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

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Twenty-five of 44 Bangladeshi diplomatic missions abroad have failed to achieve their respective export targets in the first four months of the current fiscal, reveals an official evaluation report, reflecting a lacklustre performance in the country’s trade diplomacy.
   The missions having commercial wings showed a relatively better performance in export promotion although seven out of 16 such missions still missed the export target set for the period, according to the report prepared by the Export Promotion Bureau under the Ministry of Commerce.
   Some commercial ministry officials, when asked about such performance, attributed this chronic failure to ‘lack of expertise among the so-called trade diplomats who should be well conversant of technical issues pertaining to today’s international trading regime.
   Yet, the overall export earning during the said four months at $4.127 billion was slightly higher than the strategic target set by the bureau at $4.102 billion. The export earning during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal was $3.345 billion.
   The missions that have failed to reach the export targets despite having commercial wings are Berlin, Paris, New Delhi, Tokyo, Dubai, Canberra and Kuala Lumpur — the capital cities that all are potential destinations for Bangladeshi exportables.
   These missions fell short of the target by $72.5 million even though they helped the country in exporting $1.12 billion or 27 per cent of the total export during the period. However, only the Dubai mission marked a negative growth in export while six others showed certain growth.
   Nine missions with commercial wings that have achieved the target with $2.2 billion or 52.6 per cent of the export earning are Washington, London, Brussels, Madrid, Ottawa, Tehran, Beijing, Moscow and Yangon. Their performance has exceeded the export target by $96.6 million, according to the report that has been sent to the commerce ministry for taking future steps.
   The diplomatic missions without commercial wings that have also failed to achieve export target are Hong Kong, Cairo, Singapore, Islamabad, Bangkok, Riyadh, Colombo, Amman, Kuwait, Tashkent, Doha, Kathmandu, Rome, Manama, Rabat, Manila, Nairobi and Brunei.
   However, the overall performance of the missions marked slight improvement after criticism by the business community.
   ‘The improvement in performance or a traditional good performance is mainly because of the efforts by the businesspeople,’ said an official of the trade cadre. The trade cadre has got only one posting in commercial wings out of a total of 19 such posts, most of which are fulfilled by officials of the administration cadre, he added.
   An administration cadre official, posted as minister (commerce) earlier declined to shoulder any responsibility for failure to achieve export targets, tagging it with the marketing drive by exporters and manufacturers.

Manufacturers toiletries and cosmetics have faced an Indian Customs fiat that banned exports of all types of cosmetics and toiletries to India through land ports.
   A circular issued by Kolkata Commission of Customs imposed the restrictions on October 30, 2006, asking Indian businessmen to import these products through sea and railway ports.
   The Indian authority imposed the restriction citing a Drug Policy framed in 1945 by the then British ruler.
   Square Toiletries, a subsidiary of Square Group, and Keya Cosmetics export their products to India.
   ‘It is unrealistic to export products through sea and rail routes. Some of the ports mentioned in the 1945 Drug Policy also do not exist,’ said Anjan Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Cosmetics and Toiletries Manufacturers Association in a letter to commerce ministry secretary.
   A huge quantity of soaps set to be exported via Benapole border was returned. Production of a large quantity of goods ordered by Indian importers from Bangladesh also had to be stopped, the letter reads.
   When contacted, Khurshid Ahmad Farhad, manager export of Square Toiletries Ltd, said, ‘The new Indian Drug Policy does not contain such instructions. We have been exporting our products to India through land ports since 1999.’
   Farhad said his office had also urged Bangladesh High Commission in Calcutta to take steps to resolve the problems last month.
   ‘The matter has been referred to the government of India. We hope the remedial action will be taken very soon,’ DN Srivastava, minister, economic section, Indian High Commission in Dhaka, told bdnews24.com, Monday.
   Currently, soaps, toilet cleaner, petroleum jelly, lip gel, shaving cream, deo-air freshener, prickly heat powder and other cosmetic and toiletries products are being exported to 17 states of India.
   Bangladeshi toiletries and cosmetics are exported to 14 countries and the largest chunk goes to India.

Bangladesh’s combined trade with the member countries of Asian Clearing Union went up by eight per cent in 2006 on the back of significant growth in export.
   The December issue of the ACU Newsletter, published in Tehran, revealed that during the year, Dhaka’s total transactions stood at $2.28 billion which were $2.11 billion during 2005.
   Total import went up by eight per cent to $2.13 billion during the 12 months of the last calendar year against $1.98 billion in the same period of previous year.
   But exports to ACU member countries jumped by 13 per cent during January-December period amounting to $144.71 million from $127.91 million of the year-ago period.
   The ACU report further showed that total transactions through the union amounted to $24.10 billion during the whole year, recording 47 per cent growth of last year.
   In January-December period of 2005, total transaction of the union was $16.40 billion.
   In December 2006, total transactions channelled through the ACU amounted to $793.83 million, showing a decrease of 6.41 per cent, from November 2006, the report revealed.
   In comparison with the corresponding figure of the last year, there is an increase of 17.86 per cent. The three largest exporters were Iran, India and Pakistan with $437.92, $307.05 and $24.65 million respectively, accounting for 55, 39 and 3 per cent of the total transactions.
   The three largest importers were India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with $372.48, $163.14 and $119.84 million respectively representing 47, 21 and 15 per cent of the total transactions.
   In the months under review, Iran was the main net creditor while Bangladesh was the main net debtor in the system.
   ACU groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, providing the member countries with a simple payment arrangement to settle bills of intra-regional transaction through central banks on a multilateral basis

The government has turned down a proposal of the new buyer of the Rupali Bank Ltd (RBL) to allow his nominated auditor to conduct audit of the bank for 2006, finance ministry sources said.
   ‘Board of Directors of the RBL has already conveyed the decision to the representative of the buyer,’ a senior RBL official told bdnews24.com Monday quoting the board’s decision.
   Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Saud, who has won the purchase deal of 67.50 percent share of the largely state-owned bank at $330 million, urged the government recently to address some issues, including appointment of AHKC, a private firm, as auditors of RBL for 2006, without delay.
   In a letter written late last month, the Saudi Prince’s office asked the government to allow AHKC (Aziz Halim Khair Choudhury), a private chartered accounting firm, to conduct its audit alongside the statutory auditors at a fee to be paid by the purchaser.
   ‘This will help expedite closure of the deal,’ the letter said.
   But a finance ministry official told bdnews24.com requesting not to be named that the government, as per the laws, could not entertain the new buyer’s proposal for auditing the bank by its nominated auditors for the year 2006.
   ‘The bank still belongs to the government...the new buyer can audit the bank only after completion of the sale and purchase agreement (SPA),’ the official said.
   The finance ministry sources said the government, however, had decided to address a host of major issues, including blocked loan, voluntary retirement scheme and non-performing loan of the state-owned enterprises raised by the bank’s buyer to facilitate creation of a proper atmosphere for handing over the maximum shares of the bank.
   The government took up the Bank Modernisation and Enterprise Growth project at the prescription of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and put Rupali up for sales in 2004.
   The handover process of the bank was supposed to have been completed by December last year. But, sources said, some unresolved issues are delaying the handover.

East Asia must work towards a full free-trade zone and take swift action to cut poverty, the head of the Asian Development Bank warned regional leaders on Monday.
   The region also needs to improve infrastructure and find common cause on coping with transnational woes like crime and disease if it wants to stay competitive in future, bank president Haruhiko Kuroda said.
   Speaking at the second annual East Asia Summit of 16 nations, Kuroda said the region had made progress on economic integration and recovered well from the Asian financial crisis a decade ago, but needed to do more.
   ‘Asia is home to 12 of the world’s 15 tallest buildings—a testament to its ability to rapidly generate wealth. But it is also home to the world’s largest slums,’ he said.
   ‘Unless prompt action is taken, the region may lose its competitive edge,’ he told a closed-door summit, according to a copy of his speech obtained by AFP.

The United States and South Korea launched a fresh round of free trade talks Monday amid tight security as local farmers and anti-globalzation activists vowed to go ahead with banned protests.
   About 2,000 riot police maintained a tight cordon around the venue, a hotel in eastern Seoul, as negotiators, now meeting for a sixth time, shook hands to open the five-day meeting.
   Major disagreements over US anti-dumping and countervailing rules, and non-tariff barriers to South Korea’s auto and drug markets, were left off the agenda as both sides tried to agree on less important issues first, officials said.
   Those key topics will be discussed at informal meetings between US Assistant Trade Representative Wendy Cutler and her South Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-Hoon, a South Korea foreign ministry official said.
   ‘Time is short so both sides will seek agreements on less important issues while setting the date and venue for another round of talks in February,’ the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
   Washington needs an agreement no later than early April if it is to be cleared by the US Congress before President George W Bush’s powers to fast-track free-trade deals expire in June.
   Police said 15,000 security personnel were mobilized in Seoul and other parts of South Korea to control possible demonstrations. Previous rounds have seen violent protests by farmers and unionists who fear a deal could cost them their livelihoods by allowing in cheap imports of goods and services.
   A free-trade agreement with South Korea would be the United States’ biggest deal since the North American NAFTA pact in 1994, marrying two economies whose bilateral trade in 2005 was 72 billion dollars.
   South Korea, a largely export-driven economy, estimates an FTA would boost Gross Domestic Product by two per centage points. South Korea, Asia’s third-largest economy, is Washington’s seventh-biggest trading partner.
   But the talks have been difficult. The United States wants to get rid of South Korean tariffs and other market-access restrictions on US services and goods, including autos and pharmaceuticals.
   Last year, 800,000 South Korean vehicles were sold in the United States while only around 3,000 US cars were sold in South Korea. Washington also claims Seoul’s medical policy discriminates against new US-made drugs.
   In response, Seoul demands that the United States ease its protectionist anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws against South Korean products such as memory chips, autos, textiles and steel.
   A US Congress report in May showed five countervailing duties and 18 anti-dumping orders were imposed on South Korean chips, steel and other items, totaling about 2.5 billion dollars.
   Washington, in a US Trade Representative report to Congress last month, categorically rejected the South Korean demands.
   It has also turned down Seoul’s request to include goods produced at a South Korean-funded industrial enclave in communist North Korea.

Stock prices Monday slid marginally on the bourses, after witnessing massive gains on Sunday, for the profit-taking selling pressure from the investors.
   The general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange lost 6.15 points or 0.37 per cent to close at 1650.78 on Monday, while benchmark DSE20 shed 0.42 points or 0.03 per cent to close at 1455.62.
   The Chittagong Stock Exchange selective categories index lost 8.71 points or 0.35 per cent to close at 2489.51 on Monday, while benchmark CSE30 shed 15.38 points or 0.45 per cent to close at 3436.16.
   Market sources said the market went down as the retail investors went selling off the shares to make capital gains on previous day’s rise in the prices.
   The DSE general index and the CSE selective categories index gained 4.74 per cent and 4.04 per cent respectively on Sunday.
   Turnover on the DSE also decreased to Tk 81.13 crore from the Sunday’s total of Tk 92.34 crore, highest after 1996.
   The CSE turnover also declined to Tk 16.13 crore from the Sunday’s total of Tk 21.40 crore.
   A total of 207 issues were traded on the DSE. Of them, 106 declined, 77 advanced and 24 remained unchanged.
   Of the total 95 issues traded on the CSE, 46 declined, 35 advanced and 14 remained unchanged.
   The Power Grid Company Bangladesh topped the turnover index on the DSE with total sales of Tk 7.33 crore while Southeast Bank was the top turnover leader on the CSE with Tk 2.04 crore.

Hong Kong unveiled on Monday a series of economic proposals as part of a wider move aiming to strengthen its status as a financial centre and to assist China’s rapid economic development.
   A team of four groups published recommendations in a report advising the government on how to benefit from China’s 11th Five-Year Plan, which concerns the mainland economic development for 2006-2010.
   ‘These recommendations are not solely about how Hong Kong can continue to strive for the best and keep our momentum in economic development amidst fierce global competition,’ Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang told reporters.
   ‘More importantly, the targets and initiatives contained in the action agenda state clearly how our professional services in finance, logistics and trade can respond to and support the country’s rapid development,’ he said.
   The team, which has taken four months to draw up the report, has mapped out an action agenda setting out 207 specific measures, Tsang said, some of which have been discussed with state leaders during his duty visit to Beijing last month.
   The report comes days after China approved mainland lenders to sell yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong, seen as a key step for the Chinese currency to move towards the ultimate goal of full yuan convertibility and integration of China’s economy with the outside world.
   On Monday, the team said Hong Kong should be further developed as ‘China’s international financial centre of global significance’ and should serve as a testing ground for the Chinese currency to become fully convertible.
   It proposed an integration of the China and Hong Kong stock markets and to further relax rules on Chinese enterprises raising funds through listings in Hong Kong.

Asian leaders agreed Monday to push for freer trade and more secure energy supplies across the region, wrapping up a week of high-level diplomacy on everything from terrorism to North Korea.
   Australia and China were among 16 nations that signed an energy security pact after a half-day meeting that followed the annual ASEAN summit talks, which saw a breakthrough in Japan’s tense relations with its neighbours.
   ‘We as a region have started to muster our vast human and material resources to broaden trade, tourism, energy security and political integration at a pace and scale never seen before,’ Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said.
   Host Philippines postponed the meetings last month amid warnings from foreign governments about a possible terror attack. Riot police clashed with some protesters Monday, but the meetings were held without incident.
   The energy accord commits countries to reducing reliance on fossil fuels, opening up energy markets and trying to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Japan offered two billion dollars in aid to help nations with energy conservation.
   The 16 leaders also found common ground in an especially strong statement on North Korea, saying the defiant
   regime needed to address
   international concern about food shortages and its past abductions of Japanese and other nationals.
   They also urged the World Trade Organisation to get global trade talks back on track and agreed to consider ways of coordinating regional efforts to contain bird flu and manage relief for natural disasters.
   Leaders including Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also heard calls to create a vast free-trade zone that would account for around half the world’s population.
   While Asia has recovered well from the regional financial crisis of a decade ago, nations need to do more to fight poverty and free up trade to ensure that growth continues, Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said.
   ‘Asia is home to 12 of the world’s 15 tallest buildings—a testament to its ability to rapidly generate wealth. But it is also home to the world’s largest slums,’ Kuroda told the closed-door gathering.
   Working toward freer trade was a priority throughout the three days of summit talks in the Philippine resort of Cebu, organised by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
   ASEAN agreed on Saturday to create a single market by 2015, five years earlier than previously planned.
   The bloc—Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—also signed its first convention on fighting terrorism.
   Member states also agreed to forge a charter, which would transform ASEAN into more of a rules-based organisation along the lines of the European Union, later this year.
   The summits also saw dozens of smaller meetings on the sidelines, including talks before Monday morning’s gathering between Australia’s Howard and China’s Wen, whose nations are working on their own free-trade accord.
   One of the biggest breakthroughs came late Sunday, when China announced that Wen would visit Japan in the spring.
   Chinese and South Korean relations with Japan had been strained over previous Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to a controversial war shrine.
   But his successor Shinzo Abe has worked hard to repair relations. Abe, Wen and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun held the first summit between the countries in more than two years here on Sunday.

India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Monday said it had resolved differences with British oil explorer Cairn Energy’s Indian arm over the construction of a 340 million dollar domestic pipeline.
   Oil and Natural Gas Corporation managing director R.S. Sharma told reporters in New Delhi that the state-run firm had ‘reached an understanding’ on the pipeline that would transport oil recovered in western Rajasthan state to neighbouring Gujarat, the Press Trust of India said.
   Sharma said the earlier dispute was over who would bear the cost of construction.
   ‘Now, we have an understanding that the pipeline will be jointly built,’ he said adding the investment will be shared between Cairn and ONGC in a 70:30 ratio. The pipeline construction will take 12-18 months.
   Cairn India, which listed on Indian bourses this month after an initial offer in December fetched 160 rupees a share, rose 6.25 rupees or 4.63 per cent to 141.15 after the news. The 30-share Mumbai stock exchange Sensex index was up 73.11 points or 0.52 per cent to 14,129.64.
   In September, the Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy announced it was delaying starting production from 2008 to 2009 at its largest Indian oil field in Rajasthan.
   The delay was blamed on the pipeline dispute with ONGC to transport crude from Rajasthan’s Mangala field—the biggest such resource to be discovered in India for more than 20 years.

Workers at South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor launched a partial strike Monday to press for payment of a disputed bonus in an intensifying stand-off with management and the government.
   Hyundai Motor’s main factory came to a halt at 1:00 pm as workers began a four-hour strike, the union said. More walkouts are planned—for four hours early Tuesday and six hours on Wednesday.
   Management asked a local court to issue an injunction against the strike while Labor Minister Lee Sang-Soo warned the union to end the ‘illegal’ walkout or face tough government actions.
   The dispute began last month when the company cut year-end bonus payments by a third because of a missed production target in 2006. The union demands full payment.
   ‘All assembly lines at the Ulsan plant were idle due to the union strike,’ Nam Chang-Un, a Hyundai official, told AFP by telephone from the main plant in Ulsan, 400 kilometers south of Seoul.
   Early Monday, Hyundai Motor President Yoon Yeo-Cheol briefly met and asked union leader Park Yu-Ki to drop the planned strikes but the meeting ended in failure, company officials said.
   ‘The union still insists on negotiating the bonus payment which the company cannot accept. The case has been closed,’ spokesman Jake Jang said.
   In response, union leader Park threatened to intensify the action.
   ‘If management refuses to talk or negotiate, we will continue to fight by finalizing our plans for more strikes in the future,’ Park told a press conference ahead of the partial strike.
   Hyundai Motor has responded by seeking a court injunction against the strike which it said illegally disrupts its business operations.
   Labor Minister Lee warned the government, police and prosecutors would discuss countermeasures on Wendesday against the union’s action.
   ‘The Hyundai Motor union should immediately stop an illegal strike which violates the law and also ignores the public sentiment,’ Lee said in a statement at a press conference.
   He said the union not gone through a mandatory vote on strike action nor taken up government mediation before initiating the strike.

South Korea Monday announced a set of measures to boost outbound investment by local companies as part of efforts to curb the won’s rise against the dollar which has been putting pressure on exports.
   Finance Minister Kwon O-Kyu said the government would ease a cap on overseas property purchases by South Korean investors and exempt local investors from capital gains tax on earnings from equiy investments abroad for three years.
   The one million dollar cap on real estate investment abroad will be raised to three million dollars, he said.
   ‘The move is aimed at stimulating outbound investment by South Korean firms,’ he said, forcasting a capital outflow of up to 15 billion dollars.
   ‘It will have a considerable effect on the stabilization of the won. In addition, it will help reduce liquidity in the market.’
   South Korea previously encouraged companies to invest within the country to create jobs, increase production and exports, and boost economic growth.
   The policy has largely succeeded over the years but recently, the won has risen against the dollar, making exports less competitive.
   Excess liquidity has also been cited as contributing to a sharp rise in housing prices while experts have warned that a sharper-than-expected economic slowdown this year could cause a sudden collapse in the property market and possible trigger a financial crisis.
   Kwon said the government would increase financial support to South Korean exporters.

Japan reported Monday a stronger-than-expected rise in machinery orders, a key gauge of corporate capital spending, fueling speculation about a possible interest rate rise this week.
   Private sector core machinery orders gained 3.8 per cent in November from the previous month, the government said, exceeding market forecasts for an increase of about 3.4 per cent after a 2.8 per cent gain in October.
   Year-on-year, the core private orders, which exclude particularly volatile demand from electric utilities and for ships, were up 0.7 per cent in November, the Cabinet Office said.
   The relatively brisk data reinforced expectations among many economists that the Bank of Japan could raise its super low interest rates by a quarter point to 0.5 per cent at a two-day meeting through Thursday.
   ‘Though stronger-than-expected orders in a single month aren’t especially meaningful in deciding a rate hike, we think this month is a bit of an exception in urging on the hike that the Bank is contemplating for this week,’ argued Morgan Stanley economist Takehiro Sato.
   Weekend reports said in Tokyo that the central bank was likely to raise the benchmark rate of borrowing to 0.5 per cent.
   The Bank of Japan raised interest rates to 0.25 per cent in July when it ended its unorthodox five-year policy of keeping borrowing costs at effectively zero in a bid to stimulate the economy.
   BoJ governor Toshihiko Fukui has made clear his desire to return to a more normal monetary policy but government ministers have voiced concern that the still fragile recovery could falter if rates go up too quickly.
   Over the weekend, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Hiroko Ota put pressure on the BoJ to hold back from raising rates just yet.
   ‘The Japanese economy is facing a crucial phase as it is still possible for the economy to slip back into deflation,’ she said in a television interview.
   Spending by companies on plants and equipment is playing a key role in Japan’s economic recovery and the figures are closely watched by investors although they tend to fluctuate sharply from month-to-month.
   Total machinery orders received by 280 manufacturers operating in Japan increased by 14.2 per cent in November from the previous month and were up 14.9 per cent year-on-year.
   Machinery orders from manufacturers gained 9.7 per cent month-on-month while those placed by non-manufacturers were up 5.7 per cent.
   Foreign orders jumped 19.7 per cent while public sector orders were 9.8 per cent higher.
   ‘Foreign orders for Japanese machinery surged to a new record in November, but domestic orders continue to struggle, despite the second consecutive monthly gain,’ noted Macquarie Securities economist Richard Jerram.
   He added that although orders have now risen for two consecutive months, it was surprising that they had not made more progress this year given buoyant surveys of companies’ capital spending plans.

China has surprisingly cut the retail price of petrol and aviation fuel for the first time in 19 months.
   Petrol prices have been cut by 3.8% but the prices in the much larger diesel market have been left unchanged.
   Oil refiners China National Petroleum Corporation and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation have been told to lower prices from Sunday.
   Refiners have been processing at a loss for over a year and had been hoping to return to profit as crude prices fall.
   There are close to three million private cars in China and parts of the country have been hit by petrol shortages.
   The price of petrol was cut by 220 yuan ($28.22) a tonne, the energy policy-making National Development and Reform Commission said on its website.
   The cut, only the second in five years, will also see the ex-refinery price of jet fuel cut by 90 yuan a tonne. US crude oil prices have fallen sharply since China last adjusted domestic fuel prices - upwards - on 24 May, 2006.
   Crude oil for February delivery closed at $52.99 a barrel on Friday, down 13% since the start of the year and down a third from the record peak of $78.40 hit in July 2006.
   Last May, China raised petrol prices by one-tenth, but a price cap meant Chinese prices did not soar alongside last summer’s rising global crude markets.
   Consumers had been calling for a price cut as global markets fell.
   The benefits will mostly be felt by the urban wealthy who use petrol-driven cars, rather than rural farmers, who use diesel.

Singapore is reaching for the sky. From busy Orchard Road to Sentosa island, a growing forest of cranes tower above the city’s skyline as the construction sector finally emerges from a slump that began a decade ago in the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
   The wealthy Southeast Asian country is in the midst of a building frenzy as it seeks to spruce up its tourist image with two new gaming resorts and rejuvenates the retail scene with flashy new shopping malls.
   Existing residential developments sitting on prime sites are being torn down to make way for new ultra-luxurious properties. Condominiums offering waterfront living are rapidly snapped up even before the first concrete has been poured.
   The government has put up for sale parcels of land for new hotels, commercial buildings and residential projects, all of which will keep the construction sector growing strongly over the next few years, analysts say.
   Singapore’s plans for two integrated resorts (IRs) offering gaming, leisure and convention facilities are the catalyst behind the construction sector revival.
   ‘It has been in a slump for a long time,’ said Nicholas Mak, director of consultancy and research at real estate firm Knight Frank.
   ‘Ever since the announcement of the IRs and when the amount and size of investment became known, people began to realise there could be a lot of economic spinoffs and one of the beneficiaries will be the construction sector,’ Mak told AFP.
   The two IRs, with a combined investment of more than 10 billion Singapore dollars (6.5 billion US), will have a multiplier effect on the rest of the economy through outsourcing of building works as well as lifting the property sector.
   ‘Probably in the next four years, from 2007 onwards, we are going to see a lot of construction in Singapore not just from the two IRs but also from residential development,’ Mak said.
   US gaming giant Las Vegas Sands is investing more than five billion dollars to erect a gaming and convention complex near the Marina Bay financial district while Malaysia’s Genting International will build a 5.2-billion dollar casino and amusement park on Sentosa island.
   New residential projects near the two IRs have been grabbed by eager buyers who want to be near the action when the two resorts are up and running in 2010.
   Singapore lifted a ban on casino gambling in 2005 and last year awarded gaming licences to the two overseas groups.
   Song Seng Wun, a regional economist with CIMB-GK brokerage, estimates the two projects will create 18.2 billion dollars worth of contract work locally in 2006 and that will average 15 billion dollars over the next three years.
   ‘Apart from the many en-bloc sales of private residential units, the revamp of Orchard Road, development of Marina Bay, redevelopment of Sentosa and surrounding areas ... the recovery of the construction industry is gaining momentum,’ said Song.
   ‘En-bloc’ sales occur at private condominium buildings when a majority of the owners agree to sell their units in one go, normally to a developer.
   Song is projecting the construction sector will grow 3.0-5.0 percent over the next three years.
   Government figures show the construction sector grew 1.1 percent in 2006, which would be the first time the industry expanded since 2000 when it recorded 1.0 percent.

China National Petroleum Corp, the country’s biggest oil producer, will invest 3.6 billion dollars to develop a block in Iran’s offshore gas field, state media reported Monday.
   CNPC is still negotiating with Iran over the details of the project expected to lead to a seven-year deal to develop Block 14 of the South Pars gas field, the China Business News said.
   It added the company will invest 1.8 billion dollars on exploration of the block, which is reported to have natural gas reserves of 370 billion cubic meters.
   Another $1.8 billion will be used to build a liquefied natural gas plant with an annual output of 4.5 million tonnes. However, Liu Weijiang, a spokesman for CNPC’s international business department in Beijing, declined to comment on the report.

Oil prices continued firmer above 53 dollars in Asian trade Monday on expectations the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will move to shore up the market, dealers said.
   At 2:13 pm, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for February, was 26 cents higher at 53.25 dollars a barrel from 52.99 dollars in late US trade Friday when it touched fresh 19-month lows.
   Brent North Sea crude for February was up 23 cents to 53.18 dollars.
   ‘OPEC might be further galvanised to take action so this morning the market is reacting to the possibility of further cuts by OPEC,’ said Victor Shum, an analyst with Purvin and Gertz energy consultancy in Singapore.
   Prices fell last week to levels last seen in June 2005 on unusually warm winter temperatures in the United States, which has slowed demand for heating oil.
   Latest figures from the US government showed heating oil, diesel fuel, and other distillate product stocks increased 5.4 million barrels to 141 million in the week ended January 5, much more than the rise of 2.0 million barrels predicted by the market.
   Crude oil reserves dropped five million barrels to 314.7 million, against a projected decline of 1.5 million barrels.
   OPEC members Iran and Venezuela on Sunday called on the oil cartel to introduce a new round of production cuts to support falling crude prices.
   ‘We agreed this afternoon to coordinate our forces
   within OPEC,’ Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
   said in a speech with his Iranian counterpart, Mah-moud Ahmadinejad.
   ‘Today we know that there is too much crude in the market; that’s why we support, we will support the decisions that have been taken to reduce production and protect the price of oil,’ he said.
   Chavez emphasized that he was sending that message ‘to all the heads of state in the OPEC countries to continue to strengthen our organisation in this direction.’
   The oil cartel had decided at a meeting last month to cut output by 500,000 barrels per day from February, after an announced reduction of 1.2 million bpd in November.
   Oil has slumped from levels above 60 dollars at the close of 2006 and they are 32 per cent off the all-time peak of above 78 dollars reached in July.

The dollar eased back from recent 13-month highs against the yen in Asian trade on Monday after Japanese machinery orders rose by more than expected, dealers said.
   The euro meanwhile moved further above 1.29 dollars after coming off Friday’s seven-week lows seen against the US unit following better-than-expected US retail sales figures.
   The dollar fell to 120.21 in Tokyo afternoon trade from 120.36 yen in New York late Friday. The euro rose to 1.2935 dollars after 1.2921 and to 155.53 yen from 155.51.
   ‘The better-than-expected machinery orders gave players a cue to buy back the yen following a rapid fall last week,’ said Hidenori Kato, head of foreign exchange sales and trading at Societe Generale.

Dividend
   Bata Shoe
   The Company has requested the concerned shareholders to collect their interim dividend warrants from January 15 to 17 from the Share Liaison Office of the company at 6, B.B Avenue, Gulistan, Dhaka-1000.
   
   Trading suspended
   DESCO
   Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended on record date i.e., January 16.
   Beximco Synthetics
   Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended during January 16-18, 2007 for finalisation of Demat process. Trading of the shares of the company will be held through CDBL with effect from January 21, 2007 as announced earlier.
   
   Date of trade
   Islami Bank
   Normal Trading of the shares of the Bank will resume on
   January 16 after Record Date.
   
   Spot Trade
   Al-Arafah Islami Bank
   Trading of the shares of the bank will be allowed only in the spot market and Block/Odd lot transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle from January 16 to 18 and trading of the shares will remain suspended on record date i.e., 21.01.07 for EGM.
   
   Loss
   Fine Foods Limited
   As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on January 31, the company has reported net loss of Tk (0.50) m with EPS of Tk. (0.07) as against last year’s half yearly net profit of Tk 0.35 m and EPS of Tk 0.05 respectively.
   Share lost
   Lost of some Rupali Bank shares was reported by Chittagong Stock Exchange Ltd. Certificate nos. 121826, 114176, 118933, 114129, 31003, 21735, 122518, 113375, 34985, 133598, 24181, 34305, 115919 & 100536. Total shares 140.
   Source: DSE, CSE

China’s FDI rises 5 per cent to $63b
China’s actual foreign direct investment hit 63 billion dollars last year, a rise of five per cent from 2005, state press reported Monday, citing Commerce Minister Bo Xilai. The Xinhua news agency report did not provide a breakout figure for the month of December but investment has showed an increasing trend in recent months, picking up 15.9 in October per cent and 20.6 per cent in November. Foreign direct investment in the first 11 months of the year was up 2.1 per cent from the same period last year at 54.3 billion dollars, and compared with a 0.3 per cent increase over the January-October period, according to earlier official data. Details on contracted foreign direct investment, an indication of future spending plans, for the year were not provided. Official figures are expected to be released this month. China pulled in foreign direct investment of 60.33 billion dollars in 2005, down 0.5 per cent from 2004.

Financier arrested as murder suspect
Russian financier Alexei Frenkel was formally arrested Monday on uspicion of having ordered the murder of Central Bank deputy head Andrei Kozlov, whose killing in September sent shockwaves through the Russian business world. Investigators suspect Frenkel, 35, of ordering Kozlov’s murder after the crusading anti-fraud official had the license of Frenkel’s VIP-Bank withdrawn in July for money laundering, daily Kommersant cited investigators as saying. Frenkel is expected to be formally charged on Wednesday, and plans to appeal the arrest, news agency ITAR-TASS quoted his lawyer, Igor Trunov, as saying. NTV television showed a handcuffed Frenkel shouting that the prosecutor’s claims were ‘a lie and slander’ as he was hustled away by police after the hearing.
— AFP