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The state minister for education, ANM Ehsanul Haque, criticised the corporate houses, including multinational companies, for not contributing to the education sector and invited the corporate bosses to a meeting soon to work out strategies for making their contributions in a healthy and transparent manner.
   He said that the government, suffering from fund fatigue for education programmes, was now ready to hand over some public sector educational institutions to the individual entrepreneurs to ensure better management and flow of necessary funds.
   ‘A bank or any other corporation can arrange an English learning course or computer course instead of spending money merely on advertisement purpose,’ Ehsanul said citing many an example of the corporate culture in the United States.
   He was joined by lawmakers and NGO activists, who at a ‘sharing meeting’ on Saturday, urged upon the business community to come up with ventures on improvement in quality of basic education as part of corporate social responsibility.
   The participants called for constitution of a board or cell under the ministry of education or social welfare as well as enactment of laws to encourage participation of corporate houses in funding and running basic education programme alongside the government.
   The government has earlier taken a decision to provide the corporate houses engaged in financing education with tax rebate but such a move has been caught in legal and administrative difficulties, the meeting was informed.
   Chaired by ruling party lawmaker Abu Yusuf Mohammad Khalilur Rahman, the meeting was also told that corporate houses like Ispahani group and philanthropist like RP Saha carried out a lot of activities out of their corporate social responsibility, a concept which is though relatively new in Bangladesh’s current context.
   Bangladesh Parliamentary Caucus on Education, a forum of lawmakers, in association with People’s Empowerment Trust and Advancing Public Interest Trust, organised the meeting titled ‘Corporate Engagement and Government Facilitation: Corporate Social Responsibility for Quality Basic Education’ at the National Press Club.
   Moderator of the discussion, Muzaffer Ahmed, the chairman of the Transparency International Bangladesh, suggested that the corporate sector could be involved with the process of formulation of the syllabus so that quality manpower for meeting the corporate needs could be built.
   He mentioned that the growth of the madrasa education was higher with the contribution from the corporate and NGO sector and that the stakeholders should be engaged in building a culture of corporate social responsibility for promotion of quality education.
   Faruk Khan, an Awami League lawmaker who is also member of the Caucus, said his party would support any move to frame a law on the corporate social responsibility.
   ‘We are ready to contribute to the society if we are given due appreciation,’ Hasina Newaz, a businesswoman, told the meeting. However, none from the leading trade bodies was present.
   Motahar Hossain, a lawmaker, asked how quality of education would be ensured when businessmen remained busy evading taxes without contributing to education and the unemployed youths formed schools.
   Another member of parliament, Abdur Razzak, pointed to the widening gap between the rich and the poor in taking education and said, ‘A section of affluent people have been making their children snobbish through alien education.’ He felt that the political leadership still had a role to play in promoting a culture of donation to the education activities.
   Emphasising the self-motivation of the businesspeople in running welfare activities, Asfan Ali, a manager of Bank Asia, said, ‘The first million might be the dirty one but correction will take place at the later stages.’

To facilitate the agricultural credit disbursement in the fiscal year 2006-07, the central bank has issued a set of rules and asked the banks concerned to follow it properly.
   Issued few weeks back, the circular also stressed on establishing linkage with non-governmental organisations and self-assistance groups besides banks’ own lending programme.
   For this, banks have been advised to determine service charges and interest rates according to their own for disbursing loans through the linkages.
   The central bank has also ordered the banks to allocate some 60 per cent of the total rural or agricultural credit programme for crop sub-sector.
   The Bangladesh Bank has forwarded the orders to the four nationalised commercial banks, Sonail, Janata, Agrani and Rupali; and two specialised banks-Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank.
   According to the central bank instruction, a farmer can avail of loans for cultivating crops on maximum five acres of land.
   The central bank has fixed loan amounts per acre for some 96 crops and categorised loans on maturity- short-term and term lending.
   Banks are further instructed to review the loan disbursement programme on regular basis and said that crops cultivations should not be disrupted due to shortage of loans in time.
   ‘The head offices of the banks have to review the loan disbursements and recoveries on bi-monthly/monthly basis and instruct the branch offices,’ the order said.
   The central bank has also prioritises six sub-sectors where banks should provide more loans. These are: fisheries, livestock development, agricultural and irrigation equipments, nursery, cotton and silk.
   Banks are also advised to ask the farmers for crop insurances for overcome damages of crops in natural disasters, if any.

The Karnaphuli Export Processing Zone, another exclusive economic area in the port city’s Patenga industrial belt, is to start its functioning soon, as necessary development works with adequate infrastructure facilities are nearly completed.
   Officials are hopeful that around 20,000 local people will get jobs and more than $100 million will be invested in the industrial units to be set up on 100 plots being developed under the 1st phase of the project.
   ‘Nearly 95 per cent development work of the 1st phase of the KEPZ on the site of already closed Chittagong Steel Mills has been completed and its formal inauguration is likely to be held next month,’ project director Ataul Hoque told BSS here Saturday.
   He said necessary infrastructure facilities under the 1st phase like construction of road, drain, footpaths, green space, boundary walls, water, gas, power supply and telephone network are now close to completion.
   Earlier, the government decided to develop the 222.42-acre land area of the CSM into another exclusive economic zone to cater to the growing demands of entrepreneurs from home and abroad, as all the 445 industrial plots in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone have already been occupied.
   Hoque said the land was handed over formally to Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority, which started the physical work for the project’s 1st phase with an estimated budget of Taka 34 crore in July last year.
   ‘The development work of the 2nd phase to prepare another 111 industrial plots is also progressing fast to complete the whole project by the end of 2008,’ he said adding that the KEPZ would hopefully provide as many as 50,000 jobs under its both phases.
   Besides, Hoque said, the KEPZ will fetch as much as $250 million in the form of investment for the industrial units to be set up on a total of 211 plots by the end of 2008.
   Meanwhile, 40 out of 100 industrial plots under the 1st phase were handed over to the entrepreneurs from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Bangladesh. More than 100 applications for allotment are pending for approval, he said.
   The KEPZ officials said that the entrepreneurs as per the proposal would set up industries to produce readymade garments, electrical equipment, garments accessories and textile products.
   Hoque said local and foreign entrepreneurs have already invested a total of $509 million in 130 industries in different sectors employing 1.4 lakh local workforce.

In the wake of a widening trade gap, Bangladesh’s entrepreneurs are likely to demand duty-and quota-free access of their products to UAE market in a meeting today with a visiting business delegation from the opulent Arabian country.
   According to business circles, the trade gap between Dhaka and Abu Dhabi has been widening fast due to large-scale import of mineral products, plastic and articles, base metals and articles and products of chemical or allied industries from the United Arab Emirates.
   According to the latest statistics, Bangladesh’s trade imbalance rose to $239.97 million during the July-March period of the last fiscal year while the gap accounted for $126.97 million in 2004-05.
   Bangladesh spent $95.29 million on the import of mineral products and $13.31 million on plastic and articles from the UAE in 2004-05, while local tobacco and cigarettes jointly fetched from there the highest chunk of foreign exchange amounting to $6.83 million during the same period.
   In 1990-91, Bangladesh’s exports to the UAE market amounted to $11.01 million against its imports of $105.57 million. In 2004-05, export earning stood at only $22.76 million against its import bill of $149.73 million.
   During the July-March period of the last fiscal year, Bangladesh’s export showed a little upturn, fetching $32.28 million, against a huge import bill of $272.25 million.
   A 10-member UAE investment and business delegation headed by Khalifa Mohammad Al Muhairi, member of the Board of Directors of Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ADCCI), is now in Dhaka on a three-day trade-promotional tour.
   They will meet the apex trade body of the country, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, today to discuss ways of augmenting the bilateral trade and investment.
   The delegation comprises members of leading enterprises from the United Arab Emirates with interest, among others, in the fields of real estate, property development, tourism, banking and insurance, financial service, oil and gas service, power, infrastructure and telecommunications.
   Bangladesh side in the meeting is likely to call upon the UAE trade delegation to come up with investment in different prospective sectors in the country to help reduce the trade imbalance that remains overwhelmingly in favour of the oil-rich Gulf country.
   Overall Foreign Direct Investment in Bangladesh increased by 84 percent to US$845.3 million in 2005 from US$460 million in 2004.
   Telecommunications sector has been able to attract most of the investment inflow, followed by manufacturing sector.
   Bangladesh has an abundant supply of natural gas and low-cost labour force, even by regional standards, which are a lucrative bait on stake for netting investment here.
   Of late, newer multinational companies are coming up to invest in Bangladesh as most of the Bangladeshi products enjoy complete duty- and quota-free access to the European Union, Japan, the USA, Australia and most other developed countries.
   A number of UAE entrepreneurs have already invested in Bangladesh, prominent amongst them being Dhabi Group in telecommunications and banking, Belhasa Group in infrastructure and property development and RAK Group in ceramics.
   The delegation is also scheduled to visit Dhaka Export Processing Zone and some industrial parks to see for themselves the investment opportunities Bangladesh holds out.

Uruguay will become the latest Latin American nation to start repaying its International Monetary Fund debts early under a decision announced Friday by the IMF.
   The Fund said that Uruguay’s government had decided to advance its repayment of 916.4 million dollars in debts owed to the IMF that were due in August 2007.
   The pre-payment will nearly halve Uruguay’s outstanding obligations to the Fund, leaving it owing about 1.1 billion dollars.
   All of Uruguay’s obligations due in 2006 were advanced in a similar operation four months ago.
   ‘The Fund welcomes Uruguay’s decision, which is a reflection of a strengthened external position and another measure of the success of the authorities’ program,’ IMF chief Rodrigo Rato said in a statement.
   Late last year, both Brazil and Argentina said they would repay all their IMF debts ahead of schedule, marking a watershed after years of economic turmoil.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, in Rio de Janeiro to discuss with Brazil the collapse of World Trade Organization talks, appeared skeptical Friday that international negotiations could resume in the next few months.
   The United States is in a ‘race against the clock’ because the White House’s congressional mandate to negotiate expires July 1, 2007, Schwab told reporters on the eve of a meeting Saturday with Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.
   Any trade agreement must be submitted to the US Congress 90 days before the expiration of the trade promotion authority, she noted.
   Once the authority expires, the US Congress will regain the right to amend trade agreements, leaving any Doha agreement hostage to US vested interests.
   ‘If we do not have a Doha agreement in place by the end of 2006 it is virtually impossible for us to use the trade promotion authority,’ she said, referring to the Doha Round of trade talks that collapsed this week.
   ‘We have already run out of time,’ Schwab warned.
   She said she planned to discuss an extension of the trade promotion authority with US Senator Charles Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
   It would take at least ‘several months’ before WTO chief Pascal Lamy could call a new ministerial meeting, she said.
   ‘There is absolutely no reason to bring back the countries together until there is some basis for an agreement,’ the US trade representative said.
   ‘If we do not get a breakthrough by March (or) April, it is hard to imagine we can get a breakthrough in any less that a year or two,’ she said.
   Schwab said she would discuss with Amorim, whose country is a powerful player among developing countries, ‘what was the cause of the breakdown’ of WTO talks and ‘how far apart each positions are.’
   ‘Neither Mr. Amorim nor I can solve the Doha Round,’ she said. But ‘between the two of us we have the capacity to consider the potential points of convergence.’
   Amorim has joined the European Union, India and others in pinning the most blame on the United States for Monday’s collapse of the Doha talks.
   Schwab said the US government was ‘prepared to show flexibility in cuts’ in farm subsidies, but ‘only if we see more market acces on the table.’
   The US official said she would continue contacting her peers from key countries to try to revive the Doha Round.
   The Doha Round is on life support after a meeting of six key players including the United States and the European Union collapsed in acrimony Monday, largely because of disputes over farm payments.

World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy warned in an interview released on Saturday that global talks on removing trade barriers are doomed if the US Congress does not renew the US negotiating mandate beyond mid-2007.
   ‘If (this) mandate is not extended the negotiations are dead. It would be the end of the Doha Round,’ Lamy said in an interview with the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
   However he said there were ‘indications’ that the US administration’s mandate would be renewed, ‘which was not the case before negotiations were suspended’.
   On Monday Lamy suspended five years of Doha Round negotiations because of a failure by six major trading powers to compromise on tariffs and subsidies, but has asked WTO members not to withdraw their offers.
   He said in the interview he did not expect a trade accord to be signed by the end of this year.
   The troubled effort to bring down agricultural and industrial barriers was dubbed the Doha Development Agenda when it was launched in the Qatari capital, Doha, in 2001.
   The United States and the European Union have traded accusations of inflexibility on the key stumbling block of farm subsidies.

Container handling operation of the under-construction Newmooring Container Terminal (NCT) at the Chittagong Port is likely to begin partially by the end of August.
   ‘I hope container operation at two out of five berthing facilities of the terminal will begin by the end of next month,’ A M M Shahadat Hossain, Chairman of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), told BSS.
   He said berthing of container vessels at least two jetties of the new terminal would greatly help ease the current vessel and container congestion due to the inadequate berthing facilities at the port and recent increase in the number of port- bound ships.
   The Tk 433 crore NCT project is being implemented with CPA’s own fund to keep pace with the growth of country’s export- import trade.
   The NCT with 1000-meter-long berthing facilities will have the capacity to anchor five feeder or three big size container vessels simultaneously and the Chittagong Port will be able to handle 5.3 lakh more TEUs (Twenty Equivalent Units) of containers annually, CPA sources said.
   Annual container handling capacity of the country’s main seaport will be around one million TEUs after successful completion of the NCT.
   Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia laid the foundation of the NCT project formally on October 17, 2003 and its physical work started in February 2004.
   France-based consulting firm M/S BCEOM and Associates is supervising the project while M/S China Harbour Engineering Company (Group) has been implementing the physical construction.
   Stipulated time for completing the NCT project is September this year, but the CPA officials said they will not be able to complete the work within the scheduled time.
   ‘Delay in land acquisition from private owners for constructing the necessary back-up facilities for container storage, unfavourable weather and also complexity in pre- implementation process caused the delay,’ the CPA chairman said.

The country’s fledgling home sector needs to focus more on local designing skills than on raw materials to keep its export momentum in the global market, a leading exporter says.
   ‘The global market, particularly the Western Europe and North America, has appreciated Bangladesh’s uniqueness in using jute fabrics, fibres and leather. What we need now is to present our products in innovative local designs and at cheaper prices,’ says Gautam Saha, managing director of Sristy International Limited.
   The home textile holds huge potentials for Bangladesh in terms of earning export revenue and creating jobs. Neighbouring India is harvesting around 75 per cent from world’s home textile market with their value added products. Bangladesh also can seize this great prospect by diversifying designs, said Goutam, who has successfully tested innovative designs on his products for European market.
   To keep prices lower and competitive, the country must explore its local designs meeting the taste of high-end European and American buyers, as getting designs developed international experts involves higher costs, he pointed out.
   ‘A design may describe the products’ uniqueness and quality when it smells the origin of the country. A foreign designer may paint the international taste or nature. However, the way, to paint the flavour of Bangladesh, is having the local design experts,’ said the home textile maker and exporter, stressing that rhe country must have a design and research institute.
   ‘A local expert will also have the talent to blend the local heritage to other country’s flavour/colour. This concept of creating design is most popular in the European or American market,’ he added.
   Goutam, who has already made his mark in Germany and some other European markets, felt that the government has an important role to play in promoting home textile sector. The country’s foreign missions must support the exporters to find out new markets.

The Bangladesh Alumni of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels in collaboration with the Department of Mathematics, Operations Research, Statistics and Information System for Management, organised a seminar on ‘EU-Bangladesh Trade Relations: Issues and Constraints’ on July 20, 2006 on the Etterbeek campus of the university.
   The speakers focused on Bangladesh’s trade potential with the European Union in future and discussed various constraints of Bangladesh exports to Europe.
   Zillul Hye Razi, trade adviser to the European Commission delegation office in Bangladesh, was the keynote speaker.
   Faruque Mirza, president of Bangladeshi alumni of Vrije Universiteit Brussels, moderated the seminar.
   Eddy Vandijck, dean of faculty of economic, social and political sciences of the university attended as chief guest, said a release.

Overall rice production can be increased by at least 1.5 per cent through ensuring the supply of hybrid variety paddy seeds in adequate quantities among the farmers of all eight districts under the Rangpur Agriculture Zone (RAZ), officials and experts said Saturday.
   Despite inadequacy of hybrid variety paddy seeds, the farmers of the zone achieved tremendous successes by producing almost double quantity hybrid variety Boro rice during the last Rabi season as they brought 94 per cent more land than the target under the programme.
   Though the production costs are almost similar, the farmers earned about double profit last time by farming hybrid variety Boro crop, as the yield rates are much higher than those of the high-yielding or local variety paddies, Additional Director of DAE to RAZ M Zakir Hossain said.
   Experts in the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BARI) and Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) Saturday said the overall rice production could be increased further by at least 1.5 times in the zone if the farmers get adequate quantity of hybrid variety paddy seeds and necessary technical assistance.
   ‘Production rates of hybrid variety Boro, T-Aman or Aus rice can be raised to six tonnes per hectare (nine tonnes of paddy) if further steps were taken after providing adequate seeds. Not only rice, production of all other crops might be increased further if farmers get best quality hybrid seeds,’ they said.
   The farmers brought 53,891 hectares to produce 2,38,500 tonnes hybrid variety Boro rice with an average production rate of 4.43 tonnes rice (6.645 tonnes paddy) per hectare against the target of bringing 27,715 hectares during the last season in RAZ.

Workers at Chile’s Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, voted overwhelmingly on Friday to strike to demand a new contract offer from the company that reflected soaring copper prices.
   With global copper prices surging and markets nervous about supplies, 97 per cent of 2,052 union workers at the mine had participated in the vote for a strike late on Friday.
   ‘Some 97 per cent of workers voted to strike,’ Union Secretary Pedro Marin told Reuters after votes were tallied.
   He said the company will seek government mediation to hold off the strike, giving sides five more days to resolve their differences before workers walk off the job.
   Marin said 1,994 workers voted, with the remaining 58 workers not participating because they were on holiday or otherwise not available.
   ‘Only one vote was in favor of the company. One vote was blank,’ he said.
   ‘On Monday we’ll be talking with the company,’ Marin said.
   With copper prices more than five times what they were when the union negotiated a 2003 contract that expires on August 2, workers are demanding a large raise from Escondida. The mine is majority-owned by global miner BHP Billiton.
   Copper prices have soared amid strong demand from China’s booming economy and solid global economic growth.
   In New York, copper futures rose 2 per cent on Friday amid jitters about the Escondida strike vote and a rockslide this week at the huge Chuquicamata copper mine, owned by top copper producer Codelco.
   Workers were voting throughout the day on Friday, as shifts entered and exited the massive open-pit mine in northern Chile, and as union members on leave voted in surrounding towns.
   Escondida expects 2006 copper output to be similar to last year’s level of 1.27 million tonnes.
   BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, owns 57.5 per cent of the open-pit mine, while number-two Rio Tinto has a 30 per cent stake.
   Billiton could not be reached for comment.
   If government mediation fails, a strike likely would begin on August 7.

Russian gas giant Gazprom has signed a contract with Venezuela to help plan development of the South American country’s natural gas sector, Gazprom has said in a statement.
   Gazprom will develop ‘a general scheme for development of the gas industry’ in Venezuela over the medium and long-term, the statement said Saturday.
   Gazprom, a state-controlled firm, signed the contract with state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela on Thursday, the same day that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met his Russian counterpart
   Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Gazprom said.
   The Gazprom plan will include an assessment of reserves, an estimate of gas demand and help in planning extraction, transport, storage and treatment of natural gas in Venezuela, the company statement said.
   Venezuela is the world’s ninth biggest producer of oil, according to 2004 figures from the US department of energy, and is a major supplier to the United States.
   But Venezuela’s extensive gas reserves are believed to be underdeveloped.
   The Gazprom statement on Friday said Venezuela had proven gas reserves of 4.1 trillion cubic metres, putting the country in second place in the western hemisphere after the United States.
   All of the 30 billion cubic metres that Venezuela produces every year are used domestically, the statement said.
   Russia is the second biggest oil producer in the world and controls a quarter of global reserves of natural gas.

The Bangladesh Garment Buying House Association, an apex trade body of buying houses, is yet to get the trade organisation licence due to bureaucratic tangle by the commerce ministry, said the association president, Qaium Reza Chowdhury.
   Some 200 buying houses are now members of the BGBA.
   BGBA applied for a TO license to the commerce ministry on June 27.
   The commerce ministry had issued a circular on August 29, 2002 to the buying houses to be associate members of Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exports Association and also get registration from the Export Promotion Bureau.

Speakers at a roundtable here Saturday urged the government to appoint an ombudsman for the garment industry to look after the interests of the highest foreign exchange earner.
   They also underscored the need for changing the mindset of garment owners for restoring a production-friendly atmosphere in the apparel industry.
   Samomona, a platform of former members of Bangladesh Chhatra Union, organised the roundtable titled ‘Crisis and Prospect of RMG Sector’ at the conference room of Narayanganj Club.
   Economist Atiur Rahman was the main speaker at the roundtable, chaired by Abdus Sobhan of Samomona.
   Vice president of BGMEA Lutfar Rahman, vice president of BKMEA Kashem Jamal and labour leaders Shirin Akhter and advocate Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, among others, took part in the discussion.

Robert Wright would like to be buying books, or taking his family out to dinner. But he has to budget for higher gasoline bills instead. ‘Unfortunately, it’s not that I’m willing to pay it, it’s that I have to pay it,’ said Wright, a police officer who was at the Westfarms Mall in West Hartford, Conn., earlier this week.
   Americans like Wright have had to make adjustments in their spending to cope with higher energy costs. And it appears the economy is finally starting to show the effects of their financial juggling.
   The Commerce Department said Friday that economic growth slowed dramatically during the second quarter as Americans spent less. The shift came as something of a surprise after the
   Conference Board earlier in the week reported an unexpected rise in consumer confidence.
   Clearly, consumers are faced with the reality that high energy costs won’t go away any time soon, with oil prices remaining stubbornly high at near $74 a barrel, in part because of worries that the conflict between
   Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon could draw in other countries in the Middle East.
   Higher energy prices were reflected in the Commerce Department’s latest snapshot on the gross domestic product, which showed that the economy’s growth from April through June was less than half that of the prior three months as consumers tightened their wallets and spending on home building plunged. The
   GDP’s 2.5 per cent annual growth rate was the slowest since 1.8 per cent in the final quarter of 2006, when the economy was suffering from the fallout of the Gulf Coast hurricanes.
   Consumers have issues beyond energy prices. A big source of cash — home equity lending — is drying up as higher interest rates and the leveling off of housing prices have made such financing less attractive.
   ‘We’re definitely at a crossroads,’ said Zoltan Pozsar, economist at Moody’s Economy.com. ‘If (oil) prices don’t moderate in 2007, we will see a much larger impact’ on consumer spending.
   Gregory Miller, chief economist at SunTrust Banks Inc. agreed, noting, ‘For the past two years, consumers have figured out a way to accommodate and sustain their living standards. This past quarter, cracks are showing up.’
   Analysts said a steady job market and wage growth have helped prop up consumers’ confidence. But they also noted that despite its strong showing, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index had some worrisome components.
   Lynn Franco, director of the organization’s Consumer Research Center, noted a widening gap between how consumers feel about current conditions and their six-month outlook on the economy, which has fallen below levels seen back in January.
   Franco noted that shoppers are feeling that ‘this is as good as it gets.’
   Moreover, the job market is also vulnerable to a downturn. Job growth has slowed since this past spring as some employers held back on hiring while they waited to see where the economy is heading. Economists are worried about major layoffs in 2007 as employers seek to offset higher energy costs if oil prices remain high throughout this year.
   ‘I am concerned that the continuation of the impact of higher energy costs that’s hitting not just the consumer side but the business side could show up in the reversal of the job market,’ Miller said.

US retail giant Wal-Mart Stores saw its first trade union formed for workers at one its 60 shops in China where it started doing business in 1996.
   Establishment of the union was the initiative of some 30 Wal-Mart employees in the southeast province of Fujian, Xinhua news agency said Saturday.
   For the past two years the world’s biggest retailer had resisted efforts to set up local unions, which are all affiliated with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) which was established by the ruling Communist Party and claims some 150 million members.
   Wal-Mart has always maintained its employees were free to set up unions if they wished and insisted it was ‘in total conformity with Chinese law’.
   But at the start of July, senior Chinese official Wang Zhaoguo, who is also president of ACFTU, singled out Wal-Mart for failing to establish unions at its stores while proposing to make it compulsory for foreign firms to set up unions for employees.
   According to China’s trade union law, all employees have the right to join ACFTU, the country’s only legal trade union.
   However joining the union offers no guarantee for staff against exploitation, with the ACFTU often criticised by international labor rights groups for favoring business interests over workers’ rights.
   The nation’s trade union law outlaws workers from forming independent unions or organising collective bargaining activities outside the ACFTU.
   Since it arrived in China in 1996, Wal-Mart has opened 60 stores in 29 cities and is said to employ more than 30,000 people across the country.
   China is a leading source of cheap goods for Wal-Mart’s US operations, with 18 billion dollars’ worth of merchandise procured in the country in 2004.
   Wal-Mart is keen for a bigger slice of foreign markets as it battles sluggish sales growth at home, lawsuits over its labour practices and an image for brutal cost-cutting at the expense of employees and suppliers.
   Nowhere is more enticing for foreign retailers than China, where booming consumer spending led by a growing middle class accounted for one-third of the country’s economic growth last year.
   Wal-Mart employs 1.7 million people worldwide, including 1.3 million in the United States, making it easily the world’s largest retailer.
   But in China, the group has lagged behind Carrefour of France, which has 78 stores. Britain’s Tesco group has 31 stores in China and plans to open another 15 this year. German group Metro is another major foreign player.

The House of Representatives passed legislation on Friday to strengthen the ailing system of traditional employer-provided pensions.
   The measure, approved by a 279-131 vote, has yet to pass the Senate. Republican leaders say it will be taken up there next week.
   The U.S. system of defined-benefit pensions, which pay a fixed amount to retirees, is underfunded by an estimated $450 billion and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which insures them, is $22.8 billion in deficit.
   The bill would give most companies seven years to close funding gaps in their pension plans, but provide a total of 17 years to bankrupt Northwest Airlines Corp and Delta Air Lines Inc to make the payments. American Airlines and Continental Airlines would get 10 years.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade proposed recently the creation of a non-petroleum producers association in Africa, aimed at defending their interests against the rise of oil prices.
   Soaring oil prices are hammering economies in Africa. As for Senegal, its expenses for oil purchase rose from $400
   million to $850 million between 2002 and 2005, Wade told a regional conference attended by energy ministers of African non- oil producing countries in Dakar.

With a view to cut transaction costs for traders, the Indian government has launched an online facility for issuing Importer-Exporter Code Number.
   The facility was inaugurated by Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath at a review meeting on export performance and export targets last evening, an official release said.
   Importer-Exporter Code Number is the first export related registration that an exporter is required to obtain.
   The Directorate General of Foreign Trade issued more than 54,000 IECs in 2005-06. During April-July, more than 17,500 IECs have been issued and transmitted to customs successfully, the release said.
   The new system relies on a much simpler form and an optional on-line application module for issuance of IEC Number. It seeks only essential details from the applicant and has an optional facility of advance on-line submission of application, it said.

Global commodity markets showed mixed fortunes this week as traders tracked tensions in the Middle East and weather developments in key producing countries.
   Meanwhile, base metals found support in news of a strike threat at a major copper mine in Chile, while crude oil prices slid on fears of reduced US demand.
   On Friday, the Commodities Research Bureau’s index of 17 commodities stood at 345.13 points, compared with 338.79 points the previous week.
   GOLD: Gold prices advanced, supported by violence in the Middle East and prospects that the US Federal Reserve might soon decide to end its policy of hiking American interest rates.
   The precious metal benefits from its safe-haven status in times in geopolitical instability.
   On the London Bullion Market, gold prices stood at 637.10 dollars per ounce at Friday’s late fixing, from 634 dollars a week earlier.
   SILVER: Silver prices rose after a volatile week.
   On the London Bullion Market, silver prices climbed to 11.34 dollars per ounce at Friday’s fixing, from 11.01 dollars the previous week.
   PALLADIUM AND PLATINUM: The sister metals steadied amid Middle East concerns and expectations of supply deficits.
   On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum eased to 1,215 dollars per ounce at the late fixing Friday.
   Palladium increased to 313 dollars per ounce on Friday.
   BASE METALS: On Friday, three-month copper prices on the LME rose to 7,590 dollars per tonne.
   Aluminium prices firmed to 2,506 dollars per tonne.
   Nickel prices gained to 24,705 dollars per tonne.
    Lead prices increased to 1,085 dollars per tonne.
   Zinc prices stood at 3,282.50 dollars per tonne
   Tin prices rose to 8,450 dollars per tonne.
   OIL: World oil prices fell, hit at the end of the week by evidence of slower US economic growth. However losses were limited owing to supply concerns in Nigeria and the United States as well as tensions in the Middle East amid strong demand.
   In London, a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for delivery in September dropped to 73.45 dollars per barrel, from 74.54 dollars.

Despite the Middle East conflict, roiling oil prices and a sagging housing market, Wall Street closed out the week Friday on a high as traders betted the Federal Reserve would pause its rate hike cycle.
   Stoking the bets was a
   government report Friday which showed a sharper-than-expected deceleration in US economic growth during the second quarter to just 2.5 per cent.
   In the week to Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 3.2 per cent to 11,219.70 while the technology-rich Nasdaq market reversed three consecutive weekly falls, to close up 3.7 per cent on the week at 2,094.14.
   The broad-market Standard and Poor’s 500 added 3.1 per cent to 1,278.55.
   The International Monetary Fund said Friday the US economy is on course for a ‘soft landing’ but that an overvalued property market, sky-high energy prices and rising inflation could all bode ill.
   In a review of the world’s biggest economy, the IMF said the United States continues to be ‘a key engine of global growth’ despite higher Federal Reserve interest rates and oil prices.
   Further fueling expectations of a soft landing, the Commerce Department said Friday that US economic growth slowed to 2.5 per cent in the three months to June.
   That represented a sharp deceleration from the blistering pace of 5.6 per cent notched up over January-March and was much worse than Wall Street’s second-quarter forecast of 3.0 per cent growth.
   The slowdown and downturn in the housing market have raised the stakes for Fed members ahead of their August 8 policy meeting.
   The US central bank has already hoisted its fed funds rate 17 straight times to 5.25 per cent, and debate is intensifying on its next move, especially against bubbling inflationary pressures.

Indian shares were expected to trade firmer after strong first-quarter corporate earnings but concern over inflation fuelled by high oil prices could cap gains, dealers said.
   Buying sentiment improved this week on strong earnings reported by a number of companies, including India’s largest software exporter TCS and state-owned oil company Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
   The stronger tone came despite a 25 basis point increase by the Reserve Bank of India in its leading short-term interest rate to six per cent. It was the third quarter-point hike in the rate this year.
   The bank warned that inflation risks remain as government-subsidised domestic fuel prices still lag a surge in global oil costs.
   Mumbai’s benchmark 30-share Sensex index closed Friday at 10,680.23, up 5.89 per cent or 594.32 rupees from its previous close at 10,085.91.
   ‘The corporate earnings have surprised all, beating market expectations. However medium-term concerns in the form of oil and a further US rate hike in August could weaken the trend,’ said a dealer at brokerage Jamnadas Morarjee.
   India’s inflation rate fell on a weekly basis to 4.52 per cent from 4.68 per cent for the week ended July 15, official data showed, mainly due to a higher base effect.
   A correction in May saw the Sensex tumble more than 30 per cent to touch an intraday low of 8,799.01 on June 14 before recovering smartly by over 21 per cent.
   Overseas funds have been net buyers of 329.4 million dollars of Indian equities over the past two months, after having sold stock worth 1.63 billion dollars in May.

The IMF said Friday the US economy is on course for a ‘soft landing’ but that an overvalued property market, sky-high energy prices and rising inflation could all bode ill.
   In a review of the world’s biggest economy, the International Monetary Fund said the United States continues to be ‘a key engine of global growth’ despite higher Federal Reserve interest rates and oil prices.
   The IMF foresaw US economic growth in 2006 matching last year’s annual figure of 3.5 per cent, before slipping to 3.1 per cent in 2007.
   ‘Looking forward, directors saw good prospects for a soft landing of the economy, with growth likely to ease to a more sustainable rate and inflation to remain contained,’ the IMF board said.
   ‘However, most directors cautioned that risks to activity are on the downside, reflecting a cooling housing market, higher energy prices, and a negative household saving rate,’ the report said.
   It warned in particular that US property prices, whose stunning rally of recent years has stoked consumer spending, now look ‘overvalued’.
   ‘At the same time, these directors observed that the recent pick-up in core inflation and expectations, coupled with a further drop in the unemployment rate, suggests a risk of a build-up in price pressures.’
   Earlier Friday, the US government reported that gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to 2.5 per cent in the second quarter compared with a robust pace of 5.6 per cent in the three months before.
   But the report also showed inflationary pressure building despite the slower growth, accentuating a policy dilemma for the Fed after 17 consecutive hikes to US interest rates.
   The IMF said the Fed ‘will need to steer an especially delicate course that limits downside risks to activity while ensuring that inflation expectations remain anchored’.
   It said the US central bank’s communications strategy had been ‘highly effective’ but could still benefit from ‘a more explicit statement of its inflation objective’.
   Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has long advocated an explicit inflation target to govern the bank’s monetary policy, although some IMF directors were cited as believing that this would add ‘little’ to its credibility.
   The IMF’s overall appraisal chimed with Bernanke’s own belief, spelt out to Congress last week, that the US economy is entering a period of ‘transition’ to a more moderate pace that should help limit inflation.
   However, Wall Street pundits remain divided over whether the Fed will call off its long-running campaign of rate hikes when it next meets on August 8.
   Looking further ahead, the IMF reiterated calls for the US government to get its fiscal house in order to cope with the mounting costs of healthcare and pensions as ‘baby boomers’ start to retire.
   It noted that President George W. Bush’s administration, helped by buoyant tax revenues, is on track to halve the federal deficit before its target of 2009.
   The latest White House projections foresee a budget deficit of about 2.3 per cent of GDP for the current fiscal year, compared with 3.2 per cent under the last forecast.
   Most IMF directors therefore ‘suggested that the time is opportune to establish a more ambitious medium-term fiscal anchor’.
   ‘In particular, they noted that balancing the budget, excluding the Social Security surplus, within the next five years would set the federal debt ratio on a firm downward path,’ the review said.
   ‘Although controlling outlays should remain central to deficit reduction, most directors suggested that revenue measures should not be ruled out,’ it added.

The International Monetary Fund called Friday on the US government not to undermine the WTO by pursuing a patchwork of bilateral trade pacts.
   In a review of the US economy, IMF directors said US leadership remains ‘key’ to unblocking and concluding the World Trade Organisation’s troubled ‘Doha Round’ of talks.
   ‘At the same time, most directors cautioned that care would be needed to resist domestic protectionist sentiment and to ensure that bilateral trade initiatives complement rather than substitute multilateral approaches,’ the review said.
   The Doha Round is on life support after a meeting of six key players including the United States and the European Union collapsed in acrimony this week, largely because of disputes over farm payments.
   President George W. Bush said Thursday the United States remained committed to a balanced WTO pact that opens up foreign markets in return for cuts to US farm subsidies.
   But at the same time, US trade officials say they will continue to pursue more limited free-trade agreements. The United States is now in FTA talks with Malaysia and South Korea, which are among its top 10 trading partners.

Thailand’s aviation authority said successful test flights Saturday at Bangkok’s new international airport had eased concerns about its planned opening in two months.
   ‘Today we have proved that the new airport is safe and meets international standards,’ said Chotisak Asapaviriya, president of Airports of Thailand.
   ‘There were some minor errors that we found, but there was no major incident that would prevent us from opening the new airport in September,’ he said.
   Industry groups have worried that Thailand was rushing to complete the airport by September 28, without devoting enough time to testing computer and mechanical systems.
   Six Thai airlines flew 20 domestic flights in and out of the new airport on Saturday, hoping to show that Suvarnabhumi International is ready to challenge rivals Singapore and Malaysia to become the region’s major hub.
   Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was among the 375 passengers on the first flight to land at the 3.7-billion-dollar facility on a 15-minute journey from Bangkok’s existing Don Muang airport.
   He insisted that only small problems remained to be ironed out, and that the airport could safely handle normal commercial traffic in two months time.
   ‘Minor problems should not be an obstacle to opening the new airport,’ Thaksin told reporters.
   ‘A swift opening is key for Thailand to emerge as a regional aviation hub. We can’t wait any longer,’ he said.
   But the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 250 airlines, warned that the airport still needs much more testing before it would be ready to open.
   ‘What is important is to have Suvarnabhumi Airport begin commercial operations only when it is operationally ready,’ IATA spokesman Albert Tjoeng said.
   ‘This means having undergone the required robust and comprehensive testing and trials to ensure that the various systems are working 100 per cent and are seamlessly integrated,’ he said.

The IMF said Friday it sees Japan’s economic growth accelerating this year after a decade-long slump but urged the government to fix its worsening finances and undertake more ambitious reforms.
   In an annual review of the world’s second-biggest economy, the International Monetary Fund forecast that Japanese gross domestic product (GDP) would expand by 2.9 per cent in 2006.
   That is higher than an IMF forecast for 2006 of 2.75 per cent given only in May. But next year, the Fund predicted Japan’s economy would slow to growth of 2.1 per cent.
   The IMF called also for more policy transparency from the Bank of Japan (BoJ) after it ended an unprecedented era of zero interest rates this month by hiking borrowing costs for the first time in almost six years.
   ‘The post-bubble adjustment is essentially complete. Economic activity is expanding robustly, driven by domestic demand,’ the IMF’s so-called ‘Article Four’ appraisal of Japan said.
   ‘The financial and corporate sectors are strengthening further. Corporate restructuring is spurring productivity gains and yielding record profits,’ it said.
   After sliding for 15 years, urban land prices in Japan are finally recovering. Consumer prices should tick up by 0.6 per cent this year and next, finally putting paid to deflation, the IMF said.
   However, it also warned: ‘Fiscal consolidation is proceeding apace, but imbalances remain large.’
   Excluding social security commitments, Japan’s primary deficit is estimated to have shrunk by one per cent of GDP to 3.0 per cent in the 2005 fiscal year,
   and should fall further to about 2.5 per cent of GDP this fiscal year.
   But at 90 per cent of GDP, Japan’s government debt remains among the highest in the industrialised world.
   Japan’s debt mushroomed after its government spent trillions of yen on emergency stimulus packages to try to haul the economy out of its deflationary doldrums after the ‘bubble economy’ burst in the early 1990s.
   The IMF welcomed Japanese commitments to reduce the debt and to put fiscal policy on a sounder footing to cope with the challenges of a rapidly ageing population.
   ‘However, the net debt ratio is high by advanced-country standards, and rising,’ it cautioned, calling on the government to bring forward a ‘more ambitious adjustment’ to its finances.
   ‘Such an adjustment would stabilize the debt ratio, buy insurance against unanticipated fiscal or economic shocks, and bolster the credibility of the authorities’ plan,’ IMF directors said in a summary.
   Faster structural reforms would help to improve Japan’s financial position, and would also benefit the global economy.

Former WorldCom boss Bernard Ebbers Friday lost his appeal against a 25-year jail term handed down for his role in a gigantic fraud that led to the biggest corporate collapse in US history.
   The telecommunications company’s former chief executive, who turns 65 next month, will now most likely spend the rest of his days behind bars after the New York Second Circuit court of appeals upheld the sentence.
   The three appeals judges said the 11-billion-dollar fraud perpetrated by Ebbers ‘was not puffery or cheerleading or even a misguided effort to protect the company, its employees, and its shareholders’ from a temporary downturn.
   ‘The methods used were specifically intended to create a false picture of profitability even for professional analysts that, in Ebbers’ case, was motivated by his personal financial circumstances,’ the judges ruled.
   ‘Given Congress’ policy decisions on sentences for fraud, the sentence is harsh but not unreasonable.’

It’s a little after noon, and a crowd has started to gather in Boston’s Chinatown. Some are reading the Sing Tao Daily or Ming Pao Daily News. Others clutch plastic bags filled with snacks. All look up whenever the deep roar of an engine sounds like it’s coming their way.
   Ip Kachuang and two of his friends share a smoke while they wait. It’s a routine Ip knows well. Five days a week, he makes the four-hour round-trip bus ride to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.
   ‘It’s a happy place,’ Ip said in Mandarin Chinese. ‘It’s very easy and relaxing, and it’s open all the time.’
   Ip represents a group of customers aggressively being courted by casinos around the country.
   Every day, Foxwoods and nearby rival Mohegan Sun combined send more than 100 buses to predominantly Asian neighborhoods in Boston and New York. The number of buses doubles on Chinese New Year, and on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
   Foxwoods, the biggest casino in the world based on gambling floor space, estimates that at least one-third of its 40,000 customers per day are Asian. Mohegan Sun says Asian spending makes up a fifth of its business and has increased 12 per cent during the first half of this year alone.
   The number of Asians in the United States increased by 17 per cent between 2000 and 2004, the fastest growth of any ethnic group during that period, according to the US Census Bureau. And few industries have catered to the Asian boom with as much cultural competency as the $75 billion US gaming industry.

China’s railway to Tibet, opened this month to great fanfare, is developing cracks in its concrete structures while its permafrost foundation is sinking and cracking, state press said Friday.
   ‘The frozen ground that forms the foundation of the railway is sinking and cracking in some sections, making the railway unstable in some places,’ the Beijing News quoted railway ministry spokesman Wang Yongping as saying.
   ‘The concrete is cracking on some of the railway structures and bridges, forming a hidden danger to the railway line quality.’
   President Hu Jintao opened the railway to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa July 1, calling it a magnificent engineering feat and a miracle for the world.
   The 4.2-billion dollar railway which runs 1,142-kilometers (713 miles) from the desert outpost of Golmud in Qinghai province to Lhasa, the regional capital of Tibet, is the highest in the world.
   It climbs a peak of 5,072 meters (16,737 feet) above sea level along the Tibetan plateau, with the railway using supposedly state-of-the-art cooling techniques to ensure the permafrost foundation remains frozen.
   Wang added that shifting sands in the region were also causing greater harm to the railway than expected, while engineers had still not figured out how to keep herds of yaks off the tracks, the report said.
   ‘These form dangers to passengers on the train,’ he said.
   Climatologists monitoring global warming last year said that rising temperatures could lead to the melting of the permafrost foundation of the railway, but said nothing about the frozen ground sinking or cracking.
   ‘By 2050, safe operation of the Qinghai-Tibet railway will be affected if temperatures keep rising steadily as observed over the past decades,’ the China Daily quoted a climatologist as saying at a Beijing symposium last year.
   Railway spokesman Wang did not say how engineers would address the problems.
   The government sees the rail line as an important tool in modernizing and developing Tibet, which has been part of China since Chinese troops ‘liberated’ the region in 1950.
   However critics argue the line will allow the national majority Han Chinese to flood in to Tibet, leading to the devastation of the local Tibetan culture, as well as accelerate environmental degradation of the pristine region.
   Previously Han Chinese could only get to Tibet on slow, uncomfortable bus rides or on relatively expensive flights. On the new train, people can travel for 48 hours from Beijing to Lhasa for under 50 dollars.

Dutch retail giant Ahold announced late Friday that its 1.1 billion-dollar (941,000-euro) settlement with US and Dutch investors over the company’s accounting scandal that broke in 2003 and sent share prices plummeting, is now final.
   The last hurdle for the deal was cleared when an appeal against the settlement was withdrawn, the company said.
   This means the company will no longer have to fear securities lawsuits in the US and the Netherlands over the scandal.
   In February 2003 Ahold said it had found apparent accounting irregularities to the amount of several hundred million euros in the operation of its US subsidiary US Foodservice.

Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said Friday that Iran and Japan will finalize their long-delayed deal to develop the giant Azadegan oilfield by August 22.
   ‘Iran and Japan have agreed to develop the Azadegan oilfield,’ Hamaneh was quoted as saying in an interview with the Mehr news agency.
   He said that if no new problems occurred, Iran and Japan’s oil giant Inpex would finalize the agreement by the end of Mordad, or the fifth month of Iran’s local calendar which ends on August 22.
   In February 2004, Japan and Iran signed a deal on the major Azadegan project, giving Japan the largest oilfield it has ever independently developed.
   The oilfield in Azadegan in southwestern Iran is one of the world’s largest, believed to contain 26 billion barrels of crude oil.
   Under the 2004 agreement, Inpex would be granted rights to develop the oilfield, which is close to Iran’s border with Iraq.

Russian truckmaker Kamaz is to open an assembly plant in Iran next month, the company’s deputy director said late Friday.
   Irek Gumerov said the plant would reach full capacity of 1,500 trucks per year within the next two years, Interfax news agency reported.
   Kamaz already has assembly lines in Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Ukraine and Vietnam, according to the company’s website.
   Kamaz and Iranian firm Rakhsh Khodro signed an agreement last year to build the assembly plant last year, Interfax said.
   Russia and Iran have strong economic links. Russia is currently completing Iran’s first nuclear reactor.

The International Monetary Fund Friday released 1.85 billion dollars from a 10-billion-dollar standby credit it approved last year to help stabilize Turkey’s economy.
   The IMF also approved a request by Turkey to waive several criteria that normally apply to its extensions of credit, with the country’s parliament still to approve several laws to reform pensions, social security and taxes.
   ‘Turkey’s economic performance has been strong. Rapid growth was accompanied until recently by record-high capital inflows, declining debt ratios, and lira strength,’ IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato said in a statement.
   He said Turkey’s government was committed to tightening fiscal policy so as to reduce debt, inflation and the current account deficit.
   ‘To achieve these objectives it will be essential that the authorities maintain their resolve to keep nominal spending in line with the program
   and preserve the tax base,’ he said.

McClatchy’s media sale deal cleared
A federal judge on Friday declined to block McClatchy Co.’s plan to sell three Bay Area newspapers to MediaNews Group Inc. The decision comes amid allegations that the $1 billion deal — which includes the $737 million sale of the Monterey County Herald, San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times — would give the Denver-based MediaNews chain a monopoly in the Bay Area. US District Judge Susan Illston’s decision came in response to an antitrust lawsuit brought by San Francisco real estate magnate Clint Reilly, who sought to temporarily block the transaction. Reilly was concerned that MediaNews could have a monopoly on readership and advertising. Illston ruled that newspapers face competition from other news sources that also advertise.
— AP

Tribune sells Time Warner stock for $46m
Publisher and broadcaster Tribune Co said on Friday it sold 2.8 million shares of stock in media conglomerate Time Warner Inc for net proceeds of about $46 million. Tribune expects to record a pretax gain on the sale of about $19 million in the third quarter of 2006, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Tribune owns newspapers including the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. It also owns the Chicago Cubs baseball team and more than two-dozen television stations.
— Reuters

Ford seeks input on benefits from workers
Ford Motor Co has asked many of its salaried employees for input about what kinds of benefits they value most as the nation’s second-largest automaker considers more cost-cutting efforts. A copy of an online survey used by Ford was obtained by The Detroit News, which published details of it in Saturday’s editions. Earlier this month, Ford pledged to speed up and possibly deepen its six-month-old North American turnaround plan. Analysts have said that could mean further job cuts and plant closings as those changes take shape.
— AP