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The output of the country’s medium and large-scale manufacturing sector continued double-digit growth during the first three quarters of the outgoing fiscal year reflecting strong industrial activities.
   The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data showed that the quantum index of industrial production registered 13.4 per cent growth in July-March period of the 2005-06 fiscal year over the same period of last fiscal.
   The index stood at 321.85 points on an average, up from 283.90 of a year back.
   The quantum index gained 15.65 per cent in March 2006 alone compared to that of March 2005.
   Of the eight broad-based sub-sectors covered by the index, four posted double-digit growth ranging between 10 and 30 per cent in the July-March period.
   These are: wood product including furniture posting a 22.12 percent growth; jute, cotton, apparel and leather 18.81 per cent; food beverage and tobacco 12.47; and fabricated metal product 10.9.
   The output growth was also translated in the export scenario of the products, with export value of jute goods posting 18.6 per cent in the period and leather 14.5 per cent in July-March period.
   Export revenues from woven garments and knitwear also rose by 10.7 per cent and 30.8 per cent respectively in the July-March period of the current fiscal, Export Promotion Bureau statistics showed.
    Among other sub-sectors, production of paper and paper goods increased by 9.78 per cent; non-metallic products by 8.37 per cent; basic metals 6.36 per cent; and chemical, petrochemical and rubber products 4.74 per cent.
   The incremental output of medium and large industries has contributed significantly to the overall industrial productions.
   The Centre for Policy Dialogue, in its report on economic analysis, however, mentioned that changes in production at individual industry level did not match the quantum index of production for the same period.
   ‘Comparing the sources of growth of small scale industries with that of large one, it was observed that growth of the latter is mainly linked with international market such as textile, leather, apparel and wood products,’ it added.
   The CPD analysis also said most large, medium and small-scale industries saw a decline in investment in current fiscal year compared to the same period of previous fiscal.
   ‘Decrease in investment was most evident in cases of food, beverage, jute, cotton, leather, chemical products, non-metallic products, engineering, basic metal and metal products, which would affect industrial production in the coming year,’ it added.
   Businessmen also expressed apprehension that the momentum of industrial production has been suffering for the last few months from power crisis and slowdown in bank credit, and real trend of the sector would be visible in the last quarter of the fiscal.
   ‘The power crisis has had immediate impacts on the knitwear industry and also other sectors in the April-May period,’ said Fazlul Haque, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufactures and Exporters Association.
   He also said that impact of slowdown in the bank credit would not be visible before the first quarter of the next fiscal year.
   The knitwear sector whizz kid said that recent labour unrest also left some negative impacts on garments industry, which hampered production to some extent.
   ‘But the overall impact will depend on the behaviour of the buyers who now appear a little bit cautious,’ he added while talking to New Age on Saturday.

Experts at a roundtable on Saturday called for promoting use of renewable energy like bio-gas, wind-power, bio-mass fuel and solar system as alternative energy sources in the country’s remote areas.
   The call came in the backdrop of an official survey that country’s 70 per cent areas could be covered with electricity supply whereas major sources of energy, such as gas and coal, in Bangladesh would be depleting quickly.
   The roundtable on ‘renewable energy technologies’ was also told that various programmes on promoting and expanding use of renewable technologies should be coordinated and budgetary money utilised for providing the people with sustainable energy.
   German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), private sector organisation Grameen Shakti and English daily The New Nation jointly organised the conference at the National Press Club to mobilise public opinion about the potentials of the renewable energy in Bangladesh.
   The country has only 24,000 bio-gas plants against the potentials of setting up over three million plants while there are 1,50,000 plants successfully installed in Nepal, said a Nepalese expert, Sundar Bajgain.
   Bangladesh is said to have potential energy output equivalent at over 6,000 megawatts.
   So far, 38 per cent people currently have access to electricity and hundred per cent people of the country are supposed to be covered by the year 2020 as per an ambitious plan of the government.
   A number of participants raised the question whether Bangladesh should pursue nuclear power plant because of the depletion of other conventional energy sources globally.
   The energy advisor, Mahmudur Rahman, addressing the function, floated the idea of research on cultivation of jatrova on a commercial basis on the fallow lands in Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts region for producing bio-diesel as substitute of petroleum oils.
   Neighbouring India has already taken a huge project on popularising cultivation of jatrova, a jungle nut, which gives a yield rate of two tonnes per hectare, he said referring to shortcomings in producing ethanol from sugarcane in the Bangladesh context.
   Mahmud underlined the need for formation of an inter-ministerial committee to properly and effectively utilise the Tk 100 crore energy development fund the government has allocated in the proposed budget to promote solar power and other renewable sources of energy for inaccessible locations.
   Khurshidul Alam, a discussant, expressed concern that the biomass fuel is the most widely used source of energy by the poor who have been losing control over this source day by day.
   The government would soon form a sustainable energy development agency to promote both conventional and renewable sources of energy in view of the accessibility and commercial viability, the power division secretary, ANH Akhter Hossain, informed the participants.
   Zafar Ahmed Chowdhury, the secretary of environment and forest ministry, said a trust would be constituted soon to determine the quantum of various sources of energy that could be extracted in the country and find out ways and means on how to reach them to the people.
   Asked about incentives for renewable energy plants, Mahmud, also the executive chairman of the Board of Investment, said the units on renewable energy should be given tax holiday facility and he would recommend the issue to the government.
   Grameen Shakti has fixed a target of setting up 2,00,000 solar systems in the country by the year 2010, said its managing director Dipal Chandra Barua.
   A Europe-Bangladesh joint venture to manufacture renewable energy technologies cannot start because of insufficient skilled manpower in the country, Erich Otto Gomm, a coordinator of GTZ, said adding that his organisation would provide training support.
   Khalequzzaman, an energy specialist, Shahidul Islam and MA Gofran, both consultants of Grameen Shakti, SM Farhanul Islam of IDCOL, Tajmilur Rahman of LGED, Mollah Amzad Hossain, chairman of forum for energy reporters, A Rashid Sarkar of BUET and Harunur Rashid addressed the conference moderated by the editor of The New Nation, Mostafa Kamal Majumder.

The Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, on Saturday said the country’s capital market has become matured enough to thwart recurrence of the 1996-like debacle.
   ‘Rather, the next five to ten years will be crucial for the country’s capital market, which has a great potential to grow further in the period,’ he said while addressing the opening ceremony of a daylong Road Show for Capital Market-Chittagong, organised by the Dhaka Stock Exchange in the port city’s commercial hub.
   ‘In our country the capital market remains underutilised as an alternative source of funding,’ he said.
   The entrepreneurs usually go to the banks for loans for establishing a new venture though they face a high interest rate there. Fund raising from the capital market is cost effective than bank borrowing, the SEC chief said.
   At present country’s total market capitalisation is around only five per cent of the country’s GDP whereas in the neighbouring countries the market capitalisation is more than 20 per cent of their GDP, he mentioned.
   The entrepreneurs can reduce the dependency on bank borrowing through raising a portion of their equity from the capital market and it will also encourage the general investors, he said.
   ‘We have to create awareness among the entrepreneurs and general investors on the advantage of the capital market,’ Siddiqi pointed out.
   Government borrowing from the banks to maintain the loss making state-owned enterprises has been resulting a liquidity crisis in the money market, thus hampers the stock markets, he added.
   Speaking at the function, the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, said the capital market reflects the state of the economy of a country.
   ‘It is unfortunate that the reflection is invisible in our country although our capital market has achieved better shape than earlier,’ he said.
   The capital market should be made more attractive so that the entrepreneurs as well as the general investors prefer to come in the market, he said.
   ‘The cell phone companies, which are making huge profit, should offload at least 30 per cent of their shares in the bourses, the CCCI chief said. ‘There should be a mechanism to bring the mobile phone companies in the capital market, he said.
   Responding to the demand of offloading shares of PHP Group, Mizanur Rahman, chairman of the group, said his group would offload a certain portion of shares to the public and he is preparing to do that.
   The DSE president, Abdullah Bokhari, said the objective of the DSE Road Show was to create awareness among the investors and to stimulate them to invest in the capital market and to encourage the entrepreneurs to use the market as the main tool of their share divestment and to meet debt requirement in a competitive way.
   Echoing him, the DSE chief executive officer, Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, said under the present automated system investors can take part in share trading from any corner of the country through wide area network (WAN) connectivity.
   A total of 155 general investors took part at the awareness creating programme where the SEC executive directors, Mansur Alam and Farhad Ahmed, DSE CEO Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, ICT Head ASM Khairuzzaman and R&D In-charge Syed Al Amin Rahman presented keynote papers.
   Seven brokerage houses – Lanka Bangla Securities, M Shahidullah and Co, ICB Securities, Royal Capital, E-Securities, Salta Capital and Haji Ahmed and Brothers – showcased their services and products at the road show.
   The Chittagong Stock Exchange president, MKM Mohiuddin, also spoke at the function, attended by directors of two stock exchanges, local industrialists, entrepreneurs and share market investors.

The Oriental Bank will file criminal cases against its top defaulters if they fail to settle repayment arrangements within a month.
   The bank will also go to the money loan court and initiate other necessary legal measures to strengthen its recovery drive under the new management.
   The bank’s 30 branch managers and officials were given necessary instructions in a meeting on Saturday with the central bank appointed administrator, Murshid Kuli Khan, in the chair.
   ‘We have advised the branch mangers and relevant officials on techniques of the loan recovery and gave guidelines,’ he said while talking with newsmen on Saturday.
   ‘The officials have already given key performance indictors and they have to report on weekly basis of their progresses,’ added Khan, who is now acting as the managing director of the bank.
   He viewed that the bank’s 600-strong manpower would work as recovery agents and have to double their efforts to make the drive a success.
   He also said that defaulters would be asked to negotiate within a stipulated period of time to settle repayments and start repaying the default loans.
   ‘Otherwise, the bank will go for legal steps by filing criminal or civil cases, and defaulters have to understand that they can’t escape,’ he said.
   Khan also said that depositors should not be panicked as the central bank has taken over the charge and the Oriental bank is now as same as any government bank.
   At the end of March 2006, the total outstanding loans of the Oriental bank stood at Tk 1,837.29 crore of which 224.2 per cent or Tk 444.90 crore was non-performing.
   Of the total default loans, 23.8 per cent or Tk 437 crore was classified as bad or lost loans, whose recovery possibility is low.
   Bangladesh Bank last week took over the management of the bank, which was at the brink of collapse amid allegations of irregularities in loan disbursement.
   The Securities and Exchange Commission, following the central bank request, suspended the share trading of the bank in the stock market to check share transfer by the incumbent owners.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange president, MKM Mohiuddin, stressed the need for government supports in the forms of fiscal incentives and budgetary provisions to boost the country’s capital market.
   Exchanging views with the media people at Chittagong Club on Saturday, CSE president suggested that state-owned enterprises should offload shares to improve the capital market.
   ‘Now the capital market lacks investment. We need to have direct foreign investment in our capital market. Policies should be framed to that end,’ he said, adding that the government should come forward with a long-term vision, at least with a plan for five years.  The capital market drew little attention in the proposed budget for the fiscal 2006-07, he regretted.
   ‘The huge deficit budget might destabilise the capital market in many ways’ he warned.
   He pointed out that the liquidity crunch has already led to an unhealthy competition among the private commercial banks to attract depositors by raising deposit rates up to 13 per cent.
   ‘We are worried that low availability of  funds and high interest rate would obviously cast a negative impact on the investment climate especially in the capital market,’ the CSE chief said.
   CSE vice presidents AQI Chowdhury and Nasiruddin Ahmed Chowdhury also spoke at the function.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the application of the BRAC to issue $180 million worth asset-backed securities through securitisation of microcredit receivables, sources at the SEC said.
   ‘Issuance of asset-backed securities against microcredit receivables will possibly be the first bond across the globe,’ an SEC official told BDNEWS.
   He said the originator BRAC is preparing to fix a date of issuing the asset-backed Pay Through Certificates (PTCs).
   Sources said the PTCs will be issued on a private placement basis and through 12 transactions. Each transaction will contain $15 million.
   The issuer SPV (BRAC Micro credit Securitisation Trust) will issue the PTCs on behalf of BRAC.
   According to the mode of tranche, each tranche will be divided into four sub-tranches A, B, C and D, and the maximum maturity of the PTCs will be one year.

Pan Pacific Sonargaon is showcasing the absolute best local produce Bangladesh has to offer by hosting a mango promotion, which has commenced in all restaurants.
   At this time of year people are crazy for delicious mangoes and Café Bazar, Jhama Grill and Ciao Bistro will continue their quest in providing a magnificent culinary experience with dishes such as warm chicken and mango salad, mango glazed flan, pan-fried mango with Khulna prawns and everyone’s favourite — mango lassi plus many more.
   World-renowned executive chef David Jones has concocted a mouth-watering list of mango dishes that will truly be a hit.
   Mango Mania will be running throughout the mango season. Bookings for restaurants can be made on 8111005.

During the 39th board meeting and 11th annual general meeting of Bayer CropScience Ltd Bangladesh held in Dhaka, directors declared 20 per cent dividend for the year 2005, said a press release.
   The managing director, Philippe Medeau, said during the year the company sales grew by more than 30 per cent compared to 2004.
   He added that two new products were launched contributing to the enlargement of product base and extensive service backup for modern and sustainable agriculture.
   Bayer CropScience is a joint venture company between Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation and the German Company Bayer.
   Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about 5.9 billion Euro, is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology.
   The company has a global workforce of about 18,800 and is represented in more than 120 countries.

Dressed in a blue-and-black wetsuit to guard against the water’s chill, Carol Mickey stood next to a giant inflatable raft and eyed the roiling Clear Creek water with a flutter of trepidation and excitement.
   It was the first rafting trip for Mickey and her husband, Dave. The Glen Mills, Pa., couple were joined by her brother and his teenage children on a day the water was churning up frothy white peaks as it raced through this historic mining town 30 miles west of Denver.
   ‘It’s higher than I thought it would be,’ Carol Mickey said. ‘I’m a little nervous, not so much for myself but for the young ones.
   ‘Don’t want to leave a relative on the trip,’ she said with a smile.
   Bountiful snow — melting faster than a Sno-Cone amid a heat wave in parts of the West — has delivered enough water this spring to have many rafting outfitters hoping for a record season. The exception is companies in the Southwest, which has been plagued by a persistent drought.
   The season also could become one of the deadliest with at least five deaths in rafting accidents since late May. Three people died when a raft hit a tree root on the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park near Moose, Wyo.
   Angela Berardino of Grand Teton Lodge Co., which operated the raft, said the National Park Service is still investigating but the company complies with all of the agency’s safety guidelines.
   There are about a half-dozen rafting deaths each season and they range from drowning to medical problems, said David Brown, executive director of America Outdoors, an international trade group for rafting and other so-called ‘active travel’ companies.
   The nation’s rafting industry, like skiing and other outdoor businesses, is dependent on natural resources. Outfitters keep a close eye how much snow falls; how fast it will melt to feed rivers (too warm and the melting snow goes by in a flash; too slow and it could delay the season) and how full reservoirs are.
   Although slow to rebound from the travel downturn after the Sept. 11 attacks, the industry has largely recovered since. Brown said companies in the West are making a more significant recovery than those in the East, where demand has been flat and in some cases declining.
   The industry began to rebound after the 2001 attacks, then was slowed some by the economic fallout from the beginning of the Iraq war. Then, while the West took off in 2004-05 in part helped by its myriad tourist destination spots, the East suffered through wet, cool weather that dampened visits.
   ‘It’s still possible you’re going to see that bounce-back this year in the East because you have some hot weather,’ Brown said. ‘It’s become a last-minute market. ... People wait for the weather report.’
   The association does not track revenue on a national level but Brown said there are about 3 million to 4 million user visits annually. A user visit is an industry figure that refers to a rafter who pays for all or part of one day’s trip.
   Colorado is the most popular state for rafting, with the Arkansas River in the south-central part of the state the most popular waterway, Brown said.
   Outfitters on the state’s 13 major river systems are hoping to beat the record of 525,537 user visits set in 1999. A record $135 million in revenue was collected last year, according to the Colorado River Outfitters Association.
   ‘We are busier than we’ve been in past seasons, and from what I see out on the rivers I think most of my fellow outfitters would probably second that,’ said Bruce Becker, a member of the organization and owner of GEO Tours in Morrison, just west of Denver. ‘Several of our rivers are kind of reaching their peak levels right now and consequently, the hot weather we’ve been having has really been bringing the people out.’
   Coby Vidakovich of Buena Vista-based Buffalo Joe’s Whitewater Rafting expects to see decent river flows through July.
   ‘I think we’ve probably seen the peak but you know for what most people are looking for as far as good whitewater rafting, it’s great,’ he said. ‘The rocks are still covered up. There’s big waves, big holes and it’s still really great for whitewater rafting.’

Most commodity prices stabilized this week following a major downwards correction that was linked to global economic concerns, while oil futures jumped on supply concerns.
   On Friday, the Commodities Research Bureau’s index of 17 commodities stood at 335.37 points, from 337.44 points the previous week.
   GOLD: Gold prices saw choppy trading, weakened by the dollar but supported by geopolitical concerns.
   The United States has warned North Korea that it will pay ‘some cost’ if it launches a long-range missile, and the US military signaled its readiness to use missile defences to protect Americans.
   On the London Bullion Market, gold prices firmed to 579.60 dollars per ounce .
   
   SILVER: Silver prices handed back earlier gains.
   The price of silver has now plunged by 34 per cent since the precious metal reached a 26-year high of 15.22 dollars on May 11.
   On the London Bullion Market, silver prices dropped to 10.09 dollars per ounce .
   PALLADIUM AND PLATINUM: Platinum has lost 13 per cent of its value since hitting a record high of 1,340 dollars on May 12. Palladium has given up 25 per cent since reaching a four-year peak the same month.
   In Friday trading on the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum rose to 1,169 dollars per ounce at the late fixing, from 1,158 dollars the previous week.
   BASE METALS: On Friday, three-month copper prices on the London Metal Exchange decreased to 6,598 dollars per tonne. Three-month aluminium prices slid to 2,438 dollars per tonne., nickel prices rose to 19,300 dollars per tonne., lead prices eased to 955 dollars per tonne , zinc prices dropped to 2,881 dollars per tonne, tin prices firmed to 7,830 dollars per tonne.
   OIL: World crude prices gained owing to a smaller than expected rise in stocks of US motor fuel and lingering geopolitical tensions in the oil-rich Middle East.
   American reserves of motor fuel increased by 300,000 barrels to 213.4 million in the week to June 16, according to
   data published Wednesday by the US Department of Energy (DoE).
   That was sharply below the rise of 1.5 million expected by analysts but marked the eighth weekly increase in a row.

Bangladesh Export Import Company Ltd has declared 5 per cent cash dividend and 10 per cent stock dividend (bonus share) at the 33rd annual general meeting of the company held at Shahbag in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Presided over by the company vice-chairman, Salman F Rahman, the meeting was attended by company directors Iqbal Ahmed, MA Qasem, Abdul Alim Khan and AB Siddiqur Rahman, legal advisor Rafique-ul Haq and company secretary Asad Ullah.
   The company earned Tk 45.23 crore as gross profit and Tk 17.74 crore as net profit in 2005, said a press release of the Bexmico.
   On the same day, 9th annual general meeting of the Bangladesh Online took place at the same venue where the company declared 10 per cent cash and 10 per cent stock dividends. The company vice-chairman, Salman F Rahman, presided over the meeting.
   Bangladesh Online earned a gross profit and net profit of Tk 14.60 crore and Tk 13.22 crore respectively for the year 2005.
   The 25th annual general meeting of the Beximco Fisheries was held on Saturday with the company vicechairman, Salman F Rahman in the chair. But the company did not declare any dividend.

In a major setback to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s efforts to regulate the $1.3 trillion hedge fund industry, a federal appeals court on Friday tossed out a rule requiring the investment pools to register with the agency.
   The SEC rule, which went into effect in February, was a key first step in regulating an industry, which saw its assets double in the past five years as pension funds, endowments and charities poured in billions of dollars to boost their investment returns.
   The court decision raises questions about how aggressively the SEC will seek to regulate the industry. The hedge fund rule was narrowly adopted on a 3-2 vote under SEC Chairman Christopher Cox’s predecessor, William Donaldson.
   Cox said he directed SEC staff to evaluate the court decision and draft a ‘set of alternatives’ on how the agency should approach the hedge fund industry.
   ‘The court’s finding ... requires that going forward we reevaluate the agency’s approach to hedge fund activity,’ he said.
   But speaking in Washington on Thursday, Cox questioned whether the SEC currently has the ability to register and monitor the fast-growing hedge fund industry, citing a demand on resources.
   ‘If we did that, we’d have to stop doing something else,’ he told reporters at a conference.
   The court ruling opens the door for advisers in the loosely regulated industry to withdraw their SEC registration.
   As of Friday, there were 2,533 investment advisers registered with the SEC who managed 13,876 hedge funds with assets totaling $2.4 trillion. Advisers often manage several funds.
   ‘So the court is really sending the SEC back to the drawing board on this, with such fundamental questions raised that I tend to doubt the SEC will even try to redraw the rule,’ said Peter Blume, a lawyer who specialises in corporate compliance issues.
   The rule adopted by the SEC required most US hedge funds with more than $30 million in assets and 15 or more clients to register with the agency. Registration meant submitting to periodic audits, keeping better records and following new procedures aimed at discouraging would-be cheaters.

The 9th Annual General Meeting of Summit Power Limited will be held today at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka. This will be, however, the 1st AGM since the company went public.
   Summit Power Limited is the first Bangladeshi private sector power generation company presently operating three 11 MW power plants at Savar, Comilla and Narsingdi.
   The company has signed agreements with Rural Electrification Board and the government to add another 24.30 MW at Narshingdi, 13.50 MW at Comilla and 25 MW at Savar.
   Since the Savar project has a possibility of having a capacity of 33.75 MW, the total capacity of the company will be
   approximately 103 MW of electricity.

The United States set up Friday a new office to combat copyright piracy worldwide and appointed a senior lawyer to marshal China’s compliance with trade commitments.
   The moves underline Washington’s concerns over the rising costs of intellectual property theft and are part of a multipronged government effort to protect rights through enforcement, international cooperation, legislation and prevention programs, officials said.
   ‘These two initiatives are another step forward to ensure that the United State is active and aggressive in enforcement of our rights under trade agreements,’ US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters.
   Intellectual property issues were previously covered by a unit in her office which also handled services and investment topics.
   ‘Truth be told, we have been very active and engaged in intellectual property rights enforcement issues for many years but the IP office has been buried in a larger office that did services and investment,’ Schwab said after briefing Congress leaders on the issue.
   ‘We are making this a stand-alone operation,’ she said, adding that ‘priority countries, including China and Russia’ would garner special attention.
   The trade representative’s annual report on global intellectual property crime in April listed 48 countries on the government’s watch list.
   In addition to China and Russia, the report set out significant concerns with respect to Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Paraguay, Turkey, Ukraine, and Venezuela.
   Roy Blunt, majority whip of the House of Representatives and the legislative pointman for trade agreements, said the administration’s moves to step up copyright enforcement underlined a ‘vigorous effort’ to ensure that US trade agreements were fulfilled, especially by China.
   ‘China is specifically a large and important trading partner of the United States and it is critically important for those exact reasons that China also be a responsible partner,’ he said.
   The United States suffered 250 billion dollars in annual losses, and 750,000 lost jobs due to intellectual property theft, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Thursday.
   ‘These staggering figures do not cover the costs of intellectual property theft to our economy and everyone involved in it, from consumers to workers to stockholders,’ he said.
   While the United States received some cooperation from Beijing in cracking down on intellectual property theft, ‘the fact remains that many commercial piracy cases now under investigation by federal law enforcement have a nexus to China,’ Gonzales said.
   The United States has previously warned that it was considering bringing a case in the World Trade Organization (WTO) against China for failing to enforce intellectual property laws.
   The US Attorney General’s office is working with the trade representative to ‘improve the language’ in free trade agreements and other international treaties regarding intellectual property protections, Gonzales said.
   Schwab also announced Friday the appointment of a chief counsel for China trade enforcement following a ‘top-to-bottom’ review of bilateral trade relations.
   Claire Reade, a leading international trade litigator for more than two decades, will coordinate the trade representative’s efforts to ensure China’s compliance with its trade commitments, particularly WTO and bilateral obligations, Schwab said.

President George W. Bush argued Saturday that line-item veto authority—the power to cancel specific provisions of a bill without vetoing the entire package—would help him to rein in government spending.
   ‘Our economy is heading into the summer on the fast track, and one of the best ways to keep our momentum going is to restrain spending in Washington, DC,’ Bush said in his weekly radio address.
   He called for congress to reform the spending process, claiming that the current system allows lawmakers to insert funding for ‘pet projects’ into large spending bills, called earmarking.
   ‘For example, a bill to fund our military can be loaded up with unjustified earmarks and other spending that may not add to our national security.
   ‘This leaves Members of Congress with two bad options—they can either vote against the whole bill, including all the worthwhile spending, or they have to accept the whole bill, including the wasteful spending. The President is left with the same dilemma—either he has to veto the entire bill or sign the bill and approve the unnecessary spending,’ he said.
   Bush called for presidential line-item veto power, designed to curb spending, but which would also tip the balance of power between the president and Congress in the president’s favor if a proposed veto is enacted.
   Under the measure, a president could put certain spending items on hold and force Congress to reconsider them. ‘Forty-three of our Nation’s 50 governors have line-item veto authority, and they have used that authority to remove needless spending from otherwise good bills,’ Bush said.
   ‘When lawmakers know their pet projects will be held up to public scrutiny, they will be less likely to suggest them in the first place,’ he added.
   The House of Representatives passed a bill granting line-item veto authority Thursday.
   Bush called on the Senate to also support the measure.

China’s parliament on Saturday opened a six-day session to consider a long-awaited anti-monopoly law that has been in the works for nearly 20 years.
   The standing committee of the National People’s Congress was to deliberate on the anti-monopoly draft for the first time, a press release said.
   The law aimed to prevent multinational corporations from gaining monopoly status in China through foreign investment and mergers and acquisitions, legal officials have told Xinhua news agency.
   But the measure is fraught with difficulties, including how to handle state monopolies in areas such as energy, land rights, insurance, telecommunications and tobacco.
   Government departments also wield monopoly-style power in some industries by coercing people to buy commodities from certain operators, reports said.
   The draft was approved by the State Council, China’s cabinet, earlier this month, but versions of the draft have not been made public. It was first drafted in 1994 after preparatory work began as early as 1987.
   Another obstacle that has kept the law in limbo is whether a new powerful stand-alone agency should be created to implement the law or if existing ministries and commissions should jointly oversee the law’s implementation.
   During the session, a bill on how the government responds to emergencies such as industrial accidents, natural disas-
   ters or health and social crises was also to be heard, the parliament said.
   The legislature would also hear a report on how a law on regional autonomy for minority nationalities was being implemented in 20 provinces and regions, it said.

An employees consortium wanting to take over bankrupt Brazilian airline Varig failed Friday to meet a deadline to hand over a 75 million dollar deposit.
   ‘We have not made the deposit. We have not been able to reach an agreement with the investors so that they deposit the money,’ said Marcio Marsillac, an official of Nouvelle Varig Participacoes, the employees group which made a 449 million dollar offer to buy the heavily indebted airline.
   ‘We don’t know what will happen. It is up to the judge to decide now.’
   Bankruptcy judge Luiz Roberto Ayoub had given the group until 1900 GMT Friday to make the deposit.
   Ayoub now must decide whether to liquidate the 79-year-old company or give Participacoes another chance, or look for new bidders.

The Australian government was urged Saturday to stop tax officials derailin)g plans to pay billions of dollars in compensation to victims of asbestos products.
   Australia’s tax office late Friday ruled that a 4.5 billion dollar (3.3 billion US) compensation fund set up by building products group James Hardie Industries for asbestos victims would not be treated as a tax-exempt charity.
   Under the ruling, the tax office could take a 40 per cent cut of the money earmarked for people suffering asbestiosis and other crippling respiratory diseases. Victims blasted the decision.
   ‘(The fund) was set up to pay the victims of asbestos. How can they say that is not charity? It’s just absurd,’ said Bernie Banton, an asbestiosis sufferer who campaigned for the fund’s establishment. James Hardie chief executive Louis Gries said the ruling left the entire compensation deal under a cloud.
   ‘This development places the viability of the final funding agreement in doubt,’ he said.
   The decision could also have implications for James Hardie’s share price, which rose sharply after the deal was signed in December last year because investors thought the long-running dispute had been finalised.
   New South Wales state Premier Morris Iemma, whose government brokered negotiations for the compensation fund, said Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello should legislate to prevent the tax office getting its hands on the money.

With Google Inc taking a dominant lead in the Internet search market, it looks increasingly likely that Microsoft Corp could make a large acquisition, such as of Yahoo Inc, Merrill Lynch said on Friday.
   A move by Microsoft to acquire Yahoo would speed up the software giant’s efforts to build its search business, boost its Asian presence and eliminate a rival, according to the report.
   The report, written by Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post, comes at a critical period for Microsoft. The company, whose Windows operating system runs an estimated 90 per cent of the world’s personal computers, is struggling to find sources of growth beyond its traditional business.
   What is more, founder Bill Gates said earlier this month that over the next two years he planned to ease out of a day-to-day role at the company, and stepped down immediately as its chief software architect.
   Such pressures at Microsoft, which has seen its stock fall more than 10 per cent over the past year, have given rise to speculation that it could consider a major acquisition such as Yahoo or eBay Inc.
   ‘Microsoft has been late to the Internet and, given significant financial investment that has affected Microsoft’s stock price, the new management team will be under heightened pressure to effectively compete with the Internet leaders,’ Merrill Lynch’s Post wrote in the report.
   While Post said Microsoft’s $34 billion cash balance makes a case for more aggressive share buybacks or a higher dividend, ‘the possible acquisition of Yahoo! would be a strategic positive, in our view.’
   ‘A potential acquisition of Yahoo! would reduce the risks and the time horizon for Microsoft to drive market share and profitability of its MSN business unit relative to its internal efforts,’ he said.
   Indeed, Post writes that ‘Google’s potential encroachment on Microsoft’s core software market, using Internet profitability to fund software investment, represents a long-term business risk.’
   Recent data from Web measurement firm comScore Networks showed Google made further gains in the US search market in May. Its closest rivals, Yahoo and Microsoft held steady, avoiding the market-share losses they suffered in recent months as smaller players lost ground.
   ComScore said Google’s share of the US market last month grew to 44.1 per cent, up a per centage point over April, continuing a surge that has added 6.6 per centage points of market share during the last year.

The sacking Friday of Poland’s liberal finance minister Zyta Gilowska amid accusations she lied about her alleged communist past sent a shockwave through investors and revived the spectre of Poland’s communist past.
   Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz fired Gilowska after a judge announced he had opened an inquiry to determine if she had lied during a vetting procedure in 1999 about her links with Poland’s former communist security forces.
   Polish law obliges members of parliament, ministers, judges and other key officials to declare if they worked for the communist secret police or intelligence services.
   An admission is not automatically sanctioned but a lie is punished by a 10-year ban on holding public office. Gilowska denied having committed any wrongdoing but said she would submit her resignation to the prime minister and let him decide.
   ‘This is a dramatic situation,’ said Marcinkiewicz as he announced his decision.
   ‘I have no reason to doubt the good faith of Mrs Gilowska, but the principles regulating the government have to be applied to each minister,’ he said, announcing that he was replacing Gilowska with his economic adviser Pawel Wojciechowski.
   ‘This is a huge loss, but we will pursue the reforms’
   instigated by Gilowska, Marcinkiewicz said, trying to reassure investors.
   Gilowska was appointed finance minister in Marcinkiewicz’s cabinet in January and put in charge of Poland’s economic policy-making.
   In April, she announced a series of public finance reforms which would bring the finances of a number of fiscally independent state institutions under the control of the state or local authorities.
   More recently, Gilowska clashed head-on with the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party over proposed reforms to the tax system.
   Announcing Friday that she would tender her resignation—not quit ‘because that would be an admission of guilt’—Gilowska said she had been the victim of ‘political blackmail.’
   Although she would not name her alleged blackmailers, she said her proposed reforms ‘affected a lot of people.’ News of Gilowska’s departure sent the Polish zloty spiralling downward to 4.1325 to the euro around midday from 4.08 to the euro at the close of trading Thursday.
   The zloty strengthened slightly after Wojciechowski was named as Gilowska’s successor.

New orders for US-made durable goods unexpectedly fell 0.3 per cent in May on sharply lower aircraft orders, according to a government report on Friday that nonetheless showed healthy spending in other sectors.
   Excluding transportation, the Commerce Department said durable goods orders—items meant to last three years or more—rose 0.7pc, slightly more than the 0.6pc rise economists had forecast.
   Volatile civilian aircraft orders slid 17.9 per cent in May after a revised decline of 29.7 per cent in April, which followed massive increases of 59.9 per cent in February and 72.2 per cent in January. While they had not foreseen a drop in overall orders, economists had expected the report to show the effects of civilian orders for Boeing Co returning to more sustainable levels.
   The median forecast from economists polled by Reuters was for a 0.5 per cent rise in overall May durable goods orders. The Commerce Department revised April’s reading to 4.7 per cent drop from a previously reported 4.4 per cent fall. Economists said the headline number was disappointing, but would not deter the Federal Reserve from a 17th consecutive interest rate hike when its policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee meets next Wednesday and Thursday.
   Investors have been speculating this week that the Fed might raise rates as much as 50 basis points or continue its tightening campaign into August. ‘I would look past the fact that orders declined and point to ex-transportation, which was up,’ said Ken Mayland, president of Clearview Economics LLC in Pepper Pike, Ohio. ‘Manufacturing continues to be in darn good shape. Business is good in manufacturing.’
   Financial markets initially focused on the weaker-than-expected headline number, as stock futures eased and Treasury bond prices briefly rallied, pushing down yields.

The head of the International Monetary Fund predicted here Friday that the world economy would grow 5.0 per cent this year and next, an upward revision from the IMF’s previous forecasts of 4.9 per cent in 2006 and 4.7 per cent in 2007.
   Despite high oil prices and imbalances in global momentum, the world economy ‘will be growing at 5.0 per cent in 2006 and will continue with a similar rhythm in 2007,’ said IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato.
   ‘I think the world is really in an expansionary phase,’ he told African representatives at a meeting to prepare for the annual session of the IMF and World Bank in Singapore in September.
   He described sub-Saharan Africa as a ‘dynamic area.’
   The IMF foresees growth reaching 5.8 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa this year of 5.8 per cent, the strongest in more than 30 years.
   ‘We also see a clear strong recovery in Japan and a stronger growth in the euro area and we see strong growth in eastern Europe,’ Rato said.

Four of Japan’s main opposition parties Saturday jointly called for the resignation of central bank governor Toshihiko Fukui, who is embroiled in an investment fund scandal.
   ‘He should realize his responsibility and step down in order to regain the public and internal confidence in the Bank of Japan,’ said Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan.
   Ozawa was speaking on behalf of his party, the Japanese Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party and the People’s New Party.
   Fukui has admitted profiting while in office from an investment in the fund of high-profile former bureaucrat Yoshiaki Murakami, who was indicted on Friday on charges of insider trading.
   Following the admission, public opinion polls have shown strong opposition to Fukui, with many voters demanding him to quit.

Bolivia’s government said on Friday it would sue former executives of US energy company Enron as well as former government officials for fraud in relation to the Brazil natural gas pipeline project that was completed in the 1990s.
   Among the approximately 40 people to be included in the charges are former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and several US citizens, Energy Minister Andres Soliz told a news conference in La Paz. ‘The country has suffered one of the biggest frauds in its history,’ he said.
   Soliz said the state would seek to recover profits made by Enron and its subsidiaries in Bolivia, accusing the bankrupt company of having paid bribes and illegally receiving profit from the natural gas pipeline.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Saturday it would lend 50 million dollars to JSC Alliance Bank of Kazakhstan, marking its first private sector financing operation in the former Soviet republic.
   The five-year loan to the bank represents the Manila-based ADB’s first financing in Kazakhstan without a guarantee from the central government.
   The ADB said in a statement that it would help JSC Alliance Bank grow its loan portfolio for small- and medium-scale enterprises by providing part of the needed debt funding. The investment is designed to help Kazakhstan diversify its oil-dependent economy, which is crucial for its development, the ADB said.

Reserve money
up in July-April
Reserve money recorded an increase of Tk 4,083.50 crore or 13.82 per cent during July-April period of the outgoing fiscal year compared to the increase of Tk 1,810.20 crore or 6.89 per cent during the same period of last fiscal. The increase in reserve money growth occurs mainly due to Tk 2406.20 crore or 16.69 per cent increase in net domestic assets which stemmed from a large increase of Tk.3712.60 crore or 23.61 per cent as claims on Govt (net). On the other hand, net foreign assets of the Bangladesh Bank rose by Tk 1677.30 crore or 11.09 per cent during the period under report. Reserve money multiplier decreased to 5.06 at the end of April, 2006 from 5.13 of June 2005, showed the Bangladesh Bank statistics.
— New Age

Tata ‘India’s best company’
United States-India Business Council (USIBC) has awarded the Tata Group with ‘India’s Most Respected Multinational Business Conglomerate’. USIBC President Ron Summers presented the awards to Ratan Tata, Chairman Tata Group. Stressing on the need for furthering the trade relations between India and US, Ratan Tata said: ‘The recent Indo-US nuclear deal has taken away decades of distance between the two nations’. He attributed his company’s success to the ‘legacy and value system of his predecessors’, adding that the company’s 65 per cent of profit is used on charitable causes.
— ANI

Cisco to up China investment
Riding on its robust growth in China, global Internet networking giant Cisco Systems is set to invest more in the market with a large funding pool at its disposal, according to James Richardson, Cisco’s global senior vice-president in commercial business. ‘Cisco has around US$15 billion in cash, a very strong balance sheet it’s a very healthy company. We invest globally through strategic investments. We had a very successful track record co-investing here with Chinese partners in technology firms.’
— Xinhua