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Prices of MS (mild steel) rods increased more than 20 per cent just in three weeks, intensifying woes of construction sector, which has been sluggish for a year or more.
   Industry people argue that supply shortage in local market and steep rises of steel scraps and billet prices in the world market were pushing up prices of raw materials for MS rods used for construction works.
   At English Road wholesale market in Dhaka, ordinary grade round steel bars were traded between Tk 63,500 and Tk 64,500 per tonne, up from Tk 52,500 and Tk 53,500 of end-February.
   ‘Re-rolling mill owners are raising ex-mill prices almost everyday and traders are just adjusting their rates accordingly,’ said Abu Taher, an executive of English Road Iron and Steel Merchants’ Association.
   Traders said their sales were slumping due to steep declines in demand for rods from the construction sector.
   Abdur Razzak, general secretary of Imarat Nirman Shramik Union of Bangladesh, a construction workers’ union, said works on thousands of private homes and commercial buildings almost ground to a halt due to sharp rise in prices of building materials, especially steel rod.
   ‘At least 35 per cent of daily labourers are without jobs now, which is high time for construction activities,’ he said.
   Tanveerul Haque Probal, general secretary of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh, said many developers either stopped or slowed down works due to high prices and poor supply of rods.
    ‘Rods constitute at least 30 per cent of building costs. So developers are now left with no alternative but to reassess project costs and revise prices of apartments,’ Probal said, citing their difficulties in convincing flat buyers to pay higher prices than agreed earlier.
   Prices of MS rods have been on the rise for months. Market price monitoring report of state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh showed on Thursday that ordinary grade rods became costlier by 71 per cent in a year.
    Price of fine 60-grade rods was quoted on Thursday at Tk 68,000 per tonne, up by 12 per cent in a month and 70 per cent in a year.
   Industry sources said global price of billet, used in producing fine grade rods, crossed $1,000 per tonne last week, against $890 two weeks back and $600 three months ago.
   Housing industry people blame millers for unwarranted rises in rod prices, which, they feel, will come down once the government eases import of finished rods.
   Millers also have their say. They point the finger at soaring prices of steel scraps and recyclable ship scraps in Chittagong.
   ‘Steel millers are helplessly raising prices of rods to adjust to the jumping costs of raw materials,’ said Alihussein Akberali, chairman of Bangladesh Steel and Re-rolling Mills Association.
   Country’s leading marketer of fine grade rods argued that they were compelled to raise prices of rods frequently as prices of melting scrap or billet jump in futures trade often unpredictably.
   ‘Surging demands against limited or squeezing supplies of commodities, weakening US dollar, restrictions on steel exports from China and India and fresh increases in iron ore prices by major miners globally are instigating the steel price rises,’ Akberali pointed out.
   Steel millers argued that reduction in duty or fixing a minimum flat rate on importing melting scrap or billet would help them reduce prices of finished rods proportionately.
   At present 13 per cent taxes apply on importing such items while import of old ships is subject to a flat duty of Tk 1,000 per tonne.

The posts and telecommunications ministry has selected Mujibur Rahman, general manager of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, as managing director of the Teletalk Bangladesh Limited, a state-owned mobile phone operator.
   Mujibur, now serving as general manager (transmission) of the state-owned land phone operator BTTB, has been selected for the MD post of Teletalk.
   Official sources said the telecoms ministry would sent the name of Mujibur Rahman to the next board meeting of Teletalk for approval.
   Teletalk has been running without a full-time managing director as its first managing director, Mohammad Obaidullah, went on retirement in December 2006. Since then, the Teletalk was running its day-to-day works and expanding network without MD.
   Officials of the Telecom Ministry said after Obaidullah’s retirement, a search committee headed by a teacher of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology was formed to find a suitable person for the post of managing director of Teletalk.
   The committee recommended the names of three persons to the ministry for selecting one of them as Teletalk’s MD. But the government did not choose any of them and decided to invite fresh applications for the post.
    Teletalk launched its commercial operation in March 2005 and manages to get around 10 lakh subscribers till February last.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has formed an enquiry committee to probe into unusual shares trading of the Popular Life Insurance Company Ltd at the stock exchanges, said officials.
   ‘We have formed the probe committee on Wednesday to look into the unusual trading of shares of the insurance company recently,’ said Anwarul Kabir Bhuiyan, executive director of the SEC.
   He said the two-member committee was asked to submit its report within 30 working days. SEC deputy directors Md Rezaul Karim and Md Jahangir Alam are the members of the committee, he said.
   The SEC official said the probe team would also investigate into the suspected insider trading by the sponsors of the company.
   He said abnormal rise in the company’s share price recently prompted the commission to investigate the matter.
   Share price of the Popular Life Insurance Company jumped to Tk 5015.50 on March 17 from Tk 3052.50 on February 20, DSE record shows.
   The company, however, lost 6.18 per cent to close at Tk 4690 on Thursday. Face value of the shares of the company is Tk 100 each. The DSE statistics also show that number of trades of the company’s shares also rose significantly in recent time.
   ‘We are also observing closely the price movements of other insurance stocks due to volatility in their share prices in recent time,’ said Anwarul Kabir.
   He said the commission would act accordingly if it finds any suspicious trading.
   A senior official of the DSE said the insurance stocks rallied last month on a rumour on enhancement of the existing paid-up capital of the companies.
   A number of insurance companies, however, informed the bourses that they did not receive any instruction from the Controller of Insurance Office regarding the enhancement of existing paid-up capital, he said.

The textile entrepreneurs of Japan are eying on joint-ventures in Bangladesh for producing cloths and garment items considering the huge potentials amid global competition, industry and diplomatic sources said.
   The Japanese ambassador in Dhaka will inaugurate the Japan-Bangladesh joint-venture garment industry ‘Matsuoka Apparels’ at Savar today (Friday).
   The garment unit with major stake owned by the Matsuoka Industry Group of Japan will produce over 1 million pieces of trousers per year. Matsuoka has initiated another project at Valuka to produce 24 million pieces of apparels annually, employing 8000 workers.
   ‘We are happily waiting for inauguration of the Matsuoka Apparels - the first Japanese joint-venture in Bangladesh’s textile and apparel sector,’ said an official of the Japanese Embassy in Dhaka.
   She mentioned that this is a ‘test case’ before a rush of Japanese textile entrepreneurs to Bangladesh.
   Bangladesh government and private sector had been trying for long to attract Japanese investment to the country’s textile and apparel sector,
   but the Japanese investors
   were pointing finger at the political instability, bureaucracy and poor infrastructures as bars.
   Mir Nasir Hossain, former co-chairman of the Japan- Bangladesh Joint Committee on Commercial and Economic Co-operation said ‘Japanese investors were more careful and conservative to decide on new investment locations.’
   He agreed that recent developments in China, especially rising wages and appreciating Yuan, might have forced Japanese to rethink of Bangladesh as investment location.
   Nasir, also the immediate past president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, hopes ‘Matsuoka JV will function well to lure hundreds of Japanese investors.’
   President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury welcomed the eagerness of Japanese manufacturers.
   Japan is a major export destination for Bangladeshi shoes or finished leather, but made-in Bangladesh garments are yet to find noticeable market share there.
   In the fiscal 2006-2007, Bangladesh exported garment items worth only $10.5 million to Japan.
   ‘We see a billion dollar market for made-in Bangladesh garments in Japan within next few years,’ said Mohammed Rashed, the Bangladeshi partner of the Matsuoka Apparels.
   ‘As a leading apparel distributor in Japan, Matsuoka will be able to take a sizable share for the Bangladeshi apparels,’ Rashed hopes.
   Japanese market of apparels and fashion-wares is estimated at more than 1 trillion dollars per year and imported goods take share of nearly half of the total amount.
   Chinese exporters supply about two-thirds of the
   imported apparels to Japan while Korea and ASEAN countries occupy the significant shares.
   ‘Japanese apparel buyers
   are more quality conscious. If their requirements are met a huge market for Bangladeshi garments will be created,’ said the official of the Japanese Embassy.

Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury on Thursday urged business communities in Malaysia and Bangladesh to help workers overcome harsh labour condition in Malaysia.
   ‘Some of our workers face harsh condition in Malaysia. I urge the chambers of the two countries to solve the problems,’ Iftekhar said while inaugurating an exhibition of Malaysian products at Hotel Sheraton.
   Mentioning some progress in the matter, the foreign adviser said: ‘The Malaysian government has assured us that the Bangladeshi workers will be able to switch from one company to other.’
   Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia were not previously able to join a new recruiting agency other than the original, according to that country’s labour laws.
   As the workers could not switch, the recruiting companies were reportedly free to exploit the overseas workers.
   Over 3.85 lakh Bangladeshis works in Malaysia, according to figures of the ministry of expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment.
   The foreign adviser also said the government was thinking of signing a free trade agreement with Malaysia.
   Referring to a huge trade gap, the adviser said Bangladeshi exports to Malaysia amounted to about $70 million, while Malaysia’s exports here totalled over $360 million in 2006.

Radisson Water Garden Hotel Dhaka has won three prestigious international awards this year.
   The awards were presented at the Carlson’s Global Business Summit and 70th Anniversary Celebration held at Las Vegas in USA, said a press release.
   The awards include the prestigious Presidents Award and Aspire awards. The President’s Award is an annual award that recognises the hotel’s exceptional commitment to guest service and high product quality.
   The winners of the President’s Award were chosen based on their alignment and contribution toward the brand’s guest-focused mission.
   In the 2008 Carlson Global Summit, seven hotels won the President’s Award among 51 hotels in Asia Pacific region. The Aspire Award is based on the biggest improvement in revenue generated per available room guest service and quality assurance scores. In the 2008 Carlson Global Summit, seven hotels won the Aspire Award in Asia Pacific region.
   Saeed Ahmed, director of sales and marketing of Radisson Water Garden Hotel Dhaka, has been awarded Order of the Golden Rose, Carlson’s highest honour bestowed to Carlson employees globally.
   In 2007 Radisson Water Garden Hotel Dhaka maintained its position as number one in the RevPar Index Ranking among the competitive set (RevPar ranking is an index used globally to measure business performance within the industry).
   Radisson Hotels and Resorts is one of the full service hotel brands in the world with more than 395 hotels in 63 countries.
   Carlson Companies, parent company of Carlson Hotels Worldwide, is a global leader in hospitality services, encompassing more than 1,700 hotel, resort, restaurant and cruise ship operations in 82 countries and is one of the largest privately held corporations in the United States. Seoul to set up holding company
to privatise state bank
Agence France-Presse . Seoul

South Korea’s financial watchdog said Thursday it plans to turn the state-run Korea Development Bank into a holding company this year in preparation for privatisation.
   ‘We will turn KDB and its affiliates into a holding company system this year and enter selling procedures next year,’ Jun Kwang-Woo, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, told journalists.
   The FSC will use the proceeds to set up the Korea Investment Fund, which will help carry out state financial policies, he said.
   He also said the FSC will push through with plans to privatise two other major state financial institutions — Woori Financial Group and Industrial Bank of Korea.
   ‘The privatisation of Woori Financial and Industrial Bank of Korea is a key policy goal under the government of president Lee Myung-Bak,’ Jun said.
   The FSC will take into account market situations while pushing through with the privatisation of Woori and Industrial Bank, he said, adding details will be made public as early as late next month.
   Lee, South Korea’s first president with a business background, has promised pro-business policies including deregulation, privatisation and tax cuts to reinvigorate the economy.
   Regarding a bid by US private equity fund Lone Star to sell the Korea Exchange Bank, Jun reiterated that the FSC will not approve the deal until all legal uncertainties are cleared.
   ‘There is no change in our position that legal uncertainties should be cleared first. We’ll look into fallouts from delays in the sale,’ he said.
   The Dallas-based fund has been embroiled in legal and tax disputes since it bought a majority stake in Korea Exchange Bank in 2003 for about 1.5 billion dollars.

Investors have been pumping funds into the Taipei market on the prospect of an opposition win in Saturday’s presidential vote and closer ties with China — and relief for cab driver Liao En-tsu.
   For Liao, the flip side of the sluggish economy has seen his salary almost halve in five years and he sometimes waits hours to pick up a fare.
   He says the poll will give him a chance to vote for the Kuomintang’s candidate Ma Ying-jeou over Frank Hsieh of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
   ‘As a taxi driver, I can feel the pain when consumers want to save money, preferring public transport to a private taxi,’ he told AFP as he waited at a corner for a call from cab control.
   In the last five years the Taipei stock market has under-performed against other Asian bourses amid slowing economic fundamentals.
   But the last few months have seen investors pump funds into the market on expectation of a KMT win, sending the Taipei weighted index up over 10 per cent since late January despite the global credit crunch ravaging most exchanges, dealers say.
   Ma has vowed to tap into booming China via a ‘common market’ on trade.
   He has urged closer economic exchanges such as lifting a ban on direct air links, relaxing rules on China-bound investment, allowing mainland investors access to Taiwan’s manufacturing sector, letting in more Chinese tourists and establishing a mechanism to protect mutual investments.
   On the surface Taiwan — the world’s 17th largest economy — rumbled along nicely in 2007. Gross domestic product grew 5.7 per cent, exports were up 10.1 per cent, and inflation held steady at 1.8.
   Electronics and information technology are the core of the economy, making up nearly 30 per cent of GDP.
   Analysts say the underlying picture is not so rosy.
   IBT Securities analyst Ma Chi-zen said the benefit of surging exports was not trickling down to the public.
   He said a large chunk of the exports actually came from growing Taiwanese investment in China. Exclude those, he said, and last year’s GDP growth falls to less than three per cent.
   The share of exports from China ‘shows the benefits for Taiwan on paper, not the real benefits. The mainland market is the real beneficiary.’
   Aidan Wang, an analyst with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting, said inflation had eroded wage growth to just one per cent in real terms, prompting consumers to tighten their belts.
   Except for a blip in 2004, annual consumer spending has risen between 0.67 and 2.61 per cent in the eight years the DPP has run the country.
   ‘Taiwan’s private consumption has been weak in recent years,’ Wang added, partly because of the high number of jobless aged 25 to 44.
   While the 2007 jobless rate was steady at 3.91 per cent, more than half the total were between 25 and 44, an age when they should be spending, he said.
   The DPP government has also been accused of failing to map out a long-term economic strategy.
   Critics cite a decision in October 2000, a few months after taking office, to scrap a partly-constructed nuclear plant without consulting parliament or outlining an alternative energy policy.
   Construction eventually resumed in 2001 after an opposition uproar.
   Mega Securities economist Lucas Lee said the case showed the government had failed to live up to public expectations.
   ‘What’s on the DDP administration’s mind is all political considerations, resorting to anti-China sentiment to solicit support,’ Lee said.

The weakening US economy and dollar are already having a direct impact in Latin America, where millions of people rely on remittances from relatives in the United States, according to figures and families.
   Maria Rodriguez, 40, living in the poor southeast Mexican state of Oaxaca, has taken to selling tortillas to augment the money her husband sends each month from California.
   ‘He sends between 250 and 300 dollars almost every month, but this money doesn’t meet our needs, that’s why I have to sell tortillas every day,’ she told AFP.
   Her four children rely on the remittances to go to school. But they have grown up barely knowing their father, who works as a gardener in Los Angeles without proper immigration documents.
   ‘Since my husband left eight years ago, he’s come back six times, but says he can’t work our land because, even though it’s very difficult over there with the ‘migra’ (the US border patrol), at least he has work,’ she said.
   Nearly a third of Oaxaca’s 1.6 million inhabitants have emigrated to the United States, many leaving after a 2006 uprising that disrupted the all-important tourist trade.
   In the Mexican state of Chiapas, the slowing US economy is being even more keenly felt. Many of the indigenous rural families have stopped receiving money this year from US-based relatives.
   Wilfredo Hernandez, spokesman for the Independent Regional Rural Movement, said much of the population was starting to despair, and women were turning to farming to support their families.
   According to a study released this month by the multilateral investment fund of the Inter-American Development Bank, Latin American emigrants sent some 66.5 billion dollars back home last year.
   Although that was seven per cent higher than the previous year, it was the lowest rate in seven years.
   ‘I don’t think we’ve ever seen it at less than 15 per cent,’ the fund’s manager, Don Terry, said.
   Mexico is the biggest recipient of remittances to Latin America, accounting for more than a third of the total.
   The money being sent is a vital pillar of the economy, being the main source of foreign exchange after oil revenue and accounting for 2.8 per cent of gross domestic product.
   But in 2007 the inflow to Mexico grew a meager one per cent, essentially stagnating in what Terry said was a ‘disturbing’ development.
   Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, is also feeling the impact. Remittances fell four per cent last year compared with 2006, to 7.1 billion dollars, according to the fund. The cited reasons for the slowdown were different in each country.
   The estimated 11 million Mexican-born immigrants in the United States were less inclined to wire money home because of tighter US immigration laws and the worsening US economy, Terry said.
   Many Mexicans work in the US construction sector, which has been hard hit by the credit crunch triggered by the subprime crisis, and the generally worsening employment climate.
   On the other hand, in Brazil Terry said it was ‘good news’ that was cutting the inflow.
   A flourishing economy and the rocketing value of the real, Brazil’s currency — which gained more than 20 per cent against the dollar last year — explained why remittances were down.
   ‘The economy’s going so well that people don’t feel pressure to leave, and those abroad are returning home in the tens of thousands,’ the fund manager said.
   Central America is holding up, so far.
   The fund’s study showed that overall remittances to Guatemela, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica increased 11 per cent.
   But Terry said it was uncertain whether the decline seen in Brazil and Mexico would spread, with disastrous results for the families that rely on the foreign inflow for basic necessities such as food, rent and medicine.
   ‘If it were to become a trend, it will push millions into poverty,’ he warned.
   The majority of the remittances were being sent from the United States, according to the study, with emigrants in Europe and Japan also contributing.

US regulators announced a plan Wednesday to allow government-sponsored mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to pump an extra 200 billion dollars into the troubled housing market.
   The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said it would allow the two firms to invest a portion of their 30 per cent capital surplus in mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.
   The new regulations will lower the minimum capital requirement for the two agencies to 20 per cent from 30 per cent and add badly needed cash to the troubled sector.
   This move is expected to help lenders provide more cash at a potentially lower rate of interest to the housing market that has been suffering from a meltdown linked to troubles in the subprime sector, where loans are made to people with poor credit, and a related squeeze of lending.
   Treasury secretary Henry Paulson praised the agreement, saying ‘additional capital will enable the companies to help more homeowners and will strengthen the underlying fundamentals of the mortgage market.’
   The two mortgage giants are key players in US mortgage finance. Freddie Mac has a loan portfolio of 1.5 trillion dollars and Fannie Mae’s portfolio and loan guarantees amount to 2.9 trillion.
   Both Fannie and Freddie are stockholder-owned firms created by Congress to provide funds for the housing market by buying mortgages and related securities and issuing mortgage-backed bonds.
   The eased capital requirements came after OFHEO concluded the two firms had corrected accounting problems that had led to probes in the past few years.
   ‘In view of this progress, the public purpose of the two companies, and ongoing market conditions, OFHEO concludes that it is appropriate to reduce immediately the existing 30 per cent OFHEO-directed capital requirement to a 20 per cent level, and will consider further reductions in the future,’ the regulator said in a statement.
   ‘Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have played a very important and beneficial role in the mortgage markets over the last year,’ said OFHEO director James Lockhart.
   ‘Let me be clear — both companies have prudent cushions above the OFHEO-directed capital requirements and have increased their reserves. We believe they can play an even more positive role in providing the stability and liquidity the markets need right now.’
   Fannie Mae president and chief executive Dan Mudd said that despite the turmoil in housing, ‘We are working with our customers, regulators and policy makers to minimize foreclosures, increase affordability — and as of today — to restore liquidity in the market.’
   Freddie Mac chairman and CEO Dick Syron added: ‘The recent environment demonstrates the benefits of the government-sponsored enterprises to the US economy.’
   Fannie Mae shares leapt 10 per cent in morning trade and Freddie Mac advanced 10.7 per cent.

The governor of the French central bank warned Wednesday that globalisation was switching from being a benign influence on consumer prices to being a force for inflation.
   ‘Globalisation may turn out to be more inflationary in the future than in its early phase,’ Christian Noyer said in a speech received here entitled ‘Is Inflation Set For A Comeback?’
   ‘The effects of globalisation have ceased, probably in the longterm, to be spontaneously disinflationary,’ he said.
   Recent globalisation, notably the integration of the Chinese economy into the world trading system, had kept prices down in developed countries because of the stream of cheap exports emanating from the Asian giant, he explained. The effect of this was set to attenuate, however, as the Chinese currency appreciates against its rivals and as inflation in China increases the cost of production there.
   Furthermore, the thirst for raw materials to manufacture exports, as well as growing demand from domestic consumers in emerging countries, has led to increases in the price of energy and food on international markets.
   Noyer said that inflation in the eurozone was set to remain at a high level.
   Annualised inflation in the eurozone measured 3.3 per cent last month, far above the European Central Bank’s target of slightly below 2.0 per cent.
   ‘Recent inflationary shocks are likely to maintain inflation at a high level for most of 2008’ in the eurozone, he said.
   Noyer also warned that climate change — either government attempts to combat it through taxes or disruptions to production by natural disasters — could also cause inflation in the future.

South Korea on Thursday announced an emergency decision to lift import tariffs on 70 price-sensitive products including wheat and corn to help tame rising inflation.
   The decision was made at a meeting of economic ministers chaired by president Lee Myung-Bak, the presidential office said.
   The ministers also decided to freeze public utility charges including those for public transport and tap water, it said, adding details would be finalised at a cabinet meeting next week.
   The government will boost the distribution of aluminium, copper, nickel and other nonferrous metals to cope with soaring raw materials prices, it said.
   Lee and the ministers agreed to identify 50 major products such as pork, eggs and milk for intensive price oversight, said spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan.
   President Lee called for quick and effective steps to stabilise consumer prices, the spokesman said. ‘We must work out concrete steps for the stable livelihood of low-income people,’ he was quoted as saying.

The decision by Venezuela to sell some of its oil in euros will help the country offset the economic impact of the falling US dollar but could cause problems if more widely applied, experts said Wednesday.
   Energy minister Rafael Ramirez confirmed Tuesday that the governments was billing some of its oil exports in euros because of the ‘worrying’ weakness of the dollar and its effect on Venezuela’s already high inflation rate.
   ‘We are trialing billing in euros for some deliveries,’ said Ramirez, who is also head of the state oil company PDVSA.
   He stressed, however, that ‘this does not constitute a specific policy.’ It remained unclear which oil sales would require payment in euros. For Jose Guerra, a economy professor at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas and former central bank board member, the experiment was ‘positive’ for the country.
   ‘A way to compensate for the devaluation of the dollar is to charge euros for the barrels of oil,’ he said.
   He noted that previously if PDVSA had to spend in Europe it had to pay in euros even though it was earning in dollars.
   But oil expert Mazar Al Shereidah said he saw political motivations in the move, implying that the anti-US stance by leftwing Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez may have had influence.
   ‘There has been existed a political desire for this direction from the government for some time,’ he said.
   Venezuela recently, unsuccessfully lobbied the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries for a generalised switch to euros.
   ‘Oil is not just merchandise. In the world market around 45 million barrels of oil are sold each day, and they are billed in dollars. Transactions of this magnitude affect the stability of the global financial system,’ Al Shereidah said.
   Venezuela’s embrace of the euro ‘can serve as a test, but the economic and trade results must not be broadened to all Venezuelan exports, nor be taken up by OPEC,’ he advised.
   A London-based analyst with the CIBC bank, Audrey Childe Freeman, said Venezuela’s decision would have been more of concern if it had come from an OPEC member in the Middle East. The fact that it came from a country with a history of hostility towards the United States ‘reduces its impact,’ she said.

Targetting a four-fold increase in bilateral trade to $10 billion in next decade, India and Turkey on Thursday proposed to initiate talks on a free trade agreement, covering goods, services and investment.
   ‘We need to exponentially enhance economic relationship between India and Turkey and move towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that covers trade in goods, services and investment protection pact,’ minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar said in a seminar organised by industry body FICCI.
   Speaking at the event, Turkish minister of State for Foreign Trade and Foreign Contracting Services Kursad Tuzman said: ‘We would like to initiate and conclude free trade agreement negotiations with India.’
   He said trade relations between the two sides have considerably improved during the last five years. Currently, India’s trade with Turkey stands at 2.6 billion dollars. ‘We are targeting a figure of five billion dollars by 2012 and 10 billion dollars in the next 10 years,’ he said.

AB Bank has been awarded the Century ERA Award for the year 2007 at the 10th Business Initiative Directions quality convention held in Geneva of Switzerland recently.
   Jose E Prieto, executive president of the BID, handed over the award to Kaiser A Chowdhury, president and managing director of AB Bank, at the convention, said a press release.
   The award is a symbol of commitment to leadership, technology and innovation which makes them models for other companies of their sectors, said the BID executive president.
   Companies of 43 countries from America, Europe, Asia and Africa attended the convention.

The Standard Chartered Bank Limited has signed a deal on auto loan facility with the REL Motors Limited in the Dhaka city recently.
   Under the agreement, the Standard Chartered Bank Limited will offer special interest rates to the customers purchasing the Subaru motor vehicles from the REL Motors Limited, by availing the auto loan facility from the bank.
   Tarek Reaz, head of mortgage and auto of Standard Chartered Bank Ltd, and Tayabul Bahar, director, REL Motors Limited, inked the agreement at a ceremony, said a press release.
   Kamran Rahman Sunjoy, head of sales of cards, mortgages and auto, and Md Shah Shuja Bin Jabber, senior business manager of mortgage and auto of Standard Chartered Bank Ltd, among others, were present on the occasion.

The dollar climbed further away from its record low point against the euro on Thursday, lifted by negative eurozone data, analysts said. But its rebound could be short-lived, one analyst commented.
   In European trading, the euro fell to 1.5475 dollars from 1.5618 in New York late on Wednesday.
   Against the Japanese currency, the dollar rose to 100.02 yen from 99.01 on Wednesday.
   Japan’s financial markets are closed on Thursday and will reopen Friday.
   Earlier this week, the euro had surged to a record high point of 1.5905 dollars on Monday while the dollar fell to a 12-year low of 95.75 yen, also on the same day, a bottom not seen since September 1995.
   Since then, the dollar has recovered against the euro and yen after the US Federal Reserve slashed its base federal funds rate by three-quarters of a point to 2.25 per cent in a bid to ease a growing credit crisis that is threatening to freeze up financial markets.
   A sustained dollar rebound is however unlikely because of continued worries about the fallout from the US housing market meltdown, despite the Fed rate cut.
   ‘The Fed still needs to cut rates. I’m not convinced that the bottom for the dollar has occurred,’ said Richard Grace, chief currency strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
   World financial markets remain jittery over the global credit squeeze which has already sunk US investment bank Bear Stearns and British retail bank Northern Rock.
   Meanwhile, a survey showed on Thursday that eurozone activity slowed in both the manufacturing and services sectors.
   The 15-nation eurozone’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI), compiled by NTC Research, slid to 51.9 points in March, compared to 52.8 points in February, according to a first ‘flash’ estimate.
   ‘The further fall in the euro-zone composite PMI in March supports other evidence that the (eurozone) economy slowed further in first quarter,’ said Capital Economics analyst Ben May.
   In commodity markets, gold prices continued to fall from recent record heights. On Monday, gold hit 1,032.70 dollars per ounce after the euro struck an historic peak against the US currency.
   Dollar-priced goods benefit from a weak US currency because it makes them cheaper for buyers using stronger currencies, thereby encouraging demand.
   In London on Thursday, the euro changed hands at 1.5475 dollars against 1.5618 late on Wednesday, at 154.76 yen, 0.7819 pounds and 1.5678 Swiss francs.
   The dollar stood at 100.02 yen and 1.0130 Swiss francs.
   The pound was at 1.9792 dollars. On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold stood at 912.55 dollars per ounce, down from 958.50 dollars late on Wednesday.

World oil prices continued to fall in Asian trade Thursday, with more volatility expected as investors continue to assess the US economy, dealers said.
   In afternoon trade, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for May delivery fell 54 cents to 102.00 dollars per barrel from its close of 102.54 dollars during floor trading in the US Wednesday.
   The April contract had expired Wednesday at 104.48 dollars a barrel, after plummeting 4.94 dollars. The contract had hit a record peak of 111.80 dollars on Monday.
   London’s Brent North Sea crude for May delivery dropped 39 cents to 100.33 dollars a barrel, after settling at 100.72 dollars on Wednesday.
   The commodities market is in a situation where ‘investor sentiment is potentially shifting’ as they reassess the outlook for the US economy, said David Moore, a commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
   ‘The market has been extremely volatile over the last week, and it is very difficult to say with any confidence when prices could bottom or turn around,’ said Moore.
   Traders continued to focus on the global credit squeeze amid concerns over the impact it might have on global economic growth and oil demand, and largely overlooked the headline US energy inventory data showing a smaller-than-expected rise in crude supplies.
   The US Energy Information Administration said crude stocks rose by just 200,000 barrels to 311.8 million barrels in the week ended March 14, about average for this time of the year. Markets were expecting stocks to rise by around 2.3 million barrels.

Net profit
   Dhaka Bank
   The bank has reported net profit of Tk 70.38 crore with EPS of Tk 45.48 as on December 31, 2007 against Tk 58.05 crore and Tk 37.51 respectively on December 31, 2006.
   
   Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2007, the bank has reported net profit of Tk 64.70 crore with EPS of Tk 34.57. Earlier, it announced 20 per cent dividend for the year 2007.
   
   Spot trade
   Uttara Finance
   Trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only at the spot market and block/odd lot transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle with cum benefit from March 23 to 25. Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended on record date March 30.
   
   Response to a DSE query
   Ambee Pharma
   The company has informed that there is no undisclosed price sensitive information of the company for recent unusual price hike. As per the DSE record, the company has reported half yearly net profit of Tk 0.178 crore with EPS of Tk 0.89 as on June 30, 2007 against the last year’s half yearly profit of Tk.0.234 crore and Tk 1.17 respectively announced earlier.
   Source: DSE, CSE

Indian inflation leaps to 6pc
India’s inflation rate jumped by almost a full percentage point to hit a more than 10-month high, data showed Wednesday, dimming chances of an early interest rate cut to spur a slowing economy. Annual inflation leapt by 0.81 percentage points to 5.92 per cent for the week ended March 8 from 5.11 per cent the previous week, according to the wholesale price index, India’s most watched cost-of-living monitor. The rise was driven by increases in prices of essential goods such as edible oil, pulses, fruit, vegetables and spices and came as unwelcome news for the Congress-led government, which largely owes its 2004 national election win to support from India’s poor masses, who have been hardest hit by inflation. The new rate, which far exceeded market forecasts of 5.20 per cent, is the highest since late April 2007 when inflation stood at 6.01 per cent and significantly above the central bank’s five percent tolerance level. The figures came a day after the government imposed a one-year ban on the export of edible oils to curb rising prices. Commerce minister Kamal Nath said on Wednesday the government was considering duty cuts on imports of palm oil, saying it was ‘faced with an uncomfortable situation of rising prices of essential commodities.’ Earlier this week, finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram blamed mounting inflation on a ‘relentless increase’ in crude oil, commodity and foodgrain prices in the global market.
— AFP

IIDFC-PRAN sign deal
Charka Textile limited, a sister concern of PRAN-RFL Group, has signed an agreement with the Industrial and Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited under which the IIDFC will act as lead arranger for raising syndicated financing of Taka 500 million for setting up a composite knitwear plant. Major General (retd) Amjad Khan Chowdhury, chief executive of the PRAN-RFL Group, and M Matiul Islam, chairman of the IIDFC signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations on Thursday.
— BSS