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An occasional paper of the Economic Research Group has laid stress on more accountability of the donors as they are now increasingly concerned about finding a ‘local fit’ for their projects and programmes.
   It said there is a call for moving from predominated aid conditionality to result orientation in line with the poverty reduction strategy paper. ‘The donors need to learn from past experiences,’ it added.
   ERG, a Dhaka-based research organisation, published the paper tiled ‘Monitoring Donor Support to Poverty Reduction Strategy in Bangladesh: Rethinking the Rules of Engagement’ last month.
   The paper, prepared by eminent economist Wahiduddin Mahmud, examined how the donor agencies in Bangladesh are responding to the new aid ideas and refining their rules of engagement in support of the PRSP process.
   ‘Changing to a new mode of aid relationships based on policy ownership, result-orientation and mutual accountability will not be easy, however,’ the paper said.
   It held that although the donors apparently attempted to align their strategies and polices with the PRSP, it did not mean that the implementation of the PRSP would require donors to do things differently.
   ‘While it is largely true that the government agencies lack capability, the way donors prepare their project proposals often leaves much room for improvement,’ it added.
   In this connection the paper mentioned that a large number of aid cancellations were mainly due to the need for project reconstructing as the original project designs lacked realism and did not take account of ground level realities.
   The paper was of the view that the current concern is whether donor support is sufficiently consistent with the country-owned public spending priorities. ‘Even if the aid conditionalities now reappeared in other forms, this represents a significant change at least in the outward form and format of donor engagement.’
   It also pointed out that as the donors are now taking steps towards aid harmonisation, the effectiveness of such initiatives need to be judged in the light of their actual contribution to reducing aid delivery costs or increasing aid effectiveness.
   ‘The success of aid harmonisation effort thus depends to a large extent on donors’ genuine commitment along with finding trustworthy partners within the government.’
   The paper concluded that as the country’s aidworthiness remains high in terms of the potential contribution of aid in removing poverty, it ‘poses a challenge to the donor community to find ways of helping Bangladesh to achieve its development goals.’
   In the paper study, the ERG was helped by the Commonwealth Secretariat (London).

The garment exporters Monday expressed mixed reactions to a much- publicised report titled ‘Fashion Victims’, in which, British right group War on Want claimed that local workers get very poor payment to make cheap clothes for UK companies Tesco, Asda and Primark.
   Leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said that they can not afford to increase wages to a decent level as the foreign retailers pay rock bottom prices to source cheapest clothing.
   However, they claimed that workers were not paid as low as the right group mentioned in the report. They also strongly refuted allegations of sexual harassments and excessive working hours in factories.
   ‘Payments to workers in our factories now are much higher than what claimed in the report and working hours is much lower,’ said BGMEA president SM Fazlul Haque at an emergency press conference.
   Haque lamented that the report carried partial observations and it was instigated by vested quarters in competing countries, who want to destroy image of Bangladesh’s industry, ‘Vested foreign quarters are instigating such ill-motivated and fabricated propaganda against Bangladesh’s garment industry.’
   The BGMEA leaders feared that wide publicity of the ‘partial report’ in media including BBC might make global buyers feel reluctant to Bangladeshi suppliers.
   Annisul Huq, former president of the BGMEA, said ‘in one sense the report revealed that Bangladeshi suppliers are victims of massive bargains from retailers who erode suppliers’ capacity in paying enough to their workers.
    ‘We will welcome such pressure from campaigners on retailers to increase payments as we (suppliers) can ensure more welfare to our workers,’ he said.
   The War on Want report released on Saturday claimed that workers in Bangladeshi factories work 80 hours a week for just five pence (seven euro cents, nine cents) an hour to produce cheap clothes for British consumers.
   The British anti-poverty campaigner pointed out that UK’s top retailers such as Primark, Asda and Tesco are only able to sell apparels at rock bottom prices at the cost of workers exploitations in Bangladesh.
   The report arguably questioned the commitments of UK retailers on ensuring that their suppliers met the highest ethical standards.

Stocks on the bourses Monday suffered declines upon selling pressure from the investors disheartened by the latest spate of uncertainties in the political arena.
   The general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange lost 27.11 points or 1.70 per cent to close at 1566.84 on Monday, while benchmark DSE20 shed 24.84 points or 1.79 per cent to close at 1363.20.
   The Chittagong Stock Exchange all share price index lost 58.91 points or 1.58 per cent to close at 3665.47 on Monday, while benchmark CSE30 shed 48.93 points or 1.48 per cent to close at 3263.50.
   Market sources said the investors rushed to offload their holdings as a rift in the caretaker government sent a negative signal to the market.
   The bitter difference of opinion between the president/chief adviser and four advisers led to the resignation of the latter ones.
   Most of the securities ended down on Monday. Of the total 186 issues traded on the DSE, 138 declined, 23 advanced and 25 remained unchanged.
   A total of 90 issues traded on the CSE. Of them, 77 declined, eight advanced and five remained unchanged.
   Turnover on the DSE, however, increased to Tk 56.61 crore from the Sunday’s total of Tk 46.41 crore.
   CSE turnover totalled Tk 15.14 crore on Monday, up from Tk 11.38 crore on Sunday.
   Banking stocks retained domination on the market in terms of turnover.
   Jamuna Bank, Southeast Bank, City Bank, Exim Bank, Prime Bank and Standard Bank were among the top ten turnover leaders of the day on the DSE.
   The Power Grid Company Bangladesh, however, retained the top position on the turnover indices on the Dhaka and the Chittagong bourses with sales of Tk 8.75 crore and Tk 2.64 crore respectively.

Mobile phone security market is projected to reach nearly $5 billion by 2011, driven by steady rise in security attacks to smarter phones, says a report of Juniper Research, a telecoms analyst firm specialising in the mobile and wireless sector.
   ‘The security risks of identity theft, the growing threat of mobile viruses and malware combined with corporate governance, state legislation and the increasing dependence of users on delivery and storage of critical data to their mobile phones will ensure that mobile security products will be installed on 247 million mobile phones or nearly 8 per cent of total mobile phones by 2011,’ says the report.
   Despite initiatives by mobile operators and police forces, mobile phone theft will continue to rise with a forecast of nearly 4 per cent of mobile phones annually stolen by 2011, says the report released on Sunday.
   ‘Revenues from mobile security products, including anti-virus, VPN, data and file encryption and mobile identity management applications, will generate almost $5 billion worth of revenue by 2011,’ the report says adding that the biggest mobile security market sector will be in the secure mobile content sector such as anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware and content filtering with 40 per cent of the total market.
   ‘Initially driven by the data-hungry mobile business users who have seen the benefits of data services such as email, predominantly on their Blackberry devices, we will see mobile security products go mainstream by late 2008 or early 2009 resulting in doubling of revenues from 2008 to 2010,’ said Alan Goode, the author of the report.

Talks on rebalancing voting power in the International Monetary Fund start on Monday with some major emerging economies already complaining that an opening proposal fails to clearly spell out changes needed to give them more say in the institution.
   The proposal is the beginning of what is likely to be a protracted negotiation over a new voting formula that would reflect the rise of emerging economies powers in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere.
   An IMF staff paper circulated ahead of Monday’s meeting and obtained by Reuters avoided the thorny issue of a specific proposal for a new formula. Instead, the paper described itself as the ‘starting point’ for discussions.
   ‘It is hoped ... the issues under discussion can begin to be narrowed down, leading in coming months to a convergence of views around a specific proposal or narrow range of proposals,’ the paper said.
   However, officials from developing countries said they were disappointed by the paper, which some said lacked the needed leadership by IMF staff to force the politically-tough debate forward.
   Without leadership, they said, the talks could simply re-hash previous discussions without reflecting that emerging economies like China and India have become important drivers of global growth, making a rebalance of IMF voting power critical.
   The current ‘quota’ formula is based on the world’s economic order when the Fund was formed after World War Two with the United States and Europe as the dominant economic powers.
   The Group of Seven nations - the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada - currently wield around 45 per cent of the Fund’s quotas, or membership subscriptions, which largely determine voting power.
   Under the current formula large emerging markets have fewer votes than small European countries.
   The IMF’s 184 member countries in September endorsed a plan that increased the voting power of China, Mexico, Turkey and South Korea, and agreed to a second round of adjustments, to be completed by 2008, based on a new formula.
   Some big emerging economies like India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt and Iran voted against the plan saying it did not go far enough. The objecting nations doubt whether European countries are willing to relinquish voting power to emerging economies.

A court in Rajshahi ordered to attach all furniture of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industries (RCCI) building for failing to comply with the court proceedings. The open auction of the furniture worth Tk 50 lakh will be held on February 15.
   RCCI sources said, in 1997 former RCCI president, Mustafizur Rahman Suja, filed an election forgery related case against his opponent, then president, Muhammad Ali Sarker, with the Rajshahi district Joint Judge Court.
   Later as Sarker did not respond to the case and did not appear before the court as required, recently a verdict has been handed down against the RCCI to attach all its goods.
   On Sunday morning, the court staff hung notice on the RCCI gate beating drum around.
   The present president of the RCCI, Lutfor Rahman, said, the goods of the newly constructed three-storey building would be auctioned due to the negligence of Muhammad Ali Sarker. ‘We are preparing for a legal battle,’ he said, however.
   The RCCI house committee chairman, Khandker Hafizur Rahman, said, ‘We became surprised after receiving the court notice. We will go to the court against the order,’ he said.
   Sarker said, after the handover of office, the earlier committee cannot be held responsible for this. The incumbent committee should settle the matter, he added.

The Horizon Staffing Services (HSS-USA) will formally open its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Dhaka today (Tuesday).
   The inaugural ceremony will be held at Hotel Sheraton in the evening, the officials of the company said at a press conference in the city Monday.
   The advisers to caretaker government Mahbubul Alam and Yasmeen Murshed are expected to attend the function as chief guest and special guest, they said.
   Headquartered in USA’s Connecticut, HSS is one of the fastest growing and largest staffing services and human resource solutions providers in the US. It has has over forty offices all over North America. The Dhaka office will be the first of its kind outside the North American region.
   While providing professional human capital management and outsourcing is the core competency of HSS, the company since its establishment in 1995 has been working with businesses of all sizes ranging from small businesses to ‘Fortune 500’ companies to provide complete staffing services and HR solutions.
   This year, the company has been ranked as the 4th fastest growing privately-owned staffing firm in USA, while in 2005 it was ranked as the 14th fastest growing US staffing firm by Staffing Industry Analyst, a group that monitors the staffing industry. Horizon Staffing has recently been ranked as the 8th largest privately-owned staffing firm in USA. Also, HSS is deemed as one of the 100 fastest growing inner city companies in the country.
   On launching its regional office in Bangladesh, the founder CEO of HSS-USA Ahmed A Ahsan said, ‘We intend to transfer our expertise in and experience of human capital augmentation industry from USA to Bangladesh with a mission to transform the local talent pool into highly skilled workforce, competent enough to be employed by the best companies of the Western World.’

A total of Tk 150 crore will be spent for multifarious development activities in 30 selected pourasabhas under urban governance and infrastructure improvement project phase-2 of Local Government Engineering Department in 2006-07 and 2007-08 fiscal years.
   The Asian Development Bank funded UGHP began in July 2004 in 22 selected pourasabhas for infrastructure improvement, governance and capacity building and spent Tk 110 crore under phase-1. In phase-3 of the project, another Tk 200 crore will be spent.
   For better implementation of the UGHP-2, a two-day orientation course for the chairmen, chief executive officers, secretaries and accounts officers of 30 selected pourasabhas began Monday at LGED headquarter in the city.
   About 100 pourasabha officials including chairmen of the project pourasabhas are attending the course.
   The chief engineer of LGED, M Shahidul Hassan, said the government is doing its best by implementing various foreign aided projects to increase the facilities of pourasabhas to ensure better service. He urged the chairmen to taka initiatives for enhancing revenue earnings by improving governance and building capacities through computerisation.
   He also stressed the need for maintenance of the infrastructures built through capital investment of foreign aided projects.
   The inaugural session was presided over by superintending engineer (urban management) of LGED M Abdul Gaffar while it was addressed by additional chief engineer M Abdul Karim and project director of UGHP ABM Ashraful Alam.

The RB group, a leading marketing company of electrical, electronics and automobiles products, has constructed the Walton premier pavilion in the Dhaka International Trade Fair 2006.
   The actor and senior deputy director of Walton, Ilias Kanchan, inaugurated the pavilion.
   Architect Quazi Toshirul Haque, the deputy director of marketing, Amdadul Haque Sarker, the assistant director of public relation and media, Humayun Kabir, and other employees of Walton were also present at the inaugural ceremony.
   The Walton pavilion presents such products as remote control motorcycle, automatic industrial and petrol generator, color television, HD DVD player, fridge and freezer, air conditioner, microwave oven, washing machine, self start power tiller, and energy saving bulb.

Aktel has launched a new customer care centre in Narayanganj. This is the 16th centre of the company.
   Ahmad Bin Ismail, managing director of Aktel, inaugurated the centre on Saturday.
   Javed Tariq, head of corporate affairs, Segufta Yesmin Samad, head of customer care, Farrukh Sayeed, manager, and other senior functionaries of the company were present at the ceremony.
   AKTEL is a company focused on growth and developent. Parallel to the services, AKTEL believes in a constant motion to keep pace with time as it grows by catering its diverse customer base with the unique needs and demands, says a press release.

Triune Exhibition and Event Management Services and Otobi Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding in the city recently.
   Kazi Wahidul Alam, chief executive officer of TEEMS, and Saleh Mujahid, general manager of Otobi Ltd, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides.
   Under the agreement, Otobi would become the premium partner of MEDEXPO 2006, says a press release.

As dolls go, Barbie has had her ups and downs. She’s achieved iconic status, amid multiple alterations to her figure, face and wardrobe. She’s survived a very public breakup with Ken and withstood fierce competition from other dolls who’ve snagged some of her market share.
   Sales also have slumped in recent years, as they did at the beginning of the women’s movement in early 1970s — when ‘girls weren’t supposed to just go to the prom and marry Ken,’ says Chris Byrne, an independent toy consultant.
   Yet somehow, as she always does, Barbie has managed to bounce back — and not just because she’s made of rubbery plastic.
   Mattel Inc., which makes Barbie, says sales so far this year have been up for the first time in several years. And one survey of parents done by the National Retail Federation found that Barbie is the top toy for girls this holiday season (TMX Elmo was first for boys).
   So what is it about Barbie? How — nearly 50 years after Mattel introduced her — has she managed to thrive, especially in a time when classic toy makers have found themselves scrambling to attract new audiences?
   Ask a girl who plays with Barbie, and you’ll get this kind of answer: ‘I always wanted to grow up to be like a Barbie. I don’t know why — but she’s kind of cool,’ says Cassidy Moock, a fifth-grader in Lorton, Va., who’s had Barbies since she was little and still plays with a Barbie styling head to practice hair and makeup. ‘She has her own house. She’s got cool clothes — better than when my mom had them.’
   In other words, part of Barbie’s charm — and Mattel’s success with her — has come from an ability to keep up with the times.
   ‘Barbie has consistently reinvented herself,’ says Byrne, who’s based in New York.
   She’s evolved, for instance, from a cat-eyed girl in a bathing suit in 1959 to a go-go dancer, a tanned beach bum, and eventually a career woman whose resume includes presidential candidate, rock star, astronaut and World Cup soccer player. There’ve also been black and Hispanic Barbies, over the years, and those that’ve represented more than 45 nationalities.
   More recently, Mattel has tapped into younger girls’ fascination with fairies and princesses, with lines known as ‘Fairytopia’ and ‘12 Dancing Princesses,’ which include movies, a stage show and prominent play on Barbie’s interactive Web site. Another new Barbie — the ‘Chat Diva’ — carries a toy cell phone and can lip sync and bop her head to music when an iPod is plugged in. And to keep older girls interested, Mattel has developed product lines with cosmetic, perfume and clothing makers.
   It’s a strategy that works with this generation of girls and their moms — many of whom also grew up playing with Barbie — says Marian Salzman, a trend-watcher and chief marketing officer for advertising firm JWT Worldwide.
   ‘Her look is more in than out again — Pamela Anderson,
   Anna Nicole Smith, Victoria Beckham. They all bring with them in your face glamour,’ Salzman says. ‘And that’s a nice balance to the traditionalism of it being Barbie. ‘So it’s a chance for kids and moms to experience nostalgia ... and just enough nastiness to be 2006.’
   Mattel also has tried to position Barbie as a ‘a blank palette,’ Salzman says, allowing her to appeal to a wide range of girls.
   On Barbie’s Web site, girls are encouraged to ‘B who U wanna B — B-a-r-b-i-e,’ whether it’s a ‘fashionista,’ a ‘gamer’ or a ‘princess.’
   It’s that universal feel that appealed to Leah Appel when she played with Barbie as a kid.

Japan’s Nissan Motor Co. said Monday it aims to develop a hybrid vehicle in-house for launch in 2010, shedding its skepticism towards the gas-electric technology as it chases rival Toyota Motor Corp.
   Nissan is already due to launch a hybrid version of its Altima sedan, using Toyota components, in the US market next year.
   Now the group plans to develop a hybrid using its own technologies, Japan’s number two automaker said in a statement.
   ‘We do not deny that from the marketing stand point, at the present point of time the customers’ needs and values could not be met with what we have,’ chief operating office Toshiyuki Shiga told a press conference.
   ‘We are developing something that meets the customers’ needs,’ he added.
   Japanese automakers, particularly Toyota, are struggling to keep pace with demand for their hybrids, particularly in the United States where interest in fuel-guzzling jeeps has been hit by soaring gasoline prices.
   However, Nissan has been slower to embrace hybrids, which are equipped with an electric motor and a standard petrol engine, making them much more economical and environment-friendly than conventional autos.

China’s trade surplus reached 22.9 billion dollars in November, down slightly from the October figure of 23.8 billion dollars, according to customs data released Monday.
   The figure was a revision from a November trade surplus of 23.4 billion dollars announced by state media last week. No reason was given for the revised data.
   According to a statement published on the website of the General Administration of China Customs, the trade surplus in the 11 months to November 156.5 billion dollars, up from 91 billion dollars a year earlier.
   Exports in November alone rose 32.8 per cent to 95.9 billion dollars while imports were up 18.3 per cent to 72.9 billion dollars.
   The customs said exports in the 11 months period rose 27.5 per cent to 875 billion dollars while imports were up 20.6 per cent to 718.5 billion dollars.
   Economists expect China’s full year surplus to reach at least 180 billion dollars, compared to 101.9 billion dollars last year.
   China’s huge trade surplus is likely to add further pressure on the Chinese currency, the yuan, to appreciate.
   Foreign critics say the yuan is undervalued, providing an unfair advantage for Chinese products on the international market.

China’s consumer prices picked up speed in November, rising by the largest margin since January, the government said Monday, as the central bank governor called inflation ‘a matter of concern.’
   The consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, was up by 1.9 per cent in November from a year earlier, compared with a more modest 1.4 per cent rise in October, the National Bureau of Statistics reported.
   ‘There is a possibility of a pick-up in inflation,’ central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan told a financial seminar in Beijing. ‘Inflation is a matter of concern for the central bank.’
   Even so, analysts said they did not expect the central bank to take any fresh dramatic measures on the basis of one month’s worth of inflation data.
   ‘The pick-up in inflation is probably short-term and it won’t push the government to adopt any (new) monetary measures just now,’ said Zuo Xiaolei, a Beijing-based economist with Galaxy Securities.
   So far this year the authorities have hiked interest rates twice and bank reserve requirements three times in an effort to cool an economy which grew 10.7 per cent in the nine months to November.
   All the while, inflation has remained relatively subdued.
   However, the November figure was the highest since a similar 1.9-per cent rise in January this year, when the figures were distorted by spending for the Lunar New Year, the biggest holiday in China.
   If the January statistics are not taken into account, November saw the highest rise in consumer prices since March 2005.
   The central bank detected early signs of a rebound in lending last month and had already soaked up funds in open-market operations, argued Gao Shanwen, an economist with Everbright Securities based in Shanghai.
   ‘So the likelihood that the central bank will resort to an interest rate hike soon is limited,’ he told AFP. The consumer price index rose 1.3 per cent in the 11 months to November, the bureau said in a statement.
   Prices for the full year are also likely to rise 1.3 per cent, said Ma Kai, the head of the National Development and Reform Commission, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper Monday.
   Inflation last month was led by higher prices for food, which still makes up a large proportion of the average Chinese consumer basket.
   Food prices rose 3.7 per cent in November, with non-food items up just one per cent, the bureau said.
   Despite China’s breakneck growth, inflation is generally considered rather low, the result in part of massive investment in industrial capacity in recent years, ensuring that demand in most product categories can be more than met.
   China’s central bank said last month that inflationary pressures still existed, with prices of both consumer goods and production materials facing the risk of upward movement.
   Reasons given include pricing reforms, meaning consumers will see steadily growing bills for their water, electricity, oil and gas, it said.
   Higher crude oil and non-ferrous metal prices in the international market would also push up prices in China.
   Finally, local companies would be forced to hike prices to pay for extra costs from safer production routines and the provision of welfare benefits, it argued.

A fresh bidding war for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus erupted on Monday when Brazilian group CSN offered about 5.8 billion pounds (8.6 billion euros, 11.3 billion dollars) shortly after Corus had accepted a lower bid from Tata Steel of India.
   Corus accepted also CSN’s revised offer, which includes about 0.9 billion pounds worth of debt, and which CSN said would create ‘a top five’ global steel group producing about 24 million tonnes of steel per year.
   ‘The boards of CSN and Corus are pleased to announce their agreement on the terms of a recommended pre-conditional cash acquisition by CSN Acquisitions of the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Corus at a price of 515 pence for each Corus Share, valuing Corus at approximately 4.9 billion pounds’ exluding the debt, a statement said.
   The offer came less than a day after Corus said it had accepted a revised takeover bid from Tata Steel worth about 5.6 billion pounds, including debt.
   CSN and Tata, steelmakers from two of the world’s emerging economic superpowers—Brazil and India—are battling for Corus as they seek to gain ground on world number-one steelmaker Arcelor Mittal.
   In response to CSN’s offer, Tata Steel said it was ‘considering its position’, adding it would ‘make a further announcement in due course’. CSN, or Companhia Siderurgica Nacional, said its offer creates the potential to capture significant annual synergy benefits of about 300 million dollars, on a pre-tax basis, by 2009.
   This would be achieved through ‘global procurement savings, optimisation of product flows, integrated commercial policy and the sharing of best practices’, it added.
   Corus had said on Sunday that Tata Steel had submitted an improved offer at 500 pence per share, more than a 10-per cent increase on its previous offer of 455 pence per share.
   In early trading on Monday, the share price in Corus jumped 4.80 per cent to 524 pence on London’s FTSE 100. The British capital’s leading share index rose 0.45 per cent to 6,180.10 points.
   Corus had last month agreed to be acquired by Tata for 5.1 billion pounds including debt, before CSN made an informal offer of 5.3 billion pounds on November 17.
   The merger between Corus and Tata Steel would create the world’s sixth-biggest steel producer with annual output of 22.6 million tonnes of steel a year, compared to an alliance between Corus and CSN, which would produce 23.4 million tonnes, according to the International Iron and Steel Institute.
   Corus last month published third-quarter results showing a tripling of its net profit.
   Net profits rocketed 182 per cent to 141 million pounds in the three months to September 30, 2006, compared with 50 million in the equivalent period of the previous year. Revenue increased 17 per cent to 2.459 billion pounds.
   The improvement reflected better overall market conditions and further benefits of an ongoing cost-cutting programme, Corus said.
   Corus, which was spawned by the 1999 merger of Dutch firm Hoogovens and British Steel, is Europe’s second-largest steel maker and the world’s ninth-largest, producing around 18 million tonnes per year.
   The Anglo-Dutch steel company employs 47,300 people globally, including 24,000 in Britain and 11,400 in the Netherlands.

The French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, called on Monday for ‘clarification’ of the role of the European Central Bank, amid fierce debate in France on the high level of the euro.
   While Villepin acknowledged the ECB had the front-line role in fighting inflation, he signalled that he favoured increased influence for eurozone governments in its decisions, notably concerning the euro’s foreign exchange rate.
   The euro has risen strongly against the dollar in the last few weeks, and also in the last few years, raising concern in France about the ability of exporters to compete.
   Villepin said on French radio that ‘political will needs to be expressed’ and that there should be a ‘clarification of the roles’ of the central bank and eurozone governments.
   Referring to the ECB’s statutory independence in managing monetary policy and setting interest rates in the eurozone, he acknowledged that ‘the central bank has a primary responsibility for fighting against the rise of prices and against inflation’.
   But he also told France Inter radio that he was talking about a need ‘to clarify responsibilities in the field of foreign exchange policy’. He said: ‘It is by recovering margins for maneouvre and of sovereignty that the (eurozone) states could do more’.
   It was necessary ‘better to coordinate the work of the Eurogroup and the European Central Bank’.
   The Eurogroup is the name given to eurozone finances ministers as a group.
   Villepin said: ‘It is necessary to put matters on the table, to re-define the functions of each.’
   He counted on ‘the goodwill of all of the states, in the knowledge that they do not all have this view.’
   Villepin said: ‘There are states which accept the current situation. It is the case that for France, it is not a favourable situation.’

Sri Lanka, one of the world’s largest exporters of tea, is facing trade union action that could seriously undermine quality and quantity of the island’s ‘green gold’, officials said Monday.
   Striking tea trade unions are expecting crucial talks later Monday to settle their wage demand, with their move coming at the start of the ‘quality’ season for the island’s main export commodity.
   Lush tea plantations are getting overgrown with some 400,000 workers keeping up a work stoppage for a seventh straight day Monday. They are demanding an 85 per cent wage hike, trade union officials said.
   Tea workers are currently paid 135 rupees (1.35 dollars) a day and they want it pushed to 250 (2.5 dollars). Employees argue that the take home pay of workers is already more than 250 rupees if allowances are taken into account.
   Tea is Sri Lanka’s main export commodity and earned 810 million dollars last year as it shipped some 308 million of the 315 million kilograms it produced.
   ‘We had discussions for two days but we are meeting plantation owners today and hope there will be a solution,’ said P. Chandrasekaran, leader of the Upcountry People’s Front trade union.
   The employer’s federation said the trade union action has cost the industry over three million dollars so far and the quality of tea would suffer unless the work stoppage ends immediately.
   Tea bushes growing on mountain slopes must be pruned regularly or else the flavour of the tea is adversely affected.
   Sri Lanka is better known for its high quality aromatic tea that is made with tender leafs and buds of the plant which is botanically known as Camellia sinenis.

Although members of the World Trade Organisation have resumed the Doha Round talks at the technical level, whether a breakthrough could be reached by next spring remains unclear, WTO chief Pascal Lamy has said.
   In a recent interview with Xinhua, Lamy reiterated that major WTO players must change position and break the deadlock on agriculture issue by next spring if they want to conclude the Doha Round talks in 2007.
   ‘Next spring remains a sort of time horizon which all negotiators have in mind,’ Lamy said.
   Next spring is an important occasion, because by then the US Congress would have decided whether to renew the Bush administration’s ‘fast-track’ trade negotiating authority and whether to change its current farm legislation, both of which are critical for the fate of the Doha Round talks.
   But Lamy indicated that he was not sure whether WTO negotiators could bridge their differences and reach a breakthrough by next spring.
   He said as WTO director-general and ‘a necessary broker’, he would continue to ‘push, pull and advocate’ to help major players overcome their difficulties, particularly on reducing farm subsidies and tariffs.
    ‘It depends on negotiators...I am not negotiating myself, I’m trying to orchestrate negotiators,’ Lamy said.
   The WTO chief also urged major players such as the US, the EU, India and Japan to make concerted efforts in saving the global trade promotion talks, which have been inconclusive for five years and risk being delayed for another several years if no agreement is reached in 2007.
    ‘They have to find a better compromise than what was on the table last July, which did not work,’ he said, referring to the collapse of key ministerial negotiations in Geneva between the US, EU, Australia, Japan, India and Brazil, which led to the suspension of the talks.
   Lamy said currently he had no plan to convene ministerial talks in Geneva. ‘I will only take an initiative if I have the feeling that a breakthrough is possible.’
   But he said WTO ministers are free to hold informal consultations themselves, whatever the form and participating scale.
   He confirmed that more than 20 WTO ministers would gather in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos in late January, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, to discuss the Doha Round talks.
   Asked to confirm media reports that he himself may make a bid to revive the talks in January by tabling his own draft text of a possible final deal, Lamy said, ‘it is a last-resort option.’
   He indicated that he would not do that until he felt that the Doha Round talks risk total falure. ‘History has put that it is a last-resort option, and we are not yet there.’

Australia’s wool harvest is set to dwindle to its lowest in 20 years, industry figures showed today, as the nation’s worst drought in a century weighs further on the beleaguered rural community.
   Record low rainfall has led the nation’s wool producer body, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), to slash its ‘shorn wool production’ outlook for 2006-07 by nine per cent on last year’s 461,000 tonnes.
   The latest gloomy figures represent a further down-
   ward revision of three per centage points on AWI’s September 2006 forecast, as parched conditions increasingly ravage the country’s farming sector.
   AWI forecaster David James said while volumes had been positive for the first five months of the year to June 2007, wool production was set to ‘diminish significantly’ in the next six months, when the full effects of the drought would be felt.

China’s banking regulator said it had received eight applications from foreign banks for local registration, which it would begin processing on Monday, a first step in granting national treatment.
   ‘The China Banking Regulatory Commission will examine the applications carefully and make appropriate determinations,’ the CBRC said in a statement on its Web site on Sunday.
   The mainland issued new foreign bank guidelines on November 16 to fulfill its obligations for entry into the
   World Trade Organisation, which stipulates that the country must further open its banking sector to overseas competition from December 11.
   The new rules state that foreign banks seeking local incorporation must have paid-in capital of 1 billion yuan ($128 million), a drop in the bucket for banks such as Citigroup Inc, the largest US bank with a market value of $245 billion.
   Along with Citigroup, rivals HSBC, Standard Chartered and ABN AMRO are also known to have submitted applications.
   Regulators will decide on the applications within six months, although they can extend the decision for another three months.
   The foreign banks must have been open for business for at least three years and profitable for two years prior to the application, said the regulator.
   If the applications are approved, the foreign banks will be allowed to engage in full-scale renminbi, or yuan, business, said the CBRC.

India and UAE will set up a Trade Policy Forum as part of steps to increase bilateral trade.
   The forum will be co-chaired by commerce secretary along with the director general of foreign trade and joint secretary concerned of the Department of Commerce, an official statement said yesterday.
   ‘UAE investors would find attractive industrial partners in India to set up mutually advantageous industry complexes in the Gulf and India and serve all markers, notably the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Central Asia,’ the statement quoted commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath as saying.
   The decision in this regard was taken at Nath’s meeting with Minister of Economy UAE Sheikh Lubna Al Qassimi during his recent visit to Dubai for the India Arab World Business Summit.
   During 2005-06, the non oil trade volume stood at USD 12904.9 million as against USD 11988.98 million in 2004-05.
   The UAE is India’s top trading partner in West Asia and North America, representing nearly 75 per cent of India’s exports to the Gulf Cooperation Council, it added.

Japan’s Nissan Motor Co. said Monday it aims to develop a hybrid vehicle in-house for launch in 2010, shedding its skepticism towards the gas-electric technology as it chases rival Toyota Motor Corp.
   Nissan is already due to launch a hybrid version of its Altima sedan, using Toyota components, in the US market next year.
   Now the group plans to develop a hybrid using its own technologies, Japan’s number two automaker said in a statement.
   ‘We do not deny that from the marketing stand point, at the present point of time the customers’ needs and values could not be met with what we have,’ chief operating office Toshiyuki Shiga told a press conference.

The dollar extended gains in Asian trade Monday in the wake of better-than-expected US jobs data that dampened expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut early next year, dealers said.
   They said participants in Tokyo are jittery ahead of the Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey of business sentiment due on Friday that could be key to the central bank’s December 19 decision on whether to raise interest rates again.
   The dollar rose to 116.67 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade from 116.33 late Friday in New York.
   The euro dipped to 1.3158 dollars from 1.3200 and to 153.50 yen from 153.58.
   US non-farm payrolls rose by 132,000 in November, the government reported Friday, above market expectations for a gain of around 105,000.
   Revisions to back data were broadly positive, with October payrolls revised down to show a gain of 79,000 from the previous estimate of 92,000, but September’s reading was revised up substantially to 203,000 from 148,000. Analysts said the data had reduced the chances of a loosening of US monetary policy early next year, particularly with US stock markets faring well.
   ‘Although (some) US economic data have been weak, stock markets remain robust and inflation figures have been subdued, and there is no way that the Fed will cut rates when stocks are soaring,’ said Osamu Takashima, chief analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
   The market is hoping for fresh clues from the Fed on the rate outlook at its meeting on Tuesday when policymakers are expected to keep the federal funds rate at 5.25 per cent, where it has stood since August.
   Market participants are also awaiting US economic data due this week including retail sales on Wednesday and the consumer prices on Friday.
   In Japan, the main focus is on Friday’s quarterly Tankan survey with analysts divided on the chances of another rate hike by the year-end, which would be the first since July’s rise ended over five years of zero interest rates.
   ‘I don’t think there will be a rate hike next week, looking at economic indicators,’ Takashima said, referring to weaker-than-expected data on machinery orders and a downgrade to third-quarter growth released last week.
   He said the market looked ripe for a correction after the dollar’s recent slide so the currency could extend its recovery to regain the 117 yen level.
   Dealers said the unit was further bolstered by comments from US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who reaffirmed his support for a strong dollar despite the currency’s recent slide.
   ‘I believe very strongly that a strong dollar is in our nation’s best interest and I feel very good about the strength of our economy right now,’ he said in an interview with the financial news network CNBC.
   Paulson will lead a heavyweight delegation including Fed chairman Ben Bernanke to Beijing for the launch Thursday of a ‘strategic economic dialogue’ with the Asian powerhouse.

Dividend
   Sonali Aansh
   The Board of Directors did not recommend any dividend for the year 2005-2006. Annual general meeting of the company will be held at the White House Hotel, 155, Shantinagar, Dhaka.
   
   Transaction
   Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd
   Arab Bangladesh Bank Ltd, one of the corporate directors of the company, has reported its intention to buy 10,000 shares of the company at prevailing market price through stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   Jamuna Bank
   Razia Sultana Deepa, one of the sponsors of the bank, has further reported her intention to buy 1,000 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   People Insurance
   SM Nurul Islam, one of the sponsors of the company, has reported his intention to sell 10,000 shares out of his holdings of 33,718 shares of the company at prevailing market price through stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   Mercantile Bank Ltd.
   Khurshida Ahmed and Md Shahabuddin Alam both are sponsors of the bank, have further reported that they have completed their sale/buy of 6,250 shares each of the bank at prevailing market price through stock exchange as announced earlier.
   Popular Life Insurance Co Ltd
   Hasan Ahmed, one of the sponsor/directors of the company, has further reported that he has completed his purchase of 6,000 shares of the company at prevailing market price through stock exchange as announced earlier.
   
   Loss
   GMG Ind Corp
   As per audited accounts as on June 30, the company has reported net loss of Tk 4.01 million with EPS of Tk 4.55 as against Tk 4.38 m and Tk 4.96 respectively as on June 30, 2005. Moreover, the company has reported accumulated loss of Tk 110.38 million as on June 3.
   
   Spot trade
   Modern Dyeing
   Trading of the shares of the company will also be allowed in spot market with cum benefit from December 12 to 13, as book closure will start from December 17.
   Tamijuddin Textile
   Trading of the shares of the company will also be allowed in spot market with cum benefit from December 12 to 19, as book closure will start from December 21.
   Mita Textile
   Trading of the shares of the company will also be allowed in spot market from December 12 to 13, as book closure will start from December 17.
   Amam Sea Food
   Trading of the shares of the company will also be allowed in spot market from December 12 to 19, as book closure will start from December 21.
   Source: DSE, CSE

Audi plans 11.8b
euro investment
Audi, the luxury car arm of mass-producer Volkswagen, unveiled on Monday a vast new investment programme under which it planned to invest 11.8 billion euros (15.6 billion dollars) by 2011, largely in new models. For 2006 alone, Audi had earmarked investments of 1.37 billion euros, followed by 1.6 billion euros in 2007, the top-of-the-range car maker said in a statement. The aim was to lift investment to about two billion euros each year. Audi said that the lion’s share of the investment — 8.4 billion euros—would be used to extend its product range from 22 models at present to around 40 by 2015.

OECD jobless rate falls to 5.9pc
The unemployment rate in the 30 countries covered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment fell to 5.9 per cent in October from 6.0 per cent in September, the OECD said on Monday. The rate fell by 0.6 per centage points from the figure at the same time last year. In the 12-country eurozone, the unemployment rate, on an OECD standardised basis, fell to 7.7 per cent from 7.8 per cent in September, and by 0.8 per centage points on a 12-month comparison. But in the United States the rate rose to 4.5 per cent from 4.4 per cent, although it was half a point lower than the figure for October of last year. The unemployment rate in Japan was 4.1 per cent in October after 4.2 per cent in September and was 0.4 points below the figure in October 2005.
— AFP