United Airways, one of the three private carriers in Bangladesh, will start operation on Dhaka-Dubai-Dhaka route from July 10 with a view to carrying mainly migrant workers from Bangladesh.
   The airlines will operate seven flights a week — one flight every day — on its Dhaka-Dubai-Dhaka route with a 160-seater MD-83 aircraft.
   United Airways, a venture of non-resident Bangladeshis in UK, has already obtained permission from the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh to operate seven flights to Dubai, three each to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, and four flights to Kathmandu, said Captain Tasbirul Ahmed Choudhury, chairman and managing director of the airlines.
   The airlines started its journey on July 10, 2007. It is operating flights to all major domestic sectors from Dhaka since 2007 and includes a regional destination to Kolkata, India in its route.
   ‘One more MD-83 having 160 seats will be added to the fleet of United Airways to fly on Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur, Dhaka-Kathmandu and Dhaka-Bangkok routes,’ Captain Tasbirul said.
   United Airways, 95 per cent owned by expatriate Bangladeshis, has also planned to operate two regional routes — Canton in China and Yangon in Myanmar — by the end of 2009.
   Captain Tasbir said: ‘The allocation of more flight frequencies for the private airlines was due to a change in the government policy, as it seeks to inject competition in the aviation industry. The government is now very liberal.’
   He said that the government was encouraging the private sector to have its share of the growing market and ‘we must be ready to face competition and should improve our service quality.’
   Bangladesh’s air traffic grew 7.3 per cent last year, making it one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the region, but decades of poor performance by the other airlines has enabled foreign carriers to snatch almost 80 per cent of the market.
   ‘We will soon procure Boeing 767-300 ER to fly to other Gulf and European destinations including London,’ said United Airways chairman.
   He said UK and Gulf were the most important markets for Bangladeshi airlines as one in two people who fly abroad goes to the six Gulf countries and UK, which employ more than 70 per cent of the county’s over five million migrant workers.
   World’s sixth largest airline Emirates at present carries the bulk of the traffic for Dubai and UK destinations. Emirates operate 17 flights a week and will soon add two more. There are also several other top Gulf carriers operating in these routes.
   Captain Tasbir said: ‘We shall make all endeavours to achieve a reasonable market share within a short span of time, thus retaining the hard earned foreign currency in the country and also contributing to the national economy.’

The communications minister, Syed Abul Hossain, on Tuesday said tyre production under a joint venture would begin in the country soon using local rubber.
   He said this while inaugurating marketing of Tata Jenon pickup vans produced by Tata Motors Ltd and Kasumina tyre produced by a Vietnamese company.
   The Indian high commissioner, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, Vietnamese ambassador, Noguen Ven Thet, chief of Sales Department of Tata Motors Ltd South Asia Division, Bishwadev Sen Gupta, Nitol Motors managing director, Abdul Musabbir Ahmad, and the Tata Motors country manager, M Ram Chandan, addressed the function with Nitol Motors chairman Matlub Ahmad presiding.
   The minister said the government had undertaken several steps to improve the country’s communications system including reducing traffic jam in the cities.
   About 400 environment-friendly buses will be procured from India to this end, he added.

Supply of quality shares, including those of state-owned enterprises, is more important for the capital market than raising liquidity by allowing ‘black money’ in, say analysts.
   They say the option to pour in previously undisclosed funds would lure many to invest in shares but will not yield any long-term benefit, and may instead lead to overheating of the market.
   After repeated demands from many quarters, including the stock market, finance minister AMA Muhith’s, presenting his maiden budget last week, extended the facility for ‘whitening black money’ for an unprecedented three years.
   Muhith offers the opportunity to legalise undisclosed money ‘with no questions asked’, with a 10 percent tax levied and provided the money is invested in the capital market, industry and infrastructure.
   The budget has not cut the rate of corporate tax, however, despite calls from stock market players.
   SEC advisory committee member Abu Ahmed said that the offer to invest undisclosed money might perk up the market.
   ‘But, there is a possibility of ‘black money’ holders keeping back their funds right now and instead investing only during the last phase of the three-year period,’ he told the news agency.
   The consequence would be a loss in revenue for the government, said Ahmed, a professor of economics at the University of Dhaka.
   Meanwhile, increased liquidity in the stock market will not contribute that much to the country’s industrialisation process.
   ‘Some shareholders may be benefited if the secondary market sees a boost but it will not foster industry,’ said Zaid Bakht, an economic analyst at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
   ‘The decision to cut duty on raw materials for local industry, on the other hand will very beneficial,’ added Bakht, who is a member of the SEC’s advisory committee.
   Stockbrokers fear that inflow of huge funds without supply of new issues might lead to overpricing of issues.
   ‘Once black money starts to pour in, demand will shoot up for shares—bad news in a shallow market like ours,’ said investment consultant Bashir Ahmed of brokerage firm Stocks & Bonds.
   Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, a former CEO of Dhaka Stock Exchange agrees.
   ‘The issue for the Bangladeshi capital market is not lack of liquidity but the supply of shares.’
   ‘The option to invest black money may perk up the market—but what the market now needs is supply of fresh and quality scrips.’
   Ahmed, who now teaches finance at the University of Dhaka, suggested measures to more private as well as government entities to be listed.
   The finance minister, in his budget speech, said the country’s capital market witnessed a significant rise following offloading of SoEs.
   But Muhith said the coming year might not see the same.

Like all rural Bangladeshis, Saidul Islam knows the hardships of summer, when his tin-roofed house turns into a furnace with not enough electricity to power even a fan.
   For the 100 million Bangladeshis — most of them farmers — who live in the countryside, the notion of electricity supply is little more than an empty promise bandied about by politicians at election time.
   Only villages close to highways or large farms with irrigation pumps have access to the national grid, and even then for an average of just one hour in four.
   Fed up with promises of a connection that never came, Islam took matters into his own hands, and four years ago scraped together Tk around 22,000 ($335 dollars) to buy a solar panel for the roof of his modest mudbrick-and-tin home.
   ‘My family and friends thought I was stupid, but I knew it would be worth if even though the price was eight months of income,’ said Islam, who lives in the village of Nayeb Ali Bazar, 80 kilometres north of Dhaka.
   The investment has more than paid off for the 40-year-old tailor, who used to finish work when the sun set.
   Now most days he sews until midnight, thanks to five hours of power from the solar panel, and his income has doubled.
   For the 70 per cent of Bangladesh’s 144 million people who have little or no access to electricity, alternative energy sources are the only option.
   Years of under-investment means state-owned power plants generate only 3,500 megawatts of electricity a day, whereas demand is 6,000 megawatts and growing by 500 megawatts a year due to increasing industrialisation.
   The government, elected in December, has promised to boost power supply but says improvements are at least three years off.
   In the meantime, figures show that Bangladeshis are doing it for themselves. In the past year alone, the number of solar-powered household systems has doubled to 300,000, delivering electricity to 2.5 million people.
   Leading the rapid expansion is Grameen Shakti, a sister concern of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus’s micro credit giant Grameen Bank.
   The charity, along with 14 other smaller organisations, extends loans with generous conditions to enable the poor to purchase the wherewithal to produce solar energy.
   ‘Solar systems are selling so fast in rural areas that we’re struggling to keep up with demand,’ said Dipal Barua, Grameen Shakti’s head.
   Growth also means new employment opportunities.
   ‘We have created some 20,000 green jobs, some 2,000 of them employing rural women who earn a decent income of 100 dollars a month,’ Barua said.
   ‘Our goal is to get half of the country’s rural households using solar energy by 2015 and create jobs for 100,000 women.’
   Energy expert Shahidul Islam, from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said the rapid expansion of solar energy had helped bring the cost of panels down.
   ‘What we are witnessing in rural areas is nothing short of a green revolution,’ he said. ‘It is changing the face of rural Bangladesh, which has until now been in the dark.’
   Local company Rahimafrooz, which produces batteries to store the solar energy, has tripled output this year to meet demand.
   ‘The renewable energy business in Bangladesh is the fastest growing green industry in the world,’ said company CEO Niaz Rahim.
   ‘It will be a billion-dollar industry within the next six years. Every solar accessory except the panels is now produced in Bangladesh which means we are going to be self-sufficient very soon to keep driving the growth.’
   In Bhutuli, north of Dhaka, greengrocer Nurul Islam jokes that his village was once renowned for producing jackfruit, but is now better known for the number of solar panels sprouting from its roofs.
   ‘The best thing about having solar energy is coming home at 10pm from work and seeing my three sons reading their books,’ he said.
   ‘We never had the opportunity to do this in the past. It’s changing our country’s fate.’

The parliamentary standing committee on civil aviation on Tuesday observed that the Bangladesh Biman should take initiative for offloading shares among the expatriates.
   The meeting thoroughly reviewed the performance of Biman and suggested the authority to add new aircraft in its fleet, increase the standard of services, reintroduce service to postponed routes and extend services to prospective destinations.

The ONE Bank board has elected Zahur Ullah as chairman of the bank effective from June 11 for a one-year term.
   The board has also elected Farzana Chowdhury as vice chairperson of the bank for the same term, a news release said.
   Zahur Ullah is the chairman of LL Group involved in buying, manufacturing and exporting of readymade garments and allied products. He is also the managing director of Gtex Limited and a director of Holiday Publications Limited.

Experts of the International Labour Organisation have said Bangladesh will not face any major crisis due to global recession in terms of job cut and GDP growth although the world is facing economic challenges due to global meltdown.
   But they suggested that the country should create jobs domestically for its unemployed people and start talks with those countries where it exports manpower to find ways to increase future job market.
   ‘Global recession is not at all a major crisis for Bangladesh, even the RMG sector would not be affected much because of its small size of economy,’ said Duncan Campbell, director of the International Institute for Labour Studies on Monday.
   ‘Bangladeshi migrant workers who mainly work in Arab countries are in a safe position. So they would not face any large-scale job cut due to the ongoing impact of recession.’
   According to the ILO, the world may be looking at a job and social protection crisis of six to eight years duration. To overcome the problem, the ILO director general called the world leaders to adopt a global job pact, to urgently tackle the employment and social protection in the 98th ILO conference.
   Three specialists of ILO — Raymond Torres, Jeff Johnson and Duncan Campbell — gave the same opinion about Bangladesh during a prior press briefing in Geneva adding Bangladesh needs to create its domestic job market as the unemployment was projected to continue rising at least until the end of 2010.
   Jeff Johnson said Bangladesh needed to start talks with the Arab countries soon to ensure the future job market there.
   The global economy will need to create around 300 million new jobs up to 2015 just to keep up with the increase in the labour force, he said adding if Bangladesh starts soon then it would give them a better opportunity to create job markets in Arab world.
   Johnson said the RMG sector of Bangladesh would get a new momentum as the EU and the USA had taken various measures to protect their economy from the crisis and hopefully they would get out of the bad spell of economy by October next. So the RMG sector of Bangladesh would get rid of the slow growth rate, he said.
   The ILO is forming a special committee and going to give a guideline to the world to find ways and means to protect the workers, families and enterprises from the effects of the global crisis and to promote rapid economic and employment recovery.

Citibank, NA Bangladesh has donated books worth Tk 2,50,000 to the Liberation War Museum.
   With the donation the bank once again reaffirmed it’s commitment to continue upholding country’s history and heritage, a news release said.
   The donated books are on the liberation war, science, democracy, women empowerment and contemporary thoughts. The books will be distributed among 109 secondary schools around the country through the museum.
   Liberation War Museum trustee Dr Sarwar Ali received the books on behalf of the museum from Citi Bangladesh head of corporate affairs Mehreen Mahiuddin.
   City country officer and managing director Mamun Rashid, Global Corporate & Commercial Bank head Abrar A Anwar, county compliance officer Omar Faruque and local corporates head Kanti Kumar were present.

Industrial Promotion and Development Company of Bangladesh approved 10 per cent stock dividend for the year 2008.
   The dividend was declared at the 27th annual general meeting of the company held at the Trust Milonayaton (auditorium) in Dhaka on Tuesday, a news release said.
   Industries ministry secretary and IPDC chairman Dewan Zakir Hussain presided over the meeting.
   IPDC managing director and chief executive officer Humaira Azam, director Altaf Hussain, officials and shareholders of the company were present on the occasion.
   IPDC of Bangladesh is the first private sector financial institution in Bangladesh, the release added.

Eastland Insurance
   The company has informed that it has credited the Stock Dividend for the year 2008 to the respective shareholders’ BO accounts.
   AB Bank
   The bank has informed that Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh has assigned ‘A1’ rating in the long term and ‘ST-2’ in the short term to AB Bank for the year 2008.
   Agrani Insurance
   Today normal trading of the shares of the company will resume after record date and there will be no price limit on the trading of the shares of the company.
   BRAC Bank
   The bank has informed that the board of directors of the bank in its meeting held on Tuesday has decided in principle (subject to the approval of respective Regulatory bodies) to acquire 51 per cent shares of Equity Partners Securities and 51 per cent shares of Equity Partners at total price of Tk 59.20 crore only.
   Rupali Insurance
   Trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only in the Spot Market and Block/Odd lot transactions will also be settled as per Spot settlement cycle with cum benefit from today to June 18, 2009. Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended on June 21, 2009 as Book Closure will start from June 22, 2009.
   Source: DSE

Japan’s central bank on Tuesday left its key interest rate unchanged at 0.1 per cent, while upgrading its assessment of the world’s number two economy for a second month in a row.
   ‘Japan’s economic conditions, after deteriorating significantly, have begun to stop worsening,’ the Bank of Japan said in a statement. ‘Japan’s economy is likely to show clearer evidence of levelling out over time.’
   Last month, the central bank upgraded its assessment for the first time in almost three years, saying: ‘Economic conditions have been deteriorating, but exports and production are beginning to level out.’
   That assessment was brighter than its April view that economic conditions had ‘deteriorated significantly.’
   Recent economic data has shown a mixed picture for the Japanese economy, which has been hit hard by the global downturn but which, according to many analysts, looks like it may stabilise in the current quarter.
   Asked whether the economy had hit bottom, central bank governor Masaaki Shirakawa told a news conference later: ‘The Bank of Japan is cautiously looking to a possible recovery in ... demand.’
   The central bank, which made the rate decision by a unanimous vote, said in its statement it would continue ‘paying attention for the time being to the downside risks to economic activity and prices.’
   On Monday, Japan’s industry ministry also improved its assessment of the business climate for the first time in more than three years, saying: ‘The economy is showing a few signs of recovery in some (geographic) parts.’
   The government said last Thursday that the economy shrank less than initially thought in the first quarter of 2009, but still logged its sharpest contraction on record, shrinking an annualised 14.2 per cent.
   The economy, which has been in recession since the second quarter of 2008, shrank by a revised 3.8 per cent in the three months to March, compared with its earlier estimate of 4.0 per cent.
   ‘Japan is most likely to return to positive growth for the April-June quarter as a slump in external demand is easing,’ said Toru Shimano, an analyst at Okasan Securities.
   ‘But this does not mean Japan’s full fledged recovery is in sight,’ Shimano said. ‘It is still very much unlikely for the Japanese economy to return to pre-crisis levels by the end of this year.’
   Factory output in April rose a revised 5.9 per cent, the fastest monthly jump in more than half a century, while Japan reported a third straight monthly trade surplus in April, following a record deficit in January.
   But wholesale prices dived 5.4 per cent in May from a year earlier, the biggest drop in more than 22 years, signalling deflation may again haunt Japan’s economy, as it did in the 1990s.
   Unemployment rose to 5.0 per cent in April, the highest level since November 2003, after the country’s auto and high-tech giants announced massive job cuts in recent months as they sank deep into the red.
   Shirakawa added that the central bank was yet to decide when to lift emergency measures that are in place to buoy the troubled financial system, such as the purchase of commercial papers.
   ‘We will make decisions after patiently scrutinising the condition of the financial market,’ he told reporters.

The world’s leading plane makers mount a fresh effort to nail down new deals at the Paris Air Show Tuesday, with Airbus due to face the press two weeks after the loss of one of its A330 airliners.
   Airbus was the big winner on the first day of the week-long show on Monday, announcing a $1.9-billion order from Qatar Airways for 24 medium-haul A320 planes.
   But the European consortium is still wrestling with the crash over the Atlantic on June 1 of an Air France A330 that took the lives of all 228 aboard and has so far defied explanation.
   Industry analysts have been puzzled by the mid-flight loss of an aircraft delivered only four years earlier with a previously excellent safety record and operated by a leading world airline.
   Airbus officials, who are to hold a press conference Tuesday, insist the A330 is safe and have warned against drawing conclusions as to the cause while an accident investigation is under way.
   Airbus, a consortium of the French, British, Spanish and German aircraft industries, got a boost Monday when, in addition to the Qatar order, Vietnam Airlines said it was planning to buy two long-haul Airbus A350 jets and 16 medium-haul A321s.
   The catalogue price for the jets is $1.9 billion.
   The biennial Paris Air Show, first staged in 1909, is being held at a moment when recession-hit world airlines are grappling with crumbling demand, higher fuel prices and a wave of order cancellations that presage huge financial losses this year.
   On Monday, manufacturers sought to disperse some of the gloom and doom, foreseeing a rebound in the not too distant future.
   ‘It feels to me that we may have reached the bottom,’ Scott Carson, head of commercial airline business at US jetmaker Boeing, told reporters at the show.
   Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, chief executive at Italian aerospace giant Finmeccanica, also said he saw ‘signs of recovery’ in economic activity and added: ‘If the crisis does not last, the negative impact will be limited.’
   In other news Monday, Russian-controlled Hungarian airline Malev announced plans to buy 30 Sukhoi Superjet 100 planes as the Russian aircraft maker predicted it would have 150 orders for the new jet by the end of 2009.
   Sukhoi chief Mikhail Pogosian said he was aiming for 20 per cent of the global market in regional passenger planes and that the new jet would get its certification in Russia in November and in the European Union during 2010.
   The Superjet 100 is marketed as cheaper than its rivals, Brazil’s Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier, with a catalogue price of $28 million.

Leaders from emerging giants Brazil, Russia, India and China were to meet Tuesday for the first summit of their informal grouping, showing unity in the face of a sharp global slowdown.
   Dubbed the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China), the forum will be seeking to show that their ambitions for economic growth remain intact, despite the impact of the worst economic crisis of modern times.
   Presidents Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, Hu Jintao of China, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh were to meet in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg for their first official four-way meeting.
   The idea for the BRIC grouping was spawned after research by US investment bank Goldman Sachs suggested the four economies were developing at such pace they could be amongst the world’s strongest by 2050.
   It remains to be seen whether the quartet will agree to create a more official format for the grouping, an idea that was never anticipated when the original research was undertaken.
   Yekaterinburg, a city some 1,420 kilometres (880 miles) east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains, was previously best known abroad as the site of the execution of Tsar Nicolas II and his family by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
   The summit is due to begin at 5:30pm, just after Russia wraps up hosting a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation — which is dominated by Moscow and Beijing — in the same city.
   Russia has taken a leading role in promoting BRIC, evidently happy with the idea that it remains an economic force despite seeing its high growth rates of recent years savaged by the worst global economic crisis since the 1930s.
   Analysts say that despite the economic crisis, BRIC nations are displaying a growing willingness to coordinate their efforts to counter US global domination through the dollar.
   The BRIC states are expected to be major buyers of the very first bonds that the International Monetary Fund is working to issue.
   This is in line with commitments by developed and developing economies to provide $1.1 trillion to the IMF and other global bodies to help the poor through the crisis.
   China has said it is considering buying up to $50 billion worth of the new financial instrument, while Russia and Brazil could buy up to $10 billion each.
   Both Russia and China have in recent months come out in favour of revamping global financial structures, saying there is a need for a new supra-national currency besides the dollar to prevent a repeat of the global economic crisis.
   Moscow in particular has sharply criticised the dollar’s role as the dominant global reserve currency.
   Of the major economies, powerhouse China is seen as having the best shot at eclipsing the United States as the world’s largest market.
   Chinese president Hu Jintao flaunted his country’s influence at the Shanghai meeting earlier, saying Beijing would extend a 10 billion dollar credit to member states help them overcome the financial crisis.
   ‘China has taken a decision to extend to the organisation a credit worth 10 billion dollars to help maintain financial stability, making its contribution to efforts by member countries in the fight against the crisis,’ said Hu.
   Poorer members Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have been hit hard by the crisis and analysts believe China is seeking to increase its influence in impoverished but highly strategic Central Asia.
   The BRIC leaders first met informally on the sidelines of a Group of Eight major economies summit in Toyako, Japan, last year.

Britain’s government says it will provide universal access to broadband Internet connections as part of a plan to spur the country’s technology sector.
   British prime minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday that high-speed Internet access has become as ‘indispensable as electricity, gas and water.’
   Brown says investment in digital technology is as critical now as building roads, railways and bridges was in the 19th century.
   He wrote an op-ed piece for the Times of London on the subject ahead of publication of the government’s Digital Britain report.

Renata Limited declared 50 per cent cash dividend and 25 per cent stock dividend for the year 2008.
   The dividend was approved at its 36th annual general meeting held in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Renata board chairman SH Kabir presided over the meeting, a news release said.
   The meeting was also attended by the company CEO and managing director Syed S Kaiser Kabir, directors, executives concerned and shareholders.
   The turnover and net profit of the company grew by 21.9 per cent and 28.9 per cent respectively in 2008, the release added.

Bank Asia has declared 23 per cent stock dividend for the year 2008.
   The dividend was approved at the 10th annual general meeting of the bank held in Dhaka on Monday.
   With this, the paid-up capital of the bank would increase to Tk 2.14 billion and total equity to Tk 3.99 billion. Bank Asia chairman Anisur Rahman Sinha presided over the meeting, a news release said.
   Among others, vice chairmen Anwarul Amin and AM Nurul Islam, directors Faisal Samad and Romo Rouf Chowdhury and president and managing director Erfanuddin Ahmed, senior officials and shareholders were present on the occasion.