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Speakers at a seminar on Wednesday underscored the need for enhancing the capacity of trade diplomats and diversifying the country’s export basket to reap maximum benefit from the regional trading arrangements.
   They observed that regional trade pacts had so far failed to attract member countries of the South Asian block to take up more meaningful trade initiatives.
   The views and recommendations were given at the seminar on ‘regional trading arrangements: opportunities and pitfalls for Bangladesh’.
   The seminar, held at the city’s CIRDAP auditorium, was organised by Development Research Network.
   Economists, researchers, businessmen, trade diplomats and retired bureaucrats took part in the discussion.
   ‘The capacity of the government has to be enhanced to derive maximum benefits from multilateral trade agreements, particularly the regional ones,’ Mostafizur Rahman, research director of Centre for Policy Dialogue told the seminar.
   Market access of Bangladeshi products to international markets must be linked to the core objective of uplifting the destiny of the poor, he said.
   Former commerce secretary Suhel Ahmed said the government should have joined with the ASEAN trade pact, which has proved to be a vibrant trading arrangement.
   Trade officials could not enhance desired level of expertise due to their frequent transfers to different ministries, he pointed out.
   Expressing his frustration, the retired secretary pointed out that the rules of origin criteria of the South Asian Free Trade Area agreement were worse than those in the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement.
   ‘The complex and higher value addition criteria under the rules of origin of the SAFTA made the regional trading arrangement almost meaningless for Bangladesh,’ Suhel told the seminar.
   He said the generalized system of preferences and multi-fibre arrangement are two major factors that led to the success of the country’s readymade garment sector.
   Manzur Ahmed of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry said the country is left with no choice other than enhancing the negotiating skill of trade diplomats.
   ‘Negotiators faltered our interests in different multilateral forums,’ Manzur told the seminar.
   Ananya Raihan, executive director, D-Net said the country could reap benefit from regional trade pacts once the export basket is diversified and capacity increased.
   Mostafa Abid Khan of the Tariff Commission placed the keynote speech at the seminar, recommending a study for determining the rules of criteria suiting the need and capacity of the country’s manufacturing sector.
    He underlined the need for product diversification to maximize the benefits from regional trade agreements.

Market for organic vegetables is huge in the European Union countries, but lack of awareness among the growers about organic technology hinders the export growth, speakers at a workshop in Dhaka said Wednesday.
   The government should remove all the barriers to exports and help the country earn more foreign currencies from organic vegetables, they said, stressing the need for a long-term project to popularise organic farming.
   Lenin Azad, executive chairman of Unnayan Gabeshana Foundation, presented the keynote paper at the workshop.
   He identified lack of skills, scarcity of organic seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, transportation problems and absence of government policy support as major hindrances to expansion of organic farming.
   Standard in the EU countries is too high to maintain, which he spotted as a demand side constraint.
   Fresh vegetables exports have so far been limited to Bangladeshi consumers living in the Middle East or in Europe and could not make way into chain stores of those countries due to requirements of high health and safety standards.
   Under the present EU import laws, no vegetables can be imported if they contain more than five per cent of chemical components.
   Lenin Azad recommended that the government should set up a certification authority, which will authorise that the products are organic.
   ‘No one will believe if a seller claims that the vegetables are organic if he fails to show any certificate,’ he pointed out.
   Not only abroad, such certification would help organic fresh foods to have a wider market at home also on the back of growing demand from an emerging consumers’ class browsing around superstores, he added.
   He urged the government to take steps for ensuring adequate supply of organic seed, fertilisers and pesticides.
   Moslehuddin Faruque, officer of plant protection wing of the Department of Agriculture Extension, said Bangladesh embassies in different countries can organise trade shows to popularise local vegetables among foreign consumers.
   Rafiqul Islam of Hortex Foundation said about 35,000 tonnes of vegetables were exported last year.

Thailand’s military-installed premier Tuesday said his country would start fresh talks with India next month to conclude a free trade accord aimed at boosting bilateral trade.
   Surayud Chulanont, named premier after Thailand’s military ousted Thaksin Shinwatra in September, arrived in New Delhi late Monday on a three-day visit.
   ‘Our two countries are on track to conclude a free trade agreement in the near future with a view to establishing the FTA covering trade in goods by 2010,’ Surayud told a business meeting in New Delhi.
   The India-Thai talks on free trade were launched during a visit by Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to Thailand last year and prior to the coup, but progress has been slow. With Thailand’s economy slowing due to political instability, Surayud has been looking for ways — including bilateral free trade deals — to keep crucial exports growing.
   Surayud, who was also lined up for talks with Singh Tuesday, also invited Indian investment in the information technology and pharmaceutical sectors.

Mobile telephone density in Bangladesh has increased by 1,585 per cent in five years — between January 2002 and January 2007, according to an official document.
   Mobile telephone density in the country, merely one per cent in January 2002 touched 16.85 per cent in January 2007, according to the Bangladesh Economic Review 2007 published recently by the government.
   Although more than 90 per cent of the population live under the coverage of mobile phone, only 17 out of 100 people use mobile phone in Bangladesh.
   Up to January 2007, the number of mobile subscribers had reached 2.18 crore.
   The Asian Development Bank, in a recent estimate, has said that the number of mobile subscribers in Bangladesh would double to 44 million in the next two years.
   Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd launched first mobile phone using analog AMPS technology in 1993. Later it migrated to digital CDMA option.
   In November 1996, licences to operate cellular mobile phone networks were issued, and GrameenPhone, Telekom Malaysia International Bangladesh Ltd (Aktel) and Sheba Telecom Ltd entered the market.
   Later, Teletalk (state-owned) and Warid Telecom were licenced to operate in Bangladesh. Sheba Telecom Ltd was acquired by Orascom in September 2004 and re-branded to Banglalink.
   Mentionably, all the operators, except Teletalk, are joint ventures in which Bangladesh units collaborate with foreign companies.
   The Economic Review 2007 also said that the government had issued 37 licences in the private sector for the operation of fixed telephone to meet the growing telephone demands of the country.

Private sector investment declined significantly in the outgoing fiscal year, according to the Bangladesh Economic Review for 2007.
   Registration of private sector investment projects at the Board of Investment reduced by 24 per cent, from the previous fiscal year, 2006-07.
   ‘The drop was mainly due to major reductions in foreign and joint venture investments, local investments however have increased by 37.7 per cent,’ according to the Review, a government document published annually.
   During the July-February period, of the outgoing fiscal year, some 1,516 projects worth Tk 25,239 crore were registered with the BoI.
   Of them, local investors registered 1,386 projects worth Tk 15,853 crore. Foreign investors registered the other 130 projects worth a total of Tk 9,385.
   During the FY 2005-06 some 1,889-investment projects worth Tk 43,356 crore were registered with the BoI. Of them Tk 24,986 crore were made by foreign investors and Tk 18,370 crore by local investors.
   The private sector downturn was primarily due to a fall in foreign investments. There was a reduction of Tk 15,601 crore, for the first eight months, of the outgoing fiscal compared to the same period the previous year.
   The government has identified political uncertainty in the later half of last year and hesitancy in adopting big foreign investment proposals for the decline.
   Breakdowns of domestic private sector investment proposals for the July-February period of 2006-07 were supplied by the Review; textile sector stood at 70.23 per cent, followed by 8.01 per cent in chemicals and 7.73 per cent in the service sector.
   The foreign investment breakdown stood at a staggering 85.65 per cent in the service sector and 7.89 per cent for the textile sector.
   A senior BoI official told bdnews24.com that they expect a surge in investment as the situation has improved significantly since January.
   ‘During registration, an entrepreneur submits an investment proposal to the BoI. This should be implemented within a specified period. Thus registration means only an investment commitment, not an actual investment’ the official added.

Stock prices fell on Wednesday after a 10-day rally as the investors sold off holdings to cash in profit.
   The general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange lost 17.48 points or 0.81 per cent to close at 2131.79, while its blue chips index, DSE20, shed 18.78 points or 0.99 per cent to close at 1872.79.
   Chittagong Stock Exchange’s selective categories index gained 31.11 points or 0.89 per cent to close at 3457.68, while its blue chips index, CSE30, shed 52.91 points or 1.07 per cent to close at 4876.62.
   Market sources said profit taking selling pressure pushed down the stock prices.
   Of the total 199 issues traded on the DSE, 103 declined, 66 advanced and 30 remained unchanged.
   Of the total 104 issues traded on the CSE, 63 declined, 28 advanced and 13 remained unchanged.
   Turnover on the DSE also decreased to Tk 158.15 crore from the highest ever turnover record at Tk 234.44 crore on Tuesday.
   On Wednesday, CSE turnover declined to Tk 28.50 crore from its all-time high at Tk 45.48 crore on Tuesday.
   The Power Grid Company Bangladesh topped the turnover leaders on the DSE with total transaction of Tk 10.59 crore.
   Other turnover leaders on the prime bourse were Southeast Bank, BRAC
   Bank, Shahjalal Islami Bank, Pubali Bank, Dhaka Electric Supply Company, Summit Power, Grameen Mutual Fund One, Premier Bank and Exim Bank.

The World Bank on Wednesday approved one of its largest support packages to India with a 600 million dollar loan and credit designed to transform access to financial services for Indian farmers.
   The Strengthening Rural Credit Cooperatives Project supports the government of India’s programme to reform and revitalise the country’s rural Credit Cooperative Banks.
   These include some 31 state cooperative banks, 367 district central cooperative banks and over 100,000 primary agricultural credit societies.
   The goal is to transform them into efficient and commercially viable institutions responsive to the financial service needs of India’s poorer farmers, including small and marginal farmers, the Bank said in a statement.

Food exports from Thailand, the world’s fifth biggest food exporter, are set to grow by 7.5 per cent this year despite worries over a strengthening baht and weak US demand, an industry group said Wednesday.
   The growth would match the rate of 2006, powered by strong overseas demand and boosted by a free trade deal with Japan that takes effect later this year, Thailand’s National Food Institute said.
   Total food exports are expected to reach 600 billion baht ($16.87b) in 2007, up from 560 billion baht last year, the group said.
   Overseas shipments jumped 16.3 per cent year-on-year during the five months to May to almost 250 billion baht, the institute said, attributing the gain to strong growth from Southeast Asia, China and the Middle East.
   Thai firms have worried that a strong baht would dampen the kingdom’s crucial export industry by making Thai products more expensive overseas. The baht has gained 14 per cent since January 2006, trading Wednesday at 34.52-53 to the dollar.
   ‘Exports are likely to be seriously hit in the third quarter with slower demand from the US and the impact of the strong baht,’ said the institute’s director Yuthasak Supaporn.
   ‘But shipments are expected to pick up in the fourth quarter as we expect Japanese and the European economies will continue to expand, with some gains from the Thailand-Japan free-trade agreement,’ he told reporters.
   Exports to Japan and the United States dipped slightly in the first five months, but soared by 44.5 per cent to the rest of Southeast Asia and by 22.8 per cent to China. Thailand’s main food exports are rice, shrimp, sugar, tuna and chicken.
   Rice exports are tipped to rise 16 per cent this year to 8.5 million tonnes, said Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Rice Exporters’ Association.

An ad hoc committee comprising representatives from the Association of Cargo Agents of Bangladesh and International Freight Forwarders Association of Bangladesh was formed recently under the help and supervision of the Task Force (B) on Chittagong Port Affairs.
   The seven-member committee was formed to initiate the process of merger of ACAB and IFFAB and take necessary action to form a single trade association, styled ‘Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association’, and prepare a draft of the Freight Forwarders Licensing Rules in consultation with the National Board of Revenue, Customs and the Task Force (B) on Chittagong Port Affairs for submission to NBR for notification as statutory regulatory order, said a prerss release.
   Helaluddin Akbar of ACAB has been made the president of the ad hoc committee while Badrul Haque Chowdhury of IFFAB made vice-president (Chittagong), Mohammed Faiz Khan of ACAB vice-president (Dhaka), Nasir Uddin Mahmud of ACAB assistant general secretary (Dhaka), Akter Kamal Chowdhury of IFFAB assistant general secretary (Chittagong), Sultan Ahmed of ACAB joint treasurer (Dhaka) and Mostak Ahmed Talukder of IFFAB joint treasurer (Chittagong).
   ACAB president Captain Saifur Rahman and IFFAB president Rafi Omar will be coordinating the ad hoc committee as advisers.

Iran’s post-revolution prime minister has broken years of silence to warn that poverty is threatening the basis of the Islamic republic, the media reported on Sunday.
   Mir Hossein Moussavi, seen as close to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, served in the now-defunct post of prime minister from 1981 to 1989, but has largely stayed out of politics ever since.
   In a speech quoted by most of the reformist newspapers, he complained the country was becoming immune to pictures of impoverished minors and statistics which he said showed that 20 per cent of Tehran children were homeless.
   ‘It seems that we have distanced ourselves from the revolution’s vision and thoughts,’ said Moussavi.
   ‘It seems like we think that our responsibility is over. Uprooting poverty and meeting human needs, while preserving their dignity, is what the Islamic republic’s economy is based on,’ he added.
   Moussavi, who also served as foreign minister, noted that article 43 of Iran’s constitution said it must aim to provide all the basic needs and food to its people.
   ‘The Islamic republic’s legitimacy depends on these principles. It means that this system, as long as it is an Islamic republic and accepts this constitution, cannot abandon this goal and settle for less.’
   Iran’s reformists — including the outgoing government — were keen for Moussavi to run for president in the 2005 elections as a popular moderate who still enjoys great legitimacy owing to his closeness to Khomeini.

Major theme park players are keen to invest in Malaysia except for Universal Studios which is involved in a 3.4 billion dollar resort project in Singapore, a top official said Tuesday.
   Azman Mokhtar, managing director of state investment arm Khazanah Nasional, said the theme park that will be built in southern Johor state will complement Universal in neighbouring Singapore.
   ‘All the the major names in the theme park business — all the major brands — are talking to us with the exception of Universal,’ he said.
   ‘We have taken into account the developments in Singapore in the integrated resort and we believe there is very much room for both parks,’ Azman told reporters.
   ‘In fact, not only room — I think they will actually be reinforcing each other.’
   The theme park in Malaysia’s southern - most Johor state is part of the 17.7 billion ringgit ($5.1b) Iskandar Development Region where cash-rich Khazanah is a major investor.
   Azman did not name the interested parties but said talks were in the early stages. ‘Suffice to say ... we are making steady progress.’

CIT Group, the US financial company with 80 billion dollars in managed assets, said Tuesday it plans to enter the Indian market to tap booming demand for commercial and consumer loans.
   ‘India is one of the places we are talking about doing our core business in, after China,’ said Michael Baresich, executive vice president of the Fortune 500 company. ‘The dimensions of our business in India are under consideration.’
   ‘We like the scale of the Indian market,’ Baresich told reporters in Bangalore, where CIT awarded its first information-technology outsourcing contract to Mindtree Consulting, a mid-sized IT company.
   CIT wants to join global financial giants such as Citigroup, HSBC and Deutsche Bank in tapping expanding demand for corporate and consumer finance in a nation of 1.1 billion people as economic growth accelerates.
   Indian companies are borrowing more to invest in new production facilities and meet growing domestic demand for homes, cars, computers and other consumer durables being stoked in part by the easy availability of loans.
   The economy grew 9.4 per cent in the year to March, when bank loans expanded 29 per cent.

Angry youths torched petrol stations and long queues formed at heavily-guarded fuel pumps on Wednesday after oil-rich Iran announced the start of fuel rationing, triggering nationwide protests.
   ‘Several stations were damaged by agitators,’ state radio reported, as angry drivers trying to stock up on fuel clashed with police after the surprise announcement that the rationing would take effect from midnight Tuesday.
   Shouting ‘(president Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad must be killed,’ stone-throwing demonstrators set ablaze a car and petrol pumps at a service station in the Pounak residential area of northwestern Tehran late on Tuesday.
   The protests are the first such open outpouring of anger since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, although criticism has mounted recently in some economic circles that his policies were fuelling inflation and hurting the poor.
   Iran, OPEC’s number two oil producer and the fourth in the world, announced on Tuesday that its rationing plan, aimed at reducing colossal state petrol subsidies, would extend to private cars and taxis.
   But as the violence erupted, several reformist and moderate lawmakers were pushing for legislation to halt the rationing plan while keeping prices at the current 10 cents a litre.
   Iranian Interior minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, and Oil minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh are heading to parliament to explain the situation to the lawmakers in a closed session
   Long queues of cars, some several kilometres long, snaked from petrol stations in Tehran and across the country as armed police stood guard. In some areas, people turned up with buckets to fill up with fuel.
   ‘From midnight Tuesday (2030 GMT) petrol for all vehicles and motorcycles will be rationed,’ state television said, quoting an oil ministry statement issued just a few hours before the rationing came into force.
   It said private cars using just petrol would be rationed to 100 litres of petrol a month while those using petrol and liquefied gas would only be allowed 30 litres.
   The government said the rationing would continue for four months and might be extended further to six months in Iran, where there are more than seven million cars on the roads.
   Separate quotas have also been introduced for both municipal yellow taxis and privately-run taxis, both essential means of transport in Iran.
   Cheap pump prices have encouraged such consumption in Iran that the government ironically had to spend five billion dollars importing petrol in the last financial year ended March.
   Its refining capacity covers only about 60 per cent of its needs, while smugglers also illegally take cheap petrol out of the country to neighbouring states where pump prices are far higher.
   Iran launched the first phase of the rationing plan two weeks ago, initially targeting only government vehicles.
   Last month, it also raised pump prices by 25 per cent, to around 10 cents per litre, for a commodity that still costs less than a comparable amount of mineral water.
   Iran estimates that without rationing, fuel imports could reach 9.5 billion dollars a year.
   Under the plan announced Tuesday, the maximum amount of petrol allowed in total for the four-month period is 400 litres for petrol-burning cars and 120 litres for those which consume both liquefied gas and petrol.
   Ahmadinejad has been criticised by the reformist press for stoking already high inflation in the Islamic republic with high spending and promising lavish local investment projects on provincial tours.
   And earlier this month, more than 50 economists wrote an open letter warning Ahmadinejad about the effects of his economic policies on society.
   However the president, who was elected in 2005 on a platform of distributing the country’s riches more evenly, insists inflation is under control and that the government is doing all it can to reduce poverty.
   The central bank has predicted inflation will rise to 17 per cent in the year to March 2008 and some economists expect the number to be even higher.

France faces two years of stagnant economic momentum and must deepen structural reform by curbing wage growth, scaling back job protection and ensuring that older people stay on the job, the OECD said Wednesday.
   The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development warned French authorities that measures designed to shield certain jobs and industries from competition would prove to be costly and ineffective.
   The OECD report on France was issued as newly elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy was preparing a campaign to galvanise the economy through corporate and personal tax breaks and incentives.
   But the report said: ‘What is needed is to protect people, rather than existing jobs, and to promote work opportunites.
   ‘Nor can demand-based policies to stimulate the economy solve fundamental supply-side deficiencies.
   ‘Moreover, they undermine public finances.’
   Sarkozy’s proposed remedies have already caused concern within the European Union’s executive commission, where it is feared they could hamper France’s capacity to hold its public deficit to agreed-upon EU limits.
   The OECD said that while the French economy had been on the mend since 2001-2002, ‘the recovery has been neither strong nor steady’ and in 2007 ‘growth is unlikely to be much higher than in 2006.’
   Economic momentum perked up 2.1 per cent in 2006 from 1.2 per cent in 2005 but is projected to stagnate at 2.2 per cent this year and next.
   Unemployment is nonetheless seen falling from 9.0 per cent in 2006 to 8.4 per cent in 2007 and 8.0 per cent in 2008,
   The report noted that while France had indeed implemented reforms aimed at improving public finances in the last few years, ‘vigilance cannot be relaxed and further measures are needed.’

The Bank of Japan should take a cautious approach to raising interest rates as deflation risks remain, the country’s economic and fiscal policy minister said Wednesday.
   ‘Deflation is defined as a period when prices continue falling. That is over now’ in Japan, Hiroko Ota said in a speech.
   But she added that Japan still needs to ‘carefully watch’ whether it might slip back into deflation.
   ‘Therefore, the Bank of Japan is carefully carrying out its monetary policy. I believe the Bank of Japan will make a sound decision,’ said Ota, prime minister Shinzo Abe’s top economic adviser.
   The Bank of Japan has left its key lending rate unchanged at 0.5 per cent since February amid fresh falls in consumer prices, sticking to its policy of tightening monetary policy only gradually after last year’s end to zero rates.
   Many economists believe the central bank, despite having independence in monetary policy, is unlikely to take any move ahead of July 29 upper house elections due to political sensitivities, with a hike in August considered more likely.
   Japan is in the midst of its longest sustained recovery in post-war times but there are concerns about the outlook for the US economy, while Japanese inflationary pressures seem virtually non-existent.
   Ota said the Japanese economy was on a firm recovery track despite a mixed performance.
   ‘Currently, production is slightly weak, while consumer spending — which had been weak since last summer — is now recovering this year,’ Ota said.
   ‘Exports to the United States are slightly slowing down and IT-related materials are in an adjustment period but it’s too early to say the economy is levelling off,’ she said, adding: ‘The recovery trend is still firm.’

Ten years after the Asian financial crisis stung unwitting investors, stock markets have returned to record highs and free-wheeling capitalism is back, prompting many to ask, can it happen again?
   Probably not, according to analysts, who argue the fiscal psyche of the region was fundamentally changed by the social and economic upheavals of 1997 and 1998 that marked an end to decades of unprecedented regional growth.
   David O’Rear, chief economist with the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce said there were no reasons why the same circumstances that led to the Asian crisis could not happen again but the odds are low.
   ‘First and most important, the decision makers have been there, done that, and got the message,’ he said. ‘Experience is a great teacher and no one in Asia will forget the economic depression of the late 1990s.’
   The crisis was sparked on July 2 1997 when Thailand attempted to ease immediate pressure on its own faltering economy by floating its currency which had remained pegged within narrow trading band against the US dollar.
   Other currencies followed suit and crashed under crippling debt levels and amid soaring interest rates. Governments were forced to slash budget spending and drastically reduce subsidies to business and the poor.
   Widespread and often bloody protests erupted around the region, governments were thrown out of office and the International Monetary Fund extended bailout packages to South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.
   The harsh economic conditions tied to those packages had others, like Malaysia, rejecting IMF advances. Stock markets collapsed and bankruptcies beckoned.
   Then, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the outbreak of bird flu in 1997 and then and SARS in 2003 compounded the problems and it was not until 2005 that the region’s economy returned to an even keel.
   Absent from today’s bustling economic growth numbers are the extraordinary debt levels of the 1990s and O’Rear added that 3.0 trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves currently being held by central banks are sufficient.
   This was helped along by the 2000 Chiang Mai initiative when the 10 member Association of South East Nations, Japan, China and South Korea agreed to set up a bilateral currency swap scheme in a bid to prevent any repeat of the 1997 crisis.
   Under the umbrella accord, an Asian country in financial trouble can borrow foreign currency — usually US dollars — from another to bolster its international reserves until the crisis passes.
   However, some say this is not enough and the Thai finance minister, Chalongphob Sussangkarn, wants ASEAN to expand the bilateral scheme into a multilateral one using foreign reserves from each ASEAN member.
   O’Rear also noted that China and Japan, while not affected badly by the crisis, lost important markets for a couple of years after the crash and so would be quite willing to help out their neighbors in the event of a repeat.
   ‘Finally, the IMF is a lot smarter than before and is unlikely to step in and demand the same harsh conditions be applied in exchange for emergency loans,’ he said.

The sputtering Doha round of global trade talks would get a boost from an extension of the special negotiating authority for the president, the US trade chief said Tuesday.
   US Trade representative Susan Schwab said the United States ‘most assuredly has not given up on the Doha Round,’ despite the collapse last week of talks by the Group of Four — the US, European Union, India and Brazil — meant to get the round of World Trade Organisation talks back on track.
   Schwab, speaking at the launch of a bipartisan congressional caucus to promote the US services sector, said she was ‘sad’ about the breakdown in the WTO talks Thursday in Potsdam, Germany.
   ‘We really had a shot at it this time,’ she told reporters after the news conference, adding she had been ‘optimistic that we were going to get a breakthrough.’
   Asked about the looming expiration Saturday of president George W Bush’s trade promotion authority to ‘fast-track’ trade negotiations without congressional intervention, Schwab said, ‘It would be easier with TPA. It is more practical if trade promotion authority exists.’
   Under TPA, the Republican administration can negotiate trade agreements which only can be approved or rejected by Congress, but not amended.
   Its extension has been cast in doubt since the Democrats took control of Congress in January.
   Schwab said there were ‘multiple avenues’ the US was pursuing on trade. ‘We need to keep pushing for the Doha outcome.’
   Developed countries should be willing to contribute more in the Doha round, as should the fastest-growing countries, such as India, China and Brazil: ‘These folks need to do their fair share as well.’
   The trade chief pointed to a new proposal from developing countries in Asia and Latin America on non-agricultural market access, saying the sponsors show ‘far more ambition, apparently, than their colleagues in the G4.’
   On the bilateral front, Schwab said the administration was ‘optimistic’ about concluding a free-trade deal with South Korea. The pact was expected to be signed by Saturday.
   ‘We’re not done yet,’ she said of the trade agreement, which if approved by Congress, would be the biggest for the US since the 1992 North America Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
   The Republican administration and the bipartisan leadership in Congress agreed in May to set labor and environmental standards in trade pacts, forcing the renegotiation of the pact reached with South Korea in May to include the necessary amendments.

Investments to the tune of 4.5 billion dollar are expected to come into India from Australia in the coming years, a senior Australian diplomat has said.
   Already more than one billion dollar investments have come into India from Australian companies, and the new investments would make the Nation the fourth largest investor in India, up from seventh, Aminur Rahman, Consul General and Trade Commissioner of Australia in India, said during an interactive session organised by CII last night, in Coimbatore.
   The bilateral trade between two countries has crossed 10 billion dollar and was expected to double in the next three years.
   The Australian Consulate General Office was opened in Chennai five months ago, due to increased bilateral trade, especially from South India, and also to give a focussed attention to the region, Rahman said.

German Economy minister Michael Glos, currently on a visit to China, is to sign a joint-venture agreement for an Airbus factory in the city of Tianjin, his ministry said Tuesday.
   The deal, to be inked Thursday, will set the terms for building the first manufacturing site for the European aircraft maker’s mid-size A320 outside Europe.
   Construction began in mid-May at the site in Tianjin city 110 kilometres east of Beijing.
   The aircraft assembly facility is currently slated to begin operations in early 2009 and by 2011 hopes to be producing four A320 planes a month.
   The site is to be run with Chinese partners, the newly formed Tianjin Zhongtian Aviation Industry Investment Co, which will control 49 per cent of the company.
   Total investment is estimated at between eight and 10 billion yuan ($1- 1.3b).
   An agreement to build the plant was inked during a visit of French president Jacques Chirac to China last October, with Airbus insisting on a 51 per cent stake in the project.

New US home sales dropped by a more than expected 1.6 per cent in May, government figures revealed Tuesday, suggesting the downturn in the American property market has yet to reach a bottom.
   The government report came a day after the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes fell last month to their lowest level in four years, as the glut of millions of properties flooding the market rose to a record high.
   The Commerce Department said new home sales declined to an annualised pace of 915,000 units in May, defying analyst forecasts that sales would dip to 925,000 properties.
   The government also revised down April’s sales significantly as concerns about mortgage-related securities and mortgages granted to Americans with patchy credit records continued to unsettle Wall Street.

Asian stocks closed mostly lower Wednesday with investors again nervous and cashing-up ahead of a US interest rate meeting by the Federal Reserve to be held later in the day.
   Anxiety has been a dominant feature on Wall Street and in Asian trade over recent days particularly amid fears for mortgage-related securities, which have knocked two hedge funds run by Bear Stearns.
   Lingering concerns over mortgages sold to Americans with sketchy credit histories, a fall in new US home sales and a sharp plunge in consumer sentiment resulted in a weaker performance in New York on Tuesday.
   Meanwhile investors already in the sidelines were happy to stay there with many holding out for an economic outlook by the Fed to accompany a decision on interest rates once its two day meeting is over.
   Most expect US interest rates to remain unchanged at 5.25 per cent.
   This led Tokyo down 1.2 per cent, Sydney tumbled 1.97 per cent, Wellington shed 1.16 per cent, Manila slumped 1.91 per cent, Seoul was off 0.94 per cent, Hong Kong was down 0.45 per cent and Taipei fell 0.24 per cent.
   Elsewhere, Singapore shed 0.56 per cent, Kuala Lumpur slumped 0.70 per cent on a weaker local currency while Jakarta was down 1.31 per cent and Mumbai slipped 0.48 per cent.
   However, Shanghai bucked the broader trend with a 2.65 per cent rise on bargain hunting in property and banks while Bangkok was up 0.53 per cent on expectations of a strong growth forecast by the central bank.
   Tokyo: The Nikkei-225 index fell 216.83 points to 17,849.28. Turnover was 1.87 billion shares, up from 1.76 billion Tuesday.
   Hong Kong: The Hang Seng Index closed down 98.01 points at 21,705.56 on turnover of 78.78 billion Hong Kong ($10.08b) dollars.
   Seoul: The KOSPI index closed down 16.45 points at 1,733.10. Volume was 300 million shares worth 5.1 trillion won ($5.48b).
   Taipei: The weighted index closed down 21.53 points at 8,844.22 on turnover of 137.42 billion Taiwan dollars ($4.16b).
   Singapore: The Straits Times Index closed down 19.60 points at 3,505.50 on volume of 4.01 billion shares, valued at 3.31 billion dollars.
   Kuala Lumpur: The composite index closed down 9.56 points at 1,357.43 on volume of 1.2 billion shares, valued at 1.992 billion ringgit ($586b).
   Bangkok: The composite index rose 4.03 points to 771.00 on turnover of 2.3 billion shares worth 12.67 billion baht ($366m).
   Mumbai: The 30-share Sensex index fell 70.02 points to 14,431.06.

Summer fruit exhibition at Mirpur
A week-long exhibition of summer fruits has been organised at Prince Bazaar, a super store at Mirpur in Dhaka. Qazi Ruhul Amin, managing director of Prince Bazaar, inaugurated the exhibition of seasonal fruits on Tuesday, said a press release. Directors of Prince Bazaar Qazi Hellaluddin and Qazi Belal Hossein were present at the inaugural ceremony. Various summer fruits, including mangoes of different varieties, are on display in the fair for sale. Any customer buying fruits worth Tk 200 during the exhibition will be eligible for participating in a raffle draw that features exclusive prizes, including a grill oven, pressure-cooker and mixer machine.
— New Age

CSE, NSE of India hold training programme on derivatives
A four-day training programme on financial derivatives for the employees of the brokerage firms concluded on Monday at the BRAC Centre Inn auditorium in Dhaka. The Chittagong Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India organised the training programme, said a press release. Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, attended the closing ceremony of the programme and distributed certificates among the participants as chief guest. CSE president MKM Mohiuddin presided over the concluding ceremony and while Arup Mukherjee, assistant vice-president of NSE India, and also the course conductor, spoke on the occasion. AB Siddique, chief executive officer of the CSE, and SEC members Saleh Ahmed Chowdhury, Mohammad Ali Khan and Mansur Alam, and DSE vice-presidents Ahmad Rashid Lali and Sharif Ataur Rahman, were also present at the concluding session.
— New Age