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Frustrated by the Rupali Bank sell-off fiasco, Privatisation Commission now asks the government to help the state-owned lender operate in full swing.
   The abortive bid to sell out the bank to a Saudi investor put an unofficial moratorium on the state-owned bank’s expansion, recruitment, promotion and modernisation since August 2006.
   After two years of negotiations and lobbing, the commission at last found the Saudi bidder, who offered $456 million for about 97 per cent government’s shares in the bank, unresponsive.
   ‘We want Rupali Bank to resume full banking activities, which were partially stopped at the end of 2006,’ commission chairman Abu Solaiman Chowdhury told New Age on Wednesday.
   ‘The bank’s recruitment, which was stopped for unknown reason, should start for its smooth operation.’
   The commission in a recent letter suggested that the finance ministry should allow Rupali Bank to start fresh lending, and pave the way for clearing its promotion backlogs and recruiting manpower.
   ‘Under the circumstances, the commission feels that the finance division may consider allowing Rupali Bank to start fresh lending. Besides, the division can give directives for branch computerisation, renovation, recruiting manpower against approved vacancies and giving promotion to its staff,’ reads the letter sent to the Finance Division secretary.
   Rupali Bank management said they had stopped major activities in August, 2006 as was asked by the commission.
   New Age obtained a document signed by Azizul Islam, member of Privatisation Commission on August 2, 2006, stating the commission’s decision to ask the Finance Division to stop Rupali Bank’s major activities like promotion, recruitment and lending.
   Though the Finance Division had not issued any such order then, the bank’s management suspended all major operations on its own, sources said.
   The bank sits on a deposit of about Tk 700 crore and bears annual interest liabilities of Tk 300 crore. The deposit could not be invested for more than a year.
   Currently, the bank has about 1700 vacant posts, while bad loan stood at about Tk 1800 crore as of December, 2007, or 37 per cent of its total outstanding loans, bank sources said.
   ‘We received the commission’s letter requesting us to help Rupali Bank resume its operations fully. We have been asked to see why the bank management kept the activities suspended for more than a year,’ a high official at the Finance Division told New Age.
   The delayed response from the division and commission irked many rank and file officers of Rupali Bank.
   ‘As if they woke up from a long sleep and suddenly discovered that the bank was not functioning,’ said an official, venting his grievances at the futile disinvestment exercise that virtually put the bank’s survival at stake.
   Privatisation Commission signed a letter of intent with the highest bidder, Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Mohammad Abdul Rahman Al Saud, who offered $330 million for the government’s 67 per cent stakes in the bank back in 2005. Buoyed by the offer, the commission in January 2007 decided to sell the government’s remaining 26 per cent stake to the same bidder, though the sales deal for the previous offer had not been signed by then.
   The total offer stood at $456 million and the commission was fooled into believing that the Saudi investor would buy the bank anytime until recently, when the bidder broke his silence and slashed his offer to $185 million, less than half the price it agreed to.
   But the government seems to be still hesitant about scrapping the deal taking into account the official relations between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.
   The commission chairman said that he would be able to tell about the fate of the bid after three or four days.

The Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services is going to organise BASIS SoftExpo 2008 today at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the Dhaka city.
   The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, is expected inaugurate the five-day exposition, said a press release.
   Manik Lal Somaddar, special assistant to the chief adviser, ministry of science and information & communication technology, and Einar Hevogard Jensen, Danish ambassador, will be present as special guests.
   This year’s exposition is expected to have a lot of focus on some recent technology trends and issues in the industry like e-governance, telecom software, banking software, ERP/ CRM/ SCM software, web applications, BPO, e-commerce, e-learning etc.
   Apart from showcasing of products and services by the exhibitors, a series of workshops and seminars will be organised on the occasion.
   More than 150 local and foreign exhibitors and international delegates from Denmark, France, the UK, Germany and Japan are taking part in the exposition.
   ICT outsourcing in Bangladesh is generating lot of interest at recent times and the forthcoming exposition will host a seminar on outsourcing where those involved in outsourcing, both from home and abroad will attend.
   Delegates from Danish companies will visit this year’s SoftExpo and take part in matchmaking meetings in addition to participating in various seminars, workshops and roundtables.

Raw jute should be officially declared an agricultural product as Bangladesh exports about Tk 300 crore worth of raw jute a year to Pakistan alone, industry experts said Wednesday.
   The demand came at a press conference co-organised by the Bangladesh Jute Association and the Pakistan Jute Mills Association.
   A six-member delegation of the PJMA is in Dhaka to accelerate jute import for Pakistan.
   PJMA chairman Abdul Khaliq in his maiden speech said that the quality of jute produced in Bangladesh was one of the best in the world.
   ‘With that in view, we and our Bangladeshi counterparts for the first time jointly presented the hindrances to the raw jute trade, to the Bangladesh government,’ he said.
   Khaliq, who has been associated with the industry for more than 50 years, said the two trade bodies discussed ways to improve trade between the countries as well as sat with government agencies on the industry’s problems.
   He stressed the use of electronic equipment in measuring and maintaining the standards of raw jute, as practiced nowadays in the international arena.
   ‘We met the chief of the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute and requested him to do so and cooperate with the PJMA in skills development to produce diversified jute products,’ said Khaliq.
   ‘The bottleneck in the industry is shipping; only three vessels from Bangladesh have anchored at the Karachi port in the last three months,’ he added.
   Reazul Karim, chairman of the BJA, echoed him and added that for this reason about 30,000 tonnes of raw jute was trapped with Bangladeshi exporters.
   ‘At least one break-bulk vessel of the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation should be used every month to regularise the exports out of Mongla port. Otherwise, both the countries would suffer a great loss,’ the BJA chairman said.
   He further said that the two trade bodies had met the BSC managing director and asked him to resolve the problems and that the BJA also demanded withdrawal of ‘flag protection’ clause.
   Karim pointed out that the government did not identify raw jute as an agricultural product. So, the industry was being deprived of the subsidies and facilities.
   Jute goods were, however, identified as agricultural products, he said.
   Karim urged the government to include raw jute under the category that would lead to increased export earnings from the sector.
   The delegation also met commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman and jute adviser Anwarul Iqbal to highlight the shipping problem and other trading complications, he added.

Grameenphone’s operating profit declined by 33 per cent to Tk 1,548 crore in 2007 from Tk 2,294 core a year ago due to drop in average revenue per user and increase in cost of subscriber acquisition, the company said Wednesday.
   ‘The underline cause for the decline in operating profit is reduced ARPU and increased subscribers acquisition cost,’ said Anders Jensen, chief executive officer of the Grameenphone, while making comment on the decreasing trend of operating profit.
   The country’s largest mobile phone operator’s annual revenue, however, stood at Tk 5,450 crore last year, a nine per cent growth over the revenue earned in 2006.
   The Norwegian mobile phone giant Telenor, which owns 62 per cent stake in Grameenphone, in the fourth-quarter report said its operating profit dipped by Tk 746 crore in 2007 from the preceding year. Grameen Telecom owns remaining 38 per cent share of the mobile phone operator.
   The Q4 report released on Wednesday said the ARPU decreased by 30 per cent primarily due to decrease in average prices and the reduction in interconnection prices.
   According to the report, the number of subscribers increased by 1.3 million during the September to December period and almost 6 million in 2007 compared to 2006. At the end of the Q4, Grameenphone’s estimated market share was 48 per cent. The subscriber market-share remained stable during the year.
   The Grameenphone statement said the company made fresh investments of more than Tk 3,550 crore in 2007 to further increase the capacity and coverage of its network across the country.
   This brings the total investment of Grameenphone to over Tk 11,150 crore since its inception in 1997, including Tk 2,150 crore in 2006.
   ‘Grameenphone is committed to ensure a quality network, offer innovative products and services and provide committed after-sales service to its valued customers,’ observed Anders Jensen.
   ‘As such, we have continued to make large investments in the network. With more than 10,000 base stations in over 6,000 locations around the country, the Grameenphone network already covers more than 98 per cent of the population,’ he added.
   Regarding the future outlook of the company, Anders said the Grameenphone would increasingly focus on addressing the rural market segment to keep the growth continuing.
   ‘The future outlook is continuous growth. And to do so, we have to address the rural market segment in an increasingly efficient way,’ the Grameen CEO said.

Curry may be one of Britain’s most popular dishes but the industry is facing a labour crisis due to restricted immigration from Bangladesh, a charity said Wednesday.
   Curry houses are a standard feature on British high streets and the 9,000 odd restaurants have traditionally relied on Bangladeshi workers.
   But since Britain threw open its labour market to eastern Europeans when the European Union expanded in 2004, restrictions on low-skilled non-EU workers have tightened.
   Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service charity, said the new points-based system was causing a shortage of workers in curry houses.
   ‘Despite many meetings with the immigration minister, who states that he understands the plight of this important industry to the UK, nothing is being done to improve the situation,’ he said.
   The government had mistakenly assumed that eastern Europeans would fill vacancies, Best said, but they have ‘no cultural sensitivity towards or understanding of the curry industry’.
   ‘It is a sad comment on government policy that it favours eastern Europeans over citizens of Commonwealth countries such as Bangladesh, whose preceding generations have contributed so much to the British economy and continue to do so.’
   He added: ‘For many low-income families the only chance they have of eating out is to go for a curry.’
   There are thought to be some 50,000 workers in the curry industry, the BBC reported.
   There were 283,063 ethnic Bangladeshis in Britain at the 2001 census, 0.5 per cent of the population.
   Although most curry houses are still styled as Indian restaurants, the majority are run by Bangladeshi-origin Britons, while the cuisine is a mixture of dishes from across South Asia adapted for British tastes or else completely invented.
   A series of surveys have named chicken tikka masala as Britain’s most popular dish.
   Meanwhile, Alex Waugh of the Rice Association, an industry body, said prices were up 60 per cent year on year and the cost of basmati rice had nearly doubled.
   ‘If you are a restaurant owner and you are buying a lot of rice you either reduce your margins or you put your prices up,’ he said.

The stocks went mixed on Wednesday as a sluggish trend started at the beginning of the week continued.
   The general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange lost 3.18 points or 0.11 per cent to close at 2966.62, while its blue chips index, DSE20, shed 2.76 points or 0.12 per cent to close at 2340.65.
   The DSE all share price index, however, gained 0.49 points or 0.02 per cent to close at 2496.50.
   Market operators said the slow trading from the investors, alarmed by cautious merchant banks’ lending, resulted in dullness at the stock market this week.
   Chittagong Stock Exchange’s selective categories index gained 1.84 points or 0.04 per cent to close at 4841.24, while its all share price index advanced by 14.90 points or 0.20 per cent to finish at 7532.50.
   The CSE30, the port city bourse’s blue chips index, however, lost 11.85 points or 0.18 per cent to close at 6732.55.
   Of the total 229 issues traded at the DSE, 112 advanced, 97 declined and 20 remained unchanged, and out of 122 issues traded at the CSE, 50 posted gains, 61 dropped and 11 remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the DSE decreased to Tk 191.51 crore from the Tuesday’s Tk 197.79 crore and the CSE turnover went down to Tk 30.15 crore from Tk 32.92 crore.

CellBazaar, an innovative market-access service from Grameenphone has won the 3GSMA Global Mobile Award 2008, in the category of ‘best use of mobile for social and economic development,’ says a statement of Grameenphone.
   The 3GSMA Global Mobile Awards - the ‘Oscars’ of an industry that serves a third of the world’s population - represents a stage for all players in the mobile world to attract the attention of their peers and the global media.
   The award was announced at a gala award dinner Tuesday night on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress currently being held in the Spanish city of Barcelona.
   Grameenphone CellBazaar is a ‘great initiative - full marks for self-sustainability. This grassroots level initiative is not only for operators to make money but for rural folks to sell and trade their goods and increased price transparency and help for the illiterate is also available. It has clear environmental benefits through reduced travel,’ the Award Judges said in their citation.
   ‘CellBazaar is a great example of Grameenphone’s continued leadership in simple, smart and customer relevant innovation,’ noted Anders Jensen, chief executive officer of Grameenphone.

REVE Systems, a leading end to end VoIP solution provider, has signed a distributorship agreement with UK-based signaling specialist company Squire Technologies.
   Under this agreement, REVE Systems will distribute Squire Product and Solution worldwide and also provide Tier 1 support.
   This new agreement will underpin an already successful relationship between Squire Technologies and REVE systems who already have joint deployments in the UK, Germany, South Africa and Pakistan.
   Squire Technologies Ltd is a UK based company which combines leading-edge SS7 and VoIP telephony and provides a carrier grade class 4 softswitch for smooth interconnectivity between SS7/ISDN and VoIP networks with native support of H.323 and SIP,SIP-I,SIP-T.

Indian origin Cisco official Padmasree Warrior has been named one of the top 15 most influential women driving innovation and revenue in corporate America.
   Warrior, the chief technology officer at the Cisco Systems, has been ranked among the top 15 women in business by a magazine.
   The PINK magazine’s Top 15 Women in Business — ‘The Innovators’ list identifies remarkable women leaders who use ideas to transform companies every single day.
   From Michelle Gass, just promoted to senior vice president of global strategy at Starbucks, to Union Pacific Railroad’s Diane Duren, who developed a new train route that delivers millions in revenue annually, these women create change in their organisations — the kind that births new generations of products and has an immediate impact on the bottom line, says the magazine that caters to America’s career-focused women.
   Warrior, who joined Cisco in December 2007 after stepping down as the vice-president and CTO of Motorola has been known as a driving force for innovation at Motorola and knowing how to harness the creative power of engineers.
   Warrior, 47, raised in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, India, holds a BS Degree in chemical engineering from IIT Delhi and a MS Degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University. In 2007 she was awarded Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa from New York’s Polytechnic University.
   Besides Padmasree, some other women making to the list in the March-April issue of the magazine are: Cathy Avgiris, Comcast, Barbara Beck, Manpower, Irene Chang Britt, Campbell Soup, Laurie Brubaker, Aetna, Diane Duren, Union Pacific Railroad, Julie England, Texas Instruments, Michelle Gass, Starbucks.

Brand-name American companies, spanning manufacturing, retailing and banking among other industries, are making sizeable job cuts as an economic slowdown bites corporate profits.
   A monthly US government survey showed earlier this month that the world’s largest economy shed jobs unexpectedly in January for the first time since 2003 as employers cut 17,000 positions.
   Several big corporations have announced significant workforce reductions since January’s job snapshot was released, raising the odds that employment growth will remain sluggish in the near term.
   Economists say the jobs cuts also make it more likely that the Federal Reserve will continue its aggressive campaign to slash US interest rates in coming months.
   Ray Stone, an economist at Stone and McCarthy Research Associates in Princeton, New Jersey, said the US job market could be entering a rough stretch which may last several months.
   ‘My impression of labor market conditions right now is that things are softening and employment growth may ultimately turn into outright declines,’ Stone said, adding that such declines could occur over several months.
   Companies typically cut jobs during an economic downturn to reduce costs.
   US growth slowed to a 0.6 per cent annualised crawl in the fourth quarter compared with a 4.9 per cent clip in the prior quarter, stoking fears the economy is slipping into a possible recession.
   Troubled automaker General Motors announced Tuesday that it planned to offer voluntary buyouts to all 74,000 members of its union-represented US workforce as it posted a record loss of 38.7 billion dollars for 2007.
   GM hopes the buyout offers will enable it to pare overheads as it vies to reorganize its operations amid stiff competition from Japanese rivals.
   Other companies are taking more drastic steps.
   Macy’s, one of America’s best-known retailers, announced 2,300 job cuts last week as it vies to overhaul its business and trim spending.
   Appliance maker Whirlpool Corporation said in late January it would be cutting 1,250 positions due to the planned closure of two manufacturing plants in the United States and Mexico.
   Whirlpool’s announcement came days after wireless telecommunications operator Sprint Nextel said it was slashing 4,000 jobs, citing an expected ‘downward pressure’ on its profits this year.
   Bank of America and Lehman Brothers also announced job cuts during January as a housing and credit crunch continued to roil the financial sector and US stock markets. Citigroup initiated swinging layoffs last year.
   GM announced its buyout push a day after White House economists predicted that the US unemployment rate would tick up several notches during 2008 to 4.9 per cent compared with an estimated 4.6 per cent for 2007.
   The ‘Economic Report of the President’ said the services sector accounted for all of 2007’s job gains ‘as construction employment fell due to continued weakness in the housing market and manufacturing employment continued its downtrend for the tenth consecutive year,’ partly due to productivity advances.
   President George W Bush is expected to sign a giant economic stimulus package, worth over 160 billion dollars, into law on Wednesday, hoping it will fire up economic growth and labour demand.
   Economists say the Fed’s rate cuts and the stimulus plan should give the economy a kick-start this year, but it takes time for such monetary and fiscal actions to filter through the economy.
   Nevertheless, new jobs are still being created.
   The Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, just south of Washington, which claims to be the biggest such facility on the US East Coast, has sought to hire 1,600 new employees ahead of a planned opening in late April.

India, China and other emerging economies are in the ‘perfect storm’ of global financial risk sparked by the US credit crunch and should mull steps to avoid a sharp downturn, the IMF chief said Wednesday.
   International Monetary Fund director general Dominique Strauss-Kahn told a meeting of Indian economists that large fast-growing economies like India and China had not ‘decoupled’ from poor growth prospects in the US and Europe.
   ‘The industrial and emerging economies are like two horses yoked together,’ Strauss-Kahn told the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Research.
   ‘If one is tired, the other can take up more of the strain for a while. But if one stops in its tracks neither is going to get very far.’
   To combat the risks to global economic growth, Strauss-Khan called on emerging market countries to be ready to cut interest rates and spend more money, the same efforts the Washington-based fund has urged for industrial nations.
   ‘In economic policy, emerging economies could consider how they would respond to a downturn: how much scope there is for monetary easing in some countries; how much scope there is for fiscal stimulus in others,’ he said, while cautioning that any extra spending should be temporary and accompanied by other policy measures like exchange rate flexibility.
   He noted that some countries may not have much scope to ease monetary policy or increase spending, but said there needs to be a concerted global effort to boost the world economy.
   ‘I think that the trade links that bind emerging and industrial economies together are still tight - and perhaps are tighter than they seem from a casual examination of trade figures.’
   Last month, India’s central bank held key interest rates steady, saying the risk of higher inflation had increased despite global threats to economic growth and financial stability, while China has also warned that rising prices require tight monetary policy in 2008.
   On the other hand, the US government has prepared a 150-billion-dollar package to stimulate its flagging economy, while the Federal Reserve has slashed interest rates.

Factories and refineries in the nations sharing the euro cut back production more than expected in December, official EU data showed Wednesday in further evidence the eurozone economy is slowing.
   Industrial output in the eurozone dipped 0.2 per cent in December from November and rose 1.3 per cent over 12 months, according to the Eurostat data agency.
   The figures, adjusted for seasonal variations, fell short economists’ expectations for industrial output to rise 0.6 per cent over one month and grow 2.3 per cent over one year as polled by Thomson Financial.
   ‘December’s fall in eurozone industrial production suggests that the economy may have slowed a bit more sharply towards the end of last year than previously thought,’ economist Jennifer McKeown said at Capital Economics.
   The December data came after industrial output in the eurozone, which now has 15 members since Cyprus and Malta joined at the start of the year, fell 0.4 per cent in November over one month and expanded 3.1 per cent over one year.
   The weakness in December industrial activity was driven by a 1.0 per cent decline over one month in the production of capital goods used to make other products, and which include such things as tools and machinery.
   The data added to a growing stream of figures indicating that the eurozone economy is slowing in the face of tougher credit conditions, a strong euro and high commodity prices.
   ‘While it is by no means collapsing, the eurozone manufacturing sector has clearly lost significant momentum overall in recent months,’ economist Howard Archer said at consultants Global Insight.
   ‘This adds to the pressure on the ECB to eventually cut interest rates despite its current concerns over inflation,’ he added.
   Although inflation is running at a record high, the European Central Bank open the door last week to possible rate cuts by acknowledging that the eurozone faced ‘unusually high’ uncertainty.
   In the 27-nation EU as a whole, industrial output eased 0.2 per cent in December over one month and increased 1.2 per cent over one year.

Vietnam’s rapid economic growth has earned the country international plaudits, but on a Hanoi street market most people complain that it is becoming harder every month to make ends meet.
   The reason for the sour mood is rampant inflation, especially in food prices, which in January surged by 22 per cent year-on-year.
   Consumer prices overall spiralled upwards by more than 14 per cent, the largest rise since 1995, according to the state-run General Statistics Office, in an increase that has outpaced wage rises and hit the poor the hardest.
   ‘I have to get by on a modest salary,’ said teacher Nguyen Thi Lien, 40, pointing with dismay at a butcher’s stand where a kilogrammeof pork has gone to 80,000 dong ($5) from 50,000 ($3) in just two months.
   ‘These steep price increases really affect my family spending,’ she said. ‘Now I have to think carefully about what to buy when I go shopping.’
   Le Thi Man, a 31-year accountant, said her family of five has skipped the habit of starting the day with a streetside bowl of pho noodle soup.
   ‘One bowl of pho a few months ago cost 10,000 dong,’ she said. ‘Now it’s 15,000. Some places charge 20,000 or even 40,000 dong. Now I cook at home instead. I’ve just bought a box of instant noodles.’
   Jonathan Pincus, the UN Development Programme’s chief economist in Vietnam, said: ‘The problem is serious because of the very large part that food makes up in the budgets of poor people in Vietnam.
   ‘It’s probably forcing some people back into poverty.’
   Communist-ruled Vietnam — a World Trade Organisation member for the past year — aims to run a ‘market economy with socialist orientation’ and is especially sensitive to public anger over rising prices. The spiralling costs of food, petrol and other basic goods have fuelled labour unrest, mostly among workers at Taiwanese and South Korean textile and shoe factories around southern Ho Chi Minh City.
   In the year’s first 20 days, more than 25,000 workers went on strike at nearly 40 plants demanding better pay and conditions, said the Saigon Times. Vietnam has in some ways become the victim of its own success.
   Optimism about the nascent ‘tiger economy’ that grew at 8.5 per cent last year has fuelled foreign investment — with 20 billion dollars more pledged last year — a cash influx that has driven up prices.
   As state enterprises have part-privatised, a stock market boom had fuelled urban wealth before declining in recent months. Investors then shifted their money into gold and real estate, sending property prices skyrocketing.

British economic growth was set to ‘slow markedly’ in 2008, even if the Bank of England decides to cut interest rates by a further 75 basis points this year, the central bank forecast on Wednesday.
   The BoE, which since December has slashed British borrowing costs by half a per centage point to 5.25 per cent, said economic growth would continue to weaken in 2008 owing to the global credit squeeze in the wake of the US subprime housing crisis.
   The market is forecasting that the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee will cut interest rates to around 4.50 per cent by the end of this year, the Bank of England noted in a quarterly report on its outlook for growth and inflation.
   ‘Under the assumption that Bank Rate falls in line with market yields, the Committee’s central projection is for output growth to slow markedly this year,’ the BoE said in its latest report.
   It added: ‘Growth then starts to recover, as credit conditions improve and the effects of lower interest rates and weaker sterling work through.’

Malaysia chalked up its 10th consecutive year of trade surplus and the amount of 100.53 billion ringgit ($31.06b) was the second highest ever on record, said international trade and industry minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz.
   ‘Export growth in 2007 emanated from both traditional and emerging markets such as China, Australia, United Arab Emirates and Indonesia,’ she said, adding that collectively these markets accounted for 101.28 billion ringgit ($31.28b) or 16.7 per cent of Malaysia’s total exports.
   She added that the 14.5 per cent decline in Malaysia’s exports to the US in 2007 was offset, in part, by strong growth in aggregate exports to emerging markets.
   ‘We attribute this development to intensive promotional activities undertaken in new and emerging markets as part of Malaysia’s market diversification initiative,’ she said.
   This initiative caused double-digit growth in Malaysia’s exports to markets such as Poland, which grew by 73.3 per cent, Qatar by 47.3 per cent and Iran by 31.4 per cent.
   From a regional perspective, North-East Asia was Malaysia’s largest regional export market, accounting for 29.1 per cent of total exports. That was followed by ASEAN with a 25.7 per cent share, North America with 16.2 per cent and European Union with 12.9 per cent.
   Exports in all key sectors, namely, manufacturing, agricultural, mineral and mineral fuels recorded increases in 2007.
   ‘The manufacturing sector remained the largest contributor to Malaysia’s export, accounting for 74.8 per cent,’ Rafidah said.
   Malaysia’s major exports in 2007 were electrical and electronic products valued at 266.38 billion ringgit ($82.31b), palm oil at 37.54 billion ringgit ($11.60b), crude petroleum at 33.52 billion ringgit ($10.35b), chemicals and chemical products at 33.25 billion ringgit ($10.27b) and liquefied natural gas at 26.16 billion ringgit ($8.08b). These products contributed to 65.5 per cent of Malaysia’s total exports.

The Grameenphone Ltd recently signed an agreement with the Japan-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital in order to provide Grameenphone Xplore subscribers special rates on selected health check-up packages available at JBFH.
   Under the agreement, Grameenphone xplore subscribers with active connections for at least 180 consecutive
   days will enjoy 35 to 50 per cent discount on the selected health screening packages at JBFH.
   Riaz M Zaman, additional general manager, marketing, Grameenphone, and Mahbubul Alam Babu, director, administration, Japan-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations, said a press release.
   Other officials from both the organisations were present at the occasion.

The Apex Adelchi Footwear Limited has opened a new branch of the Gallery Apex at Tamanna Complex, Kochukhet in the Dhaka city recently.
   Syed Gias Hossain, deputy managing director of the company, inaugurated the new outlet through a function, said a press release.
   Abdullah Al Mosaddeque, general manager of the Apex Adelchi Footwear Ltd, was also present on the occasion.

The dollar firmed against the European single currency on Wednesday ahead of the publication of retail sales data in the United States.
   In European trading, the euro fell to 1.4569 dollars from 1.4578 dollars in New York late on Tuesday.
   Against the Japanese currency, the dollar eased to 107.28 yen from 107.32.
   The dollar had earlier weakened in Asian trading, pressured by a revival in appetite for risk instruments after billionaire Warren Buffett offered to help out troubled US bond insurers, dealers said.
   His proposal encouraged investors to seek potentially higher yields in riskier assets, weighing on the dollar, they added.
   Players were meanwhile waiting for US retail sales figures due Wednesday.
   ‘The data will remind us of the underlying weakness of the US consumer and the fact that a recession in the US will originate from the consumer,’ said Mitul Kotecha, head of foreign exchange research at Calyon.
   Traders were also keeping a close watch on remarks by European officials amid speculation about a possible interest rate cut by the European Central Bank.
   ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, who had previously warned about the need for a rate rise to fight inflation, has toned down the hawkish stance recently, sparking speculation about the chances of interest cuts later this year.
   On Wednesday, the Swedish central bank decided to raise its key rate by 0.25 per centage points to 4.25 per cent.
   ‘Inflation is expected to be high, while economic activity remains good,’ said the bank as it explained the reasons for hiking borrowing costs.
   ‘A repo rate of around 4.25 per cent over the coming year will contribute to bringing inflation back towards the target of two per cent a couple of years ahead,’ it added.
   Traders were also looking ahead to an interest rate decision in Japan on Friday, although no change is expected given the fragile state of the economy.
   ‘The market does not believe that the Japanese economy is strong, so a rate hike is out of the question. Investors are bearish on the Japanese economy and on the yen,’ said Tomoko Fujii, head of economic strategy at Bank of America.
   In Europe on Wednesday, the euro changed hands at 1.4569 dollars against 1.4578 late on Tuesday, at 156.22 yen, 0.7440 pounds and 1.6063 Swiss francs.
   The dollar stood at 107.28 yen and 1.1035 Swiss francs. The pound was at 1.9582 dollars.
   On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold fell to 903.52 dollars an ounce from 917 dollars late on Tuesday.

World oil prices headed upwards on Wednesday as traders assessed a move by Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA to cut supplies to US oil giant ExxonMobil.
   On a downbeat note, however, the International Energy Agency forecast that the world oil market could be set for a lengthy slowdown, signalling a sharp shift in the climate which pushed the crude prices to 100 dollars last month.
   Traders were meanwhile awaiting the latest report on oil stockpiles in number one energy consumer the United States.
   On Wednesday, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, gained 19 cents to 92.97 dollars a barrel.
   Brent North Sea crude for March delivery rose 43 cents to 93.29 dollars.
   ‘Oil prices were a little firmer (on Wednesday), still drawing a little support from news that Venezuela has cut its supplies to ExxonMobil,’ said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryucehnkov.
   ‘Venezuela is the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the US.’

BABMA holds AGM
The Bangladesh Auto Biscuit and Bread Manufacturers Association held its annual general meeting 2007 at a restaurant in the Dhaka city on aTuesday. Md Shafiqur Rabman Bhuiyan, president of BABMA, presided over the AGM, said a press release. MA Rouf Chowdhury, former director of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and member of the Regulatory Reforms Commission, was present as chief guest. Muhammad Akram Hussain, former president of FBCCI, MA Motaleb, vice-president and the executive committee members of the association, were present. The speakers of the AGM discouraged the import of confectionary and bakery items in the country for the sake of the growth of the bakery business. The AGM was followed by a discussion meeting.
— New Age

Month-long trade fair begins in Pabna
A month-long trade fair began at the Pabna police parade ground in Pabna on Wednesday. Pabna deputy commissioner Md Golam Mowla inaugurated the trade fair in the afternoon. A discussion meeting was held on the fair premise on the occasion. President of the Pabna Chamber of Commerce and Industries Abdul Latif Biswas chaired the meeting while Pabna superintendent of police AFM Masum Rabbani, vice-president of Pabna Chamber of Commerce and Industries Mahabubul Alam Muku, among others, addressed the function. They stressed the need for expanding business in the district. Over 100 stalls were established at the fair.
— New Age

Rising yarn prices to hit knitwear exports
Prices of cotton yarn have increased by 20-22 per cent in the local market as compared to Indian market, posing threat to a projected robust growth of knitwear exports. The commonly used yarn (30/1) was selling at between $2.85 and $2.95 per kg in the local market, which is 40-45 cents higher than the price in India, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association said Wednesday. Yarn is the main raw material for knitwear manufacturing that shares around 60 per cent of export value while local spinners supply 75-80 per cent of the demand. The knitwear sector alone earned $4.5 billion in 2006-07. BKMEA, a trade body for the single-largest export-earning sector, expressed concern over the price-hike of their main raw material.
— UNB