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The government is mulling over relocation of six out of the country’s total 19 commercial wings abroad soon to more potential market destinations due to their dismal performances for years.
   A committee at the commerce ministry, headed by a joint secretary, has recently identified the poor-performing wings and recommended their shifting to new places, which offer more export opportunities, officials said.
   Dwindling business opportunities in the existing destinations were seen as key factors for poor returns from those expensive wings year after year.
    The recommendation of the committee is expected to be considered as a final decision of the ministry, which would act accordingly, officials said.
   The committee suggested shifting of commercial wing of Canberra to key Australian business city of Sydney and that of Ottawa to Toronto of Canada.
   It felt that having a commercial wing in Tashkhand of Uzbekistan would be worthier than in Iranian capital of Tehran, while Los Angeles wing in the US should be relocated to Milan, Italy.
   The wings in Yangon and Kuala Lumpur should be relocated to Seoul of South Korea and Warsaw of Poland respectively.
   The six wings have lost their relevance as the places seemed no longer attractive export destinations for the country, trade officials said.
   ‘We have almost finalised the relocation plan after a through study,’ a high official in the ministry told New Age.
   The recommended new destinations have brighter prospects for external trade expansion, he added.
   Meanwhile, trade experts said the country should have commercial wings in Holland, Sweden, South Africa and Brazil considering the enhanced trade between the countries and Bangladesh in recent years.
   The country’s annual export to Holland is about $400 million, while export potentials in Sweden, South Africa and Brazil remained mostly untapped.
   Trade officials said any increase in the number of commercial wings would mean increase in expenditure, which is often discouraged by the finance ministry.
   Commercial wing in Brazil was closed by the BNP-led coalition government at the insistence of the then finance minister Saifur Rahman, although the South American country is a major destination of Bangladesh’s jute.
   The ministry would think about more commercial wings later on evaluating the success of the relocated ones, an official said.
   Trade experts believe that the post of commercial councilor, now heading the wings, needs to be upgraded to minister (commerce) to influence the administrations of host countries. Competing countries like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have, meanwhile, upgraded the post in their respective commercial wings abroad, they cited.
   Currently, officials of deputy secretary status are posted as commercial councilors, while joint secretary or equivalent officials are eligible for the post of minister (commerce).

Business leaders of Khulna division on Tuesday urged the government to provide natural gas, and uninterrupted power supply for creating proper environment for industrial investment The district chambers of commerce and industry leaders of Khulna division at a seminar on ‘Unlocking the potentials of Khulna region by creating better business environment’ at a city hotel also demanded activation and modernisation of Mongla port and positive attitude of financial institutions.
   Organised by the Board of Investment, the seminar was attended by representatives of the district chambers of commerce and industry, BoI officials, entrepreneurs and businessmen, senior officials of different financial institutions, and journalists.
   Shaharuzzaman Mortuza, president of Khulna Chamber of Commerce and Industry, presided over the seminar, also attended by BoI executive chairman Kamaluddin Ahmed and Khulna additional deputy commissioner (tax) Shaikh Yusuf Harun.
   Abu Reza Khan, BoI executive member, presented the key note paper at the seminar.
   The keynote paper said the Khulna region had huge prospects for investment in diversified sectors, including agro-based industries, shrimp culture, fish processing, sea food industries, shipbuilding, hospitality and tourism, solar power, pharmaceuticals, skill development and training centre, coconut-based industries and industrial infrastructure.
   Abu Reza Khan said Khulna had location advantage and easy accessibility to both riverine and marine navigation channels, which could make the port city a major centre for economic development of the country.
   Kamaluddin Ahmed said initiatives of the business community and entrepreneurs and a nice private-public partnership was needed for the development of the country.
   The chambers leaders said Mongla port should be made active by dredging the port channel and providing other facilities. The also urged the government to establish an air port in Khulna and provide easy term loan to the entrepreneurs, businessmen and investors.
   BoI director Mamdood Hossain Alamgir, Jessore chamber president Shahidul Islam, Satkhira chamber president Sheikh Nurul Haque, Bagerhat chamber director Kamrul Ahsan, Magura chamber acting president Akhter Hossain, Jhinaidah chamber president Mahamudul Islam, Narail chamber president Md Hasanuzzaman, Meherpur chamber senior vice-president Md Askor Ali, and Chuadanga chamber president Md Habibur Rahman also attended.

Bangladesh ambassador to World Trade Organisation Debapriya Bhattacharya has advised the country’s business community to take endeavour to derive maximum benefit from the Doha Round of trade negotiations under the WTO.
   ‘We’ll have to realise maximum benefits from this round,’ he said, while addressing the monthly luncheon meeting of American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh at Hotel Sheraton in Dhaka on Tuesday.
   AmCham president Syed Ershad Ahmed welcomed the guests, seeking appropriate trade policies for overcoming the current global financial crisis. He said the importance of WTO is increasing in tackling the financial crisis more efficiently.
   Bhattacharya pointed out that the Doha Round, expected to be concluded in early 2011, would be the last opportunity for Bangladesh to negotiate trade preferences as a Least Developed Country.
   ‘Bangladesh will emerge as a middle-income country by the time when another round of WTO negotiation begins,’ he said, hoping that Bangladesh would at least become a lower middle income country when it will celebrate the 50th anniversary.
   In the meantime, a new round of WTO negotiation would be launched, he observed.
   Bhattacharya said the Doha Round is now facing setback by the elections in the United States, followed by the European Union and India, and the current global financial crisis.
   He estimated that the current negotiation would gain momentum early next year and take one year to conclude while another one year would be required for scheduling the decisions.
   The trade expert said it has by now become a little bit difficult for Bangladesh to get negotiating partners in the WTO as hardly any other country in the LDCs group could boost their trade as significantly as Bangladesh achieved since the WTO came into being in 1995.
   Bangladesh’s share in world trade almost doubled to 0.11 per cent in 2006 from 0.06 in 1995 while value of exports quadrupled to about $13 billion.
   Bhattacharya said the country would have to find new partners in the second round of trade negotiations under WTO and, meanwhile, it would have to take preparations to face the emerging situation with more vigour.
   ‘Apart from trying to get duty-free market access to the USA, we’ll have to diversify our export items as well as destinations particularly in view of the current financial crisis,’ he told the AmCham meeting.
   He said USA is now the only developed country yet to fulfill the Hong-Kong commitment for providing duty-free market access to LDCs while it was facing pressure in the WTO.
   About diversifying markets, he said the new purchasing power is now in the Asia, not in the USA and EU, where 80 per cent of Bangladesh’s exports are to be marketed.

Bangladesh‘s garment export to the USA increased by 4.3 per cent in August over its figure in July this year, but the volume of export was 13 per cent lower than that of the August 2007.
   Quoting a US commerce department report, officials at the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association told New Age that the export trend was away from the satisfactory level.
   ‘Shipments to the USA in August 2007 had been at record high level. But we are not saying now that this year shipments to the USA are on declining trend as the volume of RMG export increased in August,’ BGMEA president Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez said.
   The BGMEA leader was however cautious to be optimistic as the US economy hit hard by financial crisis which might affect the apparels export to that country from August onwards.
   The USA is the single largest market for Bangladeshi garment items as it imports around 27 per cent of the country’s total apparel export proceeds.
   The Bangladeshi exporters shipped about 125 million square metre equivalent units of readymade garments to the USA in August, which is five million square metre equivalent units up over the export volume in July this year.
   But the August 2008’s shipment was down by 17 million square metre units over the same month in 2007 which was recorded 142 million meter equivalent units.
   The August export value stood at $316.4 million against the $315.7 million in July this year. But the figures of apparel export to the USA stood at $347 million in August and at $256 million in July of the previous year.
   EPB officials said the total RMG export earnings in August this year are expected to be released within a couple of days.

Cheaper oil prices may damage the economies of non-oil producing Arab countries because of a fall in remittances and other cash inflows from the Gulf states, analysts said.
   Remittances sent home by migrant workers contributed three billion dollars or 20 per cent of gross domestic product in Jordan last year, according to World Bank statistics.
   In Lebanon, remittances totalled 5.8 billion dollars or 23 per cent of GDP and even in the larger economy of Egypt the 5.9 billion dollars in remittances were equivalent to five per cent of GDP.
   Not all of these remittances necessarily originated in the Gulf, but these countries have large communities in the region.
   ‘They send home a lot of foreign currency,’ economist Khaled Alloush, the Dubai-based representative of the United Nations Development Programme, said in reference to Arab expatriates in the Gulf.
   The impact of an economic downturn in Gulf countries could be even worse for millions of south Asian workers, who make up the bulk of the labour force in the area.
   Ibrahim Saif from the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut said there could be a loss of jobs as lower oil prices cause producer countries to scale down their investment plans.
   Governments and private sector enterprises in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council ‘will rethink their policies,’ Saif told AFP.
   ‘There will be a cut down in mega projects that were based on optimistic forecasts that oil prices would not go below 100 dollars per barrel.’
   The global economic crisis could initially have beneficial impacts for non-oil Arab states by reducing the cost of imports and bringing down inflation, he predicted.
   ‘For net importers of energy, the immediate impact is cheaper oil, which will improve their balances of payments,’ Saif said.
   ‘Inflation is not the issue anymore’ in those countries which were until recently fighting rising consumer prices as oil prices neared 150 dollars a barrel in July, before tumbling to around 60 dollars in October.
   Year-on-year inflation neared 15 per cent in Jordan over the first eight months of 2008, while it ran at over 25 per cent in Egypt in August, driven by record-high oil prices and food imports.

Dhaka stocks clawed back on Tuesday due to buying spree from institutional investors after two days of sharp fall, said market operators.
   The general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange gained 35.58 points, or 1.30 per cent, to close at 2768.512. On Monday, the benchmark index hit its two-month low.
   The DSE20 comprising blue chips advanced by 25.38 points, or 1.10 per cent, to finish at 2341.32 on Tuesday.
   A DSE stock broker said institutional buying pushed up the market which suffered sharp falls in the previous two days due to selling pressure from some leading merchant banks. In the early trade on Tuesday, the DSE general index rose sharply by more than 60 points, but in the later trading it saw swinging movements, he said.
   Of the total 231 issues traded, 142 advanced, 80 declined and nine remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the DSE, however, dropped to Tk 225.67 crore from the Monday’s Tk 281.43 crore.
   Beximco Pharmaceuticals topped the turnover leaders with a total transaction of Tk 18.41 crore.
   Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company, Beximco, LankaBangla Finance, ACI, Grameen Two Mutual Fund, Square Pharmaceuticals, Quasem Drycells, DESCO and ICB 2nd NRB Mutual Fund were the remaining nine top turnover leaders.
   Chittagong stocks also gained on Tuesday after a two-day bear run.
   The selective categories index of the Chittagong Stock Exchange gained 56.56 points, or 1.03 per cent, to close at 5530.38, while its blue chips index, CSE30, advanced by 57.77 points, or 0.79 per cent, to finish at 7391.89.
   Of the total 134 issues traded on the CSE floor, 95 posted gain, 35 dropped and four remained unchanged.

The Investment Corporation of Bangladesh has planned to launch discounting services on bonds and sector-wise mutual funds with a view to expanding country’s capital market.
   ‘After conducting a feasibility study, the two products will be floated in the market within one and a half years,’ said Ziaul Haque Khondker, managing director of the ICB, at a press briefing on the occasion of its 32nd annual general meeting that held at the ICB auditorium in Dhaka on Tuesday.
   He said discounting on bonds would push forward the bond market which is currently in a dull state.
   ‘ICB is making its best efforts to make the bring depth in the market and we have already taken various steps regarding this,’ said Ziaul Haque Khondker disclosing some future plans of the ICB to develop the stock market.
   He said, ‘The government has recently taken steps to help entrepreneurs by forming a company named Venture Capital. ICB is involved with the initiative.’
   ICB also applied for managing the government’s special fund titled EEF in order to developing the entrepreneurs’ skill, he added.
   Wahiduzzaman Khandaker, chief executive officer of the ICB Asset Management Company Limited, a subsidiary of ICB, said, ‘We will float four more mutual funds worth Tk 190 crore within one year.’
   Of them, prospectus of Tk 20 crore Prime Finance First Mutual Fund, trustee deed applications of Tk 20 crore IFIL Islamic Mutual Fund One and Tk 50 crore ICB AMCL Second Mutual Fund await of approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission, he said.
   ‘We are also working to float ICB Third AMCL NRB Mutual Fund worth Tk 100 crore,’ he added.
   Currently, ICB and its subsidiaries are managing 12 mutual funds which are being traded both the stock exchanges.
   ICB general manager (operation wing) MA Motalib Chowdhury, GM (administration wing) Dina Ahsan, ICB Capital Management Limited CEO Iftikhar-Uz-Zaman, ICB Securities Trading Company Limited CEO Kazi Sanaul Hoq also spoke on the occasion.
   ICB Capital Management Limited and ICB Securities Trading Company Limited are two other subsidiary companies of the ICB.
   Ziaul Haque Khondker said in the AGM, the ICB approved 1:1 stock dividend and 10 per cent cash dividend for its shareholders for the year 2007-2008.
   In 2007-2008, the ICB earned a net profit of Tk 101.19 crore, which was 234.73 per cent higher than the previous year’s net profit of Tk 30.23 crore, he added.

Singapore’s economy, which entered a recession in the third quarter, faces ‘a more advanced stage of weakness’ as the global economic slowdown affects the city-state’s exports, manufacturing and tourism, the central bank said on Tuesday.
   The Singapore economic growth, whose 2008 forecast has been revised down to 3 per cent, will remain below its ‘potential rate’ over next few quarters and a recovery in the later part of 2009 will depend on the world economies, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore in a twice-yearly report.
   ‘As the financial crisis evolves into a broader and more protracted contraction in economic activity worldwide, there will be significant knock-on effects for Singapore, given its heavy exposure to external demand,’ it said.
   ‘The balance of risks facing the Singapore economy is currently tilted towards a further slippage in growth,’ it added.
   In addition, slower growth in Asia will restrain activity in a range of services industries in Singapore such as transport-hub and tourism, said the report.
   Advance estimates indicated that Singapore’s gross domestic product declined by 0.5 per cent in the third quarter. On an annualised quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy had seen two consecutive periods of negative growth which meant a technical recession.
   Singapore’s manufacturing output, accounting for a quarter of its economy, fell 8.5 per cent in the third quarter, the worst performance in seven years and electronics exports have declined for 20 months in a row.
   The central bank reiterated its inflation forecast of between 6 per cent and 7 per cent this year and of between 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent for next year.
   In terms of monetary policy, the MAS early this month announced its easing of the Singapore dollar for the first time since 2003. It has shifted its Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate from the gradual appreciation band to ‘zero-appreciation’.

One million Thai workers are at risk of losing their jobs next year because of a sharp fall in export orders, the Federation of Thai Industries said Tuesday.
   The federation’s deputy chairman, Thaveekij Jaturajarernkul, blamed the slowdown in global economic growth for the bleak forecast, which he said could bring troubles worse than the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
   ‘Exports orders from our main markets — the US, Europe and Japan — have dropped significantly in all industries.
   ‘That will affect our labour employment and we estimate that next year around one million workers may lose their jobs,’ Thaveekij told AFP.
   ‘If another economic crisis hits Thailand this time it’s going to be far worse than in 1997 because it will affect every sector,’ he added.
   Between mid-September and earlier this month, Thai export orders from the top three markets dropped by an average of 30-40 per cent across all industries. The figure was higher still for the luxury goods sector, Thaveekij said.
   He said Thailand currently has about six million workers in the manufacturing sector, two million workers in small and medium-sized enterprises and 1.2 million workers in the service and logistics sector.
   ‘Besides, around 700,000 students from colleges and vocational schools are expected to graduate and seek employment next year. They will be affected, too,’ Thaveekij said.
   He said some businesses had recently cut down their employee workdays from six to five days per week, while others had put a freeze on overtime.

The credit insurance group Coface said on Tuesday it had downgraded the ratings of Britain, Ireland and Iceland, and had put Italian and French debt under negative watch because of the worsening financial crisis.
   ‘The credit crisis is spreading in Europe as the financial crisis worsens. This is leading to a major tightening up of banking credit, and a plunge in confidence by economic actors and a drop in activity,’ Coface said in a statement.
   Coface downgraded Britain and Ireland’s ratings to from ‘A1’ to ‘A2’.
   Coface also downgraded the rating for Iceland in the same way over the collapse of its banking system and switch into slump of its former booming property market.
   On Tuesday, Iceland said it had approached the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve bank for help. The Icelandic central bank also raised its key interest rate by six per centage points to 18 per cent.
   The Icelandic currency has come under heavy selling pressure.
   Coface also put France, with its ‘A1’ rating, on negative watch noting the country was ‘also affected by the credit crisis,’ with the transportation, construction and real estate sectors hardest hit.
   Also on negative watch was Italy, which has an ‘A2’ rating and faces higher costs and tightened credit, leading to ‘deteriorating risks for businesses,’ Coface said.
   France and Italy are members of the eurozone within the European Union.
   Coface forecast that the credit crisis would continue for between 18 months to two years. Even if the world economy experienced a long phase of sluggish growth, ‘businesses will adapt.’

US retailers predicted Monday a 2.7 per cent fall in sales over the year-end holiday season, as economic woes sparked by the financial collapse spread through the economy.
   Chief marketing officers from leading US retailers told a survey by consultant BDO Seidman that they were more cautious about inventory and planning more discounts ahead of Christmas and other holidays.
   ‘The pessimism among chief marketing officers this year is unprecedented and highly attributed to the recent turmoil in the financial markets,’ said Al Ferrara, a BDO Seidman retail specialist.
   BDO Seidman said in a statement that the retailers surveyed in October — many of the country’s largest, each with more than 100 million dollars in annual revenues — expected same-store sales to drop 2.7 per cent and total sales to fall 2.8 per cent this year compared with 2007.
   Nearly two out of five stores expect comparable store sales to fall, and only one five predicts an increase; 41 per cent expected sales to be flat.
   The marketing officials blamed the uncertainty in financial markets, high energy costs and the weak housing market as the reason for the predicted slowdown.
   A total of 88 per cent of marketing officers said they were more planning discounts and promotions than before, compared to 73 per cent last year.
   Three-quarters of them were acting more cautiously about buying and building up inventory.

Latin American countries should focus on improving their tax and spending policies as they begin to feel the effects of the slowing world economy, the OECD recommended in a report released Tuesday.
   ‘The continent is beginning to feel the effects of the global slowdown. Current account surpluses are weakening, inflation is rising and foreign credit is shrinking,’ said the OECD Latin American Economic Outlook, released on the eve of an Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government in El Salvador, Central America.
   ‘Fiscal policy can be a key tool for economic, political and social development in Latin America,’ it argued.
   Between 1990 and 2006, government income averaged a total of 23 per cent of GDP in Latin America compared with 42 per cent in OECD countries, while spending averaged 25 per cent and 44 per cent respectively, it said.
   ‘A review of Latin American tax collection and spending systems shows high levels of volatility and underdevelopment of personal income taxes on the revenue side, coupled with poor public services ... on the expenditure side,’ it said.
   The report called for policymakers to address the region’s widespread informal economy, focusing on issues such as legal protection and contract enforcement as well as improvements in education, particularly beyond primary level.
   Latin America cannot escape the economic crisis due to its integration in international markets, which has grown in recent years, said Angel Gurria, secretary general of the OECD.
   However, the report’s authors maintained a ‘prudent optimism about the economic resistance of the region,’ following annual growth of 5.6 per cent of GDP in 2007, and more than 100 billion dollars of direct foreign investment in the region.
   The IMF’s regional growth prediction for 2009 was under four per cent, while the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean on Monday revised down its prediction from four per cent to less than three per cent.
   But the director of the Development Center of the OECD, Javier Santuso, said most economies were holding up well so far.

Japan’s top broker Nomura Holdings posted a large loss Tuesday because of turmoil in world markets and warned that it could suffer further due to exposure to Iceland’s financial meltdown.
   Nomura, which is buying the Asian and European operations of troubled Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers, reported a first-half net loss of 149.5 billion yen ($1.57b), against a year-earlier profit of 64.2 billion.
   In the fiscal second quarter alone it lost 72.9 billion yen.
   ‘The management regrets that the company posted losses for three consecutive quarters. We feel a sense of crisis and are now trying to break through this situation,’ said Nomura chief financial officer Masafumi Nakada.
   The broker said earnings were hit by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which sparked chaos on global financial markets.
   Nomura said it may also lose money on its 425 million dollar exposure to Iceland, whose once booming financial sector has collapsed under the weight of the worldwide credit crunch.
   The global financial crisis led to a decline in commissions for brokerage services and sales of investment trusts, Nomura said.
   ‘Governments and central banks have implemented measures to manage the global financial crisis, but share prices and currency levels continued to be unstable even in October,’ said Nakada.
   ‘Therefore we expect the business environment surrounding the company’s trading and brokerage operations will remain severe for some time.’
   The ratings agency Standard & Poor’s lowered its outlook on the broker to negative from stable, voicing concern about ‘the protracted slump’ in its operating performance.
   ‘Considering the ongoing turmoil in the global financial markets, it is possible that the value of Nomura group’s trading assets and the credit quality of various counterparties could further deteriorate, leading to additional losses from the group’s diverse exposure,’ S and P analyst Yuri Yoshida warned in a report.
   Japanese financial firms are believed to be less exposed to losses related to troubled US mortgage loans compared with many Western banks. But they are being squeezed by weak markets and a Japanese economy on the brink of recession.
   Despite its financial troubles, Nomura moved swiftly to snap up Lehman businesses outside of the United States after the once-mighty Wall Street bank was brought down by the financial crisis that has rocked world markets.
   Nomura revealed Tuesday that the total cost of acquiring the Lehman’s operations in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East would be about two billion dollars.
   The key goal was to bring on board Nomura’s workers in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, said Nakada.
   The Japanese company took over more than 8,000 staff of Lehman Brothers’ Asia-Pacific, Middle East and European operations as well as of its Indian IT subsidiaries.
   The broker said that more than 95 per cent of former Lehman employees had accepted its offer of employment.

A restaurant in Gijon in northern Spain has started offering a lunch time ‘anti-crisis’ menu for just one euro to help its customers in the industrial port face up to the sharp economic slowdown.
   ‘We don’t make money but we are not losing money either,’ one of the managers of Dario’s restaurant, Emilia Jimenez, told Spanish media, adding that business on weekends makes up for its budget-priced Thursday lunches.
   The restaurant launched the offer earlier this month to try to attract customers at a time when consumer spending is contracting sharply in Spain, which is going through an abrupt economic slowdown.
   Waiting times for a seat were long on Thursday as the 49-seat establishment served nearly 200 people.
   For one euro ($1.26) customers were served seafood soup, ribs with rice, chicken or anchovies with salad, along with bread, a drink and dessert.
   Lunch time menus in Spain usually cost around 10 euros.
   Spain is experiencing a rapid rise in unemployment as its economy, which just last year was one of the fastest-growing in the developed world, lurches towards a recession due to the end of a decade-long property boom.
   The country’s unemployment rate rose to 11.3 per cent in the third quarter, its highest level in more than four years and the highest rate in the 27-member European Union, from 10.4 per cent in the second quarter.
   The Washington-based International Monetary Fund predicts Spain’s unemployment rate will hit 14.7 per cent next year while the economy will shrink by 0.2 per cent that year. Spain’s economy expanded by 3.7 per cent last year.

Aktel and ICB Islamic Bank Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding in a city hotel in Dhaka on Monday to formalise the strategic alliance, collaboration and cooperation between the two parties.
   Jefri Ahmad Tambi, managing director and chief executive officer of Aktel, and Hadenan Bin Abdul Jalil, chairman of ICB Islamic Bank, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective companies, said a press release.
   Under the agreement, both parties agreed to cooperate and collaborate with each other to promote their products and services. Through this partnership, all Aktel postpaid customers will be able to pay their bills from any branch of the bank.
   Abdul Malek Abdul Aziz, high commissioner of Malaysia to Bangladesh, Bidyut Kumar Basu, chief commercial officer of Aktel, and Rajuendran Marrapan, acting managing director of the bank, were present on the occasion.

Citibank, NA on Tuesday celebrated winning the best corporate/institutional internet bank award in Bangladesh for 2008 conferred by the Global Finance magazine.
   The bank honoured its clients who helped to launch internet banking in the country at the celebration programme held in Dhaka city, said a press release.
   Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, vice-chancellor of BRAC University, attended the programme as chief guest. The programme was also attended by senior Bangladesh Bank officials.
   Major clients of the bank who use the bank’s internet banking platform ‘CitiDirect Online Banking’ for availing the bank’s services attended the programme.

South Korean banks, viewed by investors as among the weakest in Asia, turned for the first time to the US Federal Reserve for dollars as they stepped up efforts to resolve a dollar funding crisis.
   The move comes as Asia’s fourth-largest economy tries to keep the global financial storm at bay. South Korea’s consumer sentiment hit a three-month low and its currency slumped to a 10- year trough against the dollar with investors growing ever more worried about a global recession and a liquidity squeeze.
   State-owned Korea Development Bank said on Tuesday it would sell up to $830 million in 3-month bonds to the Federal Reserve, while top bank Kookmin Bank said it had gotten the U.S. central bank’s permission to directly sell short-dated bonds.
   On Monday, the Bank of Korea announced that it would for the first time buy domestic bonds issued by local banks.
   ‘Being picked as one of the beneficiaries of the Federal Reserve’s funding facility means both banks have met conditions set by the Fed,’ said Bryan Song, an analyst at Merrill Lynch.
   ‘It will likely take more time (for dollar funding conditions to improve for domestic banks). Dollar funding problems are not because of problems with South Korea, but because companies in the world are deleveraging and reducing their assets to shore up their capital ratios.’
   But others were skeptical of the significance of the funding.
    ‘It certainly is a relief for them to win the Fed’s approval. But $800 million would not be enough (to resolve the dollar funding shortage),’ said Jeong My-young, research head of Samsung Futures.

Some South American countries on Monday called for a profound and all-round reform of the international financial system.
   Foreign and finance ministers and central bank governors from member countries of the Common Market of the South economic bloc attended a one-day emergency meeting in Brasilia.
   In a statement issued after the meeting, representatives of the Mercosur members underlined the necessity to reform the current international financial system.
   Globally, it needs to set up ‘instruments that allow concrete, immediate and more adequate responses to economic crisis,’ said representatives of the Mercosur countries.
   High on the meeting’s agenda was the expansion of payment system in local currency, which is currently used in bilateral commercial exchanges between Brazil and Argentina.
   The adoption of other currencies in international settlement instead of the US dollar ‘will be a kind of instrument to deepen financial integration of the countries in the region and to reinforce their capacity to tackle problems caused by the crisis,’ said the representatives.

Donald Tsang, chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, appointed a 12-member taskforce on Tuesday to deal with the challenges posed by the global financial crisis.
   Tsang will chair the first meeting of the taskforce on economic challenges next Monday while John C Tsang, the financial secretary of HKSAR government, will serve as deputy chairman.
   David Burton, the head of the Asia and Pacific Department of the International Monetary Fund, is to brief members of the taskforce with the update and evaluation of the global financial crises at the first meeting. The taskforce will seek to make a preliminary assessment of the impact of the financial tsunami on the global and local economy and formulate a work plan for the coming few months.
   ‘The challenges ahead of us are daunting. The damage that the financial tsunami has inflicted on the global economy has yet to be fully revealed. We need to evaluate the situation, consider ways to respond, identify new opportunities, and ultimately enhance our international competitiveness,’ Tsang said.

The euro rallied from two-year low points against the dollar on Tuesday on the eve of a US interest rate call, as rebounding stock markets turned investors away from the US currency, dealers said.
   The euro rebounded after briefly hitting 1.2328 dollars, its lowest since April 2006. In morning London trade, the single currency advanced to 1.2490 dollars, compared with 1.2471 late in New York on Monday.
   The yen meanwhile eased back from multi-year high points against the euro and the dollar, providing some welcome respite for Japanese exporters who are feeling the pain of a strong currency. Global stock markets rallied on Tuesday after days of heavy losses as investors hunted for bargains despite continued worries about the ailing global economy.
   ‘There’s mounting speculation that the massive equity sell-off may be coming to an end — a consensus that is being driven by a degree of stability emerging in Asian markets — and with this, there is a move to start pulling some funds out of dollars,’ said CMC Markets analyst James Hughes.
   ‘As a result the greenback is retreating from recent highs but it is worth cautioning that this could easily be reversed if confidence in stocks wanes again.’
   The Federal Reserve opens a two-day meeting on Tuesday widely expected to cut key interest rates further as part of an unrelenting effort by the central bank to restore confidence to battered markets.
   The US central bank, which led a coordinated global rate cut earlier this month that pushed its target rate down a half-point to 1.50 per cent, is seen as trimming the rate another 25 to 50 basis points.
   Against the Japanese currency on Tuesday, the dollar rose to 94.67 yen from 92.76 yen.
   The yen — which has soared in recent weeks as people dump risky investments — dropped below 95 to the dollar and 120 against the euro as the Tokyo stock market staged a strong rally.
   Traders were watching nervously to see whether Japanese authorities would step into the market to sell the yen, after the Group of Seven rich nations’ club fired a warning shot to the market over the currency’s recent surge.
   The soaring yen has triggered alarm bells in Japan, which is already on the brink of recession. Last week the dollar fell to the upper 90-yen level for the first time since August 1995, while the euro hit a six-year low below 114 yen.
   In a rare move, the G7 on Monday singled out the yen in a joint statement, voicing concern about its ‘excessive volatility’ and its ‘possible adverse implications for economic and financial stability.’
   In London morning trading on Tuesday, the euro changed hands at 1.2490 dollars against 1.2471 late Monday, at 118.20 yen (115.72), 0.8005 pounds (0.8016) and 1.4525 Swiss francs (1.4416). The dollar stood at 94.67 yen (92.76) and 1.1635 Swiss francs (1.1559). The pound was at 1.5598 dollars (1.5551).

Oil prices firmed on Tuesday but were not far from recent 17-month low points amid concern that a global economic slowdown would significantly weaken the world’s appetite for energy, analysts said.
   New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery added 48 cents to 63.70 dollars a barrel in electronic deals, after hitting 61.30 dollars on Monday — a level last seen in May 2007.
   Brent North Sea crude for December was 13 cents higher at 61.54 dollars. On Monday, the contract had hit to 59.02 dollars, which was the lowest point since February 2007.
   Despite slender gains on Tuesday, the price of crude oil has collapsed by almost 60 percent in value since striking record highs above 147 dollars per barrel in July on supply concerns.
   ‘Oil has hit a 17-month low, on speculation that the global financial crisis may slash fuel demand,’ said BetOnMarkets analyst David Evans, in reference to Monday’s trading.
   ‘Oil is down more then 56 percent since its July 11 peak and it seems that prices are heading lower after OPEC cut oil demand projections for 2009.

Transaction
   City Bank
   Hosne Ara Aziz, one of the sponsors of the bank, has reported her intention to sell 4,985 shares out of her total holdings of 1,12,985 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through the stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   
   Islami Bank
   Md Eskander Ali Khan, one of the directors of the bank, has reported his intention to sell 274 shares out of his total holdings of 6,699 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through the stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   
   Bangladesh Finance
   Mehmud Industries (Pvt) Ltd, one of the corporate sponsors of the company, has reported its intention to sell 4,482 shares (bonus share) out of its total holdings of 49,307 shares of the company at prevailing market price through the stock exchange within next 30 working days.
   
   Dividend
   Standard Ceramic
   The board of directors has recommended 5 per cent cash dividend for the year 2007- 2008. The annaul general meeting of the company will be held on December 29 at 10.00 am at factory premises at Saydana at KB Bazar at Joydevpur in Gazipur. Book closure will be from December 15 to 29.
   Source: DSE

Best Air offers help to get S’pore visa
Private airliner Best Air will help the tourists to get Singapore visa by giving them letter of introduction, said a press release. Best Air started its direct flight to Dhaka—Singapore—Dhaka on October 20 with a 162-seat McDonald Douglas MD-83 aircraft. Best Air is operating Singapore on Mondays and Fridays. Best Aviation started operations in 1999 as a helicopter operator. Best Air started its journey as a freighter airline in 2000 and has been operating different types of freighter in the domestic and international sectors. It obtained licence to operate passenger services from the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh in 2006.
— New Age

Chairman of Gulf Bank quits
The chairman of Gulf Bank, Kuwait’s second biggest lender, has resigned after the finance house incurred losses from derivatives deals abroad, the official KUNA news agency reported Tuesday, in the first such case in the oil-rich Gulf region. ‘The board of directors held an emergency meeting on Tuesday during which it accepted the resignation of Bassam al-Ghanem as chairman and board member,’ KUNA said, citing an official statement. The bank appointed Ghanem’s brother Qutaiba al-Ghanem as the new chairman and also accepted the resignation of board member Abdulkareem al-Saeed. Tuesday’s moves came after the central bank of Kuwait said on Sunday that Gulf Bank had incurred unspecified losses in derivatives deals on behalf of some clients who defaulted. The central bank has already appointed a supervisor to oversee the affairs of the Gulf Bank, and its shares have been suspended from trade on the Kuwait Stock Exchange for three days.
— AFP