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The capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the premier bourse, Dhaka Stock Exchange, have moved to bring back the low-profile ‘Z’ category companies on track for betterment of the country’s stock market, said officials.
   With this aim, on January 15, the SEC ordered suspension of trading or transfer of shares of the sponsors or directors of ‘Z’ category companies (excepting banks, non-bank financial institutions and insurance companies) until further instruction, and the following day directed the bourses to put circuit breaker on transaction of the shares of the ‘Z’ category companies.
   And the DSE, consulting with the SEC, initiated investigations to look into the actual business status of the low-profile companies.
   The DSE investigation teams recently found anomalies in eight ‘Z’ category companies, said DSE officials.
   On Sunday, the bourse disclosed that its investigation team found the factory of Quasem Silk Mills closed.
   ‘The company has sold three plots on its land out of its four plots and there is no employee on the factory premises,’ said Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, chief executive officer of the DSE.
   He said the team found that the remaining one plot was being used for paddy cultivation only.
    Another DSE investigation team saw that the head office of Mona Food Industry Ltd was closed and there were no employees of the company at its registered office, he added.
   ‘The production in Mona Food Industry Ltd has also been closed and its factory premises is rented to Tonni Food Industry Ltd from January, 2007 against a monthly rent of Tk 50,000 said Salahuddin, referring to the investigation team reports.
   He said another investigation team revealed that production of M Hossain Garments Washing and Dyeing Ltd had been closed and there was no signboard of the company at the premises of the company.
   ‘The investigation team has found a signboard of Al-Deen Garments Ltd on the premises of M Hossain Garments Washing and Dyeing Ltd,’ he said.
   He informed the investigation team found no employee or staff at the head office or factory premises of M Hossain Garments to get any information about the company.
   Another DSE investigation team has revealed that the production of German-Bangla JV Food Ltd is closed for two years, he said.
   ‘Due to loan default, Ortho Rin Adalat has given the right to the Bangladesh Krishi Bank to acquire, use or sell eight decimals of company land out of approximately 48 decimals along with building and machinery,’ he said referring to the investigation report.
   Earlier this month, the DSE halted until further order the share trading of Raspit Data, Raspit Inc, Petro Synthetic and Chic Tex Ltd as the ‘Z’ category companies failed to comply with the securities rules in disseminating business status news.
   The DSE investigations teams found poor business status of the companies, said the DSE official.
   Salahuddin said the bourse was conducting the investigation as a supportive role for implementing a 2002 notification, which gives the SEC authority to discipline the defaulting companies listed with the bourses.
   The commission after five years has regained authority to implement the notification as the High Court on December 3 last year vacated its previous stay order on the effectiveness of the SEC notification, he said.
   Farhad Ahmed, executive director of the SEC, said the DSE was conducting investigations in consultation with the commission.
   ‘We are working to discipline the Z category shares for the interest of the country’s capital market,’ he said.
   Under the notification, the commission can give a six-month ultimatum to errant companies to improve their situation or, in default, to reconstitute their boards by holding extra-ordinary general meetings.
   The commission recently decided that the six-month period would start from the day of the higher court vacation order.
   Under the notification, the SEC can also dissolve the boards of directors of the companies and constitute new boards by involving general and institutional shareholders.
   The new boards would be given a maximum of 24 months’ time to improve the situation of the companies. In default, the companies would face liquidation in six months.
   Currently, 100 securities are being traded under the ‘Z’ category on the bourses, sources said.

The leaders of the Khulna salt industry owners’ association warned on Sunday that only a waiver of all outstanding interest on their bank loans can save their industries.
   Mollah Shahidul Islam, general secretary of the association, read out the written speech at a press conference at the Khulna Press Club, in the presence of the association leaders.
   In the speech, Shahidul said that the salt factories are in dire straits due to a financial crunch and among 38 salt factories in Khulna with only 8 factories running properly.
   He claimed that among the mills which have been operational since 1983, about 24 factories have already closed due to financial crunch and 35,000 workers and labourers have already become jobless.
   He said that if the banks do not waive the interest on their loans, the operational factories may face closure and large numbers of workers will become jobless.
   Shahidul alleged that a 2001 meeting among ministry officials, banks’ representatives, and salt factory owners at the industries ministry decided to waive the interest on loans to salt industries but the government-owned Janata and Agrani banks are yet to implement the decision.
   He alleged that both the banks are now harassing the factory owners and are lodging cases against them branding them as loan defaulters in order to recover the loans with interest.
   He demanded that the 2001 decision be implemented and that the industry owners should be protected from the banks’ harassment if they are to keep their factories running.

The finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, said Sunday all bank defaulters were not always bad customers as many of them became defaulters for unfavourable circumstances.
   ‘The bankers of government-owned banks must keep in mind that there are many who have become bank defaulters because of circumstance’, Aziz told at an annual conference of the Janata Bank Limited in the Dhaka city.
   ‘There is a serious allegation against the state-owned banks that they concentrate more on bad clients and ignore the good ones.’
   The adviser as chief guest urged the state-owned banks to become vigorous in profit making and contribute to social cause through their services.
   ‘It is a challenge for you to make a balance between the two opposite objectives,’ Aziz told the meeting at a local hotel.
   Salehuddin Ahmed, Bangladesh Bank governor, Mohammed Tareq, secretary, finance division, Suhel Ahmed Choudhury, Janata Bank chairman and former commerce secretary, and Mokhtar Hossain, managing director of Janata Bank, spoke on the occasion, among others.
   The adviser urged the bankers to realise bad loans, concentrate more on innovativeness and improve their services to make the bank more attractive and competitive.
   On realising bad loans, the finance adviser asked bankers to opt for mutual understanding, instead of legal battle to save both money and time.
   The BB governor underlined the need for investing more in rural areas, small and medium enterprises and import business.
   He said the newly turned public limited government-owned banks have no alternative other than to improving client services, ethos, orientation and humane resources to compete with fast growing private banks.
   The bank chairman categorically mentioned that Janata Bank would show zero tolerance in fund embezzlement, wastage and individual interest.
   He said the bank would be benefited if a proposed restructuring plan was approved and a number of efficient directors were appointed by the government.
   ‘The bank is committed to come out from its long practiced lobbying culture to establish professionalism in banking and environment for competitiveness,’ Suhel told the conference.
   He said the operating profit of the bank in 2007 was about Tk 541 crore.

Indian high commissioner in Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty Sunday called for opening up more trade routes between Bangladesh and India to promote bilateral trade and economic development.
   ‘We need to move forward with proposals for improving connectivity - road, rail, airways, shipping and inland waterways,’ he told the monthly luncheon meeting of Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Sonargaon Hotel.
   FICCI president Wali Bhuiyan welcomed the foreign investors operating in Bangladesh at the meeting.
   Chakravarty said India is ready to move at a faster pace to strengthen connectivity and expects similar response from Bangladesh.
   He also stressed the need for focussing more on promoting mutual investments and technology collaborations as foreign investors seek fair, transparent process and predictable policy regime.
   ‘I’m aware the government of Bangladesh is committed to facilitate investments in Bangladesh,’ the Indian high commissioner said, adding that there were significant proposals from Indian industrial giants to invest in the country.
   He said there were other small and medium sized Indian firms, who would be interested in investing in Bangladesh that hold considerable potential for increasing exports to India and thus addressing the trade imbalance.
   In 2006-07, Bangladesh imported goods worth over $2.5 billion as compared to its exports of only $290 million.
   Chakravarty said India recognised the need for addressing the trade imbalance and the perceived non-tariff barriers, and both sides were looking at ways and means to address both.
   Replying to a question whether cooperation in real term is possible with mistrust between the peoples of the two countries, he said the mistrust would not be removed ‘unless we start working together.’
   ‘We’re ready to join hand and to reconnect… it’s your country’s political leadership to take the decision in this regard,’ he said, adding that one cannot do it overnight.
   Replying to another question, the Indian envoy said the procedure to export 8 million pieces of apparel items from Bangladesh to India at reduced tariff is almost done and only some bureaucratic process was pending. It could take place after the next meeting of the Indian cabinet.
   He told a questioner that India has a plan to reduce its negative list of products from over 700 items to 200, but readymade garments would still be in the list.

Speakers at the inaugural session of a seminar in Rajshahi on Sunday underscored the need for setting up more small and medium enterprises to achieve massive development in the rural economy.
   In this respect, they suggested increased efficiency in business education and other related areas to score rapid progress and prosperity in all key sectors.
   The seminar on ‘small and medium enterprises for development’ is being held in the Senate Bhaban auditorium of Rajshahi University.
   The Association of the Management Development Institution of Bangladesh and the Institute of Business Administration of RU are organising the two-day seminar.
   The university vice-chancellor, Professor M Altaf Hossain, was chief guest while vice-chancellor of Northern University Professor Dr Shamsul Haque was special guest on the occasion with AMDIB president Professor Ziaul Haque Mamun in the Chair.
   Director of IBA of Rajshahi University Professor Akhter Uddin delivered the welcome speech. A total of 15 keynote papers were placed in the seminar for discussion on them in three working sessions.
   A total of 200 delegates representing both public and private universities are participated in the seminar, organisers said.

Most of the silk farmers in Rajshahi have left their profession for fund crunch and lack of patronisation, prompting the Sericulture Board to take initiative for arranging credits on easy terms.
   The Rajshahi Sericulture Board has already sent a proposal to the ministry concerned for revitalising the once profitable sector that employed thousands of people, sources said.
   According to the board, the production of locally made cotton has fallen as many silk farmers have deserted their profession for lack of fund.
   Local sources said silk was cultivated at Chatri, Chak Chatri, Pakuria, Kaligram, Monigram, Mirganj, Bolorampur, Alaipur, Moudipur, Harirampur, Bousha under Bagha upazila in Rajshahi.
   At least 35 to 40 tonnes of cotton are produced in the greater Rajshahi while about 250 tonnes are needed only for the silk factories in Rajshahi at present, according to the Rajshahi Sericulture Board.
   So, they are exporting 200 tonnes of cotton from abroad to fulfil their demand, they said.
   In spite of this great demand for cotton, the government has closed the Rajshahi Resom Factory.
   Sunil Chandra Paul, chairman of the Rajshahi Sericulture Board, said they would sanction loan for the silk farmers who have left their profession at lower interest rate.
   ‘Already we send our proposal to the ministry’, he said.

Chamber leaders of greater Rangpur have formed a 23-member Greater Rangpur Business Development Forum to accelerate industrialisation in the district and expand trade and commerce as well as create employment opportunity.
   Nazrul Islam, former executive chairman of the Board of Investment, was elected president and Tipu Munshi, former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, vice-president.
   Golam Quddus, chairman of Deshbandhu Sugar Mills was elected secretary general of the newly constituted forum at a meeting held at the Sonargaon Hotel on Friday.
   Chamber leaders of Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha and Nilphamari and elite attended the meeting and decided to form a forum to look after the interest of the business community.
   The speakers at the meeting called for speedy industrialisation in the greater Rangpur district to generate employment and take up long-term plan to eradicate monga, a persistent problem of the area.
   They urged the government to supply natural gas to Rangpur and also explore the mineral resources and utilise them for the betterment of the people.

The month-long Nilphamari Industry and Trade Fair 2008 began at local municipality ground in Nilphamari on Friday.
   The Nilphamari Chamber of Commerce and Industry has organised the fair inaugurated by the Khondokar Md Mokhlesur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Nilphamari, as chief guest.
   Shohel Parvez , president of Nilphamari Chamber of Commerce and Industry, presided over the inauguration ceremony.
   The distinguished guests present on the occasion were Dewan Kamal Ahmed, chairman, Nilphamari Municipality, Zainal Abedin, secretary general, Nilphamari District Sports Association, Abdul Wahed Sarker, executive member of Nilphamari Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Meer Selim Faruque, convenor of fair preparation committee, and others. The chief guest said Nilphamari was a backward district and through establishing trade and business the area would be developed.
   About 200 small and medium size stalls of various commodities namely plastic, cookeries, toiletries, cosmetics, jute and jute goods, handicrafts, melamine, pottery etc have taken part in the fair.

Zahir Uddin Ahmed was elected president and of the Institute of the Cost and Management Accounts of Bangladesh at the 13th council of the institute held in the Dhaka city recently.
   The meeting also elected ABM Shamsuddin, AKM Delwer Hussain as vice-presidents, Abu Sayed Md Shaykhul Islam as secretary and Md Jasim Uddin Akond as treasurer of the institute, said a press release.
   Zahir Uddin Ahmed was the president of the South Asian Federation of Accountants for 2002.
   Abu Sayed Md Shaykhul Islam is the former chairman of the ICMAB Dhaka branch council and at present chairman of FATCOM and treasurer.

India’s central bank may lower its key lending rate this week following the substantial cut in US interest rates and end a monetary tightening cycle that began in 2004, economists say.
   Analysts had expected the central bank — wary about the impact of sharp rises in global oil and commodity prices — to keep rates on hold in 2008.
   But fears about a global slowdown that could hit Indian growth and the US Federal Reserve’s unprecedented 0.75 percentage point cut last week in its main lending rate to 3.50 per cent has sparked expectations that the bank will end its hawkish stance. It could even cut rates at its policy meeting on Tuesday.
   The Reserve Bank of India has been focused on inflation and now ‘looks set to give greater priority to its other objective — growth,’ said HSBC economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde.
   ‘We now expect two 25-basis-point rate cuts this year, possibly starting at next Tuesday’s central bank meeting,’ he said.
   India’s government says it expects growth of nearly nine per cent for this fiscal year to March 2008 while the central bank is targeting 8.5 per cent.
   Nine interest rate hikes since 2004 have slowed consumer demand and threatened to curb growth more sharply.
   Inflation, which hit a two-year high of nearly seven per cent early last year, has been edging higher but running at 3.83 remains well below the Reserve Bank’s ceiling of close to five per cent for this fiscal year.
   The bank’s leading short-term lending repo rate is riding at a four-year high of 7.75 per cent, pushing the cost of commercial loans into double-digit figures and hitting consumer consumption.
   ‘Given the 75 basis points Fed cut, the probability of the RBI cutting rates goes up significantly,’ said Rohini Malkani, an analyst at Citigroup in India.
   ‘Loan growth has decelerated to 21.5 per cent, below the Reserve Bank’s targeted 24.5 per cent for the year to March 2008,’ she said, having surged to more than 30 per cent the previous year.
   The rising US-India rate gap is also a concern, economists say.
   The US rate cut swelled the differential to 425 basis points — its widest in over three years — which could lead to higher capital inflows and more rupee appreciation.
   That would hit India’s exports, already suffering from a rupee that rose by more than 11 per cent in 2007.
   Other economists, however, said while the bank may soften its hawkish tone, it is likely take a wait and see stance.
   ‘It’s too soon to assess the impact of the Fed rate cut in the context of volatile global financial markets,’ said Shubhada Rao, chief economist at India’s Yes Bank.
   Finance minister P Chidambaram said keeping inflation low was a government priority.
   The Congress-led administration, with its eye on general elections due in 16 months, is mindful that rising prices can be political dynamite among the masses who helped propel it to power in 2004.
   ‘We’re comfortable with inflation below four per cent and growth above eight per cent,’ Chidambaram said last Friday. ‘Between inflation and growth, what hurts the poor most is the inflation. That’s why we must keep inflation low.’

Global powerbrokers left their annual gathering in the Swiss ski resort of Davos on Sunday, pursued by grim warnings of a tough year ahead for the world economy.
   Compared to the upbeat mood of previous years, Davos 2008 was a distinctly gloomy affair dominated by talk of a US recession and a wider economic slowdown.
   US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had opened the high-altitude huddle of political leaders and corporate chiefs on Wednesday with some encouraging words about the ‘resilience’ of the US economy.
   But with international stock markets on a roller coaster ride in the wake of the crisis in the US subprime mortgage sector, few found Rice’s optimism reassuring, even though there were differences of opinion among the gathered chief executives over the scale and likely duration of a US contraction.
   On Saturday, IMF director-general Dominique Strauss-Kahn said speculating on the precise nature of any recession was beside the point and governments should use fiscal as well as monetary policy to counter the headwinds.
   ‘What is clear is there will be a serious slowdown and it needs a serious response,’ he said. ‘We cannot rely only on monetary policy.’
   On the eve of the Davos event, the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, had announced a spectacular interest rate cut of 75 basis points — a move that drew less than rave reviews from some here.
   ‘Reckless’ and ‘dangerous’ was the verdict of Stephen Roach, head of US investment bank Morgan Stanley in Asia.
   Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, who will chair the annual Group of Eight summit in July, gave a keynote speech in which he warned against a ‘excessively pessimistic’ view of the problems ahead.
   ‘But at the same time we do need to have a sense of urgency as we engage in coordinated action,’ he said.
   Confirming its enduring pulling power, this year’s Davos gathering drew nearly 30 heads of state or government, more than 110 cabinet ministers and several hundred corporate titans.
   On the geopolitical front, debate focused on efforts for peace in the Middle East, the stand-off over Iran’s nuclear programme and the rise of China and India.
   Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf stopped off on a European tour aimed at addressing concerns over the credibility of upcoming elections following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
   And Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered delegates a gruesome portrait of the extremist violence infecting his region, citing cases of bombers targeting schoolchildren, elderly women being decapitated and teenagers being burned with acetylene torches.
   ‘This is beyond imagination even for the cruellest of minds,’ Karzai said, as he called for a renewed, coordinated global effort to tackle the ‘scourge of terrorism.’
   Development was also on the agenda, with the now-established Davos double act of billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and rock star activist Bono striving to tweak the gathering’s collective conscience.
   Bono, decrying the international community’s failure to live up to its promises on poverty alleviation, said it was time to go beyond purely ‘moral’ statements of intent.
   ‘I would like to turn our moral compact into legally binding contracts. Then my advice to the developing world? Get a good lawyer and haul our asses into court,’ the U2 frontman said.
   The Davos event has long prided itself on showing the caring side of capitalism, although participants have often been criticised for trumpeting big ideas on big issues in public, while actually expending most of their energy on corridor schmoozing and backroom deals.
   But if Davos is the ultimate networking opportunity, it doesn’t come cheap.
   Some 1,000 of the world’s largest businesses pay 42,500 Swiss francs ($38,700) apiece for annual membership to the exclusive club — not counting the extra 11,000 euros per person to attend the annual meeting.

The streets are empty. Trash rustles down the road past rusted barbecues, abandoned furniture, sagging homes and gardens turned to weed.
   This is Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland and a town ravaged by the subprime mortgage crisis roiling the United States.
   Faded ‘for sale’ signs sit in front of deserted houses. The residents are gone, either in search of new jobs after the factories shut down, or in shame after being evicted for missing their mortgage payments.
   A red, white and blue American flag flies over windows and doors which have been boarded up to keep the drug dealers away.
   Thieves have stripped many homes of the plumbing, the doors, the windows, the aluminum siding.
   The police station parking lot is full. The officers, who have seen their numbers triple since 2006, are coming back from their rounds. They speak of installing alarms in some of the homes claimed by squatters.
   At 9422 Chagrin Street, a hand-scrawled sign attached to a window indicates someone lives there: ‘Please Used.’
   After three rings of the bell, Sarah Evans, 60, opens the door with a mixture of curiosity and alarm.
   She says she is one of the last people left on the street. And she is on the verge of losing this two-bedroom house in which she has lived for more than 30 years because she simply cannot afford her monthly payments.
   It is a complicated story. She refinanced in 2003, but did not realize the document she signed included provisions to radically increase the interest rate.
   She stopped making payments in 2006 and shows her unpaid bills totaling 24,000 dollars.
   Her bank is in the midst of eviction procedures.
   ‘When folks buy a home they expect to die in it, I guess,’ she said as she stood outside in the cold. ‘I had my American Dream but it became a nightmare.’
   Her words are echoed by the angry barks of the guard dogs pacing behind a chain link fence two houses away that was installed by the new owner: a bank. The massive parking lot of the Eagle Fresh supermarket is empty.
   Behind her till, Myra Bibldwit lifts her head when a bell signals the entrance of a customer.
   ‘Not many folks come anymore. We’re used to it,’ said the 24-year-old cashier, one of the few in the neighborhood who managed to hold onto her job.
   In the five hours since she started working today she has served just 10 customers. ‘Maybe you will buy something,’ she says with a smile.
   Then comes customer number 12. Laura Johnston, 50, says that her street — about 10 minutes away by car — was alive two years ago. Today, half the houses are abandoned.
   ‘Folks could not afford their payments. They were asked to pay loans which doubled. They could not afford it, some lost their job. Lenders were greedy. They threw them out of their homes,’ she told AFP.
   ‘I’m very upset. I missed my friend Helen. She disappeared overnight. She did not even say goodbye.’
   There are plenty of cases like Helen. They are called the neighbors who disappear in the night.
   For county treasurer Jim Rokakis, the greed of the banks is to blame for this man-made disaster.
   ‘All you needed was a pulse to buy a house. Some loans were written with no money down, no proof of buyer’s incomes. They did not even check what people were saying. Most of those folks were jobless,’ he said in an interview.
   ‘Shaker Heights was the perfect storm: poor folks, unemployed and a desire to get a piece of the American Dream.’

The director general of the IMF called Saturday for a ‘serious’ response to the risk of a US recession and encouraged fiscal stimulus programmes in some countries.
   Speaking in Davos, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said: ‘Whatever the answer is on a recession, what is clear is there will be a serious US slowdown and it needs a serious response.’
   The head of the IMF, which usually encourages reductions in public spending, indicated that there was room for fiscal loosening in some big countries and interest rate cuts.
   ‘We cannot rely only on monetary policy,’ he said during a public debate about the world economy.
   ‘Some countries are not in a situation to increase the deficit, but other countries are in the position where there is some room for fiscal loosening,’ he added, declining to name the countries he had in mind.
   On interest rates, he said that an expected economic slowdown would lead to falls in inflation which would allow some central banks to lower borrowing costs to boost the economy.
   The US Federal Reserve has slashed interest rates aggressively, but the European Central Bank is resisting pressure from some European politicians to act because it remains concerned about inflation.
   ‘There will probably by even more room to lower rates in the coming weeks or the coming months depending on the price of commodities and on the decreasing demand,’ Strauss-Kahn said.
   He also said the IMF would issue economic forecasts next week that would show emerging countries doing ‘rather well’ despite the problems faced by the US economy.
   He also called for a global solution to the current economic problems, which originated in the US housing market but have spread to infect the global financial system and financial markets.
   Losses by banks which invested in complicated securities backed by high-risk US mortgages have led to a credit crunch in which bank lending has been restricted.
   Fear of losses and a lack of transparency about the extent of the problems have led to highly volatile trading on world stock markets.
   ‘All this shows that we need more multilateral regulation,’ Strauss-Kahn said.

They had small means and big hopes of owning a house. But African-Americans snared in the US mortgage crisis have seen the American dream turn into a nightmare many call ‘financial apartheid.’
   The storm triggered by risky ‘subprime’ loans has left many in ruins, forced out of their modest homes and furious at falling victim to financial dealings that have taken a particular toll on minority families.
   ‘People of color are more than three times more likely to have subprime loans,’ concluded the organization United for a Fair Economy in a recent report which estimated that minorities have seen between 163 billion and 278 billion dollars of their equity go up in smoke since 2000.
   With its weakened economy and a large black population more used to renting, Cleveland has become a poster child of the subprime crisis in a country where some 2.1 million borrowers are behind on their mortgage payments.
   City officials estimate that foreclosures have swallowed some 70,000 homes and turned entire neighborhoods into ghost towns.
   The city has responded by suing lenders, accusing them of targeting black borrowers and steering them to the loans granted with few formalities and at hefty interest rates to people with poor credit histories.
   In this city where nearly 27 per cent of the population lives under the poverty line — about 20,000 dollars a year for a family of four — many have a friend, a cousin, a brother, a co-worker or a neighbor who lost a home because they could no longer make their monthly payments once their adjustable rates jumped.
   ‘Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore are cities where lots of people of color live and what do they have in common? They are hit by the foreclosures meltdown. Is it a coincidence?’ said Jesse Tinsley, who lives in the low-income Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
   ‘When the wave of foreclosures blighted our neighborhood, members of our community rang the alarm. Nobody did anything. Now that white suburbs are hit, the city hall discovered foreclosures,’ he said.
   ‘The mayor didn’t do anything for our community for four years, they said ‘they deserved it.’ Now everybody noticed that we have been targeted by greedy people.’
   Nikita Bailey, an activist with the non-profit Center for Responsible Lending, warned that the mortgage crisis could empty the pockets of African-Americans.
   ‘Today the subprime market is poised to bring about the greatest drain of wealth the African-American community has ever experienced,’ Bailey told AFP. ‘It is a financial apartheid no doubt about it.’
   For Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Phillip Morris, the extent of the devastation is comparable to that wrought by Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.
   In the hardest-hit suburb of Cleveland, ‘nearly 24,000 people have lost their homes to Cleveland’s Katrina,’ he told AFP.
   ‘Families left behind furniture, clothing even family photos.’
   In the hardest-hit district of New Orleans, the real Katrina destroyed about 13,700 houses, displacing some 35,000 people, Morris said.
   ‘More than two years later, 6,000 homeowners in St Bernard Parish have each received an average 65,000 dollars in government funds to rebuild their American Dreams. But in Cleveland and its suburbs, there is no disaster relief, no presidential visits, no good Samaritans to helps us.’
   ‘It would have been better if it was an earthquake or a hurricane, we respond better to natural disasters than to men in suits disasters,’ said city councilor Zach Reid.
   In the streets, shops, suburbs and restaurants, resentment against the government and the Washington elite flourishes.
   ‘People in Washington — George Bush, the US Senate, the US Congress — witnessed it, they stood by and they didn’t do nothing to stop it,’ said Cleveland resident John Brett.
   ‘It was almost like they were on the Titanic, and they could see the iceberg coming and they did nothing about it,’ he said sitting at the counter of the Velvet Dog Bar.
   ‘They wrecked our American dreams, the willingness to own a home,’ he said. ‘Even during the Great Depression we did not see the number of homes and properties abandoned like we are seeing now.’

Joint Argentina-British Pan American Energy company has discovered a crude oil field in the southern province of Chubut yielding an estimated 120 million barrels per year, local authorities said Saturday.
   ‘It’s the biggest oil deposit (found in Argentina) in decades,’ Chubut Governor Mario das Neves told reporters in provincial capital Rawson, 1,450 kilometers south of Buenos Aires.
   He said the oil field was located in Chubu’s central Escalante region, which years ago was uneventfully explored by US oil giant Amoco. Pan America Energy, formed by Argentina’s Bridas and Britain’s British Petroleum, is Argentina’s second-biggest crude oil producer.

Bata opened a city store at Mirpur Section 11 in the Dhaka city recently.
   JD Hearns, managing director of Bata Shoe Company (Bangladesh) Ltd, formally opened the new outlet, said a press release.
   Cesar Panduro, chief financial officer, MA Quader, marketing manager, SAM Yousuf, retail manager, Omar Faisal Chowdhury, store operations manager, and other executive of the company were present at the opening ceremony.

The City Bank Limited opened its New Market branch, relocated from its old premises to Novera Square at Dhanmondi in the Dhaka city, on Sunday.
   Kazi Mahmood Sattar, managing director and chief executive officer of the bank, inaugurated the branch, said a press release.
   Sohail RK Hussain, Raihan Ul Ameen and DH Choudhury, deputy managing directors, Mashrur Arefin, head of retail banking, B Choudhury, head of SME banking, and other high officials of the bank attended the programme.

Turbulence on world stock markets has fuelled a new gold rush, sending high-tech traders in search of the same ‘barbaric’ treasure mankind has lusted after for millenia.
   It was British economist John Maynard Keynes who called gold a ‘barbaric relic’ early last century, but modern investors are showing the same enthusiasm for the precious metal as the grizzled prospectors of legend.
   ‘We have to put gold into perspective right now with the meltdown in the financial system,’ Warwick Grigor, chairman of Far East Capital, told AFP. ‘There’s great fear out there, and gold stands out as a safe haven.
   ‘When there’s fear of inflation gold is something investors want to purchase because there is a very limited supply — you can’t flood the market with gold.
   ‘Governments can print money — that creates inflation. Paper money is just a promise and that promise gets abused constantly by governments.’
   Gold hit an all-time peak of 923.73 dollars an ounce on the London Bullion Market on Friday after a week in which global stock markets plunged on fears of a recession in the United States.
   To staunch the bloodbath on the markets, the US Federal Reserve intervened with a surprise 75 basis points cut in interest rates, a move Grigor described as a short term fix which would push up inflation.
   While gold’s rarity is cited as the main reason it will maintain its value in volatile times for stocks and paper money it also seems to wield a primitive fascination beyond its worth.
   ‘Gold may not be rational but human beings are not necessarily rational either,’ said author and analyst Trevor Sykes.
   ‘Gold has been around for about 3,000 years whereas paper money has been around for only a couple of hundred years and the way things are going I would back gold to outlast most of the paper money in this world.
   ‘It does make nice jewellery, it’s very attractive, it appeals to our primeval urges and it looks like it’s got a terrific future.’
   It has been used for centuries as a symbol of wealth in anything from jewellery to gold bathroom fittings or even the coffin of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, who died more than 3,000 years ago.
   As currency, the history of gold coins is usually traced through the Roman Empire back to Lydia in what is now Turkey, where it is believed the first real coins were struck around the 6th century BC.
   In modern times, the Bretton Woods system introduced after World War II obliged countries to maintain the value of their currencies in a tight link to gold, but the mechanism collapsed in 1971.
   Recent events, however, have shown that when stocks and paper money are stumbling, investors head to the soft, malleable metal with its seductive gleam.
   ‘A share in a company is worth nothing — you can’t eat it, you can’t do anything with it, it’s all paper,’ said Grigor.
   ‘I buy specimen gold and gold nuggets and store it away because that doesn’t disappear overnight like shares can,’ said Grigor, pointing to the fact that an ounce of gold will still buy a good suit as it did a century ago.
   He predicted that gold would trade up to 1,500 or 2,000 dollars an ounce within a year or two.
   Sykes also backed the metal to become increasingly precious as the US dollar underwent a de facto devaluation.
   ‘Since about the end of World War II the US dollar has been the world’s reserve currency, but the US economy has considerable problems.
   ‘They are simply printing more money to buy their way out on the grounds that everyone accepts the US dollar.’
   Extreme devaluations such as those in Germany in 1923, Hungary in 1946 and right now in Zimbabwe, where inflation is running at an official 8,000 per cent, had seen people lose faith entirely in the currency, he said.
   ‘Suddenly you needed a wheelbarrow of notes to buy a loaf of bread.
   ‘A piece of paper money, which we all worship in Australia, is only worth the credit of the government that issues it, whereas gold is a constant.
   ‘A gold bar is one hundred per cent gold and it’s the same in Australia as it is in China or the United States or South Africa.
   ‘Gold acts like a currency. In places like the Middle East, India and large chunks of Asia, it is a currency.

Transaction
   Keya Cosmetics
   The Khaleque Knitting and Garments Ind (Pvt) Ltd, one of the corporate sponsors of the company, has reported its intention to sell 1,00,000 shares out of its total holdings of 1,43,89,732 shares of the company while Keya Cotton Mills Ltd has reported its intention to buy 1,00,000 shares (in the block market) at prevailing market price through the stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   
   Profit
   Alltex Ind Ltd
   As per unaudited half yearly accounts as on December 31, 2007, the company has reported profit before tax of Tk 5.09m.
   
   Response to DSE query
   Meghna Shrimp
   The company has informed that there is no undisclosed price sensitive information of the company for the recent unusual price hike. As per DSE record, the company has reported half yearly net loss of Tk 9.80 m with EPS of Tk 9.80 as on June 30, 2007. Accumulated loss of the company was Tk 23.77m as on June 30, 2007.
   Source: DSE, CSE

Reverse repo
auction held
The Repo auction for commercial banks and financial institutions was held at the Bangladesh Bank on Sunday. Two bids of one-day tenor amounting to total of Tk 115 crore were received but they were not accepted, said a press release. However, for liquidity support facility for primary dealers, one bid of one-day tenor amounting to Tk 57 crore was accepted. The rate of interest of the accepted bid was 8.50 per cent per annum.
— New Age

USA-China Industry to invest $2.5m in CEPZ
World Ye Dress Pants Limited, a US-Chinese company in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone, is to expand its garments accessories unit with more investment and creation of new jobs for the Bangladeshis. The hundred per cent foreign-owned company will enhance their production capacity with additional investment of $2.5 million, totalling the amount to $5 million, a press release of the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority said in Dhaka on Sunday. At present, 998 Bangladeshis are working in this factory and the job opportunities for an additional 500 are expected to be created after implementation of the expansion programme, the press release said. A lease agreement to this effect was signed between the BEPZA and the company recently. BEPZA executive chairman Brigadier General Ashraf Abdullah Yussuf, among others, was present on the occasion.
— BSS

South Korea
mulls tax cuts
South Korea may cut taxes to strengthen its economy amid worries about the impact of the US subprime mortgage crisis, Yonhap news agency said Sunday. Yonhap quoted officials as saying the government could cut taxes, front-load fiscal spending and remove corporate regulations. ‘The downside risk of the global economy is greater than expected and has come earlier, so the government is considering a range of countermeasures, including a tax cut,’ a finance ministry official was quoted as saying. Experts warned last week that growing overseas financial turmoil and inflationary pressures were threatening to slow the South Korean economy despite resilient exports and a recovery in consumption.
— AFP