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Export of vegetables declined significantly in the last few months because the prices of agro-products rose sharply in the local market and Biman cut its flights to the major global destinations.
   ‘Export of vegetables, compared to the previous period, has declined by at least one-third in the January to August period of the current year,’ general secretary of the Bangladesh Fruits, Vegetables and Allied Products Exporters Association, Mohammed Monsur, told New Age Bangladeshi exporters earned $36 million in fiscal year 2006-2007 by exporting 18,276 tonnes of vegetables to different countries across the world. In the fiscal year before 2007, the earning was $33 million for 17,118 tonnes of vegetables.
   Monsur claimed that compared to previous years, prices of premium grade vegetables, at the suppliers’ end, had at least doubled in the past six months.
   ‘Usually Bangladeshi vegetable exporters sign supply contracts with low-end retailers in the Middle-Eastern countries, UK and Italy, so they face trouble if the procurement cost is very high,’ added Monsur.
   Some exporters told New Age that cuts in flights of the national carrier Biman to London, Rome, Jeddah and other major destinations has made export difficult in the recent months.
   They said they have been used to make agreements with importers in line with the flight schedules of the Biman that has carried more than 80 per cent of the perishables exported from Bangladesh for years.
   Abdus Salam, a prominent exporter, told New Age that export of Bangladeshi vegetables to the European market has declined by around 50 per cent as Biman has drastically cut its flights or is operating smaller planes in the routes to London and Rome.
   ‘Earlier, flights to London carried 12 tonnes of perishables but in recent months a flight carried not more than 5 tonnes,’ said one official of the association.
   Abdullah Al Hasan, cargo manager of Biman, admitted that the number of flights has declined but Biman still tries its best to serve the vegetables exporters. ‘We always give priority booking to vegetable exporters.’
   Hasan claimed that in recent weeks some of the Biman flights are not getting enough bookings from vegetable exporters.
   Exporters said Biman has been operating some unscheduled flights in recent times and commercial consignments of vegetables destined for markets abroad cannot be sent on such flights.
   One senior official of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation informed New Age that due to mismatch with flight schedules, large consignments of perishables in recent months have been taken back by exporters from the cargo terminal.
   The BADC runs an export facilitation centre, near the Zia International Airport, which has cold storage and sorting facilities.
   ‘We have observed that vegetable export is on the decline as big consignments are being taken back by the exporters,’ said the official.

Around three lakh new Beneficiary Owners’ accounts, through which investors take part in stock market trading, have been opened in the last two months, said the chief executive of the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
   ‘The number of BO accounts has increased to around 17 lakh on September 10 from 14 lakh two months earlier,’ said Salahuddin Ahmed Khan on Saturday.
   The growth reflects the increased awareness of the people about stock market investment, he said.
   ‘The growth in BO accounts is certainly a positive sign for the country’s capital market,’ said Abu Ahmed, professor of economics at Dhaka University and also a stock market expert.
   A new generation of investors is entering the stock market and their participation will certainly help to boost the market, he said.
   He said that at the beginning most of the new BO accounts might be used only to participate in the initial public offerings, but in the course of time a good number of account holders would be turned into regular investors.
   Once the new investors get involved in the market, they will also help it to get more attention from the policy-makers, said the expert.
   Recently more people and business firms are looking on the stock market as an investment option, he said.
   It is significant that there has been significant growth in the number of investors though the SEC recently tightened BO accounts rules, he said.
   As per new rules, if an applicant makes more than two applications for IPO, the whole or part of application money may be confiscated by the SEC and all applications will be treated as invalid and will not be considered for allotment purpose.
   As per the rules, an applicant cannot submit more than two applications, one in his/her own name and another jointly with another person.
   Currently most of the BO accounts are used only to participate in the IPOs, sources said.
   The SEC also set the month of September for paying Tk 300 as annual fee for maintaining a BO account.
   The regulatory body will cancel or freeze any BO account from October 1 if the account holder fails to pay the fee by the deadline, said SEC sources.
   The BO accounts without a share will be closed automatically if the account holders fail to pay the fee by the deadline, said sources.
   Salahuddin said the development of the capital market depends on the growth in the supply of shares and in the number of shares and investors.
   In the present context, the supply of shares should be increased to meet the growing demand for shares.
   Currently, on an average 26,000 investors take part in trading per day at the DSE, said Salahuddin. ‘Their number is rising day by day.’

The interim government has no authority to sign important international agreements such as the one currently being pursued by the International Monetary Fund, said legal experts, economists and business leaders at a seminar on Saturday.
   Blaming the notorious lending agency for prescribing policies that could cause economic ‘stagflation’, they called for continuous national surveillance to ensure that not even an elected government could sign a loan agreement which was detrimental to the national interest.
   ‘It’s not fair of the IMF to urge the caretaker government to make a fresh deal. This administration has no authority to say goodbye to, or to align itself with, the IMF,’ said M Zahir, a senior lawyer, at the seminar on ‘IMF Policy and Bangladesh’ at the National Press Club.
   He pointed out that the government’s refusal to sign any unfavourable agreement with the IMF or the World Bank would not affect Bangladesh’s bilateral relations with their financial contributors — the United States, the United Kingdom or other rich countries.
   Mahmudur Rahman, a business executive and former energy adviser, mentioned that it was ‘unethical’ on the global lender’s part to insist on signing an agreement — be it the fresh one of Policy Support Instrument or the old one of Poverty Reduction Growth Facility — at a time when a non-representative government was in power.
   ‘We need new jobs and we need investment for that, but the IMF is dictating a contractionary monetary policy, causing shrinkage of the economy,’ he said, citing statistics that capital machinery import had declined by 28 per cent in the first six months of 2007 compared to 35 per cent growth in spite of political turbulence in the last six months of 2006.
   Columnist Sadeq Khan presided over the seminar jointly organised by the Media Foundation for Trade and Development and Young Entrepreneurs’ Forum. The foundation’s president, Faruq Ahmed, moderated the discussion.
   Describing the IMF’s latest loan package for different countries as ‘policy slavery instrument, not support instrument’, Abu Ahmed, professor of economics at Dhaka University, opined that such an agreement must be resisted.
   ‘People like Rambough [visiting IMF team leader] seem to be so arrogant when they talk with the government’s representatives. They have singled out Bangladesh after finding out that it has weak policy-makers,’ he said, adding that it was the right of the people, including the media, to know what kind of deal the government is now negotiating with the IMF.
   ‘We don’t need them [IMF team], they can go today. Policy-makers are wasting time by talking to them,’ said Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, president of the Bangladesh Economic Association, opposing any deal with the lending agencies.
   However Atiur Rahman, another noted economist, opined in favour of continued engagement with the global lenders in view of the nature of present-day global politics, although he criticised them for shifting from their original moral positions. ‘The IMF-dictated policies have lost the businessmen’s confidence. For instance, this year’s budget has not been friendly to domestic industries,’ he added.
   In his keynote paper, Sayeeful Islam, president of the entrepreneurs’ forum, said the IMF’s mandate does not include aid with conditions.
   Former finance secretary Siddiqur Rahman Chowdhury expressed his conviction that it would be difficult for Bangladesh to take the tough line of rejecting foreign aid at a time when the economy was facing stagflation [an economic situation marked by simultaneous stagnation and higher inflation].
   President of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Selima Ahmad, underscored the need for improving negotiation skills for proper bargaining in international deals and Shahidul Haq, a director of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, proposed formation of a council of economist to suggest various policies to the government.
   ‘We have to decide ourselves whether we will seek foreign aid at all or choose what kind of aid we will take from alternative sources,’ said Muzaffer Ahmad, chief of the Transparency International, Bangladesh.

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development has approved about 200 million dollar in grants and loans to support initiatives to bolster the living conditions of the rural poor in more than a dozen countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Near East.
   Bangladesh, Pakistan, Lesotho, Uganda, the Maldives, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Armenia, Morocco and Yemen are among the beneficiaries. In West and Central Africa, IFAD will make available 5.7 million dollar in loans and 15 million dollar in grants.
   Some 28,000 farmers in the Woleu-Ntem province of Gabon will receive funding to help diversify their incomes through the development and marketing of new products including staple crops like bananas, cassava and peanuts.
   In Guinea, a grant will help finance a project to bolster local governance in rural areas while in Guinea-Bissau, one of the world’s poorest nations, another grant will assist 100,000 people build their communities through rehabilitating infrastructure and bolstering grassroots organisations.
   Additionally, the fund approved six grants to international centres conducting agricultural research and development activities in rural areas in poor nations. IFAD supports nearly 200 ongoing rural poverty eradication programmes and projects worth 6 billion dollar, aimed at helping 82 million rural poor worldwide.

India has opened the Gulf sector for its private airlines, the Hindustan Times newspaper Saturday quoted aviation authorities in New Delhi as saying.
   It has allowed Jet Airways to start Gulf flights from January 1, 2008. India’s aviation policy allows no private airline to fly what is regarded as a highly rewarding sector until the end of 2007.
   ‘The Gulf routes are reserved only for the Indian public carriers till then,’ a civil aviation ministry statement said.
   Jet Airways, which recently started flights to the United States and Canada, has been allowed to offer 3,682 seats to Kuwait, 3,150 to Oman, 2,100 to Qatar, and 2,100 to Bahrain every week. ‘Their (Jet Airways) request for grant of traffic rights on the India-Dubai and India-Abu Dhabi routes is under the consideration of the government,’ the report quoted the statement as saying.

OPEC maintained its estimate for world oil demand growth in 2007 despite current economic problems, the powerful cartel said in a report Friday.
   ‘World oil demand growth for 2007 is forecast at 1.3 million barrels per day or 1.5 per cent, broadly unchanged from the last’ report in August, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its report for September.
   The Vienna-based OPEC said it was taking into account ‘the current world oil demand growth in the third quarter, along with the anticipation of a normal winter in the fourth quarter’ in the northern hemisphere.
   The Paris-based International Energy Agency had on Wednesday lowered its predictions of global oil demand for both this year and next and warned that financial markets turbulence could force it to again revise its forecast.
   The IEA, which acts as energy policy adviser to industrialised countries, reduced its demand forecast to 85.9 million barrels per day in 2007 and 88 million bpd in 2008 from its prediction last month of 86 and 88.2 million bpd respectively.
   ‘Mild weather and inter-fuel substitution have contributed to the fall in demand,’ it said in its latest monthly report. ‘Looking ahead, continued high prices may further dent demand.’
   But OPEC said that ‘world economic growth remains unchanged for 2007 and 2008 at five per cent this month.’
   The oil cartel said ‘it is expected that the fallout from financial market turmoil will impact US and world economic growth in the second half of 2007 and 2008, although it is still too early to gauge the size of the effect.’
   ‘In credit markets, confidence is far from reestablished,’ the report said.

Syed Al Farooque, managing director of the Wills Group, has been re-elected vice-chairman of the Express Insurance Limited.
   He was reelected in a meeting of the board of directors of the insurance company at its head office in the city on Wednesday, said a press release. Starting his career as a small businessman in the 1980s, Al Faruque established himself as a garment entrepreneur in 1985.
   Besides, Al Farooque is a well-known figure in the field of literature. He has written 28 books on various subjects.

With no end in sight to the current credit crisis, Europe’s finance chiefs have launched a drive to lift the shroud of opacity over the rarefied world of high finance, which they blame for the turmoil.
   European finance ministers and central bankers called on Friday at a meeting in Porto, northern Portugal, for more transparency in the financial system in a bid to restore confidence to nerve-wracked investors.
   Roller-coaster volatility has gripped financial markets since early August as concerns about high-risk home lending in the United States have prompted investors worldwide to reassess their overall risk exposure.
   In response, Europe’s finance chiefs ordered a high-level panel ‘to review alongside our international partners how to improve transparency of complex financial instruments, of institutions and vehicles.’
   Amid the recent market turbulence, some financial institutions have discovered that they were bearing more risk than they thought due to often opaque repackaging of complex financial instruments.
   Major British mortgage lender Northern Rock had to be bailed out by the Bank of England this week as banks clamp down on lending to each other on fears that some counterparts are overloaded with risky loans they cannot handle.
   In the wake of the Northern Rock crisis, British finance minister Alistair Darling called for ‘international action’ to drive out risks to stability in the banking sector.
    ‘International action is needed to ensure that in the future we can reduce the risk of this sort of turbulence occurring again,’ Darling said on the sidelines of a meeting.
   Darling called on the Group of Seven richest countries to review regulation of the banking sector and credit rating agencies, which have been blamed for not sounding alarms about the weakness of some financial institutions.
   Separately, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said: ‘France and Germany want to raise together this question of transparency in the international finance system during the next G7 meeting in Washington.’
   He too focused on the role of credit rating agencies in the current crisis, which are facing growing criticism for not having sounded alarm bells about the riskiness of some highly complex finance.
    ‘What I’m particularly interested in is to what extent the rating agencies participate in the conception of structured financial products and to what extent the same agencies participate in their rating,’ he said.
   EU Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, who guides European policy on the financial sector, warned that ‘investors have not understood the risks that they have taken on’ due to the extreme complexity of some of the financial products they have bought.
   Greater transparency was needed because ‘supervisors need to see where the risks really lie,’ McCreevy said.

A Middle East consortium plans to invest at least 5.0 billion ringgit (1.44 billion dollars) in Malaysia’s energy, Islamic banking and property sectors, a report said Saturday.
   The consortium is led by Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance company, Gulf Petroleum Ltd Qatar and other leading investment and banking groups from the Gulf region, the New Straits Times said.
   Qatar General Insurance chairman Sheikh Nasser Ali Saud Al-Thani said in a statement released by his legal firm that the group has begun talks on oil and gas projects with the relevant bodies in Malaysia and neighbouring countries.
    ‘We have also started negotiations in the acquisition of equity stakes in financial institutions, acquisition of landed properties and office towers,’ the statement said according to the daily.
   It added that several agreements are expected to be executed on Monday in the Malaysian capital, when Sheikh Nasser will also meet with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
   Kuala Lumpur will become the group’s hub for Asia-Pacific operations, the report said.
   The New Straits Times said that Qatar General Insurance is listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange and has interests in the finance sector, energy and properties within Gulf countries and the Middle East and North Africa region.

Over 3,000 ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs from around the world gathered Saturday in Kobe, Japan to enhance business exchange and networking in the 9th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention.
   Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Jia Qinglin, who is visiting Japan, congratulated the opening of the convention through a keynote speech.
   It is significant that the WCEC is held in Japan at the 35th anniversary marking the normalization of bilateral diplomatic ties between China and Japan, Jia said, hoping that the convention will promote economic and cultural exchanges between the two countries.
   Overseas ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs have been actively participating in international economic cooperation and competition as well as building economic networking around the world, Jia said, adding that they have been contributing to the global economy in a unique way.
   Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said at the ceremony that he hoped the conference can gather the economic energy of global Chinese entrepreneurs and also can connect with Japanese business circle.
   Former Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, candidate of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party presidential election scheduled next week, also sent his congratulations to the convention through a video message.
   Among the some 3,000 attendants to the opening ceremony were Chinese entrepreneurs from over 30 countries and regions around the world, Japanese local government officials, leaders of famed Japanese enterprises as well as Chinese personages in the science and cultural fields. The convention is held at Kobe on Sept. 15-16 before it moves to Osaka on the 17th.
   With a theme of harmony, the 9th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention is aimed at promoting exchanges among global ethnic Chinese as well as those between Chinese and Japanese. The logo of the biennial convention is to win with peace, harmony and cooperation and to benefit the world.
   Japanese business circle are expecting a lot from the WCEC. Several famous Japanese corporations including Toyota Motor Corporation, All Nippon Airways Co. are the convention’s sponsors.
   The highlights of the convention include speeches by well-known entrepreneurs, discussions over economy, Asian city development, medical exchanges and other topics between Chinese and Japanese personalities.
   This year is also the Chinese Year in Japan marked by a series of cultural, artistic and exchange programs in Japan. During the convention, presentations of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai World Expo will be launched in Japan, together with a number of other cultural, sports and tourism programs.
   ‘During the past two decades or so, I have witnessed China’s growth together with other ethnic Chinese business persons,’ Francis Chua, former leader of Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry told Xinhua, ‘I hope ethnic Chinese around the world will work closer to contribute to the development of China.’
   The World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention has been successfully held in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Bangkok, Thailand, Vancouver, Canada, Melbourne, Australia, Nanjing, China, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Seoul, Republic of Korea since its birth in 1991, promoting local as well as regional and national economy of the host countries.

Worried customers were expected to keep withdrawing savings en masse Saturday from embattled British bank Northern Rock after the Bank of England bailed out the lender.
   Customers formed lengthy queues outside branches on Friday after Britain’s fifth-biggest home loan provider said it was facing severe difficulties raising cash to cover its liabilities amid the ongoing global credit squeeze.
   Northern Rock is the first major British financial institution to be hit severely by the global credit crunch sparked last month by a crisis in the US sub-prime, or high-risk, mortgage sector.
   Saturday’s newspapers bore pictures of panicking customers crowding outside Northern Rock branches nation-wide to withdraw their savings.
   Some reported that about a billion pounds (two billion dollars, 1.45 billion euros) had been pulled out of the bank, citing sources.
   ‘The throngs of anxious depositors outside its branches yesterday show how quickly financial panic can spread,’ read the Financial Times’ editorial.
   ‘A crisis requires fine judgements and the Bank’s decision to act — assuming it did not respond to political pressure — looks reasonable.’
   However, the daily said the Bank of England should charge Northern Rock a sizeable penalty rate and tide it over until it could be sold.
   The Daily Telegraph fingered the prime minister in its editorial.
   ‘Gordon Brown must accept responsibility for this credit bubble: in his 10 years at the Treasury, he was happy to benefit from a sense of faux-prosperity based, not on rising productivity, but on house prices, loans and, to a degree, immigration,’ the broadsheet argued.
   ‘A snap election, before people realise the full consequences of what he has done, is suddenly looking attractive again.’
   The Sun, Britain’s biggest-selling daily, said Northern Rock was not an innocent party.
   ‘The bank has continued to lend customers five times their salary and 125 per cent of their home’s value despite all warnings of economic instability and an impending fall in house prices,’ read the tabloid’s editorial.
   ‘These crazy deals have kept the property bubble inflated for too long. They are almost certain to end now and house prices are sure to fall.’
   Shares in Northern Rock, which issued a profits warning on Friday, plunged 31.46 per cent to 438 pence at the close, dragging the European banking sector lower as investors fretted over potential difficulties elsewhere.
   Northern Rock, based in Newcastle, north-east England, warned its 2007 profits could be 147 million pounds (214 million euros, 297 million dollars) lower than expected.

Japanese companies operating in China lag behind in dealing with the strict application of Chinese National Standards for industrial products manufactured and marketed in China.
   China started making legislative arrangements for regulating the quality of industrial products in the mid-1990s. The Chinese National Standard is called Guojia Biazhun (GB). A number of laws stipulate GBs for product quality, consumer rights, advertisements and Chinese character styles, among others.
   GBs are similar to Japanese Industrial Standards but different from JIS because they can be enforced to ban the manufacturing, selling and importing of products that do not meet the relevant GB standard.
   The Japan Technical Communicators Association sent a mission to China twice between the autumn of last year and this spring to inspect the current array of GBs and their application. The mission found that Japanese-affiliated firms are falling behind their US and European counterparts in complying with GBs. For this reason, the association has established a subcommittee on Chinese markets to gather more information and hold seminars on the matter.
   The GBs set out detailed standards for product manuals, warranties, service manuals, packaging, labeling, nameplates and product displays.
   The biggest difference between Japan and China is the strictness in China of the rules regarding product accessories and annexed documents. Instruction manuals, for example, are regarded in Japan as having no more significance than as a set of operating instructions, but in China they are regarded as an integral part of a product along the lines of a contract document.

China said Saturday it had sent back meat imported from the United States and Canada because it contained traces of a banned drug.
   Food safety authorities returned more than 40 tonnes of pork imported from the two countries after discovering traces of the growth stimulant ractopamine, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.
   Most countries ban the use of ractopamine in livestock destined for human consumption, but it is permitted in 24 countries including the US and Canada, Xinhua said.
   China complained last month of problems with food imports from the US and urged authorities there to act to resolve them.
   The move followed a spate of safety scandals surrounding Chinese exports to the US and elsewhere — ranging from toys and tyres to seafood and toothpaste.
   China’s safety standards have come under sharp international criticism in recent months amid regular reports of fake, shoddy or dangerous goods emanating from the nation’s chaotic and corrupt food and drug industry.
   The Chinese media usually ignores scandals involving the country’s exports, but regularly reports problems with imported products.

The Standard Chartered Bank’s transaction banking has recently signed an agreement with the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority in the city.
   Mirza Aminur Rahman, director and head of transaction banking of the Standard Chartered Bank, and Md Rafiul Alam, company secretary of the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations, said a press release.
   Under this agreement, the bank’s transaction banking will establish one-point collection centres on the premises of DESA at strategic locations to collect all kinds of utility bills under one-roof, including DESA’s electricity bills.
   Brigadier General Md Nazrul Hasan, chairman of DESA, and Ahmed A Shah, director and head of client relationships of the Standard Chartered Bank, also attended the signing ceremony.
   Other high officials of both the organisaitons were also present on the occasion.

The BRAC Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel in the city recently.
   Imran Rahman, managing director and chief executive officer of the BRAC Bank, and Trevor MacDonald, general manager of the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, inked the MoU on behalf of their respective organisation, said a press release.
   Under the agreement, the bank credit card holders can now avail up to 25 per cent discount in various service outlets at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel. The bank credit card holders can also access Balaka VIP lounge at ZIA International Airport free of any charge while they travel abroad.
   Zahid Ibne Hai, head of marketing and corporate affairs, Mamunur Rashid, head of cards, and other senior officials from the BRAC Bank and the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel were also present on the occasion.

Soybean futures ended higher Friday, after leaping on a combination of frost concerns and bullish underlying fundamental and technical outlooks, reports Dow Jones, New York.
   On the Chicago Board of Trade, November soybeans settled 13 ½ cents stronger at $9.54 ¾ a bushel. October soymeal settled $4.40 higher at $260.00 a short ton, and December soymeal settled $4.30 firmer at $265.40 a short ton. October soyoil ended 0.35 cent higher at 39.52 cents a pound, and December soyoil also finished 0.35 cent firmer at 40.02 cents a pound.
   Fear associated with frost forecast for the upper tier of the Midwest - where late planted soybeans are still susceptible to damage - coupled with the need to push and hold prices at levels that will attract acres in South America as well as in the US next year buoyed the market, said Tim Hannagan, analyst with Alaron Trading In Chicago.
   Meanwhile, wheat futures closed mostly higher as traders squared positions before the weekend, analysts said. Corn contracts rose with help from gains in soybeans and chart-related buying.
   CBOT December wheat rose 1 cent to $8.46 per bushel, Kansas City Board of Trade December wheat finished 4 cents higher at $8.29 a bushel, and Minneapolis Grain Exchange December wheat climbed 5 ½ cents to $7.95 a bushel.
   September corn went off the board at $3.36 ½ a bushel on the CBOT, up 5 ½ cents. December corn rose 2 ¼ cents to $3.49 a bushel, and March corn also climbed 2 ¼ cents to $3.66 a bushel.
   In precious-metals trading, prices were little changed at the close.
   Gold futures had risen on safe-haven buying and short covering following weaker-than-expected retail sales figures and market-troubling UK lending news. However, gold retreated as equities pared earlier losses and traders consolidated their gains, analysts said.
   December gold finished 10 cents lower at $717.80 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
   December silver rose 2.5 cents to $12.705 an ounce, October platinum fell 70 cents to $1,299.20 an ounce, and December palladium declined $2.85 to $333.75 an ounce.
   December copper slipped 0.40 cent to settle at $3.3925 a pound. At ICE Futures US, cotton futures closed at six-week highs on speculative buying and bullish options strategies, with light trade selling providing resistance near the highs, brokers said Friday. December cotton rose 0.76 cent to settle at 63.61 cents a pound.
   Arabica coffee futures rose on late options-related buying along with short covering as London’s November robusta contract sped to a new high. ICE October options expired on the close. December coffee closed 1.6 cents higher at $1.2090 a pound.
   Meanwhile, cocoa futures rose on industry buying, which trumped an earlier bout of origin selling in light-volume trading, brokers said. December cocoa rose $19 to settle at $1,837 a metric ton.
   World raw sugar futures rose on options-related buying as the October options expired. There was also short covering. Most of the day’s volume, however, was from funds and index funds selling the October-March spread, while trade houses bought the switch.
   October sugar finished 0.08 cent higher at 9.35 cents a pound, while March sugar closed 0.15 cent stronger at 9.69 cents a pound.

OPEC chief Abdalla Salem El-Badri said Friday the current oil price of 80 dollars did not reflect fundamentals and was unlikely to last long.
   ‘I don’t think 80 dollars per barrel will last,’ El-Badri told journalists in Vienna. ‘The fundamentals do not support the price.’
   El-Badri said that the current price of oil was ‘too high.’
   But OPEC did not have a target for the oil price, he said.
   ‘We’re not in favour a high price or in favour of a low price,’ the cartel chief said.
   The price of oil surged to record highs this week even after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced it would pump an extra 500,000 barrels per day from the start of November as a signal of the cartel’s willingness to respond to supply fears in consumer countries.
   One-off factors such as the hurricane season were behind that, El-Badri argued.
   But still the cartel was scratching its head over the exact reasons.
   ‘We’re all asking ourselves why. Perhaps you the markets know something we don’t.’
   Asked whether OPEC at its next meeting in December would discuss further raising output if the oil price persisted at current levels, El-Badri was tight-lipped.
   ‘Of course, we will discuss supply, demand and inventories, as usual,’ he said.
   ‘We don’t enjoy seeing a very high price.’
   In its monthly report, released on Friday, OPEC maintained its estimate for world oil demand growth in 2007 despite current economic problems.
   ‘World oil demand growth for 2007 is forecast at 1.3 million barrels per day or 1.5 per cent, broadly unchanged from the last’ report in August, the September report said.
   The Vienna-based OPEC said it was taking into account ‘the current world oil demand growth in the third quarter, along with the anticipation of a normal winter in the fourth quarter’ in the northern hemisphere.
   The Paris-based International Energy Agency had on Wednesday lowered its predictions of global oil demand for both this year and next and warned that financial markets turbulence could force it to again revise its forecast.
   The IEA, which acts as energy policy adviser to industrialised countries, reduced its demand forecast to 85.9 million barrels per day in 2007 and 88 million bpd in 2008 from its prediction last month of 86 and 88.2 million bpd respectively.
   ‘Mild weather and inter-fuel substitution have contributed to the fall in demand,’ it said in its latest monthly report. ‘Looking ahead, continued high prices may further dent demand.’
   But OPEC said that ‘world economic growth remains unchanged for 2007 and 2008 at five percent this month.’
   The oil cartel said ‘it is expected that the fallout from financial market turmoil will impact US and world economic growth in the second half of 2007 and 2008, although it is still too early to gauge the size of the effect.’
   ‘In credit markets, confidence is far from reestablished,’ the report said.
   ‘Much will depend on monetary accommodation to ease the strains produced by the higher cost of capital and tighter credit availability,’ OPEC said, adding that ‘all eyes are now on the Fed meeting on September 18, when it is generally expected that interest rates will be lowered by 25 points.’
   It said there were signs of economic weakness in Japan and the eurozone while China’s growth was high but so was inflation ‘mainly due to high food prices, calling for further monetary tightening.’

European stock exchanges wilted on Friday, dragged down by news that the Bank of England had to rescue a troubled British mortgage lender and lackuster US economic reports.
   The London FTSE 100 index fell 1.17 per cent at close at 6,289.30 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 lost 0.49 per cent to finish at 5,538.92. In Frankfurt the Dax shed 0.51 per cent to end the week at 7,497.74 points.
   The Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares lost 0.65 per cent to close at 4,221.34.
   On the currency market the beleaguered US dollar firmed against the euro after plunging to a record low on Thursday. The single European currency in late-day trade was at 1.3854 dollars, down from 1.3881 late Thursday in New York.
   The US currency on Friday was boosted by profit-taking in the euro and risk aversion on the part of investors who saw the dollar as a refuge following the British bailout.
   US stocks recovered from a sharply lower opening as global credit jitters were heightened by news that British mortgage lender Northern Rock had sought emergency funding from the Bank of England.
   The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.10 per cent in early trading at 13,411.31, rebounding after losing nearly 100 points at the opening.
   The tech-heavy Nasdaq was off 0.24 per cent at 2,594.81.
   The trouble at Northern Rock raised concerns that a financial market credit squeeze, brought on by a sharp downturn in the US housing sector and heavy pressure on mortgage-backed securities, may not be over.
   ‘The catalyst for this move is news that the Bank of England had to supply a UK mortgage lender with emergency credit,’ said Dick Green at Briefing.com.
   ‘That has re-raised credit worries in the US.’
   In London Northern Rock plunged 31.46 per cent on the day to 438 pence. Elsewhere in the sector Barclays fell 3.09 per cent to 596 pence while real estate finance specialists Paragon tumbled 16.7 per cent to 298 pence. In Paris US economic news weighed on sentiment.

DCCI meeting on aid for trade
The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry in association with Oxfam held a discussion meeting on ‘aid for trade and supply side constraints faced by SMEs’ at the DCCI auditorium in the city on Saturday. Hossain Khaled, president of the chamber, chaired the discussion meeting participated by Faridul Hassan, director, general of the Export Promotion Bureau, and Sayed Nurul Alam, acting country representative of Oxfam, said a press release. Ferdaus Ara Begurn presented the keynote paper in the discussion meeting, highlighting different aspects of aid for trade, and proposed different areas for having aid for trade fund. Bangladesh badly needs export diversification as Bangladeshi products have been facing problems in market access to developed countries because of both tariff and non-tariff barriers, pointed out the speakers at the discussion.
— New Age

PLIL declares 12pc dividend
The Pragati Life Insurance Limited has declared 12 per cent dividend for its shareholders for the year 2006. The dividend was approved at the 7th annual general meeting of the company held at the Radisson Water Garden Hotel in the city recently, said a press release. Syed M Altaf Hussain, chairman of the company, presided over the meeting. M Shefaque Ahmed, managing director, Khaliur Rahman, chairman, and ASM Mohiuddin Monem, vice-chairman, and directors Mabroor Hossain, AKM Rafiqul Islam, Tafsir M Awal, Md Shafiur Rahman, and patrons Mohammed A Awaal, Syedur Rahman Mintoo, ASM Maniuddin Monem, Imam Anwar Hossain, Jahangir Chowdhury and Younus Chowdhury were present in the AGM.
— New Age

BQSP stresses
quality of items
Bangladesh Quality Support Programme at its third steering committee meeting at the BSTI conference room in the capital on Monday stressed the need for enhancing awareness in quality for export diversification. Working for improving infrastructure across the country to ensure quality, standard and accreditation, the BQSP project assisted by the EU, UNIDO and ITC have planned to help further the stakeholders in Bangladesh. UNIDO chief technical adviser David Holbourne, ITC official Lilla Naas and first secretary of the EU delegation in Bangladesh Jean Jacques attended the meeting. Representatives from the industries ministry, BGMEA, BKMEA and CAB were also present in the meeting.
— New Age