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The Ministry of Finance has asked all ministries and divisions to present correct statistics on the government vehicles run by petrol, diesel and compressed natural gas during the pre-budget consultation meetings beginning February 28.
   In a circular issued on February 16, the finance ministry has also directed the officials concerned to come up at the meetings with reports on expenses for utility services such as electricity, gas, water and telephones.
   The finance ministry will hold as many as 66 consultation meetings with the ministries and divisions till April 19 to determine the estimated development expenditures and revenue earnings for the 2006-07 fiscal and review the development budget of the current fiscal.
   The budget consultation meetings start with the Planning Division, which is responsible for designing and monitoring development projects, and end with the Ministry of Water Resources, a major area of public sector expenditure.
   The representatives of the ministries and divisions have been directed to prepare ‘verified up-to-date’ receipt and expenditure for discussion at the consultation meetings to be held at the finance ministry.
   The status of spending at the sub-sectors during the current fiscal will also come up for discussion at the meetings.
   The consultation meetings will also review the progress in programmes, funds and micro-credit activities under the revenue budget.
   The finance ministry further wanted to know from other ministries and divisions the latest status of the number of officials and employees who are now waiting for leave prior to retirement as well as a complete list of officials and employees who will be going to recreation leave.
   The finance ministry meantime asked other ministries, especially those who are given some budge-making autonomy under the medium-term budgetary framework, to complete their internal meetings for finalising or demanding resource allocation.

Seeds produced with genetically modified organism will ruin the local seeds, echo system and farmers of the country, speakers at a rally cautioned on Sunday.
   GMO food would make the whole agriculture sector dependent on the multinational companies, the demonstrators said.
   At least 500 peasants from across the country gathered to form a human chain at the Shahbagh crossing and brought out a procession vowing to resist GMO seed in the country.
   Three rights groups—Noya Krishi Andolan, Ubinig and Narigrantho Prabartana—sponsored the programmes.
   Farida Akhter, executive director of the Ubinig, said some companies for their interests were trying to introduce GMO seed through government initiative.
   ‘Under the present circumstance, use of GMO seed will be suicidal for the whole agro sector of the country,’ she said.
   The rights activist pointed out that necessary rules and regulations for GMO farming are yet to be formulated in the country. Test cultivation of the ‘Sonali Dhan’ was running in the country while people around the globe were protesting against the GM farming, she added.
   ‘Not farmers, but the multinational companies, benefited from GMO food production,’ Farida Akhter said.
   Bangladesh Agriculture Bio-technical project funded by the USAID started cultivation of fruit and short borer-resistant eggplant, late blight-resistant potato and drought-and-salinity-tolerant rice in the country.
   Cultivation of these crops requires bio-safety protocol which is absent in the country, she said.
   Rabeya, who came from Tangail to join the demonstration, said the GMO seed was ruining the local seed, but the government did not take any step to save the local seed varieties.
   Jahanara from Cox’s Bazaar urged the people of the country to be united against the GMO seed

Bangladesh Bank has said that its circular, related to loan rescheduling, issued on February 14, 2006 did not relax the existing provisions, rather tightened those to restrict fresh loans facility for the defaulters.
   In an explanation, the central bank on Sunday said that so far there was no restriction on the defaulters to avail of fresh credit from other banks after
   rescheduling loans with certain lenders. Under such provisions, clients, who defaulted on repayments of loans of one bank, could easily avail of fresh loans from others.
   Borrowers were barred from getting fresh loans from the lender bank within one year of rescheduling or until full repayment of the loan.
   The latest instruction makes it mandatory for a defaulting borrower to repay 15 per cent of compromise amount of default loan in addition to necessary down payment for rescheduling, if he or she is to get fresh credit from any bank.
   Moreover, the client has to submit no objection certificate from the rescheduling bank to apply for fresh loans from any other bank.
   The new circular also instructed that if there is any amount of principal waiver, client would not be eligible for getting any fresh loan until he has settled the compromise amount in full after the waiver.
   The central bank explanation said that so far there was no down payment system for the garments export loans. But the new circular makes the down payment compulsory for rescheduling of such loan as well as imposes 7.5 per cent settlement of compromise amount as additional requirement to get fresh credits from any bank.
   The Bangladesh Bank said that so far there was no compulsion for banks to report on both loan rescheduling as well as interest waiver to the central bank’s credit information bureau.
   But the new circular makes it compulsory for banks to report in details on rescheduling and waiver.
   The central bank observed that introduction of such reporting would keep the CIB updated on detail record of the loan defaulters’ performances.

Bangladesh takes part in a four-day international apparel show in Las Vegas, USA, beginning today.
   Around 300 internationally reputed apparel manufacturers from 35 countries will exhibit their finished products in the fair titled ‘ASAP global sourcing show’.
   A total of 39 local exporters from Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association are expected to participate in the fair.
   The Export Promotion Bureau will lead the Bangladesh pavilion where participants will showcase their RMG products under different categories, including shirt, T-shirt, polo shirt, pants, seawater, pullover, jacket and kid’s dress.
   Bangladesh has been given the status of ‘focus country’ in the fair for its significant participation. The organisers have sent the profiles of participating Bangladeshi companies to their enlisted over 20,000 international buyers.
   EPB officials hope that the fair would expand the market of local products on the international market, particularly in the United States.
   Bangladesh fetched $1.62 billion and $2.02 billion through exporting apparel products to the US market in 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 fiscal years.

A Chinese business delegation that is currently on a visit to Bangladesh in search of expanded market for their products met the leaders of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Sunday.
   The delegation leader Xu Huijuan, after the meeting chaired by the FBCCI president, Mir Nasir Hossain, said her delegation was the first in Bangladesh from Jian Su province and that the manufacturers’ representatives of the delegation would assess the investment opportunity here.
   ‘We visited EPZs in Bangladesh, found the production environment encouraging and we will go to other places to see the investment atmosphere,’ said Xu, deputy director, Wuxi City Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.
   The 13-member delegation of Xu included some senior executives of dying and printing, plastic, artificial leather, eclectic and motorcycle manufacturers of Jian Su, near the Chinese commercial and industrial hub Shanghai.
   Mir Nasir said the increasing number of Bangladeshi businessmen is looking at China for an opportunity to develop trade.
   He urged the Chinese delegation to set up joint venture textile plants here and invest in leather, light engineering and food processing sectors.
   China has become the number one import source for Bangladesh recently when import from China amounted to Tk 3,214 crore during July-September period of the current fiscal.
   In the previous fiscal 2004-2005, Bangladesh imports from China was about Tk 9,600 crore against less than Tk 400 crore exports from Bangladesh.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-South African Institute of Engineering Symposium to be held next week seeks to examine the important role engineering and technology play in poverty reduction in the region.
   Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers President, Engineer Caleb Makwiranzou, said that the UNESCO-SA joint symposium, to be held from February 22 to 24, would focus on the importance of engineering and technology in poverty reduction and uplifting standards of living in the region and the world.
   ‘Development can be attributed to engineering and technology and for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to succeed, we need to critically examine and appreciate the role played by this discipline,’ he said.
   He said water and energy supply, housing, transport and communication and sanitation would also be discussed.
   Recent droughts, which had taken their toll on the region, had spurred engineers to look at dam construction, drilling of boreholes and putting adequate storage mechanisms in place to mitigate the effects of droughts.
   Makwiranzou said irrigation and harvesting technology were expected to top the agenda in line with the government’s quest to increase food production by turning subsistence farmers into commercial farmers. The meeting would also discuss the expected power shortages in the region next year as strategies had to be put in place for demand side management to prevent unnecessary energy consumption.

Bangladesh’s leading fertliser company said Sunday it was planning to invest 500 million dollars in a new plant in a venture expected to meet all the needs of the agriculture-based country.
   ‘We’re planning to build a new urea fertiliser plant at a cost of around 500 million dollars. It has been discussed in our board meeting,’ Peter May, managing director of Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company Limited (KAFCO), told AFP.
   The new plant will produce 825,000 tonnes of urea annually, which is more than the deficit the South Asian country faces every year, May said.
   KAFCO had announced 63.5 million dollars in after tax profit on sales of 199 million dollars in the year ending July 31, 2005.
   The company is the largest joint venture multinational in Bangladesh with investments exceeding 600 million dollars.
   The Bangladesh government owns the largest stake with 43 per cent of shares while the remainder is owned by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation as well as Japanese, Danish and Dutch companies.
   The company produces 1,725 tonnes of urea and 1,500 tonnes of ammonia per day.
   May said a record price of urea in the international market had helped propel the company to the country’s highest corporate profit after tax in 2005 and the trend was likely to continue at least up to 2008.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange sits with the port city bourse today to discuss formulation of a plan for long- term growth and stability of the market.
   The DSE chief executive officer, Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, said the premier bourse meets the Chittagong Stock Exchange board to get its opinion over the plan and other issues that matter for the capital market growth.
   The DSE earlier announced that it would consult the institutional investors, the Chittagong Stock Exchange and the Bangladesh Association of Publicly Listed Companies before it holds talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bangladesh Bank on the growth plan.
   On Thursday, the prime bourse sat with the institutional investors seeking bigger supports from them to prevent the stock prices from further falling.
   The meeting decided that a 10-member working committee would be formed soon to strengthen the participation of institutional investors in the country’s stock market, sources at the DSE said. The committee would include representatives from the DSE, CSE and other market intermediaries.

The consumer goods giant Unilever Bangladesh Ltd announced that it had a business growth of Tk 600 crore in Bangladesh in the past 7 years maintaining excellence in manufacturing personal care products.
   ‘Our business has grown to Tk 1,000 crore from Tk 400 crore seven years ago,’ said the chairman and managing
   director of the company,
   Sanjiv S Mehta, while addressing a press meet Sunday at the company’s Kalurghat factory on the occasion of handing over of  excellence award by the Japan Institute of  Plant Maintenance, a subsidiary of Japan Management Association.
   Mehta informed that his company’s Kalurghat factory was the first manufacturing unit in Bangladesh to have received this international award for its outstanding manufacturing efficiency with total productive maintenance (TPM).
   He said that the Japanese institute founded to promote efficiency techniques related to manufacturing, confers TPM awards to increase plant efficiency.
   ‘Despite inflation and taka devaluation, we were able to supply quality products to our consumers without raising price and this was possible only for our manufacturing skill and efficiency,’ he said.
   ‘Our company is a fastest growing one and we have a mindset to achieve excellence and maintain world-class quality so that Bangladesh can be proud of us,’ he added.
   He also informed that Unilever’s business in Bangladesh posted an increase by 15 per cent annually.

The double-decker superjumbo Airbus A380 is expected to be a major star as it debuts at Asia’s premier air show this week, spearheading the European firm’s drive for dominance over US arch rival Boeing.
   The world’s biggest passenger airliner, decked out in the colours of Singapore Airlines (SIA), landed at Changi Airport Saturday after a flight from Toulouse, France, for the Asian Aerospace event.
   SIA, one of the world’s most profitable carriers, is to receive its first orders of the airliner in November. It will be the first carrier to fly the winged giant.
   While the A380 can carry 555 passengers in three classes, SIA has opted for a 480-seat configuration for more space. More than 900 exhibitors from 43 countries will display at the six-day show.

The Natore Sugar Mills may fail to achieve the target of sugar production in the ongoing season mainly due to low rate of sugar recovery.
   According to sources, the target of current year sugar production of the Natore Sugar Mills has been fixed at 12,800 tonnes of sugar by crushing 1,60,000 tonnes of sugarcane in 113 days (from November 8 to February 22).
   The sugar recovery has been fixed at 7.50 per cent. The mills started its sugar production on the scheduled date and it is still going on.
   So far the mill has produced 11,660 tonnes of sugar by crushing 1,62,490 tonnes of sugarcane till Saturday. They have got the recovery rate at 7.14 per cent against the target of 7.50 per cent.
   Mill sources said, the authorities could not enhance the recovery rate for low quality of sugarcane, which might translate into huge loss of money.
   The mill management sources said, the Natore Sugar Mills sustained a loss of Tk 2.50 crore in 2002-2003, Tk 5 crore in 2003-2004 and Tk 4.25 crore in 2004-2005 fiscals due to shortage of sugarcane.
   The mill authorities blamed the illegal operation of power crushers in the private sector for its repeated failure to achieve the production target.
   But this year the farmers of the mill zone area are supplying their sugar to the mill as the government has increased the price of sugarcane for procurement. Besides, the market of molasses was dull and the power crusher owners were not interested in buying sugarcane.
   Though the mill authorities are getting sugarcane from the farmers, the recovery rate is falling down day by day.
   Lutfar Rahman, managing director of the Natore Sugar Mills told New Age that they were trying to increase the sugar production recovery rate and hoped to be able to do so.
   He said already the mill has earned more than Tk 1 crore and if they fulfilled the production target they would earn more than Tk 3 crore He said the Sugar and Food Industries Corporation has revised production
   target for available supply of sugarcane.
   According to the revised target the mill will crush 1,80,000 tonnes of sugarcane and produce an additional amount of 1,500 tonnes sugar till March 10. The sugar recovery rate has been refixed at 7.52 per cent.

With cases of deadly bird flu cropping up across Europe, the world’s biggest insurance broker, Marsh, is urging businesses to prepare for situations where more than one quarter of their workforce could be off sick.
   Six member states of the European Union have now confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain of the virus, potentially lethal to humans, which is spreading across the continent after showing up in Turkey and central Europe.
   ‘An outbreak of avian flu will severely test even the best- laid business continuity plans, and business are well advised to review and revise their plans in the light of this threat,’ the US-based insurance giant said.
   Its study, entitled ‘Avian flu: Preparing for a Pandemic’ said it was ‘likely that many companies are not making any special preparations in advance of what they see as the slim likelihood of an avian flu pandemic; instead operating with the belief that should one occur, either it will not affect them, or they will respond as the need arises’.
   Businesses must be ready to react if suspected cases of bird flu appear among their staff and must agree which circumstances would justify triggering a business-continuity management plan, including the establishment of key risk indicators.
   Should an outbreak occur, a company’s survival could depend on its ability to respond quickly and effectively, the study said, urging directors to ‘ensure that senior managers have the skills to manage such an event before it becomes a crisis’.
   Among the personnel issues to consider were the company’s position if staff wanted to work from home, what to do if infected employees came to work and how to react if a ‘non-native employee wants to be temporarily transferred to another region’, with or without their family.
   Marsh also told businesses to ‘be prepared that if you or your employees are coming from an infected area, your own head office and firms you intend to visit in North America may require you to spend a week or more in a local hotel before coming into the office’.
   Contingency plans to deal with an outbreak should be reviewed, updated and tested to make sure they met threats that should be regularly updated with the latest information from public health officials who project that an epidemic could infect 25 per cent or more of the world’s population.
   ‘Will my plan work in the event of having fewer people, losing certain critical people or having staff working from remote locations?’ was one question businesses should be asking themselves now, the insurance broker said.
   It suggested that four to six escalating action thresholds be established to provide warning in advance, and stressed the need to keep staff trained and informed of any developments.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), the biggest state bank in terms of assets, said that it was endeavouring to go public at an ‘appropriate time’ this year.
   The bank was kicking off preparations for stock market listing, a spokesman, surnamed Wang, told the bank’s annual meeting, but did not confirm whether it would sell shares in domestic or overseas markets, a topic which is arousing great interest among industry observers.
   The bearish domestic market is an obvious concern for such a banking heavyweight as ICBC but it has seen an upward trend in recent months on the back of policy support.
   Wang said ICBC would launch its Initial Public Offering (IPO) with a ‘rational’ size, structure and price.
   Just two weeks ago, the foreign trio of Goldman Sachs, American Express and Allianz Group paid a combined 3.78 billion U.S. dollars for a stake in ICBC, the biggest-ever amount of foreign investment in China’s banking industry.
   China is reforming its Big Four state banks, which also include China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China, ahead of the full opening of its financial industry to foreign rivals by late 2006.
   Chinese banks are expected to streamline their operation and become ‘commercial banks in the real sense’, as required by the government, by establishing shareholding systems, inviting strategic foreign investors and then going public.
   ICBC became a joint-stock company in October, assuming all business and relevant assets and debts of the former solely state-owned bank.
   The Ministry of Finance and Central Huijin Investment Co. Ltd., a central government investment arm, each hold a 50 per cent stake in the new ICBC.
   ICBC now boasts 18,000 business outlets in China’s mainland, serving more than 4 million enterprises and more than 100 million individual clients.
   Its capital adequacy ratio (CAR), the measure of its available capital in proportion to its outstanding loans, rose to 10.26 per cent by the end of 2005, already above the 8 per cent requirement by the international standard.
   Wang, the ICBC spokesman, said the bank is targeting a rise in the CAR to more than 10.4 per cent by the end of the year.
   The bank’s non-performing loan ratio came to 4.43 per cent by 2005, compared with the 1-2 per cent level reported by sophisticated foreign banks.
   Wang said it should be capped at 4.2 per cent this year.
   Chinese banks have piled up a mountain of problem debts over the past decades due to reckless—usually government-ordered—lending to state-owned enterprises, analysts acknowledge.
   ICBC aims for business profits of more than 100 billion yuan for 2006, a rise from 90.2 billion yuan last year.
   It said it would seek to boost e-banking and fee business.
   Among other state banks, Construction Bank was listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in October, while Bank of China said it would sell shares to private investors this year.

A long list of renowned multinational companies, including Microsoft, IBM, Motorola, Siemens, Nortel, GE, GM, Volkswagen and Honda have established research and development (R&D) centers in China, the Ministry of Commerce said.
   ‘China encourages multinationals to establish R&D centers in China,’ said Chinese President Hu Jintao at the national science and technology conference held early this year.
   According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, about 750 foreign-funded R&D centers have been set up in China, which are mainly located in such large cities as Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen.
   Most foreign-funded R&D centers here are in fields of electronic and telecommunications equipment manufacture, transport equipment manufacture, medicine production and chemical industry, the Ministry of Commerce said.
   Although most foreign-funded R&D centers are still focused on application technology, some including that of Microsoft, Nokia, Bell-Alcatel and Panasonic also conduct basic R&D work and have turned into global R&D centers of those transnational business mammoths.
   Dr. Li Wanlin, senior vice president of the Siemens (China) Telecommunication Ltd., said that the establishment of Siemens China R&D centers is a vitally important strategy for the German company’s future development.
   Multinationals have increased their investment in R&D centers in China by a large margin as the market here becomes more important in their global business strategy.
   Some global business giants, such as GE, Philips, Motorola and Siemens, invest $10 million in R&D centers in China, the Ministry of Commerce said.
   Lu Zheng, a recognized economist who heads the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Industrial Economics, said, ‘By attracting more and more localized foreign R&D centers, China moves up the hierarchy of the global economy.’
   The establishment of these foreign-owned R&D facilities, with their employees flowing freely in the Chinese job market, stimulates technological upgrades in Chinese companies as well as helps improve the innovative capability of indigenous engineers.

French President Jacques Chirac’s visit to Thailand gives France increased regional influence and grants Thailand access to commercial and diplomatic spheres outside of Asia, observers say.
   Chirac, who wrapped up his first trip to Thailand as head of state on Sunday, spoke with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on a range of issues.
   But he pushed a commercial agenda that he hopes will counter the influence of other foreign countries, one analyst told AFP.
   As Japan and Germany become increasingly competitive, ‘France is looking for more economic expansion in Thailand and the region,’ said Panitan Wattanayagorn, professor of international relations and political science at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand’s top university.
   ‘Politically, this is also a new area to compete to get influence. The United States, China and India are now competing for political influence in ASEAN, and France, a leading European country, does not want to be left out.’
   Key to this is France’s involvement in Thailand’s massive 44-billion-dollar public works programme, with French companies vying for lucrative transit, water and defence contracts.
   Both publicly, and in private discussions with key Thai officials, Chirac and his delegation pitched French firms for the project, with the president saying he would like to see ‘French entrepreneurs become among the preferred partners of the Thai authorities’.
   Chirac brought with him 30 top French business leaders, including those from Airbus, engineering conglomerate Alstom and retail giant Carrefour, as both sides agreed to work towards boosting two-way annual trade to five billion dollars and investments to two billion dollars.
   Alstom CEO Patrick Kron told AFP that good diplomacy was essential for both sides to meet their commercial goals.
   ‘Good bilateral relations support trade,’ he said.
   France is Thailand’s third-biggest European investor after Britain and Germany, and bilateral trade rose 37 per cent year-on-year to 3.3 billion dollars in 2005.
   ‘This is a new area of growth in terms of the market. It’s not only in Thailand but in the region as a whole,’ Panitan said.
   ‘France wants to see Thailand as a stepping ground to expand economic interests in the region.’
   Thaksin has signalled his willingness to embrace French firms and the increased foreign investment would further feed one of Southeast Asia’s fastest growing economies.
   He met again with 24 French executives Sunday morning as they pressed for a share of planned development projects.
   ‘The prime minister said Thailand welcomes investment proposals,’ Prommin Lertsuridej, the premier’s secretary general, told reporters.
   ‘The visit of (Chirac) is very important because it accelerates business discussions,’ said Gerard Mestrallet, CEO of the conglomerate Suez, which hopes to build power stations in Thailand.
   But more importantly for Thailand, the kingdom could gain entry into commercial and diplomatic circles outside of Asia through its relationship with Paris.
   Chirac called Thailand a ‘privileged partner’ of France, which could be the kingdom’s gateway to Europe, and the French are giving ‘very serious’ consideration to Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai’s bid to succeed UN chief Kofi Annan, the Thai foreign ministry said.
   ‘It is critical for this government to further promote the Thai candidate and strengthen the Thai drive to become a more visible leadership in the international arena,’ Panitan said.

The European Commission is raising pressure on energy groups to fire up competition as consumers grow increasingly impatient for the benefits of EU market liberalisation.
   After uncovering ‘serious malfunctions’ in the European Union’s gas and electricity
   markets, the EU’s executive
   arm warned it was preparing probes into suspected anti-competitive practices by some
   suppliers.
   ‘We will act decisively to remedy the serious malfunctions identified on the energy market in order to uphold the interests of European consumers and industry and to help Europe become more competitive,’ competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said last week.
   In particular, the commission said that in the coming months it would look at specific cases where gas and electricity markets had in effect been closed to competitors because of long-term contracts and restricted access to transport infrastructure and storage facilities.
   In theory, companies have been free to choose their energy suppliers since July 1, 2004 and the market for the business of private individuals is to be open from July 1 2007.
   The liberalisation of the EU’s gas and electricity markets was supposed to drive down prices by giving consumers a broader choice of suppliers than they had when European markets were dominated by state-owned national companies.
   However, many industrial consumers have grown disillusioned after failing to see the fruits of liberalisation amid a steady climb in energy prices in recent years.
   ‘Progress in opening up markets and real competition since the entry into force of the liberalisation directives has been disappointing and small,’ the chemical industry association CEFIC said in reaction to the commission’s announcement.
   The commission says there is not enough cross-border competition in EU electricity and gas markets to provide consumers with an alternative to long-established national suppliers.
   It also regrets that the markets in most EU countries are concentrated in the hands of only a few companies and have changed little since the age of national and regional monopolies.
   ‘Large industrial consumers have no real choice of supplier,’ the Eurometaux metals industry lobby grumbled in a paper on the power market.
   ‘The electricity producers dominate the market and do not compete in any real way,’ it said.
   In the face of such criticism, the head of Germany’s second-biggest power supplier RWE insists that high prices are
   the result of market ‘fundamentals’ and not because powerful suppliers are squeezing
   customers.

It is necessary for Vietnam to rapidly expand its Arabica coffee area, said an official from the Vietnam Coffee and Cacao Association. Vietnam has so far developed 25,000 ha of Arabica coffee, which produces 150,000-200,000 tonnes annually.
   Doan Trieu Nhan, VCCA Vice President said that Arabica coffee, which is more lucrative than Robusta coffee, would help generate a large number of jobs and help reduce poverty.
   The official said, however, that not everyone can grow Arabica coffee, as this kind of plant requires huge
   capital, skilled workers and good understanding of growing technique.
   At present, Vietnam is the world’s biggest Robusta coffee grower, with Robusta area reaching nearly 500,000 ha and turning out 750,000-800,000 tonnes every year, he said.
   In the future, the sector will put intensive investment into changing coffee seeds, upgrading post-harvest technology, and modernising processing lines to increase the quality of coffee products.

Be open minded, this is an era of globalisation, is Britain’s piece of advice to its European partners opposing the UK-based steel tycoon LN Mittal’s Arcelor takeover bid.
   Putting his point forward, British High Commissioner Sir Michael Arthur said they can draw a leaf from British experience with globalisation.
   ‘We as a govt in the last 20 years have not resisted overseas hostile takeover bids. In 1970s, our car industry died.. but it has now been completely revived on the back of modern technology and investment from Japanese carmakers such as Honda. We as a govt are quite pride of it. Britain now produces more cars than France. Last year we produced 1.6 million cars.
   ‘That’s the difference of vitality between Britain and those who are opposing Mittal Steel’s bid,’ he told PTI.
   Sir Michael said the only thing to be seen was if Mittal was a globally competitive steel maker.
   Asked about Luxembourg’s plans to bring a legislation which was aiming at thwarting the bid, Sir Michael said ‘Things are there very small. As a government they have part shares in the company and since they are a shareholder they are worried about employment.
   However, he said steel industry in Britain was a good example of globalisation.
   ‘In Britain we used to have big steel manufacturers which produced high-steel products but we have reduced it considerably because India, China and Korea are more competitive and that’s the way it will be.
   ‘We are re-positioning ourselves as high-end knowledge ecnomy because that’s
   where we think our future is going to be. And you (India) are actually good at it too, in financial services and BPOs but there is room for both of us.
   We believe in global partnership’, he said.
   The Netherland-based Mittal Steel has made a $22.3
   billion bid for Arcelor, which would create a steel company with an output three times bigger than its three nearest rivals combined.

Washington is revving up criticism of China to rectify a burgeoning trade deficit, but its options are limited and any retaliatory actions could backfire, analysts say.
   To appease constituents facing job losses in America’s industrial heartlands, US lawmakers have proposed legislation to downgrade trade relations with China and impose punitive tariffs on Chinese goods flooding the United States.
   The Bush administration, in an unprecedented move last week, announced the setting up of a task force that will specifically monitor China’s compliance with its global trade obligations blamed for fuelling the record US trade deficit with China of more than $200 billion.
   Speculation is mounting that the administration is considering branding China a currency manipulator in April, when Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to visit Washington for talks with President George W. Bush.
   The United States is the only country that has taken China to the WTO on a trade dispute since the world’s most populous nation gained entry in the global trade body in 2001.
   Washington also has filed more antidumping suits against Chinese products than against any other country in the world.
   But when US Trade Representative Rob Portman last week declared in a ‘top-to-bottom review’ of China’s trade practices that Washington would toughen its stance on Beijing’s trade practices by setting up the task force, Congress was little impressed.
   His legislation seeking punitive tariffs on Chinese goods unless the yuan strengthens is due for another Congressional vote this spring.
   Such moves may backfire and ignore other important issues, officials and analysts warn.
   ‘The sad fact is we don’t necessarily have much leverage to get China to change their exchange rate or their trade policies,’ said Nicholas Lardy, a China expert at the US based Institute of International Economics.
   Even so, he said, the Chinese market ‘is pretty open,’ citing the more than 150 per cent jump in US exports to China over the last five years.
   China, he argued, also is in compliance with most of its WTO obligations. ‘Sometimes they were a little bit slow but they’ve pretty much done everything,’ he said.
   On the foreign exchange front, a strong upward revaluation of the yuan could be counterproductive to US trade and monetary interests, warned Robert Burdekin, an economics professor at Claremont McKenna College in California.
   ‘An exchange rate reduction could pose considerable financial risk to the United States by threatening the vast inflow of Chinese funds,’ he said, adding that Chinese capital provided critical support to the US trade deficit as well as the level of US interest rates.
   China’s reserves’ accumulation of US bonds was 207 billion dollars in 2004 and total holdings were roughly 616 billion dollars, Burdekin noted.
   Discouraging Chinese imports could also boomerang. ‘It would likely benefit (other) foreign producers who would then assume the supplier role, not US firms,’ he said.
   Portman himself acknowledged this.
   ‘There are some US industries that have been hesitant to move forward on some enforcement actions. For many companies (China is) a profitable market. In some cases their most profitable market,’ he explained.
   ‘So it is a reality that sometimes I find that we’re a little ahead of our own industry.’

French President Jacques Chirac arrived in India Sunday for a whistle-stop visit aimed at bolstering trade and civilian nuclear cooperation with the emerging economic powerhouse.
   Chirac arrived mid-afternoon on a special aircraft at a military base adjacent to New Delhi’s main airport accompanied by his wife Bernadette.
   He was to meet members of the French business community here Sunday before beginning the brief formal leg of his
   trip on Monday, when he will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders.
   Chirac, whose visit will be followed by the arrival of US President George Bush in early March, has said he will seek to boost slim trade levels with Asia’s third-largest economy where growth is running at an eight per cent clip.
   Accompanied by five cabinet ministers and a business delegation, the French president, who arrived in India after a visit to Thailand, said one of his aims was to ‘develop economic exchanges and boost them significantly’.
   Fuel-hungry India and France, which relies on nuclear power for its energy needs, will also discuss future civilian nuclear technology cooperation.
   ‘If we don’t help India produce electricity using nuclear power, we would let develop in India a chimney for greenhouse gases,’ Chirac said Saturday in Bangkok.
   French nuclear companies could be big winners if a landmark Indo-US agreement to supply New Delhi with long-denied civilian nuclear technology is approved by the US Congress.

Nigerian monitors were Sunday due to hold fresh meetings with UN health officials on fighting the bird flu epidemic as experts warned that the crisis had already wreaked havoc on the economy.
   World Health Organisation experts were scheduled to assess the clean-up action with a team of local monitors in the northern state of Kano, one of the epicentres of the outbreak, 12 days after the deadly virus was detected.
   Meanwhile, Emmanuel Ijewere, one of Nigeria’s bigger poultry farmers and a former national Red Cross boss, said the cost to the economy could be as high as a staggering 50 billion naira ($381 million 304 million euros).
   ‘In my farm, about 6,000 chickens are slaughtered every day, and I represent less than 0.5 per cent of the chickens bred in Nigeria,’ Ijewere told the news agency.
   ‘In these last few days, my losses alone would be between four to five million naira, and 400 people who work for me are out of their jobs,’ said Ijewere, who also headed Nigeria’s association of chartered accountants.

A company at the Port of Miami has sued to block the takeover of shipping operations there by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates. It is the first American courtroom effort to capsize a $6.8 billion sale already embroiled in a national debate over security risks at six major US ports affected by the deal.
   The Miami company, a subsidiary of Eller & Company Inc, presently is a business partner with London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co, which Dubai Ports World purchased last week.
   In a lawsuit in Florida circuit court, the Miami subsidiary said that under the sale it will become an ‘involuntary partner’ with Dubai’s government and it may seek more than $10 million in damages.
   The Miami subsidiary, Continental Stevedoring & Terminals Inc, said the sale to Dubai was prohibited under its partnership agreement with the British firm and ‘may endanger the national security of the United States.’ It asked a judge to block the takeover and said it does not believe the company, Florida or the US government can ensure Dubai Ports World’s compliance with American security rules.
   A spokesman for Peninsular and Oriental indicated the company had not yet seen the lawsuit and declined to comment immediately.
   The lawsuit represents the earliest skirmish over lucrative contracts among the six major American ports where Peninsular and Oriental runs major
   commercial operations: New York, New Jersey, Baltimore,
   New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. The lawsuit was filed moments before the court closed Friday and disclosed
   late Saturday by people working on the case.
   The sale, already approved by the Bush administration, has drawn escalating criticism by lawmakers in Washington who maintain the United Arab Emirates is not consistent in its support of US terrorism-fighting efforts. At least one Senate oversight hearing is planned for later this month.

The European Commission is raising pressure on energy groups to fire up competition as consumers grow increasingly impatient for the benefits of EU market liberalisation.
   After uncovering ‘serious malfunctions’ in the European Union’s gas and electricity markets, the EU’s executive arm warned it was preparing probes into suspected anti-competitive practices by some suppliers.
   ‘We will act decisively to remedy the serious malfunctions identified on the energy market in order to uphold the interests of European consumers and industry and to help Europe become more competitive,’ competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said last week.
   In particular, the commission said that in the coming months it would look at specific cases where gas and electricity markets had in effect been closed to competitors because of long-term contracts and restricted access to transport infrastructure and storage facilities.
   In theory, companies have been free to choose their energy suppliers since July 1, 2004 and the market for the business of private individuals is to be open from July 1 2007.

Oil companies are making hay while the sun shines on the oil market, reaping record profits from high prices and making huge dividend returns to their shareholders
   They are also generating heated debate over the size of the profits and the way they are being used.
   A series of earnings reports, which have shattered records for annual net profit in France, Britain and the US in recent weeks, have provoked the wrath of consumer groups and posed policymakers with a headache over how the oil profits should be distributed.
   Some voices in France and in the US, where attitudes to business vary significantly, have struck the same note in
   calling for the companies to be hit with windfall taxes.
   Others have accused the companies of exploitation, greed and short-sighted planning for the future.
   At the end of January, Exxon Mobil, the US giant and biggest oil group in the world, set a worldwide record for 2005 annual net profit of $36 billion, earning $1,142 every second.
   In Britain, Shell set a record for a British company when it reported net profit of $23 billion on February 2 and French group Total said on Wednesday that its net profit had been $14.28 billion during the year, a record for France.
   Views on what should be done about the industry’s gigantic profits are as numerous as they are diverse.
   Each company has been subjected to accusations from consumer groups that it has exploited the increase in crude prices at the expense of consumers who buy their products.
   In France last week, consumer organisation UFC-Que Choisir suggested that an exceptional tax of 5 billion euros be levied on Total to finance improvements to the public transport system.
   In the US, Democratic congressman Edward Markey summed up the mood among consumers after Exxon’s remarkable earnings report at the end of January.
   ‘ExxonMobil’s record profits may be great news for the company’s shareholders, but it is grim news for American consumers who are paying through the nose for gasoline at the pump and home heating oil for their homes,’ he said.
   Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton called on President George W Bush to set up a strategic energy fund and to roll back billions of dollars in tax breaks extended to oil firms last year.
   In Britain, finance minister Gordon Brown had already announced that tax on the profits of oil companies operating in the North Sea would be increased from 10 per cent to 20 per cent.
   French Finance Minister Thierry Breton, who had mooted the idea of a special tax on Total in the autumn of last year, appeared to rule it out this week.
   He had previously called on oil companies to be ‘citizens’, implying a concern for the wider community, rather than just shareholders—a key theme of the current centre-right French government.
   The decision by oil companies to return an unprecedented amount of money to their shareholders, directly though higher dividends and indirectly through multi-billion-dollar share buy-back schemes, is another reason for the current climate of antagonism.
   Investment bank UBS has estimated that share buy-backs and dividends by the five super major oil companies for 2006-2008 will total 250 billion dollars. The estimate was based on an assumption that the average price of Brent oil would be 56 dollars per barrel over the period.
   Many would rather see bumper profits being converted into extra investment in exploration, extraction and refining capacity, the shortage of which has been an important factor in the increase of oil prices in 2005, according to analysts.

Malaysia is hoping to attract some 20.1 million tourists in 2007, up from 15.7 million in 2004 and hopes to increase revenues by 50 per cent, officials were quoted as saying Sunday.
   The government is hoping the increased numbers of tourists will bring in a record 44.5 billion ringgit ($12.0 billion) next year, up from 29.7 billion ringgit in 2004, tourism ministry secretary-general Victor Wee was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.
   Malaysia is planning the boost in visitor numbers to coincide with celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence.

The demand for throwaway face masks has exploded as deadly bird flu sweeps across the globe, manufacturers say.
   The world leader in personal protection equipment, Bacou-Dalloz, says its factory in western France is operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep up with orders.
   ‘With fears last summer of transmission of bird flu to people, the French government placed two orders for respiratory protection masks, one last July for 12m units and a second in November involving 9 million pieces,’ communications director Christophe Mathy said.

China’s market for information technology services is expected to grow 20.6 per cent annually for the next five years, state media said Sunday. The prediction by the China Center of Information Industry Development is based on the rapid rate of growth in the past year, according to the China Economic Times.
   Last year, China’s IT service market volume hit 82.27 billion yuan (about $10.2 billion), up 20.1 per cent year- on-year, the Times quoted a CCID report as saying.
   In 2005 about 19.9 million personal computers were sold in the Chinese market, with sales volume totaling 121.09 billion yuan, up 18.8 per cent and 8.7 per cent year-on- year.

French business leaders on Sunday pressed for a share of Thailand’s 44-billion-dollar public works projects in final talks with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, an official said.
   Some 24 executives, travelling with French President Jacques Chirac on his first state visit to Thailand, voiced strong interest in winning contracts in the projects to upgrade the kingdom’s infrastructure. ‘The French executives asked several questions for the mega-projects,’ Prommin Lertsuridej, the premier’s secretary-general, told reporters.

Chief executives of the three East African stock markets have agreed to fast track the programme to allow mass cross listing of securities beginning next month.
   A statement issued at end of a regional meeting held in Nairobi resolved to kick off the exercise with a comprehensive education and awareness campaign with the approval process expected to be completed by the end of September.
   They said the mass cross listing is expected to culminate in the formation of a unified east African regional stock exchange and provide the environment for a financial free zone. The chief executives said companies must be listed on the main investment market segment and meet the eligibility criteria of the respective exchange where they intend to cross list.
   To accelerate the process, the cost of transaction advisors, approval and listing fees will be scaled down.
   The chief executives have also agreed to accept the submission of the latest annual or interim accounts submitted to the home exchange as the latest financial statements.
   The completion of the exercise will enable citizens of the three east African countries to own shares across the borders and also increase opportunities for cross-listed companies to expand their capital outlay.
   The meeting was chaired by the Chief Executive of the Nairobi Stock Exchange Chris Mwebesa, while Simon Rutega and Jonathan Njau represented Uganda and Tanzania respectively. Rutega said time has come for stock exchanges to ensure sustainable economic growth and development in the region.
   ‘Companies wishing to list in neighboring countries will be given a ‘window for cross listing’ from July 3, 2006 and September 1, 2006 to submit their applications, by which time all the constraints and challenges involving mass cross listing will have been addressed,’ he said.

Yearly profit
   As per audited accounts for the year ended June 30, 2005, Khaza Mosaic Tiles & Stone Industries Ltd reported net profit of Tk 5.1 lakh with a positive earning per share of Tk 0.06.
   
   Half-yearly profit
   As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on December 31, 2005, Bangla Process reported net profit of Tk1.9 lakh with a positive earning per share of Tk 2.42.
   
   Spot trade
   Trading of the shares of HR Textile is allowed in spot market from today to Wednesday as book closure will start from February 24.
   Trade suspension
   Trading of the shares of Keya Cosmetics will remain suspended from today up to February 23 for finalisation of demat process. Trading will be held under CDBL from February 26.
   
   Net Asset Value
   Net Asset Value of ICB AMCL First Mutual Fund stood Tk 124.78 on the basis of cost price and Tk 132.65 on the basis of current market price at the close of business operations on January 26.
   Net Asset Value of ICB AMCL Islamic Mutual Fund stood Tk 104.01 on the basis of cost price and Tk 103.80 on the basis of current market price at the close of business operations on January 26.
   Net Asset Value of ICB AMCL Unit Fund stood Tk 126.65 on the basis of cost price and Tk 125.56 on the basis of current market price at the close of business operations on February 15.The per unit sale and re-purchase prices shall remain unchanged.
   
   Distribution of Dividend Warrants
   Fu-Wang Ceramic Industries Ltd has informed that the dividend warrants for the year 2004-2005 will be distributed on February 20 (Folio # 000001-005914), on February 22 (Folio # 005915-010307) and on February 23 (Folio # 010310-012072) during 9.30 am to 4.30 pm.
   
   Status of Jamuna Bank IPO
   Total amount of subscription of initial public offers of Jamuna Bank Ltd stands at Tk 317.31 crore and the total number of application is 5,23,013. The subscription for non-resident Bangladeshis closed on February 19.
   Source: DSE, CSE

Car sales up
25pc in Pakistan
Sales of locally assembled cars surged by 25 per cent to 82,469 units during the last seven months of the fiscal year 2005-06 as against 65,803 units in the same period last year. In January 2006, the sales showed a 30 per cent growth to 11,442 units as compared to 8,793 units in the same month last year. Assemblers expect car sales to cross 150,000 units by the end of current fiscal year on the back of rising demand triggered by car financing by banks.
— Dawn

Poultry sales down in West Bengal
Poultry sales in West Bengal suddenly registered a decrease on Sunday as reports of avian flu outbreak in Maharashtra began to trickle in with ‘confused’ consumers refusing to take chances. The state government, on its part, has sounded an alert and stepped up surveillance to prevent any outbreak of the epidemic. State Animal Resources Development minister Anisur Rahman said that the sale of poultry has been affected in various markets of the state. ‘It is quite natural. People are bound to feel confused with all sorts of reports coming in,’ Rahman said.
— PTI

Coca Cola sales
22pc up in China
The yearly financial statement of Coca Cola has shown that the company saw its China business grow 22 percent last year. Li Xiaojun, vice president of Coca Cola Co Ltd, ascribed the robust growth to the company’s readjusted strategy of diversifying its product lines, especially with the focus on non-carbonated beverages. Coca Cola, the world’s biggest soda supplier, now owns a wide variety of soft drinks in China, ranging from mineral water and fruit juice, to tea and coffee. Statistics show that the sale of Coca Cola’s fruit juice drinks has grown by 64 percent over the previous year.
— Xinhua