Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution’s test reports, which are mandatory for shipment of imported products, comes to no use, Chittagong customs officials told New Age in the past week.
   The officials, who attended an inter-organisational meeting on July 3, saw no justification in having the BSTI certificate as a similar report, ‘clean report of findings,’ from pre-shipment inspection companies is also required in the process. The BSTI also makes delay in providing importers with the inspection certificates, the meting was told. The National Board of Revenue chairman, Abdul Mazid chaired the meeting.
   The monitoring officials of the Chittagong customs house who attended the meeting also wanted to know the reasons behind the BSTI’s delay in providing such test reports,’ said an official, who attended the meeting.
   He also said if the pre-shipment inspection companies produced the CRF certificate of imported products through Chittagong port, BSTI inspection report would be no longer required.
   BSTI director M Liakat Ali said if the pre-shipment inspection agencies could produce CRF certificates for imported goods, the report of the Bangladeshi Standards and Testing Institution would not be required. In that case the BSTI would not block the shipment, he said.
   Sources in the BSTI said under the CRF issues, pre-shipment inspection companies would need to follow the World Trade Organisation agreement regarding inspection.
   The BSTI, which is the only organisation responsible for the inspection of imported products, also sent a letter to the commerce secretary seeking that pre-shipment inspection companies would need to comply with the BSTI standards in the case of products imported with CRF certificates.
   The sources said the Chittagong customs house would convene another meeting next week to solve the problems of inspection of imported goods by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution.
   Kazi Farooq, secretary general of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said, ‘Without the inspection by government agencies, low-quality goods will enter the country.’
   He said private pre-shipment inspection companies would not maintain the BSTI standards.
   The BSTI director general, Mohamand Ajmal Hossain, told New Age, ‘We have been able to convince the Chittagong custom house that BSTI inspection would be required.’

The fifth phase of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement will be signed on July 29, Hong Kong special administrative region chief executive Donald Tsang said on Friday.
   Speaking to reporters during his visit to northeast China’s Liaoning Province Friday, Tsang said the CEPA package will cover measures specially devised for the implementation in Guangdong Province, according to a press release from the Information Service Department of the HKSAR government.
   Tsang led a business delegation consisting of more than 100 representatives of Hong Kong business circle beginning last week to Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Jilin provinces in northeast China to promote mutual investment and trade.
   Praising their great potential and strengths in industry, agriculture and tourism, Tsang said the provinces’ strategic location also allows them to have advantages in doing business with Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

WTO head Pascal Lamy warned on Friday that talks on a global free-trade pact faced collapse as leading nations searched here for a way to break a seven-year log jam.
   ‘We need to change gears very quickly to turn things around,’ Lamy was quoted as saying by his spokesman
   Beginning a fifth day of meetings, diplomats and negotiators said that Friday would be make-or-break at the end of gruelling week of bargaining at the World Trade Organisation which has produced scant evidence of progress.
   ‘The situation as I see it is critical, edging between success and failure,’ said Lamy, who called the meeting of leading trading nations this week in what was a high-stakes attempt to finally broker a deal.
   ‘Some convergences have been recorded but progress remains painfully slow after four days of ministerial negotiation,’ Lamy told delegations from the 153 members of the WTO in a morning meeting, his spokesman said.
   ‘It’s a crucial day,’ said European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson as he arrived for talks with a small group of leading nations composed of the US, the EU, Japan, India, Brazil, Australia and China.
   ‘We have to see flexibility from people to enable us all to move forward. If certain people who are negotiating will not show any flexibility at all then it takes the rest of the negotiations hostage.’
   Ministers from 35 leading economies are meeting to discuss reductions in subsidies and import tariffs with the aim of mapping out a deal to conclude the long-delayed Doha Round of global trade talks.
   The Doha Round began seven years ago with the aim of helping poor countries enjoy the fruits of freer global trade but the process has been delayed by disputes between the rich developed world and poorer developing nations.
   The two sides have settled into a familiar pattern of demanding concessions from each other and refusing to budge until new offers have been put forward.
   Such brinkmanship has led to the collapse of talks on several occasions since the Doha Round began in the Qatari capital in 2001.
   Brazil’s trade negotiator, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, told reporters: ‘Yesterday was crucial, today is crunch time.’
   Any final deal, if approved by negotiators here, would still need to be cleared by all 153 WTO member states.
   Norwegian foreign affairs minister Jonas Gahr Stoere stressed to AFP that as long as ministers were continuing negotiations it was a positive sign.
   ‘As long as the ministers are in town, there is an opportunity of striking a deal,’ Norwegian foreign affairs minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told AFP. But he added that on ‘critical issues, distances between the parties are wide ... Until there is some movement on these, we are not there.’
   Lamy’s spokesman, Keith Rockwell, said that ministers had indicated they were ready to stay longer into next week ‘if they had indications today that there was progress that would make that worth their while.’
   One diplomat who declined to be named said there has been little positive coming out of the talks so far this week — except the fact that discussions were still ongoing. ‘It has been dark. The only unknown is whether this darkness would lead to a deeper abyss of darkness or if there is light beyond the darkness.
   ‘As it is so often with such negotiations, it is only at the last minute when a breakthrough can be wrought. We’ll see,’ he told AFP.
   The only sign of public movement in the negotiations has been offers from the EU and the US on agriculture, but these have been dismissed by developing cocuntries as inadequate in the case of the US and nothing new from the EU.
   On Tuesday, Washington offered to cut two billion dollars from its annual aid for farmers to leave it at 15 billion dollars — a move greeted by key developing economy India as welcome but still inadequate.
   The United States and the EU have in turn asked key emerging economies to give ground on allowing greater access for the developed countries industrial goods in their markets.

In what is seen as adding cheer to the Indian government’s confidence motion victory in Parliament, inflation has finally stabilised to move down marginally to 11.89 per cent for the week ended July 12 from 11.91 per cent the previous week.
   Stable fuel prices, on the back of dipping international crude oil prices, have once more been credited for the flattening of the inflation graph, even though cost of essential articles, including fruits, vegetables and pulses went up marginally.
   Inflation for the week ended 17 May was revised upwards to 8.66 per cent from 8.10 per cent. The annual inflation rate was 4.76 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.
   A major hiccup for the ruling coalition government in its election year, spiralling inflation has been a major source of concern even if it was blamed on the external economic situation, particularly the global crude oil price hike.
   Coming just a week before the Indian central bank, Reserve Bank of India’s annual credit policy on July 29, analysts hope this would prompt the RBI not to hike rates. Stating that the pace of inflation had moderated, they said the past six weeks had seen a substantial increase because of rising prices of commodities but now with international crude oil prices going down, it was reflected in the current figures.
   ‘The inflation shows some stability, tempting one to believe the worst is over,’ one analyst said. ‘The index has gone up so much, that bringing the week-on-week rate below 10 per cent would take some efforts,’ he added.
   Commenting on the marginally lower inflation rate, the finance ministry said: ‘Inflation, on a week-on-week basis, has continued to remain stable.’ The wholesale price index moved up only marginally to 239 points in the week ending July 12 from 238.7 the previous week.
   In the Primary Articles group, the index went up by 0.6 per cent, led mainly by pulses, fruits and vegetables.
   While food articles were costlier by 1.6 per cent, the index for Non-Food Articles grew 0.8 per cent.
   Prices of all the 19 articles in the Fuel, Power, Light and Lubricants group remain unchanged.
   In the case of the heavyweight Manufactured Products group, it has been a practically flat index with a growth of mere 0.05 per cent. With the last few weeks posting a fairly high rise, this is seen by inflation watchers as good news. Out of a total 318 commodities, a large number, 299 in all, showed no increase in prices over the last week. In the case of nine commodities there was a decline in prices.

High import cost of raw materials and abundance of smuggled Chinese products in the market are the major problems for the local spectacles industry to flourish.
   ‘We used to export spectacles two years ago, but now local market is flooded with the Chinese products,’ said Manjurul Hoque Sikder, former president of the Bangladesh Chasma Shilpa O Banik Samity.
   ‘If any businessman goes to Saudi Arab, he takes some spectacles from my shop and sells them there — this is what our export is now since 2006,’ he added.
   Bangladeshi spectacles businessmen have lost their market to the low cost Chinese products, he lamented.
   ‘Unabated smuggling of Chinese lenses and frames into the country through the Teknaf border has created an uneven competition that we are facing now,’ said Manjurul.
   Besides smuggling, low cost of Chinese products compared with that of other countries is another reason for which people prefer the Chinese ones.
   SK Nurul Islam, owner of Modern Optics at Elephant Road in Dhaka, said while Chinese lenses sell at Tk 800, the same lenses imported from South Korea sell at Tk 1,600.
   ‘About eight years ago, we used to import lenses and spectacles from the United States through the Singapore port, but as Chinese products are low-cost, we no longer import spectacles from the USA,’ he added.
   About export potentials for the local spectacles industry, he said, ‘Only those who own spectacles and frame factories can hope to export spectacles,’ he added, saying small traders cannot think of exporting spectacles in this situation.
   He urged the government to cut duty on import of raw materials and value added tax on local production to help grow the spectacles industry locally.
   An imported frame costs Tk 100-120 while the cost of a locally manufactured one is Tk 50-90, but the smuggled frames are available at Tk 40-50 each, industry insider sources said.
   Prices of raw materials shot up by 70-80 per cent in the past few months, forcing many frame and lens producers to stop production, they said.
   Moreover, the government announcement of recent fuel price hike also pushed up impost cost of raw materials and prices of imported spectacles, the source said.
   At present, the spectacles importers give a 37.5 per cent tax on imported spectacles and 15 per cent tax on imported lenses. Local spectacles businessmen also pay 15 per cent value added tax on their sales.
   The sources also said even after the takeover by the interim government, the smuggling of Chinese products into the country has not decreased. About 90 per cent of the local spectacles market is controlled by smuggled products, the market insiders said.
   The price of wire rose to $5,500-$7,000 per tonne from $2,500-$3,000 a year ago on the international market. Price of other steel and iron products also rose, they added.
   According to the National Board of Revenue, the import volume of frames is insignificant though the market is big enough.
   ‘The local demand is largely met by frames and lenses that come through illegal channels,’ Fazlul Haque Jewel, president of the Bangladesh Chasma Shilpa O Banik Samity, said.
   ‘The government should provide incentives to help us remain competitive. We don’t get any support from the government’s export diversification project,’ he lamented.
   At present, some 45 firms produce lenses while companies like Optical Business Syndicate produce frames. In 2005-06 fiscal year, local manufacturers exported frames worth $1 lakh to South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Moscow is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates, while Tokyo has pipped London to move into second place, according to a global cost of living survey published Thursday.
   The study takes New York as the base measure for prices, comparing over 200 items, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment, in 143 cities across the globe.
   Europe and Asia dominate the top 10 in the study by British-based consultancy firm Mercer, while the Paraguayan capital Asuncion is the least expensive for the sixth straight year.
   The weakening dollar has a key impact on costs for expatriate staff, making American cities comparatively cheap for non-Americans while US executives sent abroad by their firms face huge bills in dollar terms.
   ‘Moscow’s position as the most expensive place for expatriate living has been strengthened by the appreciation of the ruble against the US dollar and ... rising accommodation costs,’ said Mercer research head Yvonne Traber.
   ‘Although the traditionally expensive cities of western Europe and Asia still feature in the top 20, cities in eastern Europe, Brazil and India are creeping up the list,’ she added.
   The Russian capital is the world’s most expensive city for the third straight year, with a cup of coffee in a Moscow cafe priced at 10.40 dollars (6.60 euros) including service.
   Other Asian cities in the top 10 include Seoul in fifth and Hong Kong in 6th. Osaka is just outside the top 10 at number 11.
   North America is the place to go for cheap living: New York is its only city to feature in this year’s top 50 in 22nd place, dropping seven places on its 2007 ranking.
   ‘On the bright side, the US dollar’s loss of value may serve to attract globally mobile executives to business centres such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles,’ said Traber.

The Indonesian government feels unhappy with renewed airlines ban by the European Union. Indonesia has followed the prevalent procedures for improving the airline industry.
   ‘We have taken any steps for an improvement, but there is no responsive feedback,’ the spokesman of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry Teuku Faizasyah told reporters on Friday.
   Based on the findings of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, Indonesian airlines have improved up to the level of 60 per cent. Therefore, the Indonesian government demands for more good responses.

South Korea’s economy slowed sharply in the three months to June, official figures showed Friday, amid warnings of a slump.
   Growth slowed below forecast to an annual rate of 4.8 per cent in the second quarter from 5.8 per cent in the three months to March, the Bank of Korea said, as soaring oil prices pushed up inflation and weakened domestic demand.
   ‘Because of high prices and the jobless rate, domestic consumption weakened in the second quarter, weighing down on the growth momentum,’ Choi Chun-Sin, a director of the bank, told reporters.
   The latest growth figure is the lowest since early 2007 and comes as a US-led global slowdown and rising inflation weigh on Lee’s election pledge to revitalise one of Asia’s largest economies.
   The pledge to raise annual growth to seven per cent swept him to a thumping election victory in December, but protests over parts of his economic policy and presidential style have since badly hit his popularity.
   The soaring price of oil and raw materials took inflation to a 10-year high of 5.5 per cent in June, the central bank said, above its earlier forecast of 4.8 per cent.
   Private consumption dipped 0.1 per cent in the second quarter, compared with a 0.4 per cent gain in the three months to March, the figures showed, as overall quarterly economic growth remained at 0.8 per cent.
   Choi said exports — which account for about 40 per cent of the value of South Korea’s economy — had remained strong. They grew 3.7 per cent over the second quarter, having declined 1.8 per cent over the three months to March.
   Experts said the slowdown in domestic demand in the wake of rising inflation and falling stock and property prices had been faster than expected.
   ‘Weakness in private consumption is more serious than expected earlier,’ Hyundai Research Institute executive director Yu Byoung-Gyu told AFP, adding it accounted for about half the South Korean economy.
   ‘Thanks to brisk exports, the economy was able to sustain growth in the first half. However, the economy would face a serious slump in the latter half unless private consumption stages a recovery,’ he said.
   Samsung Economic Research Institute economist Kwon Soon-Woo said private consumption had entered ‘a sluggish phase.’
   ‘As private consumption is rapidly weakening, the second-half economic growth rate might sharply fall,’ he said.
   Earlier this month, finance minister Kang Man-Soo said the economy could be heading towards a crisis, citing sluggish corporate investment as one of the factors impeding the economy.
   The weaker growth figures could dent expectations of higher interest rates to fight inflation. The Bank of Korea kept borrowing costs at five per cent in July and has cut its 2008 growth projection to 4.6 per cent from 4.7 per cent.

China’s booming Internet population has surpassed the United States to become the world’s biggest, with 253 million people online despite government controls on Web use, according to government data reported Friday.
   The latest figure on Web use at the end of June is a 56 per cent increase from a year ago, the China Internet Network Information Centre said. It said the share of the Chinese public using the Internet is still just 19.1 per cent, leaving more room for rapid growth.
   The United States had an estimated 223.1 million Internet users in June, according to Nielsen Online, a research firm. The Pew Internet and American Life Project puts U.S. online penetration at 71 per cent.
   ‘This is the first time the number has drastically surpassed the United States, becoming the world’s No 1,’ a CNNIC statement said.
   The communist government encourages Internet use for business and education but tries to block access to Web sites deemed pornographic or subversive. Web surfers have been jailed for posting or e-mailing material that criticizes communist rule or is deemed a violation of vague national security laws.
   Beijing blocks access to Web sites run by dissidents, human rights groups and some foreign news media. Web surfers were blocked from seeing Google Inc.’s YouTube and other foreign sites with video footage of anti-government protests in Tibet in March.
   That same month, the government said it would shut down 25 Chinese video sites and punish 32 others for violating new rules against carrying content that is deemed pornographic, violent or a threat to national security.
   In financial terms, China’s market lags those of the United States, South Korea and other economies. But online commerce, video sharing and other businesses are growing rapidly and have raised millions of dollars from investors.
   The commercial boom has produced success stories such as games site Tencent.com and search engine Baidu.com, which are competing with foreign rivals for local market share. Baidu said Thursday its profits in the latest quarter soared 87 per cent over the year-earlier period to 265 million yuan ($38.6m).

Worries about the health of Japan’s economy mounted Friday as inflation hit a new decade high on soaring commodity costs, casting a pall over the outlook for consumer spending.
   The figures highlighted the dilemma facing many of the world’s top central banks, which risk slamming the brakes on already weak economic growth if they raise interest rates to try to tame inflation.
   Japan’s core inflation hit 1.9 per cent in June, the fastest pace since January 1998 when consumer prices rose 2.0 per cent, the government said. It was the ninth straight monthly increase in prices.
   ‘Consumers feel quite a heavy burden,’ said economic and fiscal policy minister Hiroko Ota.
   Japan was stuck in a deflationary spiral for years, but the return of inflation has also been met with concern as it is being driven entirely by rising import costs rather than a stronger domestic economy.
   ‘Food and energy are almost entirely responsible for the recent rise in inflation in Japan,’ said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at Credit Suisse in Tokyo.
   ‘Wage pressure remains much weaker than inflation pressures,’ he said. ‘So it’s very difficult for us to believe that consumption is picking up.’
   The core inflation rate, which excludes volatile fresh seafood, fruit and vegetable prices, accelerated from an annualised 1.5 per cent in May, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
   Overall prices were up 2.0 per cent, although excluding energy costs, core consumer prices rose just 0.1 per cent.
   But ‘higher food prices mean that even if oil goes back to where it was a year ago, overall inflation should remain positive,’ predicted Macquarie Securities economist Richard Jerram.
   Japan’s economy is on the mend from a slump stretching back more than a decade, but analysts say the rising energy and raw material costs, along with weakening exports, are putting the brakes on the recovery.
   Despite the pick-up in inflation, analysts do not expect the Bank of Japan to raise its super-low interest rates from the current level of 0.5 per cent any time soon given the fragile health of the economy.
   ‘Consumption will weaken, definitely. So in this case the BoJ doesn’t need to respond by monetary tightening,’ said Tomoko Fujii, head of economics and strategy at Bank of America in Tokyo.
   Core consumer prices in Tokyo, a leading indicator released a month earlier than the figures for the whole of Japan, rose 1.6 per cent in July after a gain of 1.3 per cent in June, the government said.
   Japan’s economy expanded at a brisk 4.0 per cent annualised pace in the first quarter of 2008 despite weak US growth and high oil prices, but domestic demand now appears to be cooling while the global economic climate is worsening.
   Japan’s exports fell for the first time in more than four years in June as car exports to the United States and Europe tumbled, the government said Thursday, sparking jitters that the US economic slowdown is spreading globally.

Singapore’s manufacturing output rose 2.5 per cent in June compared with the same month last year, the government said Friday, but the increase was lower than analysts forecast.
   A poll of economists by Dow Jones Newswires had tipped a gain of 3.1 per cent.
   On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, production increased 4.5 per cent from May, the Economic Development Board said, adding that cumulative output for the first half of the year grew 3.6 per cent from 2007.
   According to preliminary government data, biomedical manufacturing grew 4.0 per cent in June, with the volatile pharmaceuticals segment up 5.7 per cent year-on-year after falls in the previous two months.
   Transport engineering grew by 8.0 per cent overall, with the marine and offshore engineering segment up 12.6 per cent due to more ship building and repairs, the EDB said.
   Electronics output grew 2.7 per cent overall despite a drop of 15.8 per cent in the information and communications and consumer electronics segment, it said.
   Chemicals grew by 1.5 per cent in June although petrochemicals fell 1.1 per cent while several planned maintenance shutdowns occurred, EDB said.
   Food, beverage and other general manufacturing industries grew 0.6 per cent compared with the same month last year while precision engineering was the only sector in which output fell — down 2.8 per cent for the month, the data showed.
   Alvin Liew, a Singapore-based economist with Standard Chartered Bank, said the positive output performance could be short-lived.
   ‘We were expecting pharmaceuticals to rebound, but a slower demand from US and European economies will continue to weigh on overall manufacturing sector,’ Liew told Dow Jones Newswires.

Asian shares tumbled Friday with Australia and India suffering heavy falls of more than three per cent on fresh worries of US economic woe due in part to the country’s ailing housing market.
   Sydney and Mumbai both shed about 3.4 per cent following a slide Thursday on Wall Street after data showed US home sales fell in June to a 10-year low and Ford posted its worst quarterly loss in history of 8.7 billion dollars.
   Many of the region’s other major markets also endured sharp falls, with Japan down nearly two per cent and Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore slipping 1.5 per cent or more.
   Smaller Asian markets were down Friday too as optimism apparent earlier in the week waned across the region, which is battling high inflation due to soaring food and fuel costs, and feeling the chill from the cooling US economy.
   Economic data from Japan and South Korea fanned such concerns.
   Japanese inflation hit a new decade high on soaring commodity costs, casting a pall over the outlook for consumer spending.
   Meanwhile, data released in Seoul showed the South Korean economy slowed sharply in the second quarter amid warnings of a slump
   Investors were braced for a big batch of corporate earnings due for release next week.
   Japanese share prices slid 1.97 per cent, dealers said.
   Investors were cautious ahead of a slew of earnings reports due next week. News that Japanese inflation hit a fresh decade high in June did little to lift sentiment.
   The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Nikkei-225 index fell 268.55 points to close at 13,334.76, snapping a three-day winning streak.
   The broader Topix index of all first-section shares slid 34.29 points or 2.57 per cent to 1,298.28, dropping below the symbolic 1,300-point mark.
   Hong Kong share prices closed 1.5 per cent down, dealers said. The benchmark Hang Seng Index dropped 347.01 points to 22,740.71. Turnover was 61.39 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$7.87b).
   Australian share prices plunged 3.37 per cent, dealers said. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index finished down 173.6 points at 4,970.5, while the broader All Ordinaries shed 157.4 points or 3.03 per cent to 5,031.
   Chinese share prices closed 1.55 per cent lower, dealers said.
   The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, closed 45.19 points lower at 2,865.10 on turnover of 63.9 billion yuan ($9.4b). Coal miners were sharply lower after Beijing tightened controls on the price of coal that is used for electricity generation.
   Taiwan share prices closed down 1.82 per cent, dealers said. The weighted index fell 134.46 points at 7,233.62 on turnover of 87.55 billion Taiwan dollars (US$2.88b).
   South Korean share prices dropped 1.73 per cent, analysts said. The benchmark KOSPI index fell 28.21 points to close at 1,597.93. Volume was moderate at 4.29 trillion won ($4.25b).
   Singapore share prices closed 1.85 per cent lower, dealers said. The blue-chip Straits Times Index fell 55.00 points to 2,922.91 on light volume of 834.57 million shares worth 1.06 billion Singapore dollars (US$779m).
   Malaysian share prices closed little changed, dealers said. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index ended at 1,141.75.
   Thai share prices closed 0.87 per cent lower, dealers said.
   Indonesian shares closed down 0.5 per cent, dealers said. The Jakarta Composite Index shed 11.71 points to 2,245.34 .
   Philippine share prices closed down 0.9 per cent, dealers said. The composite index gave up 23.19 points to 2,512.72, while the all-share index lost 13.40 points to 1,580.89.
   New Zealand share prices closed down 1.01 per cent, dealers said. The benchmark NZX-50 index closed 33.07 points lower at 3,254.16.
   India’s share prices closed down 3.4 per cent, dealers said.

Special attention to infrastructure development and remittance inflow as well as innovative schemes for agriculture sector and rural employment are among the features that make National Credit and Commerce Bank Limited different from many others in the banking sector.
   The NCCB is the country’s first bank to channel a World Bank fund through the central bank to set up an independent power plant in the private sector, claimed Nurul Amin, managing director of the bank.
   The bank gave Tk 50 crore loans and arranged another Tk 168 crore fund under the Investment Promotion Facility Fund of the World Bank to a private company – Doreen Group – to set up three plants of 22 megawatt each, he told New Age.
   ‘The bank also gave credit of about Tk 50 crore to Energy Prima of Hosaf Group to set up 23 megawatt plant from its own funding,’ he added detailing the bank’s services and expansion plans.
   For the expatriates, the bank has signed an agreement with the Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Shangha, a major NGO, to use its offices countrywide, he said.
   ‘We want to transfer the remittance as soon as possible to remote places of the country and for that we are using the establishments of TMSS to expand our coverage,’ he added.
   The bank will sign more agreements with the exchange houses in the Middle East, Europe and America to handle at least $200 million remittance in the current year, he said.
   The bank has also a unique operation in the agriculture sector and lent a good amount of money for maize cultivation in Lalmonirhat, tea plantation in Panchgarh, and agar and atar cultivation in Sylhet.
   ‘Over 3,000 farmers get credit from us to cultivate maize and we have arranged buyers for them so that they can produce the crop without any worry about where to sell their produce,’ he said.
   The bank also gave about Tk 1,200 crore loans to industrial sector to boost the local production, he added.
   The bank has three types of clients — corporate, retail and SME, Amin said. ‘For SME clients we are going to open five outlets in different parts of the country and set up separate desks for them in the branches,’ he informed.
   The best and quickest possible services and a wide range of products catering to the needs of diverse clientele satisfy the existing customers and attract potential ones. ‘All the clients are important to us and we give them service at a cheaper price,’ he said further.
   ‘We have reduced our interest rate and service charge and the premier clients get concessional rate from us,’ he added.
   The NCCB started its journey as an investment company in 1985 and registered as a bank in 1993.
   The paid-up capital of the bank was Tk 135 crore and only 4.17 per cent of its total loan of Tk 3,269 crore are non-performing. The bank’s deposits stood at Tk 3,490 crore in 2007. It has 53 branches all over the country and going to open four new branches this year.
   The bank earned Tk 67 crore in net profit after tax with total operating income of Tk 527 crore last year.
   Diversified operations give the bank edges over many other banks, he claimed.
   Apart from traditional banking earnings from sources like interest income, commission and service fees, remittance and international trade, the bank also earns from brokerage house, credit card and primary dealership in treasury bills and bonds, he explained.
   Its brokerage house has seven branches and five more branches are in the pipeline by this year, he said.
   The bank has a good number of clients who use its credit cards and from the primary dealership operation, the bank earned over Tk 2 crore profit last year and the amount will be higher this year, expected the NCCB managing director.

Britain’s economy came closer to a recession on Friday after official data showed it had slowed further during the second quarter as the construction and manufacturing industries weakened.
   Gross domestic product grew by only 0.2 per cent in the April to June period compared with the first three months of 2008 — the slowest pace for more than three years, according to the Office for National Statistics.
   ‘Weaker construction and production output drove the deceleration in growth, which was partially offset by increased growth in the service industries,’ said the ONS.
   The data matched analyst consensus forecasts after Britain’s economy grew 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the final three months of 2007.
   ‘The 0.2 per cent rise ... shows that the economy has weakened dramatically even before the full impact of the credit squeeze and housing downturn has been felt,’ said Capital Economics analyst Paul Dales.
   ‘An outright recession is now our central scenario. With industrial production having fallen in both the first and second quarters, industry is already in recession.
   ‘Overall growth would have been much weaker if a gain in transport and communication output in the second quarter did not push services output growth up from 0.3 per cent in the first quarter to 0.4 per cent,’ said Dales, an expert on the British economy.
   The ONS added on Friday that Britain’s economy had grown 1.6 per cent during the second quarter when compared with the year-earlier period — the smallest annual expansion since the second quarter of 2005.
   The month-on-month figure of 0.2 per cent growth was also the slowest quarterly gain since the first three months of 2005.

US home foreclosures leapt nearly 14 per cent in the second quarter from the previous quarter, research group RealtyTrac said Friday in a sign of deepening housing woes.
   On an annual basis, home foreclosure filings soared 121 per cent from the same period in 2007, RealtyTrac said in releasing a survey of the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas.
   Foreclosures have spiked in the worst housing slump in decades and a related credit crisis that have brought the economy to a crawl.
   With home prices falling and unemployment and inflation rising, homeowners are increasingly hard-pressed to make their home loan payments.
   RealtyTrac said that foreclosure filings were reported on 739,714 US properties during the second quarter.
   The California-based company said that one in every 171 US households had received a foreclosure filing and the distress was nationwide.
   According to the survey, 48 of the 50 states and 95 of the 100 major city regions had experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity.
   ‘Although much of the fallout from foreclosures is being driven by rampant activity in a few states, such as Nevada, California, Florida, Ohio, Arizona and Michigan, most areas of the country are seeing at least some increase in foreclosure activity,’ said RealtyTrac chief executive James Saccacio said in a statement.
   Nevada, California, Arizona and Florida, where home prices had boomed for several years before the collapse of the US housing market in 2006, led the country in foreclosures.
   Nevada was the hardest
   hit, with one in 43 households in foreclosure action, nearly four times the national average rate.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit and faces a tough second half with a sluggish memory chip market and lower margins in flat screens and mobile phones.
   Shares in the $85 billion South Korean group, the world’s top maker of both memory chips and LCDs and its second-biggest handset maker, tumbled more than 4 per cent on Friday after the results were released.
   ‘It’s unlikely that we will be achieving a sharp recovery (in the third quarter),’ said Chu Woosik, executive vice president of investor relations at the technology giant, which is ranked as Asia’s third most valuable global brand after Toyota and Honda.
   Visibility for the memory chip market was ‘quite low,’ he added.
   Next year looks equally daunting for the world’s top maker of memory chips and liquid crystal display screens, with the global economic slowdown set to impact all consumer electronics, from flat-screen TVs to mobile phones and personal computers.
   ‘Recovery in the memory chip sector will not come anytime soon as the macro backdrop remains weak, though it will not get worse from here,’ said Jay Kim, an analyst at Hyundai Securities.
   Samsung’s April-June net profit rose 51 per cent to 2.14 trillion won ($2.12b) from 1.42 trillion won last year during a market slump for dynamic random access memory chips used mainly in personal computers. It earned 2.19 trillion won in January-March.
   Analysts had predicted a net profit of 2.30 trillion won.
   Operating profit for April-June rose to 1.89 trillion won from 911 billion won a year ago, below the 2.08 trillion won predicted by analysts. First-quarter operating profit was 2.15 trillion won.
   April-June revenue rose to 18.14 trillion won from 14.63 trillion won a year ago.
   Samsung stock had jumped 4.6 per cent on Thursday on talk of a share buyback, but Samsung instead announced a modest interim dividend. It said it had not yet decided whether to buy back shares this year.
   Operating margins at Samsung’s semiconductor unit rose to 6 per cent from 4 per cent in the first quarter, helped by technological advances, but were still a far cry from the 31 per cent profit margin posted in late 2006.
   Makers of DRAM chips had hoped that spending cutbacks and a demand pickup heading into the Christmas shopping season would trigger a second-half recovery, but the prospects for a significant rebound are fading.

China urged local regulators to tighten controls on coal price increases to help power producers cope with rising fuel costs, the National Development and Reform Committee said in a statement on Thursday.
   Prices for thermal coal at major ports, including Qinhuangdao, Tianjin and Tangshan, could not rise beyond the price cap set on June 19, the NDRC said.
   Coal producers that continued raising prices and traders who hoarded supply to jack up prices would be punished according to the country’s Price Law. Such violators would also face media exposure, it said.
   The country’s power producers have felt the pinch of soaring coal prices as they had to increase output to ease power shortage, which was expected to hit 16 million kw this summer.
   ‘Coal-fired power plants, which supply 78 per cent of the country’s electricity, are pressured by soaring coal prices and increasing prices in electricity,’ Dongguan Securities analyst Yu Chunyan said.
   NDRC raised the retail electricity price by 0.025 yuan per kwh on July 1. The increase, however, could only cover 15 per cent of the losses in coal-fired power plants, said a Citic Securities analyst.
   The top five power producers had seen their combined profits more than halved in the first half because of higher coal prices, according to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.
   To protect power plants’ profits, the NDRC imposed temporary controls on the factory prices of thermal coal, capping them at a price that prevailed on June 19 through the end of the year.
   The fuel prices, however, continued rising, surging 22 per cent to more than 1,000 yuan ($146.6) per tonne in Qinhuangdao since June 19.

The Eastern Bank Ltd has made a special arrangement with the Raffles Hospital, a renowned health care provider of Singapore.
   Under this arrangement, the EBL credit card holders will enjoy special discount on some medical and hospital facilities like, outdoor consultation fee, standard health screening package, published room rates and others Raffles Hospital, said a press release.
   A memorandum of understanding to this effect has been signed recently in Singapore between these two organisations.
   EBL managing director and chief executive officer Ali Reza Iftekhar and Raffles Hospital deputy director, hospital marketing (international) Dr Saw Chit Aung singed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides.
   Raffles Hospital is a 380-bed multidisciplinary tertiary care hospital at the heart of Singapore and is rated as a leading health care provider of this region.

Ford Motor Co announced plans to accelerate its vast restructuring plan Thursday after the sputtering auto giant posted its worst quarterly loss in history.
   The 8.7 billion dollars loss in the second quarter was largely due to hefty charges as Ford wrote down the value of its assets and recognised losses from auto leasing.
   Excluding special charges, the operating loss was 1.0 billion dollars for the second-largest US automaker, or 64 cents per share, far steeper than Wall Street estimates of a loss of 27 cents a share.
   Investors punished Ford, pushing shares down 15.5 per cent to 5.11 dollars.
   The automaker has now lost nearly 24 billion dollars since 2006 and recently backed off plans to return to profitability by 2009 as high fuel prices and a weak US economy have substantially cut demand in its home market.
   Ford’s US sales fell 28 per cent in the first six months of the year while overall sales were down 16 per cent.
   Ford officials warned that 2008 could be worse than 2007 and does not expect the US market to improve significantly until 2010.
   ‘The last quarter has certainly been a challenging one for the entire automobile industry,’ Ford president and chief executive Alan Mulally said in a conference call.

The dollar fell against the euro and yen on Friday as the market awaited publication of US housing figures and data on consumer sentiment in the world’s biggest, but struggling, economy.
   In morning deals, the European single currency rose to 1.5728 dollars from 1.5683 dollars late on Thursday in New York.
   Against the Japanese currency, the dollar dropped to 106.96 yen from 107.19.
   ‘New (US) home sales look likely to fall further, and could conceivably slip under 500,000 for the first time in nearly seventeen years,’ Calyon economist Daragh Maher said ahead of the data due out later on Friday.
   ‘The weakness in the dollar yesterday (Thursday) after weaker than expected existing home sales shows that while a struggling US housing market should not be news to the market, it can still provoke a reaction.’
   Sales of existing US home fell by 2.6 per cent in June as inventories rose and prices dropped with buyers still hesitant in the face of a horrific market slump, industry data had showed on Thursday.
   With the US economy weak, ‘it is still difficult to turn bullish (positive) on the dollar,’ said Yosuke Hosokawa, head of foreign exchange trading at Chuo Mitsui Trust Bank.
   Japan’s core inflation hit a new decade high of 1.9 per cent in June, but the market impact was muted because analysts do not expect Japan’s central bank to raise interest rates any time soon.
   In London trading, the British pound steadied after data that showed Britain’s economy has come closer to a recession.
   Gross domestic product grew by only 0.2 per cent in the April to June period compared with the first three months of 2008 — the slowest pace for more than three years, according to the Office for National Statistics.
   The data matched analyst consensus forecasts after Britain’s economy grew 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the final three months of 2007.
   In London morning trade on Friday, the euro changed hands at 1.5728 dollars against 1.5683 late on Thursday, at 168.05 yen (168.12), 0.7895 pounds (0.7892) and 1.6244 Swiss francs (1.6253).
   The dollar stood at 106.96 yen (107.19) and 1.0342 Swiss francs (1.0364).
   The pound was at 1.9894 dollars (1.9865).
   On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold rose to 932.97 dollars per ounce from 928 dollars late on Thursday.

Growth of eurozone money supply and credit eased sharply last month, the European Central Bank said on Friday, providing more evidence of a possibly major economic slowdown, analysts said.
   The ECB said its M3 indicator of money supply showed growth of 9.5 per cent in June, down from a revised May figure of 10 per cent, its lowest level since November 2006.
   The figure came a day after a survey showed that eurozone business activity fell in July to the lowest level since just after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, and business confidence was seen plunging in Germany, France, and Italy, the three biggest eurozone economies.
   The ECB’s three-month moving average for M3 growth, which is less volatile, also slipped to 9.9 per cent in the April to June period from 10.1 per cent in March to May.
   Loans to the private sector grew by 9.8 per cent in June, down from 10.5 per cent in the previous month, the ECB said.
   ‘Less buoyant demand for loans suggests that business will invest less and consumers will spend less in the future,’ said Bank of America economist Holger Schmeiding.
   He pointed above all however to the more narrow M1 indicator which tracks cash and overnight deposits, and which ‘is now flashing red’ with record low growth of just 1.4 per cent in June, down from 2.3 per cent in May.
   ‘Taken at face value, this is consistent with a clear decline in gross domestic product at the turn of the year,’ Schmieding said.
   ‘The collapse in real M1 growth confirms the message from the standard non-monetary lending indicators such as business confidence which have also turned south sharply,’ he added.
   Natixis economist Sylvain Broyer said the weak level of M1 growth ‘suggests an important risk of GDP recession twelve months ahead.’
   The development could help rein in record inflation however, and encourage the ECB to maintain its main lending rate for the 15 eurozone-countries at the current level of 4.25 per cent, analysts said.

Indian shares are likely to remain choppy next week as the markets await a crucial monetary policy meeting by India’s central bank.
   The markets began the week positively, gaining nearly 19 percent in five days to Wednesday after the government won a parliamentary confidence vote, which boosted its economic reform agenda.
   The win averted snap elections and allows the government to push on with implementing a nuclear energy deal with the United States.
   And despite falling 4.7 per cent from Wednesday to Friday the markets were up for a third straight week as concerns linked to crude oil and inflation eased marginally. The Reserve Bank of India will gather on July 29 for its monetary policy meeting.
   ‘The markets are likely to consolidate after a sharp rally of the past few days, before resuming its intermediate uptrend,’ said P K Agarwal, president (research) with Bonanza Portfolio.
   For the week to July 25, the benchmark 30-share Sensex index rose 4.69 per cent or 639.54 points to 14,274.94.
   On Thursday, it was reported annual inflation in Asia’s third-largest economy fell 11.89 percent for the week ended July 12, against 11.91 percent for the previous week. Dealers expect markets to be choppy in the coming weeks on expectations that the RBI will increase rates to curb rising inflation.

Oil prices rose slightly on Friday at the end of a week of sharp falls as concerns eased over tight supplies and strong demand for energy, traders said.
   Brent North Sea crude for September delivery climbed by 25 cents to 126.69 dollars in midday London trade.
   New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, rose 41 cents to 125.90 dollars a barrel in electronic deals.
   ‘Crude oil was a touch higher as the recent heavy slide may have been a little overdone, triggering a slight technical bounce,’ said Sucden energy analyst Michael Davies.
   On Wednesday, crude futures had tumbled by about four dollars after a bigger-than-expected increase in US gasoline (petrol) reserves signalled weaker demand in the United States, the world’s biggest energy consumer.
   At the same time, concerns eased over Hurricane Dolly in the Gulf of Mexico as the storm tracked away from oil installations there.
   Oil prices have shot to a series of record highs this year, partly because of political tensions involving oil-producing nations like Iran, which refuses major powers’ demands to halt its disputed nuclear programme.
   However prices have tumbled since striking record heights of above 147 dollars on July 11.
   Ken Hasegawa, manager of the energy desk at Newedge brokerage, cited by Down Jones Newswires, said on Friday that the market would trade in a short-term range of 123-128 dollars.
   Analysts said the US government’s latest weekly snapshot on energy inventories had suggested weaker demand for energy.
   US gasoline stockpiles rose 2.9 million barrels in the week ending July 18, far outstripping analysts’ consensus forecasts for a gain of 200,000 barrels.
   Gasoline consumption was also 2.4 per cent lower compared to a year earlier as drivers faced sky-high pump prices of 4.11 dollars a gallon (3.78 litres) during a period when US demand for motor fuel is traditionally at a peak.
   ‘The slide in crude (futures from recent highs) has been primarily driven by concerns of weaker demand as a result of higher prices, as economic problems persist,’ added Davies at the Sucden brokerage in London.

The discovery of oil and gas in the early 1990s has created a booming economy in Equatorial Guinea, once one of the world’s poorest countries but now often presented as a future ‘African Kuwait.’
   The small country with a population of some 600,000, ruled with an iron fist since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, currently ranks as sub-Saharan Africa’s third crude oil producer, but the benefits have yet to trickle down.
   For more than a decade it has enjoyed double digit economic growth and in 2006 official figures showed a surplus balance of payments of 540 million euros.
   ‘Guinea is waking up. It’s an extraordinary example of economic development,’ said French foreign aid minister Alain Joyandet, who has encouraged French companies to invest in the country.
   ‘There has been a leap forward. Guinea up until now has been classed as a less advanced country but it is likely to come off the list in 2012,’ said Kiari Liman-Tinguiri, the United Nations Development Programme representative.
   In Malabo, on the island of Bioko, the city is in the grip of almost non-stop activity. Buildings are springing up, a motorway is being built around the capital and the airport is being expanded.
   Elsewhere, Bata, the economic capital on the mainland, and other main towns are benefiting from similar investments.
   ‘From the point of view of infrastructure, the country has made a terrific step foward. The road network is probably the best in Africa,’ added Liman-Tinguiri.
   The Chinese also appear to be investing heavily in Equatorial Guinea in everything from construction to road building and oil production, although no official figures are available.
   Since a visit to Beijing in 2007, Obiang has presented China as the country’s principal development partner and evidence of the Chinese presence is clearly visible all over the capital.
   But despite the country’s strong growth, the poor, in particular the marginalised Bubi ethnic group, have yet to share in the benefits.
   Some 77 per cent of the population still struggles to make ends meet on less than a dollar a day, while the GDP is 16,000 dollars per head. Life expectancy stands at 47 while under-five child mortality is the seventh worst in Africa.
   Obiang’s regime has been accused of both human rights abuses and suppressing political opposition.
   Critics say the president, from the Fang ethnic group, has established a personality cult around his leadership.
   In the capital, his picture appears everywhere, not just in official buildings but also in private homes, bars and shops.
   The president is equally omnipresent in the media. On television and radio his praises are sung constantly and his statements broadcast to the nation. The country’s few weekly and monthly print publications are equally lavish in their praise.
   CDs of songs glorifying his regime circulate in the country as well as neighbouring Cameroon and Gabon.
   No-one is compelled to display the president’s photograph but many do so out of fear, say critics of the ruling regime.
   ‘Having a photograph is a way of protecting oneself,’ said Juan Nzo, deputy secretary general of the only opposition party, the Convergence for Social Democracy.
   The party has a lone deputy in parliament after the CPDS managed to win only one of 100 seats in legislative elections in May. It has described the elections as the ‘the most violent and manipulated’ in history and accused the West of turning a blind eye to problems in the country because of its oil reserves.
   Obiang seized power in a 1979 military coup, ousting his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema, whom he had shot.
   Since then he has created a network of informers to cement his grip on power.
   ‘Fear runs in the veins of Equatorial Guineans... The head of state says that everyone should be police,’ said Nzo.
   ‘Everyone is keeping checks on everyone,’ added a villager from near the capital. ‘If you say something against the government or the president in public, someone ends up by repeating it,’ the villager said.

Malaysia’s central bank said Friday it will hold its interest rates at 3.50 per cent, bucking expectations of a rise to counter a 7.7 per cent surge in June inflation.
   Bank Negara said it would take steps in its monetary policy to maintain price stability in the medium-term and ‘ensure that high inflation does not undermine the longer term growth prospects’ of the economy.
   ‘Given the underlying fundamental strength of the economy ... the bank’s assessment is that after this transitional period, the Malaysian economy has the potential to reestablish its medium growth path.’
   ‘Based on this ... the monetary police committee has decided to keep its overnight policy rate unchanged at 3.50 percent,’ it said.
   Economists had expected the central bank to raise its rates by 25 to 30 basis points after inflation reached its highest level in 26 years in June, following a deeply unpopular 41 per cent fuel price hike last month.
   But its governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz has said the bank’s monetary policy will not be used as a tool to counter inflation.
   The second finance minister Nor Mohamed Yackop said earlier this week that inflation was expected to rise in a “one-off” surge in June and July after the effects of the higher fuel prices sets in.
   Bank Negara projects average inflation to be within 5.5 to 6.0 per cent for the year.

Philippine imports rise 11.3pc
Philippine imports rose 11.3 per cent year-on-year in May, largely due to the increase in oil and food prices which helped sharply drive up the trade deficit, the government said Friday. Imports for May were at 4.78 billion dollars and for the first five months of 2008 at 24.24 billion dollars, the National Statistics Office said in a statement. The increase brought the trade deficit in the first five months to 3.16 billion dollars, a sharp increase from 347 million dollars over the same period last year. Electronics purchases from abroad in May hit 1.51 billion dollars, a 14.4 per cent drop from the same period last year. Those imported components are used as inputs in the country’s electronics exports, and a fall often signals a drop in overseas demand for local electronics products which make up more than half of Philippine exports. The office noted that importation of all ‘raw materials and intermediate goods,’ which are widely used in manufacturing exported products, fell 6.4 per cent in May to 1.71 billion dollars. The import of cereals jumped 156.7 per cent to 294.78 million dollars, the statistics office said. The Philippines is one of the world’s largest rice importers.
— AFP