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Poverty has forced the state-owned jute mill workers in the Khulna-Jessore region, passing days in hardship for months because of staggered payment by the authorities, to sell their wages for lower prices.
   The workers receive wage slips on the last working day of the week to draw money from the mills, but the authorities have for quite some time now been paying a week’s wages every two or three weeks, or even more.
   Cashing in on the situation, a syndicate of rich and influential people, living in or around the industrial belt, have been earning from 42.9 per cent to 66.6 per cent on the money they shelve out in buying the wage slips from the workers for lower prices, the mill workers said.
   The workers, who receive wage slips every Thursday, hand over the slips to such syndicate members in exchange for lesser amount of money. A slip of Tk 1,000 sells for prices between Tk 600 and Tk 700, depending on the urgency of the seller. The syndicate members draw the amount written on the slips from the accounts section of the mills when the authorities pay wages.
   The officials of the mills said there are eight state-owned jute mills in the region and the amount — including wages of workers and salaries of the employees — the mills would now need to pay stands at an estimated Tk 45 crore and the festival allowances at an estimated Tk 9 crore.
   The amount of due wages accumulated over 12 to 28 weeks and of salaries from 5 to 9 months.
   The mill officials said Alim Jute Mills has not paid wages for 28 weeks, Platinum Jute Mills for 16 weeks, People’s Jute Mills for 17 weeks, Star Jute Mills for 16 weeks, Eastern Jute Mills for 21 weeks, Crescent Jute Mills for 12 weeks, Carpeting Jute Mills for 16 weeks and the Jessore Jute Mills for 15 weeks.
   The mill workers said they need to sell the wage slips as they cannot buy goods on credit from shops around their dwelling places.
   An official of the People’s Jute Mill at Khalishpur said the workers were given the slips, but none of them draw the money when the accounts section disburses the dues.
   Md Jabbar, a worker of the Crescent Jute Mills, told New Age he had to sell a slip of Tk 1,201 which is his wage for a week for only Tk 840, as he needed to buy food for his family.
   He said if there was no one to buy the slips, the families of most of the workers would be starving.
   The joint convener of the Khulna-Jessore unit of the Bangladesh Jute, Yarn and Textile Workers and Employees’ Action Council, Hafizur Rahman Bhuiyan, said the workers were given wage slips instead of payment every week.

Production loss in many state-run jute mills and some of those operated by private sector entrepreneurs has hit hard the export of finished jute manufactures during the past few months, said industry sources.
   The latest data of the Export Promotion Bureau shows export earring from finished jute goods including hessian, sack and rug declined by 30 per cent during July-December period of the current fiscal compared to that in the same period of the previous fiscal.
   During July-December of the current fiscal year, Bangladeshi exporters shipped $64 million worth of jute manufactures against $83 million during the first half of the 2005-06 fiscal.
   ‘Volumes of jute goods declined as many state-owned jute mills either reduced or stopped their production during past few months,’ said Kamran T Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association.
   The association groups the private sector jute mills and many of those mills also suffered production shortfall.
   The state-run Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation now operates 24 jute mills, but at least half of these finished jute goods manufacturing units have either suspended or squeezed production during the past couple of years. Many of the public sector jute mills, mostly those in the Khulna-Jessore belt, have been suffering from chronic labour unrest for deferred payment of wages.
   The mills also suffer due to delayed disbursement of fund from the corporation for procuring raw jute.
   Sources in the BJMA that represents some 35 private sector jute units said some of the mills were also forced to squeeze production due to high prices of raw jute as well as fund crisis to procure raw jute.
   Industry sources estimate that jute goods manufacturing industries in the country produce $500 million worth of products—finished or intermediate— and nearly three-fourths of the production are exported.
   During the first six months of the 2006-07 fiscal, Bangladesh earned $191 million from export of jute and jute goods (jute yarn, carpet and finished products), down from $208 million earned in the same period of the last fiscal.
   Jute yarn and twine exports, however, increased during the July-December period of the current fiscal when exporters shipped $102 million worth of jute yarn and twine to global market against $84 million of the year-ago period. Export incomes from jute carpet grew by more than 50 per cent to about $1.6 million during the period.
   Jute yarn and twine are produced mainly by about 50 private sector mills grouped under the umbrella of Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association.
   These intermediate products are exported to global manufacturers of carpets and other fashionable jute goods.

The government Sunday started open market sale of rice at fair price countrywide aiming to stabilise food prices that appear to have marked unreasonable rises.
   One lakh metric tonnes of rice will be sold through the OMS programme initially to cool down the wayward market. One person is entitled to buy maximum 5-kilogram rice at the rate of Tk 15.25 per kg. The rice rationing will continue till April 18, said an official announcement.
   In the wake of price spiraling, the caretaker government has already launched open-market sale of essentials at fixed rates with the help of paramilitary BDR troops in the cities and district headquarters.
   On the inaugural day of countrywide operation, the food and disaster management ministry secretary, Dhiraj Malakar, visited four sale centres at Mirpur, Plassey and Motijheel in the capital.
   The secretary hoped that the price of rice would become stable and reasonable on the market due to the OMS programme.
   ‘The government has enough stock of rice and the OMS programme will be continued even after the set timeframe, if necessary,’ he told people at the makeshift rationing shops.
   The director general of food department, Molla Waheduzza-man, Dhaka divisional commissioner, M Mahfuzur Rahman, and other high officials of the food department were present.
   Our correspondent adds: Only three dealers have started open market sale of rice in Chittagong on Sunday, sources said.
   The government has plan to appoint 82 dealers in 41 wards under the city corporation, said sources in CCC.
   The regional food controller and member secretary of the OMS committee, Sirajul Islam, said they could not appoint adequate dealers due to time constraint adding that they would complete it within a day or two.

Dhaka stocks maintained upward trend on Sunday for the fourth consecutive day as the investors put funds in the blue chips and the state-run fuel and power and engineering stocks.
   The general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange gained 9.31 points or 0.54 per cent to close at 1737.67, while the blue chips index, DSE20, advanced by 14.09 points or 1.01 per cent to close at 1403.87.
   Eastern Lubricants, 87 per cent of its shares owned by the government, topped the gainers’ list with 17.23 per cent rise in its share prices to close at Tk 404.10.
   Atlas Bangladesh, a company with 51 per cent government ownership, was the second biggest gainer. The share prices of the company gained 11.71 per cent to close at Tk 338.50.
   The engineering company was also the second biggest turnover leader of the day with total sales of Tk 4.12 crore.
   The day’s third biggest gainer was Padma Oil, in which government has 50 per cent ownership. The share prices of the company rose to Tk 907.50 from previous closing of Tk 791.50.
   Market sources said the assumption of offloading government shares in the stock market might have pushed up the share prices of the state-owned companies.
   ‘The abnormal rise of share prices of the companies, however, irrational,’ said Nurul Alam, chief executive officer of ICB Securities Trading Company, a subsidiary of the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh.
   The losers outnumbered the gainers on Sunday. Of the total 196 issues traded on the DSE, 98 declined, 82 advanced and 16 remained unchanged.
   Turnover on the DSE increased to Tk 56.12 crore from the Thursday’s Tk 54.22 crore.
   The Power Grid Company Bangladesh topped the turnover leaders with Tk 5.06 crore.
   Other turnover leaders were Dhaka Electric Supply Company, BRAC Bank, Grameen Mutual Fund One, Uttara Bank, Eastern Cables, Aims 1st MF, Beximco Pharmaceuticals and Pubali Bank.

Deadly clashes over India’s plans for Special Economic Zones, touted as a way to woo foreign investors and spur economic growth, have cast a dark cloud over their future, analysts say.
   Hailed as one of the biggest pushes for industrial expansion in post-independence India when the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) act was passed in 2005, the protests have sparked a national debate about acquiring farmland for the gated business enclaves.
   ‘Compensation for the land is not enough. Even if you give farmers money... the money will get spent and what will they do then?’ said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management.
   Unrest over the duty-free zones boiled over last week when 14 villagers protesting moves to buy their land for a chemical hub to be built with the help of Indonesia’s Salim Group died in police fire in Nandigram in the eastern state of West Bengal.
   The killings took place in a state ruled by Marxists for the past 30 years, who have recently attempted to show an investor-friendly face to the world.
   Thursday’s violence was the bloodiest yet over efforts to get land for SEZs—privately-run parks with world-class infrastructure promoted by New Delhi as central to India’s economic growth drive.
   ‘The killings in Nandigram have put a big question mark over the proposed industrial parks acquiring agricultural land,’ said political analyst Sabyasachi Basu Roychowdhury.
   Violence two months earlier at Nandigram in which 11 protesters died prompted the central Congress-led government to put on hold dozens of SEZ applications, but it insisted on Saturday it would press ahead with the zones.

Europe’s leading travel and tourism group TVI is set to approve a merger of its tourism division with British company First Choice, a French newspaper reported Sunday.
   The project would create a new company with 17 billion euros (23 billion dollars) in sales turnover and would be led by First Choice head Peter Lang, La Tribune reported on its Internet site.
   All of TUI’s tourism activity, except for its hotel business, would become part of the British tour company, which is the fourth largest of its kind on the European market, La Tribune said, citing a source close to the company.
   TUI is set to announce a loss of some 850 million euros (1.1 billion dollars) for 2006, the newspaper reported. TUI’s activities also include maritime transport.
   The company has long been searching for stable shareholders to prevent a possible break-up of the group amid pressure from hedge funds for the shipping activities to be sold off.

As television sets grow to mammoth proportions and computers gobble energy at work and at home, the consumer electronics industry is slowly coming around to the idea of ecology to stay competitive.
   Executives at the world’s biggest high-tech fair here said that while they were not yet leaders in the fight against global warming, they hoped that more efficient products would appeal to cost- and environment-conscious consumers.
   ‘Caring for the environment is our objective,’ the Advanced Plasma Development Centre alliance comprised of three Japanese manufacturers of flat-screen televisions, Hitachi, Panasonic and Pioneer, proclaimed. At its CeBIT stand, two televisions are on display: on the left, a plasma screen and on the right, a liquid crystal display, each with a gauge of how much electricity it uses. The plasma reads 171 watts versus 269 watts for the LCD.
   ‘More and more consumers are asking about how much energy the products consume, just like with refrigerators,’ Hitachi product manager Jacob Teodorsson.
   ‘The plasma set saves energy because it consumes less during darker scenes,’ he said, explaining while the LCD screen’s energy consumption remains steady, the plasma set fluctuates ‘based on the amount of light broadcast.’
   The APDC is working on new technologies that could cut the plasma screen’s electricity consumption by 75 per cent.
   Plasma screen manufacturers are appealing to consumers’ guilty consciences about global warning to gain an edge over LCD makers, which have fared better in the rivalry between the two standards.

Bangladeshi aviation company Best Aviation Limited will join hands with Kuwaiti aviation company Al Aqeeq Aviation and Holdings to launch domestic and international passenger services by middle of this year.
   An agreement to this effect will be signed here on Thursday, said a press release Sunday.
   This is the first such initiative in the aviation sector of Bangladesh. Al Aqeeq has agreed to join with Best Air as an equity partner.
   Best Aviation started its operation in 1991, pioneering as a helicopter operator in Bangladesh.

Disgraced dot-com tycoon Takafumi Horie slammed his conviction and harsh sentence for securities fraud on Sunday, insisting he had committed no crimes and that he had more than paid for any mistakes by losing his company.
   On Friday, Horie was found guilty of masterminding a network of decoy investment funds to illegally manipulate earnings at his Internet startup, and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in the biggest white-collar-crime trial Japan has witnessed in years.
   ‘I did not intentionally attempt to pad earnings, and there was no false accounting,’ an intent-looking Horie, former president of Livedoor Co., told a TV Asahi talk show on Sunday. ‘I do not accept the court’s verdict.’
   Horie is currently on bail while he appeals the court’s verdict.
   He rejected suggestions from show commentators that he apologize for causing turmoil in Japanese markets. The raid on Livedoor’s offices and Horie’s subsequent arrest in early 2006 sparked a frenzied market sell-off that forced the Tokyo Stock Exchange to curtail trading over capacity problems.

Private equity firms, particularly those that buy up ailing businesses, strip them down and then sell them again, have begun fighting back against critics who denounce them as a serious and growing threat to companies and jobs.
   ‘Private equity barbarians are bigger and bolder, but not bad,’ was the headline in the latest issue of Global Economics Weekly, published by investment bank Goldman Sachs.
   It said that the threat of regulation seems to have been the catalyst for a belated response from the industry to increasingly harsh criticism from unions, governments and the media.
   That criticism came to a head Friday when trade unions from across the world met in Paris in a show of unity to call for a clampdown on ‘cold-blooded’ investment funds.
   ‘Union concern has mounted at the employment impact of buy-outs by what are often shadowy investors using borrowed money,’ said the unions in a statement.
   Damon Silvers, of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, said at the meeting that such investors ‘cut jobs and stop investment in the productive capacity of the company and that has long-term negative consequences for the people.’

Mixed signals on the US economy have put the Federal Reserve in a quandary as it tries to steer monetary policy amid fresh inflation concerns but also a slumping housing market, analysts say.
   The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee headed by Ben Bernanke is widely expected to hold its base interest rate steady at 5.25 per cent at a two-day meeting opening Tuesday.
   The federal funds rate has been unchanged since August, when the Fed halted a string of 17 quarter-point increases. But policymakers have warned in the past few meetings that they are watching inflation and could hike rates again to keep prices in check.
   The hotter-than-expected inflationary pressures have become evident with a stunning 1.3 per cent jump in February’s producer price index (PPI) and a 0.4 rise in the consumer price index (CPI).
   This has disappointed those who have been waiting for Bernanke’s predicted ‘moderation’ in inflation that could allow the Fed to cut rates to stimulate a sluggish economy.
   The latest inflation reports ‘do not permit the Fed to soften its stance on inflation risks, at least not yet,’ said Stephen Gallagher, economist at Societe Generale.
   ‘The Fed anticipates a reduction of inflation and over time we agree. The problem is that the decline is not fast enough to give the Fed maneuvering room at present.’
   Gallagher said the FOMC meeting ‘should be an opportunity to repeat the status quo—no rate changes and a risk bias that inflation could be higher than expected.’
   Later this year, assuming inflation eases, Gallagher predicts the Fed will cut rates twice in 2007 for ‘insurance’ against recession, but may have to do more if the economy fails to gather momentum.
   But some experts are abruptly reassessing their forecasts in the wake of the meltdown in the subprime mortgage sector, the riskiest part of the housing market, amid rising defaults in loans to people with poor credit histories.
   A key question for the Fed is whether the problems are contained or lead to a wider contagion that affects the broader economy.
   Goldman Sachs economist Andrew Tilton said he believes the woes in the housing sector will have ‘an important spillover’ that hurts consumer spending, leaving the economy growing at a weak 2.0 per cent pace for most of the year, forcing the Fed to change course.
   ‘Further weakening in the housing market and a slowdown in spending should contribute to labor market weakness in coming months,’ Tilton wrote in a note to clients.
   ‘We expect sufficient deterioration to prompt Fed easing by midyear, pushing the funds rate down to 4.50 per cent by the end of 2007.’
   Tilton said he cannot rule out a more grim scenario involving a ‘credit crunch’ that spreads to the mainstream banking sector, but says a recession is ‘less probable.’
   The Fed, in its latest Beige Book report, cited some pockets of slowing activity in the economy but said the expansion is continuing. But the Fed is still predicting US gross domestic product growth (GDP) in a range of 2.5 to 3.0 per cent for 2007.
   David Kotok at Cumberland Advisors said the central bank should not get caught up in the ‘hysteria’ of the subprime mortgage market, which is a relatively small part of the economy.
   ‘The economy is in a sweet spot and the Fed essentially has to do nothing but stay the course,’ Kotok told AFP. ‘They have to be vigilant on inflation.’
   Kotok said there will be ‘some pain’ for homeowners and the financial sector but no ‘systemic shock’ to the economy.
   ‘There is no systemic shock and no crisis of contagion coming from the subprime mortgage hysteria,’ he said.
   ‘There is trouble in the housing sector, any idiot could have seen it two years ago,’ he added, but argued that the Fed will not act to bail out lenders or borrowers who took on too much risk.
   ‘The Fed has never guaranteed a ‘put’ (bailout) to every speculative home buyer and they won’t do it now,’ he said.

Car manufacturers crowding into Central Europe are confronting higher demands for wages and fringe benefits as local skills shortages strengthen the hand of workers and unions.
   Skoda Auto, the region’s biggest auto manufacturer and profit pillar for parent company Volkswagen, is facing down a union claim for a 17.0 per cent increase this year for its 23,000 employees. Management has offered 6.1 per cent over two years, albeit sweetened with an increasingly developed series of fringe benefits such as soft home loans.
   ‘Localised skills shortages are emerging as a one of the major issues for the auto industry in the Czech and Slovak republics,’ PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Central European auto sector specialist Matt Pottle told AFP.
   Pottle said he did not believe the skills problem will brake the 6.0 billion dollars’ worth of auto production expected to relocate to Central and Eastern Europe over the next five years to take advantage of low, but fast accelerating, wages.
   The Toyota-Peugeot-Citroen Automobile (TPCA) joint venture at Kolin, in the centre of the country, has already provided negotiating ammunition for Skoda unions by agreeing an annual 7.5 per cent increase for workers from April, taking average monthly pay to 23,000 koruna (818.5 euros, 1,084 dollars).
   It is also boosting its fringe benefits, starting at 3,000 koruna a month.
   Finding the 3,500 workers needed to produce 300,000 cars a year is not the problem. The problem is keeping them, according to TPCA spokesman Matej Matolin.
   ‘There are an increasing number of investors coming into the Czech Republic and let’s say that the demand at the moment is higher than the offer on the labour market.’
   ‘We would like to have a lower turnover of workers,’ Matolin added.
   In unemployment-plagued eastern Moravia, where Hyundai will produce 300,000 cars a year with 3,500 workers from 2011, the South Korean company says it will not initially match wages offered by its Czech-based rivals.
   But this should change once cars start rolling off the production line in 2009 with wage reviews planned every six months.
   ‘We are competing in the same labour market and will have to offer the same benefits as well,’ spokesman Petr Vanek told AFP.
   Hyundai wants to hire 600 staff by year end, half of them managers and half workers and technicians. So far, it has seen no signs of problems. ‘We have had 3,500 applications, most for the workers’ positions,’ Vanek said. ‘There is a whole army of unemployed people in this area,’ he added.
   Historically, Slovaks and Poles flooded into eastern Moravia’s coal mines and steelworks, but Hyundai is at best expecting a trickle this time round.
   Around 50 Slovaks and Poles have already applied for work at the plant sited only around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from each country’s borders, but Vanek warns the company is not making any special provision for their transport or housing.
   Around 50 kilometres away, Slovakia’s third major auto manufacturer, Kia, a Hyundai daughter company, has problems recruiting suitably qualified staff, according to local spokesman, Dusan Dvorak.
   Immediate vacancies for shop floor assembly, construction, engine and painting jobs, are posted on the plant’s website, as well as a series of management posts. New manufacturing recruits, straight out of school, are paid 14,600 Slovak koruna (around 430 euros, 568 dollars) a month.
   Kia expects to produce around 150,000 cars this year with 2,000 workers, half of its final production targeted for 2009-2010 with 3,000 workers.

Moulded furniture maker Croma launched ‘Elegance’ – a new range of chairs at a colourful programme in the city on Friday.
   The chairs come in four colours — red, blue, green and gold.
   Croma began its Bangladesh operations in 2004 and is a subsidiary of Nilkamal, an Indian company.
   The industries adviser to the government, Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, the Croma managing director, Sharfuddin Ahmed, general managers, Ashim Roy Bardhan and Ajay Kumar Mehta, were present at the launching ceremony, says a press release.

Inflation will continue to pinch consumers’ pockets till May, by when the government’s measures to bring down prices are expected to take effect in a wholesome way, analysts believe.
   The rate of price rise soared to 6.46 per cent in the week ended March 3, primarily due to rise in vegetable and cement prices, the latest government data shows.
   However, the recent monetary and fiscal measures to contain inflation, base effect and political compulsions would result in inflation coming off to five per cent levels by May, global financial services giant Citigroup said today.
   Inflation has been a major concern for the government as well as consumers since it breached RBI’s target of 5.5 per cent in October and touched a high of 6.73 per cent in the week ended February 3. It is likely to remain high over the next two months, analysts warned.
   ‘We expect inflation to remain in the 5.5-6.5 per cent range until March/April, and maintain that policy rates could rise by 25 basis points in April,’ they added.
   Citigroup sees fiscal measures helping cool prices, as the government has cut customs duties on metal, capital goods and and cement, while allowing import of wheat and sugar.
   It has banned exports of pulses, sugar, skimmed milk powder and forward trading in certain foodgrains, which are regressive measures, the analysts said.
   Besides introducing dual-excise structure for cement that penalises producers who charge more, the government has also asked cement companies to freeze prices for a year.
   ‘Given that inflation is one macro variable that can potentially bring down a government, we do not rule out additional regressive measures,’ Citigroup warned.

Dreams of making a comfortable living off South Africa’s fertile Cape winelands are souring for many grape growers forced by dipping exports and stagnant domestic sales to throw in the towel.
   ‘For sale’ signs dot the renowned Stellenbosch winemaking region with its vineyards nestled among picturesque mountains and a proud 300-year history of viticulture.
   Withering profits had prompted at least 30 Stellenbosch wine farmers to put their land on the market in recent months, said estate agent Pierre Germishuys.
   ‘Many simply cannot keep up. They say they cannot keep producing wine grapes at a loss,’ he told AFP.
   Industry players say an unstable exchange rate, global over-supply, dropping prices, and agricultural subsidies in rival producer countries have made it hard for South Africa to compete in the low price wine category.
   ‘The bubble has burst,’ said Erhard Roux, winemaker and manager of the farm Devon Hill—one of those for sale.
   ‘No South African wine farmer has ever seen such a thing—so many things going wrong at once.’
   With prices dropping internationally due to over-supply, local co-operatives, distillers and cellars unable to sell existing stock are paying farmers not to harvest because they had no storage space.
   The price is less than a third of what the growers had expected to earn per ton of grapes.
   ‘It is heart-wrenching to see those grapes being left to rot,’ said Roux.
   Other wine-making nations are also feeling the pinch, but the South African industry has compounded its own troubles by underestimating demand for premium quality brands and neglecting marketing to a dormant local market.
   ‘The world has enough cheap wines, and with the market already well-owned by bulk producers like Australia and Chile, premium wine is the way to go,’ said Giuam de Korte, marketing manager for Internet wine retailer Cybercellar.
   ‘(We should) market the premium wines. We have some of the best wines in the world, but if everybody keeps on drinking cheap South African plonk, they will never try the good, expensive stuff.’
   Chris du Toit, business manager for Rustenberg Wines in Stellenbosch, said well-branded producers of classy wines are flying high even as the rest were sinking to their knees.
   Rustenberg Wines, which targets the British market with wines priced six at pounds (12 dollars) a bottle and upwards, is growing at 20 per cent year-on-year.

Airports in Asia are operating at close to full capacity and urgent investment is needed for upgrading infrastructure, an industry consultancy said Sunday.
   The problem is acute in the fast-growing markets of India, China, Indonesia and Vietnam, which are driving the region’s booming air travel demand, the Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said in a report.
   ‘The problems are most severe at airports serving the fast-growing emerging markets, including China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam,’ the consultancy said in the report.
   ‘The problems are not confined to infrastructure at airports. Urgent attention is needed to relieve air traffic congestion in traffic hotspots, including the Pearl Delta and Yangtze River delta regions in China,’ it said.
   According to the consultancy’s executive chairman Peter Harbison, the region’s airports run the risk of undermining competitiveness if steps are not taken to address the issue.
   ‘Strong predicted traffic growth will exacerbate capacity shortages at many Asia Pacific airports in the years ahead and a determined approach to developing fresh capacity is vital,’ said Harbison.
   ‘The capacity shortages run the risk of undermining hub competitiveness, not to mention inconvenience to passengers,’ he said, adding ‘some of Asia’s leading airports are operating close to or beyond design capacity, due to continued strong traffic demand.’
   Figures from Airports Council International projected Asia will likely outpace the world in terms of passenger growth with 5.8 per cent annual average expansion over the next 20 years, the Sydney-based consultancy said.
   The region is also poised to overtake North America as the world’s biggest aviation market by 2025 with India and China leading the way on the back of their huge domestic markets, it said.
   Harbison said Asia’s airport congestion woes are also a burden on airlines.
   ‘Airport congestion is also a major factor in costly added fuel burn for airlines at a time when environmental concerns are beginning to match cost factors,’ said Harbison.
   Estimates calculated by the consultancy showed 60 leading global airport investors have a combined pool of 50 billion US dollars ready for investment.

It should be payback time for the Japanese salaryman, the overworked cog in the nation’s well-oiled capitalist machine.
   With many companies enjoying bumper profits as the economy awakens from a decade-long slumber, Japan’s army of loyal workers might have been forgiven for expecting a bigger pay rise after years of corporate thrift.
   Instead—despite calls from the government for companies to share more of their earnings with employees—this year’s annual spring wage talks again resulted in paltry pay increases at many employers.
   That has dampened hopes of a pick-up in sluggish wage growth and in turn consumer spending—which are both seen as lagging the wider recovery after a decade of economic stagnation, on-off recessions and widespread lay-offs.
   And with a wave of high-paid baby boomers getting ready to retire, making way for lower paid younger workers, overall wage growth is unlikely to pick up speed any time soon, analysts said.
   ‘The workforce doesn’t yet seem to have adjusted its expectations away from purely being grateful for still having a job—which was the focus in most of the past 15 years—to recognising their own scarcity value,’ said Macqurie Securities economist Richard Jerram.
   ‘They don’t seem to be fully exploiting their obviously improved bargaining position. There’s clearly a shortage of skilled workers. It’s surprising it’s not generating stronger wage growth,’ he added.
   Many companies did not fully meet the union’s demands this year, arguing for the need to keep down costs in the face of intense global competition.
   Fast-growing automaker Toyota, which expects to report another year of record profits, agreed to a 1,000 yen (8.53 dollars) basic monthly pay increase, the same as last year but below the 1,500 yen hike demanded by the union.
   ‘Considering the automotive competition globally ... in order for us to compete in the long term the management thought we were not able to meet their request 100 per cent,’ said Toyota spokesman Tomomi Imai.
   Nissan Motor, which expects a drop in profits, did not meet union demands for the first time in several years. ‘We have been taking a tough stance during the negotiations,’ said Nissan Motor Co. senior vice president Hitoshi Kawaguchi.
   ‘Unlike last year, the global competition is getting fierce, looking at China, or South Korea, or more recently India,’ he told reporters.
   Consumer electronics makers, locked in a price war with rivals from South Korea and elsewhere, were also restrained on pay, belying a tightening labour market in Japan where unemployment is at an eight-year low of 4.0 per cent. Although there were 106 job offers to every 100 job seeker in January, wages dropped 1.4 per cent in the month, the largest decline for almost three years.
   With Japan’s baby boomers, born in the ashes of World War II, set to retire over five years from 2007, wage growth looks set to remain sluggish for now.
   ‘It is widely assumed that this will put heavy downward pressure on overall wages, as younger people are believed to earn much less than the older baby-boomers,’ said Barclays Capital economists Takuji Aida and Yuichiro Nagai.
   They calculate that Japan’s average monthly income could shrink by 1.7 per cent over the next five years as baby-boomers retire.
   This retirement of the baby boomers is a major worry for Japan, which fears that a smaller working population will eventually be forced to support a mass of pensioners.

The British prime minister, Tony Blair, is to ask the US president, George W Bush, for special treatment for Britain before a European vote on the proposed ‘Open Skies’ deal to free up the transatlantic aviation market, a newspaper reported Sunday.
   The Sunday Times said the deal would force Britain to open up London’s Heathrow, the world’s busiest and most lucrative international airport.
   Airline industry sources quoted by the newspaper said Blair is likely to speak to Bush on Tuesday and urge Washington to commit to liberalise its aviation industry before opening up Heathrow.
   The British leader is also likely to suggest a five-month delay in introducing an ‘Open-Skies’ deal, and press for the right of ‘automatic termination’ if the United States fails to cooperate, the newspaper said.
   Sources in Washington quoted by the newspaper said the US government was only likely to consider the request for a delay. ‘I think we could live with that,’ one source was quoted as saying.
   European Union transport ministers are scheduled to meet later this week to vote on the open-skies deal, which currently offers no special concessions to Britain.
   Only two airlines from each side of the Atlantic—British Airways and Virgin from Britain, and American and United from the United States—are allowed to fly to US cities from Heathrow.
   In exchange for access to Heathrow, the newspaper said, Britain wants Washington to relax restrictions on airline ownership and domestic flights.

Malaysia will not set a timeframe to conclude a free trade deal with the United States, deputy prime minister Najib Razak said Sunday.
   ‘Malaysia is not tied down to any fixed timeframe. We will study thoroughly every issue being negotiated (before deciding on the free trade agreement),’ he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.
   The US government Friday all but ruled out the chances of a deal with Malaysia before a crucial deadline expires in two weeks.
   US President George W. Bush’s powers to fast-track trade agreements expire in June. That gives US negotiators up to March 31 to present a deal for a mandatory 90-day congressional review that would then be subject to just an outright yes or no vote without amendments.
   Steve Norton, a spokesman for US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, said the Malaysian cabinet remained locked in debate about crucial provisions of the deal, including government procurement rules.
   After the latest round of talks in February, Malaysia had informed the United States that it needed more time to develop a political consensus in favour of the ambitious pact, he told AFP.
   Najib said Malaysia’s position on the free trade issue was clear in that Kuala Lumpur would continue negotiations until both sides reached a consensus on the contentious issues. He did not elaborate.
   The two countries have held five rounds of talks but negotiations have bogged down over 58 unresolved issues, and no further rounds have been scheduled between the United States and its 10th-largest trading partner.
   Among sore points for US trade negotiators are Malaysia’s positive discrimination policies for its majority-ethnic Malay community.
   The policies give preferential treatment to Malay-run companies in the awarding of government contracts. Malaysian farmers, activists and opposition parties have been demanding a halt to the talks, arguing a FTA would damage livelihoods.

Thailand’s health minister has threatened to expand the country’s generic drug programme to include cancer and more AIDS medications, unless pharmaceutical companies sharply cut their prices.
   In an interview with AFP, Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said he was undeterred by the fierce resistance from drugmakers to his trailblazing drive to issue so-called ‘compulsory licences’ for high-priced medications.
   ‘I will continue to negotiate with drug companies’ to reduce prices of AIDS, cancer and heart disease medications, Mongkol told AFP.
   ‘But if negotiations fail, we are ready to act,’ the 65-year-old general practitioner said.
   Under the rules of the World Trade Organisation, countries are allowed to order compulsory licenses that temporarily suspend patents and clear the way for generic drugs to protect public health in an emergency.
   Few countries have actually used this provision.
   But since Mongkol was appointed as health minister by the military after a September coup, he has jolted the powerful pharmaceutical industry by allowing generic versions of two anti-AIDS drugs—Efavirenz and Kaletra—and popular heart disease medicine Plavix.
   The decision drew outrage from the industry with Thailand’s top pharmaceutical group calling it ‘a stunning blow’ to foreign investment already hit by political uncertainty since the coup.
   ‘This is unprecedented in Thailand. If the government decides to allow more generic drugs, it will further damage the image of Thailand among international investors,’ said Teera Chakajnardom, president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturer’s Association of Thailand.
   Angered by Mongkol’s decision, US drug giant Abbott Laboratories, the maker of AIDS drug Kaletra, said this week it would stop selling new drugs to Thailand—including an improved version of Kaletra.
   But Mongkol was unfazed by critics and corporate retaliations, saying that after years as a ministry bureaucrat involved in price negotiations with European and US drug giants, he was well aware of his opponents.
   ‘Our ministry has been negotiating with drug companies over the past two years’ to cut drug prices, he said. ‘But they did not cooperate with the ministry. Never. They were never interested in negotiations.
   ‘We’ve come to the point that we have to do something about it. We cannot wait and talk to them without any achievement.’
   Drugmakers say they have to charge high prices for new medicines to recover the enormous cost of research needed to bring new medications to market.
   The minister said HIV/AIDS is Thailand’s top cause of death, followed by heart disease.
   Some 500,000 Thais are infected with HIV, but fewer than 10 per cent of them can afford to buy Kaletra, he said.
   Under the generic programme, treatment with Kaletra is expected to drop from 11,580 baht (330 dollars) per month to 4,000 baht per month, according to charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
   Similarly, fewer than 10 per cent of some 300,000 heart disease patients in Thailand can buy Plavix, a blood-thinning treatment to prevent heart attacks, according to the ministry.
   The cost of Plavix, the world’s second top-selling medicine, is expected to drop from 73 baht (two dollars) per day to fewer than seven baht under the generic program, the ministry said.
   Paul Cawthorne, head of the MSF mission in Thailand, hailed Thailand’s move and said Mongkol had complied with WTO rules.
   ‘What the government has done so far is perfectly legal within Thai law and is also legal within the guidelines of the World Trade Organisation,’ said Cawthorne.
   Mongkol said the government had to resort to the generic program in the face of a ballooning health care budget now at more than 250 billion baht (seven billion dollars) and projected to rise 10 per cent every year.
   ‘We want to help the poor. We have to use the compulsory licence for the poor people,’ he said, adding the government would import generic forms of the AIDS and heart drugs from India, a major source of copycat medications.
   Former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted by the military in the September putsch, set up an enormously popular health scheme allowing Thais to pay only 30 baht (about 80 US cents) for each visit to the doctor.

The dispute over North Korean funds frozen in Macau at the centre of negotiations on a nuclear disarmament deal has been resolved, an unnamed South Korean official was quoted saying Sunday.
   Yonhap news agency cited the official saying that there were ‘no more issues in dispute’ and that there was ‘little possibility the North will object’ to a US move to free up the funds, the report said. It did not give further details.
   The US Treasury said last week that it had cleared the way for the release of the funds, originally frozen by US sanctions due to concerns that Banco Delta Asia was laundering money for North Korea.
   The move now leaves it up to the Macau authorities to decide what to do with the cash after the bank was left in receivership, US Treasury official Daniel Glaser said Saturday after talks with authorities in Macau.

A member of DaimlerChrysler AG’s supervisory board said he would oppose a deal leading to a breakup of the Chrysler Group, the company’s troubled US arm.
   Helmut Lense, one of the 10 employee representatives on DaimlerChrysler’s 20-member supervisory board, told The Detroit News that he would prefer to see a manufacturing company, such as another automaker, take control of Chrysler in the event of a sale, the newspaper reported Saturday. ‘We wouldn’t support a solution such as a private equity firm that would cut out choice bits,’ said Lense, chief employee representative of a plant in Stuttgart that builds engines, suspensions and transmissions.

The world’s biggest airliner makes its US debut on Monday when Airbus’s A380 superjumbo touches down in New York and Los Angeles, hoping to impress indifferent US airlines.
   The 555-seat double-decker passenger plane will fly into Los Angeles International and New York’s Kennedy Airports in near-simultaneous arrivals, as part of route-proving and compatibility tests. But although the twin arrivals are generating buzz among aviation enthusiasts, with thousands of spectators reportedly expected to turn out in Los Angeles, the reception from US carriers will remain lukewarm, analysts say.
   No US airline has placed an order for the superjumbo, which will go into commercial use later this year after a tortuous development period that has seen a string of delays and several cancelled orders.
   ‘It’s a huge event in the sense that the A380 is the first of its kind and it will be the first time it has been seen here,’ said Stephen Costley, managing editor of Los Angeles-based aviation journal SpeedNews. ‘But most of the interest will be from aviation enthusiasts who want to see it fly.’
   Richard Aboulafia, a senior analyst with the Teal Group Corporation, said the first arrival of the A380 was important from a practical standpoint rather than a marketing one.
   ‘It doesn’t have an awful lot of relevance for the North American market except in the sense of compatability with North American airports, in which it’s crucial, especially LAX,’ Aboulafia told AFP, referring to Los Angeles.
   Aboulafia noted that the two biggest US carriers, Delta and American Airlines, had shown no interest in placing orders for the A380 so far, and still did not have Boeing 747s in their fleet, currently the world’s largest passenger jet.
   ‘Not only do they have no interest, they don’t even have 747s at this point,’ he said. ‘Delta and American’s biggest planes only have 300 seats.’ The US airline industry was only just recovering from a protracted slump following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and few airlines were willing to take the plunge by placing billion dollar orders for the A380, he said.

Major Asian currencies rose against the dollar amid concerns about the US property market focused on the growing number of bad mortgage loans.
   Japanese Yen: The Japanese unit stood at 116.83-86 to the dollar late Friday, up from 117.36-39 to the dollar a week earlier, after clawing its way back from Monday’s low of 118.50 to the dollar.
   Investors worldwide are worried about the US property market after news that the number of bad mortgage loans is rising, amid deep financial troubles for some companies that lent to ‘subprime’ borrowers with patchy credit records.
   They reacted nervously after former US Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said on Thursday that US home loan problems could spill over into the wider economy but that there was no evidence of it yet.
   Market players are awaiting US economic data due out next week, including housing starts and used housing sales while the US Fed, which will hold a policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, is seen unable to lower US interest rates any time soon, dealers said.
   Australian Dollar: The Aussie was trading at 79.2 US at 5:00 pm Friday, well up on the previous week’s 78.00 US cents.
   New Zealand Dollar: The New Zealand dollar ended the week at 69.55 US cents, up from 68.78 US cents the previous Friday.
   Chinese Yuan: The yuan closed at 7.7330 to the dollar Friday on the exchange-traded market, compared with Thursday’s close of 7.7430, and a closing price of 7.7445 to the dollar the week before.
   On the over-the-counter market, it ended at 7.7360 to the dollar against 7.7440 the previous day.
   Hong Kong Dollar: The Hong Kong dollar ended the week at 7.8112, compared to 7.8141 a week earlier.
   Indonesian Rupiah: The rupiah ended the week trading at 9,220/9,230 to the dollar, compared to 9,175/9,178 to the dollar a week earlier.
   Philippine Peso: The Philippine peso traded lower at 48.85 to the dollar on Friday from 48.545 a week before.
   Singapore Dollar: The dollar was at 1.5291 Singapore dollars on Friday from 1.5268 the previous week.
   South Korean Won: The won closed at 944.80 won per dollar Friday, compared with 945.90 won a week earlier, as the greenback weakened against the South Korean currency amid easing concerns over the unwinding of the global yen ‘carry trade.’
   Taiwan Dollar: The Taiwan dollar fell 0.41 per cent in the week to March 16 to close at 33.102 against the US dollar. The local currency closed at 32.968 a week earlier.
   Thai Baht: The capital controls, which came into effect in December, required 30 per cent of all incoming investment to be held by financial institutions for up to one year.
   But foreign investors saw them as a steep tax on their foreign equity investments and quickly dumped shares, triggering the biggest one-day drop in the stock market in December.
   Bank of Thailand governor Tarisa Watanagase stressed Thursday the central bank would maintain the stringent capital measures to control the baht’s volatility.
   The Thai baht closed at 34.92-93 to the dollar on Friday, up from 35.22-24 a week earlier.

Dividend
   Industrial Prom & Dev Co of BD Ltd
   The board of directors has recommended cash dividend @ 10pc and stock dividend @ 5pc for the year 2006. Annual general meeting of the country will be held on May 20. Venue of the annual general meeting to be notified later.
   
   Response to a DSE queries
   Anwar Galvanising
   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.
   Maq Enterprises
   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.
   National Tubes
   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.
   Bengal Biscuits
   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.
   
   Category update
   BSC
   The company will be placed in ‘A’ category from existing ‘Z’ category with effect from 19.03.07 as the company reported payment of cash dividend @ 10per cent.
   
   Loss
   BEMCO
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2005, the company has reported net loss of Tk 2.02m with EPS of Tk 5.56 as against Tk 10.18m and Tk 27.98 respectively as on December 31, 2004. Moreover, accumulated loss of the company was Tk 135.62m as on December 31, 2005.
   Maq Enterprises
   As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on December 31, 2006, the company has reported net loss of Tk 5.63m with EPS of Tk 2.25 as against last year’s half yearly of Tk 5.51m and Tk 2.21 respectively. Moreover, the company has reported accumulated loss of Tk 189.41m as on December 31, 2006.
   
   Trade
   IDLC
   Trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only in the Spot Market and Block/Odd lot transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle with cum benefit from March 19 to 21 and trading of the shares will remain suspended on record.
   Source: DSE, CSE

Kenya revokes phone license award to Reliance
Reliance Communications Ltd, India’s second largest mobile opearator, missed the bus to become the second national operator in Kenya after it failed to apply for the licence by the deadline Thursday. A statement issued by the Communications Commission of Kenya said: ‘The CCK Board today withdrew the licence award to Reliance, and resolved to immediately initiate the SNO tender process afresh.’ Interestingly, Reliance had bagged the award after the tender winner Vtel consortium failed to apply for the licence within the deadline—which was January 24. This prompted the Commission to cancel the tender award and to invite Reliance, the second highest bidder, to apply for the licence in line with the provisions of the tender document, it said. The offer was subject to Reliance matching Vtel’s bid price of $169 million.
— PTI

AirAsia takes off with Toyota in Formula One
Malaysia’s budget carrier AirAsia has signed a 10 million ringgit (2.8 million dollar) sponsorship deal with Toyota for the 2007 Formula One season. The New Straits Times newspaper said that the Southeast Asia’s pioneering low-cost carrier completed the deal with the giant Japanese constructor in Britain just before Sunday’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix. AirAsia officials could not be reached for comment. The AirAsia’s Formula One partnership comes after the carrier entered into a sponsorship deal with Manchester United in 2005 to attract global business. Citing an industry source, the newspaper said the Formula One partnership would cost about 10 million ringgit a year and was for at least three years. ‘Taking a cue from their English Premier League tie-up, this AirAsia partnership with Toyota will once again earn them a global visibility,’ it said.
— AFP