact but also the movement of commodities between the two countries.
   She suggested that Brunei can import quality medicines, hatal foods, ceramics, cosmetics, leather and jute goods from Bangladesh. Many of these items are being exported to the US and the European countries, she said.
   Khaleda said entrepreneurs from Brunei can invest in garment and other sectors of their interest availing of the cost- effective investment environment and import goods for European and other markets.
   The envoy suggested exchange of business delegations between the two countries to enhance bilateral trade and investment and said he would take initiatives personally in this regard.
   As the envoy appreciated the performance of more than ten thousand Bangladeshis working in Brunei, the Prime Minister said Brunei can take more professionals, including doctors, teachers and engineers from Bangladesh.
   Welcoming the new high commissioner, the prime minister said her government would extend all cooperation to him in discharging his professional duties here.

Pakistan has slaughtered about 40,000 chickens after an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu at eight poultry farms on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad, officials said Monday.
   Tests results confirmed the presence of H5N1 at poultry farms in Sihala and Tarlai, said a spokesman for the Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry.
   ‘Some 40,000 chickens have been destroyed since last week after H5N1 virus was confirmed at eight poultry farms in Sihala and Tarlai,’ spokesman Mohammad Afzal told AFP.
   There have been no cases of infection among humans so far.
   ‘Some 36 poultry workers and others were admitted to hospital and they have tested negative,’ Afzal said. There have been no reports of bird flu outbreaks in other parts of the country, he said.
   Pakistan last week reported an outbreak of bird flu in Tarlai, a village on the outskirts of Islamabad.

The newly formed Chittagong Woman Chamber of Commerce and Industry has vowed to give a wider platform to women in business and increase their involvement in and contribution to overall trade activities of the port city.
   ‘Businesswomen, who have so far worked silently in a
   scattered way in Chittagong, have now got a real platform,’ CWCCI president  Monwara Hakim Ali told a press
   conference at the Chittagong Club Monday, announcing the debut of the chamber that groups over 400 women entrepreneurs from various business fields..
   Vice president of CWCCI Umme Fatema also spoke at the press conference, attended by other directors.

Bangladesh knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) is going to introduce productivity improvement service for knit industry with financial support from European Union (EU), sources said.
   BKMEA and EU would sign an agreement next month to implement a project entitled ‘Capacity building of the Knitwear sector through productivity improvement’ in this regard for one-year period.
   BKMEA president Fuzlul Hoque said, ‘We would create a cell to provide service to our members for productivity improvement.’
   BKMEA would also develop a guideline on productivity for the knit industry, he added.
   BKMEA sources said, more than 30 persons would be trained for nine months for developing their capacity as productivity experts. More than half of trained persons would join in the productivity cell and others in knit industries.
   Source said the cell of BKMEA would take service charge from the knitwear industries for providing productivity service.
   The programme include topics like tool and techniques of productivity and efficiency, quality issues, application of quality management techniques in knit production, work study time and method study, factory layout planning, inventory management, machineries maintenance, specialised needs of production management techniques.

Korea, Indonesia and Bangladesh will jointly established a Yarn Dyeing industry in Adamjee Export Processing Zone with an involvement of $ 4.227 million.
   This company to be known as ‘Tri-National Joint Venture company M/S Dae Young Dyeing Limited’, will create employment opportunity for 208 Bangladeshi and five foreign nationals.
   The plant will produce annually 11,500 tonnes of yarn dyeing, EPZ sources said.
   An agreement to this effect was signed between the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and the M/s. Dae Young Dyeing Limited in Dhaka on Sunday. Prasanta Bhushan Barua, member (Investment promotion) of BEPZA and S. MD. Jashimuddin Chisty, Managing Director of Dae Young Dyeing Company signed the lease agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.

The two-day session of the seventh meeting of the International Jute Study Group (IJSG) began in Dhaka Monday to prepare a new roadmap for jute market development through formulating appropriate strategies.
   Inaugurating the session, Textile and Jute Minister Shajahan Siraj said, large-scale use of jute in producing high value added diversified products could open up a new horizon for jute sector. Diversification involves a major change both in terms of technology and design, and also in terms of marketing, he said.
   Secretary General of IJSG Sarwar Kamal also spoke at the opening session with chairman of council Jean Romnician in the chair.
   Bangladesh, India, Switzerland and 25 member states of European Community, who are the members of IJSG established in 2002, attending the meeting. Russia, Nepal, the Philippine, Myanmar and Morocco are also taking part in the meeting as observers.
   Siraj referred to completion of IJSG’s project on making paper pulp from green jute and kenaf through biotechnological application of enzymes and said, ‘Bangladesh government has formed a taskforce to investigate the possibility of utilization of these technologies developed under this project.’
   He mentioned the ‘Small Scale Entrepreneurship Development in the diversified Jute Product,’ an on-going project of IJSG, and said the two private projects will be taken in June next in Bangladesh and India.
   Jean Romnician raises some questions on the on-going projects, especially on the administrative cost and technical study, and said IJSG has not completed the study of some projects.
   Sarwar Kamal said if IJSG has to play a catalytic role, it needs more strength in terms of its member as well as resources.
   ‘To take advantage of the new opening of the market, appropriate promotional efforts are needed in the areas of research and market development,’ Kamal added.
   IJSG, an intergovernmental body, is implementing jute reinforced polyolefines for industrial applications which will facilitate production of composite materials for various uses like cloth hangers, crates, buckets, furniture, automobile panels etc.
   After the fourth session of the council, IJSG implements projects worth US $25000 a year.

Expansion of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), industrial estate of Saidpur is a long standing demand of the district. Many promising entrepreneurs of the locality are eager to invest in the said estate are being frustrated due to non-availability of any plot.
   Established in 1987 on 10.93 acres of land, the lone BSCIC industrial estate of Nilphamari district, which is situated in the industrial and commercial town of Saidpur, is in dire need of expansion and modernisation. Located in the eastern end of the town of Saidpur BSCIC has a total of 90 plots. These 90 plots are leased out to 47 industrial units of the estate. One industrial unit having more than one plot to use, out of this 47 units 38 units are in production. While the rest 8 units are sick and maneuvering  to regain their production ability and one sick unit is about to start its fresh  production very soon.
   While contacted Rahidul Islam Khan industrial estate officer of BSCIC Saidpur said that lease is generally provided for 99 years and lease valuation of one acres of land is Tk 7,50,000 to be paid in 10 years in 10 installments. The size of the plot varied from 3,000 square feet to 4,500 square feet. Main products of these industrial estate are nails , flour, jute yarn, bicycle spare parts, tube well spare parts, shallow machine spare parts, nuts and bolts etc. Most of the products are sold in greater Rangpur and Dinajpur districts, although some items are sold in Tangail. There are 690 employees in all the industrial units of the BSCIC.  Sources further said that erratic power supply hampering manufacturing pace of the industrial units.

An Indian court has ordered domestic whisky makers not to use the words ‘Scot’ or ‘Scotch’ for their distilled brews as it would violate global copyright laws, a lawyer said Monday.
   The Delhi High Court also ordered India’s Golden Bottling Ltd. to pay 810,000 rupees (18,000 dollars) in penalties to the Scotch Whisky Association of Britain which filed the case, said Pravin Anand, counsel for the association.
   Judge Madan B Lokur agreed that ‘the words Scot or Scotch’ identify whisky produced in Scotland and no domestic manufacturer can use them to market its liquor,’ Anand said.
   The Scotch Whisky Association of Britain filed the case against Golden Bottling when it found the latter using the words ‘Red Scot’ to sell its whisky, Anand said.
   Golden Bottling’s use of ‘Scot’ gave the impression that its product originated in Scotland or that it was Scotch whisky, Anand said.
   This is the first ruling under India’s Geographical Indications law passed in 1999 in concert with the World Trade Organisation’s Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement, Anand said.
   The law identifies products that originate from a particular territory.

The Capitaland Development Limited and the Malaysian Todamunsuri Group jointly launched a new real estate company, ‘Capita Jaya Holdings Limited,’ which plans to build 350 apartments and commercial buildings in Dhaka and Chittagong.
   The CDL managing director, Mokarram Hossain Khan, and the Todomansuri Group managing director, Tinku Redowan , signed the agreement recently at the Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre. Tinku has been made the chairman of the newly formed company while Mokarram is the managing director.
   The executives said the company is keen on investment in hotel, tourism and agricultural sectors in Bangladesh.
   The ceremony concluded with a ‘flock dance’ performed by Shibly Mahmud, Shamim Ma Nipa and their group.
   Dato Hainza Malayshio, chairman of Federal Land Rehabilita-tion and Consolidation Authority Malaysia, was present as the chief guest and was accompanied by his wife Datin Nura Sakin.
   The Malaysian high commissioner to Bangladesh, Abdul Malik Abdul Aziz, former Navy chief, MH Khan, REHAB president, Abdul Awal, the DCCI vice-president, Monzur-Ur-Rahman, were present on that occasion.

While governments and consumers weep over the rise and rise of fuel prices, oil companies are rubbing their hands in glee.
   Last year the world’s 250 top oil companies earned profits totalling 243 billion euros (300 billion dollars), a 35-per cent increase on 2004, and that in spite of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico that undermined production, according to figures from French brokerage Aurel Leven.
   With the new record highs in the price of crude, which topped 75 dollars a barrel for the first time ever in New York on Friday, these companies are guaranteed an even better harvest this year.
   Analysts, who in February were predicting an average price over the year of 55 dollars a barrel, subsequently upped their forecasts to above 60 dollars. They could raise their sights still further if the current price surge continues, said Aurel Leven analyst Christian Parisot.
   The world’s largest oil group, US giant ExxonMobil, posted a profit in 2005 of 36 billion dollars on turnover of 371 billion. That is more than the gross domestic product of Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil producer.
   The global number two, Anglo-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell, broke the all-time profit record for a British firm in 2005, raking in 22.94 billion dollars.
   Just behind Shell, France’s Total made 15 billion.
   According to a study by Moody’s credit-rating agency, the 13 largest oil companies in the world gave around 100 billion dollars back to their shareholders.
   But while the latter are smiling from ear to ear, consumers at petrol stations are pretty disgusted by the massive profits the big bosses are making. Last summer, fuel topped the symbolic price of 1.50 euros (1.9 dollars) a litre in many European countries.
   In France, where 65 per cent of the price of petrol is tax, Finance Minister Thierry Breton tried in autumn 2005 to put pressure on oil companies to delay passing on crude price hikes to motorists.
   He was convinced, he added, of the necessity for the oil giants to invest substantially in production, refining and research into alternative energy sources—something that largely fell by the wayside in the years of low oil prices.
   Consumers are making similar demands in some countries.
   In the United States, there is increasing clamour for oil firm profits to be taxed.
   Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton asked President George W. Bush to create a special fund to help increase the States’ energy independence, fed in part by such a tax.

World oil prices eased Monday on light profit-taking after blazing a trail last week to record high points which were hit on escalating concerns over the Iranian nuclear crisis.
   Crude futures smashed through 75.0 dollars in New York and 74.0 dollars in London on Friday amid rising tensions over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, combined with news of tight US gasoline or petrol supplies.
   In Monday trading, New York’s new main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, lost 18 cents to 74.99 dollars per barrel in electronic deals before the market’s official opening.
   In overnight electronic Asian trading, New York crude had hit an all-time record of 75.35 dollars per barrel—matching the same historic peak it had struck late on Friday.
   In London on Monday, the price of Brent North Sea crude for June delivery slid ten cents to 74.47 dollars per barrel in electronic dealing.
   Brent crude had climbed to a historic peak of 74.79 dollars on Friday.
   The market’s slight cooling on Monday came after global finance chiefs called over the weekend for action against runaway oil prices and OPEC member Kuwait proposed reactivating standby capacity in an effort to prevent further increases.
   ‘It’s a little pullback from the record last Friday,’ said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz.

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said Monday that markets determimed the price of oil and that the current level was not due to supply shortages.
   ‘The market determines the price,’ Nuaimi said on his arrival in Doha for an informal meeting of the 11-member OPEC on the sidelines of an international energy forum.
   ‘You know and I know that the reason for the price being where it is is not shortages of supply.’
   In Asian trade, oil prices slipped off record highs above 75 dollars reached on Friday, with New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, at 74.54 dollars a barrel.

The amount of unsold real estate in China rose 23.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2006 as investment and prices in the booming sector continued to climb, state press said Monday.
   The area of unsold property developments reached 123 million square meters (1.32 billion square feet) in the quarter, up 23.8 per cent from the same period in 2005, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the National Bureau of Statistics.
   From January to March this year, property developers invested 279.3 billion yuan (34.8 billion dollars) in construction projects, up 20 per cent, it said.
   The China Economic Observer, also citing official statistics, last month reported that at the end of October last year, China had 112 million square meters of unsold real estate or 26 per cent of the market.
   The international alarm rate is 10 per cent, it added.
   China’s real estate market was witnessing the ‘odd’ phenomenon of rising prices at the same time that unsold property was growing, Xinhua said.
   ‘In some cities where prices are rising, you cannot say that the reason is because of supply and demand,’ Xinhua quoted Yi Xianrong, a real estate analyst with the China Academy of Social Sciences, as saying.
   ‘Presently in the domestic real estate market, developers have the conditions to be able to push prices up, they have a monopolistic way to set prices,’ he said referring to the tight relationship between government and developers.
   In Beijing, housing prices rose 19.2 per cent in 2005 but the area of unsold living space rose 31.6 per cent to 13.7 million square meters, according to the Xinhua report.
   ‘Statistics show that as the amount of unsold housing has grown, so has the number of people who can’t buy homes,’ Xinhua said.
   At least 70 per cent of Chinese in the prosperous eastern coastal regions were unable to buy homes, based on average annual incomes of 15,000 to 17,000 yuan and average housing prices of 4,000 yuan per square meter.

Renewable energy sources are back in favour due to the recent surge in world oil prices but they still have a long way to go to capture a major share of the energy production market.
   Wind turbines, wave technology, solar panels, hydroelectric power stations, fuel cells and biomass plants account for just 14 per cent of the energy consumed in the world today, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
   This compares to six per cent for nuclear power and a massive 80 per cent for fossil fuels—oil, coal and gas —, which in addition to becoming scarce and increasingly pricy are also the major producers of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
   ‘The real problem is that neither renewables nor nuclear are able, on their own, to tackle the problem posed by carbon gas emissions and the depletion of fossil resources,’ says Andre Antolini, head of the Renewable Energies Union (SER) in France.
   ‘(We need to) develop all sources of energy that don’t produce greenhouse gases or deplete fossil fuels and, at the same time, introduce genuine energy-management and energy-saving policies.’
   The 25-nation European Union currently relies on oil for 41 per cent of its energy consumption, on gas for 23 per cent. Coal and nuclear each provide 15 per cent of the bloc’s power and renewables just six per cent.
   The EU—which is in the forefront of global efforts to curb global warming and is concerned about its heavy reliance on oil and gas from the Middle East and Russia—is seeking to double the share of renewables in the bloc’s energy consumption to 12 per cent by 2010.
   But it accepts this goal will require political will.
   On its europa.eu.int website the EU says it is fair to conclude ‘that the lions share of remaining market resistance to renewables penetration relates to factors other than economic viability’.
   France could be seen as a good example of such barriers.
   The amount of hydro-power and wood for heating used in France makes the country the largest producer of renewable energy in the EU in absolute terms, according to the IEA’s Cedric Philibert.
   But it is a long way behind its European neighbours in developing ‘new renewables’ such as wind energy, solar thermal electricity and photovoltaics—the production of energy, not just heat, from solar panels.
   For example, France’s wind farms currently have a capacity of just 1,000 megawatts, one-twentieth that of Germany. Yet it could produce just as much as its neighbour, according to the SER’s Antolini.
   But wind power technology cannot currently compete with France’s nuclear sector, which produces nearly 80 per cent of the country’s electricity—more than anywhere else in the world.
   France’s 58 reactors, which have a capacity of 64,400 MW, are approaching the end of their useful life. Yet rather than investing massively in alternative energies, Paris is starting to renew its nuclear plants.
   The first such project is a three-billion-euro (3.7-billion-dollars) European Pressurised Reactor (EPR).
   ‘Instead of building an EPR, those three billion euros could be used to satisfy the same energy needs, develop local energy sources that respect the environment and create 15 times more jobs,’ says Sortir du Nucleaire (Get Out of Nuclear), a grouping of 700 anti-nuclear organisations, on its website.
   Jean-Marc Jancovici, an expert in energy and climatic problems, told AFP there were other barriers currently preventing a breakthrough by renewables.
   Even though oil prices hit all-time highs of around 75 dollars in New York and London this week, consumption was unlikely to decrease significantly in the near future, he predicted.
   ‘This reflect’s the importance of the role it (oil) plays in the daily life of modern man, who has organised his entire life around an abundant supply of energy and cannot easily do without when prices rise.’
   Yet there are success stories, even in sectors like transport, which are particularly dependent on oil.

Nearly 1.3 million foreigners came to Thailand for medical treatment last year, but now private Thai hospitals are going overseas with an aggressive drive to expand around the region.
   Five of Thailand’s major private hospitals are opening branches abroad or forming alliances to run existing facilities in other countries, said Surapong Ambhanwong, an advisor to the Private Hospital Association.
   ‘It’s partly about referring patients to Thailand for either treatment or rehabilitation,’ he told AFP.
   Many of the hospitals plan to open clinics that could provide basic services and emergency care in poorer neighboring countries, but would transfer patients to Bangkok to complete treatment, he said.
   Bangkok Dusit Medical Services highlighted the trend earlier this year when it announced plans to set up two hospitals in Cambodia this year and in 2007, with foreign tourists their primary target.
   The first hospital is set to open by October in Siem Reap—the gateway town to the famed Angkor temples complex.
   The company plans to spend 400 million baht (about 20.6 million dollars) to open the 50-bed hospital, and then to double its capacity within two years.
   ‘We are targeting the increased number of tourists going to Siem Reap, where no internationally-accepted hospitals operate,’ Wallop Adhikomprapa, Bangkok Dusit’s vice president for corporate finance told AFP.
   ‘Once our hospitals are operating, we could refer patients from Cambodia, many of whom are from Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, to Thailand,’ Wallop said.
   ‘By using helicopters, we could refer patients from Cambodia to Thailand within 45 minutes.’
   Wallop said his group is also considering a plan to set up clinics on Vietnamese industrial estates to treat foreign workers who live there.
   Bangkok Dusit—which also operates Samitivej, BNH and Bangkok Hospital brands—also plans a joint venture agreement with a Cambodian partner next year to invest in a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh to tap high-income earners.
   Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, which treated some 400,000 foreign patients last year, began investing in a hospital in Manila, and has inked three-year contracts to manage hospitals in impoverished Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is planning a new assault on Big Oil, potentially taking a major step toward nationalizing the oil industry that could hurt production and put further pressure on global oil prices, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
   The newspaper said the Venezuelan Congress is considering sharply raising taxes and royalties on foreign companies’ operations in the Orinoco River basin.
   Major oil companies like American Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips, and Total SA, of France have invested billions of dollars there to turn the basin’s characteristically tar-like oil into some 600,000 barrels a day of lighter, synthetic crude, the report said.
   Chavez also wants to seize majority control of the four Orinoco projects and force private companies who run them to accept a minority stake, said The Journal, citing a top executive at state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA.
   The paper said the stakes were high because Venezuela, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, holds the world’s biggest oil reserves outside the Middle East and is the third-biggest supplier of crude to the United States.
   The Orinoco plan mirrors the terms of a recent takeover by PdVSA of some 32 smaller conventional oil-production projects previously run by private companies. That effort culminated in the seizure of two fields run by Total and Italy’s ENI SpA, the report said.
   If the latest initiative succeeds, it would eliminate the country’s remaining privately managed oil fields, The Journal pointed out.
   ‘We would like all of the (Orinoco) associations to migrate to mixed companies,’ Eulogio del Pino, the executive in charge of PdVSA’s relations with private companies, told the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal Saturday.
   Mixed company is the government’s term for an enterprise in which it owns 51 per cent, The Journal explained.
   Under terms of the government’s plan, oil royalties in the Orinoco region would rise to 30 per cent from the current 16.7 per cent and taxes would jump to 50 per cent from 34 per cent.

US software giant Microsoft opened a new chapter in its seven-year anti-trust standoff with EU regulators Monday, urging a top EU court to quash a half-billion dollar fine slapped on it by Brussels.
   Despite the huge stakes for both Microsoft and the European Union’s competition watchdog, the two sides’ legal teams appeared relaxed but serious as the five-day trial got underway in Luxembourg.
   ‘We welcome the opportunity to present our evidence,’ Microsoft legal chief Brad Smith said shortly before the case opened.
   ‘The impact of this case goes far beyond Microsoft. The ability to innovate is important to the success of any company and the economic success of any country,’ he added.
   Microsoft has requested the trial at the European Court of First Instance, the 25-nation bloc’s second highest tribunal, in hope of recouping all or least part of the fine, which it has already paid.
   However, it also hopes to show that the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, erred when it ruled in March 2004 that the company had abused its dominant market power to squash competition.
   Determined to see the ruling thrown out by the court, the group has enlisted a small army of lawyers which it hopes will convince the 13 judges hearing the case that the EU competition watchdog ruling is ill-founded.
   But the EU commission team appeared equally resolute, despite having only about half the numbers of the 60-strong Microsoft force, which also includes computer scientists and other advisors.
   After the presiding judge, Dane Bo Verterdorf, opened the first session, one of Microsoft’s lead lawyers, Belgian Jean-Francois Bellis, launched an offensive against the commission’s line on its inclusion of Media Player in its widely-used Windows operating system, charging that regulators had made ‘serious errors’ in their ruling.
   But the opening session was short on drama or rhetoric, as lawyers got down to the technical haggling which will ultimately decide the case.
   After a five year investigation, the European Commission took its biggest competition decision ever in March 2004 when it found that Microsoft had broke EU law by using a quasi monopoly in personal computer operating systems to thwart rivals.
   In addition to fining Microsoft 497 million euros ($612 million), the EU ordered Microsoft to sell a version of Windows unbundled from its Media Player software and to divulge information on its operating system needed by makers of rival products.
   Although Microsoft reluctantly paid the fine, it has failed to satisfy Brussels’ demands to correct the situation and filed the appeal against ruling to get it overturned.
   Separately from the trial, the commission has threatened Microsoft with fines of up to two million euros per day if it finds in the coming months that the company is not doing enough to meet the demands laid out in the landmark 2004 ruling.
   The trial holds huge stakes for both sides because a defeat for Microsoft would leave it little choice than to bow to the commission’s demands while EU regulators could see their authority seriously compromised for the future if they were to lose.
   But it will not be until the end of this year at the very earliest that the judges will hand down their decision, which could then be appealed.

China has agreed to supply Iran with 50 passenger trains over the next two years in a deal worth nearly 60 million dollars, state press said Monday.
   China’s state-run Changchun Track Passenger Train Co. will supply the double-decker trains as well as provide spare parts, tools and technical services, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
   The deal, formalized on Sunday with a signing ceremony in Tehran, is worth 47.65 million euros (58.85 million dollars), Xinhua said.
   China would also provide the Iranian side with a loan covering 85 per cent of the purchase price, it said.
   The trains will be delivered to Iran within the next 28 months.

SEC showcauses three cos
   The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued showcause notices to Rupali Bank Ltd, Chittagong Vegetable Oil Industries Ltd and Rangpur Foundry Ltd for non-compliance of securities laws.
   
   Singer starts cable production
   Singer Bangladesh Ltd has informed that the new Singer Electric Cable manufacturing undertaking is being successfully implemented at its own premises at Savar in Dhaka and the company has gone into commercial production of domestic cables from April 22.
   
   Profit
   *Eastern Bank has reported net profit of Tk 54.65 crore with a positive EPS of Tk. 66.00.
   *Standard Bank has reported net profit of Tk 31.24 crore with a positive EPS of Tk. 34.29.
   *Uttara Bank has reported net profit of Tk 14.26 crore with a positive EPS Tk 142.83.
   
   Trade suspension
   Trading of the shares of Islamic Finance and Investment remains suspended today on record date and trading of the company’s shares will also remain suspended on April 26 for proper settlement of previous trading.
   Trade resumption
   Trading of the shares of Heidelberg Cement Bd resumes today after record date.
   
   Dividend
   BD Lamps has recommended 27.50pc cash dividend for the year 2005. The annual general meeting of the company is scheduled to be held on May 29. At National Shooting Federation-Bangladesh at Gulshan-1 , Dhaka. record
   date is on May 14. There will be no price limit on the trading of the shares of the company today following its corporate declaration.
   Premier Leasing International has recommended 5 per cent cash dividend and 10 per cent stock dividend for the year 2005. The annual general meeting of the company is scheduled to be held on May 30 at 11.00 am at National Shooting Federation-Bangladesh at Gulshan-1 in Dhaka. Record Date is on May 10.
   National Tea has recommended 20 per cent cash dividend for the year 2005. The annual general meeting of the company is scheduled to be held on June 3 at 3.00 pm at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka. Book Closure is from May 17 to June 3. The company has also recommended increasing its authorized capital from Tk 10 crore to Tk 25 crore.
   Kay & Que (BD) Ltd has recommended 6 per cent cash dividend for the year 2005.The annual general meeting of the company is scheduled to be held on August 22 at 11 am. Record date is on August 1. The company has informed that an extra-ordinary general meeting of the company will be held on August 22 at 10:30 am to increase its authorized capital from Tk 4.40 crore to Tk 10.00 crore and amend some articles.
   
   Transaction
   Md Anwar Pasha, one of the sponsors of NCC Bank, has reported his intention to sell 6,000 shares out of his holdings of 1,52,068 shares of the bank (in the block market) at prevailing market price through stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   
   Spot trade
   Trading of the shares of Glaxo Smithkline will be allowed only in the spot market and block/odd transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle from April 24 to 26. Trading of the shares will remain suspended on record date on April 27.
   Source: DSE, CSE

Defence College
team visits CCCI
A delegation from the National Defense College exchanged views with the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) leaders at its auditorium on Monday morning. CCCI president, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, chaired the meeting with the 41-member delegation led by Major General Abu Tayaab Muhammad Jahirul Alam.
— New Age

Citigroup Senior Executive in City
The Citigroup Asia Pacific Emerging Markets Sales and Trading regional head, Sim S Lim, arrived in Dhaka for a two-day official visit. During this visit, Sim Lim is to meet senior government officials, major clients of the bank and explore growth opportunities of the Citigroup’s Treasury business in Bangladesh.
— New Age

Novartis boosts net profit by 32pc
The Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis on Monday announced a net profit of 1.95 billion dollars (1.58 billion euros) for the first quarter of 2006, an increase of nearly one-third over the equivalent period last year. Sales rose 13 per cent to 8.3 billion dollars, as the group’s pharmaceuticals division outpaced the market, Novartis said in a statement.
— AFP

Cadbury eyes US bottling group
The British confectionery and soft drinks giant Cadbury Schweppes is close to acquiring the Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group, the largest independent bottler in the United States, the Financial Times reported on Monday.Cadbury, which already owns a 45-per cent share in the bottler, could pay 535.0 million dollars (431.7 million euros) for a key stake held by the US private equity firm Carlyle, according to the daily business newspaper.
— AFP