The Milk Vita will market some 3.5 lakh litres of milk per day considering its additional demand during the month of Ramadan.
   State minister for LGRD and cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak on Sunday gave a special directive to the officials of the Milk Vita to work round-the-clock being divided into three shifts to meet the target.
   The state minister was presiding over an inter-ministerial meeting to find out the possible solution to the problems in the state-owned milk producer at the conference room of the LGRD ministry in the city.
   Secretary of the rural development and cooperatives division Dr M Golam Mustafa Talukdar and other high officials of the ministry and the Milk Vita were present at the meeting.
   Nanak urged the Milk Vita authorities to ensure the quality of their products, cut the system loss, introduce a planned marketing system, and increase the production and sales.
   He also suggested the Milk Vita authorities for appointing distributors at the district level to ease the supply of the milk in packets to the grassroots level of the country.
   The state minister called upon the National Board of Revenue to exclude the Milk Vita products from the VAT net and requested the home ministry to take stern actions against the persons, who are involved in milk supply through illegal means and milk contamination.
   Representatives from the different ministries, divisions and agencies assured the state minister of achieving the target for supplying the milk and milk products at reasonable prices.

Civil aviation and tourism minister GM Qader on Sunday said the government was going to set up a ‘tourism development authority’ to replace the existing Parjatan Corporation.
   Speaking as chief guest at a seminar at Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said, the government was reformulating the existing tourism policies and going to set up a ‘master plan’ to develop Cox’s Bazar as an attractive tourist hub.
   He said once the tourism development authority would be in place, the Parjatan Corporation of Bangladesh would be abolished. The government would also set up a tourism board comprising stakeholders such as representatives of hotel, motels tour operator agencies to promote the industry and develop new infrastructure and other facilities to serve the tourists.
   The seminar titled as ‘development and potentials of tourism industry in Bangladesh’ was jointly organised by DCCI and Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh at the conference room of the chamber.
   Professor Ashraful Islam Chowdhury of the department of marketing and founder chairman of department of tourism and hospitality presented the keynote paper in the seminar.
   DCCI president Zafar Osman was in the chair. ATAB president of Muhaimin Saleh and other directors of the chamber took part in the discussion.
   The minister said the government was taking a new look to all aspects to develop the industry by restructuring existing facilities and adding new dimensions to it.
   As part of it, he said, policies are being reviewed. Biman is going under restructuring and work is going on to make it tourism supportive carrier although more time would be required to promote the services like other regional carriers offering lucrative packages.
   Qader said his ministry had already asked district deputy commissioners to identify tourist spots within the district and provide particulars about them to the ministry.
   He said the government would hand over responsibility to local government authorities where such spots might be promoted locally. The national authorities may take up bigger projects.
   Referring to government seriousness to promote tourism not only in cities and urban centres but also in rural areas such as eco- tourism, he said, the forthcoming budget may allow investment of ‘unaccounted money’ in this sector without questioning about sources.
   Qader said it might not be possible to create a whole lot of tourist infrastructure in the country in public sector. So the government is planning to pass more of the activities in the private sector under a supportive policy regime.
   He said the government was having many proposals from foreign investors aimed at developing exclusive tourists spots and hotels with all modern facilities. Such proposals exists for Sundarban, Cox’s Bazar or St Martin, he said naming an Abu Dhabi-based firm stand among a host of others looking for promoting this sector in Bangladesh.
   The minister said Cox’s Bazar beach and many such spots in the country were having more potentials than sea washed countries like the Maldives. He said the government was constantly working to ease the visa system and cargo delivery at the airport to make it visitors friendly.

Dhaka stocks opened the week downbeat with the DSE general index losing 6.82 points, or 0.27 per cent, on Sunday, the first trading day of the week.
   The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange closed at 2,500.07 points, while its blue chips index, DSE20, finished at 1,910.91, shedding 14.42 points, or 0.75 per cent.
   Market operators said the market dropped for the third consecutive day as the recent dullness at the market dampened the investors’ mood.
   Price adjustment of the shares of ACI Ltd, Summit Power Ltd, Jamuna Bank Ltd, National Housing Finance and Investments Ltd and Heidelberg Cement Ltd after their corporate benefits also contributed to the fall, they said. Of the total 245 issues traded, 109 advanced, 131 declined and five remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the DSE, however, increased to Tk 509.29 crore from the Thursday’s Tk 424.18 crore.
   Summit Power topped the turnover leaders with a total transaction of Tk 62.33 crore.
   Beximco, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Eastern Housing, Titas Gas, Bextex, LankaBangla Finance, Aftab Automobiles and Shinepukur Ceramics were the rest of the top 10 turnover leaders.

Pubali Bank is going to celebrate its 50th founding anniversary tomorrow with a promise to give the nation more services.
   Participating in Bangladesh’s development and contributing to building the nation’s economic and financial infrastructure, the bank can only look back with pride on its glorious past.
   It also continues to actively build on its past accomplishments and heritage by involving it in the country’s development towards an even more promising future.
   Some of the Bangali entrepreneurs in 1959 set up the bank as Eastern Mercantile Bank Ltd in the Chittagong city to establish their right to do business and get bank financers. It was renamed Pubali Bank after the War of Liberation in 1971. During the Pakistani regime, businesses were not given credit by the then West Pakistani banks.
   The country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had given directive not to transfer money to the West Pakistan. Eastern Mercantile Bank had complied with his directive. The bank played a courageous role during the Liberation War. It had stopped remitting money from East to West Pakistan. During the war, the Bangalis also deposited their money with the bank as a safe custody because the West Pakistanis ran all other banks.
   Of those courageous entrepreneurs OR Nizam, MR Siddqui, Khan Bahadur Mujibur Rahman, Mirza Mohammad Ali Ispahani, Habibur Rahman and Dr Naimur Rahman were the notable sponsors of the bank.
   The bank is going to celebrate 50 years of its operations tomorrow — a millstone that no other bank in Bangladesh has. Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks were established in 1972 through amalgamation and nationalisation of the branches of different Pakistani banks located in the then East Pakistan. The first generation private banks, which are leading the industry, were established in 1983 and afterwards.
   Existing managing director of the bank Helal Ahmed Chowdhury is the first managing director who was appointed as a junior officer in the bank.
   At present, Pubali Bank has 371 branches countrywide and employs over 5,000 staff. No private bank can boast of such a wide network.
   Pubali Bank’s operating profit reached Tk 365 crore on December 31, 2008 from Tk 305 crore a year earlier, registering a 20 per cent growth. Its total volume of loan and deposits also marked a significant rise last year. Its non-performing loan came down to only 3.59 per cent last year, which was over 14 per cent in 2005.
   The bank has dozens of deposit and loan products and provides remittance and other services, such as receiving different utility bills. It can remit money within 24 hours with its online services. However, the growth path was not so smooth. The bank faced a lot of upheavals — from nationalisation to denationalisation and privatisation, and NPL to become a problem bank on the central bank’s list.
   The bank was corporatised in 1983 and became a private bank in 1985. The then government handed over all assets and liabilities of the Pubali Bank Limited. Since then the bank has been rendering all sorts of commercial bank services as the largest bank in private sector thought its branches across the country.
   Just after one decade of privatisation, the bank got the problem bank status in May 1994 for its poor performances in different indicators. The Bangladesh Bank as the regulator appointed an observer in the bank to monitor its activities. The bank took more than a decade to come out of problem bank’s list and the central bank finally withdrew its observer in November 2007.
   Helal Ahmed Chowdhury thinks strong monitoring and loan recovery as well as the management’s commitment have helped salvage the bank and bring it to profitability.
   Helal Ahmed said it was a tough task to come out of the legacy of nationalisation. Staff were given training to change their mindset to compete with the private banks.
   ‘Now the bank is emerging as a giant with its country wide network and faster services are on offer,’ he added.
   Its deposit stood at Tk 7,306 crore in 2008 from Tk 5,802 crore a year earlier, marking a 26 per cent rise.
   The bank’s credit also witnessed a 22.21 per cent jump to Tk 6,178 crore last year from Tk 5,055 crore in 2007. Import and export business also showed a significant growth. The bank dealt with Tk 5,949 crore and Tk 2,440 crore worth import and export orders respectively in 2008, while the figures were Tk 4,835 crore and Tk 1991 crore a year ago.
   The bank’s lending rate is at 13 per cent and there is no hidden cost, the managing director said.
   He also said this year’s expansion plan, which includes opening of 15 new branches to take number to 386.
   ‘We plan get more licences from the central bank to raise the flow of inward remittance from UK, USA, Italy, KSA,’ he added.
   In 2008, Pubali Bank remitted Tk 3,000 crore in the country.
   Pubali bank has invested around Tk 200 crore in the country’s health sector. Besides, the bank also provides Tk 400 crore to the country’s SME sector through NGO.

A new business magazine titled Bangladesh Business was launched at a ceremony held in a city hotel on Saturday.
   The launch introduced the magazine and its website (www.bangladeshbusiness.biz) to the stakeholders and members of Bangladesh’s private sector, government agencies and business community, a news release said.
   The magazine and website aim at articulating the business community’s hopes, desires and aspirations through reportage, analyses, debate and opinions and ideas.
   Farook Chowdhury, business development manager, South and South East Asia, Euroconsult Mott MacDonald addressed the programme among others.
   The launching ceremony was organised by the publisher, Euroconsult BMB Mott MacDonald, initially being supported in its maiden magazine/website venture by Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund.

BRAC Bank announced 30 per cent stock dividend (bonus share) for the year ended on December 31, 2008.
   The dividend was declared at the 10th annual general meeting of the bank held in Dhaka on Sunday, a news release said.
   The chairman of the bank, Muhammad A (Rumee) Ali, presided over the meeting while managing director and chief executive officer AEA Muhaimen, directors, senior officials and share holders of the bank were present.
   The chairman at the AGM informed that the bank earned Tk 3,174 million operating profit and Tk 973 million profit after tax in 2008 with 63 per cent and 57 per cent growth rates respectively.

Victor Blank will stand down as chairman of Lloyds Banking Group and may announce his decision as soon as Sunday, the Telegraph newspaper said in an article posted on its website on Saturday.
   ‘Sir Victor, who has been under mounting pressure from institutional shareholders following Lloyds TSB’s merger with the crisis-hit HBOS last autumn, is expected to say that he will remain at Lloyds for about a year, allowing a successor to be identified,’ the newspaper said.
   A spokesman for the company declined to comment.
   HBOS was taken over by rival LLoyds TSB in a government brokered deal in September to save it from collapse after a dramatic slump in its share price.

Turkey has shown keen interest to invest $1-2 billion for setting up an Export Processing Zone in Bangladesh.
   A three-member business delegation of Turkey-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry led by its president Fikret Cicek conveyed the Turkish interest at a meeting with commerce minister Faruk Khan at his office on Sunday.
   Welcoming the proposal, the commerce minister assured the delegation of all necessary support from Bangladesh government to implement it.
   He also proposed to the delegation to think about setting up a special Turkish industrial zone outside capital Dhaka.
   Terming the present government as business friendly, Faruk Khan said:
   ‘Our government is ready to provide all kinds of support for the promotion of business in the country.’
   He said although the whole world is struggling to cope with ongoing economic recession, export and investment in the country increased this year.
   The delegation proposed to import pulses from Turkey, saying that they had a bountiful production of different varieties of pulse this year.
   The commerce minister told the delegation that the government would consider the matter in due course of time.

Asian currencies ended the week mostly lower against the dollar amid mixed views on whether the worst was over for the global economy.
   Japanese yen continued an upswing against the dollar in sluggish trading in the past week, amid mixed prospects of a global economic recovery, dealers said.
   It stood at 95.19 against the dollar in New York late Friday, up from 98.43 against the dollar a week earlier.
   In Tokyo trading, the yen hit a weekly high of 94.99 against the dollar on Friday, as anticipation of dismal eurozone economic data depressed the greenback against the Japanese unit.
   The yen clawed its way back in Tokyo from Monday’s weekly low of 98.82 on hopes of improvement in the global economy.
   The dollar fell back as the growing US federal deficit, worse-than-expected April US retail sales and increased claims for jobless benefits in the United States worried market players, dealers said.
   While some traders expect the dollar to decline as easing financial worries reduce safe-haven demand for the currency, others believe the prospect of a recovery in the US economy will support the greenback.

Aftab Automobiles
   Mafia Yasmin and Sumaiya Yasmin, sponsors of the company, have reported their intention to sell 814 shares each out of their total holdings of 5,447 and 4,976 shares respectively of the company at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange by June 16, 2009.
   
   Himadri
   Normal trading of the shares of the company will resume today following the starting date of Book-Closure and there will be no price limit on the trading of the shares of the company.
   
   Modern Cement
   In response to a DSE query dated May 14, 2009, the company has informed that there is no undisclosed material decision/information relating to the company’s operation/profitability that might have impact on the trading of shares of the company.
   
   Kay and Que
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2008, the company has reported profit after tax of Tk 1.09m with weighted average EPS of Tk 2.71 as against Tk 0.61m and Tk 1.58 respectively as on December 31, 2007.
   
   Green Delta Insurance
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2008, the company has reported profit after tax of Tk 245.07m with EPS of Tk 120.06 as against Tk 163.19m and Tk 79.95 (restated) respectively as on December 31, 2007.
   
   BLTC
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2008, the company has reported net loss of Tk 4.67m with EPS of Tk 57.39 as against Tk 2.40m and Tk 29.51 respectively as on December 31, 2007. Accumulated loss of the company was Tk 49.58m as on December 31, 2008. As per audited accounts, the company was not in operation for the year ended on December 31, 2008.
   
   Sreepur Textile
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2008, the company has reported net loss of Tk 22.45m with EPS of Tk 16.04 as against Tk 22.56m and Tk 16.12 respectively as on December 31, 2007. Accumulated loss of the company was Tk 432.52m as on December 31, 2008. As per audited accounts, the company was not in operation for the year ended on December 31, 2008.
   
   Padma Printers
   As per audited accounts as on December 31, 2008, the company has reported net profit of Tk 0.03m with EPS of Tk 0.02 as against Tk 0.30m and Tk 0.19 as on December31, 2007 respectively. Accumulated loss of the company was Tk 44.91m as on December 31, 2008.
   Source: DSE

Fresh and deep recession data is doing little to dampen ‘green shoots’ talk that the global crisis is beginning to bottom out, although analysts are forecasting a long, bumpy journey to recovery.
   Economists have seen light on the horizon in recent weeks and investors on Friday appeared to shrug off the latest backward-looking economic data as observers weighed how long it might be before a recovery really takes off.
   The head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn told reporters on Friday that he expected the global economy to recover in the first half of 2010 and forecast the ‘beginning of the turning point’ late this year.
   The IMF this week forecast a ‘gradual’ recovery in Europe next year if firm financial reforms are made. For Asia, top IMF official Takatoshi Kato said the recession promised to be ‘deeper and more prolonged’ than in previous cycles.
   Figures released on Friday showed Europe lurched deeper into its rut in the first quarter of 2009 and concerns rose over the threat of deflation in Japan, due to the biggest world downturn since World War II.
   Data showed that France, Austria and Romania officially entered recession and Germany logged its worst quarter on record. The 16-nation eurozone shrank by a record 2.5 per cent, an official EU estimate showed.
   ‘This should mark the nadir in the eurozone’s recession as there are mounting signs that the rate of contraction is now moderating,’ IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said.
   ‘Nevertheless, we suspect that actual growth remains some way away.’
   Europe’s main stock markets rose in the immediate wake of the growth announcements, shrugging off the grim figures as investors looked forward to a recovery, dealers said.
   ‘This time around, the worst really seems to be over,’ said Carsten Brzeski, an analyst at ING bank, commenting on the German growth figures.
   ‘The worst part of the recession can now be seen in the rear-view mirror but the road to recovery remains bumpy and long.’
   Analysts at the consultancy Capital Economics said growing confidence ‘could feed back into a virtuous circle of improving sentiment, rising stock markets and a stronger recovery.’
   They added: ‘Rising equity prices will restore some of the lost household wealth and should boost consumer confidence, which for all the talk of ‘green shoots’ is still near rock bottom in most economies.’
   Japanese central bank data meanwhile raised concern that the world’s number two economy may be facing a repetition of its 1990s deflationary spiral when falling prices led to weak consumer spending.
   ‘I welcome some signs of easing in the economic slowdown. But we need to remain alert about overall economic conditions,’ Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano told reporters.
   Some economists have said over recent weeks that the world is entering a twilight zone of conflicting signs, with key indicators lighting the way to a recovery even as grim economic data and job cuts continue.
   The IMF suggested in a report this week that the European Central Bank had scope to cut interest rates even further from their current record lows and urged tough measures to shore up Europe’s financial sector.
   The EU promptly announced that some of its banks will undergo ‘stress tests’ like their US counterparts.
   ‘Even assuming more forceful policy actions, the downturn is likely to last until early 2010,’ the IMF said. ‘The subsequent recovery is expected to be gradual.’

China said Sunday it would push mainland businesses to invest in Taiwan to help it weather the global economic crisis, state media reported.
   China will also invite Taiwanese businesses to expand on the mainland and join in infrastructure and other key projects, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Wang Yi, head of China’s State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, as saying.
   ‘The global financial crisis is affecting both sides of the straits, and we are concerned about the Taiwan economy and the Taiwan compatriots’ difficulties,’ Wang said. ‘We are ready to give all we can to help them out.’
   Wang was speaking on the second day of the Straits Forum on China-Taiwan relations in the southeast city of Xiamen.
   The mainland will buy more Taiwanese products, encourage more mainland tourists to visit Taiwan, and wants to sign an economic cooperation agreement that would span the Taiwan Strait, Wang said, according to the report.
   China will also allow Taiwanese law firms to open offices in the south-eastern cities Fuzhou and Xiamen, and step up agricultural cooperation across the straits, Wang was quoted as saying.
   The Xiamen forum was concluding Sunday on the same day Taiwan’s pro-independence opposition was seeking to draw half a million people into the streets of Taipei to protest President Ma Ying-jeou’s pro-China policies.
   Relations between Taiwan and once bitter rival China, which split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, had hit rock bottom amid perceived provocative anti-China remarks by Ma’s predecessor Chen Shui-bian.
   But they improved dramatically after Ma was inaugurated a year ago.

Asia’s leading airlines are bracing themselves for more rough weather after earnings nosedived in the first quarter with no signs of a global economic recovery in sight, industry analysts said.
   Compounding the airlines’ woes are the outbreak of swine flu and growing popularity and longer reach of budget airlines in the region, they said.
   Singapore Airlines, the latest Asian carrier to release its results, said net profit in its fourth quarter ending March tumbled 92 per cent on the year to 41.9 million Singapore dollars ($28.5m).
   During the quarter, revenues sank an annual 19.1 per cent to $3.32 billion while in the fiscal year to March, net profit fell 48.20 per cent to $1.06 billion, SIA said.
   SIA chief executive Chew Choon Seng said the air travel slump appeared to have levelled off but there was still no evidence to suggest that the situation was starting to improve.
   ‘So we are seeing a flattening out,’ he said, but added that while the situation was more encouraging, a real recovery ‘is still not visible yet’.
   SIA earns about 40 per cent of its revenues from premium traffic, or business and first-class travel, and it has been hit hard by the drop in corporate travel, along with Cathay Pacific of Hong Kong and Australia’s Qantas.
   All three airlines have announced measures to contain costs such as unpaid leave and reducing capacity but there is only so much that they can do on the expenditure front, analysts said.
   ‘I don’t see anything at the moment that can help the airlines... They are doing everything they can to cut their costs,’ said Jim Eckes, managing director of the Hong Kong-based consultancy Indoswiss Aviation.
   ‘They will need an economic recovery which so far we just don’t see.’
   Premium traffic has declined on average 30-40 per cent from a year ago, said Eckes.
   ‘Nobody is flying these days in first class or business class... The high-yield business has disappeared,’ he said.
   Eckes said the swine flu outbreak, which has infected over 8,000 people and claimed 72 lives, only adds to the airline sector’s woes.
   ‘It’s hard to tell how the virus is affecting travel but it certainly isn’t helping the airlines when they are down and they are really down right now,’ he said.
   Derek Sadubin, chief operating officer of the Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, said the region’s leading full-service carriers were facing additional pressure from discount airlines.
   ‘We are seeing a squeeze from both ends,’ Sadubin said. ‘The only hope is that the US economy can start to regain some traction and stimulate the world economy back into gear.’
   Cathay Pacific said in April that revenues plunged 22 per cent in the quarter to March, just weeks after announcing it lost more than a billion US dollars in 2008. It was the company’s first full-year loss in a decade.
   Australia’s Qantas announced last month plans to further cut jobs to cope with the slump and more than halved its profit forecast for the financial year to June while deferring plane orders.
   Asia’s biggest carrier, Japan Airlines, reported in May a net loss of 63.2 billion yen ($664.30m) for the 12 months to March, against a profit of 16.9 billion yen the previous year.
   It predicted a similar loss for the year to March 2010 and announced 1,200 job cuts to weather the air travel downturn.
   Despite the crisis, SIA said it would still go ahead with plans to take delivery of five Airbus A380 super jumbo jets this year but analysts are sceptical if this is the right move amid the global slump.
   ‘They have to seriously review whether they should take the additional A380s,’ analyst Shukor Yusof of Standard and Poor’s Asian Equity Research told the AFP.
   ‘This is quite severe,’ he said of the 92 per cent plunge in fourth quarter net profit.
   SIA currently has six A380s in operation.

Dubai’s Burj Al Arab Hotel — billed as the first seven-star hotel in the world — has escaped a room-discounting move by owner the Jumeirah Group to shore up demand during the global downturn.
   As a result, occupancy in the imposing 321-meter (1,053-foot) high building is ‘less than last year but within our expectations,’ Jumeirah chief executive Gerald Lawless told the AFP Saturday on the sidelines of a world tourism conference in Brazil.
   He declined to give occupancy rates.
   But he said for the rest of Jumeirah’s properties, steep price cuts were being offered to maintain demand.
   ‘At the end of November, bookings were slowing down, so we started offering healthy discounts up to 30 per cent for our source markets in the UK, Germany and Russia to stimulate demand,’ he said.
   Despite the crisis, the group was maintaining client numbers from those three key markets, he said, though he noted that reservations were increasingly coming later in a bid to secure cheaper prices.
   He said: ‘The luxury sector is certainly resilient to the crisis but this is also motivated by promotions and prices.’
   Two of the group’s properties in Dubai, the Jumeirah Beach Hotel and the Madinat Jumeirah, are keeping occupancy high, with 90 to 95 per cent of the rooms filled between February and April at an average price of 570 dollars per night, Lawless said.
   The group, which owns 11 hotels, in Dubai, Britain and the United States, plans to forge on with ambitious expansion plans that will see it running 60 properties by 2012.
   ‘Despite the global economic downturn we maintain our objectives,’ Lawless said.
   Jumeirah, part of Dubai Holdings owned by the ruling family of the Gulf emirate, intends to open its first Asian hotel in Shanghai this year, and has just signed a contract to open a hotel in Frankfurt, Germany.
   Lawless would not give company forecasts for 2009, but said there was ‘close to double digit growth in 2008.’
   Several other international hotel groups have suspended their projects in Dubai after seeing its economy stall over recent months.
   The real estate market has imploded but tourists — for now — appear to still be going, with hotels recording a five per cent increase in check-ins in the first three months of this year.

Fujitsu Ltd has developed the world’s fastest central processing unit — a CPU capable of performing 128 billion calculations per second, the company announced Tuesday.
   The Venus gives a Japanese firm the title of the world’s fastest CPU maker for the first time since 1999, when Fujitsu last had the fastest CPU. The development means Fujitsu has overtaken some of the world’s biggest information technology companies, including Intel Corp and IBM Corp, in terms of CPU speed.
   The calculated speed of the new CPU is about 2.5-times faster than the previous record-holding model, which was made by Intel.
   Fujitsu achieved the rapid speed by using miniaturisation technology to double the number of central circuits integrated onto a chip — measuring about 2 centimetres square — from four to eight.
   The Venus’ design also is energy efficient — cutting electricity consumption to about one-third of current levels.

Prime Bank Training and Development Centre has completed the month-long foundation training course for 36 newly-recruited management trainees. The training
   was held from April 7 to May 7.
   A certificate awarding ceremony was arranged on the occasion on the last day of the training, a news release said.
   PBL managing director M Ehsanul Haque
   awarded certificates among the trainees after successfully completion of the training.
   Executive vice-president and head of human resources of the bank Md Tabarak Hossain Bhuiyan and other senior officials attended the ceremony.
   In his address, the MD focused on the role of the management trainees in the bank as the future decision makers and pioneers of new innovations within the banking industry.

Netherlands-US joint venture Paxar Bangladesh Limited will set up a garments accessories manufacturing industry at the Karnaphuli Export Processing Zone.
   The company will invest $24.601 million in setting up their unit and will produce garments accessories. It will also create employment opportunity for 519 Bangladeshi including eight foreign nationals.
   An agreement to this effect was signed on Sunday. Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority member (engineering) Mahbub Ul Alam and Paxar Bangladesh managing director Pradeep J Sugathadasa signed an agreement on behalf of their respective sides at the BEPZA Complex in Dhaka.
   BEPZA executive chairman Brigadier General Jamil Ahmed Khan and officials from both the organisations were present on the occasion.