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The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, has called for maintaining congenial atmosphere at any cost to ensure industrial production by shunning frequent hartals and work stoppage.
   ‘We’ll have to unite on politics of development and production to make independence meaningful and safeguard democracy for gaining prosperity… None should have differences on this to fulfill national aspirations,’ she said inaugurating the newly set-up Adamjee Export Processing Zone Monday.
   Terming social peace and stability as the sine qua non for economic uplift and investment, she said frequent hartals and work stoppages damage the investment climate. An investment-friendly atmosphere would have to be ensured through cooperation of all.
   The Prime Minister said the present government in last four and half years has approved 180 new industrial units in the EPZs from where goods worth $10.87 billion were exported till last December.
   On the contrary, she said, the volume of exports from the EPZs till 2001 was worth $4.82 billion. The investment in the EPZs till 2001 was $475.20 million that rose to $928.48 million in December 2005.
   The Prime Minister said some 55,000 new jobs were created in last four and half years.
   In the first quarter of the current fiscal year, exports from EPZs stood at $870.31 million, investment increased by $61.47 million and more than 10,000 new jobs were created.
   She urged the local and foreign entrepreneurs to come up with bigger investments and technology for the Adamjee EPZ that she hoped would infuse a new dynamism to industrialization in the region.
   The Prime Minister said the government had received encouraging response from investors who showed interest in setting up industrial projects in the Adamjee EPZ.
   She expected some $400 million in investment in 50 industrial units on the 200 plots and factory buildings at Adamjee, creating employment for nearly 100,000 people.
   Describing the present era as an era of competition, Begum Zia said none would be able to survive for long by depending on others. ‘Today’s slogan is ‘not aid but trade’’, she said, adding: ‘We have taken steps to restructure our economy to cope with the changed world order.’
   The Prime Minister said speedy industrialization is essential for raising production and generating new employment.
   Foreign investment in the private sector plays an important role in industrialization, she said and mentioned that in East and South East Asian countries, foreign investment worked as a catalyst for their prosperity.
   Khaleda said her government has formulated liberal policies and is providing institutional support and infrastructure facilities to attract foreign investment.
   Industries minister Matiur Rahman Nizami, commerce minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, foreign minister M Morshed Khan, executive chairman of BEPZA Zakir Hossain and local MP Giasuddin Ahmed also addressed the function.
   Khaleda Zia also formally inaugurated E-Governance Project of BEPZA through a video-conference.
   She talked to General Managers of Dhaka and Chittagong EPZ and two foreign investors of Chittagong EPZ through it.
   In another function, the Prime Minister inaugurated the factory of M/S Hy Lan Sweater Industries Ltd and Kwun Tong Apparel Ltd at the EPZ area. She also laid the foundation stone of Fashion City Industry.

Very few British people know about the nature of poverty in Asia, which is home to two out of three of the world’s poorest people, shows a survey.
   Most of the people surveyed rather have better understanding about African poverty, said the survey, commissioned on behalf of the global conference on Asia 2015 that began in London on Monday.
   Only one in five of the UK population thinks that Asia has the most people living in poverty despite the fact that in Asia, more than 650 million people live on less than $1 a day.
   ‘Three out of four people stated they do not feel well informed about the scale and causes of poverty in Asia in comparison with nearly half thinking they are informed about poverty in Africa,’ said a press release.
   ‘Nearly four out of five people thought that poor governance is an obstruction to the economic and social development of Asia,’ it added.
   The findings come ahead of ‘Asia 2015: Promoting Growth, Ending Poverty’ conference, which brings together key decision-makers from Asia and across the world to learn from Asia’s success in alleviating poverty, to identify future challenges and solutions, and to build new alliances to fight poverty.
   The survey findings show that 22 per cent of the UK population think Asia has the highest number of people living in poverty compared to 63 per cent who believe Africa has the greatest number.
   It also found that 24 per cent of British are well informed about the scale and causes of poverty in Asia while 48 per cent informed about poverty in Africa.
   About 79 per cent of the UK people thought corruption and bribery a barrier to Asian economic and social development while 37 per cent of the UK population believes that Asia is now wealthy enough to manage its own future.
   The survey revealed that one in three thinks that Asia is now wealthy enough to manage its own future, stemming from the fact that Asian success stories
   are well publicised, but that development hurdles are often neglected, the press release said.
   For example, since 1980, China has sustained the highest rate of income growth in the world and has become an engine for growth in Asia and the world economy, and has lifted 350 million people out of extreme poverty.

Lack of coordination and use of different methodologies create wide differences between the export figures furnished by the Export Promotion Bureau and the Bangladesh Bank.
   A meeting held at the Bureau last week tried to pinpoint the causes of deviations and discussed on how the gaps could be bridged.
   Export figures of the two organisations varied by about $79 million in the fiscal 2004-2005 as EPB calculated country’s export earnings at $8654 million while the central bank put it at $8573 million.
   The meeting, presided over by the EPB director statistics and attended by central bankers, decided to initiate reconciliation of data compiled by the two agencies from various sources to ensure reliable export figures required by policymakers and stakeholders.
   The EPB calculates export earnings on amounts declared in reshipment documents channelled to the Bureau by the National Board Revenue, whose customs offices collect the figures from shippers in ports.
   But the Bangladesh Bank calculates the earnings compiling post shipment bills of processed or repatriated money of exporters in banks.
   A senior export promotion official observed that the deviation occurs as the EBP takes into account the pre-shipment documents while the central bank compiles only the amount repatriated by exporters from their foreign buyers.
   The official preferring anonymity said deviation in export’s earning figure is apparently difficult to mend as the monthly exports assessment of EPB indicates earning by exported products shipped in the month but BB’s monthly assessments compile repatriated money comes from cargoes shipped several months back.
   ‘Many bills are not fully repatriated while many bills are discounted in final negotiations. This is why, the real earnings assessed by the central bank fall behind the EPB figures,’ the official said.
   Another reason detected for inflated EPB figures is that the EPB includes bills of raw materials and accessories purchased by the EPZ manufacturers from local sources, which are seen as exports but never recorded to banks.
   Inflated export earnings thus remain hollow and differ widely with the central bank figures, creating smokescreen about the country’s real export incomes.
   Non-conformity between the two government organisations makes the official export
   figures unreliable to researchers, policymakers and stakeholders like all other economic statistics that often come under harsh
   criticism by the government leaders, including the finance minister.

The poultry business in Nepal is gradually recovering and coming back to normal, which once went down due to a bird flu scare after the news flash that bird flu had come to India, an official in the veterinary department under the Ministry of Health and Population said here Monday.
   ‘The poultry business had gone down by 50 per cent when the news of bird flu in India came. But now, the business is recovering,’ said Dharma Raj Niraula, program director of the veterinary department.
   Turnover in the poultry business was 39.5 million Nepali rupees ($564,285) monthly in Nepal and the annual turnover was about 17 billion Nepali rupees ($242.85 million), according to Niraula.
   If business does not pick
   up, it will have a severe effect on the nation’s economy, Niraula said.
   Mahendra Bahadur Bista in the Disease Control Division of the Ministry of Health and Population said there was no fear of bird flu in Nepal as
   daily laboratory tests have shown that bird flu hasn’t pervaded Nepal.
   Bista also urged everyone to consume chicken. ‘We ask one and all to consume chicken as bird flu doesn’t exist in Nepal,’ he said.
   According to Bista, the government possesses medicine against bird flu for just a 100 people as a proactive measure, if it surfaces in Nepal.
   ‘We can’t keep more stock of such medicines as it is very expensive,’ Bista added.
   He also said that the government has formed a radio reporting team to inform of anything regarding bird flu in Nepal and the government has also made an action plan to fight this endemic disease.
   The Terai plain and hill areas in Nepal were highly risky of bird flu, Bista said.

Foreign investors have ploughed huge amounts of capital into emerging markets in recent months, sending asset prices there to record highs, the Bank for International Settlements said Monday.
   ‘Foreign investors snapped up emerging market bonds and equities, pushing indicators of valuations towards and in some cases beyond the upper end of their historical range,’ the BIS said in its quarterly review of banking and financial markets.
   Last year, equity markets in emerging economies in Asia, eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East recorded double digit growth, led by Egypt, Colombia and Saudi Arabia, where prices almost doubled.
   Net equity flows into emerging markets reached an estimated 60 billion dollars (50 billion euros) in 2005 while debt inflows exceeded 160 billion dollars, according t o data from the Institute for International Finance cited in the report.
   That trend accelerated at the beginning of this year before a pause in February.
   ‘Available data suggest that foreign investors continued to channel substantial amounts to emerging markets in the early part of 2006,’ the BIS said.
   The investment flow was prompted by a ‘steady’ improvement in emerging economies as well as investors’ ‘heightened appetite for risk’, it added.
   However, improvements in local financial systems in recent years also made emerging markets ‘more resilient to shocks’ and reduced the risks associated with investment there, according to the report.
   Meanwhile, investors were ‘less exuberant’ about markets in the United States and western Europe, amid mixed prospects for local economies.
   Disruption to trading at the Tokyo stock exchange in January also unnerved investors, despite a rally in Japan in recent months, the report said.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange will meet the Bangladesh Bank governor to discuss various issues that matter stock market growth and stability.
   The exchange on Monday sought an appointment with the central bank governor.
   ‘We’ve decided to meet the central bank chief to discuss on monetary issues and the secondary bond market,’ said the DSE chief executive officer, Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, on Monday.
   He said that the exchange would also put forward to the governor the suggestions it drew from the meetings with other stakeholders on its growth plan.
   Earlier in February, the DSE met the institutional investors, the Chittagong Stock Exchange and discussed various issues for long term growth and stability of the stock market.

The weavers and loom owners of Benarasi sari at Saidpur urged the government to establish a Benarashi Palli exclusively for them.
   They also demanded interest free or low interest bank loan to revive this promising industry and earn foreign currency from exports.
   Back in 1970, some non-Bengali weavers migrated to Mirpur, Dhaka from Benaras of India and started weaving Benarasi sari, which soon became the household name for women who love to wear saris.
   The migrated Indian weavers engaged some enthusiastic non-Bengali youths of Saidpur in their profession and thus spread their craftsmanship to a wider section of weavers in the northern town Saidpur.
   Eventually Saidpur turned into a busy centre hub of Benarasi sari. Sahabuddin, a weaver, said that they started first handloom to make Benarasi sari at Saidpur in 1991 at Hawladar Para village.
   Later on, some others looms were also set up at Kazir Haat, Old Babupara, New Babupara, Banshbari and Golahaat areas. There are about 200 looms are functioning in these areas.
   Benarasi sari weaving is very labour intensive and the small industry engages nearly 1000 people in weaving, painting, dyeing, making, threading and marketing.
   But now Benarasi cottage industry at Saidpur is facing hard time. Nearly 50 per cent looms have already been closed due to lack of patronisation.
   Yunush Ali, a loom owner, said that a labour can make 5 pieces of Benarasi sari per month and thereby can earn Tk 3,000 per month as labour cost. Thus many poor people, especially women, support their families to mitigate poverty.
   Nizam Uddin, president of the Tanti Kalyan Samity of Saidpur, demanded that the government should establish an exclusive Benarasi Palli at Saidpur.
   Policy and loan supports would help the country export Benarasi saris after meeting local demand.
   He pointed out that there is a great demand for Benarasi sari in India. ‘We have a great prospect to export this item and earn valuable foreign currency’, said Nizam, regretting that loom owners have little or no access to capital.
   If low-interest bank loan is provided, this industry at Saidpur can flourish and create jobs for many, apart from making benarasi saris for both local and export markets, he said.

Vietnam has started building a hydroelectric plant worth more than 4.1 trillion dong ($260 million), a dam project that will displace about 5,000 people, an official said Monday.
   ‘We expect that the power plant will come into operation by late 2009,’ said an economics official from central Quang Nam province who identified himself only as Kham, saying construction had started Sunday.
   The Song Tranh 2 project is being built on the Thu Bon River in the mountainous
   central province that is home to several ethnic minority groups, about 700 kilometres (430 miles) south of Hanoi, he said.
   ‘Around 1,000 households, or 5,000 people, will be relocated for the plant,’ Kham told AFP.
   Once finished, the two-turbine plant with a designed capacity of 190 megawatts will generate 679 million kilowatt hours per year to reduce severe power shortages in the area west of the city of Danang.
   The dam project will help local people by raising the Thu Bon River’s water level in the dry season and by harnessing downstream floods in the rainy season, the state-run Vietnam News Agency said.
   National electricity demand in recent years has risen by 13 to 15 per cent in Vietnam, whose economy is growing by 7 to 8 per cent a year, creating an urgent need for more power infrastructure.
   Vietnam will need up to 100 billion kilowatts of power by 2010 and around double that by 2020, according to government estimates.

Hon Hai group, Taiwan’s leading electronic manufacturer, is planning to invest 110 million US dollars in India over the next five years on a production complex, a group official said Monday.
   ‘Hon Hai group has signed a letter of intent with the authorities of India’s Tamil Nadu state for the investment. Both sides will continue talks to finalise the investment,’ said Vincent Tong, spokesman of a group member, Foxconn International Holdings (FIH).
   ‘Hon Hai group expects to take advantage of the proximity to its customers through this investment,’ Tong told AFP.
   The group makes a wide range of products including cellphones, personal computers, computer components and consumer gadgets for many top brandname companies like Dell, Hewlett Packard, Nokia, and Motorola.

Natural gas deposits have been found at the Mya field in block area A-3 in western Myanmar’s Rakhine offshore area, said a report of the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar Monday.
   Successful drilling of the Mya test well No. 1 at the block in the offshore area was carried out with gas burning on Sunday.
   It was estimated that the Mya field contains 2 trillion cubic- feet (TCF) or 56.63 billion cubic-meters (BCM) of gas being explored by a consortium of foreign oil companies, led by South Korea’s Daewoo International Corporation.
   Myanmar is planning to sell gas produced from the Mya field along with two other fields—Shwe and Shwephyu in block A-1 to neighbouring countries such as India and China through pipelines, the report said.
   The exploration on the block A-3 was conducted under an agreement reached in February 2004 between the Myanmar Ministry of Energy and the consortium, in which Daewoo holds a 60-per cent stake, while South Korea Gas Corporation 10 per cent, ONGC Videsh Ltd of India 20 per cent and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) 10 per cent.
   Adjacent to the block A-3, which has an area of 6,780- square- kilometre (sq- km), there lies block A-1 where two deposits of natural gas, known as the Shwe field and the Shwephyu field, had already been found by the same consortium in January 2004 and April 2005 respectively. The Shwe field holds a gas reserve of 4 to 6 TCF or 113.2 to 170 BCM, while the Shwephyu 5 TCF or 141.5 BCM. And the whole block A-1 is estimated to yield up to 14 TCF or 396.2 BCM of gas.
   Meanwhile, Indian company the Essar Oil Ltd has also reached a contract with Myanmar to undertake gas exploration activities at Block A-2 in the same Rakhine offshore area and Block-L in the coastal region of Sittway.
   Moreover, three more available blocks off Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi coast are also under natural gas exploration with test wells being planned for drilling by Malaysia’s Petronas Company covering blocks M-16, M-17 and M-18 with areas of ranging from about 13,000 sq-km to 14,000 sq-km.
   Recent years have seen foreign oil companies increase engagement in oil and gas exploration in Myanmar. Thailand’s PTTEP, for example, has covered a number of blocks such as M-3, M-4, M-7, M-9 and M-11 under contracts, while another consortium made up of Chinese and Singaporean companies are also engaged in oil and gas exploration in some onshore and offshore areas.
   With three large offshore and 19 onshore oil and gas fields, Myanmar possesses a total of 87 trillion cubic-feet (TCF) or 2.46 trillion cubic-meters (TCM) of gas reserve and 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve, official statistics show.
   The figures also indicate that in the fiscal year of 2004-05, Myanmar produced 7.48 million barrels of crude oil and 10.69 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas. Gas export during the year went to 9.5 BCM, earning over $1 billion.

Thailand and China have agreed to expand bilateral trade to reach $50 billion annually by 2010, the official Thai News Agency said Monday.
   The agreement was clinched by Thailand’s caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak and Chinese government officials recently, according to Deputy Permanent Secretary for Commerce Pisanu Rienmahasarn.
   To meet the goal, Pisanu said, Thailand would open trade distribution and exhibition centres in major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Dalian and Kunming.
   ‘The centres will not only promote, but also boost sales of Thai products in China, the world’s largest market,’ Pisanu was quoted by the Thai News Agency as saying on Monday.
   ‘Among the targeted Chinese cities, Kunming in southern China is considered the most important market for Thai products.
   So, the Ministry of Commerce plans to open a trade distribution and exhibition centre there by the end of this year,’ he noted.
   The Ministry of Commerce is seeking opinions from the Thai private sector on proposed strategic policies for the Thai trade centres.
   Pisanu said so far the Chinese investors had not expressed any concern over Thailand’s current political turmoil, as they understand that bilateral trade and investment policies are long term basis of the two countries’ relations.

Main Gulf oil producers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait called on Monday for OPEC to maintain its current production ceiling in order to cool off high prices when the cartel meets in Vienna this week.
   ‘I believe because of the ... (high) price, we have to maintain our production. I believe that still the prices are high. For that we have to help prices to be more stable,’ Kuwaiti Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah told reporters.
   In an interview published Monday, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi also said that OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia does not want the organization to cut its output ceiling of 28 million barrels per day so as not to push prices further up when it meets on Wednesday.
   ‘I personally think it would not be appropriate to say we should take the step of reducing production because we are convinced that the fundamentals in the market are not correct,’ Nuaimi told the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.
   ‘That’s my position, but I want to listen and talk to counterparts in OPEC who are pushing for a reduction about whether it would be reasonable to send signals to the market that would push prices higher than they are now. This is harmful for us as producers,’ the Saudi minister said.
   Nuaimi, whose country pumps some 9.5 million bpd and is the world’s top crude exporter, said that while ‘market factors are stable in terms of oil supplies,’ prices were kept high by ‘fear of anything that (might) disrupt supplies’ and instability in some producing countries.
   Sheikh Ahmad said that the position of Kuwait, which produces around 2.5 million bpd, ‘is to maintain the production of OPEC to help the prices to be more stable.’
   The Kuwaiti minister had suggested last month that the market may be oversupplied and that an OPEC cut may be considered.
   Sheikh Ahmad told reporters Monday he believed there would be an oversupply of 1.5 to two million bpd in the second quarter of the year and that prices might drop.
   ‘I believe in the second quarter if OPEC will continue with its production ceiling, the prices will decrease ... unless there (is) more tension and geopolitical problems,’ he said.
   Analysts expect OPEC to maintain its current production, despite some disagreement among member nations, owing to stubbornly high oil prices of over 60 dollars a barrel and simmering international tensions over Iran and Nigeria.
   Venezuela will ask OPEC to cut production by between 500,000 and one million bpd, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez was quoted as saying.
   The threat of UN sanctions against Iran, the second-biggest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is likely to dominate output talks amid an ongoing nuclear crisis.
   The market fears that Iran, fourth-biggest crude producer in the world, might slash its oil exports if it comes under UN sanctions over its nuclear program.
   Nuaimi told Al-Hayat that prices were being kept at high levels by ‘instability and the fact that political conditions in the producers’ regions affect the market—be it Nigeria, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq or the (February 24) attempted (attack on the world’s largest oil processing complex by suspected Al-Qaeda militants) in Saudi Arabia.’
   Where market factors are concerned, ‘they are stable in terms of oil supplies ... but market perception is that supply is endangered .... and speculators are now finding opportunities in the market,’ he said.

The Indonesian government is considering measures to protect the local textile industry from an influx of Chinese imports, a report said Monday.
   The government will meet the Indonesian Textile Association (API) this week to discuss possible safeguard measures, Minister of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu said in a Bisnis Indonesia report.
   She added however that Indonesia must prove its case before the World Trade Organization prior to implementing any measures.
   In a separate report in Investor Daily, Pangestu said that safeguard measures would not be applicable to illegal imports, which is the main problem facing Indonesia’s textile industry.
   ‘Safeguards can only be applied to legal (imported) garments and there must be proof of losses (to the local industry),’ she said.
   Investor Daily quoted API executive secretary Ernovian Gazali Ismy as saying that Chinese textile imports jumped 380 per cent in the nine months to September 2005, citing data from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
   The jump followed the end of a decades-old international quota system known as the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), which end in January 2005. The system had given developing countries guaranteed access to developed countries’ markets for their textile products.
   The Indonesian industry has also been badly hit by a steep increase in fuel prices last October, which has led to at least 70,000 textile sector workers losing their jobs.

Singapore is intensifying efforts to prevent a bird flu outbreak in the city state, officials said Monday after the virus resurfaced in neighbouring Malaysia.
   Farms will not be allowed to share equipment, and egg collection will be separated from production areas under the new ‘bio-segregation’ measures, Heng Chee How, Minister of State for National Development, told parliament.
   Singapore has only a tiny agricultural sector. Farms are located in five clusters and effective bio-segregation means that, should an isolated outbreak occur within a cluster, poultry in other clusters need not be culled, the minister said.
   In a second counter-measure, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) will implement emergency poultry vaccination in local farms when there is an imminent risk of bird flu incursion to Singapore, Heng said.
   No cases of bird flu have ever been detected in Singapore but the virus has surfaced in the city-state’s two closest neighours.
   The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected last month in 40 free-range chickens at four villages in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
   It was the first Malaysian outbreak in more than a year but authorities there say the situation is under control after extensive containment measures including culling.
   Before announcing the latest initiatives, Singapore had already taken steps against bird flu, including inspection of all poultry imports and banning the rearing of poultry on Singapore’s rural Ubin island.
   Singapore is taking the bird flu threat seriously because it is a major commercial hub with an economy heavily dependent on external trade.
   No human cases of bird flu have been reported in Malaysia but in Indonesia, Singapore’s other neighbour, 20 people have died.
   Experts fear that H5N1, which has killed more than 90 people since 2003, may mutate into a form that can pass between humans, sparking a deadly pandemic. Most of the deaths have been in Asia.

South Korea and the United States held a preparatory meeting here Monday to set the schedule and agenda for free trade talks amid protests by movie actors, directors and farmers.
   Seoul and Washington announced last month they would begin negotiations this year to establish a free trade agreement.
   Wendy Cutler, the assistant US Trade Representative, led the US delegation in talks with South Korean chief negotiator Kim Jong-Hoon.
   ‘The only success we have is our success. My failure is your failure and vice versa,’ Kim said at the opening of the talks.
   Just a block away, dozens of farmers and movie actors and directors held separate rallies in protest at an FTA which they said would kill South Korea’s agriculture and film industry.
   ‘Stop the FTA! Protect sovereignty!,’ dozens of movie workers chanted, blaming the government for clearing the way for the FTA talks in January by halving a protectionist screen quota for homegrown movies.
   The government also agreed to reopen its market to US beef, banned due to a mad cow scare.
   Farmers, who see a flood of cheap US imports as destroying their livelihoods, accused the government of misleading the people that the FTA would help the economy grow.
   Formal talks will start in May and South Korea and US officials hope to end their negotiations by March next year, according to Seoul officials.
   South Korea, Asia’s forth largest economy, is the seventh biggest trading partner of the United States. Bilateral trade reached 72 billion dollars last year, according to data at the foreign ministry.

Standing astride a fume-choked footpath in the Indonesian capital, her year-old baby perched on a hip, Dewi bin Suparno signals cars with a surreptitious finger, hoping they will pay to pick her up.
   Suparno is among an increasing number of poor women becoming ‘car jockeys’—someone who rides in a car so it can meet the quota of three people required to travel at peak times in Jakarta’s so-called fast lanes.
   On the streets, the women eye each other off in the sweaty battle for a ride, but once inside a car, they grapple with the ever-present threat of sexual harassment, arrest and the uncertainty of how much they will be paid.
   Drivers pay jockeys whatever they want but the going rate is 10,000 rupiah (just over one dollar) for a jockey who can help them shave off precious minutes in Jakarta’s notoriously heavy traffic.
   The ‘three-in-one lanes’ run for 20 kilometres (12 miles) through Jakarta from 7-10am and 4-7pm. Drivers caught without enough passengers—babies count—are given tickets to appear in court where they are usually fined.
   As she keeps alerting passing cars along Agus Salim Street with her well-practised finger flash, Suparno, a 22-year-old mother of two who wears a demure Islamic headscarf, recalls the time she was stunned to find herself groped,
   ‘I got into the backseat of a car and lo and behold, the boss, seated next to me, grabbed my breasts and smiled. I was shocked and embarassed. I immediately told the driver to let me off,’ she says.
   Caroline Gultom, 20, says the offending men stick to a pattern.
   Gultom, who recently lost her job as a part-time English teacher, says car jockeying helps her make up for her lost monthly income of one million rupiah.
   ‘If I want to be a prostitute, I can just work in a bar. But I am not, I am only trying to help my family’s economic situation,’ she says defiantly.
   For Tuti bin Musdi, being harassed is all part of the job she started when price hikes last year meant she could no longer afford to buy merchandise to stock the small store she ran.
   ‘I have experienced the same thing too, but it goes back to the person themselves as to how to respond to approaches made by those horny men,’ says the sassy 32-year-old divorcee, clad in a pair of jeans and low-cut T-shirt.
   ‘This is a God-honest job and the way I look at it, rich people who own cars are helping poor people like me,’ she says.
   She takes home an average of 40,000 rupiah a day, which supports her and her three children, and reckons more women seem to be hitting the streets.
   Indonesia’s government cranked up fuel prices twice last year by an average of 29 per cent and then 126 per cent.

The chairman and main owner of Mittal Steel, Lakshmi Mittal, is considering relinquishing control of the company, a move that might encourage shar- eholders in Arcelor to accept his hostile takeover offer, the Financial Times
   reported.
   Lakshmi Mittal, whose family controls more than 90 per cent of Mittal Steel, is considering letting his stake fall to less than 50 per cent to address the concerns of Arcelor shareholders.
   Mittal Steel made a 18.6-billion-euro (22.7-billion-dollar) hostile bid for Arcelor on January 27.
   Under an option being studied by the Indian-born tycoon, he would forgo special voting rights in Mittal Steel which benefit his family, the FT said.
   An advisor told the FT that some Arcelor shareholders had reservations about the size of his overall stake and the preferential voting rights for his family.
   The decision to reduce his stake and scrap the special voting rights might also encourage the board of Arcelor, resolutely hostile to the bid so far, to agree to open talks, the FT said.

Global banking giant HSBC posted slightly better-than-expected 2005 results Monday, describing the year as one of ‘sustained progress’ even as bad debt charges rose substantially.
   HSBC, one of the world’s biggest banking groups alongside US peer Citigroup, said pretax profit for the year increased 11 per cent to 21 billion US dollars and net profit was up 17 per cent to 15.1 billion dollars.
   Total operating income rose 10 per cent to 61.7 billion dollars, while net operating income came in at 49.83 billion dollars, also up 10 per cent.
   However, net interest income, a key measure of earnings, was up only one per cent at 31.33 billion dollars while bad debt and loan impairment charges came to 7.8 billion dollars, an increase of 1.6 billion dollars on 2004.

BASF, the world’s leading chemicals group, said Monday that it would extend for a second time its offer to buy US firm Engelhard until March 17 in view of the lukewarm response from Engelhard’s shareholders.
   Nevertheless, BASF had no intention of raising its offer, which would remain unchanged at 37 dollars (31 euros) per share, BASF said in a statement.
   As of March 3, which had already been the first extension date for the offer, BASF had acquired only 649,277 Engelhard shares, representing just 0.5 per cent of the US company’s share capital.

Improved tax collection has delivered the Philippines’ a sharply improved budget deficit over government targets, President Gloria Arroyo said Monday after ringing the opening bell at the stock exchange.
   Arroyo has pledged to balance the budget by 2010 after she rushed tax reform through Congress last year and
   introduced a value added tax which was expanded to 12 per cent from 10 per cent last month.
   As a result the government’s fiscal position has improved and Arroyo said the budget deficit had reached 15.4 billion pesos ($30.19 million) in January, compared with a targeted ceiling of 20.9 billion pesos.
   Arroyo rang the opening bell to highlight the country’s improving economic outlook after lifting her emergency rule and ending a week-old crisis arising from an alleged plot to oust her.

Japanese researchers have succeeded in making the sweet smell of vanilla come out of the last thing people could imagine—cow dung.
   In a world-first recycling project, a one-hour heating and pressuring process allows cow feces to produce vanillin, the main component of the vanilla-bean extract, according to researcher Mayu Yamamoto.
   The vanillin extracted from the feces could be used in products such as shampoo and aromatic candles but not in food, said Yamamoto, who works for the Research Institute of the state-run International Medical Center of Japan.
   Compared with usual vanilla, ‘this component is exactly the same but it would be difficult for people to accept it in food, given the recent rules of disclosing the origins of ingredients,’ she said.
   The production cost using dung is less than a half of making vanillin out of vanilla beans, she added.
   The feces of grass-eating animals is abundant with lignin, the chemical compound that exists in plants and trees and is used to produce vanilla aroma, Yamamoto said.
   ‘Lignin is difficult to decompose,’ she said. ‘Farmers are troubled by how to dispose properly of animal excrement. We tried to solve this from a recycling viewpoint,’ she said.
   After taking the vanillin, the processed feces could be returned to the soil, she said.
   The research has been done in cooperation with major Japanese chemicals firm Sekisui Chemical.
   The research team aims to develop a machine to handle several tons of feces a day and put it in practical use in two-to-three years.

Cellular phone company Reliance Communication Ventures (RCoVL) made its debut listing on Indian stock markets Monday, opening above analysts’ expectations and pushing telecom stocks up.
   RCoVL was listed as a separate entity following its demerger from India’s largest private sector company Reliance Industries.
   Its listing at a higher-than-expected 290 rupees on the Mumbai Stock Exchange boosted telecoms generally and saw the market surge nearly one per cent in early trade.
   RCoVL rose to a high of 309 on fund buying before retracing by noon to 285.9, down 1.4 per cent on its listing price of 290 rupees.
   The benchmark 30 share Sensex on the Mumbai exchange was trading 102.2 points up or 0.96 per cent to 10,697.65
   Dealers said that within five minutes of RCoVL chairman Anil Ambani ringing the opening bell, over 10 million RCoVL shares had been traded at the country’s two exchanges.
   With the listing of RCoVL, India’s second largest
   telecom company behind Bharti Televentures, the demerger of Reliance Industries is complete.
   India’s telecom market is projected to expand fourfold to 300 million users by 2009.
   ‘This is a fair listing keeping in mind the Reliance pedigree. It is a strong option for investors in the telecom space,’ said Rajesh Jain, director of brokerage Pranav Securities.
   RCoVL showed a net profit of 3.1 billion rupees (70 million dollars) in its December-end quarterly earnings, against a 180 million rupees loss three months before.
   The company did not provide forecasts or year-earlier numbers.

World oil prices fell on Monday before two key meetings this week in Vienna—one on Iran’s nuclear program and the other on OPEC production levels, dealers said.
   New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, slid 25 cents to 63.42 dollars per barrel in electronic deals.
   In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for April delivery dipped 36 cents to 63.82 dollars per barrel.
   ‘There’s not a whole lot of movement in the market today. I think the crude market will watch for the two meetings this week,’ said Victor Shum, an analyst with Purvin and Gertz.

Founded by some traders under a tree on Wall Street two centuries ago, the world’s biggest stock exchange enters a new growth phase this week as it goes public, building a war chest to expand globally and add assets.
   The New York Stock Exchange ends 213 years as a member-owned exchange on Tuesday when it seals its purchase of electronic rival Archipelago Holdings and sets up the NYSE Group Inc. which starts trading on Wednesday.
   Adding stock options, fixed income products and more over-the-counter trading to its menu, the NYSE will pit itself in the United States against the younger, more nimble Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., the world’s second largest exchange.
   But with the NYSE planning a share sale within weeks of going public, analysts also expect the new company to be quick off the mark to join the ongoing consolidation among bourses in Europe and even in Asia.
   ‘I think the NYSE chose this route to go public, merging with Archipelago, to give it the currency to be able to act more quickly in this consolidation,’ said Richard Herr, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
   ‘So far the NYSE has given no formal guidance on its plans but after Wednesday we will want to see what its strategy will be going forward in this growing, competitive market.’
   When the NYSE Group starts trading on Wednesday analysts expect the stock price to pick up from Archipelago’s close on Tuesday, with the deal already factored into the price.
   Technology has transformed financial trading, with a new breed of online traders allowing buyers and sellers to pair up in a fraction of a second. A race to offer the fastest, cheapest trading system set off a bull market in exchanges.
   The NYSE has been slower than other exchanges to go public as it first had to do deal with a few internal problems.

Net asset value
   On the close of operation on February 23, ICB AMCL 1st MF has reported net asset value of Tk 129.03 per unit on current market price basis against face value of Tk 100.
   
   BD Autocars upgraded
   BD Autocars will be placed under category B from existing Z with effect from today as the company paid 3 per cent dividend for the financial year 2004-2005.
   
   Northern Ins subscription from March 19
   The subscription of Northern General Insurance Co Ltd opens on March 19 and closes on March 23. The prospectus of the company is now available at the DSE and the CSE.
   
   Transaction
   Latifur Rahman, one of the directors of BOC Bangladesh Ltd, has reported his intention to buy 10 shares of the company at prevailing market price through stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   
   Status of S Alam Steels IPO
   The primary status of the IPO subscription of S Alam Cold Rolled Steels Ltd is: total subscription=Tk 42.58 crore for 42,58,500 shares applied by the local institutional and individual investors. The subscription for application from non-resident Bangladeshi will close on March 7.
   Source: DSE, CSE

China to develop largest gold mine in Asia
A gold mine jointly developed by China and Australia will go into operation in southwest China’s Guizhou Province in September and is expected to become the largest mine of its kind in Asia. The official Xinhua News Agency reports the Lannigou Gold Mine has received a total investment of more than 800 million yuan, or nearly US$100 million. It has an estimated annual production capacity of between 180,000 and 200,000 ounces of gold with deposits potentially lasting for about 15 years.
— Xinhua

ICICI Bank raises auto loan, deposit rates
India’s second-largest lender, ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), said on Monday it had raised interest rates on automobile loans and scrapped discounts on home loans to fight rising cost of funds. The bank is also raising deposit rates by up to 50 basis points from Tuesday.
— AFP

Toll eyes bigger
Asian footprint
Australian-based freight transport group Toll Holdings said Monday it will buy Singapore’s SembCorp Logistics (SembLog) in a bid to expand the company’s presence in Asia. The purchase of SembLog, one of the region’s leading logistics players, is worth up to 1.4 billion Singapore dollars (859 million US) and will allow the Australian company to expand its Asian presence significantly, Toll said.
— AFP

Taiwan consumer prices up
Taiwan’s consumer price index rose 0.99 per cent year-on-year in February and was up a seasonally-adjusted 0.38 per cent month-on-month at 102.66, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said Monday. Given the 2001 benchmark of 100, the CPI in January rose a revised 2.67 per cent year-on-year.
— AFP