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The country’s trade deficit reached about $3 billion in July-April period of last fiscal as it spent nearly $12.77 billion on imports while exported goods of $9.8 billion, the central bank monthly update revealed.
   In the corresponding period of the previous fiscal [FY 2005-2006] imports totalled $10.8 billion and exports $8.2 billion.
   Service deficit also jumped to $1.25 billion and income imbalance increased to $733 million in the July-April period of 2006-07 fiscal.
   Service receipts totalled $1,124 million and payments $2,372 million while income receipts in the sector were $185 million and payment $918 million.
   Settlement of LCs of consumer goods increased by $307 million to reach $1,244 million, intermediate goods by $145 million to $1,220 million, industrial raw materials by $591 million to $5,452 million, capital machinery by $204 million to $1,436 million, and petroleum products by $223 million to $1,923 million in July-May period of FY-07 compared to the same period of the last fiscal.
   The current account balance was, however, positive at $415 million thanks to robust remittance inflow of $4.9 billion in July-April period of last fiscal.
   The balance of payment situation was also positive at $909 million in the period under review. In July-March, the overall BoP was $812 million.
   The net foreign direct investment declined to $425 million in the period which was $561 million in the same period of the previous fiscal. Portfolio investment, however, increased to $60 million in July-April from $19 million in the same period of the previous fiscal.
   Domestic credit recorded an increase by Tk 19,292 crore or 10.85 per cent during the period. Out of the credit, the private sector loans totalled Tk 15,346 crore recording an11.72 per cent increase in July-April period.
   Broad money posted a growth of Tk 21,638 crore or 11.94 per cent in July-April period against an increase of Tk 18,529 crore or 12.22 per cent in the same period of the previous fiscal.
   In 10 months of the last fiscal, the government borrowed Tk 2,533 crore from the banking system which was Tk 344 crore during the same period of the previous fiscal.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines should list on the stock market once it emerges as a public limited company, experts told a seminar on Sunday.
   ‘Only making Biman a public limited company will not do, it has to be privatised too,’ former Bangladesh Bank governor Farash Uddin said.
   The national airline wanted to take Air New Zealand as its business partner in 2000, but trade unions foiled the move, he said.
   ‘Biman shares will be floated in the market after it is made a public limited company and its liabilities are met by the government,’ the Biman managing director, MA Momen, said.
   The seminar, ‘Structural reorganisation of Biman’, was organised by the Bangladesh Economic Society with economist Q Kholiquzzaman in the chair.
   ‘The national airline has been wrecked by widespread corruption and excessive overhead expenditure incurred during the past governments.’ ‘And the governments also used the trade unions to serve their ends. Any reforms to the organisation need to take all these issues into account,’ Momen said
   The Biman MD said in the past a $45 million plane was purchased at a whopping $75 million, forcing the national flag carrier to pay off debts for years.
   Biman also counts some Tk 400 crore a year in fuel costs as it buys fuel in the local market at abnormally high prices, he said.
   ‘While buying planes for the airline in future, we have to seriously consider the type of aircraft most suitable and profitable for us,’ said the acting civil aviation secretary, Altaf Ali.
   ‘Biman is a virtual goldmine. It may be possible to revive its fortunes with skilled management and long-term plans like many airlines have done. One has to have the goodwill to do that,’ said Abul Barakat, who teaches economics at Dhaka University.
   ‘To turn Biman into a profitable organisation, its management will have to have experienced and successful aviation businessmen.
   ‘Bureaucrats don’t seem to have any understanding of business,’ said Shahidul Haque, representative of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
   He said Biman should be privatised and its management should be transparent.

Bangladesh would achieve a double-digit economic growth, from the present 7 per cent, and reduce poverty to half before the UN-decided 2015 deadline if the country’s readymade garments got free access to the markets of Europe and North America.
   The foreign advisor, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, projected the upbeat prospect at a press briefing on his return from ECOSOC ministerial meeting in Geneva, where he made a presentation on Bangladesh’s overall situation.
   ‘We made it clear that if Bangladesh is not given preferential market access, many of our garment workers, mostly women, will lose their jobs,’ he said, about the downside risk if the affluent hemisphere of the world didn’t open their doors to the country’s main export item. The advisor also focused on the need of a sound marketing system for agricultural products at the world forum in Geneva. ‘I also stressed the need for reducing exploitation by middle-men and ensuring fair price for our farmers. This is critically important if we are to reduce poverty in the rural economy.’
   About his meeting with World Trade Organisation director general Pascal Lamy, Chowdhury said he sought WTO support for removing non-tariff barriers to Bangladeshi RMG and free access to the markets of developed nations. Lamy assured his cooperation. ‘If we could maintain current pace of development, political stability and international assistance, our dependence on foreign aid will also come down,’ he told the briefing.
   The advisor said Bangladesh must not be penalised for her performance in the RMG sector and the WTO must ensure that countries can transform their comparative advantage to competitive advantage in the world economy.
   He hoped that Doha Round would conclude soon with a broad agreement on the issue of special and differential treatment for the LDCs
   Chowdhury presented a 110-page report at the ECOSOC annual ministerial review meeting, highlighting Bangladesh’s success in reducing poverty and hunger.
   Dhaka urged the international community to mobilize resources for reducing the impact of global warming on the country.
   ‘I raised the concerns for climate change and how it can potentially derail our poverty-reduction efforts. I urged the international community to take our concerns seriously and to mobilise resources to reduce the impacts of global warning,’ he said.

SME Foundation plans to deposit the Tk 100 crore endowment fund with banks and spend the interest proceeds on peripheral projects until a full-scale development plan mapped out for small and medium enterprises.
   The interest proceeds, expected to be about Tk 10 crore a year, plus an interim fund of Tk 5 crore will be enough for meeting the organisation’s operational and development expenditures for now, foundation sources said.
   The government in May agreed to create a fund for the foundation and finally allocated Tk 100 crore in the 2007-08 budget for the development of SMEs.
   ‘The SME Foundation has decided to keep the fund as fixed deposits with different banks,’ a member of the foundation told New Age on Sunday.
   The national forum, assigned for promoting SMEs, is now calculating the interest rates offered by private and nationalised commercial banks before deciding where to put the money.
   The fund is more likely to go to private banks which offer interest rates for fixed amount up to 14 per cent. The foundation also finds state-owned banks as secured options although they offer as low as 9 per cent annual interest.
   ‘We are looking at both the options now,’ said the member of the foundation, which has representation from both public and private sectors.
   The foundation has already got an interim fund of Tk 5 crore from the finance ministry to meet operational expenses of the organisation and the projects it has taken up so far.
   Sources said it has decided to complete managerial recruitments within next couple of months.
   It has also planned to hire several experts for SME facilitation projects for policy framing, advocacy and research cell; technical support facilities and credit division.
   The government and development partners for more than half a decade have been trumpeting the need for developing the SME sector for employment generation and poverty reduction.
   In response to demands and after completion of a long consultation process, the SME Foundation started its journey at the end of 2006.
   SMEs account for more than 50 per cent of manufacturing output and about 80 per cent of the country’s industrial workforce.
   The sector has got a policy apart from special focus in the industrial policy.
   An enterprise that invests up to Tk 1.5 crore and employs less than 25 fulltime people is defined as a small enterprise, while a venture with a maximum Tk 10 crore investment and 25 to 100 fulltime workers is a medium-scale enterprise.

President Nicolas Sarkozy is likely to ruffle feathers Monday when he heads to Brussels to try to persuade European finance ministers to let him bend EU rules and delay balancing France’s budget.
   In an unprecedented move, the newly-elected rightwing leader is to attend a meeting of finance ministers from the 13-nation eurozone to outline his controversial budget policy.
   ‘The economy, growth, and full employment are subjects that are so important that heads of government and heads of state must deal with them directly,’ Sarkozy said in an interview published Sunday in France’s Journal du Dimanche.
   In addition to making his case for pushing back the previous French government’s commitment to balance state accounts by 2010, Sarkozy is also due to flesh out his plans for giving a higher political profile to the eurozone.
   But both initiatives could prove to be contentious, especially with Germany, which is making big efforts to balance its books and is suspicious of Sarkozy’s push for more ‘economic governance’ for the eurozone.
   Sarkozy wants more time to rein in the French deficit in order to launch a series of tax cuts aimed at jolting the economy with a growth ‘shock,’ but the move—likely to cost 13 billion euros (18 billion dollars) — risks reversing the deficit’s current downward trend.
   If the deficit starts rising again, it could soon break an EU rule requiring fiscal shortfalls to be kept to less than 3.0 per cent of output, which could get Paris in trouble with its European partners.
   While members of the eurozone pledged in April to balance their government budgets by 2010, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Tuesday said France would not achieve that goal until 2012.
   His government also said it now foresaw a public deficit, which covers national and regional administrations as well as the social welfare account, of 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product in 2007 and 2008.
   France’s previous administration under president Jacques Chirac pledged to slash the public deficit to 1.8 per cent by next year.
   The European Union’s Portuguese presidency and the European Central Bank have warned against breaking commitments on reining in public finances.
   While Sarkozy faces a rough ride over his fiscal plans, his push for more ‘economic governance’ in the eurozone is only slightly less controversial given his past attacks on the ECB’s monetary policy and calls to devalue the euro.

Hotly chasing his elder brother Mukesh Ambani in the wealth race, Anil Ambani has entered the exclusive trillionaire club with personal riches of over Rs 100,000 crore in terms of his share holding in various group companies.
   As per the closing prices on Friday at the Bombay Stock Exchange, the value of Anil Ambani share was worth Rs 100,334 crore while market capitalisation of his group soared to Rs 162,930 crore.
   While the wealth of Mukesh Ambani was upwards of Rs 115,000 crore, the share of Anil Ambani group companies — Reliance Communication and Reliance Capital touched an all time high of Rs 551 crore and Rs 1,149 crore respectively, resulting in the increase in wealth.
   Market capitalisation of flagship Reliance Communication was placed at Rs 112,657 crore, of which promoters holding is 67 per cent giving Anil Ambani a wealth of Rs 74,354 crore.
   Likewise, Reliance Capital market capitalisation was Rs 28,219 crore of which Anil Ambani’s share was 53 per cent at a value of about Rs 15,000 crore.
   This along with the shares in Reliance Energy, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd and elder brother’s Reliance Industries Ltd (Rs 2,856 crore) took the combined wealth of Anil Ambani to over Rs 100,000 crore.
   KP Singh, chairman of recently listed real estate giant DLF, is close behind with the wealth of about Rs 85,000 crore in terms of market capitalisation.

Warid Telecom has launched three unique packages for its post-paid subscribers offering 20 friends and families (FnF) facilities to any mobile operator, the highest ever FnF offer by a mobile operator in Bangladesh.
   According to the offer, all Zahi postpaid subscribers will enjoy FnF rate of only 60 paisa for Warid to Warid and Tk 1.20 for Warid to other operator. Zahi300 subscribers can connect to non-FnF numbers at a rate of Tk 1.40, Zahi125 users at Tk 1.45 and Zahi50 at Tk 1.50.
   Apart from 20 FnF to any operator and one second pulse facilities, postpaid Zahi300 subscribers will also enjoy free talktime for 300 minutes, 200 SMS, 20 MMS and 10 MB GPRS per month.
   Zahi125 subscribers will enjoy 15 FnF facilities to any operator. Apart from this, Zahi 125 users will get free talktime for 125 minutes, 125 SMS, 10 MMS and 5 MB GPRS. Zahi 50 users will get 10 FnF facilities and free value added services including 50 minute airtime, 50 SMS, 5 MMS and 2 MB GRPS.
   Zahi packages are available in 106 dedicated Sales & Customer Service Centers and Franchise outlets all across Bangladesh. In addition, connections are also available at general retail outlets and partner showrooms, the release said.

Acute shortage of skilled professionals across different sectors including medicine, IT and aviation may dampen the Indian economy’s growth rate, industry body FICCI has warned.
   The country would have a shortage of over five lakh doctors and engineers each and thousands of pilots by 2012, according to a study by the chamber.
   Presently, there are 5.91 lakh doctors and at best 22,000 would add to this number annually taking the total to about seven lakh by 2012, against an estimated requirement of over 12 lakh, the survey pointed out.
   Likewise, while the total number of nurses is less than one lakh, the requirement would be over 11 lakh by 2012.
   There would be a serious shortfall of anaesthetists, radiologists, gynaecologists and surgeons, respondents to the survey predicted.
   ‘The country would have to take immediate corrective steps to overcome the shortages if it wants to maintain the growth momentum of the economy,’ FICCI said.
   The information technology industry requires over 3.5 lakh engineers per year, against the availability of just 1.5 lakh engineers. The total shortfall would be over five lakh by 2012.
   In aviation there would be a requirement of 5,400 pilots by the end of the 11th plan and thereafter 150 pilots would be required each year to balance retirement and attrition.
   The FICCI survey identified education, food processing and bio-technology sectors as other key areas that deserve immediate attention for promoting skill development needs of the economy.

Dubai’s Emirates Airline said Sunday that night flights to Sri Lanka will resume after the end of a curfew in response to Tamil rebel air raids, but other carriers have not followed suit.
   Emirates will start normal day and night operations from next Sunday, the airline’s Area Manager for Sri Lanka Tissa Bibile said.
   Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport shut late night services in May following several night time bombing attacks by low-flying Tamil
   Tiger aircraft which crossed the flight paths of international airliners.
   The curfew was lifted last week following the installation of an advanced radar system to detect low-flying aircraft.
   ‘The airline will return to a schedule of 17 services a week between Colombo and Dubai, and four services a week from Colombo to Singapore and Jakarta,’ Bibile told AFP.
   However, SriLankan, which accounts for two thirds of the traffic at the country’s only international airport, is undecided about the resumption of night flights as insurers have not assessed the risks and costs, the airline’s chief executive Peter Hill said in an email interview.
   SriLankan Airlines is managed by Emirates, which also owns a 40 per cent stake in the island’s national carrier.

When Henry Powderly II ordered Verizon Communications Inc’s FiOS fiber-optic service, he knew he was about to be connected to the future of telecommunications. He also got unplugged from its past. Which meant that while Powderly was gaining features, he was losing some telecommunications options.
   Verizon’s installer — without warning, Powderly says — removed the copper wires that used to carry his phone calls. For most of the world, copper still links homes and businesses, as it has for a century.
   Verizon’s new high-bandwidth fiber lines are fully capable of carrying not only calls but also Internet data and television with room to grow. But once the copper is pulled, it’s difficult to switch back to the traditional phone system or less expensive Digital Subscriber Line service. And Verizon isn’t required, in most instances, to lease fiber to rival phone companies, as it is with the copper infrastructure.
   What’s more, anyone who owns Powderly’s house in the future will face higher bills with FiOS than another home with copper. Right now, for instance, Verizon’s DSL plans cost as little as $15 a month. FiOS Internet starts at $30 a month.
   ‘I was not given an option,’ said Powderly, a 30-year-old Long Island, N.Y. resident.
   As it hooks up homes and businesses to its fiber network, Verizon has been routinely disconnecting the copper and, many subscribers say, not telling them upfront or giving them a choice. More than 1 million customers have signed up for a FiOS service, which is offered mainly in the suburban areas of 16 states.
   Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe said customers should have been notified at least three times — once by the sales representative when FiOS is ordered, by the technician before copper is cut and through paperwork given to the customer. Some customers say that hasn’t happened.
   The New York phone company has made it clear its entire network is going to fiber-optics. Verizon has decided to spend $23 billion to make fiber available to 18 million homes by 2010. Network maintenance savings could top $1 billion a year, Verizon said.
   ‘It’s a huge expense to maintain those copper networks,’ said Scott Randolph, federal regulatory director at Verizon. ‘At some point in time, it would not make sense to operate two networks.’
   Mark Cooper, research director at the Consumer Federation of America, says there are other reasons for snipping the wires.
   ‘They don’t want to maintain it — they don’t want the expense and they don’t want the competition,’ he said.
   Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, incumbent phone companies like Verizon must lease to rivals their copper network. That’s generally not the case for next-generation fiber systems. And so far, Verizon has filed more than 100 notices with the Federal Communications Commission to retire portions of copper throughout its network.
   The FCC allows the retirement of copper as long as public notice is given so the phone companies can work together to ensure the smaller companies’ access. But rivals say access at reasonable prices is not guaranteed and it’s just a matter of time before they’re cut off.
   ‘It’s a horrendous situation ... We don’t let General Motors build a highway and decide what size cars to let on the road,’ said Joe Plotkin, marketing director for Bway.net, a New York Internet provider. ‘The small guys have tried to fight this re-monopolization of the network infrastructure.’
   He and other smaller rivals contend the communications market is fast becoming a two-player game between giant phone and cable companies — diminishing consumer choice.
   While AT&T Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. are also retiring their copper networks, they’re not touching the so-called ‘last mile’ of copper wiring that runs from each customer’s dwelling to the central office where other lines aggregate. Laying fiber, a robust pipeline, through the last mile is much more expensive because each line goes to a particular home or business.
   Verizon is taking the pricey route because it believes fiber offers a superior service that will lure customers away from cable operators, who now offer telephone service in addition to television and high-speed Internet.
   Besides limiting options down the road, the switch to FiOS can have other implications. Unlike copper-connected phone service, FiOS doesn’t work during power outages once a backup battery goes out — not even for emergency calls. Home-alarms and certain other devices work best with copper.
   Rabe, the Verizon spokesman, said the company will restore copper to homes if the customer insists, but Verizon would rather not reconnect the copper and will try to convince the customer to agree. At any rate, the phone giant provides ample warning, he said.
   An example of what Rabe describes as adequate notice is the fine print on Verizon’s FiOS policy, which is printed on its Web site. It says ‘current Verizon Online DSL customers who move to FiOS Internet service will have their Verizon Online DSL permanently disabled after their FiOS conversion.’
   Bill Kelm, a FiOS customer in suburban Dallas, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission last year because of Verizon’s ‘inconspicuous’ policy rules.
   ‘It’s buried within these long terms of service that people never take the time to read,’ he said. ‘It needs to be more conspicuous.’

Barely out of the shops in the United States, Apple’s eagerly anticipated iPhone is the subject of increasing speculation about how and at what price it will be rolled out in Europe later this year.
   Despite a hefty price tag of either 499 or 599 dollars (360 or 450 euros) depending on size of the memory, analysts say Apple has sold between 310,000 and 700,000 of the gadgets since its US launch on June 29.
   Now the question is which European countries, and crucially which operators, will be first to benefit from the much-hyped device which combines the wildly popular iPod music player with a mobile telephone, email and Internet access.
   The Financial Times reported Thursday that Apple would limit the launch of iPhones in Europe this year to France, Germany and Britain. The rest of the continent would follow suit with Asia in 2008.
   It also reported that O2, the British unit of Spanish telecommunications group Telefonica, was set to be the first European mobile phone operator to reach a deal with Apple over the device.
   A day earlier, the German daily Rheinische Post reported that T-Mobile, the mobile arm of German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, had beaten rival Vodafone in the battle to win marketing rights for iPhone in Germany.
   Neither of these reports has been confirmed. A spokesman for O2 dismissed them as ‘speculation’, saying it had ‘not signed a deal with Apple’. France Telecom, another potential candidate, has also remained silent.
   There is also speculation about the price of the new iPhone. Internet rumours suggest it will cost 899 or 999 euros, far more than in the United States, although specialists predict a cost of between 400 and 500 euros.
   Another question is whether the iPhone will be equipped to use the 3G network that European operators have spent so much money on—in the United States, it only uses the slower 2.5G network.
   Despite these concerns, the author of the first European study on the impact of iPhone on the continent, Stephane Dubreuil of Sia Conseil consultancy, said operators were engaging in a ‘real battle’ over the device.
   The product ‘has such an attraction that it will enable them to win new clients over their competitors,’ he said, adding: ‘This is typically a product that firms prefer to see among their own, not among the competition.’
   Apple has never hidden the fact that it would choose market-leading operators, but only on the condition they accept its demands—which may demand sacrifices from the firms involved.

Two years after China’s first budget airline took to the skies, the low-cost boom seen elsewhere around the world remains a distant prospect despite the Chinese aviation industry’s spectacular growth.
   Passenger traffic on Chinese airlines is forecast to rise 16 per cent to 185 million journeys in 2007, making it one of the world’s fastest growing aviation sectors, but only a tiny fraction of those trips will be on a low-cost airline.
   While budget carriers have flourished in Europe and other parts of Asia, in China they face a host of bank-breaking restrictions that puts them at a huge disadvantage to the bigger, government-linked airlines.
   High landing fees, bans on lucrative routes and high prices charged by the state-run fuel provider are just some of the barriers for the low-cost hopefuls.
   The government has given signals recently that it will ease some of the controls, but the privately-run small carriers said they still had a long way to go before the state monopoly was dismantled. ‘We are still waiting for a breakthrough,’ Wang Jianbin, chief financial officer of Okay Airways, told a conference in Shanghai recently.
   Okay began operating in March 2005, creating history as China’s first privately-run carrier and the Chinese pioneer of the low-cost model.
   But it saw its revenue stream under such pressure that it scrapped its budget concept in favour of a more standard pricing strategy.
   Wang said the planned government reforms gave cause for some optimism, but said there was still a long way to go before the conditions were ripe for passengers in China to enjoy ultra-cheap flights.
   ‘Only when liberalisation of the aviation industry is realised will the low-cost model be popularised,’ he said.
   Chen Ke, a financial manager for Spring Airlines, another small private carrier, agreed that running a budget airline was tough but said the government would change its course once it realised that there was money to be made.

Lacklustre growth, ballooning petroleum imports, cotton sales hit by Western subsidies and a lingering political crisis in the region’s former star economy have crippled a west African economic bloc.
   The eight-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union, home to some 80 million inhabitants, is set to record a relatively poor growth rate this year, the head of the region’s central bank said Tuesday.
   ‘The year 2007 could also be marked by a relatively feeble growth of four per cent,’ said Damo Justin Barro, the acting governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).
   The growth rate last year was a mere 3.2 per cent—two per centage points lower than the average for sub-Saharan Africa—and clearly insufficient to pull out the area from endemic poverty.
   The UEMOA is a customs and monetary union between some of the members of the larger Economic Community of West African States regional grouping.
   It comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Togo and Senegal.
   The poor growth rate was blamed to a large degree on falling agricultural revenues, especially for cotton, which is a major cash crop in the region.
   Western states provide huge subsidies for their cotton producers, thereby affecting exports from West Africa. Some of the bloc’s members argue that the effect of international debt waivers are offset by such subsidies.
   The bank chief however said inflation across the region had been contained at an average of 2.3 per cent last year against 4.3 per cent in 2005.
   The grouping has also felt the backlash of a long-drawn political crisis in Ivory Coast, which is still the region’s economic powerhouse and the world’s top cocoa producer despite having been split in half since a failed uprising in September 2002.
   The country’s main port Abidjan, which was a regional hub and serviced many of the landlocked countries, has experienced a sharp fall in traffic. But it is still far ahead in terms of volumes than its nearest rival Dakar.
   This has driven up costs of goods in the hinterland as they now have to be transported along longer distances over land.
   The BCEAO in a new report warned that the current oil shock had also driven up the prices of oil exports except for the region’s sole producer Ivory Coast.
   The oil import bill comprised 32 per cent of the sum of total imports last year against 19 per cent in 2002, it said.
   It said the sagging performance of the region’s key sectors ‘showed up the fragility of the economic structures and their vulnerability to external shocks.’
   Last year, only two nations in the grouping registered an improved growth rate. Benin’s economy grew 3.6 per cent against 2.9 per cent the previous year while Togo’s performance rose to 1.5 per cent from 0.8 per cent.
   Growth in Ivory Coast stagnated at 1.8 per cent and fell in other countries, notably to 3.1 per cent in Senegal from 5.5 per cent in the previous year and Niger, where the growth rate halved year-on-year to 3.5 per cent.

The Southern African Development Community is preparing an economic rescue package for Zimbabwe which would include extending the rand monetary area into the impoverished country, reports said Sunday.
   This is in an effort by the 14-nation regional bloc to stabilise the exchange rate of the Zimbabwe dollar and curb inflation, now estimated at a world record 5,000 percent, The Sunday Independent reported.
   The SADC secretariat Tomaz Salamao was tasked at a summit in March to study ways and means through which the regional trading bloc could assist in the economic recovery of Zimbabwe.
   It was at the same summit where South African President Thabo Mbeki was mandated to mediate between President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition.
   According to the new plan, Zimbabwe would be included in the multilateral monetary area (MMA), which now includes neighbouring South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, and Swaziland, making the rand a legal tender in Zimbabwe, the paper said quoting unidentified sources.
   The neighbouring countries would also pump millions into the Zimbabwe reserve bank, effectively propping up the Zimbabwe dollar which has become almost worthless, and put its exchange rate with foreign currencies at the same level as the rand.
   The paper said Salamao visited Zimbabwe on Thursday last week to discuss his plans with the government after briefing SADC leaders at the African Union summit in Ghana.
   Mugabe would first have to agree to fundamental political reforms in the negotiations with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change due to start in Pretoria on Monday, if the plan is to go ahead, the paper added.

Having conquered Southeast Asian skies with his pioneering budget airline, Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes hopes to repeat the success of his business model with a down-to-earth chain of no-frills hotels.
   Despite a chorus of sceptics, Fernandes almost single-handedly brought low-cost flying to the region with AirAsia.
   Now he believes his Tune Hotels.Com project can do the same for budget accommodation in a region where cheap has usually equated with shabby and badly managed.
   Co-founded by Fernandes, Tune Hotels.Com first opened in downtown Kuala Lumpur in April and has been enjoying an occupancy rate of more than 90 per cent from day one, the company says.
   Industry watchers say initial demand for the Kuala Lumpur outlet shows Southeast Asia is starved of quality in the sector.
   ‘There are a lot of travellers who are looking for that kind of service,’ said Ali Mirza, executive director with market research consultancy MarketShare in Singapore.
   ‘So there is a new need in the marketplace for budget hotels,’ he said, adding ‘chances are very high’ of success.
   Analysts believe demand for budget hotels will take off rapidly following the blossoming of the region’s low-cost airline sector, led by AirAsia.
   Fernandes launched AirAsia in December 2001 with just two aircraft. It now serves domestic and international routes throughout the region, and spawned a number of imitators.
   Dennis Melka, director and co-founder of Tune Hotels.Com, said passengers flying the low-cost carriers cannot afford four- and five-star accommodation.
   Nightly room rates at Tune Hotels.Com’s Kuala Lumpur property start from 2.85 dollars, excluding taxes.
   The hotel offers a bed and a hot shower but extras such as soap, towels and air conditioning cost more, much as snacks are served for a fee on AirAsia flights.
   Along with the bare-bones service, both the airline and hotel offer an Internet-based reservation system which prices tickets or rooms cheaply if bookings are made in advance.
   They also share similar logos. Both are done up in AirAsia’s signature colours, with even the exterior of the seven-storey Kuala Lumpur hotel painted in bold red and white.
   John Koldowski, director of strategic intelligence with the Pacific Asia Travel Association, believes branded budget hotel lodging will take off in the region.

Giant Russian energy firm Gazprom wants to be the world’s first firm with a stock market value of a trillion dollars, its deputy chief executive told the Sunday Times.
   Alexander Medvedev did not give a timetable for achieving the goal but the paper reported that executives at the firm, which is nearly half-owned by the state, believe it can be achieved within five to seven years.
   Gazprom would have to quadruple its current 251 billion dollar (184 billion euro) market value to achieve the objective.
   The firm is currently the eighth-most valuable in the world, with US oil and gas company Exxon Mobil, valued at 479 billion dollars, topping the list, the Sunday Times said.
   But Medvedev told the paper: “It’s not just a nice figure.”
   He said that the removal of gas price controls in Russia, a revaluing of its reserves by western market, the introduction of cost controls plus diversification and acquisitions could push Gazprom towards its goal. Such ambitions risk fuelling fears among some Western politicians over the growing power of the group.

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing rolls out its revolutionary new ‘green’ passenger jet, the 787 Dreamliner, on Sunday with its order books already bursting at the seams.
   More than 15,000 people were expected to gather at Boeing’s giant plant in Everett, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Seattle, for a glimpse of the plane as it is unveiled at 15:30 pm (2230 GMT).
   Boeing’s first new model in 13 years takes advantage of the huge advances made in aviation technology in the past decade, and is capable of flying long-haul routes using up to 20 per cent less fuel.
   The Dreamliner boasts several revolutionary design features, most notably the use of high-tech plastic composites instead of aluminum.
   Up to 50 per cent of the primary structure of the plane—including the fuselage and wing—will be made of composites such as carbon-fiber, which reduce the weight of the planes.
   ‘The airplane will use 20 per cent less fuel for comparable missions than today’s similarly sized airplane,’ Boeing said in a statement.
   The promise of lower fuel costs at a time of rising oil prices in a sector where profit margins are already razor-thin has whetted the appetites of several key players in the airline industry.
   Boeing, which aims to build 2,000 Dreamliners over the next two decades, has so far received 677 orders from 47 companies for the plane, which has a catalogue price of between 146 to 200 million dollars.
   The plane will make its maiden test flight later this year before going into commercial service with All Nippon Airways (ANA) in 2008 after the Japanese company placed its first order four years ago.
   On Saturday, Australian flag-carrier Qantas said it was buying an additional 20 Boeing 787s on top of an order for 65 planes placed in December 2005.
   Kuwait’s ALAFCO Aviation Lease and Finance Company on Saturday signed for the direct purchase of 10 planes, valued at 1.62 billion dollars. The new purchase builds on an order for 12 787s ALAFCO announced in March.
   Air Berlin announced an order for 25 airplanes valued at four billion at list prices.
   On top of the 25 orders, Air Berlin has secured 10 options and 15 purchase rights for additional 787s.
   And aircraft leasing and finance specialist CIT has also ordered an additional five Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets doubling its order to 10 aircraft in a deal worth some 810 million dollars at book prices.
   With its order books full, Boeing would only be able to deliver any new orders signed today in 2015, said Boeing’s Mike Blair.
   The Dreamliner comes in three models for both medium and long-haul flights with a seating capacity of between 210 to 330 places.
   Able to fly up to 15,750 kilometers (9,700 miles) without refueling, it could easily manage a flight between New York and Manila, or Moscow and Sao Paulo, routes so far only open to bigger planes such as Boeing’s 777 or 747.
   Boeing hopes the Dreamliner will be used to open up profitable flights between cities which so far have no direct links such as Seattle-Shanghai, Boston-Athens or Madrid-Manila.
   Richard Aboulafia, chief analyst with the Teal Group Corporation, said the Dreamliner was poised to revolutionize air travel if its projected rates of fuel-efficiency proved accurate.
   ‘If you look at it from an airline standpoint: you don’t have a choice,’ Aboulafia told AFP. ‘If you don’t have a 787-class aircraft and your competitor does, he can under-price you and out-profit you.
   The Dreamliner’s other innovations include greater levels of comfort for passengers, with higher humidity levels within the cabin expected to reduce passenger dehydration.
   The 787 will go into service after Airbus’s mammoth A380 takes to the skies. The first units of the double-decker superjumbo—capable of seating up to 800 passengers—will be delivered to Singapore Airlines in October.
   Analysts say the Dreamliner and the A380 reflect the different strategies of Boeing and Airbus as they seek to achieve the same objective—cheaper air travel.

South Korea said Sunday its trade would expand more than expected this year thanks to sustainable growth of the global economy.
   The commerce ministry reported in a revised outlook report that exports would grow 12.8 per cent year-on-year to 367 billion dollars and imports would jump 13.9 per cent to 352 billion dollars this year.
   The forecasts were up from the ministry’s earlier projections for trade growth at 10.6 per cent in exports and 10.9 per cent in imports this year.
   The projected trade surplus of 15 billion dollars for this year was, however, down from 16.1 billion dollars posted last year, it said.
   ‘The global economy is expected to show sustainable growth,’ it said, forecasting
   cars, shipbuilding, steel and
   flat display panels would lead the country’s strong export growth.
   It noted the country’s economy was faring well despite a stronger won, maintaining a two-digit export growth in the first half of this year to June.
   South Korea’s exports grew an estimated 14.7 per cent year-on-year in the first half, it said, forecasting an 11.2 per cent growth in the second half.
   Imports, which grew an estimated 13.7 per cent year-on-year in the first half, are expected to gain 14 per cent in the second half, it said.

Asian currencies ended the week mainly up against the US dollar as the Australian dollar hit an 18-year high and the yen strengthened over a predicted increase in eurozone borrowing rates.
   Japanese yen: The Japanese currency stood at 123.15 to the dollar late Friday, modestly higher than 123.42 to the dollar a week earlier.
   Australian dollar: The Aussie was trading at 85.68 US cents at 5:00 pm Friday (0600 GMT), up from the previous week’s 85.04 US cents.
   tands at 42.50 pence, but that is a far cry from 73.50 pence in 1985 or 53 pence in 1996. And while the Aussie stands at 63 euro cents, it was as high as 80 euro cents in 1989 and 70.3 euro cents in 1997.’
   New Zealand dollar: The New Zealand dollar ended the week at 78.21 US cents, up from 76.92 the previous Friday.
   The kiwi continued to hit new highs for the 22 years since it was freely floated in 1985, hitting a high of 78.80 early Friday.
   US interest rate yields have been falling and the differential between the US yields and many other countries widening, increasing pressure to sell US dollars, said HSBC Auckland-based treasurer Trevor Pye.
   ‘Once again we seem to be at the mercy of the high yields in New Zealand and the weaker US dollar and that’s continuing to underpin the currency and push us higher,’ Pye said.
   ‘The technical picture, though, is getting a little bit extended and when it does move this quickly there’s always a chance you can see some sort of dramatic pullback.’
   Chinese Yuan: The yuan closed at 7.6007 to the dollar Friday on the exchange-traded market, compared with Thursday’s close of 7.5977, and a closing price of 7.6213 to the dollar the week before.
   On the over-the-counter market, it ended at 7.6010 to the dollar against 7.5984 the previous day.
   The central bank had set the yuan central parity rate at 7.6155 to the dollar Friday, compared with 7.6178 on Thursday.
   The People’s Bank of China allows a trading band of 0.5 percent on either side of the midpoint.
   Hong Kong dollar: The US-pegged Hong Kong dollar ended the week at 7.81755, from 7.816 a week earlier.
   Indonesian rupiah: The rupiah ended the week trading at 9,030/9,035 to the dollar, compared to 9,045/9,055 to the dollar a week earlier.
   Philippine peso: The Philippine peso traded higher
   at 46.08 to the dollar on
   Friday afternoon from 46.24 on July 29.
   Singapore dollar: The dollar was at 1.5202 Singapore dollars on Friday from 1.5324 the previous week.
   South Korean won: The won closed at at 919.7 won per dollar, compared to 923.80 won a week, as exporters and offshore investors continued to unload their dollar holdings.
   South Korean government authorities have voiced concern over the won’s appreciation but failed to stop its gain which was also fuelled by expectation of an interest rate rise.
   Taiwan dollar: The Taiwan dollar fell 0.23 percent in the week to July 6 to close at 32.809 against the US dollar. The local currency closed at 32.735 a week earlier.
   Thai Baht: The Thai baht surged against the dollar over the past week amid active trading sparked by capital inflow into the local stock market and gains in line with regional currencies, dealers said.
   The Thai unit hit a 10-year high on Thursday in onshore trading at 33.95 baht to one dollar.
   The Thai baht slightly retreated to close Friday at 34.01-02 to the dollar compared to last week’s close of 34.53-54.

Profit
   Ambee Pharma
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2006, the company has reported net profit of Tk 4.99m with EPS of Tk 2.50 as against Tk. 3.64m and Tk. 1.82 respectively as on December 31, 2005.
   
   Dividend
   Alaraka Bank
   The bank has further informed that Bangladesh Bank has allowed the bank for disbursement of stock dividend @ 15pc instead of earlier declared 35pc stock dividend for the year 2006.
   
   Transaction
   Southeast Bank
   Yussuf Abdullah Harun, one of the sponsors of the bank,
   has further reported that he has completed his sale of
   72,055 shares of the bank while Rose Corner (Pvt) Ltd, one
   of the corporate sponsors of the bank, has further reported
   that it has completed its sale of 21,000 shares of the bank at
   prevailing market price through stock exchange as announced earlier.
   NCC Bank
   Nisar Kader and Din M Rana, both are sponsors of the bank, have further reported that they have completed their sale/buy of 14,000 shares each of the bank at prevailing market price through stock exchange as announced earlier.
   Aslam-ul-Karim, one of the directors of the bank, has reported his intention to sell 2,850 shares out of his total holdings of 1,95,946 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   City Bank
   City General Insurance Co Ltd, one of the corporate sponsors of the bank, has reported its intention to sell 37,500 shares out of its total holdings of 74,250 shares of the Bank while Anwar Hossain and Ms. Bibi Amena both are Sponsors of the bank have reported their intention to buy 7,500 and 5,000 shares respectively (in the Block Market) of the bank at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange within next 30 working days.
   
   Response to DSE query
   Aftab Automobiles
   In response to a DSE query, the company has informed that there is no undisclosed price sensitive information of the company for recent unusual price hike.
   Source: DSE, CSE

Videocon aims to be $10b entity through M&A
Aiming at an over three-fold jump in revenue to ten billion dollars, consumer durables major Videocon Group today said mergers and acquisitions will be key to its plan and it was hunting for prospects in Europe and US. ‘We are a three billion dollar group now... We intend to become a ten billion dollar group. We have a corporate plan and we will realise it in the next five years,’ Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot told PTI in an exclusive interaction. He said the group’s ambition would be possible only by mergers and acquisitions — a route through which it became the owner of French firm Thompson’s picture tube business and Swiss com- pany AB Elextrolux’ Indian subsidiary.
— PTI

Italian police seize fake Colgate toothpaste
Italian police have seized nearly 20,000 tubes of counterfeit Colgate toothpaste in 55 shops across the country, fearing they may be harmful to health, officials said on Saturday. Tests were being carried out to determine whether they contained toxic substances, a statement from the health ministry said. Results were due next week. There is no Italian written on the packaging, which says the tubes were manufactured either in Brasil, Turkey, South Africa or Spain.
— AFP

Indian goldsmiths urged to tap global market
With the global market for jewellery wide open for Indian products, goldsmiths in the country should adapt innovative ideas to meet international standards and fulfill the expectation of global traders and customers, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said. Distributing loans to goldsmiths at a function organised by the Indian Bank here last evening, he stressed on the need to go for value addition to exploit the global market.
— PTI