Turnover at the Dhaka Stock Exchange Thursday hit Tk 1,149.71 crore, its highest ever mark, on the first trading day under the new fiscal year the budget of which has allowed undisclosed money to invest in the share market and lowered corporate tax on banks and insurance companies.
   The market indicator surpassed its previous highest of Tk 942.20 crore reached on Tuesday as investors continued injecting funds heavily to the market, market analysts said. The bourse was closed on Wednesday due to bank holiday.
   ‘Investors, encouraged by the fiscal incentives for the capital market, rushed to the market, expecting good gains in the days to come,’ said Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, who teaches finance at Dhaka University.
   He said the market had been experiencing heavy fund flow and a bullish trend in recent weeks. ‘But, the rate in which stock prices are surging is abnormal,’ he said, adding, ‘Mismatch in demand of and supply for securities are overheating the market.’
   Financial stocks are maintaining gains following a cut in corporate tax on them, said Salahuddin, also a former chief executive officer of the DSE.
   In the budget of the current fiscal, the government has reduced the corporate tax on banks and insurance companies by 2.5 per cent to 42.5 per cent from the previous 45 per cent.
   On Thursday, the DSE general index gained 59.45 points, or 1.97 per cent, to close at 3,069.71. On Tuesday, the bourse’s benchmark index crossed 3,000-point mark after nearly nine months. A DSE stockbroker said investors kept their confidence on the market despite the Monday’s fake bomb threat.
   On Monday, the bourse’s authorities halted trading at 1:15pm instead of the scheduled 2:00pm after a bomb explosion was threatened by an unknown caller over phone. Law-enforcing agencies had found no bomb in the DSE building and its annexe after a thorough search.
   A bullish trend in the market is luring more and more investors in the market, said the stockbroker. The market requires more quality shares to cope with the current demand of the investors, he said.

Momen Bhuiyan left Bangladesh and his job as a van driver two years ago, to make his fortune in Malaysia and set himself up for life. As for so many like him, it did not turn out that way.
   ‘I was told I would get a better job and a higher salary here, so that when I went back to Bangladesh I could marry my girlfriend,’ said the 23-year-old with a boyish grin.
   But since then he has struggled to find work even as a day labourer, and with the arrival of the global slowdown the situation for migrant workers — precarious even during boom times — has dramatically worsened.
   Activists and diplomats say the downturn, which has shuttered factories and construction sites across the region, is making foreign workers even more vulnerable by threatening their livelihood, health, and human rights.
   ‘They keep on telling me there is ‘no job, no job’ whenever I ask,’ said Momen of the agents who he paid more than $3,000, money raised by selling off his family’s land and borrowing from relatives.
   ‘But going back to Bangladesh now would be a problem for me. I already sold the land, I have a loan, I don’t have money to pay them back, I don’t have my passport,’ said Momen who has had no work at all for months.
   His story is a common one among the 2.2 million migrant workers in Malaysia, one of Asia’s largest importers of labour, which relies on foreigners to clean homes, care for children and work in plantations and factories.
   Over the years, the government has become concerned about the ramifications of having such a large migrant workforce and has periodically tried to cut back the numbers.
   Facing mass layoffs and a looming recession as the global slowdown hits, it earlier this year banned the hiring of new foreigners in the manufacturing sector in a push to boost local employment.
   It also drastically reduced the number of work permits for foreigners in other sectors and cancelled visas that had already been issued to 55,000 Bangladeshi workers.
   Rights groups say that migrant workers are suffering the most from the gloomy economic times.
   ‘Wrongful dismissal, unpaid wages and late payment — all these are ongoing problems for the migrants even without the financial crisis,’ said Cynthia Gabriel from migrant labour group Caram Asia.
   ‘It is just that the situation now makes it even more acute,’ she said.
   The small shelter down a back alley where Momen is staying in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur is now filled to bursting, its occupants increasing from 30 to 70 in the past few months as more jobless seek somewhere to sleep.
   Caram Asia said the mass retrenchments are not only pushing more workers—and their families back home—into extreme poverty but also putting them at greater risk of infection from diseases like HIV/AIDS.
   Migrant workers, deemed one of the populations most at risk of contracting the virus, will be deeply affected by cuts in funding for medical treatment, and programs aimed at limiting infections and raising awareness, it said.
   Tatang Razak, deputy chief of the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia, said the mission has received rising numbers of complaints over the past few months about layoffs and worsening living conditions.
   ‘They don’t have work here, yet they can’t go home because the outsourcing companies want to keep them. If they want to go home, they have to pay penalties and buy their own air ticket, which they can’t afford,’ he said.
   The outsourcing companies, which work with recruiting agents in source countries, act as middlemen and earn lucrative commissions by bringing workers here.
   But with no jobs available, agents are keen to cut costs and the living conditions for workers under their care go from bad to worse, says Tatang, adding that often 20 people stay in one small apartment.
   ‘You can imagine the environment—very crowded, unhygienic and sometimes men and women staying together. That’s why most of the workers want to go home and some run away to be illegals, this creates these problems,’ he said.

As there is a possibility of bigger bank borrowing for financing the newly-passed big budget, Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman has said a changed monetary policy will spell out restrictions on government’s taking money from the banks.
   ‘On of the main focuses of the next monetary policy would be to restrain government from big borrowing from the banking sector,’ he told reporters Thursday on return from a banking conference abroad.
   Responding to a question, the new chief of the central bank said that to implement the current budget government would need a huge amount of money. ‘This huge money has to come from revenue and banking sectors.’
   In this context, he noted that the government has to pay less attention on the banking sector to get money for its budget implementation.
   On the other hand, there are reports airing scepticism about mobilizing the targeted big amount of revenues in the just-started fiscal year because of the tax cuts on a number of items during the passage of the Tk 113,819-crore budget. The total revenue target is Tk 79,461 crore.
   Saying that the confidence regarding investment has to be emboldened, the governor expressed the hope that this maiden budget of the new government would ensure that for the investors.
   ‘The present monetary policy will continue after making some little changes,’ Atiur told the reporters at Zia International Airport on return from his Euro tour.
   He went to Basel in Switzerland to attend the annual meeting of the world’s central banks’ chiefs. On his way back, he visited London and had some meetings with the NBRs.

The sixth international plastic fair in Dhaka will be held in January 25 to 28 next year, its organisers announced on Thursday.
   The Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association, ES Event Management of Malaysia and Chan Chao International Limited of Taiwan are jointly organising the fair.
   At a news conference held at Dhaka Club on Thursday BPGMEA president Ferdous Wahid said the fair would have 350 stalls including around 200 from abroad, mainly from China, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, and Malaysia.
   The 2010 fair venue is the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre, as was in the previous years.
   In the last fair 68 local and foreign companies showcased their products in 81 stalls and the four day fair saw 1,10,000 visitors, as recalled the BPGMEA former president Mohammad Jasim Uddin.
   Judi Wang, the executive director of Chan Chao, said the Dhaka fair was growingly attracting international machinery and raw-material suppliers as plastic goods industries were expanding in Bangladesh rapidly.
   Good are consumed not only at homes and offices, the export-oriented garment and textile industries here also required huge quality of plastic accessories, she said.
   Bangladesh has also started some household plastic goods to foreign markets.

The TSP Complex Ltd, an enterprise of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation, made an all-time high profit in its nearly four-decade history amounting to Tk 49.77 crore during fiscal year 2008-2009 end on June 30.
   Officials of the TSP Complex Ltd informed this at a meeting with the industries minister, Dilip Barua, in Chittagong on Thursday. They also apprised the minister about the overall state of the plant and gave several suggestions for its further development.
   They said that both the productivity and profit of this complex, country’s only Triple Super Phosphate and Gypsum fertiliser and largest Sulfuric Acid producing industry, could be increased to a larger extent if modern machines are installed replacing the age-old ones.
   The minister also held separate meetings with the leaders of TSP Complex CBA and Officers Association during his visit to the plant site at Patenga Industrial belt this morning and called upon them to work devotedly for continuing the current trend of performance.

A new business, jointly ventured by businessmen from Bangladesh and Japan, has been launched with initial focuses on information technology, energy saving equipment and preservatives.
   BJ International Company (Private) Limited launched its business on Wednesday night at a local hotel in presence of a minister, bureaucrats, businessmen and leaders of different trade bodies.
   Initially, the company would emphasise on video communication and video security technologies, low price internet protocol, power saving LED (Light Emitting Diode) lamp and natural preservative to help preserve fruits and vegetables.
   The company will gradually extend their businesses to health sector including construction of hospitals and clinics and manufacturing and sales of medicine and healthy food.
   Mustafijur Rahman, managing director of the company, told New Age that it would take about 2-3 months to make their products available to the customers.
   About the amount of investment in the business, he said, 'I do not want to specify any figure. All I can say that we have just started with initial investment of $200,000.'
   However, Mustafijur, an expatriate in Japan for over two decades, said that the Japanese financiers had huge investment capability. 'It will not be a problem to invest thousands of crore of taka. Once, we get settled money will keep coming.'
   The financiers, who are also president and vice president of the company, are involved in IT and medicine businesses in Japan, he said.
   The managing director said that his company is capable to make huge contribution to the country's telecommunication infrastructure.
   About investment in the health sector, he said, 'Hopefully, within next 6-12 months we will be able to undertake projects to make hospitals and clinics of world standard.'
   Jun Tsutsumida, the president of the company, told the launching ceremony that the profits made from the businesses would not be taken to Japan rather it would be invested in Bangladesh.
   He said that the use of LED lamp would greatly help the power scarce Bangladesh as the lamp consumes only half of the power that a fluorescent lamp burns. It costs less than the fluorescent lamp but lasts 7-8 times more, he added.
   Jun said the state-of-the-art digital security system would provide foolproof security to establishments where it is installed. By installing the internet-based security system, one can even monitor what is happening in one's establishment from anywhere, he said.
   He said that video communication technology will facilitate videoconference and easy and fast transfer of video data. It will greatly benefit the television channels and other organizations transmitting video data.
   Speaking as chief guest, the minister for posts and telecommunications, Razi Uddin Ahmed Razu, welcomed the initiative and assured government cooperation.
   The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry president, Annisul Huq, and the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, Zafar Osman, also assured their cooperation to the newly-launched company.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed between Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority and IFC-BICF of World Bank for appointment of 60 counsellors to stop labour unrest in the Export Processing Zones.
   A total of 47 counsellors signed the MoU with the BEPZA on Wednesday, a news release said.
   According to the MoU, the counsellors will work initially for one year with the BEPZA.
   The release added the counsellors have been working under a project financed by IDA since 2005 and the said project was closed on June 30.

Fish exporters on Thursday urged the government to allow them to export to India hilsa fish weighing 600 grams to one kilogram for US dollar 4 per kg.
   They made the call at a press conference at the National Press Club, jointly organised by the Bangladesh Fish Exporters’ Association and Fish Importers Association of India.
   BFEA president Ajit Kumar Das, Indian FIA president Atur Chandra Das and Bangladesh Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry director and hilsa fish exporter Ebadul Haq Chan addressed the press conference. The BFEA president demanded review of Bangladesh Bank rules on 10 per cent cash incentive for the exporters of frozen shrimp and other fish to provide the hilsa exporters with the same facility.
   Hilsa is being exported to India under the South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement, but the Indian importers feel discouraged as the price of Bangladeshi hilsa is higher than the Burmese hilsa, the exporters said.
   They said the price of per kg hilsa in 1996 was $ 1.5, which rose to $4 in 2006.
   The press conference was told that the last caretaker government banned the export of hilsa fish to India in 2007 and the ban was lifted in March 2008.
   Then the price of per kg hilsa weighing 600 grams to 1kg was fixed at $6 while the 1 kg to 2 kg at $ 8, and above 2kg at $ 12. The same category of Bangladeshi hilsa worth $ 6 per kg is available from Burma at $ 2.35. Therefore, there is a possibility of losing the Indian market.
   The exporters said if the export of hilsa to India stops, it would increase trade imbalance between the two countries and affect 5 lakh to 6 lakh people directly and indirectly.

Summit Alliance Port will be placed in ‘A’ category from existing ‘N’ category with effect from July 5, 2009 as the company reported disbursement of cash dividend at 10 per cent and stock dividend at 20 per cent for the year 2008.
   Sonar Bangla Insurance
   Md Motaleb Hossain, one of the sponsors/directors of the company, has reported his intention to sell 45,000 shares out of his total holdings of 70,000 shares of the company at prevailing market price
   Social Investment Bank
   A Jabbar Mollah, one of the directors of the bank, has reported his intention to buy 50,000 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange
   LankaBangla Finance
   Sampath Bank PLC, one of the corporate sponsors/directors of the company, has reported its intention to sell 1,00,000 shares (bonus shares) out of its total holdings of 91,20,000 shares of the company at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange.
   BRAC Bank
   The bank has informed that it has credited the stock dividend for the year 2008 to the respective shareholders’ BO Accounts on Thursday.
   Southeast Bank
   Forkan Uddin Ahmed and Nasir Uddin Ahmed, both are sponsors of the bank, have reported their intention to buy 50,000 shares and 30,000 shares respectively at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange.
   1st Lease International
   The company has informed that it has credited the stock dividend for the year 2008 to the respective shareholders’’ BO Accounts on Wednesday.
   Shahjalal Islami Bank
   Khandoker Sakib Ahmed, one of the sponsors/directors of the bank, has reported his intention to sell 4,000 shares (bonus shares) out of his total holdings of 4,73,782 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange.
   Golden Son
   The company has informed that it has credited the Stock Dividend for the year 2008 to the respective shareholders’ BO Accounts on July 2, 2009.
   Source: DSE

The dollar was stable against the yen in Asian trade Thursday ahead of a report that is expected to show another wave of job losses in the United States, dealers said.
   The dollar was changing hands at 96.61 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, just off the 96.64 in New York late Wednesday. The euro dropped to 1.4117 dollars from 1.4146 and to 136.38 yen from 136.71.
   Investors are now bracing themselves for a US non-farm payrolls report due later Thursday, said NAB Capital strategist Spiros Papadopoulos. A disappointing result ‘would help reinforce last week’s Fed message that rates aren’t going up for a long while yet,’ he added.
   The US Federal Reserve last week left its stimulative monetary policy unchanged and gave no sign that it was preparing to scale back its pump-priming measures.
   The US private sector shed 473,000 jobs in June, a survey by payrolls firm ADP showed Wednesday highlighting ongoing weakness in the labour market.
   The figures sparked concern that the non-farm payrolls report may be worse than market expectations for 365,000 job losses in June, dealers said. US markets will be closed on Friday for to mark Independence Day.
   The ECB is also likely to signal that a rate cut is unlikely in August, Barclays Capital strategists predicted.

The International Monetary Fund’s board of directors approved the issuance of bonds to the lender’s 186 members for the first time as it seeks additional sources of money to lend during the global recession.
   The board made the move in a vote today and did not place a limit on the note sales, Andrew Tweedie, the Washington-based IMF’s finance chief, said on a conference call with reporters. The bonds are part of a wider effort to seek $500 billion in new funding as the lender helps countries from Iceland to Pakistan combat the global financial crisis.
   The securities, the culmination of months of talks between the fund and its members, will offer the largest emerging-market nations a new way of making IMF contributions while they seek greater say at the fund. China, Brazil and Russia have favoured the bonds instead of regular contributions as they wrangle with other members over redistributing the IMF’s voting power.
   ‘We expect other countries will follow suit, perhaps other emerging markets,’ John Lipsky, first deputy managing director at the fund, said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. ‘Also, some developed and advanced economies may find this an attractive way to participate in international support for the IMF’s efforts.’
   An IMF official, speaking on condition they not be named, said the board initially considered limiting the bond sales to $150 billion, based on the level of interest from member states. Board members decided against such a cap because IMF needs will evolve over time, the official said.
   China’s government has said it will buy $50 billion in notes. Russia and Brazil last month said they would each buy $10 billion of bonds from the IMF. India has also indicated it would contribute to an IMF bond program. The four nations make up the so-called BRICs.
   ‘This is a victory for the BRICs, particularly China,’ said Claudio Loser, the former director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere department. ‘Because they will be investing in the fund they will have, directly or indirectly, some say in the governance of the fund that goes beyond their quota.’
   The IMF’s ‘quota’ system allocates voting rights to member states based on their financial contributions.
   The note sales probably would not reach the $500 billion in new funding that the lender is seeking, Lipsky said.
   The notes will be denominated in Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, which represent a basket of currencies consisting of the U.S. dollar, the euro, the yen and the British pound. Note sales denominated in SDRs would be paid interest on a quarterly basis, the IMF said.
   Chinese officials have sought a greater role over time for SDRs in an effort to reduce the U.S. dollar’s dominance in the global economy.
   The current official rate for SDRs is 0.37 per cent, set using a weighted average of three-month rates in the component currencies. That compares with the 0.195 per cent rate for three- month U.S. Treasury bills. One dollar is currently equivalent to about 0.65 SDR.
   The IMF makes money on its loans by charging countries more than the SDR interest rate. The fund’s board agreed June 22 to keep its lending rate unchanged at 1 percentage point above this year’s SDR interest rate.
   Purchase Agreements
   Interested member states will first need to enter a purchasing agreement with the IMF before becoming eligible to buy notes. Participants must have a ‘sufficiently strong balance of payments position,’ Tweedie said.
   The notes will have a maximum maturity of five years along with three-month interim maturities that could be extended by the fund, Tweedie said.
   Leaders from the Group of 20 industrial and emerging nations agreed in April to boost IMF coffers by $750 billion to help the Washington-based agency shore up nations roiled by the credit crunch. The U.S. last month agreed to boost its contribution for the IMF by more than $100 billion.
   Treasury yields climbed this year and the dollar fell in part on concern that foreign central banks would reduce holdings of U.S. financial assets just as the Obama administration sells a record amount of debt to finance a growing budget deficit and pull the economy from the deepest recession since the 1930s.
   China’s central bank last month renewed its call for a new global currency and said the IMF should manage more of members’ foreign-exchange reserves, triggering a decline in the U.S. dollar. Lipsky said on June 6 it’s possible some day to take the ‘revolutionary’ step of making SDRs a reserve currency.

China may allow foreign firms with investments inside the country to list domestically, as part of efforts to boost trader confidence during the global downturn, an official said Thursday.
   ‘We will continue to actively work with relevant authorities to study and complete the policy of allowing foreign-invested companies to list in the country,’ vice commerce minister Chen Jian told reporters.
   ‘We will guide high-quality foreign-invested companies to carry out domestic listings at appropriate times,’ he said.
   The remarks came as figures showed foreign direct investment in China had fallen for an eighth straight month in June as overseas companies grow more cautious due to the crisis.
   The latest data also show China received $34.05 billion of foreign investment in the first five months of the year, down 20.4 per cent from the same period a year ago.
   The government is planning policies to stabilise foreign investment, with a focus on projects that will help create jobs, save energy and protect the environment, Chen said.
   ‘We will continue to work on the creation of a stable and transparent policy environment, level and open market conditions, and regulated and efficient administrative services for foreign investment,’ he said.
   However, Chen indicated there would be no change to an order announced last month stating domestic firms should be prioritised in bids for projects that are part of a $585-billion stimulus package unveiled last year.

Foreign investment in Malaysia has plummeted this year, trade minister Mustapa Mohamed said Thursday after the government announced liberalisation measures aimed at luring investors.
   ‘Foreign direct investment for 2008 was 46 billion ringgit ($13b) and for January to May this year we have only seen 4.2 billion ringgit,’ Mustapa told reporters.
   Wahad Hamid, deputy head of the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority, said the investment climate was extremely tough despite a strong performance by Malaysia in the three previous years.
   ‘Last year, total investment was about 62 billion ringgit but this year we are only targeting half of that, about 30 billion ringgit,’ he told reporters.
   Mustapa said he was confident that liberalisation measures announced by prime minister Najib Razak this week would help bring in more funds, amid forecasts of a 5.0 per cent economic contraction this year.
   ‘We are confident that investor sentiment will improve, we are encouraged by all the measures taken by the government,’ he said.
   The liberalisation moves targeted a decades-old policy of positive discrimination for Muslim Malays, which critics say is making Malaysia uncompetitive.
   Najib scrapped a rule requiring initial public offerings to reserve 30 per cent of stock for Malays — who dominate the population of the multicultural nation — and dumped regulatory approval for foreign property purchases.
   However, Mohammed Ariff, head of the influential Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, said the measures were poorly timed and would not bear fruit until the global economy recovers.
   ‘The liberalisation announcements should have been made in the good times instead of now, as there would have been a lot of responses from foreign investors,’ he told the AFP.
   Ariff said that despite hopes for a recovery next year, Malaysia’s economy is unlikely to really get back up on its feet until 2012.
   ‘To me real recovery is not just positive growth but going back to the growth we are used to, of around six per cent, and that is way off — until 2012,’ he said.

Asia’s recession appears to have touched bottom and the region is likely to be the first to climb out of the global economic slowdown, the Asian Development Bank’s chief economist said Thursday.
   However, ADB’s Lee Jong-Wha said it would be difficult for the world’s most populous region to return to the high-growth scenarios of 2007 and earlier unless the industrialised world also recovers from a deep recession.
   Speaking at a news conference in Manila, Lee said that compared to other regions, Asia — outside of Japan — had mostly managed positive growth throughout the crisis, albeit at lower levels.
   He added that the ADB was now seeing stronger numbers in terms of ‘quarter on quarter industrial production,’ and concluded that ‘Asia will see recovery faster than the industrialised countries.’
   Expansionary monetary policies implemented by governments around the region loosened credit and lowered interest rates, helping Asians spend more money to keep local economies ticking over, Lee said.
   Meanwhile large countries such as China and India ‘maintained relatively strong and resilient growth which provided demand for regional exports’ from Asian neighbours.
   ‘Clearly now we are in the transition from recession to recovery. The question is how fast the recovery will happen,’ Lee said.
   ‘No one can say for sure.’
   The Manila-based bank said it will update on September 22 its flagship Asian Development Outlook forecasts, which predicted earlier this year that developing Asia will see its economic growth fall to 3.4 per cent this year compared to 6.3 per cent in 2008.
   Lee stressed that ‘the recovery is still not that strong’ and that Asian governments must not pursue policies that may damage any green shoots, ensuring they review current stimulus policy once rehabilitation holds.
   Climbing out of the crisis would be more difficult due to the ‘unprecedented synchronised recession’ of the industrialised countries, he said, adding that Europe was apparently faring worse than previously forecast.
   In Asia, Lee said Malaysia was also performing ‘worse than what we expected in March’ because its high-tech industries were dependent on external demand, which was declining and not being offset by demand at home.

Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd, the world’s largest dairy exporter, said whole-milk powder prices fell to a five-year low, with buyers reluctant to pay a premium for advance supplies amid weak retail demand.
   Prices fell for a second month, with powder for September delivery dropping to $1,841 a tonne, down 8 per cent from the previous month and 58 per cent less than a year earlier, according to the company’s GlobalDairyTrade web site. Monthly prices are at their lowest since December 2003.
   Fonterra accounts for about 40 per cent of the global trade in butter, milk powder and cheese. It is forecasting a 12 per cent drop in payments for its New Zealand farmer-shareholders this season amid weak demand and after the US and the European Union resumed export subsidies for their producers.
   ‘The market is still in a rebalancing phase,’ Kelvin Wickham, managing director of Fonterra’s GlobalTrade unit, said in an e-mailed statement. ‘We saw increased customer demand but they remain wary about paying too much in an uncertain environment.’
   Fonterra’s Internet-based auctions offer a one-month contract with delivery starting two months after the sale, and two three-month contracts with delivery starting three and six months later.
   Milk powder for delivery in October through December fell 4.6 per cent to $1,806 a tonne in last night’s auction, Auckland- based Fonterra said. Powder for shipment in January through March sold at $1,849 a tonne, up 1.9 per cent. Average prices across all contracts fell 3 per cent.
   Fonterra warned in May it may pay its 10,700 shareholders as little as NZ$4.55 ($2.90) for each kilogram of milk solids in the season that started June 1, a three-year low.

A joint consumer promotion by HRC Clevedon Tea and Sprint Mobile was held at HRC products display centre in Dhaka on Wednesday, a news release said.
   HRC Products senior DGM (marketing) Abu Sayeed Raja handed over Sprint mobile phone to consumers on their winning the phone through buying HRC Clevedon Tea’s 200gm and 400gm promotion pack.
   Earlier, an agreement was signed between HRC Clevedon Tea and Sprint Mobile phone in this regard.

NDB Capital Limited, a Sri Lanka-Bangladesh joint venture investment bank, has been inaugurated at The Westin Dhaka Hotel in Dhaka on Wednesday, a news release said.
   NDB Capital plans to introduce a range of innovative investment banking products in Bangladesh to fulfil the growing needs of the market.
   NDB Capital chairman PM Nagahawatte, managing director and chief executive officer Kusal Jayawardana and directors were present on the occasion, among others, the release added.