A large area in the northwestern district of Panchagarh that was almost barren just a few years ago has turned into Mandarin orange orchards.
   The district now boasts of high quality Mandarin orange cultivated in around 67.49 hectares of land in Panchagarh Sadar, Tentulia, Boda, and Atwary upazilas, sources in the local horticulture centre said.
   At present 11,998 farmers are involved in orange cultivation in the district who have planted 40,132 Mandarin orange trees of Darjeeling variety, said Asim Kumar Paul, orange cultivation development officer at the local horticulture centre.
   He said, although at present around 20 metric tons of orange are harvested from those trees a year, the yield will rise to about 500 metric tons when all the trees start to bear fruits in four years time.
   The colour, taste and size of the Panchagarh orange is better than that produced in other areas of the country and close to those produced in Shiliguri, North Dinajpur and Darjeeling of India and gets the highest price among all grades of orange put on regular auctions, Asim added.
   The sources said, under an initiative of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute, DAE, and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council, agriculturalists and soil scientists tested the soil of Panchagarh in 2003 and found the land suitable for orange cultivation. A number of farmers then began test cultivation of orange at their homesteads and found the yield and quality of the fruit better than anyone’s expectations.
   Achinta Kumar Karkun, one of those farmers, said, ‘I planted one orange tree given by the horticulture centre and it started to bear fruits after three years. In the fourth year the tree bore about 200 fruits. Then I brought and planted 15 more saplings in a fallow land. The yield is really good and I am making a good profit.’
   At least 68 hectares of land can be brought under Mandarin orange cultivation in the district, according to a survey conducted by the horticulture centre, the sources said.
   Asim said, ‘This region is suitable for Mandarin orange plantation. The climate is favourable. If the government lends adequate support in expanding orange cultivation, Panchagarh might be able to meet one-third of the country’s demand for orange, which would save a significant amount of foreign currency for importing the fruit.’

A huge number of visitors flocked to the Dhaka Motor Show on Friday and exhibitors were found quite happy with their gains in three days of the four-day show.
   Officials of the Conference and Exhibition Management Services-CEMS said nearly eight thousand people visited the country’s largest auto show in three days. Of them, the most visited on Friday.
   ‘The auto show in Dhaka is trying to get international looks with the exhibitors becoming more professional in showcasing products and communicating with potential buyers,’ Omar-Al-Faruq, a visitor, who has an experience to visit several auto-shows in Asia and Europe, told New Age Friday afternoon.
   On Friday afternoon, many families were found entering the show as they were apparently enjoying the show as a weekend entertainment.
   ‘Increasing number of visitors indicates that many people are now enthusiastic to autos, although a very few of them can afford cars,’ said an official of the CEMS.
   Sabreena Sadek, assistant vice-president of Pacific Motors Limited, happily said a huge number of potential buyers visited their pavilion and sales were also satisfactory.
   Sabreena, who oversees brand management activities at the PLM, said they sold over 10 cars by Friday and received maximum buyers for their Hyundai i10 small family car.
   Pacific, as the distributor of Nissan vehicles from Japan, commands top position in the country’s brand new car market and recently it had been tied up with Korea’s Hyundai to market its products in Bangladesh.
   Shafi Tanveer of Rangs Limited, however, said sales of pricy cars were not good as the global economic slowdown made the potential buyers cautious in spending.
   Rangs distributes mainly Mitsubishi SUVs, Jeeps and Sedans in Bangladesh and it received three bookings by Friday, Tanveer said.

Myanmar strengthened trading ties with its neighbours over the past fiscal year with border trade of more than $1.2 billion in the past 11 months alone, official figures revealed Friday.
   A commerce ministry report showed that between the start of the fiscal year on April 1 and the end of February 2009 Myanmar’s cross-border export receipts topped $610 million, with imports worth $620 million.
   Half of all border exports were agricultural products, more than a quarter fish and other marine products, while timber accounted for 12 per cent, the report said.
   The vast bulk of border trade was with China, Myanmar’s major ally in the region, which accounted for 70 per cent of the trade.
   Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, is the subject of sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe because of alleged rights abuses and its long-running detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
   But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as neighbours, notably China, spend billions of dollars on Myanmar’s natural gas, timber and precious stones.
   Myanmar’s total foreign trade reached $9.8 billion for fiscal year 2007-08, an increase of 20 per cent on the previous year.
   Myanmar has 13 border trading posts split between its frontiers with China, Thailand, India, and Bangladesh.
   Junta leader senior general Than Shwe held talks with China’s army chief of staff during a ‘goodwill’ visit in Myanmar’s capital on Wednesday, according to state media.
   The two countries share a 1,370-mile (2,205-kilometre) border.

The government has signed a deal with a Korean firm to expand internet to all divisional cities and important district towns.
   The telecommunications minister, Razi Uddin Ahmed Razu, said the journey of implementing the prime minister’s election pledge to build ‘Digital Bangladesh’ began Thursday with the signing of the deal.
   ‘It’ll be an epoch-making history in the country when the internet information network expansion project will be implemented within a year. Students will have a great opportunity to enhance their knowledge using the internet,’ he said.
   He was addressing a function marking the signing of the deal for implementing the National IP Backbone at the Telecommunications Bhaban.
   Mess KT Corporation of Korea will implement the project at an estimated cost of Tk 300 crore.
   Bangladesh Telecommunications Limited managing director SM Khabiruzzaman and KT Corporation vice-president Maeng Soo Ho signed the deed on behalf of their respective sides.
   The salient features of the project are to establish a new optical fibre network, a high-power transmission network using the existing optical fibre, establishing IP POP in important 17 district towns and establish an access network to provide various IP-related services.
   Post and telecommunications state minister Yafes Osman, secretary Sunil Kanti Bose, BTRC chairman Zia Ahmed, South Korean ambassador in Dhaka Suk Bum Park and BTCL managing director SM Khabiruzzaman also spoke on the occasion.

The board of scandal-roiled Satyam Computer Services met Friday to discuss the sale of the Indian outsourcing giant as a deadline loomed for suitors to show they were serious.
   Potential bidders had until late Friday (1130 GMT) to show they had at least 15 billion rupees ($300m) in cash to back up their interest in the software services exporter whose finances were left in shambles by its disgraced founder.
   ‘The board is meeting’ to discuss potential investors, a Satyam spokeswoman told AFP, adding it was not immediately known whether any statement would be issued at the end of discussions.
   Satyam received ‘registrations of interest’ in Satyam last week from at least four companies, including engineering heavyweight Larsen & Toubro and software firms Tech Mahindra Ltd and Nasdaq-listed iGATE Corp. Larsen & Toubro has already built up a 12 per cent stake and is seen as a front runner.
   The government-appointed board is organising the bidding for Satyam, which is at the heart of India’s biggest corporate fraud. The company was ranked India’s fourth-largest by revenues before the scandal broke.
   The board is looking to offload 51 per cent of Satyam which is desperate for an injection of funds.
   Satyam has been battling to pay wages and provide services to stay in business since founder B Ramalinga Raju declared in January he had inflated the balance sheet by over one billion dollars and exaggerated profits.
   Satyam shares, which have tumbled over 70 per cent since Raju’s revelations, were trading down 0.34 per cent or 0.15 rupees at 44.20 rupees in early afternoon.
   The meeting came as the Economic Times reported Satyam was set to lower its reported revenues over the past seven years by at least 10 to 15 per cent.
   ‘Satyam is internally looking at discounting its reported revenues by 10 to 15 per cent in the financials which are in the process of being re-stated,’ the newspaper quoted a source as saying.
   The lower revenues could have a significant impact on the software firm’s valuation when bidders put a price tag on the firm, the newspaper said.
   US-based iGATE chief executive Phaneesh Murthy told CNBC TV18 the company’s bid could be ‘quite a bit south’ of Satyam’s current share price from ‘what we have picked up in terms of the financials’ of the outsourcer.
   Once the Satyam board is satisfied about the seriousness of the bidders’ intent, it has said it will give them ‘access to certain business, financial and legal diligence materials relating to the company.’
   The bidding process will be unusual in that Satyam cannot provide many of the figures needed for bidders to conduct normal ‘due diligence’ on the accounts, such as potential liabilities.
   Any buyer will have to take on board potential liabilities from at least 13 lawsuits filed in the United States by defrauded shareholders.
   Satyam’s sale has taken on urgency, with customers’ uncertainty mounting over its future. Several firms have terminated their contracts and more are reportedly contemplating such a move.
   The board has said it is hopeful of wrapping up the sale within the next couple of months.

ThyssenKrupp plans to shed more than 3,000 jobs, a press report said on Friday, the first time a German industrial group would eliminate permanent posts as a result of the country’s recession.
   ThyssenKrupp, a steel maker and manufacturer of industrial goods, would cut 1.5 per cent of its workforce as it struggles with falling demand for its products, the Financial Times said, without identifying its sources.
   The group’s steel, automotive and ship building divisions would be affected by the cuts, the newspaper said.
   Until now, German groups have reduced workers’ hours or eliminated temporary posts in an attempt to weather the country’s worst recession since the 1930s.
   In January, the heads of 30 leading German companies told the chancellor, Angela Merkel, they would not resort to compulsory layoffs, the report noted.
   But Germany’s export-oriented economy has been slammed by the global slowdown and is forecast to contract sharply this year.
   On Thursday, the Ifo economic institute estimated that Europe’s biggest economy could shrink by more than four per cent, much more than the government’s current official forecast of a 2.25 per cent contraction.
   The Financial Times Deutschland newspaper cited government internal calculations that suggested the contraction could be as much as five per cent this year.

Printer and copier maker Xerox is cutting its forecast for first-quarter profit by nearly 80 per cent on restructuring costs and a slowdown in technology spending.
   Xerox Corp now says it expects earnings per share in a range of 3 cents to 5 cents, down from its earlier forecast of 16 cents to 20 cents; analysts expect, on average, 18 cents per share.
   The cut includes a 6 cent impact from Xerox’s share of Fuji Xerox’s restructuring and a lower-than-expected Fuji Xerox profit contribution, the company says.
   January and February revenue fell 18 per cent, the Norwalk, Connecticut, company says.

The Italian automaker Fiat says it will not assume Chrysler’s debt – current or future – in its deal to take a 35 per cent stake in the company.
   Fiat issued a statement of clarification on Friday after Chrysler’s chief executive said the Italian automaker would be responsible for 35 per cent of Chrysler’s debt to the US government should a proposed alliance go through.
   Fiat shares slipped 5.5 per cent to 4.45 euro ($6.08) on the Milan stock exchange early Friday on the Chrysler statement.
   In a statement, Fiat said it ‘intends to make absolutely clear that
   the proposed alliance
   will not entail the assumption of any current or future indebtedness to Chrysler.’
   Fiat is discussing trading its small-car technology for a 35 per cent stake in Chrysler.

Mortgage lender Northern Rock continued to write high-risk loans for months after authorities stepped in to give the bank emergency support, a public spending watchdog said on Friday.
   Northern Rock became the first British bank to fall victim to the financial crisis in September 2007 when the Bank of England gave it an emergency loan after it had problems raising finance in short-term wholesale debt markets.
   The news sparked a run on the bank, with many investors queuing to withdraw savings from Northern Rock branches.
   The government calmed the panic by guaranteeing deposits and in February 2008 was forced to nationalise Northern Rock, which had grown rapidly by lending aggressively to home buyers.
   A report by the National Audit Office said Northern Rock had continued to write controversial loans for up to 125 per cent of a property’s value for months after seeking help from the Bank of England.
   Such high loans, now unobtainable, are widely seen as symptomatic of a housing market bubble before the credit crunch.
   Northern Rock’s ‘Together’ mortgage included a secured loan of 95 per cent of the value of a property together with an unsecured loan, which could be used for any purpose, of up to 30 per cent of the property’s value.
   Between September 2007 and February 2008, when Northern Rock was nationalised, more than 1.8 billion pounds of Together loans were written, the NAO said.
   ‘At 31 December 2008, Together mortgages represented around 30 per cent of the mortgage book but about 50 per cent of overall arrears and 75 per cent of (home) repossessions,’ it said.
   Although the initial treasury guarantee prevented wider financial instability, it did not completely stem the outflow of funds from Northern Rock, requiring further borrowing from the Bank of England and more government guarantees, it said.
   The NAO concluded that the treasury analysis that led to the nationalisation of Northern Rock was ‘sufficiently robust.’
   But it said that, before Northern Rock was nationalised, the treasury did not commission its own due diligence on the company’s operations or on the quality of its loan book. It said the treasury did not challenge strongly enough Northern Rock’s forecasts of future trading conditions before approving its initial business plan under public ownership.
   The plan assumed a 5 per cent fall in British house prices between 2008 and 2011. In fact, house prices have already fallen by around 20 per cent from their peak.
   Among its recommendations, the NAO said the treasury should systematically address the risks to the taxpayer when it decides to help a company in difficulty and should vigorously challenge the assumptions underlying any future business plans presented by Northern Rock.
   ‘We note that overall the report finds the treasury was right to take the decisions it did to protect the interests of taxpayers and to promote stability in the financial system,’ a treasury spokesman said.
   The crisis has also forced the government to nationalise the mortgage book of Bradford & Bingley bank and to take large stakes in two other banks, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. Britain is moving to tighten regulation in the wake of the crisis.

Trading of the shares of Aftab Automobiles resumed at the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Thursday.
   The DSE management on Tuesday suspended temporarily the trading of the shares of Aftab Automobiles and Eastern Housing, two ‘A’ category companies, to conduct enquiries into the unusual rise in their share prices.
   Trading of the shares of Eastern Housing, however, resumed on Wednesday.
   On Wednesday, in response to a DSE query regarding unusual price hike, Aftab Automobiles informed the bourse that they did not have any undisclosed material decision or information relating to their company’s operation and profitability that might have an impact on the price and volume of their shares traded at the stock exchange. Eastern Housing also informed the bourse that they did not have any undisclosed material facts and decision and information relating to their company’s operation and profitability that may influence price hike of the company’s shares.
   The DSE on Thursday served show-cause notices on Perfume Chemical Industries and Bangladesh Luggage Industries, two low-profile ‘Z’ category companies, as the companies, according to the bourse, violated the securities-related laws.
   ‘The DSE management has asked the companies to show causes why the bourse will not take punitive action against the companies,’ said an official of the DSE.
   The DSE has also kept the trading of the shares of the 11 ‘Z’ category companies suspended and is conducting enquiries into the unusual rise in their share prices in recent times.

Indian stocks may ‘bottom’ in the middle of the year after the slump in industrial production ends, JPMorgan Chase & Co said.
   Output typically troughs two to four months before India’s equity markets, JPMorgan analysts led by Bharat Iyer wrote in a report dated March 19. Production may drop 3 per cent over March and April before recovering, they said.
   The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index has dropped 7.5 per cent this year, set for its fifth quarterly decline, as the global financial crisis and recession weighed on the corporate earnings outlook. In the last economic cycle, industrial production started recovering in May 2001 while equity markets reached a bottom in September that year, JPMorgan said.
   ‘The above analysis would suggest that the equity markets could bottom out over June to July,’ the analysts wrote. ‘This would also be a decisive phase for the equity markets as there should be clarity by then on the results of the national elections and the progress of the monsoon and its seasonal impact on the economy.’
   The Sensex fell 0.8 per cent to 8,928.87 at 12:06pm local time, the first drop in three days.
   Output at factories, utilities and mines dropped 0.5 per cent in January from a year earlier, declining for the third time in four months, the Central Statistical Organisation said on March 12. Economists had expected a 0.9 per cent contraction.
   The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has reduced taxes on consumer products and the central bank slashed interest rates to a record low to revive an economy that some analysts fear may slow further as elections in April and May stymie policymaking in the world’s biggest democracy.

Oil prices drifted lower Friday after surging above $51 a barrel, as traders re-evaluated expectations for renewed crude demand amid persistent uncertainty about the global economy.
   Oil prices have jumped from below $35 a barrel last month amid a global stock market rally and easing concerns about the international financial sector.
   But oil inventories continue to rise, and there has been scant solid evidence that the fall in crude demand has bottomed out. The outlook for the global economy also remains cloudy, analysts say.
   Benchmark crude for April delivery fell 87 cents to $50.74 a barrel by noon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices climbed $3.47 on Thursday to settle at $51.61.
   With the April contract set to expire Friday, most of the trading had shifted to the contract for May, which was down 37 cents to $51.67.
   ‘One significant bad figure and the whole thing can collapse, so it’s really fragile,’ said Christoffer Moltke-Leth, head of sales trading for Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore.
   Oil has been bolstered this week by news that the US Federal Reserve plans to buy $1.25 trillion of government bonds and mortgage-backed securities. The announcement sent the dollar down on worries the plan would expand dramatically the money supply and stoke inflation. Oil contracts
   are often used by investors as a hedge against inflation and a weakening dollar.
   ‘Oil is still strongly correlated to the dollar,’ said Moltke-Leth. ‘What the Fed is doing – printing money to buy government debt – it’s just the most inflationary thing you can do.’
   OPEC has also helped boost prices by largely complying with 4.2 million barrels a day of production cuts the group has announced since September.
   In other Nymex trading, gasoline for April delivery fell slipped by close to 2 cents to $1.42 a gallon, while heating oil fell by more than a penny to $1.34 a gallon. Natural gas for April delivery was steady, up more than 3 cents to $4.21 per 1,000 cubic feet.
   In London, Brent prices fell 71 cents to $49.96 on the ICE Futures exchange.

The US treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, Thursday fended off resignation calls from Republicans but said he shouldered the blame for the political mishandling of a furore over AIG bonuses.
   In a CNN interview, President Barack Obama’s top economic lieutenant insisted he only learned in full about the politically toxic bonuses at bailed-out American International Group last week.
   But the national uproar over the $165 million in bonuses paid out by the fallen insurance giant stoked broader criticism of Geithner’s stewardship of an economy in crisis, despite Obama’s ‘complete confidence’ in his ability.
   ‘It’s my responsibility. I was in a position where I didn’t know about those sooner, I take full responsibility for that,’ Geithner said in the interview.
   The former head of the New York Federal Reserve said he was informed by his staff on Tuesday last week about the ‘full scale and scope’ of the AIG bonuses, largely given to the division blamed for putting the firm on life support.
   ‘We moved very quickly. We’ve made it clear that the payments going forward had to be renegotiated and we’re going to make sure that the taxpayer is compensated for any payments we can’t recoup,’ he said.
   Surfing a wave of populist economic anger, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted Thursday to slap a 90 per cent tax on bonuses for top executives at rescued companies like AIG.
   Republicans stepped up their offensive on Geithner – and by extension Obama – amid a controversy that is threatening to swamp the administration’s broader economic goals, including steps planned by Geithner to shore up US banks.
   ‘I think the treasury secretary is on thin ice and the sooner we get answers to the questions we’ve posed, the better off he might be as well,’ House Republican leader John Boehner told reporters.
   Some outspoken Republicans went further in calling for Geithner’s head, focusing on his role in organising last September’s AIG bailout from his perch at the New York Fed.
   ‘I look at the short time he’s been in his position and there’s been mistake after mistake after mistake, and this is a time when we need economic certainty,’ Congressman Connie Mack told MSNBC.
   Another House Republican, Darrell Issa, said Geithner should have asked more searching questions, either when he was leading the New York Fed or before he unveiled the latest 30-billion-dollar cash infusion for AIG on March 2.
   ‘If he didn’t ask the question then instead of being wrong, he’s incompetent,’ he said on Fox News.
   Asked about the calls for his dismissal just two months into the Obama administration, Geithner said ‘I think this just comes with the job.’
   ‘People are going to disagree with some of the choices we make, but we have to act. We have no choice but to move,’ he said.
   Neil Barofsky, the US government’s chief auditor for $700 billion in bank bailout funds, fuelled Geithner’s problems by announcing an investigation into who at treasury knew what, and when, about the bonuses.
   And Republicans also seized on remarks by Senate banking committee chairman Christopher Dodd, who said he diluted a bonus-banning clause in Obama’s massive stimulus bill at the behest of unidentified treasury officials.
   Geithner denied that he personally intervened with Dodd but conceded that there were discussions between their staffs on possible legal challenges to Dodd’s original amendment.
   He added that it should ‘never happen again’ that a company like AIG can grow to such a point that its collapse can threaten the very stability of the US financial system.

EU leaders agreed on Friday to double the amount of emergency loans available to struggling eastern European countries to 50 billion euros, reports Agence France-Presse and Reuters quoting EU diplomats.
   ‘There is an agreement to lift (the ceiling) to 50 billion euros,’ one of the diplomats said on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels. A second diplomat confirmed the agreement.
   The European Commission proposed on Thursday to the leaders to double a credit line for struggling non-eurozone members to 50 billion euros, after the 27-nation bloc had already doubled it to 25 billion euros in December.
   The existing 25-billion-euro credit line is getting rapidly depleted after Hungary and Latvia drew nearly 10 billion euros from it and others starting with Romania were likely to follow soon.
   At the start of the month, EU leaders ruled out a regional bailout plan for Eastern Europe, opting instead to extend help to countries on a case-by-case basis as trouble emerges.
   Export-dependent Eastern Europe has been hit particularly hard by the crisis due to the region’s reliance on the capital of increasingly risk-averse foreign investors’ capital to finance their economies.
   BBC adds: Meanwhile, EU leaders resisted US calls for more government spending to stimulate their crisis-hit economies.
   They said the focus should be on reforming the global financial system.
   They are also planning to boost the resources of the International Monetary Fund to help countries in trouble.
   The Brussels summit, which opened on Thursday, takes place as the world’s biggest economies prepare for next month’s G20 summit in London.
   Separately, the EU leaders ruled out an extra stimulus package, despite calls from Washington for one.
   ‘Trying to outdo one another with promises will certainly not bring any calm to the situation,’ said the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has led calls for European fiscal restraint.
   The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, whose country is holding the EU’s rotating presidency, said the leaders were ‘unanimous in their views’ that they ‘are going to be prudent’ with economy stimulus plans.
   He warned that any more deficit spending was ‘a deadly idea,’ adding that EU leaders were awaiting the results of the 200-billion-euro package agreed in December.
   With output tumbling and millions of jobs at risk across the continent, EU leaders seem to have few fresh ideas to offer and little appetite to throw more public money at the crisis, BBC correspondent says.
   EU leaders also approved a plan to spend several more billion euros on upgrading energy and broadband connections.
   This included funds for a controversial gas pipeline project meant to reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian energy.
   The plan was agreed in response to the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine in January that led to severe shortages for millions across Eastern Europe.

The world economy is likely to shrink in 2009 despite growth in Asian powerhouses China and India, the head of the OECD Angel Gurria said Friday, warning of a first global contraction in 60 years.
   ‘Now we are probably seeing a world which will go negative because even the positive growth of India and China is not going to be enough to offset the negative growth in (developed countries),’ he told reporters.
   He was replying to a question about his expectations for growth in 2009.
   Gurria’s remark came after the International Monetary Fund said it also believed the global economy could contract in 2009.
   ‘The IMF expects global growth to slow below zero this year, the worst performance in most of our lifetimes,’ IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in Tanzania earlier this month.
   Gurria, secretary general of the OECD, also said in Friday’s briefing that growth in China’s economy this year was likely to reach six to seven per cent.
   The World Bank earlier this week published a new forecast for the Chinese economy, reducing its growth prediction for 2009 to 6.5 per cent from 7.5 per cent.
   The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development groups 30 industrialised, democratic nations across the world and serves as a policy adviser and a forum for debate about economic and political issues.

The Peugeot factory’s metal-stamping presses boomed loudly, but car worker Laurent Roziak welcomed the noise after six days of empty silence from the latest work stoppage.
   ‘It’s demoralising when the machines aren’t running. I prefer noise,’ said Roziak, who has been working for France’s biggest carmaker at its flagship Sochaux plant for the past 20 years.
   The 12,000 workers at Sochaux in eastern France – the country’s biggest factory – were told to stay home last week after a strike at one of its suppliers crippled production.
   The shutdown followed several stoppages this year and a long stretch of three weeks without work in December that has driven home the full impact of the global downturn in a region that is to France what Detroit is to the US car industry.
   But the French government, in making crisis loans of 3.0 billion euros ($4.1b) to PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault, extracted undertakings that the two groups would not close French factories or cut French jobs.
   The president, Nicolas Sarkozy, also signalled that some work now carried out in Eastern Europe should be switched to France, provoking controversy that this was protectionist.
   On Friday, the junior industry minister, Luc Chatel, said that Renault was switching a production line from Slovenia to France, creating 400 jobs near Paris.
   However, despite the state rescue help, France’s carmakers are struggling as the economic crisis slams the brakes on sales, rattling a sector that indirectly employs 10 per cent of the nation’s workforce.
   ‘We are wondering whether or not it’s going to pick up,’ said David Sciaux, 37, who returned to the Peugeot assembly line in Sochaux this week. ‘It’s the first time that we have been off work for so long.’
   PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe’s second-biggest carmaker, expects car sales to drop by 20 per cent this year and has announced plans along with fellow French carmaker Renault to slash thousands of jobs.
   The company whose lion logo is prominently displayed at the local town museum last year announced its first losses in 10 years.
   Founded a century ago by Peugeot brothers Jean-Pierre and Jean Frederic, the Sochaux factory has long been the region’s economic lifeblood, with an estimated 65,000 jobs linked to its production.
   A sprawling maze of buildings connected by kilometres of roads and railways, the factory sits near the centre of the town, a stone’s throw from the theatre and sports stadium, both built by Peugeot.
   ‘It’s a well known fact. When Peugeot coughs, the entire region catches a cold,’ said local union leader Pascal Pavillard.
   So far, 1,000 temporary workers at the Sochaux plant have been told their contracts will not be renewed and negotiations are under way for the voluntary departure of 150 middle-management staff.
   When Peugeot decides to halt production, workers who stay home are still paid their full salaries under union contracts that allow for vacation days and other time-off to be used.
   Employees of the car giant’s many suppliers are not so lucky: they get half their wages paid by the state.
   Pavillard said Peugeot had already served notice during contract talks that it could not continue paying full wages to non-productive employees much longer.
   The plan is to use the down-time for job training and also to encourage transfers of employees to other Peugeot plants in France, he said.
   With some 1,000 cars rolling off its assembly lines daily, the Sochaux plant is still on track to launch production on two new affordable family cars this year.

Corruption will be a key factor as the World Bank considers a fresh three-year lending programme for the Philippines worth up to three billion dollars, the multilateral lender said Friday.
   The aid programme ‘puts greater emphasis on poverty alleviation and good governance’ through a ‘stable macro economy, improved investment climate, better public service delivery, and reduced vulnerabilities,’ the bank said in a statement.
   Manila drew up a list of projects for which World Bank funding is needed during consultations with the lender that began in June last year.
   The meetings were held amid a corruption scandal in which the World Bank cancelled a 33-million-dollar road improvement project and blacklisted several Chinese, Philippine and South Korean firms it said had colluded in the tender.
   That sparked calls by senators for the Philippine Ombudsman to resign for failing to prosecute officials allegedly in league with the public works cartel.

The Asian Development Bank on Friday said it will lend Vietnam 410.2 million dollars to build an expressway to help ease congestion around the country’s southern commercial capital.
   The ADB said it signed an agreement with Vietnam’s government for the loan to develop a tollway linking Ho Chi Minh City – the former Saigon – and industrial Dong Nai province by 2014.

The Industrial and Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited arranged a syndicated term loan facility of Tk 136.2 crore to set up a 1,45,800 tonne-capacity billet-making plant named BSRM Iron & Steel Company Ltd, said a news release.
   Fourteen financial institutions participated in a signing ceremony for the syndication at the Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka recently.
   IIDFC chairman M Matiul Islam, BISCO chairman Alihussain Akberali, IIDFC managing director Md Asaduzzaman Khan, Dhaka Stock Exchange president Rakibur Rahman, Chittagong Stock exchange CEO AB Siddique and senior officials from the participating banks and financial institutions attended the ceremony.

Holcim (Bangladesh) Ltd has recently organised a workshop for Mirpur-based construction contractors in Dhaka.
   The company, which started its business in Bangladesh in 2000, organised the workshop as a part of its social responsibility, a news release said.
   Holcim general manager (marketing) Jashim Uddin Khandaker made a detail presentation on construction industry and the activities of the company at the workshop attended by around 50 contractors, the release said.
   Holcim assistant manager (customer support) Manjurul Islam, deputy manager (customer care) Reazul Islam, senior executive (customer care) Mobarok Ali, and senior executive (customer support) Achinto Kumar Shaha were also present.