Trading of the shares of Meghna Condensed Milk Industries, Meghna PET Industries, and Chittagong Vegetable Oil Industries resumed on Wednesday at the bourses.
   A DSE official said trading of the shares of the three companies resumed as per the instruction of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the stock market regulator.
   The SEC on July 1 directed that trading of the shares of the three companies along with other 25 companies would remain halted from the following day until further order.
   A senior SEC official had said the regulatory body had halted the trading of the companies considering the current situation of the market. Unscrupulous traders often use low profile shares to manipulate the market and trick retail investors, he had said.
   The other 25 companies facing trade suspension are Al Amin Chemical Inds, Ashraf Textile Mills, Bangladesh Chemical Inds, Bangladesh Dyeing and Finishing Mills, Bangladesh Zipper Inds, Beach Hatchery, Excelsior Shoes, Gachihata Aquaculture Farms, GMG Industrial Corporation, Maq Enterprises, Maq Paper Industries, Metalex Corporation, Mita Textile Mills, Modern Cement, Padma Printers and Color, Quasem Textile Mills, Rahman Chemicals, Rangamati Food Products, Rose Heaven Ball Pen Industries, Sajib Knitwear and Garments, Sonali Paper and Board Mills, Sreepur Textile Mills, Tamijuddin Textile Mills, Wonderland Toys, and Wata Chemicals.

Dhaka should only opt for restoration of original Silk Route connecting all countries of the region and also strike a comprehensive deal with New Delhi for allowing port access even under multilateral arrangement, suggest businesspeople.
   They have insisted that Bangladesh should not be subject to ‘mercy’ by any big power and must be provided with palpable benefits in exchange for giving India connectivity under the Asian Highway Network.
   For Bangladesh, the proposed network, a component of ‘distorted’ ancient Silk Route pushed by global lenders, should in no way be ‘India connectivity’, the businessmen said with apprehensions that India is set to gain more from connectivity in any form in improving with its own states through Bangladesh territory.
   According to their suggestion, Bangladesh would be benefited only if Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand and China are duly connected and engaged in the process of connectivity to boost regional trade.
   ‘Bangladesh should not fall into mercy of any country. The only option for joining the Asian Highway or the ancient Silk Route is the multilateral framework and it should not be based on a single country,’ said Anwarul-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez, a former president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
   Abdul Haq, president of Japan-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, recommended that even in joining the multilateral road network, Dhaka should persuade Delhi to come to a comprehensive agreement on trade, investment, water resources, and even security making it precondition for allowing road connectivity.
   Both of them pointed out that as the proposed Asian Highway Network has offered India an advantageous position in getting connectivity to its north-eastern states — historically considered hinterland of the delta of Bangladesh due to Bay of Bengal —, the Indian authorities have the moral obligation to maximise Bangladesh’s interests from the process of regional integration.
   Only one of the three proposed routes of the Asian Highway Network — Mongla-Jessore-Hatiqumrul-Dhaka-Kachpur-Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf-Myanmar border — is designed to connect Myanmar. The others are Benapole-Jessore-Dhaka-Kachpur-Sylhet-Tamabil and Banglabandha-Hatiqumrul-Dhaka-Kachpur-Sylhet-Tamabil.
   Dwelling on the restoration of the ancient Silk Route, as mentioned in a recent study report of Asian Development Bank Institute, the business leaders maintained that the 13th Silk Route was not the one shown in the design of the new one.
   The study titled ‘Restoring the Asian Silk Route: Toward an Integrated Asia’ also mentioned about development of sub-regional transport corridors such as Kakarvitta–Panitanki–Fulbari–Banglabandha road and Akhaura-Agartala rail link.
   ‘This is not the ancient Silk Route. Yes it could be extended but should not be dominated by a single country. Countries like Bangladesh should be benefited from multilateral process,’ said Parvez adding that India must also bear the costs of infrastructure building for connectivity.
   Abdul Haq said Delhi must reciprocate the sentiments in and demands from Dhaka to enhance Bangladesh’s trade and investment because Bangladesh is already one of the largest markets of Indian goods.
   ‘Since our capacity to negotiate has improved, I think, Bangladesh should properly bargain with this issue and ensure national interests. Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China should be made partners in the regional cooperation,’ said Zafar Osman, president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
   He also stressed the importance of resolving political tensions that hindered trade and economic interests of the peoples of regional countries and focussing on economic issues. ‘We have to utilise the potential services that we can offer to reduce balance of payments deficit with India,’ he added.
   The executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue, Mustafizur Rahman, said on Tuesday that Bangladesh might be benefited from trade services to India, if constraints could be overcome through proper political negotiation. ‘Certainly there are pending issues but there are ways to overcome them if the political leadership wants to take a decision taking into account maximum economic interests. It could be made win-win,’ he said.

Four garment and textile-related exhibitions are going to be organised together at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in July 16-19 showcasing textile and garment machineries, accessories, dyes and chemicals, general machineries and international yarn and fabric manufacturers.
   The 10th Textcch Bangladesh 2009 International Expo, the country’s oldest and biggest international textile garment technology and machinery exhibition, 3rd Dye+Chem Bangladesh 2009 Expo, 3rd Dhaka International Yarn and Fabric Show 2009 and 7th Machinexpo Bangladesh 2009 will not target only the textile and garment world, but also the entire export sector of the country.
   Among the exhibitions, Textcch Bangladesh 2009 International Expo is the biggest one, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The objective of this exhibition is to further boost the exports of garment and textile products that make up the lion shares of the country’s total exports.
   The exhibition will also allow the businesses of the country to acquire knowledge about the quality of their competitors across the world. At the same time, the garment and textile industries can attract more foreign investments.
   Conference and Exhibition Management Services Limited, USA, in association with its branch in Bangladesh, will organise all the four exhibitions in one go.
   Over 350 exhibitors from over 15 countries will participate in these exhibitions are participating in these exhibitions. The exhibitions are expected to play an important role through assembling world-class technologies, machineries, materials and manufacturers at the doorstep of Bangladeshi manufacturers under one roof.
   The exhibitions will also facilitate Bangladesh’s business community to be apprised of the latest developments and technologies.
   The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council of India and China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textile have endorsed the 3rd Dhaka International Yarn and Fabric Show 2009 while Basic Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics Export Promotion Council of India and China National Chemical Information Centre have endorsed the 3rd Dye+Chem Bangladesh 2009 Expo. All the Indian and Chinese organisations will send delegations to the exhibitions.
   Along with these exhibitions, the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council of India will organize the 4th Indian Cotton Yarn and Fabric Show 2009 where India’s prominent yarn and fabric manufacturers and exporters will participate.
   Hong Kong’s ATA Journal for Asia on Textile and Apparel and Japan’s Nippon Sewing Machine News are the international media partners of the events while New Age and the Bangla daily Shamokal are the local media partners.
   Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel, Washington Hotel and Sarina Hotel are the hotel partners and Acer is the technology partner.

Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman on Wednesday suggested considering transit and transshipment issues from the commercial point of view to reap the economic potentials from the facilities.
   ‘Transit and transshipment are required to be considered business issues. Enhanced security measures can be taken if it is a concern, but not at the cost of substantial trade and business opportunity,’ the governor told a seminar in the city.
   South Asian Network on Economic Modelling and Commonwealth Secretariat, UK, in collaboration with Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund jointly organised the seminar on ‘Intra-regional Investment and Regional Integration in South Asia’.
   Addressing the seminar, Atiur said the issues were largely considered from the security point of view, undermining the immense trade and business potentials.
   He said obstructing trade on security issue would only drive out the growth potential.
   Referring to the United States and the United Kingdom, he said the two countries enhanced their security measures after terrorist attacks but had not taken any decision that would affect their trade, business and investment relations with other countries.
   He said landlocked Nepal could use the Mongla Port if Bangladesh, India and Nepal would make a mutual understanding among them.
   ‘This will ultimately benefit the people of the country, because Bangladesh could also seek to import power and gas from Nepal in exchange for this facility,’ the governor said.

Citi and the Asian Development Bank have agreed to jointly provide up to $1.5 billion in financing to support trade in developing Asia.
   The two lenders will share the risk on trade finance advanced to exporters and importers in frontier markets in Asia under this agreement, a news release said.
   The deal supports a trade finance facilitation program launched by Philippines-based ADB in 2004, and is aimed at providing up to $1.5 billion in loans and guarantees up to 2013. Transactions under the plan can range from short-term letters of credit to maturities of up to three years.
   ADB has expanded its trade finance programme in the past few months to support more trade in Pakistan and Vietnam, while expanding rapidly in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. The programme is also scheduled to eventually cover all of central Asia.

Japan will provide $34.40 million, equivalent to over Tk 240.81 crore, in grant assistance for constructing new food godowns with ancillary facilities in Bangladesh’ s northern region.
   To this effect, the Japanese government has approved a Debt-Relief Grant Assistance-Counterpart Fund amounting to Tk 24,081.25 lakh ($34.40m), an announcement from the Japanese embassy in Dhaka said on Wednesday.
   The objective of the project is to increase the existing food-grain-storage capacity of the Directorate General of Food by another 1.10 lakh tonnes, as the food ministry said the existing stores were packed to the capacity and freshly procured paddy was not being possible to be stored.
   ‘Therefore, the project will be helpful not only in improving food security net of the country but also in inspiring the farmers to produce more food grains by procuring food grains directly from them,’ the embassy said.
   Yonezo Fukuda, charge d’ affaires, expressed his hope that ‘this strategy would ensure food security of Bangladesh by catering smooth supply of food during the time of crisis.’

The Bangladesh Bank has decided to Shipping minister Afsarul Amin on Wednesday said Tk 3,298 crore 5 lakh 68 thousand was earned in the shipping sector from both the internal sources and government grants during the last two fiscal years.
   Replying to a question from treasury bench lawmaker Enamul Huq in Jatiya Sangsad, Amin said his ministry had already taken different steps to increase the income of the sector.
   While highlighting the 20-point deal taken by the ministry to enrich the sector, Amin said ports and sector wise target had been fixed after scrutinizing the actual income by a vigilance team in different times to increase the revenue income of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority.
   Besides, he said, the works of establishing a container port at Pangaon near the capital city has already begun under the joint initiative of BIWTA and Chittagong Port Authority and there was a huge possibility of earning revenues through handling containers when the construction of this port is completed.
   Efforts are on to establish new river ports for providing services to the people at the grass root level and earning revenues, he informed the house adding that revenue collection has already begun from Noapara river Port under Jessore River Port.
   The lands of BIWTA are being recovered from the encroachers by conducting eviction drives and revenues would be earned from these river banks by proving foreshore licences, he said.
   The shipping minister further said that the primary works of introducing circular water ways around the Dhaka city had been completed and the traffic jams of the capital city would be eased when the route is commissioned.

US soft drink giant PepsiCo on Wednesday opened the new largest bottling plant in its world network, 50 years after it brought Pepsi to the Soviet Union, in a ceremony outside Moscow.
   The opening came amid pledges to boost the company’s Russia portfolio during US president Barack Obama’s visit to Moscow this week.
   ‘Russia is vitally important to PepsiCo,’ the corporation’s chief executive Indra Nooyi said at the inauguration of the plant at Domodedovo, a town on the outskirts of the Russian capital.
   ‘We will invest one billion dollars in the next three years.’
   The increased investment will bring PepsiCo’s total outlay in Russia to $4 billion.
   US commerce secretary Gary Locke, who travelled with Obama to Moscow, hailed PepsiCo’s Russian investment as a model for trade ties: ‘PepsiCo was the first foreign product sold in the USSR.’

The yen rose to seven-week highs against the euro and the dollar in Asian trade on Wednesday as fresh worries about the economy spurred demand for safe-haven investments, dealers said.
   Market jitters grew ahead of a summit of leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers that was due to get under way later Wednesday in Italy.
   The dollar dropped to 94.15 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade — the lowest level since May 22 — from 94.81 in New York late Tuesday. The euro slid to 130.96 yen from 132.06 and to 1.3874 dollars from 1.3926.
   Doubts over a US recovery resurfaced after a top White House economic adviser suggested that Washington may need a second stimulus package, NAB Capital strategist Spiros Papadopoulos wrote in a note.
   Traders were turning their attention to the G8 summit in Italy where leaders were expected to discuss efforts to tackle the global economic crisis.
   Against Asian currencies, the dollar climbed to 1.4631 Singapore dollars from 1.4573 a day earlier, to 1,276.25 South Korean won from 1,273.18 and to 10,297.50 Indonesian rupiah from 10,272.50.
   It rose to 48.37 Philippine pesos from 48.18 and to 33.07 Taiwan dollars from 32.98, while holding steady at 34.12 Thai baht.

Square Pharmaceuticals has recommended stock dividend at 25 per cent and cash dividend at 40 per cent for the year ended March 31, 2009. Date of AGM: September 7, 2009, time: 11.00am, venue: Factory premises, Gazipur. Record date: August 10, 2009.
   
   Islamic Finance and Investment
   Feroz Alam, one of the sponsors of the company, has reported that he has completed his sale of 31,400 shares of the company at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange.
   
   BSC
   As per decision of SEC, trading of the shares of the company will be held in demat form with effect from July 30, 2009. In this respect, trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only in the spot market on July 26, 2009 and trading of the shares will remain suspended from July 27 to 29, 2009 for finalisation of demat process.
   
   Dutch-Bangla Bank
   As per provisional and un-audited half yearly accounts as on June 30, 2009, the bank has reported profit after provision and tax of Tk 493.65m with EPS of Tk 32.91 as against last year’s half yearly of Tk 457.83m and Tk 30.52 respectively.
   
   In Tech Online
   Md Mostaqur Rahman, one of the sponsors of the company, has further reported that he has completed his sale of 1,60,000 shares of the company at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange.
   
   Mercantile Bank
   Md Selim, one of the sponsors of the bank, has further reported that he has completed his sale of 58,000 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange.
   
   Southeast Bank
   Forkan Uddin Ahmed and Nasir Uddin Ahmed, both are sponsors of the bank, have further reported that they have completed their purchase of 50,000 shares and 30,000 shares respectively at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange.
   
   Monno Jute Stafflers
   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

A US government plan designed to rid banks’ books of the troubled assets that exacerbated the financial crisis will do little to address a fundamental weakness of the industry or the broader economy, analysts say.
   The Treasury Department this week will announce the names of between five and 10 fund investment firms participating in the multibillion-dollar plan, according to two industry officials who requested anonymity because they are not authorised to discuss the matter.
   The plan, known as the Public-Private Investment Programme, or PPIP, will leverage private capital with government subsidies so that these investment firms can buy up the soured mortgage-related assets that have clogged banks’ balance sheets and made them reluctant to lend freely to businesses and consumers.
   But since announcing the plan five months ago, the government has shelved part of it that would help these firms buy individual mortgages and other loans held by the banks. As a result, some analysts say its impact will be muted.
   ‘The real hit lies in the trillions of dollars in residential home loans and commercial loans banks hold in whole-loan form on their balance sheets,’ said Daniel Alpert, managing director of the investment bank Westwood Capital LLC.
   Fears of a deeper recession, including rising unemployment and falling home values, raise the spectre of massive defaults on consumer and commercial real estate loans, analysts said.
   But the securities backed by mortgages and other complex assets to be targeted by PPIP are no longer as big a threat to the banking industry’s stability, Alpert and other analysts said. Ten of the nation’s biggest financial companies — including JPMorgan Chase & Co, American Express Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc — last month got the go-ahead to return $68 billion in federal bailout money, a development viewed as evidence that the financial sector was beginning to stabilize after benefiting from the government’s $700 billion financial rescue fund.
   Some of the PPIP managers are expected to include Blackrock Inc, Pacific Investment Management Co and TCW Group Inc, according to the two industry officials. Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross said Tuesday on CNBC that he would use up to $1 billion to participate.
   Ross said banks will never break even on many of their troubled assets, but that the government plan will get them five-to-10 percentage points closer.
   The PPIP was initially expected to remove up to $1 trillion in bad assets off the banks’ books. But Ross said the program likely will max out at $125 billion.
   Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams declined Tuesday to confirm or comment on the $125 billion estimate. ‘We’re committed to making this program work and we expect to announce the managers soon,’ he said.
   Treasury is going forward with the program largely to improve confidence, said Douglas Elliott, a former investment banker now with the Brookings Institution. He expects that two-thirds of bank losses will be in categories like commercial real estate loans, commercial investment loans and credit cards.
   Elliott also said there are problems in the program’s design that will limit its usefulness. He said banks still want far more money for the assets than investors are willing to pay, and that the government subsidy is not enough to make up that difference.
   In mid-April, Treasury announced that it was making it easier for hedge funds and other private investors to participate in the program, a move seen by analysts as an acknowledgment that investor interest had been lacklustre.
   A week later, JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank did not intend to participate because it did not need to.
   The Treasury Department played down the concerns, saying at the time that there would be significant interest from other banks.

The Bank of England is likely to pump extra new money into markets and keep its key interest rate at a record-low 0.5 per cent on Thursday in a bid to encourage banks to lend more, according to analysts.
   The BoE is to make its latest monthly policy decisions following a two-day meeting that begins here Wednesday amid signs Britain’s recession-battered economy is on course to recover after its fastest slowdown in half a century.
   Economists said they expected the central bank to agree to pump out another 25 billion pounds ($40.4b) for lenders as part of its so-called quantitative easing scheme.
   ‘There seems absolutely no doubt that the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee will keep interest rates unchanged at a record low of 0.50 per cent at their July meeting,’ said Howard Archer, chief Britain economist at the IHS Global Insight consultancy.
   ‘There is a strong possibility that they will (also) expand the bank’s quantitative easing programme by a further 25 billion pounds to 150 billion pounds.’
   The Bank of England launched its QE programme in March, when it decided to pump out 75 billion pounds of newly-created money after slashing interest rates to 0.5 per cent in a twin-pronged attack on the global credit crunch.
   In May, the BoE decided to create an additional 50 billion pounds, while Britain’s Labour government has authorised the creation of up to 150 billion pounds.
   Under QE, the British central bank buys government bonds from commercial banks in the hope that the institutions will lend once again to businesses and individuals.
   In a bid to kick-start lending amid the credit crunch and worst downturn since the 1930s, central banks worldwide have slashed borrowing costs to all-time lows. The Bank of England has slashed borrowing costs from a rate of 5.0 per cent last October.
   But rate-loosening alone was deemed insufficient policy by the BoE, hence the introduction of QE.
   ‘We do consider there to be a sound case for an expansion of QE... and we expect the MPC (on Thursday) to signal a 25-billion-pound increase,’ said Philip Shaw, an economist at Investec Securities.
   Britain’s recession is past its worst but talk of economic recovery is premature as unemployment is set to top three million in 2010, business grouping the British Chambers of Commerce said Tuesday.
   ‘The worst phase of the recession is over, but serious downward pressures persist across all sectors and regions,’ BCC chief economist David Kern said in a study by the organisation assessing the second quarter.

Japanese machinery orders fell to the lowest level on record in May, data showed Wednesday, dampening hopes of a quick economic recovery after the worst recession since World War II.
   Japanese companies are slashing their investment in plants and equipment to cope with the global downturn, which has inflicted heavy losses on many firms, particularly car and electronics manufacturers.
   Core orders showed a surprise fall of 3.0 per cent in May from the previous month, to 668.2 billion yen ($7.1b), the lowest level since comparable records began in 1987, the government said.
   The orders, a closely watched gauge of planned business investment, have now fallen for three straight months. Market forecasts had been for a rise of 2.0 per cent in May after a fall of 5.4 per cent in April.
   Naoki Murakami, chief economist at Monex Securities, said the data threw cold water over the prospects for a swift Japanese economic recovery.
   Core orders, which exclude volatile demand from power firms and for ships, are expected to fall 5.0 per cent in the three months to June from the previous quarter, after a drop of 9.9 per cent in January-March, the government said.
   ‘Capital investment is likely to stay weak for some time,’ warned Credit Suisse economist Satoru Ogasawara.
   Before the current economic downturn began, Japan’s corporate sector had been a key driver of a recovery in Asia’s largest economy following the recessions of the 1990s.
   But major Japanese companies plan to trim their investment in factories and equipment by 9.4 per cent on average for the current fiscal year to March, the Bank of Japan’s ‘Tankan’ survey showed last week.
   Another report released Wednesday highlighted the tough trade environment, with Japan’s current account surplus shrinking a sharper-than-expected 34.3 per cent in May from a year earlier to 1.30 trillion yen.
   Japan entered recession in the second quarter of 2008 as its heavy reliance on overseas markets as an engine of economic growth left it vulnerable to the fallout from the global economic crisis.

G8 leaders believe the world economy still faces ‘significant risks’ and may need further help, according to summit draft documents that also reflect failure to agree climate change goals for 2050.
   Discord over environmental measures was underlined by withdrawal from the meeting of Chinese president Hu Jintao, who returned to Beijing because of unrest in north-western China in which 156 people have been killed.
   Documents seen by Reuters ahead of a G8 summit cautioned that ‘significant risks remain to economic and financial stability’, while ‘exit strategies’ from pro-growth packages should be unwound only ‘once recovery is assured’.
   ‘Before there is talk of additional stimulus, I would urge all leaders to focus first on making sure the stimulus that has been announced actually gets delivered,’ Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper said before the summit began.
   Leaders met in L’Aquila, a mountain town wrecked by April’s earthquake and a fitting backdrop to talks on a global economy struggling to overcome the worst recession in living memory.
   The Group of Eight — United States, Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia — will kick off with debate on the economic crisis, after what one analyst called a ‘reality check’ in recent weeks on the prospects for rapid recovery.
   G8 leaders badly underestimated the economic problems facing them when they met in Japan last year and will now focus on what must be done to prevent another meltdown.
   ‘Although there have been signs of stability in the economy and the sentiment has improved, the real economy has not recovered yet with job and wage conditions still stagnant,’ said Takao Hattori, senior strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.
   But few big initiatives are expected as the G20, a broader forum that also includes the main emerging economies, is tasked with formulating a regulatory response to the crisis and meets in September in Pittsburgh after an April summit in London.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, will invest $10 million in Frontier PE, the first private equity fund dedicated to Bangladesh.
   The fund, advised by Brummer and Partners Asset Management (BD) Ltd, a subsidiary of European hedge fund group Brummer and Partners, will make long-term equity investments in privately-owned companies in Bangladesh.
   A signing ceremony was held in the US in this regard. IFC executive vice-president and chief executive officer, Lars Thunell, Brummer and Partners chairman Patrick Brummer and Bangladesh ambassador to US M Humayun Kabir were present.

United Commercial Bank arranged a half-yearly business conference at a city hotel on Sunday.
   In the conference, UCB managing director M Shahjahan Bhuiyan called upon all its branch managers of Dhaka division to accelerate the bank’s growth, a news release said.
   UCB deputy managing directors Shafiqul Alam, Shahidul Islam and Mamun-ur-Rashid, company secretary and
   senior executive vice president Mirza Mahmud Rafiqul Rahman and senior executive vice president Shahed Jalal Chowdhury and senior officials were present in the conference.