Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Political uncertainties just before handing over power to the interim caretaker government pushed the country’s stock market into bearish trend.
   The withdrawal of funds by retail investors for the Eid expenses also has negative impact on the market.
   Turnover and stock prices on the Dhaka Stock Exchange has been continuously declining during more than one month.
   DSE general index lost 70.28 points or 4.37 per cent since September 13 to close at 1539.02 on Thursday, while benchmark DSE20 shed 80.7 points or 5.82 per cent during the period.
   With the fall of the share prices, the DSE lost Tk 558 crore from its market capitalisation during the period.
   On September 13, the turnover on the DSE was Tk 63.62 crore while it totalled at Tk 20.54 crore on October 19.
   Analysts attributed the recent dullness of the stock market to the doubts brewed over the developments at the country’s political arena just before the government finishes its term. The BNP-led incumbent government ends its tenure on October 27.
   Insiders and investors also put the political goings-on atop of others things.
   ‘Institutional investors, prime movers of the market, have remained almost inactive in the market during this period with a “wait-and-see” policy over the developments at the political arena,’ said Moin Al Kashem, a stock market analyst.
   During this period they refrained themselves from injecting fresh funds in the stock market that resulted in a downfall in the turnover of the DSE, he said.
   Echoing him, Sharif Ataur Rahman, managing director of SAR Securities, said without removing political tensions the stock market would not ne vibrant again.
   The broker said long-term investors have been waiting anxiously for the outcome of the dialogue over electoral reforms. The political talks will enter the sixth round on October 23.
   Md Abdul Awal, a retail investor, said political uncertainties dampened the investors’ mood.
   Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, however, said stock market usually remains dull during the month of Ramadan as the retail investors pull out their surplus funds from the market to manage Eid expenses.
   The chief of the watchdog body said he hoped that the market would get rhythm after the Eid vacation.
   The chief executive officer of the DSE, Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, said during the last few weeks the market is facing liquidity crisis at the institutional buyers’ level as the Bangladesh Bank is mopping up a huge chunk of money from the money market.
   Ziaul Haque Khondker, the managing director of the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, however, said reverse repo auctions by the central bank put insignificant impact on the liquidity situation of the institutional investors.
   He said that the withdrawal of funds by the retail investors ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr made the market dull.
   The recent downtrend reversed a bullish trend started at the end of July after a prolonged bearish trend since the second-half of the last year.
   On August 31, DSE turnover recorded its highest at Tk 80.93 crore after 1996, in the year country’s stock market suffered a bubble-and-bust.

Despite appreciable cash withdrawal pressure before Eid-ul-Fitr, the inter-bank money market passed another stable working day on Thursday due to higher inflow of liquidity in the market.
   The call money rate, the rate banks charge for overnight borrowing, was stable at 6.5 per cent in most of the deals while in a few deals it surged to around 8 per cent, said the market sources.
   Central bankers and commercial bankers were of the view that as there was no shortage of liquidity in the money market, the banks have little demand of cashes.
   Rather the central bank has continuously mopped up liquidity from the money market through reverse repo auction to keep control on money supply and contain inflationary pressure.
   The central bank has mopped up over Tk 3,000 crore in the last three days only.
   ‘In fact, commercial banks have significantly improved their asset and liability management system and take necessary steps earlier to address cash demand,’ said Md Abdul Matin, general manager of the Bangladesh Bank.
   He was of the view that there are also higher inflow of fund in the market that helps the banks to maintain liquidity position reasonably.
   A fund manager of a private commercial bank, however, said that there is higher inflow of both local as well as foreign exchanges for the last few months easing the pressure on liquidity and exchange rate respectively.
   ‘Lower import payment against the higher export earnings coupled with robust growth in remittance inflow has significantly contributed to improvement of forex supply,’ he said.
   Weekly review of the Citibank NA showed that the week began with the greenback trading against Tk 66.25 and as the nationalised and foreign banks had to make payments for clients’ imports, there was an increased demand for the dollar. So the greenback traded as high as Tk 67.90 on Wednesday. But on Thursday most trades occurred at the Tk 67.40 level.
   The higher inflow of foreign currency has also improved the inflow of local currency.
   Meanwhile, there was a huge rush in the Motijheel Office of the Bangladesh Bank on Thursday for new banknotes before Eid festival. The central bank has issued some eight crore pieces of Tk 5 denomination last week and people are now collecting the new banknotes.
   ‘Every year before Eid festival, the demand for new notes increases and we try our best to supply the new banknotes,’ said Abdul Matin who is also in-charge of the central bank’s Motijheel Branch.
   He also told New Age that besides new banknote of Tk 5, some 4.5 crore pieces of Tk 10 note, 3.5 crore pieces of Tk 20 note and 3.4 crore piece of Tk 50 note have been issued to meet up the demand.
   ‘We are giving these new banknotes to both the people and also the commercial banks,’ the central bank official said.
   He, however, observed that the retail uses of banknotes are so wide in Bangladesh that it is difficult to meet everyone’s demand.

Market capitalisation of listed companies of the manufacturing sector declined 24.4 per cent in fiscal 2005-06 from a year ago because of poor corporate governance.
   ‘Except for a few, most listed companies under manufacturing sector distort financial figures in annual reports not to pay dividends to shareholders,’ said professor Abu Ahmed, a teacher at the Dhaka University economics department.
   ‘There is no body to enforce corporate practice in manufacturing companies. Banks perform well because of the central bank’s supervision,’ he said.
   In its quarterly for April-June 2006, Bangladesh Bank said the market capitalisation of the fuel and power sector companies rose 180 per cent to Tk 11.2 billion in fiscal 2005-06 from Tk 4.0 billion a year ago.
   ‘The increase is mainly due to listings of government-owned power company DESCO and another private company Summit Power,’ the central bank said.
   Capitalisation of companies listed under the miscellaneous sectors on the Dhaka Stock Exchange increased 24.39 per cent while the banking sector, which captures nearly half of total market capitalisation, registered a 2.8 per cent rise in fiscal 2005-06 from the same period a year ago.
   Statistics showed market capitalisation of sectors under investment, engineering, food and allied products, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, services and real estate, cement and insurance declined in fiscal 2005-06 from the previous year.
   The main losers were food and allied products, pharmaceuticals and chemicals and cement and manufacturing.
   Market analyst Moin Al Kashem said: ‘The performance of manufacturing sector was never good, except for multinational and a few local companies.’
   He said most shares of the manufacturing sector were rated low in quality or ‘Z’ category because of irregularities in paying dividends.

The formal banking sector currently covers only seven per cent of one million potential small businesses in the country, says a survey.
   ‘The banking sector in Bangladesh mainly serves medium and large enterprises in urban areas. Only Dhaka and Chittagong account for 78 per cent of total lending, only 11 per cent of bank lending is in rural areas,’ the survey said.
   Business leaders said that the trend was obstructing the development potentials of small businesses in the country and industrialisation as well.
   ‘Banks feel shy to lend to small businesses thus causing damage to development of industrialisation,’ FBCCI president Mir Nasir Hossain said.
   He, however, said that some 14 per cent of small businesses had access to bank finance.
   The World Bank and the government in association with the Department for International Development and Japan Bank for International Cooperation carried out the survey mainly to understand what was hampering the delivery of credit to rural small businesses and farmers in Bangladesh.
   The survey said that the potentials of small businesses were constrained by limited access to finance.
   The banking sector mainly served medium and large enterprises in urban areas and declines to finance rural Bangladesh that accounted for 80 per cent of the country’s population, it said.
   ‘A typical small business loan requires up to 29 administrative steps, nine meetings with the clients, and the processing of about 50 forms while clients spend about 20 hours negotiating with the bank,’ it said.
   It also revealed that even though state-owned banks served the agricultural sector to some extent, their outreach was severely constrained by their weak financial performance.

The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation has drafted a Tk 453 crore project proposal for developing pharmaceutical ingredients which is awaiting approval of the planning commission.
   The Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceuticals Industries is involved with the industrial estate project, planned to be set up on nearly three hundred acres of land of Baushia-Laksmipur mouja of Gazaria upazila under Munshiganj district.
   The estate will contain 50 plots of five acres each and is expected to generate employment for about 20 thousand people, according to the project expected to be completed by June 2009.
   The president of BAPI, SM Shafiuzzaman said, Bangladesh has been exporting medicine to 67 countries for the last six years and the export volume is increasing by 50 per cent each year.
   In the last fiscal year (2005-2006), Bangladesh exported $27 million (Tk 185 crore) worth of medicine to the international markets.
   The pharmaceutical industry here has a better backward linkage than the garments and therefore early completion of the pharmaceutical industrial park would significantly enhance country’s economy, he said.
   Bangladesh pharmaceutical industries at present has to import 70 to 75 per cent raw materials but with the completion of the industrial estate in time the country will be able to produce 90 per cent of the required raw materials.
   It will make medicines cheaper domestically and help the country to compete with China and India in the export sector, the industrialists hoped.
   Bangladesh has got the opportunity of producing patent drug till January 1, 2016 as a member of world trade organisation and as a least developed country under the agreement on Trade Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights, he pointed out.
   To compete on the price of medicine in the market at home and abroad there is no alternative to producing raw materials locally, said Shafiuzzaman.
   Among 49 least developed countries, Bangladesh has the best infrastructure and manufacturing facility of finished pharmaceutical formulations, said the chairman of Pharmaceutical Technology department of the University of Dhaka, Professor ABM Faruque. Bangladesh is in unique position to bring revolution in its pharmaceutical sector if the country could capitalise optimally, he said.

South Asia has the potential to go the way of robust economies of East Asia, but India and its neighbors must do more to cut red tape and remove regulations that stunt business initiative, the Asian Development Bank said Thursday.
   The ADB said in a report released here Thursday that improved governance, better quality of regulation and infrastructure can help South Asian economies emerge as the ‘New Tigers’ of the region.
   South Asia, led by India and Pakistan, posted stellar growth in 2005 and has registered higher growth than its peers in Southeast Asia in the past five years, with high growth forecast to continue through at least next year.
   Its banking sectors have not only improved their performance over the recent past, but have also reduced the performance gap between themselves and other economies in Asia, according to the ADB’s South Asia Economic Report.
   However, the performance in state-owned banks has generally been weaker than that of private and foreign banks.
   Restructuring and privatizing state-owned banks should remain a high priority on the reform agenda, it added.
   ‘Despite a shift towards market liberalization, South Asia continues to be overregulated. As a result, it is not fully realizing its growth potential.’
   The bank said firms are ‘frequently confronted with a heavy burden of administrative regulations’ and in general 12 signatures are required to export and 24 to import, compared to five and seven, respectively, in large Southeast Asian economies.
   ‘South Asia stands at a critical juncture today, where the potential for sustained high growth and poverty reduction is excellent.
   ‘A unique opportunity exists to drastically reduce poverty over the next decade, provided the right choices are made,’ said Kunio Senga, director-general of ADB’s South Asia department.
   The report, the first in a series of biannual publications on economic and development issues in the South Asia region, concludes that there is considerable scope for improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of government interventions.
   Common problems among South Asian countries include the highly bureaucratic nature of government administration, a lack of coordination between different ministries and government agencies, and overstaffing and inadequate pay and benefit levels in the public sector.
   It called for public investments to be targeted at areas where infrastructure bottlenecks are emerging, including electricity generation.
   The quality of the transport infrastructure also needs improvement, it added.

World oil prices shot higher on Thursday after OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia expressed support for a cut of one million barrels from the powerful cartel’s actual daily output.
   In reaction, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, jumped 74 cents to 58.39 dollars per barrel in electronic trading.
   London’s Brent North Sea crude for December delivery climbed 59 cents to 60.17 dollars per barrel in electronic deals.
   Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali al-Nuaimi, speaking in Doha on Thursday, said OPEC would cut one million barrels per day (bpd) from its current production—which is beneath the official quota of 28 million bpd.
   He added that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has not ruled out a further reduction in output when the 11-nation cartel meets in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on December 14.
   Asked if his country supported the planned one-million bpd output cut expected to be formalized at an extraordinary OPEC meeting later Thursday, Nuaimi said: ‘Absolutely.’
   The OPEC huddle was set to begin Thursday from about 8:00 pm (1700 GMT).
   Over the past two weeks, mixed signals from OPEC have helped push crude oil prices lower owing to uncertainty surrounding the planned reduction.
   The Doha meeting comes as crude futures have fallen beneath 58 dollars in recent days—a drop of more than 25 percent from record highs above 78 dollars in July and August.
   The market had been unclear whether OPEC would decide to cut its official quota or slash actual production—which, excluding Iraq, is estimated at between 27.5 and 27.8 million bpd.
   New York crude had slumped by 1.28 dollars on Wednesday to close at 57.65 dollars, after earlier falling as low as 57.35 dollars—which was not far off its 2006 low.

Hilton International, a subsidiary of Hilton Hotels Corporation , will build a $100-million five-star hotel in the Bangladesh capital, officials said on Thursday.
   Hilton International and a Bangladesh-based property developer Millennium Holdings Limited signed an agreement to have the hotel up and running by 2009.
   ‘The construction of the hotel will begin early (in) 2007,’ Kazi Helal Ahmed, chairman of Millennium Holdings said without giving details.
   The hotel will be located at an intersection of main transportation routes to and from the central business district of Dhaka, he said.
   ‘IFC, a subsidiary of World Bank, and a consortium including local and foreign investors have shown inte- rest in financing the project,’ Guy Philips, a vice-presi- dent of Hilton Hotels Corporation, told a news conference

Dhaka Bank Limited received Beautification Award 2006 in recognition and appreciation of excellent contribution to the beautification of Dhaka City.
   Under this beautification programme, Dhaka Bank Limited sponsored renovation and beautification work of kadam flower fountain located in front of ministry of foreign affairs and median island from Matshya Bhaban to Kakrail Mosque, says a press release.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, handed over the award to the managing director of Dhaka Bank Limited, Shahed Noman, at a ceremony held at the Prime Minister’s Office in the city recently.

GrameenPhone Ltd has recently signed a content partnership agreement with Channel I.
   The agreement was signed by the managing director of Impress Telefilm (Channel I), Faridur Reza Sagar, the head of marketing of GP, Rubaba Dawla Matin, on behalf of their respective organisations. The manager media of GP, Moeen Tariq, and the marketing manager of Channel I, Mahbubur Rahim Udoy, were also present on the occasion.
   According to this agreement, GP subscribers would be able to download through welcome tunes, ring tones, wallpapers and all kinds of mobile contents of Channel I’s popular dramas, daily soaps and magazine shows. This service would be made available for all GP subscribers very soon.

The mobile phone operator Banglalink signed a corporate agreement with Fu-Wang Group in the city recently.
   The general manager of Fu-Wang Group, Chiu Hsiu Chi, and the head of corporate sales of Banglalink, Tanvir Ibrahirn, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
   The executive director, Hasan I Chowdhury, the deputy general managers, SM Mahbub Alam and NC Das, assistant general manager, Asit Baran Sarker, of Fu-Wang Group and the assistant managers, Nasar Yousuf and Mian Mohammad Rashedul Hasan, the key account executives, Fahmidul Hasan and Faria Sanzina Alam, of Banglalink were also present at the ceremony, says a press release.

India, the world’s second-fastest growing major economy after China, set an ambitious target of attaining 10 per cent annual growth within the next five years.
   The announcement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a former World Bank official, came less than a month after India beat most forecasts reporting 8.9 per cent growth in the first quarter to June (March-April).
   ‘The 11th plan (2007-2011) is going to be historic in many ways,’ Singh told a meeting of the national policy-making Planning Commission.
   ‘This is the first time since the planning process began that we will be aiming for a growth rate of 10 per cent in the final years of the plan,’ he said.
   India’s economic plans hark back to the era when the country followed communist-style five-year programmes.
   The country registered growth of 8.4 per cent for the financial year to March 2006.
   Economists have said that India must achieve double-digit growth to be able to significantly improve living standards in the country of 1.1 billion people where at least a quarter of the population live below the poverty line.
   Singh said the ambitious target was achievable on the back of buoyant foreign capital inflow, moderate inflation, brimming foreign exchange reserves and a comfortable current account deficit, pegged at 3.1 per cent of the GDP.
   ‘We could have not asked for a better start. We will be finally emerging into the front ranks of fast-growing developing countries,’ Singh said in a speech giving the finishing touches to India’s upcoming five-year plan.
   A Commission draft paper on the five-year cycle was critical of India’s past performance for failing to address the needs of the poor.
   ‘Our growth has not been sufficiently inclusive and failures in this area are significant,’ the document unveiled at the meeting, attended by economists and government advisors, said.
   ‘Therefore, our targets have to be redefined and policies restructured to ensure that growth in the future is more inclusive,’ it added.
   India’s robust growth rate has been driven by strong manufacturing, services and construction numbers but agriculture grew by just 3.4 per cent in the first quarter, down from 5.5 per cent in the preceding quarter.
   The prime minister said the priority of his government would be to boost agriculture, which accounts for nearly a quarter of GDP, and social development during 2007-2011.
   ‘With over two-thirds of the rural population still directly dependent on agriculture, it is imperative that we inject fresh dynamism into agriculture if we have to achieve the inclusiveness that we seek in our growth,’ he said.
   ‘Far more concerted effort is needed to achieve the desired improvements in the economics of agriculture. Agriculture must be one of the central elements of the planning efforts,’ he said.

China’s economy expanded at a slower pace with growth of 10.4 per cent in the third quarter as extensive efforts to apply the brakes showed signs of working, official data showed Thursday.
   Following a series of highly publicized economic and political measures by the central government, the third-quarter performance helped slow economic growth for the first nine months of 2006 to 10.7 per cent.
   Asia’s second-largest economy and the world’s fourth biggest had grown by a red-hot 11.3 per cent in the three months to June and by 10.9 per cent in the first half, a much faster pace than the 10.2 per cent recorded for all 2005.
   ‘The momentum of fast growth has started to come under control,’ National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Li Xiaochao said at press conference to release the data, with analysts giving cautious backing to the assessment.
   ‘The government will probably see this as the situation they wanted to achieve,’ said Chen Xindong, a Beijing-based economist for BNP Paribas.
   ‘The Chinese government does not want to kill the growth momentum but they don’t want the economy to continue accelerating, so from that point of view the outcome is in line with their objectives,’ Chen said.
   Thursday’s data showed fixed asset investment, one of the key economic drivers, had slowed to 27.3 per cent growth in the nine months to September, compared with 30.9 per cent in the second quarter alone.
   Urban fixed asset investment was up 24.2 per cent in the third quarter, a growth rate 7.7 per centage points slower than in the second, spokesman Li said.
   Industrial output, another crucial area the government has long targeted in its efforts to slow the economy, also showed signs of easing, at 16.2 per cent in the third quarter and 17.2 per cent for the nine months.
   Industrial output had expanded 17.7 per cent in the first half of the year, according to previous data.
   Among other closely watched indicators, China’s consumer price index rose 1.3 per cent in the first three quarters of the year compared with the same period in 2005. The index—the main gauge of inflation and an important factor in determining the temperature of the economy—was up 1.5 per cent in September alone.
   Retail sales for the nine months were up 13.5 per cent year-on-year.
   The government also confirmed figures released last week that showed a slight slowdown in the rate of expansion of the nation’s trade surplus, although 2006 will still mark another record year on that front.

Trade between China and African countries is expected to surpass $50 billion in 2006, a ministry of commerce official said here Wednesday.
   Zhou Yabin, director of the ministry’s West Asia and North Africa Department, said Sino-African cooperation had great potential as their economies were complementary.
   The Chinese government had abided by the principle of developing trade and economic relations with Africa based on equality, mutual benefit and common development, he said.
   By the end of 2005, China has established more than 800 enterprises in Africa involving a total investment of 6 billion dollars. It had investment agreements with 28 countries and its engineering projects covered the construction, petrochemical, power, culture, education, health and food processing sectors.
   Over the past half century, China had offered economic aid to 53 African countries and 10.9 billion yuan (1.36 billion dollars) in debt relief to 31 African countries.
   Customs statistics show Sino-African trade amounted to 39.7 billion US dollars in 2005,
   up 35 per cent from the previous year. Fifty years ago, bilateral trade was only 12 million
   dollars.
   In the first six months, Sino-African trade totalled $25.6 billion, up 41 per cent from the same period last year.

South Korea will push for ways to protect its farmers from a sudden flood of imported food when it resumes free trade talks with the United States next week, a top official said Thursday.
   The fourth round of five-day talks starts Monday on the southern holiday island of Jeju. Police are deploying 10,000 officers backed by helicopters to head off thousands of expected protesters.
   ‘We have already sent our plans on the introduction of safeguards to the United States. Consultations will start at the upcoming round,’ Vice Agriculture Minister Park Hae-Sang told a press briefing.
   Safeguards are emergency measures that allow a country to impose duties on certain imports if it is feared they will severely damage local industries.
   Park said South Korea would present a new proposal regarding tariff concessions on less sensitive agricultural products.
   The two sides began negotiating in June on what would be the largest such accord for
   the US since the North
   American Free Trade Agreement but little progress has been reported.
   Time is running out, as US President George W. Bush’s Trade Promotion Authority—allowing him to fast-track trade accords through Congress—expires in June 2007.
   US chief negotiator and Assistant US Trade Representative, Wendy Cutler, said after the last round in Seattle the fourth round would have to show more progress if a pact was to be reached by the end of the year.
   She described South Korea’s offer in agriculture as particularly disappointing. It is one of the most sensitive sectors along with drugs and the automotive industry.
   The two sides also differ on Seoul’s desire for Washington to treat goods produced in Kaesong, a South Korean-built industrial estate in North Korea, as South Korean-made.
   The United States has so far resisted the request, with tensions ratcheted up further after North Korea’s nuclear test last week.
   South Korea is the seventh-largest trading partner and seventh-largest export market for the US. Two-way trade was valued at 72 billion dollars in 2005, according to US figures.

A coalition of opposition political parties and civil groups Thursday urged Malaysia to suspend talks on a free-trade agreement with the United States, warning that the deal will hurt the economy.
   The group said it would hold a street protest to denounce the negotiations when the third-round of FTA talks takes place from November 3.
   ‘We call upon the government to suspend all negotiations until a comprehensive cost-benefit study is done in an open and transparent manner,’ said Xavier Jayakumar, chairperson of the Coalition Against Malaysia-US FTA.
   Jayakumar criticised the government for not disclosing the contents of the FTA talks and demanded public participation in the process.
   ‘These talks are so secretive. We the Malaysian public would like to know the details,’ he said.
   Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad warned in March that a trade deal with the United States may harm the economy and constrain government policy. ‘I worry the FTA with the US may have an adverse effect on us,’ he said.
   The United States hopes to fast-track the negotiations with its 10th largest trading partner and pass the deal well before June next year, when Congress will regain the right to amend any trade pact.
   One of the most politically sensitive areas includes Malaysian government procurement, which sees lucrative contracts awarded to the country’s majority community of ethnic Malays as part of a system of positive discrimination.

Thailand’s six-billion-dollar dam project in Myanmar made it the country’s biggest investor last year, while investment by long-time backer China dwindled, government statistics obtained Thursday said.
   The hydropower dam brought a spectacular spike in foreign investment in Myanmar, which skyrocketed to 6.07 billion dollars in fiscal year 2005, from just 158.28 million dollars in the previous year, the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development said.
   Myanmar and Thai energy firm MDX Group in April signed a controversial six-billion-dollar hydropower project to build a dam on the Salween River, the longest undammed river in Southeast Asia.
   But the government report due to be released this week also found that foreign investment from neighboring China had decreased, falling from 126.55 million dollars in fiscal 2004 to 700,000 dollars last year.
   Myanmar’s fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31.
   The number of foreign companies making investments in Myanmar also fell, dropping from 15 in 2004 to five in 2005.
   The five comprised of two Thai companies, two Indian companies and one Chinese company, all working in the power, oil, gas and mining sectors. Myanmar’s military government has taken steps to liberalize the economy since it took power after crushing a pro-democracy uprising in 1988.
   The previous military dictatorship had spent decades following the ‘Burmese way to socialism’, which ruined what had been one of the most promising economies in Southeast Asia.

Ericsson, the world’s largest supplier of mobile telecommunication networks, reported Thursday a 17 per cent rise in third quarter net profit amid strong growth in all sectors, but earnings were lower than expected.
   Despite the weaker-than-expected numbers, Ericsson shares climbed by 0.94 per cent to 26.85 kronor in late morning trading on the Stockholm stock exchange.
   The Swedish company posted a net profit of 6.2 billion kronor (842 million dollars, 670 million euros), up 17 per cent on the same quarter a year earlier.
   Sales rose by 13 per cent to 40.8 billion kronor, but were below analysts’ forecasts of 41.7 billion.
   Pre-tax profits were also lower than analysts’ forecasts of 8.9 billion, coming in at 8.8 billion kronor excluding restructuring costs of 2.9 billion and capital gains of 3.0 billion.

Nissan Motor Co has begun recalling more than 130,000 vehicles globally — including 80,000 in North America — because of an ignition key defect, a company official said Thursday.
   There have been no reports of injuries related to the defect, the Transport Ministry said.
   Nissan is recalling in Japan of 50,962 X-Trail and Murano sport utility vehicles produced from August 2004 to July 2006, Nissan spokeswoman Madoka Soma said.
   Overseas, the Tokyo-based manufacturer is recalling about 70,000 Muranos in North America, 300 in Taiwan and 800 in Singapore, she said. No X-Trails have been sold overseas.
   Also being recalled for the same defect are 10,000 Maxima sedans in North America, Nissan said.
   Some of the rods connecting the ignition part with parts that start the engine are too long, so the cars sometimes don’t start properly, Nissan said. Occasionally, the engines start even when the ignition is turned off and the driver moves the steering wheel, it said.
   The recalls involve only models using Nissan’s ‘intelligent keys’ with integrated circuit chips inside, which allows drivers to open their car doors with their keys still inside their pockets by just pressing on the handle. Drivers don’t need to insert the intelligent key to get the car to start, and can keep the key anywhere nearby.
   The defect involved in Thursday’s recall is not related to the integrated circuit chip features but to the regular ignition part of the key.
   Nissan shares fell 21 yen, or 1.54 per cent, to 1,346 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

A coalition of Thai businesses threatened to sue the government Thursday over a new ban on advertisements for alcohol, saying the measure could cost the country some 30,000 jobs.
   The newly formed group of hotels, restaurants, brewers and importers said the 24-hour ban on alcohol ads in Thai media left them at an unfair advantage, because foreign distillers can still advertise at international sporting events televised in Thailand.
   ‘It is not fair if the government puts controls only on local producers and not on advertisements coming from abroad, including on sport events. It is a double standard,’ said Boonchuay Tongcharoenpulporn, spokesman for the new Federation on Alcohol Control of Thailand (FACT).
   ‘We are working on the possibility to sue the government if they don’t listen to our objections,’ he told AFP.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung called on Japan on Thursday to boost investment to his country, promising to improve its investment environment.
   ‘We will create favorable conditions so we can receive a flow of new investment from Japan in various fields including high-tech industries,’ Dung said in an address to the Japanese parliament.
   ‘For the Vietnamese government, strengthening cooperative ties with your country, the world’s second largest economy, is our top priority,’ he said.
   Dung also asked Japan for continued financial aid to Vietnam, saying the assistance is helping the country build ‘facilities that have decisive meaning for the development of Vietnam.’
   Dung thanked Japan for backing Hanoi’s bid to join the World Trade Organization and renewed his country’s support for Tokyo’s campaign to win a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
   On Monday, Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen said in Hanoi that the WTO is expected to approve Vietnam—one of Asia’s fastest growing economies—as its 150th member next month.
   Later in the day, Dung met Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the imperial palace, central Tokyo, ahead of his first meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Japan is the number two market for Vietnamese exports after the United States, according to Japanese foreign ministry data, and the fourth-largest exporter to Vietnam after China, Singapore and Taiwan.
   Japan is the largest official development assistance donor to Vietnam, having pledged 11 billion dollars from 1992-2005, or about one third of total international aid to the country during that period, Vietnam says.

World oil prices climbed on Thursday, but New York crude remained below 58 dollars, as OPEC members gathered in Doha for an extraordinary meeting on cutting output.
   New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, gained 31 cents to 57.96 dollars per barrel in electronic deals before the official opening of the US market.
   In London, Brent North Sea crude for December delivery added 39 cents to 59.97 dollars per barrel in electronic trading.
   On Wednesday, crude futures had crashed by more than a dollar on easing supply concerns, eroding earlier gains built on a surprise plunge
   in US heating fuel stocks.
   Later Thursday, ministers from the 11-member OPEC cartel were expected to cut production by one million barrels per day (bpd) in a bid to shore up oil prices that have been sliding over the past two months.
   ‘The market is waiting
   for the OPEC meetings and what the outcome will be,’ said Steve Rowles, an analyst for CFC Seymour in Hong Kong.
   ‘Most of it is considered a done deal,’ he nonetheless added.
   The market remains unclear whether the cartel will decide to cut its official quota of 28 million barrels per day (bpd) or slash actual production levels which are currently below the quota.

Transaction
   Farida R Ahmed, one of the directors of Green Delta Insurance, has reported that she has completed her sale of 15,870 shares of the company at prevailing market price through stock exchange as announced earlier.
   Ali Akbar Khan, one of the sponsors of National Bank Limited, has reported that he has completed his sale of 2,143 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through stock exchange as announced earlier.
   Aslam-ul-Karim, one of the sponsor directors of National Credit and Commerce Bank, has reported his intention to transfer 20,000 shares out of his holdings of 1,98,620 shares of the bank to his sister Masuda Begum by way of gift outside the trading system of the exchange.
   
   Share sell
   As reported by the selling agent of shares of Powergrid total 3,30,150 shares were sold as of October 18.
   
   Trading
   Trading of the shares of Exim Bank will be allowed only on the spot market and block/odd transactions will be settled as per spot settlement cycle with entitlement of right shares from October 22 to 30. Trading of the shares of the bank will remain suspended on record date ie, 31.10.06.
   Source: DSE, CSE

214 get BGMEA insurance benefits
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association has provided life insurance benefits to families of 214 deceased workers during the last six months, said officials of the organisation. The association in May introduced a group insurance provision, mandatory for its member factory owners. The provision requires that every factory owners insure their factory workers with state-owned Jiban Bima Corporation in groups and in return the family or nominee of each worker dies in or outside of his or her workplace, will get Tk 1,00,000 as one-time insurance benefit from the corporation. On Thursday insurance benefits to 34 receivers was delivered at ceremony held at the office of the BGMEA.
— New Age

Knitwear expo in Germany
Bangladesh will showcase knitwear products in a single country exposition for the first time in two German cities in November to widen the exports base in Europe. The Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association will organise the fairs at Hotel Radisson in Dusseldorf on November 2-3 and at the Fashion and Textile Centre in Munich on Novem- ber 6-7, a BKMEA official said.
— Bdnews24.com

Druk Air resumes Dhaka flights
Druk Air—Royal Bhutan Airlines (the national airlines of Bhutan)—will resume its flights to Dhaka on October 23 with new airbus. A Druk Air press release said two flights from Dhaka to Bangkok on Monday and Thursday will leave Dhaka at 10:30 hrs and reach Bangkok at 13:40 hrs while Bangkok-Dhaka flight on Tuesday and Friday leave Bangkok at 8:30 hrs.
— UNB