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The Securities and Exchange Commission on Sunday fined the AB Bank Ltd Tk 10 crore for violating the SEC rules and regulations, influencing stock prices through giving loans beyond the limit by its merchant bank wing to the clients last year.
   ‘The merchant banking wing of AB Bank violated the article 17 of the SEC Ordinance-1969, and the provisions 5(3) and 35(2) of the SEC (Merchant Banker and Portfolio Manager) Regulations-1996,’ said Farhad Ahmed, executive director of the SEC.
   He said the amount of the penalty was equal to the highest ever the SEC fined a company in its history. Earlier, the regulatory body penalised the Mark (BD), another company, the samwe amount in 2001.
   ‘We have punished the merchant banker after a SEC probe committee found that it manipulated the market in between April and August last year for its monitory interests,’ said the SEC official.
   During the period, the AB Bank’s merchant banking wing realised a capital gain of Tk 66 crore, he said.
   He said officials of the AB Bank and its merchant banking wing, their relatives and a number of its major clients made crores of taka capital gains by selling shares after pushing up the prices of particular shares through creating artificial demand during the period.
   He said on July 30, 2007, the commission formed the two-member enquiry committee to conduct an investigation into the transaction of securities made by the merchant banking wing of AB Bank.
   The probe committee submitted its report to the commission on September 12.
   Later, the SEC sought explanations on some points of the findings of the enquiry committee.
   Farhad said the merchant banking wing of AB Bank gave loans to its clients beyond the limit violating the merchant banking rules.
   ‘As per the SEC rules, merchant banks’ loan exposure limit must be within five times of their paid-up capitals,’ he said.
   The AB Bank’s merchant banking wing, whose paid-up capital was Tk 57 crore, increased its loan exposure limit to more than Tk 500 crore in July last year to manipulate the market through making it more liquid, he said.
   AB Bank Ltd will have to deposit the penalty money to the commission within 15 days of the issuance of the order through bank draft or pay-order, he said.
   ‘It, however, can make an appeal to the SEC for a review of the punitive measure within the 15 days,’ the SEC official added.

GMG Airlines will start operating flights to London, Singapore and Karachi, raising the number of its existing international routes to nine, said an airline official Sunday.
   GMG general manager Ismail Bhuiyan told this news agency: ‘Flights on the new routes will start next year. An application to the civil aviation ministry is being progressing at the moment,’ Bhuiyan said.
   According to the International Air Transport Association, the number of passengers on international flights from Bangladesh has increased by 10 per cent a year, over the last three years.
   In the face of aircraft shortage, Biman Bangladesh Airlines suspended flights on six international routes, including New York, last year.

The month-long Chittagong International Trade Fair-2008 begins at the Polo ground of the port city on Tuesday.
   Commerce adviser to the military-backed interim government, Hossain Zillur Rahman, will inaugurate the fair as chief guest while administrator of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Manzur Elahi, will attend the opening function as special guest.
   The Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry arranges the international event.
   Different companies from the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, South Korea, India, Thailand, Pakistan, Iran, and other countries as well as the host Bangladesh will take part in the fair. The companies will display their products in 262 stalls at 36 pavilions. Besides, there will be four restaurants in the trade show.
   The CCCI sources said Thailand would take part in the 16th CITF as the partner country with a wide range of Thai products at its mega pavilion while Pakistan and Iran would display a wide variety of their products at the stalls set up in separate zones.
   The National Credit and Commerce Bank Limited will set up a temporary branch at the exhibition for money transactions.
   There will be separate counters and gates for the female visitors.
   President of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, disclosed this at a pre-fair press conference in the port city on Sunday.
   He said all preparations for holding the fair have been completed. The Rapid Action Battalion and the police would set up a camp on the fair venue to ensure foolproof security of the fair.
   Apart from that, ‘Intelligence agencies will also keep strong watch around the fair venue round the clock,’ he said, adding that they would also deploy private security personnel to avert any untoward incident.
   There will be separate counters and gates for the female visitors.
   Among others, CCCI senior vice-president MA Latif, vice-president Mahabub Alam, and co-chairmen of the CITF Nasir Uddin Chowdhury and Mahfuzul Hoque Shah, were present at the press conference.

Big business houses can tap the lower end market through cooperation approach, said Anjan Raichaudhuri, a professor of marketing at IIM Calcutta Sunday.
   Leading companies believe that ‘bottom of the pyramid market’ do not offer satisfactory economic opportunity due to lack of purchasing power and brand loyalty of the poor people, he said.
   ‘So they target at the top end of the income pyramid,’ he said at the ‘1st leadership summit: transforming Bangladesh through corporate world’ organised by the Bangladesh Brand Forum.
   In his presentation on ‘corporate entrepreneurship and bottom of the pyramid markets’ he cited a couple of big institutions have tapped the market and get better result.
   Grameen Danone is a combination of a Bangladeshi institution and a French multinational and it targets rural poor, he said.
   Hindustan Unilever uses rural women as its salespersons and Cemex, a famous cement producing company, provides loans and consultancy service to poor to build houses, he said.
   A company must understand, create and deliver product value to the lower end market, he said.
   Market intelligence and anthropological approach can help a company to understand what value should be added and then through breakthrough thinking it can create value, he explained.
   ‘Change of mindset and development of new process help a company to achieve value addition,’ the Indian professor said at the summit along with other presenters.
   Martin Roll, a global brand and business strategist, John Quelch, senior dean of Harvard Business School, and Nikos Mourkogiannis, advisor on Leadership to Booz Allen Hamilton, also made presentation at the summit.
   Bangladesh can create a good image by developing global brands and corporate houses can take the lead role in this regard, said Martin.
   Brands can help a business company to add more value to its product, he said.
   ‘A shoe producer in the country can add maximum $5 to $10 value addition but when a brand is added in the shoe, it is sold 10 to 15 times higher in the US market,’ he explained.
   He admitted that it is difficult and takes long time to develop a brand but if the top management has strong mindset and commitment, it is possible.
   Competitiveness of a country is the sum of competitiveness of companies and state agencies, said Nikos Mourkogiannis.
   The adviser to Booz Allen Hamilton said purpose guides leaders in decision making and boost employee motivation and morale.

A series of strikes by low-paid Asian workers in Bahrain has shaken their image as compliant labourers has been blamed on the erosion of their meagre earnings as the US dollar slides, experts say.
   The latest of three strikes by hundreds of workers over the past fortnight ended on Saturday when labourers agreed to halt a week-long stoppage in return for a wage rise of 15 dinars ($40) a month, a union official said.
   Around 1,300 mostly Indian workers helping to build the Durrat al-Bahrain development in the south of the Gulf archipelago went on strike on February 9 to demand a pay rise.
   They demanded that salaries be increased from 57 dinars ($151) to 100 dinars ($265) a month for unskilled labourers, and from 69 dinars ($183) to 120 dinars ($319) for their skilled counterparts.
   Sayyed Salman, deputy head of Bahrain’s federation of labour unions, told AFP that workers’ representatives had informed the union that they had accepted an offer to raise basic salaries by 40 dollars.
   ‘In the past they were obedient because their remittances were sizeable. The slump in the value of the dollar has eroded their purchasing power and they are feeling the pinch,’ economist Khaled Abdullah told AFP.
   The Bahraini dinar is pegged to the dollar, like most other Gulf Arab currencies. Another factor that has encouraged the workers to protest is ‘the growing international interest in the conditions of migrant workers, especially in the Gulf,’ Abdullah added.
   Bahrain has about 270,000 expatriate workers out of a total population of 707,000. Mostly from the Asian sub-continent, they are employed mainly to do unskilled work.
   Workers employed in non-vital sectors are permitted to strike, but foreigners do not belong to local labour unions.
   The deal which ended the strike on the Durrat al-Bahrain — Arabic for ‘Pearl of Bahrain’ — development was reached after Labour minister Majid al-Alawi formed a commission to settle what he called the ‘illegal’ stoppage.
   Alawi attributed the strike to ‘wrong interpretation of a statement by the Indian ambassador to Bahrain’ over his country’s policy of seeking higher wages for its overseas workers.
   Businessman Samir Naas, who heads the construction committee at the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, accused the Indian embassy of ‘inciting’ the workers to strike.
   Naas said an across-the-board hike of 40 dinars ($106) a month for 200,000 foreign construction workers would cost employers 96 million dinars ($255m) a year.
   Bosses would not object to a minimum wage for foreign workers if the government asked them to introduce one, ‘but it would not be acceptable to do so under pressure from an embassy,’ he told AFP.
   The Indian ambassador in Manama, Palkrishna Shiti, dismissed any link between the latest strike and his recent remark that no worker would be permitted to leave India for a wage of less than 265 dollars a month.
   ‘This is an official Indian policy announced one year ago,’ Shiti said.
   ‘I think the increase of prices in the region and all over the world and the change in currency rates pushed the workers to demand an increase in salaries,’ he said.
   Bahraini labour activist Abdullah Hussein said the construction sector was the worst for wages and working conditions.
   ‘We visited the living quarters of workers on the Durrat al-Bahrain project... 14 workers live in a single room, their salaries range from 57 to 69 dinars, they pay for their own food, and medical care boils down to a two-hour visit by a doctor every day,’ said Hussein, who is also on the board of the International Labour Organisation.

Md Nurul Amin has been reappointed managing director and chief executive officer of the National Credit and Commerce Bank Ltd for a period of three years, said a press release.
   Born in 1954 in Lakshmipur, Nurul Amin did his graduation with honours and Masters in economics at Dhaka University in 1974. He started his banking career as senior officer with Janata Bank in 1977 and later joined the National Bank Ltd in 1983.
   In 2005, he was appointed managing director and chief executive officer of the NCC Bank.

The Dubai International Financial Centre said on Sunday it was setting up an arbitration centre for firms in the booming Gulf emirate which aims to become a global trade and financial hub.
   The joint venture with the London Court of International Arbitration will offer ‘dispute resolution services to all business and commercial sectors,’ the DIFC said in a statement.
   ‘This is a landmark step for Dubai, reaffirming its status as one of the world’s leading business hubs and creating an efficient working environment for local and international companies to prosper,’ it added.
   The DIFC is a state-backed company that owns a business and finance centre in Dubai, one of seven emirates making up the UAE federation.

The adviser to the ministries of local government, labour and manpower, Anwarul Iqbal, Sunday said the government would promulgate an ordinance within a week to bring the port users, workers and employees under two bodies instead of the exiting 27 organisations.
   ‘The port users will be brought under one umbrella instead of existing 22 organisations and the workers and employees will be brought under another umbrella instead of their existing five organisations,’ he added.
   The adviser was addressing as chief guest an exchange of views with leaders of different port user and workers and employees’ organisations at the Chittagong Circuit House in the morning.
   With the deputy commissioner, Ashraf Shamim, in the chair, the meeting was addressed, among others, by Chittagong Port Authority chairman Commodore M Fareque, commissioner of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police M Akbar Ali, commanding officer of RAB-7 Hasinur Rahman and representatives of different trade and labour bodies.
   The adviser said the government had taken the initiative to reduce the number of organisations to accelerate activities at the Chittagong and Mongla ports.

The South Korean ambassador, Suk-bum Park, on Sunday visited the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry. During his visit, he held a meeting with the DCCI acting president Salauddin Abdullah, said a press release.

A Russian company will conduct gold exploration in Myanmar’s northernmost Kachin state and northwestern Sagaing division with the cooperation of the Myanmar mining authorities, the state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Saturday.
   Under an agreement signed in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw Friday between the Victorious Glory International Pte Ltd of the Russian Federation, and the Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration Department of the Myanmar Ministry of Mines, the Russian company will undertake the gold exploration along the Uru River between Phakant of the Kachin state and Homalin of the Sagaing division, the report said.
   Myanmar has also been encouraging the country’s private sector to mine gold, allowing more such engagement by them at many prospective gold mining blocks across the country.
   Up to last year, 380 small blocks for gold mining had already been granted to the private entrepreneurs and most of the gold are produced from those blocks in Sagaing and Mandalay divisions, according to the state-run Myanmar Mining Enterprise-2 which also said besides the two divisions, other small blocks have also been under exploration in Kachin, Mon and Bago states and divisions.
   As set by the state, private enterprises are allowed to conduct gold exploration activities on mining blocks under a lease term with the MME for at least three years, the sources said.
   Official statistics show that foreign contracted investment in Myanmar’s mining sector has amounted to about 534.19 million US dollars as of the end of 2007 since the country opened to such investment in late 1988, accounting for 3.6 per cent of 14.736 billion dollars’ total foreign investment and standing as the sixth largest sector ally.
   Other foreign firms engaged in mineral exploration in Myanmar include those from Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States.

An influential think-tank on Sunday urged the central Bank of Korea to cut interest rates quickly to prevent market instability stemming from wide interest rate gaps with the United States.
   In a report published on Sunday, the Korea Institute of Finance noted that foreigners have been snapping up South Korean bonds to capitalise on the country’s high interest rates compared with those of the United States.
   ‘In light of foreigners’ rush to the local bond market, the Bank of Korea should cut the interest rate in a pre-emptive manner,’ the think-tank said.
   ‘If the interest rate gap between South Korea and the United States lasts for a long period, it could come as a destabilising factor for the local bond market.’
   Should foreign investors suddenly withdraw funds from the local bond market, it would throw the market into chaos, it warned.
   Citing inflation concerns and uncertainty about the global economy, the Bank of Korea last Wednesday kept its key interest rate unchanged for a sixth straight month.
   Foreign ownership of bonds listed on the local bond market surged to 4.9 per cent at the end of January, compared with a mere 0.6 per cent at the end of 2006, according to KIF.
   A daily net purchase of local bonds by foreigners jumped from 7.2 billion won in 2006 to 154 billion won last month.

Developing countries on Friday welcomed WTO proposals to reduce barriers to farm trade but voiced reservations on those calling for a further opening of their own markets for industrial goods.
   The draft agreement on agriculture presented by the World Trade Organisation a week ago ‘is a good basis for further work,’ said Brazilian ambassador Clodoaldo Hugueney, speaking for the Group of 20 emerging market nations.
   ‘These positions offer the best prospects for a balanced and reasonable outcome for the Doha Development Agenda.’
   The Doha round of multilateral trade liberalisation
   talks was launched in the Qatari capital Doha in November 2001 but has foundered ever since in disputes between developing and industrialised nations.
   Developing countries have been pressing for greater access to agricultural markets in the industrialised world. Developed nations are in return seeking a better deal for their manufactured products on developing country markets.
   Hugueney hailed the WTO’s inclusion in its proposal of an average minimum reduction of 54 per cent in customs duties levelled on developing country agricultral exports by industrialised nations.
   The G20, which besides Brazil includes such emerging powerhouses as China and India, had put forward the same proposal.
   But emerging market countries were less enthusiastic about the WTO draft on manufactured goods, which ‘largely ignored their proposals,’ Hugueney told AFP.
    ‘It sparked a negative reaction.’
   This WTO text calls on about 30 emerging countries to set a 23 per cent maximum level on their customs duties on industrial products. But the document also drops any reference to the number of products a country would be entitled to protect from too sharp a delcine in customs duties.
    ‘That gave the impression of being a step backward,’ Hugueney said.
   The WTO plans to convene a ministerial meeting in April aimed at forging a North-South consensus on trade in farm and manufactured goods with the hope of wrapping up the Doha talks by the end of the year.
   The European Commission meanwhile gave a cool reception to the new Doha Round negotiating texts from the WTO, urging a better balance.
    ‘All parts of this negotiation must move forward in concert — goods, agriculture and services,’ a statement from the commission’s trade office said.
    ‘It is absolutely crucial that the texts now move forward rapidly and in a way that reflects the mainstream views of the WTO membership,’ it added.
    ‘The EU believes that the necessary balance between the (industry and service) and agri texts has not been found,’ the commission said.
    ‘The EU calls on WTO members to work together to deliver (negotiating) modalities that respect both the sensitivity of developing countries and the Doha mandate of generating real and new market access in non-agricultural products,’ the commission said.

The Grameenphone Limited has recently signed an agreement with the Action Aid Bangladesh to provide complete communication facilities under its business solutions package.
   Farah Kabir, country director of Action Aid Bangladesh, and Sajjad Alam, head of Dhaka region of Grameenphone, inked the deal on behalf of their respective organisations at a function held in the Dhaka city, said a press release.
   MMA Hasnat, manager administration, Asgar Ali Sabri, head of social development and economic justice sector, Jesmin Banu, head of finance and administration, of Action Aid Bangladesh, and Khandakar
   Omar Farhan, deputy general manger, Mahbub Ullah and Choudhury Shahriar Noor, group manager, and Md Jahidul Islam and Ruhul Munthasir Chowdhury of the sales division of Grameenphone Ltd among others were present in the agreement signing ceremony.

The competition watchdog on Friday said it was proposing a series of measures designed to ensure British supermarkets face a real competitive environment.
   The Competition Commission said its proposals were designed to address problems in UK groceries retailing, a giant market worth 120 billion pounds (160 billion euros, 234 billion dollars).
   In a statement, it said its measures included a competition test’ in planning decisions on large grocery stores and measures to prevent exclusivity arrangements and restrictive covenants being used by retailers to restrict entry by competitors.
   There should also be a strengthened and extended code of practice, with an independent ombudsman to oversee and enforce the code.
   These measures will now be open for consultation, it said, with a final report due at the end of April.
   Last year, the Office of Fair Trading said customers had been overcharged 270 million pounds (386 million euros, 542 million dollars) for dairy products, citing a price-fixing agreement in place between 2002-2003, with supermarket giants Asda, Morrisons, Safeway, Sainsbury’s and Tesco involved.

The European Commission gave a cool reception Friday to new Doha Round negotiating texts from the World Trade Organisation, urging a better balance.
   ‘All parts of this negotiation must move forward in concert — goods, agriculture and services,’ a statement from the commission’s trade office said.
   ‘It is absolutely crucial that the texts now move forward rapidly and in a way that reflects the mainstream views of the WTO membership,’ it added.
   The new texts cover agriculture, services, industrial goods — known as non-agricultural market access or NAMA in WTO jargon — and are supposed to serve as a basis for advancing the long-stalled, so-called Doha round of trade liberalisation talks.
   However, the commission found fault with all three texts.
   ‘The EU believes that the necessary balance between the NAMA and agri texts has not been found,’ the commission said.
   ‘The EU would also have hoped (for) more from the services text, which does not contain guidance for setting the level of ambition of the services negotiations as one of the three market access pillars of the round,’ it said. The WTO’s Doha round of talks aims to cut barriers and spur development but has been mired in deadlock and disagreement since its launch in the Qatari capital in 2001.
   ‘The EU calls on WTO members to work together to deliver (negotiating) modalities that respect both the sensitivity of developing countries and the Doha mandate of generating real and new market access in non-agricultural products,’ the commission said.
    ‘The EU is as always open to discuss the constraints of all partners but believes that a small minority should not be in command of the agenda,’ it added.
   One EU diplomat said that the texts contained ‘nothing for the EU to get excited about.’
   ‘Although the EU made overtures last year on agriculture, there is nothing tangible in return from the other sides, especially from the United States,’ the diplomat said.

The International Energy Agency on Friday called on the United States to do more to curb energy use and fight global warming, saying pricing was the best way to curb demand.
   The world’s biggest economy and energy consumer has made progress toward a more sustainable energy system but is lagging behind other industrialized countries and even developing countries such as China in some areas, the IEA said in a report.
   ‘To address the multiple challenges that United States energy policy is facing, the price mechanism is the most important tool,’ said the report ‘Energy Policies of IEA Countries — United States 2007 Review.’
   ‘The government should use it, by abolishing fossil fuel subsidies and creating taxation or other pricing regimes that internalize environmental costs,’ it said.
   The IEA, which advises the US and 26 other members on international energy policies, acknowledged the challenge of changing the habits of Americans who are used to abundant resources and cheap energy prices.
   ‘Failing to give the right incentives for conservation has removed the strongest reason for energy users to demand more efficient products.’
   The current US policy for low energy prices ‘is leading to forecasts of demand that are unsustainable, and creates significant security and environmental risks not just for the United States, but also for the rest of the world,’ the Paris-based agency warned.
   The IEA said the transport sector was key to achieving the country’s energy security and sustainabilty.
   The IEA welcomed Congress’s passage in December of the first tightening of CAFE vehicle fuel-efficiency standards since 1975, which calls for a 40 per cent increase in the fuel standard to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
   But it said the standards remain weak, and noted relatively little improvement in fuel economy since 1996.
   ‘In general, in the field of vehicle efficiency, present policy goals in the United States are too timid to lead to the achievement of the cost-effective efficiency potential in the vehicle sector,’ said the report produced in conjunction with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
   At a news conference in Washington, IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka said a ‘more ambitious program is recommended’ for the United States to achieve a 50 per cent cut in carbon-dioxide emissions by 2050.
   ‘Stringent fuel standards are what we are recommending,’ he said.

Canada’s vast oil sands are the ‘most destructive project on the planet,’ environmentalists said Friday, accusing Ottawa of not enforcing its environmental laws to allow projects to blossom.
   ‘The federal government is not using laws already on the books to require companies to reduce (CO2) emissions and clean up their toxic mess,’ said Matt Price of Environmental Defense.
   The group pointed to more than 100 government and independent reports critical of oil firms for creating toxic waste ponds visible from space (tailing ponds covering 50 square kilometers or 30 square miles) and seeping into Alberta groundwater.
   As well, it said the oil sands produce three times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil extraction, and are likely responsible for acid rain in neighboring Saskatchewan province and ‘unusual cancer clusters’ in northern Alberta.
   Oil upgraders and refineries are creating health ‘sacrifice zones,’ the report said.
   In Fort Chipewyan, an aboriginal community downstream of the oil sands, doctors ‘have been growing increasingly worried’ about the number of cases of bile duct cancer, colon cancers, lymphomas, leukemia, autoimmune diseases such as lupus, as well as thyroid cancers, overactive thyroid and skin rashes, the Environmental Defense said in its summary report.
   ‘These (health woes) were previously unheard of in the region,’ said Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.
   Arsenic has been found to be as much as 453 times acceptable levels in moose meat from the region, the Environmental Defense report said. Some First Nations describe how fish frying in a pan smell like burning plastic,’ it said.
   Adam commented: ‘We live off the land, hunt wild game, and fish. But we’re putting all that in jeopardy.’

A series of bleak economic reports on Friday showed the mood of American consumers deteriorating in February to a point that has usually signaled recession, while factory activity in New York state suffered its biggest drop on record.
   Complicating worries about an economic downturn, data suggesting bubbling price pressures, raised the possibility of a scenario of simultaneously slowing growth and rising inflation — ‘stagflation.’
    ‘This is just horrible. The sustained volatility in the markets, the rise in energy and food prices and, of course, the catastrophe in the housing market is making consumers extraordinarily miserable,’ said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York.
   Stocks slipped on fears that a slowdown in consumer spending, which makes up about 70 per cent of US GDP, could signal serious problems for the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average regained some ground by the end the day, but closed down about 28 points, or around 0.2 per cent, at near 12,348.
   The flight into safe-haven Treasury securities pushed debt prices up, sending yields on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.77 per cent from 3.82 per cent late on Thursday. The dollar slid against most major currencies as the data fueled fears of more economic weakness ahead.
   The Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment dropped to 69.6, well below analysts’ median forecast of 76.3, from 78.4 at the end of January. The February reading was the lowest since February 1992.
   ‘The sentiment index has only been this low during the recessions of the mid 1970s, the early 1980s and the early 1990s,’ survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement.
   A Federal Reserve survey showed overall US industrial production inched up 0.1 per cent in January but factory activity was unchanged.
   Financial markets, however, took their cue from the record drop in a gauge of February factory activity in New York state, which fell to nearly a five-year low.
   ‘It’s another recession-type reading. New orders came unglued here. There’s further downward pressure on production coming,’ said Keith Hembre, chief economist at FAF Advisors in Minneapolis.
   But evidence of rising price pressures may crimp the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cutting options.
   A gauge of prices paid contained in the New York factory report from the New York Federal Reserve Bank hit its highest level in two years.
   Adding to inflation warning signs, a Labor Department survey showed U.S. import prices rose 1.7 per cent in January, powered by higher prices for oil. Export prices increased 1.2 per cent, the largest rise since January 1989.

US helicopter maker Sikorsky and the Tata Group of India are teaming up in a joint helicopter manufacturing project in India, Sikorsky said Friday. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.
   said it had signed a preliminary agreement with Tata Advanced Systems, a defense and aerospace systems subsidiary, to manufacture S-92 helicopter cabins in India.
   The Stratford, Connecticut-based company, a unit of United Technologies Corporation, did not disclose details of the partnership. ‘India represents an expansive rotorcraft market with enormous potential and opportunity,’ said Sikorsky president Jeffrey Pino.
   ‘While we are only in the most preliminary of stages, I am most excited at the possibility of working with the well-known and admired Tata Group, and tapping into India’s skilled aerospace industry and capability,’ he said.

China’s worst winter weather in half a century will fuel inflation and investment problems in the Asian giant’s runaway economy, while the rest of the world may also feel its impact, analysts say.
   Weeks of heavy snow and freezing cold swept across densely-populated provinces in south China this month and last, destroying crops and wreaking havoc on infrastructure that proved much more fragile than previously imagined.
   ‘The snow storm is a classic negative supply shock to the economy, and is set to drive inflation up,’ Lehman Brothers economist Sun Mingchun said.
   Inflation is already running at levels not seen for a decade and China’s communist rulers, wary about potential social unrest, have identified taming the problem as one of their top concerns.
   But hampering their efforts, several crucial product categories were impacted as 18 provinces were struck by winter weather of a ferocity only people aged over 60 remembered seeing before.
   The price of coal, which provides about 70 per cent of China’s energy needs, is likely to go up, partly as a result of transport bottlenecks making it a desperately needed commodity in some parts of the country.
   In China, one fourth of all locally produced coal is transported by truck, meaning chaos when road arteries are paralysed by ice or impenetrable blizzards.
   ‘The government has basically decided for 2008 to let coal prices be determined by the markets,’ said Han Yong, a coal analyst with China International Capital Corp.
   ‘But it may nevertheless decide to adopt special measures if coal prices rise at a too steep rate.’
   The prices of agricultural goods have been major factors in driving up inflation — which hit 6.9 per cent in November and 6.5 per cent in December — and will likely become even more of a problem after the winter shock.
   ‘It’s mainly the southern area that has been affected by the snow, with an impact on winter wheat, rapeseed and fruit,’ said Zhu Jianfang, a Beijing-based economist with Citic Securities.
   ‘Over the short term, inflation will definitely be impacted. We initially believed inflation would be about 4.5 per cent this year, but we’re now inclined to think it will hit five per cent,’ he said.
   This could become more than just China’s own problem if it decides to access world markets to make up for strained supplies at home.
   ‘The snow storms are affecting 10 per cent of China’s farming land. One of the solutions is that the government may start importing more grains and meat,’ said Dong Tao, an economist with Credit Suisse.
   ‘Given the size of the Chinese population, I think this will have an impact on global soft commodity prices and global inflation.’
   Just as China’s efforts to fight inflation have not been helped by the weather, the same is true for its endeavour to curb investment spending, a main engine for the nation’s near-overheated economic growth in recent months.
   New investment is likely to be unavoidable in the coming months, and not just because of the need to repair toppled telephone poles and frost-damaged power lines.

Iran, OPEC’s number two crude oil producer, on Sunday inaugurated its first bourse for oil products and petrochemicals, in a bid to become a major player in the global downstream industry.
   Iran hopes that its oil goods bourse can lead the way for a domestic downstream industry to match its upstream crude oil production, the country’s main foreign currency revenue winner.
   ‘We have been a good seller of crude oil and now we have a higher objective to have a share in the oil trade,’ Oil minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters.
   Iran claims to rank second in the region after Saudi Arabia in terms of production of petrochemicals at 22 million tons a year.
   But it has failed to gain a significant share in the world export market because of state control of its petro- chemical industry and state subsidies.
   ‘The objective is to make transactions of oil products transparent, create competition and motives for investment,’ the oil minister added.

Spot trade
   HR Textile
   Trading of the shares of the company will also be allowed in spot market with cum benefit from February 18 to 19 as book closure will start from February 22.
   
   AGM
   S Alam Cold Rolled Steels
   As per regulation 30 of DSE listing regulations, the company has informed that the 86th meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on Tuesday at 11:00am at registered office of the company.
   
   Response to DSE query
   United Insurance
   In response to a DSE query regarding rumour about enhancement of existing paid-up capital, the company has informed that it has not received any instruction from the controller of insurance regarding new insurance rule for enhancement of existing paid-up capital of general insurance companies.
   
   Loss
   Alpha Tobacco
   As per audited accounts as on September 30, 2007, the company has reported net loss of Tk 155.53 crore with EPS of Tk 53.92 as against Tk 6.34 crore and Tk 22.00 respectively as on September 30, 2006. Accumulated loss of the company was Tk 38.37 crore as on September 30, 2007. Further, as per audited accounts for the year ended on September 30, 2007 the company is not in operation.
   Source: DSE, CSE

GCC team visits Beximco Pharma plant
A team from the Gulf Cooperation Council, an alliance of six Gulf States, is now visiting Bangladesh to inspect the manufacturing facilities of pharmaceutical companies and possibility to import medicines. The team comprising three distributors and three inspectors from the GCC arrived on Sunday and visited Beximco Pharmaceutical at Tongi, says a press release. Beximco Pharma is expecting to enter the potential markets in six GCC countries –– Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the first pharmaceutical company from Bangladesh. A business delegation accompanying the team has shown keen interest to import medicines from Beximco Pharma. ‘We see this as great opportunity to commence export to Gulf region and hope that this will also act as a gateway for Bangladesh pharmaceutical industry to export medicines to Gulf region, a market of $2 billion’, said an official of Beximco. The GCC representatives –– Dr Ramy SY Behbehani from Kuwait, Dr Hussain Talib Thani from Oman and Dr Bader Alanazi from Saudi Arabia — will meet the press on Tuesday to share their views. The GCC was formed in 1981 to boost economic cooperation between the member countries.
— New Age

Bangladesh RMG gets good response in US fairs
Bangladesh is getting good responses and should continue to participate in more international fairs, Hedayetul Islam of the Lofty Designs and Fashion Pvt Ltd, which is one of the participants in the ASAP Show in Las Vegas, said. A total of 26 garment manufacturers from Bangladesh are participating in two apparel shows - ASAP Global Show and MAGIC Show - in Las Vegas in the USA, according to a message received in Dhaka Sunday. The ASAP Show opened on February 11 last in the Venetian Hotel in the City of Las Vegas while the MAGIC started on February 12 in the Las Vegas Convention Centre. Both the Shows are focussing on sourcing of apparel and textile products from various countries around the world, the message said. A total number of 726 exhibitors from the 37 apparel sourcing countries are taking part in the two shows. Bangladesh ambassador to the USA M Humayun Kabir and Bangladesh Consul General in Las Angeles Md Abu Zafar visited both the shows.
— UNB