The commerce minister, Faruk Khan, Thursday said the government would take initiative to establish an ‘Agro-product Export Village’ in Dhaka to expand global markets for our agro-products.
   He advised the leaders of Bangladesh Fruits, Vegetables and Allied Products Exporters Association to select a suitable place near the Zia International Airport for the proposed export village within shortest possible time.
   ‘We will go ahead with the plan if you select a suitable place for it,’ the Commerce Minister told a delegation of BFVAPEA, led by its President SM Jahangir Hossain, during a meeting at his office.
   Faruk Khan also indicated government’s plan to set up a permanent exhibition center for agro-based products also near the airport so that export-potential products could be displayed round the year.
   The BFVAPEA President urged the minister to increase the subsidy against export of agro-products which is currently fixed at 20 per cent.
   Later, two delegations of Bangladesh Super Market Owners Association and Bangladesh Chamber of Industries also called on the minister in his office.
   President of BSOA Niaz Rahim and BCI President Shahedul Islam Helal led their respective delegations.
   The minister told the BCI leaders that the government would take all necessary steps to protect the local industries. He also assured that the government would soon withdraw license fees for operating captive power plants in industrial units.
   ‘A small group of recently-formed taskforce on Recession will work on the recommendations placed before me and I can assure you that the government would take all possible steps for your betterment,’ Faruk Khan said.
   He admitted that the AL-led government encountered some unexpected problems in the first few days of coming to power three months ago. He sought cooperation from the business bodies to overcome them.
   Earlier, the BCI leaders placed a set of proposals before the minister. They included cancellation of supplementary duty on import, immediate release of unpaid incentives and price cut on furnace oil.

Most of the items in the country’s export basket are on decline though the overall export earnings in February show a marginal growth, said the Export Promotion Bureau.
   The EPB monthly release shows February export grew by 1.54 per cent and stood at $1.2 billion when the last seven-month growth was 15.9 per cent from July in 2008.
   In the July-September, the first quarter of the current fiscal, garment export saw robust 32 per cent growth but it had been declining since October.
   According to the EPB export earnings from readymade garments grew on average by 21 per cent to $8.14 billion, which is 78 per cent of total export earnings amounting $10.35 billion.
   Export proceeds of knitwear grew by 23 per cent to $3.47 billion while that of woven garments grew 19 per cent to $3.29 billion.
   In February knitwear managed a 2.5 per cent growth over February 2008 while woven garment earning grew 7.31 per cent.
   Home textile export earnings grew 14 per cent in seven months to $215 million, terry towel 20 per cent to $87 million. The bicycle export earnings grew 53 per cent to $51 million.
   The EPB data shows that although garments, home textiles and shoes managed tiny growth, all other products faced decline on their proceeds.
   In seven months till February, export proceeds of frozen foods amounted at $331 million with 11 per cent negative growth and finished leather, $195 million with 33 decline of per cent.
   Jute goods exports valued at $177 million faced 18 per cent declines on growth while raw jute at $88 million with 20 per cent.
   Export of ceramic products amounted at $24 million with a 6 per cent negative growth, vegetables $29 million with a minus 31 per cent growth.
   The EPB data shows that export volume of primary products declined by 27 per cent while that of manufactured products grew by 17 per cent. Price index for primary product increased $14.08 per cent while manufactured products, which constitute 85 per cent of exports, increased by only 1.62 per cent.
   ‘We have no reason to be hopeful with this negligible growth in export,’ said Fazlul Hoque president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association. He added that the government should offer immediate supports to the garment exporters to help them increase competitiveness and export earnings as well.

The double deck Airbus A380 has set new high standards for luxury accommodation in the air but, unless you can afford to deck out your own A380 as a private jet, the Hotelicopter concept aims to top this airborne opulence by equipping a four story converted heavy lift aircraft with 18 luxuriously-appointed room hotels.
   Modeled on the Soviet Mil V-12, the largest helicopter ever built, of which only two prototypes were built in the 1960s, the Hotelicopter company would like us to believe they purchased one of these prototypes in 2004 with the Hotelicopter now ready for its maiden flight in June 26th.
   While the computer generated images of the Hotelicopter show a lot of imagination, the specified Maximum Takeoff Weight of 105850 kg is actually exactly same as that of the original Mil V-12 which is highly unlikely given the Hotelicopter has at entire 3-story luxury hotel added onto it. No need to remind readers that it is April 1st this week.
   The design outlined at the Hotelicopter site includes soundproofed rooms, each boasting a queen-sized bed, fine linens, a mini-bar, coffee machine, wireless internet access, and all the luxurious appointments you’d expect from a flying five star hotel - there’s even the promise of room service.
   The original Mil V-12 was an amazingly large helicopter which absolutely dwarfs any heavy lift Helicopter in use today. Each rotor had a diameter of nearly 115 ft, mounted at the end of a large wing, making the distance from the tips of each rotor blade wider than the wingspan of a Boeing 747. The two Soviet built V-12s did fly and still hold the helicopter heavy lift world record of 44,205 kg at a height of 7,398 feet set on August 6th 1969 but were simply too big and difficult to manoeuvre to be practical so never reached production.
   Hotelicopter has announced a travel schedule for the flying hotel starting with the inaugural flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport June 26th 2009.
   Source: Web sites

The ministry of finance has started the selection process for appointing a new governor of the Bangladesh Bank and a new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, official sources said.
   ‘We have started the process for selecting a new governor of the Bangladesh Bank and other contractual positions in the state-owned and specialised banks,’ a senior official of the finance ministry said.
   The official also said the files for the contractual jobs had already been received from the establishment ministry, and the banking wing of the ministry was now examining the files.
   Another source in the finance ministry said the banking wing had received files of 11 persons for contractual positions in the country’s banking and financial sector.
   The contractual appointment of the central bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed will expire on April 30 and the ministry of finance is looking for a new person for the post, sources said.
   ‘We have heard the name of a renowned economist who is also a professor of Dhaka University, and also the name of a person who is presently holding a high position at the World Bank. Any one of them can be the next governor of the central bank,’ said another senior official of the banking wing.
   Besides, the finance ministry is also looking at the file of the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh’s chairman Ziaul Haque Khandokar as a possible candidate for the post of the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
   Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, a former commerce secretary, who took over as the sixth chairman of the SEC on March 15 in 2006, retired on March 14 this year.
   The contractual jobs of three deputy governors of Bangladesh Bank will expire at the end of 2012 while the contractual jobs of the three managing directors of state-owned Sonali, Janata and Agrani banks will expire at the end of 2011. The finance ministry has also started looking for the suitable persons to fulfil the positions.

Starwood Hotel & Resorts, the parent company of Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, has extended its management contract with Bangladesh Services Limited, owning Dhaka Sheraton Hotel for another 3 months, a news release said.
   Dhaka Sheraton Hotel management contract with Starwood expired on December 31, 2008. However it was extended for three months until the March 31, 2009 and again the contract now extended for another 3 months till June 30, 2009.

Humayra Azam has joined Industrial Promotion and Development Company of Bangladesh Limited as its new managing director and chief executive officer, said a press release.
   She has 19 years of banking experience in corporate finance, special asset management, credit risk management and marketing.
   Humayra started her career as a management trainee in the ANZ Grindlays Bank. She has also served the Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC.

An Indian company named Geebee Garments Industries Limited will set up a garments manufacturing industry by investing 9.5 million US dollar in the Karnaphuli Export Processing Zone.
   The fully foreign owned company will produce shirt, t- shirt, blouse, jackets, trousers and shorts and create employment opportunity for 2,278 Bangladeshi and 22 foreign nationals, a press release said.
   An agreement was signed between the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and Geebee Garments Industries Limited in the BEPZA Complex here today.
   Member (Investment Promotion) of BEPZA Prasanta Bhushan Barua and General Manager of Geebee Garments Industries Limited Shankaranarayanan Guruswami inked the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.
   Executive Chairman of BEPZA Brig Gen Jamil Ahmed Khan and other officials from the respective organizations were present on the occasion.

Industries minister Dilip Barua Thursday said Bangladesh would be made the hub of ceramic goods production in the world.
   ‘The government would extend all sorts of cooperation to flourish the potentials ceramic industries in the country,’ he said.
   The minister said this when leaders of Bangladesh Ceramic Ware Manufacturers Association (BCWMA) called on him at his office here on Thursday, an official handout said.
   The industries minister advised the BCWMA leaders to produce quality ceramic products utilising low labour cost and export those to the developed countries by using the opportunity of world economic meltdown.
   The leaders highlighted the contributions of ceramic industries to the national economy as well as employment generation. If the government extends its help, the country’s ceramic industry could capture world’s top place within shortest possible time by producing quality ceramic products, the leaders said.
   During the meeting, they also drew attention of the minister for providing easy utility services like electricity, gas and better communication for the growth of ceramic industries in the country.
   The leaders said Bangladeshi ceramic products have a great demand in the developed countries including neighbouring India.
   The association leaders also urged the minister to issue health certificate from BSTI to help enter Bangladeshi ceramic products to European markets.
   Dilip Barua said the government has given top priority to the growth of local industries for achieving economic prosperity and creation of job opportunities. In this connection, he said, ship building, ceramic, light engineering and small and medium enterprises are in the priority list of the government.
   BSTI director general M Azmal Hossain, vice-president and BCWMA general secretary Iftekhar Uddin Farhad and Moinul Islam respectively were present on the occasion.

Asian and European stocks soared Thursday as dealers hoped the G20 summit would produce a plan to solve the world financial crisis, while positive US economic data also boosted confidence, traders said.
   Investors were meanwhile expecting the European Central Bank to cut eurozone interest rates to a record low level on Thursday as the world seeks ways to fight the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.
   Hong Kong led the charge in stock market trading on Thursday, closing up 7.41 per cent, while Tokyo ended 4.40-per cent higher at a three-month high. Sydney jumped 2.81 per cent, Mumbai gained 4.51 per cent and Shanghai grew by a modest 0.72 per cent to hit a seven-month peak.
   In morning European trade, London rallied 3.45 per cent, Frankfurt surged 4.94 per cent, Paris won 4.62 per cent and Madrid increased 3.30 per cent as markets continued an upward trend that began early last month.
   ‘Demand for equities is improving, signalling that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer,’ said Joshua Raymond, market strategist at City Index.
   But he cautioned: ‘Violent swings are likely to continue, particularly if the G20 summit disappoints and investors look to consolidate.’
   Leaders of 20 developed and developing economies were meeting in London to hammer out an agreement aimed at dragging the world out of its worst economic slump in more than 70 years.
   British Prime Minister Gordon Brown started the Group of 20 meeting by noting ‘the very high degree of consensus that... now exists between all of us’ and urging counterparts to overcome remaining differences over a final communique.
   Delegations were discussing ways to find hundreds of billions of dollars for the IMF and other delegations, diplomats said.

United Insurance
   SEC has directed the company to explain/clarify their position regarding following observations of SEC on audited financial statements for the year ended on December 31, 2008, which have not been specifically qualified by the auditors. It appears from note 11 — outstanding premium that the Insurance Act, 1938 does not allow the insurance companies to issue policies on credit, but a huge amount of Tk 40,560,823 has been shown as outstanding premium which includes premium receivable of Tk 19,584,434 from private sector due from 1992 to 2007 and no provision has been made for that.
   
   Rupali Bank
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2008, the bank has reported net profit of Tk 874.10 million with EPS of Tk 69.93 as against net loss of Tk 11,017.47m and EPS of Tk 881.40 as on December 31, 2007. Accumulated loss of the bank was Tk 12,921.53m as on December 31, 2008.
   
   Prime Finance & Investment
   Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended on record date of April 05, 2009.
   
   Aramit
   In response to a DSE query, the company has informed that there is no undisclosed price sensitive information of the company for recent unusual price hike. Source: DSE

World leaders on Thursday hammered out the first measures of a rescue plan for the global economy at one of the most important summits of recent decades.
   Amid sharp differences over how to restore confidence, negotiations on the final statement went on as US president Barack Obama and other Group of 20 leaders lined up for a traditional summit photo to launch the meeting.
   The summit, which is being widely watched by markets and has sparked anti-capitalism riots in London in which one man died, is discussing measures to regulate financial markets, a clampdown on excessive corporate salaries and tax havens and increasing funding for the International Monetary Fund.
   Delegations were discussing ways to find hundreds of billions of dollars for the IMF and other delegations, diplomats said.
   A draft summit communiqué also called for restrictions on bankers’ salaries to punish those who take short-term risks and on tax havens.
   British security forces created a ring of steel around the Excel Conference centre in London’s Docklands district — near the headquarters of many banks blamed for the international crisis.
   Small pockets of demonstrators built up around the summit and in the main financial district, one day after thousands laid siege to the Bank of England and attacked a branch of Royal Bank of Scotland.
   One man died after collapsing during the protests. Police said bottles and other missiles were hurled at them as they tried to resuscitate the man.
   UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon warned in an article for Britain’s Guardian newspaper that more than economics was at stake in London.
   He said that unless decisive action was taken, the crisis could lead to a ‘growing social unrest, weakened governments and angry publics who have lost all faith in their leaders and their own future.’
   Inside the summit, rifts ‘persisted’ on how to draw up a new rule book for international finance and stimulus measures and combat protectionism, Britain’s Business secretary Peter Mandelson told reporters.
   China was believed to be blocking the tax haven measures, diplomats said.
   France and Germany have demanded tough action by G20 leaders on regulation of global finance. Obama warned the US could no longer be counted on to be the ‘voracious consumer’ to drive worldwide growth.
   French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel raised fears that the summit could fail by saying they were not happy with draft conclusions distributed ahead of meeting.
   They vowed to stand together to press for ‘non-negotiable’ new global finance rules and resisted pressure — notably from the United States and Japan — to pledge new stimulus measures to jumpstart their sputtering economies.
   ‘Without new regulations there will be no confidence. And without confidence there will be no recovery. It’s a major aim, non-negotiable,’ Sarkozy told reporters at a joint press conference with Merkel.
   When asked about his threat to walk out of the summit if leaders failed to agree on sufficient new regulations, he said, ‘This is a historic moment and we cannot run away.’
   Obama and Brown have played down the differences but not the size of the crisis that the leaders are confronting.
   ‘Make no mistake, we are facing the most severe economic crisis since World War II, and the global economy is now so fundamentally interlinked that we can only meet this challenge together,’ the US leader said.
   Obama has said stimulus and regulation are needed but that the US could not shoulder all responsibility for generating new growth.
   ‘Everybody is going to have to pick up the pace and I think that there is a recognition based on the conversations that I’ve had with leaders around the world that is important,’ he said.
   But Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who raised eyebrows last week by blaming ‘white people with blue eyes’ for the global economic crisis, tried to dampen expectations ahead of the summit.
   ‘We cannot leave with nothing, he said, noting that traders around the world were looking to London for a sign. ‘We can only hope for the best possible agreement.’

The European Central Bank is likely to cut its key interest rate to an all-time low of 1 per cent on Thursday and may break new ground as it seeks ways to turn back a deepening recession.
   ‘It seems odds-on that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates again, IHS Global Insight chief European economist Howard Archer said.
   UniCredit chief eurozone economist Aurelio Maccario said it was clear to everyone that the refi (refinancing) rate will go lower but not much lower than the current level of 1.50 per cent.
   Most analysts expected a cut to 1.0 per cent, but did not rule out a smaller decrease to 1.25 per cent.
   Suspense remained over the size of a cut in the ECB’s deposit rate, which it pays to banks that stash money with it overnight.
   That has increasingly become the gauge for rates banks charge each other for overnight loans, but a half per cent point cut would bring it from 0.50 per cent at present to zero, making the ECB’s deposit facility irrelevant.
   UniCredit analyst Marco Valli was one of many who expected the ‘depo rate’ to be cut by just 0.25 points to 0.25 per cent.
   But UBS economist Stephane Deo said, ‘Our view is that rate cuts are not enough.’
   In the past few days, senior ECB policymakers have suggested that ‘the ECB could take other steps’ to boost the economy, Archer noted.
   Efforts to haul the 16-nation eurozone out of its first recession could pull the ECB further into murky waters called quantitative easing (QE), essentially the creation of money to boost economic activity.
   The US Federal Reserve, Bank of England (BoE) and Bank of Japan have gone down this path by unveiling plans to buy government and corporate debt and high-risk, mortgage-backed securities.
   ‘Since the Fed embarked on QE we argued that the ECB will have to follow suit somehow and quickly,’ Deo said.
   The ECB has instead focused on the eurozone banking sector, which controls business financing on a much greater scale than elsewhere.
   The central bank’s first move is likely to be a doubling of the maturity of refinancing operations, which provide funds to commercial banks at fixed rates, to one year from six months.
   ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet presents this as an example of ‘credit easing’ as opposed to QE, a highly controversial strategy.
   It ‘is the natural next step in the bank’s current strategy of working through the banking system rather than sidestepping it as the Fed and BoE have begun to do,’ Maccario said.
   In a second step expected by many to take a few months, ‘the ECB may purchase private sector bonds’ from banks, Natixis economist Cedric Thellier said.
   That would give banks an incentive to buy corporate bonds and thereby boost funds going to companies, while still working through the banking system.
   Eurozone economic perspectives have turned increasingly gloomy since late 2008 when the world was rocked by US investment bank Lehman Brothers’ collapse.
   Unemployment rose in February to 8.5 per cent, the highest level in almost three years, according to official EU data released on Wednesday.

The former head of disgraced insurance giant AIG, Maurice ‘Hank Greenberg, said in an interview published Thursday he did not ‘feel any responsibility at all’ for the company’s problems.
   Greenberg, 83, was set to testify Thursday before a Congressional committee, his first public appearance under oath since the government’s first bailout of the firm in September.
   At the hearing, he plans to propose reducing the government’s stake in AIG and pressuring trading partners to invest back into the company, the Wall Street Journal said on its website.
   ‘Somebody should lean on them,’ Greenberg told the Journal, referring to trading partners who received massive payments thanks to a government rescue that has so far exceeded 170 billion dollars.
   AIG has been vilified by politicians and analysts after it was revealed it was still paying bonuses worth around 165 million dollars despite huge cash injections by Washington to keep it from collapsing. The company has since said it will return about 50 million dollars of the bonuses.
   Greenberg helped turn the firm into the world’s biggest insurer before he was forced out in 2005.
   During his 38-year tenure as CEO, he pushed for expanding the company, helping create the troubled financial products unit widely blamed for AIG’s downfall. He also many of the executives still working at the company, the newspaper noted.
   ‘I don’t feel any responsibility at all’ for AIG’s problems, Greenberg said. ‘How can I be responsible for something that occurred when I am not there?’
   In his prepared testimony, Greenberg said that reducing the federal government’s stake in the company from its current level of about 80 per cent to 15 per cent would attract private investors.
   ‘Shrinking the government’s ownership could be politically unpalatable, given public frustration with government bailouts of financial firms,’ the newspaper noted.
   According to the Journal, Greenberg was expected to urge pressuring AIG’s trading partners — including big US and foreign banks — to invest some of the money they received from the bailout back into the company.

Although the US economy is expected to return to growth later this year, there is a danger of a second recession if monetary easing and a weak dollar leads to increased inflation expectations, a report said on Wednesday.
   Massive stimulus spending and moves by the Federal Reserve to fuel economic activity is expected to jump-start the anaemic US economy in the last quarter of this year after it contracted 6.3 per cent in fourth quarter of 2008.
   But the Fed’s moves to boost the economy by slashing interest rates and buying up billions in government debt could have undesired consequences, The Conference Board, a private research group, said in the report.
   If the United States experiences a too-rapid recovery, there may be a risk of another recession in 2010,’ said Bart van Ark, vice president and chief economist of The Conference Board.
   ‘It may fuel expectations for a return to inflation, adding to the uncertainty concerning the pattern and path of economic recovery,’ he said.
   The US economy has the potential for a ‘double-dip’ recession, Van Ark noted, similar to 1980 and 1982, as commodity prices rise on the back of a falling dollar and monetary easing.
   He added, however, that the likelihood of this scenario taking place is small as deflation risks are great, while government stimulus spending should stem further economic decline and ease the flow of job losses.
   The US economy could contract by 2.6 per cent in 2009, the largest annual decline since 1946, the Conference Board said.

Australia’s consumer regulator has ordered Coca-Cola to publish corrections after it claimed in ‘unacceptable’ ads that health risks from the soft drink were a myth, the watchdog said Thursday.
   The newspaper ads, which ran nationally last October and targeted mothers, said it was untrue that Coke could make you fat, rot your teeth or was packed with caffeine, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission(ACCC) said.
   ‘Coke’s messages were totally unacceptable, creating an impression which is likely to mislead that Coca-Cola cannot contribute to weight gain, obesity and tooth decay,’ it said.
   The watchdog said the company had agreed to publish corrective ads in papers as well as a website table comparing the caffeine levels of its drinks in comparison with tea and instant coffee.
   The managing director of Coca-Cola South Pacific, Gareth Edgecombe, confirmed that it would publish new adverts to clarify the firm’s message.
   ‘We certainly did not intend our message to be misleading and we have been working with the ACCC to address its concerns,’ he said in a statement.
    ‘The ACCC were concerned we oversimplified some complex topics, and we acknowledge we should have provided more information.’

A day-long workshop on anti-money laundering was held recently at the conference room of Mutual Trust Bank head office in Dhaka, said a press release.
   Mutual Trust deputy managing director Quamrul Islam Chowdhury formally inaugurated the workshop as the chief guest while MTB vice-president and chief anti-money laundering compliance officer Swapan Kumar Biswas conducted the sessions.
   The participants would gather complete knowledge on anti-money laundering and also on combating financing of terrorism during the tenure of the course, said the deputy managing director.
   A total of 37 participants from various MTB branches took part in the workshop.