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Total remittance inflow during seven months of the current fiscal year exceeded $2.56 billion, posting a 22.7 per cent growth over the year-ago period despite a slight slump in January.
   Non-resident Bangladeshis sent home $390 million in January, less than $418 million of December. But overall inflow in July-January period increased markedly, even overtaking the whole year earning of $2.5 billion in the 2001-02 fiscal.
   The impressive growth in remittance inflow cushioned the strain on the balance of payments, showed the central bank statistics.
   The drop in remittance inflow in January was, however, not unusual as expatriate Bangladeshis sent as much money as they could in the month before to help their families meet Eid Ul Azha expenditures.
   Yet, the decline in January figures might be disappointing for the country’s foreign exchange market as the banks are desperately trying to increase the remittance income to cope with growing demand of dollars.
   The inter-bank foreign exchange market gained further heat as state-owned banks hiked their exchange rates.
   Two nationalised commercial banks, Sonali and Janata, raised their taka-dollar exchange rates to reduce the gap between the rates quoted by private and foreign banks.
   Sonali Bank and Janata Bank raised the rates for opening letters of credit for imports by Tk one to Tk 68.25 per dollar.
   Earlier on Thursday, Agrani and Basic banks had raised the rates by Tk 1.72 pushing the dollar price at import level up to Tk 68.97 from Tk 67.25.
   All the nationalised banks have also increased rates for export and remittance simultaneously.
   Some traders have already shifted from the state-owned banks to private banks for competitive rates both on export earnings and import L/Cs, banking sources said.
   ‘In both ways, we are losing business out to private banks,’ said an official of a nationalised commercial bank.
   He, however, defended the latest hike in exchange rates, which, he said, was made in response to the market needs.
   Higher rate would not only reduce the import pressure, but also provide more taka to the remittance receiver, the banker argued.
   The inter-bank exchange rate increased to Tk 66.75, reflecting further depreciation of taka against the greenback.
   At the import level, some banks quoted Tk 69.50 per dollar as demand-supply mismatch in the market continued.
   The increasing pressure on import has yet to be contained and so demand for dollar remains higher.
   ‘The only option for the banks is now to increase the remittance income to boost their supplies of foreign exchange,’ said a senior official of a private bank.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed Monday urged the Philippines to import more products from Bangladesh aimed at boosting trade between the two countries.
   He made the call when visiting former Philippines president Fidel V Ramos made a courtesy call on him at Bangabhaban.
   Iajuddin requested Fidel Ramos to take initiatives to import Bangladeshi exportable items including readymade garments, ceramic and melamine as well as to establish good contact between the businessmen of both the countries.
   He mentioned the success of micro-credit programme in Bangladesh saying that a linkage programme for university teachers and students between the two countries may derive immense benefit for sharing of knowledge and ideas.
   Fidel Ramos asked the Philippines embassy officials to come forward for better understanding between businessmen of both the countries and hoped that his country will import more Bangladeshi products.
   Philippines charge de affaires to Bangladesh Alfredo Borlongan was present on the occasion.

Two Memorandums of Understanding are expected to be signed between Bangladesh and Pakistan during the prime minister, Khaleda Zia’s three-day official visit to Islamabad from February 12, a well placed official source said Monday.
   The MOUs will be signed between Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council and between Export Promotion Bureau of Bangladesh and Export Promotion Bureau of Pakistan, the source said.
   Once the MOUs are signed, the source said the two SAARC member countries will be benefited in the field of agriculture and through enhanced trade and commerce. Under the MOU between EPB and EPP, both Dhaka and Islamabad will seek free of cost space in each other’s country for holding single country fairs, it said.
   When contacted Additional Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain said Dhaka and Islamabad have been trying to reach an understanding to harmonize the standard requirements of both the countries. Trade and commerce between the two countries will increase if such understanding is reached, he said.
   The foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, foreign secretary Hemayet Uddin and additional foreign secretary Touhid Hossain will be in the prime minister’s entourage. Besides, a business delegation will accompany her.
   The official meeting between the prime minister, Khaleda Zia and her Pakistan counterpart Shaukat Aziz will take place on February 13. During the meeting cooperation between Dhaka and Islamabad is expected to figure prominently. She is also scheduled to address a meeting of the Pakistan business community.
   During the visit, the Prime Minister will call on Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf on February 13.
   Begum Zia, who is the current SAARC Chairperson, is also scheduled to make a 3-day visit to India from March 20 at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.
   The details of her visit to India are being worked out through diplomatic channels. Besides bilateral issues of mutual interests, the two sides are expected to discuss ways and means to enhance cooperation among the SAARC member countries in different fields.

A three-day trade show of American goods and services begins in Dhaka tomorrow, with a view to promote US businesses in Bangladesh, which enjoys a huge trade surplus with the world’s biggest economy.
   The American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh and the US embassy are jointly arranging the annual trade show, 15th of its kind here at the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka.
   The foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, will inaugurate the US Trade Show 2006. The charge d’ affaires of the US mission in Dhaka, Judith A Chammas, will be present at the opening session.
   Fair organisers said this year they expect 75 exhibitors to showcase a wide range of products and services at 127 booths.
   Trend of bilateral trade between Bangladesh and the USA has been ‘very positive’ in recent years and both the countries would be benefited if the two-way trade volume increases in future, AmCham president Andrew L Fawthrop said at a press conference Monday, announcing the fair schedule.
   He said American investment in Bangladesh stands around $1 billion.
   The trade show will remain open from 10:00am to 8:00pm. Entry fee is Tk 20 per visitor.
   The political and economic affairs counsellor of the US embassy, Dundas Mc Cullough, the commercial officer, Dayle Rebecca Johns, and the AmCham executive director, A Gafur, also spoke.
   Various products and services including soft drinks, market and social research, retail measurement services, health and beauty products, educational service, training, diagnostic products, software, life insurance, shipping and logistics services and air cargo transportation will be put on display.
   Replying to a query, Dundas Mc Cullough appreciated the opposition’s decision to join the parliament session, saying ‘It will be good for trade and investment in Bangladesh’.
   Meanwhile, the American Centre will showcase education services at the fair, said a press release.
   Staff from the student advising centre will be on hand to answer questions and give out materials on higher study in the USA.

Global textile players are increasingly taking interest in Bangladesh in their investment planning, which shows a clear sign of immense potential of the country’s clothing industry due to big domestic and overseas market.
   A huge number of 236 exhibitors from 22 technologically developed countries are attending a four-day textile and RMG machinery fair beginning here Wednesday, reflecting the business potential.
   The Bangladesh Textile Mills Association in association with Malaysian company ES Event Management has organised the fair titled ‘The 3rd Dhaka International Textiles and Garments Machinery Exhibition-2006’.
   The textile and jute minister, Shajahan Siraj, will inaugurate the fair as chief guest while Board of Investment (BoI) executive chairman Mahmudur Rahman will be present as special guest.
   ‘Growing global textile and apparel market offers Bangladesh an infinite opportunity,’ BTMA chairman MA Awal told a press conference on the eve of the show.
   He said the textile market is estimated to boost to $350 billion in 2006-07 from $199 billion in 2000 and Bangladesh has 2.6 per cent of global market share now. ‘With increased global exports, Bangladesh’s exports will increase to $10 billion if the potential is fully realised.’
   The exhibitors would be displaying a wide range of hi-tech primary textile and RMG machinery in 500 stalls—considered to be the highest number as compared to any other events in the country—at the compound of Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.
   Enterprises taking part in the fair are from countries like USA, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Turkey, Thailand, UK, Spain, Taiwan and Bangladesh.
   They would showcase new technology, state-of-the-art equipment, materials and services as well as provide avenues for international suppliers to expand business to the lucrative market and accelerate Bangladeshi technological advances that will ensure quality, speed and competitive advantages in textile and garment industry.
   The BTMA chairman pointed out that Bangladesh’s textile products enjoy duty-free access to the European Union under GSP and EBA schemes, which offers a great advantage over other competitors. The advantage would continue for at least a decade.
   He also expected that the country’s presence in the US market would be significant despite the abolition of quota regime.
   He said the government provided various incentives for the sake of attracting foreign investment in textiles, besides low labour costs, skill development potential and an expanding market.
   Awal said the show would provide local entrepreneurs with the opportunity to have a firsthand idea on the new technologies and machinery being used in different sub-sectors of the textile industry.

The income gap between rich and poor in China’s cities has reached an ‘alarming and unreasonable level,’ state media said Monday, citing a high-level government report.
   The poorest 20 per cent of the urban population get only 2.75 per cent of the total urban income, the National Development and Reform Commission said in its report, the Xinhua news agency reported.
   The actual figures may be even more biased against the urban poor, as the income may be underestimating the extent of China’s growing income gap, the commission said.
   ‘China is still lacking an income adjustment mechanism,’ Professor Li Yingsheng of the Renmin University of China told Xinhua.

The Swedish king, Carl XVI Gustaf, has expressed his keen interest in Grameen Bank model and happiness about the progress of Bangladesh.
   He expressed the desire when Bangladesh ambassador to Sweden Muhammad Azizul Haque presented his credentials to the King in a recent Royal ceremony, according to a message received in Dhaka Monday.
   The ambassador briefed the King about Bangladesh’s achievement in poverty alleviation, empowerment of women, inflow of foreign direct investment and attaining MDGs.

The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute has developed eight more high-yielding varieties of rice, six of which are expected to be released for commercial cultivation by next year.
   The other two fine quality of aromatic rice are now awaiting the concerned authorities’ approval to go for cultivation at field level.
   The director general of BRRI told the news agency that BRRI had so far released thirty-one high-yielding modern varieties of rice, twenty-one of these are suitable for cultivation in the aus and boro seasons and ten in the transplant aman season.
   The scientists at the BRRI opposed the idea of some imported hybrid varieties of rice for mass cultivation at field level, because the experimental cultivation of those varieties at BRRI’s different stations has failed to give optimum results.
   The country needs hybrid varieties to combat the increasing demand of food-grains, but such varieties would not be suitable unless those are developed on the basis of local agro-ecological and climatic situation, they observed.
   It is learnt that recently the government has allowed some private firms to import hybrid varieties of rice seeds for field cultivation, but without a proper laboratory test it would be risky to release those varieties for mass field cultivation.
   Some hybrid varieties were examined by BRRI, but only a single variety (CNSGC-6) was found suitable for cultivation.
   The DG of BRRI said the success of hybrid varieties depends on their yielding, capacity in comparison with the local popular ones, quality of rice and the benefit of peasants.
   It should be wise to take into account of these issues, before release of those hybrid varieties for mass cultivation at field level.
   BRRI is continuing its research activities to develop hybrid varieties and hoped that its scientists would be able to release hybrid varieties suitable to local agro- ecological and climatic situations.
   The BRRI is in research to reach the target of producing 2.50 crore tonnes of crops across the country by the year 2002, BRRI sources said adding that some 1.86 lakh tonnes of paddy had been produced in 1997-98 fiscal by using its 35 varieties of high yielding seeds.
   According to sources, the BRRI has developed 101 paddy related technology including 35 varieties of high yielding paddy by conducting massive research programmes from its inception in 1970, sources said.
   The BRRI has been able to reduce about 50 per cent wastage of paddy from harvesting to stockpiling every year after introducing the developed technology, BRRI officials said.
   The sources said BRRI entomologists have identified 175 species of rice pests, 99 species of parasites and 88 species of predators.
   Besides, thirty-one diseases have been identified. The BRRI plant pathologists have developed screening methods for major diseases and have identified over 9,000 spruces of resistance, over 7,000 germplasms, of which 5,000 are local.
   These germplasms have been collected and preserved by BRRI plant breeders, BRRI sources said.

Acute shortage of sugarcane in Rajshahi and Dinajpur has hit the sugar production in Rajshahi Sugar Mills and Setabganj Sugar Mill in Dinajpur.
   It has become uncertain for the Rajshahi Suagar Mills to achieve its target under the prevailing condition, while production was suspended due to lack of sugarcane at the Dinajpur mill.
   Though there are innumerable sugarcane fields that exist in the district Rajshahi, but the authorities of Rajshahi Sugar Mills are facing the crisis of sugarcane.
   Sources in Rajshahi said before the sugarcane in the fields got matured, the farmers of the area have sold the crops to the molasses traders, triggering shut down of several sugarcane buying centres in different areas of the district, including Manigram, Bagha, Gargari, Arani, Bankishore and Nimpara.
   The farmers said a section of unscrupulous molasses traders have bought most of the sugarcane fields before the sugarcane getting matured, as molasses brings much more profit than that of sugar.
   The molasses traders have also set up several sugarcane crushers in the district to produce molasses.
   The managing director of Rajshahi Sugar Mills, Abdul Haque, said they had fixed a target of producing 12,750 tonnes of sugar this year, but the crisis of sugarcanes will be a hindrance towards achieving the target.
   The Setabganj Sugar Mill in Dinajpur also had a target of producing 6,000 tonnes of sugar by crushing 75,000 tonnes of sugarcane this season, said the mill authorities.
   However, after producing 5,829 tonnes till Friday noon, the authorities had no other option but to stop the crushers due to acute shortage of sugarcane.

The Thailand Board of Investment is sending a delegation to Myanmar later this month to study investment in the sector of fish and prawn, said a local press report Monday.
   The over-30-member delegation will study investment in cold storage in Yangon’s Hlaingtharya industrial zone and fish and prawn breeding ponds in Kyauktan and Pandanaw, a tourism company responsible for the delegation’s trip was quoted by the Voice as saying.
   The Thailand Board of Investment had toured the country’s two proposed Mawlamyine and Hpa-an industrial zone out of three in February last year and Thai investors are interested in investment in such emerging industrial zones under a four-country economic cooperation strategy programme.
   Under the programme, Thailand has finalised its feasibility study on the establishment of three proposed economic and industrial zones on the Myanmar side along the Myanmar-Thai border and the finding on the feasibility has been presented to the Myanmar side for deliberation.
   The study on such establishments in Myawaddy and Hpa-an in south-eastern Kayin state and Mawlamyine in southern Mon state was jointly conducted by the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand and the Myanmar Ministry of Industry-1.
   The ECS programme was agreed upon at a summit of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand held in Myanmar’s ancient city of Bagan in November 2003. The strategic project, aimed at creating job opportunities in the region, is also known as the Ayeyawaddy-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy.
   Myanmar has reportedly allotted 384 hectares for setting up the Myawaddy zone, and 396 hectares for Hpa-an and 275 hectares for Mawlamyine.

Neotame, a new product which is alternative to sugar, has been launched in the country and its local marketing company has claimed it to be safe for public health and suitable for Bangladesh conditions.
   The NutraSweet Company of USA, has developed the Neotame through 20 years of research targeting the next generation sweeteners, according to a press release.
   SunAun Limited Bangladesh, the sole distributor of the item, formally launched the product at a seminar at a hotel in Dhaka on Monday.
   Craig Swan, vice president of the American company’s Asia Pacific wing, told the launching seminar that Neotame has been approved as a high intensity sweetener declared by the US FDA, JECFA and Codex Alimentarius in the USA.
   Introducing the product, the managing director of SunAun, Harun AR Khan, said the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution had reviewed Neotame for use of Bangladeshi consumers including diabetes patients, and other users.

With the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) all set to enter foreign shores and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) tying up with Singapore University, Indian education could be the next big export, with large untapped markets in Africa, Middle East and ASEAN nations.
   ‘It could be a huge source of forex,’ says Sushma Berlia, president of the Education Promotion Society for India and PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry adding ‘ The money could be ploughed back into the educational system and the exchange will only strengthen our content, provide exposure to faculty and help fine tune content to the demands of the changing world.’
   Berlia says that it makes sense to export education to countries especially where there is a large English-speaking population or a large Indian diaspora who want their children to get an Indian education to stay connected to the roots as well as offer them a chance to come back, ‘ she says.
   Talking about potential markets vice chancellor of Delhi University Dr Rajshekharan Pillai, says the East African region has tremendous scope in terms of exporting education because it is cost effective and cheaper than the education provided by players from the West, who are also eyeing the pie.
   He says adding ‘There is cultural synergy, a pressing need for higher education as well.’
   ‘The Gulf, ASEAN the CIS countries are other potential markets. ’Berlia opines.
   On the impression that only the IITS and IIMs can hope to make a mark abroad, Berlia points out that some deemed varsities like BITS in eastern Indian cities of Pilani and Ranchi, MAHE, Manipal; private institutions as NIIT India (as separate campuses) and institutions like Delhi University, IGNOU, SNDT college, Mysore University and Madras University (through programme collaboration) are making their presence felt abroad.’
   IGNOU for instance is currently offering its programmes in 22 countries extending the Indian open learning opportunities to the international community, including Indian Diaspora. The University of Delhi has collaborative arrangements with 35 universities throughout the world for students and faculty exchange, besides running cultural immersion and language programme while NIIT has spread out all over the globe from USA to Thailand, from Singapore to Japan.
   ‘We built a strong brand because the employers got skilled IT professionals amongst our alumni. We went overseas with NIIT brand and promoted it as a proud Indian brand’, says Rajendra S Pawar, chairman and co-founder of NIIT. ‘The competitive strength of any institution in marketing education programmes abroad would be its reputation, quality and low prices, ‘ Berlia emphasises.

The 20th founding anniversary of Pragati Insurance Limited, one of the six first generation private sector insurance companies, was celebrated Monday at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre, said a press release.
   The commerce minister, Altaf Hussain Choudhury, inaugurated the function as chief guest.
   The commerce ministry adviser, Barkat Ullah Bulu, was also present as special guest, while other ministers, lawmakers, high government officials, diplomats and attended the function.

A total of 41 professionals from government organisations, banks and non-bank financial institution, received training on financial model literacy as well as constructing new financial models for large infrastructure development projects.
   Infrastructure Development Company Limited, a financial company under the ministry of finance, organised the training course during January 19 to January 31, 2006 on ‘Financial modeling’ for the young bankers of the country.
   The course contained various topics including purpose and uses of financial model, architecture of a financial model, annuity debt profile, inflation index prediction, exchange rate index prediction, calculation of tariff and calculation sheets.
   The Board of Investment chairman, Mahmudur Rahman, distributed certificates among the participants while the executive director of IDCOL, M Fouzul Kabir Khan was also present.

The British-owned James Finlay Ltd, the producer of Finlay brand of tea, has sold out its tea estates and factories in Bangladesh to local businessmen for Tk 280 crore.
   Company sources in Dhaka said the handover is expected to take place Tuesday at Srimangal under Moulvibazar district.
   ‘A total of eight businessmen having tea gardens and ship breaking businesses bought the stakes of the Finlay,’ said Firoz I Ahmed, branch manager of James Finlay Ltd.’s Dhaka office.
   But he declined to disclose the details about the buyers.
   The Consolidated Tea and Lands Company (BD) Ltd. and Varaura Tea Co started cultivating tea in Sylhet area in 1860. James Finaly Ltd. of Britain was the managing agent of these two tea-manufacturing companies for over 100 years. In 2000, ownership of the company was handed over to the Swear Group of Britain and now to local entrepreneurs.

A $2.7 trillion budget to be unveiled by the George W Bush administration curbs core social programmes while beefing up US defence spending by five per cent, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
   The 2007 US budget, to be released Monday, will attempt to shrink a deficit that could top $400 billion this year by trimming $36 billion from the Medicare health programme for the elderly over the next five years and reducing or eliminating 141 programmes, at a cost saving of $14.5 billion, administration and congressional sources told The Post.
   The Congressional Budget Office appeared more optimistic about the government’s red ink, forecasting a deficit of $337 billion for 2006, up from $318 billion in 2005. The CBO predicted the gap would shrink to $270 billion in 2007.
   In his State of the Union address Tuesday, president George W Bush, broadly outlined his budget plans for the 2007 fiscal year that begins October 1, 2006.
   ‘Every year of my presidency, we’ve reduced the growth of non-security discretionary spending. And last year you passed bills that cut this spending,’ Bush told lawmakers.
   ‘This year, my budget will cut it again and reduce or eliminate more than 140 programmes that are performing poorly or not fulfilling essential priorities. By passing these reforms, we will save the American taxpayer another $14 billion next year and stay on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009,’ Bush added.
   Reaching that target has become a rallying cry for the Bush administration. On Friday, Mark Warshawsky, the treasury assistant secretary for economic policy, also underscored the administration’s drive to get the deficit ‘below two per cent (of gross domestic product) in 2009’ down from the 2.6 per cent expected in 2006.
   ‘We’re very serious about that,’ he told reporters.
   The government has explained the expected increase in the deficit for fiscal 2006, noting that it had faced unforeseen major outlays for emergency assistance and reconstruction in areas devastated by hurricanes late last year.
   But some critics doubt the outlook will be better in future fiscal years as the CBO has forecast.
   Meanwhile, administration critics slammed the budget for a focus that ‘puts special interests first and people’s interests last’ according to Democratic US Senator Ted Kennedy.
   ‘The gap between the president’s words and deeds has grown by leaps and bounds each year as he fails to live up to his promises, instead leaving ordinary Americans behind,’ said Kennedy.
   ‘Sadly, it appears that the president’s budget will offer gimmicks, rather than solutions’ on social questions like health care and education said Kennedy.
   Experts at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, see the $14 billion in savings Bush announced as inadequate if the administration is serious about putting a dent in a $400-billion deficit.
   Defence and health care spending are expected to continue to require vast outlays.
   The government said Thursday it would seek $70 billion in emergency funds for further military operations in Iraq this year from lawmakers and an additional $50 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would be included in its 2007 budget proposal to Congress.
   ‘The retirement of the baby-boom generation will put unprecedented strains on the federal government. By 2030, spending for social security, medicare and medicaid alone will be almost 60 per cent of the entire federal budget,’ Bush said.
   ‘And that will present future congresses with impossible choices: staggering tax increases, immense deficits or deep cuts in every category of spending.’
   Analysts at the Brookings Institution agreed.
   ‘Dealing with these problems will require spending cuts or tax increases that are far beyond the scale of anything currently considered politically palatable,’ Alan Auerbach, William Gale, and Peter Orszag warned in a report.

East Asia can achieve a European standard of living in less than 50 years, former Singapore prime minister Goh Chok Tong said Monday.
   The economic progress by member countries including Malaysia, Thailand and India bodes well for the 16 mostly Southeast Asian nations that met last December for the inaugural East Asian Summit that also included Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, China and Japan, Goh said.
   ‘These countries aim to achieve a prosperous and peaceful East Asian Community in the future,’ Goh said in a speech at a regional forum.
   ‘I think that is realisable. We now have a unique set of circumstances to enable Asians to scale the mountain of prosperity.
   ‘There is peace, although there are flashpoints. And globalisation and the IT revolution have opened up hitherto closed societies and connected economies,’ said Goh, who stepped down in 2004 and now holds the cabinet title of senior minister.
   ‘I believe that East Asia can achieve Europe’s present standard of living by 2030 or latest, by 2050. ‘In East Asia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand are already enjoying a standard of living comparable to Europe’s.’
   For East Asia to realise its full potential, the 16 member- countries must be prepared to play a more active role, Goh said.
   ‘Decades of high growth and deepening market-driven integration have now created conditions for East Asia to recover its autonomy to be a player, not an arena,’ he said.
   ‘This is not merely an opportunity but a necessity... We have to help ourselves. We cannot just be an arena for others to advance their interests,’ he said.

Some of the leading British businesses will not survive beyond 2011 as they are ignoring globalisation and fail to realise that the global centre of gravity where wealth is created is shifting towards India, China and Russia, an industry survey has said.
   According to the survey by consultants Ernst and Young, the major reason for the pessimistic forecast for British businesses is that they are growing too slowly and are ignoring the forces of globalisation.
   Douglas Nisbet, managing partner at Ernst and Young Scotland, said: ‘Some companies have their heads in the sands (about expanding abroad) because they get scared. The further you get from your home base, the risk profile goes up.’
   A total of 50 non-executive directors of the FTSE (London Stock Exchange) 250 firms believe that some of the businesses they work for are top-heavy, introspective and averse to risks because of pressure to focus on short-term shareholder returns.
   They predict that a number of their companies will go bust, be acquired, move out of Europe or be taken private by 2011, because they are failing to react to the opportunities and threats arising from the rapid growth of the economies of India, China and Russia.
   Some British companies are expanding abroad in search of opportunities for growth in the fast-growing markets of the east as the mature markets of Western Europe slow.
   The Ernst and Young non-executive director survey shows that there is recognition at the top level of Britain’s corporate scene that some are not acting quickly enough and will suffer as a consequence.
   Referring to globalisation, one director who took part in the survey said: ‘Without doubt, we are sleepwalking into something that could be a very, very big problem, not only for our own companies, but also for UK.’
   Another told the surveyors: ‘In five years the centre of gravity where wealth is created will be shifting towards China, India and Russia. My board has its head in the sand on this subject.’
   The 50 directors identified areas that would have the biggest impact on their businesses in five years.
   The survey concluded: ‘Companies who are not aggressively addressing growth and globalisation Monday will not be around to have a chair in five years.
   The comments in this area were particularly negative about British companies competing actively and successfully on the global stage.
   ‘Many companies may face a reality that growth may only be attainable by shifting out of the high-cost European market or going private.’

The European steelmaker Arcelor will become a giant producing 100 million tonnes annually in five years, thanks in part to deals with China, a senior executive said in a British newspaper interview published Sunday.
   The Luxembourg-based group is the target of an 18.6-billion-euro ($22.7- billion) hostile takeover bid by the Mittal group, the world’s leading steel producer with 57.6 million tonnes, ahead of Arcelor, number two with 47 million tonnes.
   Mittal has said that a takeover would bring benefits of scale and leave the new enterprise well-placed for the future.
   But according to Michael Wurth, chief financial officer of Arcelor, the company can boost output by itself through expanding operations, notably in Brazil, and acquiring high-value assets.
   He cited a recent acquisition in Turkey and a planned takeover in Canada which would add some ten million tonnes to output.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called Monday on Japan to stop dividing itself into ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ as a new poll showed that the number of Japanese who consider themselves middle-class has plunged.
   ‘There must be people among the ‘winners’ who feel somewhat empty while some ‘losers’ are burning with hope,’ Koizumi said, denouncing the terms that have grown into the Japanese lexicon since the economy crashed in the early 1990s.
   ‘Life is not about choosing between the two,’ Koizumi told parliament. ‘’Winners’ may eventually become ‘losers’ while ‘losers’ may become ‘winners’ if they get another chance,’ he said.
   Koizumi said it was ‘important to build a society in which you can make use of your own characteristics at the level of an individual, a company and a community.’
   Koizumi took office five years ago pledging reform, including liberalisation of the world’s second largest economy.
   Official figures showed last week that there was a job available for every Japanese who wanted one for the first time in 13 years,. but critics charge that the gap between rich and poor has widened under Koizumi.

France’s Lafarge said on Monday that it planned a $3 billion cash offer to buy the 46.8 per cent it does not own in Lafarge North America Inc, in a move to streamline its operations and enhance its earnings.
   The world’s biggest cement maker intends to offer minority shareholders $75 in cash per Lafarge North America share, representing a 16.7 per cent premium over the stock’s closing price on Friday, Lafarge said in a statement.
   The announcement pushed Lafarge shares 3.1 per cent higher to 89.20 euros by 8:30am British time, their highest intraday level in nearly 3-1/2 years.

When Lakshmi Mittal was 25, he left the eastern Indian city of Kolkata for Indonesia with plans to build a steel mill on a rice paddy that his father owned.
   That savvy business move laid the foundation for a steel empire which 30 years later spans 17 countries and involves six members of his immediate family including his wife.
   His family, all of whom have integral roles in the company, has however proved a stumbling block in Mittal’s latest and boldest expansion move—a 18.6-billion-euro ($22.7-billion) bid for Arcelor, the world’s second largest steel firm which operates in Luxembourg, France and Spain.
   Mittal’s unsolicited offer for Arcelor would create a behemoth of 3,20,000 workers and produce three times more steel than any other company with around 11 per cent of the market share.
   But concerns have been raised, among others by European metalworker unions, that if the deal goes through it will not only cost jobs but also harm the good labour relations currently enjoyed at Arcelor.
   The takeover bid is also strongly opposed by the French government as well as by Arcelor’s board, which fears Mittal would put family interests ahead of those of the community and shareholders.
   Arcelor chief executive Guy Dolle disdainfully said Mittal’s ‘mono-cultural’ style, where a single family controls 88 per cent of the capital, would not accommodate the European steel maker’s ‘truly multicultural’ business.
   Analysts in India however say Europeans do not understand Indian business families and Mittal in particular. ‘Mittal is not a representative of the Indian family business,’ said J Ramachandran, of the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.
   ‘The bulk of his operations are outside of India. They have done acquisitions all over the world so I don’t see how it is going to be a problem now.’
   Gita Piramal, an author of books on business management in India, said the issue of family ownership is a red herring.
   ‘Family-run businesses are more aggressive, more nimble and ubiquitous throughout the world for those reasons,’ said Piramal, a member of the family that owns Indian drug company Nicholas Piramal.
   Mittal, 55, sought to allay concerns about the close involvement of his family, which holds 88 per cent of the shares traded on the Amsterdam and New York stock exchanges valued at about $21 billion.
   ‘We operate in ... the most developed to developing (countries) and have the best management in all countries and the most profitable in the US. It’s not a cultural issue,’ he said in an interview in Paris shown on Indian television.
   Mittal, an Indian passport holder, has never been far from the spotlight, living for decades in a 57.1 million pound ($105.7 million), 12-bedroom mansion with marble-basement swimming pool in London’s Kensington Palace Gardens.
   The wedding of his 25-year-old daughter Vanisha, a Mittal Steel director, in June included a five-day party in Paris with a performance from pop singer Kylie Minogue and a ceremony and dinner at the Palace of Versailles.
   The family business was started by his father Mohan, now 80, who became a partner in British India Rolling Mills in 1951, according to the company’s website.
   Lakshmi, named after the Hindu deity of wealth, joined the business full time after receiving a bachelor of commerce degree from the Jesuit-run St Xavier’s College in Kolkata in 1969.
   His big break came in 1976 when he persuaded his father not to sell the land they owned in Indonesia but instead to let him establish a steel mill there.
   Fourteen years later he left a thriving Indonesian plant and started running family operations in many countries including Mexico.

The Indonesian government is planning to build a railway system for high-speed trains in the most-densely populated island of Java, a report said Monday.
   The government claimed investors from China, France and Germany had submitted proposals on the railway construction to the ministry of transportation, said Bisnis Indonesia daily, quoting officials with the ministry.
   The planned railway will link Jakarta and the West Java capital of Bandung and the East Java capital of Surabaya.
   ‘Super-speed train in Java is a priority and has been included in the ministry’s railway strategic planning for 2005- 2006,’ said Soemino Eko Saputro, director of the ministry’s railway system.
   Java is home to about 60 per cent of the country’s more than 220 million population.
   But the government also said it needs to revise the existing law on railway system to allow the private sector to take part in railway business.

Mauritania will pursue all possible legal actions to try to annul disputed amendments to oil production sharing contracts signed with Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd, its government said on Sunday.
   Mauritania, new military government has declared it is in dispute with Woodside over the amendments, which were signed by a former oil minister.
   The dispute threatens to overshadow the scheduled production start-up this month of a major offshore project operated by Woodside, which will turn the poor, largely desert-covered West African state into the continent’s newest oil producer.
   Woodside says it believes the amendments, which were approved by the previous Mauritanian government and passed into law in 2005, are valid and binding on all parties.
   It has insisted the dispute does not affect its $530 million Chinguetti offshore oil project—thought to contain up to 123 million barrels—which is due to start output this month.

China’s Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric power project, will be completed in May this year, nine months ahead of schedule, state media reported Monday.
   The project, which was launched in 1993 in the middle reaches of China’s longest river, the Yangtze, will have cost 180 billion yuan ($22 billion) and required 16 million cubic metres (560 million cubic feet) of concrete, Xinhua news agency said.
   It will officially be completed in three months’ time when the main dam has concrete poured to 185 meters (610 feet) above sea level, according to Xinhua.
   China’s government says the dam, with a length of 2,309 meters, will generate much needed power, prevent flooding and benefit shipping.
   But the scheme has been heavily criticized for its huge cost and its unproven capacity to control floods.
   Critics have also cited environmental problems, including silt accumulation and pollution controls in hundreds of cities and villages that have been created because of the dam.
   Also, 1.2 million people will have been relocated by the time the project is completed.
   The project had been built in three phases, with the first phase from 1993 to 1997. That included the Yangtze being dammed at the Three Gorges area for the first time on November 8, 1997.

Brighter growth prospects for Asia over the next 12 months have raised hopes that regional economies will cope should oil prices again breach $70 a barrel.
   Analysts widely see that level as probable within the next two months. Oil currently hovers a few dollars shy of the record high of $70.85 reached in August following Hurricane Katrina in the US.
   Once $70 was thought of as a potential breaking point for regional economies, with heavy reliance on oil imports.
   The lesser impact now envisaged marks a welcome change from the pessimism that dominated the markets just five months ago.
   ‘Seventy dollars appears likely but global growth seems solid right now,’ said David Cohen, a regional economist with Singapore-based Action Economics.
   ‘The data from across the region shows that the Asian economies finished 2005 on a solid note supported by strength in global export demand. That looks likely to continue into the first half of 2006.’
   Middle East tensions, consumer demand and institutions which increasingly see oil as an investment risk pushing the cost of crude to beyond $90 a barrel, according to some analysts.
   BT Pension Scheme plans to invest one billion British pounds in the commodities market.
   ‘This is a huge amount of money in the commodities market,’ said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist with Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo. ‘Oil prices would be pushed up by this kind of pension fund money.
   ‘It’s a big one we cannot ignore.’
   That prospect, plus possible sanctions against Iran and unparalleled growth in markets like China and India, has Emori forecasting oil prices of $90-$97 in the second half of this year.
   At those levels analysts expect inflation to rise, coercing central banks into another round of interest rate hikes, and global economic growth to falter.

Kuwaiti shares closed past the 12,000-point mark for the first time Sunday on the back of optimism that the new emir will embark more aggressively on stalled economic reforms, analysts and traders said.
   The Kuwait Stock Exchange Index finished trading at 12,054.00 points, up 1.1 per cent on last Wednesday’s close of 11,923.00 points. Sunday was the first day of trading in the week as Saturday was a public holiday. The bourse in Muslim Kuwait operates from Saturday through Wednesday.
   The index is now 5.3 per cent above its 2005 close of 11,445.10 points.

SEC order over Apex Weaving takeover stayed
   The High Court has stayed the operation of the impugned order issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 26 regarding substantial acquisition of shares, takeovers and control of the company for four months.
   
   Half-yearly profit
   As per un-audited half-yearly accounts as on December 31, 2005, Mithun Knitting & Dyeing reported net profit of Tk 53 lakh with a positive earning per share Tk 10.61.
   
   Half-yearly loss
   As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on December 31, 2005, Chic Textile reported net loss of Tk 2.5 lakh with a negative earning per share of Tk 0.02.
   Phoenix Leather reported net loss of Tk 2.52 crore with a negative EPS of Tk 335.52.
   
   Lafarge Surma gears for production by May
   Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd hopes to start production by May 2006 after rebuilding of the damaged portion of the Long Belt Conveyor.
   Souce: DSE, CSE

BR incurs loss of Tk 144.44cr
The communications minister, Nazmul Huda, Monday informed the Jatiya Sangsad that the Bangladesh Railway had incurred a loss of Taka 144.44 crore in 2004-‘05. Replying to a written question from Mohammad Farruk Khan (Gopalganj-1), he said the neat loss in the last fiscal was more than that of the previous fiscal due to rise in salaries of officers and employees, price of fuel, and expenditure on maintenance and purchase in the railway. The minister also told the House that the neat loss of the railway sector in 2000-‘01 was only Taka 55.82 crore.
— BSS

BJMC mills incur
Tk 174cr loss
Textiles and Jute Minister Shajahan Siraj said that the jute mills, run under the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, incurred a loss of about Tk 173 crore 87 lakh in the fiscal year 2004-05. Besides, the jute mills are in debt of about Tk 669 crore 59 lakh, he said. The textiles and jute minister, Shajahan Siraj, informed it to the House Monday while replying to a question of Manirul Haq Chowdhury. The minister said 83 reasons that caused the loss were identified. Besides, 6863 officials and employees who worked under BJMC were retired from the service through golden handshake in the fiscal year 2003-04.
— BDNews

Yangon, Dhaka to trade in euro
Myanmar will use Euro instead of the US dollar for border trade with Bangladesh and its other neighbouring countries, a report said on Monday. Myanmar’s minister of Finance and Revenue Hla Tun was quoted by the Voice Weekly, as saying that dollar accounts of merchants were closed and will be substituted with euro accounts. Myanmar decided Aug 10, 2003, that government organisations and private enterprises should use euros in place of US dollars for international business transactions including import and export.
— BDNews