The Japanese envoy, Masayuki Inoue, on Tuesday said it was ‘very right time’ for Bangladesh to invite the investors of his country as Bangladesh’s transition to democracy will inspire the Japanese.
   So far, Bangladesh could not fully harness business opportunities offered by Japan for various reasons, observed the Japanese envoy requesting both public and private sectors [in Bangladesh] to successfully explore the business relations with Japanese companies.
   ‘More and more Japanese businessmen are recently asking me how the environment here [Bangladesh] is…..I think it is time to come to Bangladesh for business,’ said Inoue addressing a seminar on export diversification held at BRAC Inn in the city.
   ‘Time is money and timing is also money,’ the envoy said categorically alerting the Bangladesh authorities to remain cautious about right timing for inviting Japanese investors who are rich in capital and technology.
   The seminar, organised by the Export Promotion Bureau and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, was also addressed by commerce secretary Feroz Ahmed, EPB vice-executive chairman Mohammed Shahabullah and JICA chief representative Nobuko Suzuki Kayashima.
   JICA team leader Shozo Inakazu presented a study on two sub-sectors which are potential for export diversifications in Bangladesh. It detailed the potentials of jute and IT sectors in Bangladesh.
   Commerce secretariat Feroz Ahmed said the government would continue its efforts in developing capacity of the diversification of export markets and products.
   He said Bangladesh produces the highest quality raw jute and so production of high-value jute products is possible here.
   JICA also found that Bangladesh has high quality and low-cost workforce for developing IT services and software and new government’s ‘digital Bangladesh’ policy is also a supporting issue.
   JICA recommended that Bangladesh should introduce IT skills standard and arrange placement service and practical training for university graduates.

Two years ago anyone uttering the words ‘state’ and ‘regulation’ in the same sentence would have been sneered at in high-powered banking circles gathered by the ski slopes of Davos.
   Now, more than 18 months into the biggest financial upheaval in the last eighty years, those bank executives that still have jobs are preparing to swallow large doses of regulatory medicine to help cure a crisis they are accused of causing.
   With bank lending still frozen, the world sliding into recession and more than 300,000 financial jobs already gone, policymakers are replacing bankers in the driving seat at this year’s World Economic Forum to discuss short- and long-term solutions to the sector’s woes.
   ‘Two years ago nobody could see the problems and the risks,’ said Marc Weil, head of EMEA Financial Services at consultancy firm Oliver Wyman, which is publishing a report on the state of the global financial services industry this week.
   ‘It is clear now that the financial services industry is like no others and anyone that poses systemic risks needs tighter regulation.’
   This may include greater balance sheet transparency, higher bank capital requirements and a co-ordinated effort to bring banks back toward what they used to know best: lending.
   ‘But it is inappropriate to say we went from the Wild West of capitalism to something resembling the Soviet Union. We never had a complete free market,’ Weil added.
   The WEF may enable leaders such as British prime minister Gordon Brown, European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet and EU Internal Market commissioner Charlie McCreevy to swap notes on financial regulation ahead of key Group of Seven and Group of 20 meetings.
   ‘We see an expanded room for regulatory oversight. There may be additional activities that have not fallen under the scope of regulators. It may be more a case of regulating the activity rather than who someone is,’ said Bernd Jan Sikken, co-author of a WEF report on the future of the global financial sector.
   Other financial leaders attending include Hu Xiaolian, Deputy Governor of China’s central bank, and Japanese finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa and International Monetary Fund’s First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky.
   Notably missing will be company executives, regulators and policymakers from the United States, where newly elected President Barack Obama is pushing through a giant $835 stimulus package to jump-start the economy.
   The WEF will also offer decision-makers an opportunity to learn lessons from past mistakes.
   One panel is set to analyze the 36 hours that followed the sudden collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in September, when more than $600 billion was burned during an unprecedented downward spiral on global markets.
   Persistent instability in financial markets since the first round of state interventions that followed Lehman’s collapse showed that pumping cash into banks, arranging forced mergers or even outright nationalizations were not enough to mend the troubled banking sector.
   After a second round of cash injections, some countries are mulling the possibility of creating ‘bad banks’ to relieve banks of illiquid assets and allow them to concentrate on lending.

Dhaka stocks dropped on Tuesday for the straight second day amid volatile trading with the investors’ participation dropping in the context of a falling market in the recent weeks, market operators said.
   The Dhaka Stock Exchange general index lost 25.01 points, or 0.94 per cent, to close at 2637.04, while its blue chips index, DSE20, shed 22.90 points, or 1.04 per cent, to finish at 2170.18.
   DSE stockbrokers said the market remained volatile as investors, especially the retailers, remained shaky amid the recent bearish trend on the market.
   Before the two-day’s fall, the market, however, had witnessed upward movements of its price indices for a couple of days, thanks to a buying spree of investors.
   The market also jumped on January 20 after the Securities and Exchange Commission held a market-review meeting with merchant banks and stock exchanges.
   The stock market regulatory body convened the meeting following a demonstration by a group of retail investors in front of the DSE building on January 19 in protest at a continuous fall in share prices in the recent weeks.
   Of the total 248 issues traded on Tuesday, 74 advanced, 167 declined and seven remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the DSE dropped to Tk 254.40 crore from the Monday’s Tk 283.02 crore.
   Beximco Pharmaceuticals topped the turnover leaders with a total transaction of Tk 37.06 crore.
   Shinepukur Ceramics, Beximco, Summit Power, Titas Gas, Aftab Automobiles, Quasem Drycells, Eastern Housing, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels and Grameen Two Mutual Fund were the rest of the top 10 turnover leaders.
   Chittagong stocks also dropped on Tuesday.
   The selective categories index of the Chittagong Stock Exchange lost 33.92 points, or 0.64 per cent, to close at 5286.29, while its blue chips index, CSE30, shed 45.23 points, or 0.65 per cent, to finish at 6894.85.
   Of the total 146 issues traded on the CSE floor, 35 posted gains, 102 dropped and nine remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the CSE went down to Tk 32.69 crore from the Monday’s Tk 35.39 crore.
   The DSE Members’ Conference 2009 will be held from January 29 to 31 at the Seagull Hotel in Cox’s Bazar, said an official of the DSE.
   The bourse will present a presentation on ‘DSE Vision 2013’, a five-year plan of the country’s premier stock exchange, at the conference on January 31, he added.

India’s central bank reduced its growth forecast for Asia’s third-largest economy on Tuesday due to the deepening worldwide recession as it held leading interest rates at historic lows.
   The bank cut its growth estimate for this fiscal year to seven per cent ‘with a downward bias’ from an earlier projection of 7.5 to 8.0 per cent.
   The growth forecast for the year to March was the lowest since 2003.
   It came days after figures showed neighbouring China’s economy grew by nine per cent in 2008, slipping back into single digits for the first time in six years.
   ‘The global crisis will dent India’s growth trajectory as investments and exports slow. Clearly, there is a period of painful adjustment ahead of us,’ Reserve Bank of India governor Duvvuri Subbarao warned.
   The bank said it was pausing its series of aggressive interest rate cuts to assess the impact of the reductions.
   ‘The response to the Reserve Bank’s policy actions over the last several months is still unfolding,’ Subbarao said in a statement after the monetary policy committee met in India’s financial hub Mumbai.
   Since last October, the bank has cut its repo rate — the leading short-term rate at which it lends to commercial banks — four times, slashing it by 350 basis points to 5.5 per cent.
   The bank on Tuesday also kept its reverse repo rate — the rate at which it borrows overnight — on hold at four per cent.
   Both rates now are at historic lows, the bank said.
   At the same time, Subbarao said the bank was poised to act ‘swiftly and decisively’ to minimise the impact of the global financial crisis on the Indian economy ‘when evolving external and domestic conditions warrant.’
   But the decision not to lower interest rates now angered India’s industrial bodies. ‘This was clearly a window of opportunity’ to spur growth, said the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Timothy Geithner was sworn in as US Treasury Secretary on Monday and pledged quick action to help restore the crumbing US economy that was left reeling from a fresh wave of job losses.
   Geithner, 47, took his oath shortly after the Senate voted to confirm him as treasury secretary, despite misgivings over his personal tax problems and ongoing government efforts to rescue the battered US economy.
   Speaking ahead of Geithner’s swearing-in, president Barack Obama highlighted the urgency of the work at hand, noting that 2.5 million jobs were lost last year and seven major corporations have just announced thousands more cuts.

The Citibank was awarded as the best bank in Asia by the Asset Magazine, one of Asia’s leading financial magazines, for 2008 for ninth year in a row, a news release said Tuesday.
   ‘This recognition from the Asset Magazine is testament to the dedication and performance of our employees across the region,’ said Ajay Banga, the bank’s chief executive officer for Asia Pacific.
   To be awarded best bank for nine years in a row is a great honour, especially as Asia becomes ever more competitive, he added.
   In 2008, the Citibank raised over $20 billion for its Asian clients across the region from debt and equity capital markets and was also involved on mergers and acquisitions transactions worth in excess of $60 billion.
   The Citibank was also awarded best bank in Australia, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, the release added.

Mobile operator Warid Telecom on Monday announced bonus talk-time for its Zem prepaid users on recharging their accounts with scratch cards, a news release said.
   Zem prepaid subscribers will get 30 per cent bonus talk-time by recharging with scratch cards of Tk 100 to 500 and 20 per cent bonus talk-time on Tk 50 recharge, it said.
   The subscribers can use the bonus talk-time, which will remain valid for 30 days, for making calls to other operators.
   The release said Warid subscribers can easily know the balance of the bonus talk-time without any cost by simply pressing *778*1# on the mobile phone button.

The Pan Pacif Sonargaon has appointed Asif Ahmed director of finance recently, said a press release.
   Prior to his appointment, Asif had been the manager finance from October 2005 to mid 2008.
   Asif Ahmed has worked for DHL Worldwide Express, Acid Survivors Foundation and KPMG Bangladesh in progressive higher position before joining Sonargaon.

The government Tuesday re-fixed mill rate of sugar at Tk 30,000 per tonne, which was Tk 33,000 earlier, an official handout said.
   The decision was made at a meeting at the industries ministry with industries minister Dilip Barua in the chair.
   This price cut will be effective from January 28 to February 5, the handout said.
   Registered dealers of the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation have been requested to draw sugar during the time.

In a gloomy forecast for the Rs 200-billion Indian rubber industry, badly hit by falling prices in the wake of dwindling demand from the recession-hit auto sector, the Rubber Board said that the crisis would continue through most parts of 2009.
   ‘The board does not foresee any substantial hike in price of natural rubber under the present circumstances. The situation is likely to improve by the end of the current year,’ Rubber Board chairman Sajan Peter told PTI in Kottayam.
   The price of rubber, he says, depends on demand and supply and is influenced by the price of crude oil, trends in future trade, value of currency and climatic changes.
   ‘The economic crisis has affected all sectors, including the vehicle sector, which in turn has hit the tyre and rubber sectors in the country,’ which is the fourth largest producer and consumer of natural rubber, he said.
   According to data released by CII, the Indian rubber industry comprises 6,000 units, including 30 large-scale and 300 medium-scale and around 5,600 small scale enterprises.
   The industry is regarded as one of the core sectors of the Indian economy, guaranteeing a turnover of Rs 200 billion and contributes Rs 40 billion to the national exchequer by way of tax, duties and other levies.
   Peter said the International Rubber Research Institute had forecast a further 0.83 per cent decline during 2009 in rubber consumption, which fell by 1.5 per cent in 2008.
   However, their outlook of a 5.54 per cent growth rate for 2010 looked promising, he said.

About 2,50,000 Filipino workers are likely to lose their jobs in the next six months amid the global financial crisis, local media reported on Tuesday.
   The Philippine Department of Labour and Employment has so far recorded more than 30,000 laid-off workers since last December and the figure could reach 35,000 by the end of the month, the Philippine Star reported, quoting an anonymous labour official.
   ‘We have posted a total of 33,548 workers displaced and subjected to reduce working hours. The number could hit 35,000 by the end of January and if the trend continues, we are looking at about 2,40,000 to 2,50,000 displacements in six months,’ the official said.
   Most displaced workers came from small- and medium-enterprises and companies in Southern Tagalog and Central Visayas, particularly in the central city of Cebu.
   Labor Secretary Marianito Roque has called on the public not to panic since the number of displaced Filipino workers, from home and abroad, is still within the normal range.
   ‘The figure that we are getting at this time is not really alarming and we could immediately facilitate their re-employment or provide them with alternative sources of livelihood,’ Roque said.
   Government data showed that the unemployment rate was posted at 6.8 per cent and underemployment rate at 17.5 per cent in October last year in the southeast Asian country, with a population of some 90 million. The ‘underemployed’ are those who either wanted to work full-time, get second jobs or move to other jobs that would pay better.

The dollar rose against the yen in Asia Tuesday as better-than-expected US economic data and a recovery in share prices allayed investor fears over the fallout from the financial crisis.
   The dollar climbed to 89.56 yen in Tokyo morning trade from 89.07 in New York late Monday.
   The euro continued to gain ground after recent losses, rising to $1.3210 from 1.3186 and to 118.31 yen from 117.46.
   Traders took their cue from an improvement in investor sentiment, which reduced demand for the safe-haven Japanese currency. Wall Street rebounded overnight and Tokyo’s Nikkei stock index soared Tuesday.
   ‘The dollar may have finished bottoming out against the yen,’ said Ryohei Muramatsu, manager of Commerzbank’s Group Treasury Asia.
   The dollar was supported by optimism over US president Barack Obama’s $825b economic stimulus package, which traders hope will clear Congress quickly, he said.
   Some market players, however, are worried that the plan may be insufficient to fix the crippled US financial system as banks’ losses may amount to trillions of dollars, analysts said.
   ‘During the first 100 days of the presidency, markets will be watching how Obama handles the economy ... (and) storing energy for what may come afterwards,’ said Muramatsu.
   US data offered some glimmers of hope. Existing home sales increased 6.5 per cent in December, while the Conference Board’s composite index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3 per cent, defying expectations of a drop.
   The euro and British pound kept up their rebound after British bank Barclays said Monday it expected a 2008 pre-tax profit of about seven billion dollars and insisted there was no need for a government bailout.
   ‘This bounce is just from the upside surprise of relatively good news after such a long string of bad news for European currencies,’ Tsutomu Soma, senior dealer at Okasan Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.
   The pound was trading at $1.4048, up from 1.3994 late Monday and well off last week’s 23-year low near $1.35.
   The dollar traded narrowly against most regional currencies in Asia, where key markets were closed for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Oil prices rose sharply on Tuesday with traders increasingly convinced of OPEC’s commitment to cut production in the face of weak global demand for crude.
   New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, rose $1.30 to $47.03 a barrel.
   Brent North Sea crude for March delivery gained $1.28 to $48.24.
   Prices slipped on Monday, unable to hold gains from last week, as the market focused on slack demand in the faltering global economy.
   However on Tuesday, traders focused once more on expectations that OPEC member nations will comply with recent output cuts.
   ‘People are starting to realise that OPEC (states) are serious about production cuts,’ said Tony Nunan, of Mitsubishi Corp’s international petroleum business in Tokyo.
   The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel decided in December to cut production by a further 2.2 million barrels a day in a bid to halt tumbling prices.
   A deepening global economic slowdown has slashed energy demand and pulled prices from record highs of above $147 last July.
   ‘Oil demand is falling quicker than OPEC can cut oil production,’ Nunan said.

AT LEAST 85,000 new job cuts were announced in a single day Monday as the rampant financial crisis hit more workers across the globe and brought down Iceland’s government.
   In a sign of the deepening social impact of the crisis, companies announced an avalanche of cuts, piling pressure on US president Barack Obama as he pushes a stimulus plan for the world’s biggest economy.
   The job cuts came from some of the biggest US corporate names including Pfizer, General Motors, Caterpiller and Sprint Nextel, and news of additional downsizing came from Japanese automakers and Dutch bank ING.
   ‘These are not just numbers on a page,’ Obama said as he pressed for urgent action on an $825b stimulus plan.
   ‘As with the millions of jobs lost in 2008, these are working men and women whose families have been disrupted and whose dreams have been put on hold. We owe it to each of them and to every single American to act with a sense of urgency and common purpose. We can’t afford distractions and we cannot afford delays.’
   The financial catastrophe also claimed a scalp as Iceland’s prime minister Geir Haarde announced the resignation of his government after months of protests over economic policies that brought the country close to bankruptcy.
   US construction equipment giant Caterpillar said it planned 20,000 job cuts worldwide to cope with plunging sales.
   New York-based drug maker Pfizer announced it would acquire its rival Wyeth for $68 billion, the largest pharmaceutical takeover deal in nearly a decade amid a dearth of corporate deal making due in part to a credit squeeze.
   It said it would also cut its global workforce by around 10 per cent — meaning at least 8,000 posts cut in a company that currently employs almost 82,000 people in more than 150 countries.
   General Motors announced plans Monday to cut 2,000 jobs at two US plants as it prepares to submit a long-term viability plan in exchange for billions in loans from the US government.
   US telecom firm Sprint Nextel announced 8,000 cuts — 14 per cent of its staff — and top US home improvement retailer Home Depot said it would cut 7,000.
   Japan’s top 12 automakers expect to cut a total of 25,000 jobs between now and the end of March, a survey by Jiji Press concluded on Monday.
   Dutch banking and insurance group ING announced 7,000 job cuts and a deal for the Dutch state to guarantee billions of euros’ worth of troubled assets.
   Dutch electronics giant Philips said it would eliminate 6,000 jobs.
   The announcements by the two Dutch companies came ahead of confirmation that Europe’s second-biggest steelmaker, Indian-owned Corus, said it would cut more than 3,500 jobs around the world, most of them in Britain.
   Workers arriving to their job early Monday were gloomy about their prospects.
   ‘People feel gutted. I have already had to take a 10 per cent pay cut,’ said 45-year-old Douglas Mayhill, a worker at a Corus plant in Port Talbot, southern Wales.
   ‘I was told on Friday I have a choice — either accept a 10 per cent pay cut or take redundancy — that is no choice.’
   In Washington, International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that Group of 20 major countries have made little progress in fighting the global financial crisis since their November summit.
   ‘We gathered here in Washington and said we would recapitalize banks, disclose their losses, implement stimulus packages,’ Strauss-Kahn said.
   ‘Very little has been done. I don’t say nothing has been done, but it’s moving very, very slowly.’
   The US Congress was meanwhile due to begin debate this week on Obama’s stimulus bill, designed to haul the US economy out of a paralyzing recession.
   In his first presidential radio address at the weekend, Obama raised the prospect of double-digit unemployment and a massive erosion of family incomes if Congress did not act on the bill.
   In Ottawa, the Canadian government urged a divided parliament to unite behind its plan to stimulate an economy in recession, at the opening of a new legislative session.
   ‘As Canadians expect, the economy will be the focus of our government’s actions and of the measures placed before parliament during the coming year,’ said Governor General Michaelle Jean in a throne speech outlining the administration’s agenda for the coming months.
   ‘Canadians face a difficult year — perhaps several difficult years,’ she said.

Japan’s welfare ministry is considering offering jobs to thousands of unemployed people at childcare centres across the nation to head off a looming labour shortage in the sector, an official said Tuesday.
   Japan has one of the world’s lowest birth rates but faces a shortage of workers in day-care centres, with more women working outside the home and little of the low-wage foreign labour seen in other rich nations.
   ‘The ministry’s project team on creating jobs in sectors with hiring potential is considering it,’ welfare ministry official Atsushi Kawai said, while noting it had not reached a formal decision yet.
   The job-for-life culture in Asia’s largest economy has collapsed with Japanese companies announcing thousands of layoffs in recent months in response to the country’s deepening economic woes.
   Japan requires childcare workers to complete a special curriculum at school, or pass a national examination after a few years of experience in the field.
   The welfare ministry’s plan would be designed to employ jobless people who do not have experience in childcare as temporary assistant workers.
   But the programme could include financial assistance to those who want to obtain the certificate, Kawai said.
   If realised, the project could lead to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs over three years, he said.
   About 320,000 nurses are working at 23,000 day-care centres that have cleared the standards set by the country.
   The ministry estimates Japan would need 70,000 more nurses for children by 2020 if the country opens more childcare centres as hoped.
   The ministry is also considering offering jobs in elderly care and medical fields, the official said.
   As the labour market worsens, internal affairs minister Kunio Hatoyama has also proposed sending young people from urban areas to the countryside to help in forestry, farming and other rural industries.

Spooked by the global crisis and fearful for their jobs, French workers are preparing their biggest one-day strike since president Nicolas Sarkozy took office with a promise to revive the economy.
   In a rare show of unity, all France’s main unions have called for a day of protest on Thursday, promising massive disruption, particularly to public transport, education and administration.
   Unions have stopped short of calling their action a general strike, but opinion polls suggest around three quarters of the public support the protest, and street demonstrations are expected in Paris and other major cities.
   ‘Employees feel that they are paying with their jobs, their wages and their labour rights for a crisis for which they bear no responsibility,’ declared Francois Chereque, leader of the CFDT union.
   Sarkozy was elected in May 2007 on a right-wing ticket, promising to increase spending power, cut unemployment and kick-start the historically sluggish French economy through free market reforms.
   Twenty months later the global credit crunch triggered by the collapse in the US sub-prime mortgage market has swept all that away. France narrowly missed falling into a technical recession in 2008, and 2009 looks bleak.
   Already, with unemployment mounting, Sarkozy has ditched plans to trim back state spending, putting aside a 360-billion-euro fund to guarantee banks and spending tens of billions more to prop up key national export industries.

TRUST in business plummeted worldwide last year, as the global economic crisis sent financial institutions pleading for government support, leaving average people to question industry’s ability to bring prosperity, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
   Some 62 per cent of informed adults aged 25 to 64 told the Edelman Trust Barometer that they trusted businesses less than they had a year ago, with respondents in the United States and Western Europe more suspicious than those in emerging economies.
   The biggest drops came in Ireland, where 83 per cent of respondents said they had lost trust in business; in Japan, where 79 per cent grew more wary; and in the United States, where 77 per cent became more suspicious.
   Trust evaporated as the world’s most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression caused millions to lose their jobs and wiped out billions of dollars of invested capital.
   ‘This is not 2001-2003; this is not limited to the dot-com New Economy concept companies ... This is General Motors; this is your big bank,’ said Richard Edelman, president and chief executive of US public relations firm Edelman, which commissioned the survey. ‘It’s affected you in the pocketbook and also it’s been the mainstays of the economy.’
   Last year a downturn that started with investors losing confidence in obscure securities from the US mortgage market snowballed, pushing Wall Street banks including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc to their knees and even bringing the North Atlantic nation of Iceland to the brink of bankruptcy.
   In the United States, just 38 per cent of respondents aged 35 to 64 said they trusted business, down from 58 per cent a year earlier and the lowest rating in the survey’s 10-year history. The reading is lower even than results in the wake of the dot-com bust and collapse of Enron Corp.
   While the survey has been conducted for 10 years, this is the first time questioners have specifically asked whether their trust in business had declined over the past year. The survey has grown to include more countries and a wider age range of respondents over its history.
   Americans were least trusting of the auto and banking industries — both of which last year turned to Washington for billions of dollars to tide them through financial crises.
   The US government has already paid out more than $270 billion through its Troubled Asset Relief Program to prop up financial institutions including Bank of America Corp, Citigroup and American International Group, and has made multibillion-dollar loans to automakers General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC.
   Respondents in emerging economies were the least likely to say they had their confidence in business shaken.
   Just 21 per cent of Brazilians said they had lost confidence in business last year, while 32 per cent of Indonesians grew more doubtful and 49 per cent of Indians and Russians reported a loss of faith in business.
   The founder of Satyam Computer Services Ltd, India’s No 4 software services exporter, resigned earlier this month after admitting to falsifying profits for years.
   The telephone poll of 4,475 people in 20 countries was conducted from November 5 through December 14. Polling was limited to ‘informed adults’— defined as those with college educations and top-quartile household income who followed business and public policy news.

Japan’s parliament on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to an emergency stimulus package including a controversial plan to hand $22 billion back to the public to fight the recession.
   The two-trillion-yen cash handout plan had been held up for a day due to feuding between the more powerful lower house and the upper house, which is controlled by an increasingly confident opposition.
   The cash handouts are the most contentious part of the 4.8-trillion-yen extra budget, which also includes loans for unemployed workers and financial support for ailing banks.
   Prime minister Taro Aso has voiced hope the cash handouts would jump-start weak consumer spending in Asia’s largest economy.

The IFIC Bank Limited has recently signed an agreement with the Bangladesh Post Office on smooth payment of remittance of non-resident Bangladeshis.
   Under the deal, the bank will use the BPO delivery channels all over the country for systematic and efficient distribution of inward remittance, said a press release.
   Mosharraf Hossain, managing director of the IFIC Bank, and Mobasherur Rahman, director general of the Bangladesh Post Office, inked the deal for the respective sides.
   Other high officials of both the organisations were present at the signing ceremony.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday submitted to parliament an $89b government budget for the year to March 2010 amid low global oil prices and high domestic inflation.
   The budget is based on a global oil price of $37.5 a barrel, sharply lower than the high of nearly $147 seen in the middle of last year.
   ‘Considering today’s global economy, we sought to plan a budget with less government dependence on oil resources,’ Ahmadinejad as saying in his budget proposal.

Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan’s largest brokerage, reported a record $3.8 billion quarterly loss on Tuesday, hit by the cost of integrating Lehman Brothers’ operations, soured trades and its exposure to Iceland and Bernard Madoff.
   Nomura bought the Asian, European and Middle East operations of failed Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers last year, aiming to leverage its infrastructure, clients and employees to expand further outside its mature home market.
   But it has been forced to pay out large sums to keep key Lehman talent and absorb other costs at a time when the financial crisis has triggered huge losses on its investments and hurt all of its major business segments.
   Nomura said it booked 243 billion yen in one-off losses in the October-December quarter mainly from Lehman, its stake in Fortress Investment Group, and its exposure to crisis-hit Iceland and accused financial swindler Bernard Madoff.
   ‘The latest results highlight the fact that the balance of income and costs at Nomura in the current environment is not good and that it needs to cut costs,’ said Wataru Kasatani, a financial-sector analyst at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management.

Philippine imports plunged 31.5 per cent year on year to $3.4 billion in November 2008, the government said Tuesday amid an electronics demand meltdown that has caused thousands of job losses.
   November imports of electronics parts, which are assembled at Philippine factories into finished products for shipment abroad, fell 41.9 per cent from a year ago, having already suffered a 30 per cent annual drop in October.
   Last week Manila said more than 15,000 jobs had been lost over the past two months mainly in the electronics and garments sectors — which account for the country’s top two exports — as factories tightened their belts.
   Electronics products account for nearly 70 per cent of Philippine exports.
   The National Statistics Office said manufacturing output in November dropped 6.6 from a year earlier as measured in inflation-adjusted production volume terms. Electrical machinery output was down 17.7 per cent and textiles production fell 22.4 per cent.
   The November import figure released by the statistics office also suffered a sharp 23.9 per cent fall from October.
   The government earlier reported that November 2008 exports fell 11.4 per cent from a year earlier to $3.51 billion.