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The special assistant to chief adviser for power, energy and mineral resources, M Tamim, has said the government will try to tackle the issues affecting the construction industry.
   ‘We are passing through a crucial time at the moment. The prices of copper, aluminium and iron have gone up a lot. The price of the energy used for building construction materials has also increased.
   ‘The price of energy has increased by about 1,400 per cent on the international market. It is normal that the impact of this will be heavily felt by a developing country like Bangladesh,’ Tamim said at the inauguration of ‘Construction Industry Exhibition’ on Saturday.
   ‘I’m sure the government will consider the problems of this sector. The government has already taken some steps in this regard. It has reduced the duty and allowed import. However, the price must be coordinated with the world market as the raw material comes from abroad.’
   Tamim warned that this industry would die if the businessmen were greedy. All the stakeholders will need to play their role properly if the construction industry is to survive, he said.
   Acting president of the Bangladesh Association of Construction Industries Nazrul Islam said, ‘The construction industry is facing problems. The government will have to try to keep the prices of all commodities including construction materials under control.’
   Thirty-three organisations have set up 51 stalls at the exhibition to disseminate information about the construction industry. The show ends on June 23 and remains open from 10:00am to 9:00pm every day.

Academics, architects and urban development experts at a roundtable discussion on Saturday underscored the need for formulating a long-term national housing policy keeping decentralisation of the capital in mind.
   ‘Decentralisation of the capital is a must as Dhaka has already become a death trap… lakhs of people will die, if there takes place an earthquake of even medium scale,’ AFM Shafiullah, vice-chancellor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, told the discussion on ‘Context of building, construction and housing’.
   The Telepress in association with the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad organised the discussion in the city.
   ‘The capital has become overpopulated in the meantime as lakhs of people are coming in Dhaka every year and it is also becoming very difficult to ensure habitat for these growing populace. The problems the capital is facing now can be an eye opener for all to formulate a national housing policy,’ Shafiullah observed.
   He suggested implementation of proper commuting system in the capital increasing the number of its exit and entry routes so that permanent residents in Dhaka can be reduced significantly.
   He also recommended setting up of underground railways linking the capital with the surrounding district towns to smoothen people’s commuting from outside.
   Professor Quazi Kholiquzzaman, who chaired the roundtable, said, ‘A long term national policy should be formulated immediately with participation of public and private sectors.’
   He was very critical of the government’s policy to follow the ‘prescription of the foreign forces’.
   Speaking on the occasion, the National Housing Authority chairman, Mohammad Abdul Qayyum said, ‘Now we have to opt for vertical expansion in place of horizontal expansion to save land. At the same time, a ceiling of having housing land per person should be fixed.’
   He suggested formulation of a proper land management system and asked the concerned individuals to increase job opportunities in other district towns with necessary civic facilities to reduce people’s influx into the capital.
   REHAB president Chowdhury Tanveerul Haque Probal asked the government to reduce registration fees for housing up to 5 per cent from the existing 16 per cent.
   Talking to newsmen on the sideline of the programme, the National Board of Revenue chairman, Abdul Majid said, ‘The government has formed a five-member committee to bring reforms in land registration system with a view to simplifying it. The committee has already submitted its report to the regulatory committee. With passage of the new law, the hassles as well as fees for land registration would be reduced significantly.’ Speakers called on the concerned authorities to reduce interest rate of bank loans to exert influence on reducing the flat price to facilitate housing for all.

Turnover at the Dhaka Stock Exchange in the last week dropped by 37.80 per cent to Tk 1,213 crore from the previous week’s Tk 1,950 crore as participation of investors shrank amid market cooling measures by the bourse, said market operators.
   They said the DSE passed the volatile week as the investors remained indecisive in chasing stocks after the DSE had halted the trading of issues that saw abnormal price hike.
   A stock market analyst said investors remained cautious in participating in the market which remained somewhat volatile throughout the week.
   The market opened the week with low note and ended also with the same note but it marginally gained on the second, third and fourth trading days.
   The DSE general index lost 30.05 points or 0.98 per cent in the week to close at 3040.70 on Thursday, its all share price index shed 22.17 points or 0.85 per cent to close at 2580.26.
   The bourse’s blue chips index, DSE20, however, gained 3.62 points or 0.14 per cent to close at 2537.46.
   DSE witnessed a half-an-hour demonstration by a group of retail investors on Monday amid heavy fall in share prices in the early trade of the day and also on Sunday.
   In the week, DSE management halted temporarily the share trading of 15 companies to cool down unusual surges in their share prices. The DSE management also conducted inquiries over the surges in share prices of the issues.
   A DSE official said the bourse took the move following the recent instruction of the Securities and Exchange Commission, stock market regulatory body, which on June 10 asked the DSE and the Chittagong Stock Exchange to take measures to cool down overheated market.
   The daily average turnover declined by 37.80 per cent to Tk 243 crore from previous week’s Tk 390 crore. Of the total 251 issues traded, 89 advanced, 157 declined and five remained unchanged. Thirty five issues recorded no transaction in the period.
   Delta Life Insurance, a ‘Z’ category issue, topped the gainers with 11.50 per cent rise in its share price while Exim Bank was the worst loser with 23.46 per cent fall as the bank went ex-dividend in the week.
   Beximco Pharmaceuticals topped the turnover leaders with total transaction of Tk 77.37 crore, which was 6.38 per cent of the total transaction of the week.
   Of the total turnover, ‘A’ category issues accounted for 84.54 per cent, ‘B’ category issues 1.59 per cent, ‘G’ category 2.39 per cent, ‘N’ category 8.87 per cent and ‘Z’ category 2.61 per cent.

Bangladesh is trying to build a hygienically safe, economically viable, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible shrimp industry.
   This was stated by Syed Mahmudul Huq, chairman of the Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation, at a view-exchange meeting, organised by the Global Works Foundation in Washington on June 19, according to a message received in Dhaka on Saturday.
   He outlined the steps taken by the government and other stakeholders to make the industry compliant with national and international labour norms and standards.
   In his opening remarks, Bangladesh ambassador to United States M Humayun Kabir said Bangladesh is a responsible member of the international community and fully respected the global norms and standards in its economic interactions.
   He also said Bangladesh was fully cognizant of the concerns expressed by its economic partners and trying to address them in the most meaningful and constructive manner, the message said.
   Fisheries and livestock secretary Syed Ataur Rahman gave an outline of the government’s policies to make the shrimp industry a viable and an export sector of Bangladesh.
   He said the Department of Fisheries and Livestock has recently completed evaluation of 78 licence renewal applications and rejected eight applicants who had not fulfilled their obligations.
   He made it clear that there was no child labour now in any shrimp processing plants in Bangladesh.
   M Ghulam Hussain, coordinator of the Business Promotion Council, suggested that the shrimp sector needed capacity-building and transfer of technology.
   Former US ambassador to Bangladesh William B Milam, former ambassador Farooq Sobhan, former ambassador Tariq Karim, Ms Nazia Habib, Ms Samarukh Mohiuddin, Claude GB Fontheim, Chariman of Global Works Foundation, also participated in the round table.
   Bangladesh delegation, led by Syed Ataur Rahman, paid a courtesy call on Congresswoman Carolyn B Maloney at her office at the Capital Hill.
   Maloney expressed her satisfaction over the progress made in the shrimp industry in Bangladesh.
   Bangladesh ambassador to USA M Humayun Kabir and Kazi M Shamsul Alam, commercial counsellor, were also present during the meeting.

India’s finance minister warned on Saturday against ‘panic’ and promised more measures to tame prices, a day after the country’s inflation rate shot to a 13-year high.
   ‘We should not give room for panic. We should take steps to quell inflationary expectations,’ said finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram after meeting the head of India’s central bank to discuss steps to tame inflation.
   Data on Friday showed annual inflation in the world’s second fastest-growing economy jumped to 11.05 per cent for the week ended June 7 from 8.75 per cent a week earlier, stunning economists who had expected it to be in single digits.
   The rate, which sparked headlines in Saturday’s newspapers such as ‘Double-digit shock’ and ‘It Hurts!’, was driven by a sharp rise in state-set fuel prices and rises in basic foods.
   ‘We expect the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) to take some monetary measures,’ Finance Secretary D Subba Rao told reporters separately in the capital.
   ‘Demand management has to be part of the solution and the first line of defence is monetary policy action,’ Rao said, without elaborating.
   Rao said the government was sticking with its economic growth forecast of 8.5 per cent for the current fiscal year to March 2009, down slightly from last year’s 9.0 per cent, ‘for the timebeing.’
   But he said if it came to a trade-off between taming inflation and boosting growth, priority would be given to checking prices, which is seen as hitting India’s poor the hardest.
   Some economists believe growth could be as low as seven per cent in this fiscal year.
   Analysts say the Congress-led government had little left in its fiscal arsenal to fight inflation — it has already banned exports of staple foods to boost supplies and lower prices. India is also a victim of global forces with international commodity prices surging and oil costs doubling in the past year.
   The latest price rise has come as a heavy blow to the government which desperately wants to curb prices, fearing a voter backlash in national elections due by May 2009.
   Rao said RBI Governor YV Reddy held ‘detailed discussions’ with Chidambaram and later met prime minister Manmohan Singh, who was finance minister in a previous Congress government when inflation was last at double-digit levels in 1995.

Aggrieved sponsor shareholders of One Bank Limited have warned that they would go for legal action if any arbitrary decision taken by the regulatory authority harms their interests.
   Three non-resident Bangladeshi sponsor shareholders of the bank in separate communications to Bangladesh Bank last week categorically stated that Sayeed H Chowdhury, chairman of the bank, was neither the legal nor the beneficiary owner of any of their shares.
   ‘Hence, a notice to Mr. Chowdhury, as far as ownership of’ their shares are concerned, would not lawfully bind them and they would, in due course, seek an exemplary order from an appropriate court against a regulatory authority’s blatant abuse of authority,’ reads the communication of shareholders, sent to Jahangir Alam, general manager, Banking Regulations and Policy Department of the central bank.
   The shareholders said that the shares held by them in One Bank Limited belonged to them both legally and beneficially. They are neither agents, nor proxies, nor they are acting under any other authority to hold the shares for the benefit of any undisclosed person or entity, they asserted.
   They said they were surprised to see that no notice was issued to them from Bangladesh Bank other than a copy of the letter dated June 3, 2008 addressed to Sayeed H. Chowdhury, which in turn was forwarded to them. Their names were in the share registrar of One Bank Limited and yet Bangladesh Bank did not write to them, it added.
   They termed Bangladesh Bank’s action as fundamentally misconceived and asked the central bank to refrain from undertaking any action which is arbitrary and/or abuse of its power as well as repugnant to their proprietary interest.

The Indian diaspora sent back home some 27.1 billion US dollars in the 2006-2007, making India the world’s largest single recipient, The Times of India reported on Friday.
   Migrant remittances have recently surged to the forefront of development agendas worldwide and the growth in India has been dramatic.
   Total remittances has grown steadily over the past 15 years in India, particularly in the past 10 years, skyrocketing from 2.1 billion US dollars in 1990-1991 to 27.1 billion US dollars in 2006-2007.
   The top 10 destination countries for Indians include the UAE, Saudi Arabia, US, Bangladesh, Nepal, UK, Sri Lanka, Canada, Kuwait and Oman, the report said.
   Experts point out that softer immigration laws in the United States and the search for better economic opportunities have fuelled a surge in the overseas migration of Indians. The number of Indian diaspora is estimated at 20 million.
   Unlike previous phases of migration, emigration sent better educated Indians in the last decade to countries such as the United States, Britain and Canada, said the newspaper.

The number of China Mobile’s subscribers increased 7.491 million in May to reach an all-time high of 407 million.
   In contrast, China’s leading fixed-line operator, China Telecom, suffered a net subscriber loss of 820,000 in May, which was also the 10th consecutive month of net subscriber lose, according to monthly industrial figures published on Friday.
   By the end of May, China Telecom’s total subscribers stood at 215 million.
   China carried out a massive scheme in May to restructure its telecommunications sector, which involves the country’s top five telecom companies, all state-owned, including mobile operators China Mobile and China Unicom, and fixed-line service providers China Tietong, China Telecom and China Netcom. They will be restructured into three groups, each able to provide both mobile and fixed-line services.
   It has been widely speculated that China will issue three licenses for its third generation mobile phone technology following the telecom reshuffle.

The jump in China’s state-controlled fuel prices will inevitably squeeze consumers at both filling stations and grocery stores. But analysts say the hike is unlikely to make an immediate or huge dent in the country’s hunger for oil.
   China’s economy is booming, and people are buying cars and air conditioners as their incomes grow. There is huge pent up consumer demand in a country of 1.3 bilion where per capita energy consumption is still far below wealthier countries.
   Also, the price hike of up to 18 per cent is likely to prompt refiners to boost production of crude oil, gasoline and other refined products. Previously, they had held back because they were losing money on the wide gap between global crude oil prices and state-set retail prices, which had created widespread fuel shortages.
   ‘Do not expect an immediate fall in China’s oil imports — the price effect on demand will work in China as well, but it will take some time to work through,’ Wang Tao, an economist for UBS Securities, said in a report issued Friday.
   Crude oil prices edged higher Friday in Asian trading — approaching $133 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange — after tumbling the day before on news the National Development and Reform Commission would raise prices for gasoline and diesel fuel by 16 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.
   Some analysts said the oil market may have overreacted to the news from China, with some traders buying oil futures on the belief that their climb will continue.
   ‘Whether domestic demand cools, or the price increase simply serves to bring more refining capacity on-line to satisfy China’s voracious appetite, remains to be seen,’ said Jing Ulrich, chairwoman of China equities for JP Morgan Chase & Co.
   Chinese drivers shrugged off the price hike as inevitable.
   ‘Maybe I might drive a bit less. But if it’s for business, then if I have to drive, I will,’ said He Ping, a trading company employee who was refilling is VW Jetta at a Beijing gas station.
   ‘It’s not that big a deal,’ he said.
   In an explanatory note accompanying its announcement, the commission said that soaring oil prices had created ‘contradictions in the purchasing price of oil being higher than the selling price of refined products that were becoming more glaring by the day.’
   The government has been paying billions of dollars in subsidies to the country’s two big state-owned refiners to make up for the losses. Many smaller loss-making refiners had shut down or cut back their operations.
   The government hiked fuel prices by about 11 per cent in November but had kept them frozen at that level, seeking to avoid adding to inflation, which has touched 12-year highs since the beginning of the year.
   News of the price hikes lifted Chinese stocks Friday. The benchmark Shanghai index rose 3 per cent, driven by a 4.6 per cent gain in PetroChina and a 2.1 per cent advance in Sinopec — the country’s two big refiners.
   The hike raised the price of gasoline by 1,000 yuan ($145) per ton to 6,980 yuan ($1,015) — more than 16 per cent — and diesel by the same amount per ton to 6,520 yuan ($949) per ton — an 18 per cent hike. Aviation kerosene rose by 1,500 yuan ($218) per ton to 7,450 yuan ($1,084), the commission, known as the NDRC, said on its Web site.
   To protect individual consumers, the government said it would not allow any increases in bus and subway fares or taxi fares. Natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas prices will remain unchanged, and subsidies to the poor and to grain farmers would increase, it said.
   Residential housing and farming and fertilizer industries will be exempt from a 0.025 yuan (0.0036 US cents) per kilowatt increase in electricity rates for most businesses, the planning agency said.
   The state-run newspaper China Daily said Friday that areas in Sichuan province, hit by a massive earthquake last month, were exempt from the increases.
   Still, the move is widely expected to boost inflation — a major concern for Beijing.
   The hikes ‘will be quickly passed on to consumers through other channels, especially food prices in urban areas,’ said Vivian Chiu, an analyst at Merrill Lynch, said in a report.
   China’s inflation rate fell in May to 7.7 per cent from 8.5 per cent the month before, mainly reflecting lower food prices. But economists warn that higher costs for crude oil and other commodities pose a long-term threat.
   Chinese officials bristle at suggestions that their country is a main factor behind the recent surge in global oil prices.
   Despite surging oil costs, the country’s imports of both crude oil and oil products have surged to unprecedented levels as it builds up national stockpiles, while exports have plunged. Crude oil imports rose to 59.8 million barrels in January-April, up 10 per cent from a year earlier.
   Gasoline imports skyrocketed by nearly 20 times to 554,000 tons in January-May while imports of diesel jumped by more than nine times, to 2.9 million tons.
   ‘The government has to build up reserves for the sake of the domestic energy supply,’ said Han Xiaoping, chief executive officer of the China energy Web site http://www.china5e.com, an independent research organization.
   ‘After all, China is not the only country with such reserves,’ Han said.
   Despite the surge in overall demand, China still consumes far less energy per each of its 1.3 billion people than the US or other wealthy countries. Streets are dimly lit, apartment buildings often are illuminated by lights triggered only by movement or sound and ownership of private cars, though growing quickly, remains relatively low.
   Pinched by surging costs for labor, land and materials — as well as energy — Chinese industries are finally beginning to cut back on the waste that has made them far more extravagant energy consumers than private citizens.
   China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co, a huge state-owned shipping company, announced earlier this week that it was cutting the speed of its ships by 10 per cent to help reduce fuel consumption and conserve energy.

A century after Japanese first left for Brazil in search of a better life, thousands of their descendants have come back to what is now an economic superpower to take up work. Some of the returnees, inspired by Brazilian community spirit, are helping out the less fortunate in the land of their ancestors.
   Despite just finishing his overnight shift at a car assembly plant, Hamilton Kawachi, 50, lent a hand dicing up radishes and potatoes for the homeless in a humble apartment in the central industrial city of Hamamatsu.
   He makes sure he is there every Saturday morning, even if he knows he will not be able to crawl into bed until after midnight.
   Sweet white steam rose from the rice cookers as Kawachi and some 10 of his compatriots, along with Japanese volunteers, prepared 200 rice balls for the destitute.
   ‘I start the week looking forward to this,’ Kawachi said, charged by strong Brazilian coffee. ‘I can spend time with my friends. I feel I gain energy from working here and also from the people we serve.’
   Grupo Esperanca, which means ‘Hope Group’ in Portuguese, was formed 14 years ago by Catholic priest Evaristo Higa. Nearly all of the people who benefit from the charity are Japanese.
   ‘I had never thought so many homeless people were in Japan when I first came here 15 years ago,’ said Higa, a missionary and a second-generation descendant of Japanese immigrants to Brazil.
   ‘I was asked to go and see a Brazilian living on the street as he didn’t speak Japanese,’ he said. ‘Then I saw, surprisingly, many Japanese who were homeless. That prompted me to start this.’
   The charity is also a surprise for many Japanese, who often have limited contact with Brazilians, a rare minority group in a country that largely sees itself as homogeneous.
   One hundred years ago, when Asia’s future economic giant was beset by poverty, the ancestors of Higa and other Esperanca members headed to Brazil hoping for a promised land.
   But the first batch of nearly 800 Japanese who sailed into Santos Port in June 1908 found only a grueling life working on farmland.
   Brazil is now home to more than 1.2 million people of Japanese descent, or ‘Nikkeis,’ the world’s largest population of ethnic Japanese outside of Japan itself.
   Kawachi said his father was only 17 when he migrated to Brazil from Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.
   ‘He would often talk about corn and potatoes that he had grown in Hokkaido,’ he said. ‘He wanted to come back for a visit but couldn’t as he was too frail by the time the opportunity came along.’

The Food and Agriculture Organisation on Thursday called on the African governments to seek urgent and long-term solutions to avert perennial food shortages which have ravaged the whole continent.
   Speaking during the official opening of the high-level UN-sponsored meeting in Nairobi, FAO director general Dr Jacques Diouf said the African governments have responsibility to offer politically motivated solutions to reverse the current food crisis affecting millions of people in the region.
    ‘The continent must place agriculture at the height of development. Africa can change the present situation and succeed to feed its population with the right decisions on agriculture,’ Diouf told the African ministers in Nairobi.
   ‘The problem of food security is a political issue. It is the decisions made by governments that will determine allocation of resources. Members need to implement policies and strategies to overcome food insecurity,’ he said.
   The FAO director-general said the UN agency had resolved that the food crisis needed to be addressed once and for all to avert perennial food shortages.
    ‘The agricultural sector faces many constraints which have to be addressed collectively. Without investment in agriculture, Africa’s future would be unpredictable,’ he warned.
   He appealed to countries with land and water resources to partner with those having technology, management capability as well as financial resources to double food production for the world.
   The director-general maintained that Africa has the potential to produce enough food not only to feed itself but the entire world, citing a lack of exploitation of available resources as the continent’s major undoing.
    ‘In the 1970’s, Africa used to be a net exporter of food. We have the land and we have water. Today only a paltry seven per cent of the land is under irrigation while four per cent is in sub-Saharan Africa. Compared to Asia which has 58 per cent of its land under irrigation, Africa is lagging behind,’ said Dr Diouf.
   FAO chief faulted African leaders for failing to adhere to their Maputo Declaration where they agreed to allocate at least 10per cent of their national budgets to agriculture, adding that only one country in the whole continent had so far complied with the accord, according to the African Union report.
    ‘Food insecurity has been caused by climatic changes, a greater demand for food, rapid population growth, the phenomenon of urbanization and plant and animal diseases,’ he said.
   The 25th FAO Regional Conference for Africa comes barely two weeks after a similar one in Rome addressing the food crisis and before the African Union Heads of State summit to be held in Egyptat the end of the month.
   FAO chief said food insecurity facing the countries was a political issue that could only be solved if governments resolved to allocate more resources for the agriculture and other productive sectors.
   He said that although the continent was currently experiencing food shortages that had led to soaring food prices, the trend could still be reversed through massive investment in the agricultural sector by policy makers.
   He urged the countries in the region to step up measures and come with a common approach to save the natives from starvation by investing heavily in irrigation, growing more resistant varieties of crops, carrying an in-depth research to assess opportunities that biotechnology offers to farmers and the risks, using improved seeds and application of fertilizers in cultivating crops.

There is no quick fix to the soaring oil prices, the European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday.
    ‘We have sent out a very clear message that there will not be a quick fix for the issue of the oil prices,’ Barroso told reporters after a two-day summit of European Union leaders in Brussels.
   With world oil prices approaching $140 per barrel this week, a record level once unimaginable, the summit was focused on solutions to the price shock which recently ignited widespread protests in Europe.
   In a conclusion of the summit, EU leaders expressed concern in regard to the continued surge in oil and gas prices and their social and economic consequences.
   The skyrocketing oil prices have compelled EU governments to consider emergency measures to alleviate the suffering of the most hit people and industries.
    ‘Measures can be considered to alleviate the impact of higher oil and gas prices on the poorer sections of the population,’ EU leaders said.
   But they warned those emergency measures should be short-term and targeted.
    ‘Distortionary fiscal and other policy interventions should be avoided as they prevent the necessary adjustment by economic agents,’ they added.
   While leaving it open for member states to adopt short-term measures, Barroso insisted the ultimate answer to soaring oil prices existed in longer term adjustment.
    ‘There is a structural problem that needs a structural response, and we need structural change,’ Barroso said.
    ‘We need to reduce our oil dependency, we need to be more energy efficient and to promote energy diversification,’ he added.

The world’s top oil producers and consumers convene in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia today to grapple with record high oil prices, with some OPEC members balking at consumer demands for more crude.
   While Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, was widely expected to announce an output hike at the meeting, OPEC president Chakib Khelil slammed consumer pressure for a production increase to take pressure off soaring prices.
   ‘To ask the oil producers to increase their output is illogical and irrational,’ Khelil was quoted as saying Friday by the Algerian news service APS.
   Khelil noted that he had been invited to the Saudi session in his capacity as Algerian energy minister rather than as OPEC president and therefore he could not present any OPEC position during the discussions.
   Just because computer or car prices were high, ‘would one ask their producers to make more?’ he asked, insisting again the oil was being driven higher by factors other than supply alone — most notably speculation and a falling dollar.
   Another OPEC power, Iran, said Friday that increasing output would not dampen skyrocketing oil prices, which on Monday soared close to 140 dollars a barrel.
   On Thursday a statement announcing plans for a production hike of 200,000 barrels by Saudi Arabia was posted on the website of the Saudi embassy in London. It was later withdrawn from the site but not officially denied.
   The Saudi embassy comment nonetheless appeared to confirm remarks last Sunday from UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who said that Saudi Arabia had told him it would increase its oil output by 200,000 bpd in July.
   Thursday’s statement did not specify when the additional production would begin.
   Soaring oil prices, which ramp up the cost of petrol, jet fuel and domestic energy supplies, are pushing inflation to record levels. That in turn has forced central banks to be cautious in cutting interest rates needed to power economic growth already hurt by the global credit crunch.
   Sunday’s gathering, hosted by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, will feature Abdullah al-Badri, secretary general of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, whose 13 nations pump 40 per cent of the world’s oil.
   ‘King Abdullah is to open an international energy conference in Jeddah on 22 June to discuss ways to curb rising oil prices and to stabilize the international market,’ the embassy statement said on Thursday.
   ‘As many as 38 countries, four international organizations and 30 oil companies have agreed to attend the conference, at which the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will give an address.’
   It was also announced Thursday that China’s vice-president Xi Jinping would attend the Jeddah event. The Asian nation accounts for about 40 per cent of recent growth in global oil consumption.
   The United States will be represented by energy secretary Samuel Bodman.
   The United States and China — the first and second biggest energy consuming nations — have both attempted to deflect criticism over their energy policies, analysts said.
   Beijing said it would hike domestic energy prices across the board, while Washington said it wanted to lift a decades-old ban on offshore oil drilling to reduce dependence on foreign imports.
   ‘Yesterday’s reduction in Chinese subsidies and President Bush’s call to open up sensitive areas of production within the US sphere of control were moves made to ensure that both countries can attend Sunday’s conference with clean hands,’ said Peter Beutel at energy consultancy Cameron Hanover.
   The meeting will also be attended by French ecology minister Jean-Louis Borloo and German economy minister Michael Glos.
   Russia, the world’s biggest oil producer according to recent data from the International Energy Agency, has yet to decide whether to send a delegation.
   Saudi Arabia raised output by 300,000 bpd last month following a visit by US president George W Bush to the oil-rich kingdom.
   However, the increase failed to stop global oil prices striking fresh records as the dollar weakened.
   ‘Some will argue that the considerable increase in OPEC oil recently, with efforts being spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, could put a cap on prices,’ Michael Davies, an analyst at the Sucden broker in London, said ahead of Sunday’s meet.
   But he warned that ‘the hike in output ... does nothing to address the longer term expectation for an increasingly tighter market as supply continues to fail to keep up with demand.’

Oil powers and consumer nations haggled Saturday over who is to blame for the spectacular rise in crude prices, as they prepared for a summit in Saudi Arabia on the global energy crisis.
   Amid growing pressure for international action as prices speed toward 140 dollars a barrel, the industry was rocked by more bad news when a Nigerian rebel group warned all foreign workers to leave the country or face attack.
   The Jeddah Energy Meeting was to consider ways of ending oil price pressures, which have fuelled global inflation.
   Growing demand and the need for greater investment in refining have been highlighted, but some nations want the summit to blame the price rises on market funds buying oil futures.
   And a working paper for the summit’s final declaration, obtained by AFP, calls for action to ‘improve the transparency and regulation of financial markets through measures to capture more data on index fund activity and to examine cross exchange inter-actions in the crude market.’
   A senior international energy official involved in the summit called the document ‘highly controversial’ because of the attack on markets.
   The document says index funds and other investors have ‘unrealistic assessments’ of the future value of oil.
   The official said the attack may be toned down in the final document because of opposition from the United States and other major industrial powers.
   Major oil producing powers have sought to divert consumer calls for greater production, even though Saudi Arabia was expected to offer to pump an extra 200,000 barrels a day at the summit.
   German economy minister Michael Glos has called for a quick increase in oil supplies.
   ‘We need more oil in the world market quickly in order to stop the spiralling prices at the gas pumps,’ which have passed a ‘limit’ which consumers cannot bear, the minister wrote in an article to appear in the Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
   ‘Transparency in the international oil markets must be improved. It is the only way to get out of this speculative morass,’ he wrote.
   Increased production is is opposed by many oil powers. Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries president Chakib Khelil asked Friday, ‘just because car and computer prices were high, would one ask their producers to make more?’
   The summit document calls for improved information gathering by groups such as OPEC, the International Energy Agency and the International Energy Forum ‘to improve transparency.’
   It also appeals for an assessment of ‘the impact of financial markets on the level, volatility of oil prices which can be used to better understand the market situation.’
   The draft says increased refining capacity is needed, with new construction having been shackled by ‘constrained refining investment, environmental standards, cost inflation and stringent laws and regulations, resulting in poorer refining returns.’
   British prime minister Gordon Brown, who will be the only major Western leader at the summit, has insisted he was not going to simply urge increased supply but urge producer countries to invest more in renewable energy.
   ‘I am going to Saudi to see if we can get a new deal between oil producers and the consumers where oil producers will invest in countries like ours, and oil consumers like us with good companies, with good technology and skills can invest in the oil-producing countries,’ he told The Guardian newspaper in an interview published Saturday.
   ‘Where we can make credible commitments and the world can see we will reduce our dependence on oil and we will get demand and supply back into balance.’
   Brown said the world was going through ‘the biggest of all three oil shocks’ which was ‘the downside of globalisation’.
   He predicted that ‘the world is going to have to build 1,000 nuclear power stations.’
   The meeting is also to be attended by Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping and US energy secretary Samuel Bodman.

All US beef exported to South Korea will come from cattle less than 30 months old, officials said Saturday, in a deal made to placate South Korean protesters worried about mad cow disease.
   An age verification system will be set up to ensure that only US beef from young cattle is exported, trade minister Kim Jong-hoon said after returning from Washington, where he reached the deal with his US counterpart, Susan Schwab.
   South Korea will ‘not import US beef from cattle older than 30 months until consumers’ confidence improves,’ agriculture minister Chung Woon-chun said at a joint news conference.
   Younger cattle are considered less at risk of mad cow disease.
   Kim also said South Korea will have the right to inspect US slaughterhouses, and will not import parts of cattle such as brains, eyes, skulls and spinal cords that can carry mad cow disease.
   The South Korean government plans to publish revised quarantine rules on Monday, clearing the way for the resumption of US beef imports.
   The deal was made in an effort to halt daily demonstrations in South Korea over the past month that have brought tens of thousands of protesters to the streets and threatened the stability of president Lee Myung-bak’s government.
   Weeks of anti-government protests climaxed last week with a candlelight rally that drew some 80,000 people.
   South Korea was the third-largest overseas market for US beef until it banned imports after a case of mad cow disease was detected in 2003 — the first of three confirmed cases in the United States.
   US beef producers said they were prepared to limit exports to South Korea to meat from cattle less than 30 months old, according to a letter posted Friday on the Web site of the US Meat Export Federation, one of three associations representing the US beef industry.
   Lee replaced his new chief of staff and seven other senior presidential secretaries Friday in a bid to soothe public outrage over the plans to resume US beef imports. The entire Cabinet also has offered to resign over the beef issue, but the president has not yet said which ministers will leave the government.
   A coalition of civic groups that has organised the protests said it would still hold a candlelight vigil against Lee in central Seoul later Saturday, calling for a complete renegotiation of the April beef deal.
   Lee took office in February after a landslide election win on promises he would strengthen ties with the US and reinvigorate the slowing economy. The beef debacle, however, has caused his popularity to plummet.
   Scientists believe mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. The U.S. banned recycled feeds in 1997.
   In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the cattle disease is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady.

The slowdown in the US economy is not as bad as previously estimated and recession likely will be avoided, the International Monetary Fund said Friday, lifting growth estimates for 2008 and 2009.
   The IMF forecast annual growth of 1.1 per cent in 2008 and 0.8 per cent in 2009, compared with a prior estimate in April of 0.5 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.
   The unexpectedly strong recovery trend was illustrated by year-over-year fourth-quarter growth estimates. The IMF forecast flat growth in this year’s final quarter, compared with a negative 0.7 per cent seen in April, and 2009 fourth-quarter growth of 1.9 per cent, up from a prior 1.6 per cent.
   ‘The slowdown in activity in the United States has been less than feared, and recovery should begin next year as important headwinds are overcome,’ the IMF said in its annual review of the world’s largest economy.
   The 185-nation institution, tasked with promoting financial stability, did not mention recession in its review, after predicting a mild recession for this year only in April, and called on the Federal Reserve to maintain interest rates unchanged.
   ‘Monetary policy settings are now broadly supportive of recovery, and a risk-management approach would suggest that policy should be on hold,’ it said.
   That recommendation was based on expectations inflation will be contained, despite soaring commodity prices, in particular crude oil.
   However, a robust hike in interest rates would be warranted at the first signs of a recovery, John Lipsky, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, said at a news conference.
   ‘We do see the case for a vigorous response once the economy recovers,’ he said.
   However, any monetary policy tightening by the Fed should not be undertaken more quickly than the market expects — at this point in the autumn — in order to avoid accelerating job losses, he warned.
   In terms of economic policy, the IMF counseled the US government to forego a second stimulus plan to boost economic growth due to pressure on the budget that ‘limit the room for further discretionary fiscal expansion.’
   To prevent the troubled housing prices from falling ‘below equilibrium,’ the IMF recommended the government take new steps to limit the number of ‘avoidable’ foreclosures.
   ‘Although policies need to be mindful of moral hazard and it is clear that house prices still need to adjust down, overshooting is a clear risk with important macroeconomic consequences,’ it said.

Japan ratified a free trade accord with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Saturday as the country’s divided parliament ended its session.
   Under the deal, about 90 per cent of trade between Asia’s largest economy and the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, which has a combined population of 550 million, will be tariff-free within 10 years.
   The government plans to exchange diplomatic documents on the pact with ASEAN member states which have already ratified it, officials said.
   The pact was automatically ratified at midnight as it remained pending in the upper house for 30 days after approval by the more powerful lower house.
   The lower house, dominated by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, voted for the accord on May 22. But legislation has been held up in the opposition-controlled upper house.
   The government had extended the parliament session by six days as the ruling coalition wanted to win approval for key bills including the free trade accord with ASEAN.
   Under the constitution, international treaties signed by the government are automatically ratified if the upper house does not make a decision within 30 days after approval by the lower house.
   A comprehensive economic partnership agreement, the core of which is the free trade accord, was signed in April by Malaysia, the last of the ASEAN members to sign off on it.
   It will be the first multinational free trade agreement for Japan, which also has been seeking to conclude a flurry of bilateral pacts amid a breakdown in global trade negotiations.
   Tokyo has reached bilateral deals with eight nations, six of which are in the ASEAN group — Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The others are Chile and Mexico.

Gasoline prices continued their upward trend on Friday in Southern California, which has the highest gasoline prices in the US mainland.
   The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County rose by 8.3 cents this week, the smallest increase in a month, the Automobile Club of Southern California reported.
   The Los Angeles County average now stands at 4.626 dollars a gallon — 70 cents more than last month and 1.41 dollars more than at this time last year, according to the Auto Club.
   This was the 11th time in the past 12 weeks that the average price of self-serve regular unleaded has hit record highs in Southern California.
   The Los Angeles County average increased 20.4 cents from June 6-12; 22.7 cents from May 30-June 5; 15.3 cents from May 23-29; 4.5 cents from May 16-22 and 1.8 cents from May 9-15.

The Ibne Sina Pharmaceutical Industry Limited declared 23 per cent cash dividends at its 24th annual general meeting held at the Institute of Diploma Engineers in the Dhaka city on Saturday.
   Mujibur Rahman, chairman of the company, presided over the AGM, said a press release.
   Abu Naser Mohammed Abduz Zaher, managing director of the company, among others, was present in the meeting.
   The Ibne Sina Pharmaceutical Industry Limited earned a profit after tax of Tk 2.81 crore for the financial year of 2007.

Oil prices raced to all-time highs of almost 140 dollars a barrel this week despite Saudi plans to increase output.
   A weak US currency pushed up demand for crude and metals as they became cheaper for foreign buyers, traders said.
   Crude prices reached historic peaks on Monday despite UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announcing that Saudi Arabia would increase its oil output by 200,000 barrels per day in July.
   Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter of oil, confirmed Thursday that it intended to raise output, but did not specify when the extra production would come on line.
   The Saudi announcement came ahead of a high-level meeting between consumers and producers that the kingdom is hosting on Sunday in its city Jeddah, to discuss rocketing fuel costs which are pushing up inflation and dampening economic growth for countries worldwide.
   ‘The current proposed (production) increase is set to lift Saudi’s output to 9.7 million barrels per day in July, the highest monthly rate since August 1981,’ said Kevin Norrish, an oil analyst at Barclays Capital.
   ‘However, in our view, the move does not seem to be enough to reverse the recent strength in prices, as it does little to repeal the longer-term expectations for tight demand-supply balances.’
   New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, struck a record high of 139.89 dollars a barrel on Monday. The same day, Brent North Sea crude for August reached a historic 139.32 dollars.
   After hitting new heights, oil prices fell heavily on Thursday as Saudi Arabia confirmed plans to increase output. They were also pushed lower as China fuelled expectations of a drop in demand after hiking domestic energy prices.
   Ending a volatile week’s trade, oil prices shot back up on Friday as Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell declared force majeure on 225,000 bpd for June and July deliveries from its offshore Bonga oilfield in Nigeria, following an attack by militants.
   Force majeure is a legal clause allowing producers to miss contracted deliveries because of circumstances beyond their control.
   Thursday’s attack was carried out by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta — the best equipped and most organised of the armed groups operating in the Niger Delta.
   It forced Shell to halt production on the site.
   Nigeria was until recently Africa’s largest oil producer but was overtaken in April by Angola, according to Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries figures.
   Angola produced 1.873 million bpd on average in April, trumping the 1.818 million bpd produced by Nigeria.
   By Friday, New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July rose to 134.56 dollars a barrel from 133.74 dollars a week earlier.
   Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August climbed to 134.61 dollars from 133.75 dollars.
   Precious metals prices benefited from a weak dollar.
   ‘The market remains sensitive to currency movements and will be an ongoing theme given the historic correlation between gold and the dollar,’ said James Moore of TheBullionDesk.com.
   On the London Bullion Market, gold advanced to 907.50 dollars per ounce at Friday’s late fixing from 866 dollars a week earlier.
   Silver increased to 17.74 dollars per ounce from 16.31 dollars.
   On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum climbed to 2,068 dollars per ounce at the late fixing on Friday from 2,043 dollars a week earlier.
   Palladium rallied to 475 dollars per ounce from 450 dollars.
   Base metals prices mostly rose, while traders eyed developments on the oil market.
   ‘For the base metals the question is whether an oil price retreat will be seen as bullish (price supportive),’ said BaseMetals.com analyst William Adams.
   ‘On the one hand a pull back in oil might lead to more liquidation selling across commodity baskets, but lower oil prices should help the global economy and therefore be good for metal demand.’
   By Friday, copper for delivery in three months jumped to 8,330 dollars per tonne on the London Metal Exchange from 7,980 dollars a week earlier.
   Three-month aluminium increased to 3,073 dollars per tonne from 2,945 dollars.
   Three-month lead climbed to 1,811 dollars per tonne from 1,775 dollars.
   Three-month zinc grew to 1,934 dollars per tonne from 1,900 dollars.
   Three-month tin gained to 22,400 dollars per tonne from 21,000 dollars.
   Three-month nickel dropped to 22,200 dollars per tonne from 24,000 dollars.
   Cocoa prices struck a 28-year high for a second week running in New York, lifted by the prospect of a weak harvest in top global producer Ivory Coast.
   New York cocoa soared as high as 3,122 dollars a tonne, which was last seen in March 1980.
   By Friday on LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, the price of cocoa for September delivery rose to 1,648 pounds per tonne from 1,615 pounds a week earlier.
   On the New York Board of Trade, the September cocoa contract rallied to 3,086 dollars per tonne from 3,003 dollars.
   Coffee prices rebounded.
   By Friday on LIFFE, Robusta for September delivery gained to 2,268 dollars per tonne from 2,200 dollars a week earlier.
   On the NYBOT, Arabica for September delivery advanced to 140.45 US cents per pound from 134.30 cents.
   Sugar prices extended gains, lifted by soaring oil prices. The raw material is used in the production of ethanol, which is an alternative to motor fuel.
   By Friday on LIFFE, the price per tonne of white sugar for August delivery climbed to 378.10 pounds from 363 pounds the previous week.
   On NYBOT, the price of unrefined sugar for October delivery increased to 12.81 US cents per pound from 10.61 cents.
   Grains prices firmed and soya steadied this week as investors tracked weather conditions in the US Midwest where the commodities are grown.
   By Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade, maize for July delivery rose to 7.32 dollars per bushel from 7.31 dollars the previous week.
   July-dated soyabean meal — used in animal feed — eased to 15.59 dollars from 15.60 dollars.
   Wheat for July delivery grew to 8.92 dollars per bushel from 8.82 dollars.

ECB should look seriously at rate level: Stark
The European Central Bank needs to look seriously at current interest rate levels to safeguard its credibility and given high inflation expectations, executive board member Juergen Stark told German magazine Der Spiegel. Asked in an interview with the weekly whether he was in favor of a near-term rise in rates, Stark said, ‘For reasons of credibility I think the ECB needs to look seriously at the current rate level given the high inflation expectations.’ Commenting specifically on a looming rate decision in July, he added, ‘We will not let ourselves be locked in over a long period of time, rather we will decide on a case-by-case basis what is necessary to guarantee price stability over the medium-term.’ ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet shocked markets earlier this month when he said a rate rise was possible in July but not a certainty. Investors now expect a rise to 4.25 percent next month and another hike to 4.5 percent by the end of the year, but have trimmed bets for more aggressive action after Stark and others said policymakers were not mulling a series of rate increases. Stark told Der Spiegel the ECB had taken a wait-and-see approach over the past year given uncertainties linked to turbulence in financial markets, but that now it must look forward. ‘We have to look forward now and recognize that there are significant risks to price stability,’ Stark said. He acknowledged there were different views within the ECB about how to proceed on monetary policy, but said there was a good chance the bank would ‘reach a conclusion rapidly.’
— Reuters