Hewlett-Packard is planning to penetrate emerging markets of Southeast Asia including Bangladesh and make their presence felt with their newly launched eye-catching and affordable range of products in the desktop as well as notebook series.
   The geo-political situation in the region has improved and there are encouraging signs for intensifying sales promotion, said See Chin Teik, the HP’s senior vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan.
   Regarding the market penetration in emerging markets like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, he said, ‘We are trying to expand our footprints … We intend to provide more computing power to the people.’
   The senior executive vice president of the world’s leading desktop and laptop computers manufacturer said that HP has just started its journey in the emerging markets and there is a long way to go.
   ‘It is a big addressable market … We want to be there early,’ the senior executive of the HP told New Age in an interview after the launching of the new products at ‘Touch the Future. Now.’, event in the Chinese capital Beijing on Wednesday.
   Regarding facing competition from other computer manufacturers in the market, he said the HP discusses about its end users and not of the competitors.
   See Chin Teik said education is one area where the HP products can be valuable in markets like Bangladesh.
   ‘We want to do more promotions of our products,’ he said stressing on partnership programmes in the targeted countries like Bangladesh.
   At the ‘Touch the Future. Now.’, the HP introduced its light and affordable but gorgeous new series of innovative technologies and designs in both desktop and notebook categories.
   ‘We believe we are well poised to deliver and meet the present day needs and provide meaningful solutions to our customers,’ said the HP’s senior vice president.
   In its ‘Mini’ family, the HP added Mini 110 for its consumers who seek to information ‘snack’ and be connected while on–the-go. The mini is available in pink chic, black swirl and white swirl protective HP imprints.
   In addition, HP also unveiled the HP Pavilion dv2 Entertainment Notebook PC, now equipped with a choice of a new AMD Turion Neo or AMD Athlon dual-core processor for ultrathin notebooks.
   Setting new standards of innovation for consumer desktops, HP unveiled a new AiO desktop. The HP Pavilion MS200, a non-touch AiO suite, redefines standards for digital entertainment, simplicity and design innovation for the family at an amazing price point.
   The HP also launched a suite of HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario consumer desktops and monitors. Featuring breakthrough industrial design and leading-edge technology, they are a testament to HP’s continued investment in driving enhanced computing experiences for families.
   The HP dx2810 Special Edition for small and medium-sized businesses offering high-end capabilities needed for uncompromising results alongside energy efficiencies required to reduce costs.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange has initiated a move to review its blue chips index for the first time its inception on January 1, 2001.
   ‘We will soon review the index as the existing DSE-20 index does not represent a proper blue chips index,’ said DSE senior vice-president Saiful Islam.
   He said the DSE initiated the move to remove shortcomings in the index and to introduce a new set of criteria for the listed companies to have a berth in the index.
   A DSE senior official, preferring anonymity, said, ‘The bourse is thinking positively to include more companies in the index as a number of strong-fundamentals issues have entered into the market in recent years.’
   ‘The DSE is weighing an option of introducing a DSE-30 index, replacing the existing DSE-20 index,’ he said.
   ‘In the process, a number of companies currently included in the index may be shown door for making way for better ones,’ the official added.
   Currently, DSE-20 index comprises of ACI, AMCL(Pran), Apex Tannery, Bata Shoe, BATBC, BD Lamps, BOC, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Dhaka Bank, GQ Ball Pen, Islami Bank, Meghna Cement, Monno Ceramics, NBL, Prime Bank, Singer BD, Southeast Bank, Square Textile, Squre Pharmaceuticals and Uttara Finance.
   The DSE-20 index started its journey with 1000 base.
   The DSE has two other indices to reflect the market behaviour–DSE all share price index and DSE general index.
   The DSE introduced all share price index on March 28, 2005 and general index, which excludes ‘Z’ category companies, on November 27, 2001.

The central bank would provide policy support to the government of Bangladesh so that it can easily take decision on major economic issues.
   Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman said this while addressing a meeting organised by The International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh in the city on Saturday.
   ‘Bangladesh Bank will provide actual policy support to the government from its huge data based to analyse the economic decision’, the governor told the meeting.
   ICC Bangladesh president Mahbubur Rahman presided over the meeting while member of the ICC banking Commission Paris, Vincent O’ Brien, presented the paper on ICC global survey in the dialogue.
   Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute chief executive officer MA Taslim, Former ambassador and permanent representative to UN offices in Geneva and WTO Toufiq Ali and ICC Bangladesh standing committee on banking technique chairman Zaidi Sattar also addressed.
   Atiur Rahman said the central bank will enhance its capacity for providing policy support to the government.
   ‘Board of the central bank has rarely discussed the economic issues to support the government,’ he said, adding ‘Now we hold discussion on the issue on regular basis.’
   The governor said the banking sector of Bangladesh has strong financial position amid global recession although the non performing loans are still high.
   ‘Country’s commercial banks should reduce their NPL to face global recession, he added.
   Vincent O’ Brien said the financial crisis is likely to over within two or three months but the global shock wave could affect the developing countries.

Etihad airways on Friday celebrated its three year anniversary of successful operation in Bangladesh and ‘Agent Award Night’ to recognise its agents at Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka.
   Civil aviation and tourism minister GM Quader was present as the chief guest at the programme, a news release said.
   Civil aviation and tourism secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamun and charge d’ affairs of UAE in Bangladesh Gazi Abdullah Bin Ashur, Etihad country manager Khandakar A Kabir, regional general manager of North, Central Asia and sub-continent Just Den Hartg were also present on the occasion.
   GM Quader said, ‘Congratulations to Etihad on its three year anniversary in Bangladesh. The high standard of service of Etihad has enriched our aviation sector.’

Speakers at a seminar in Dhaka Saturday urged the corporate business houses to give attention to labour and environmental laws, and rights of workers and consumers as part of their corporate social responsibility.
   They said business houses should adopt the CSR also to reduce business risks and earn reputation and competitive edge over business rivals for sustainable growth of their businesses.
   ‘The CSR is the continuing commitment by a business house to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large,’ said consultant Mohiuddin Babar.
   Babar presented the keynote paper on the CSR at the seminar. The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted the seminar titled ‘CSR — a profitable way of doing business ethically’ held at its conference room.
   Former DCCI president Aftabul Islam joined the seminar as chief guest while programme coordinator, GTZ Progress, Dr Dietrich Stotz addressed it as special guest. DCCI president Zafar Osman delivered the welcome address.
   They said the practice of the CSR in the developing countries like Bangladesh was quite rare although developed countries were using the CSR. Things should be changed in the developing nations urgently, they said.
   Addressing the seminar, Aftabul Islam said the pattern of doing business should be changed to ensure sustainable growth of business. ‘If you want to do business in old fashion, you’ll be a failed businessman. So, you must comply with the CSR in your organisation to compete with your rivals,’ he said.
   Zafar Osman said they needed to develop a CSR strategy containing some CSR tools and best practices suitable for individual companies which will help alleviate business risks, minimise social dispute and reduce social impacts. ‘CSR practice varies from country to country and company to company.’
   He said the DCCI was planning to establish a CSR centre on its own premises.
   Dr Dietrich Stotz said, ‘For sustainable business you need to ensure the CSR in your company.’ Labour law, environmental laws, skill development and quality product should be given priority in doing business, he added.

Mercantile Bank will distribute Tk 25 lakh among the cyclone Aila-affected people of in the south and south-western region.
   The decision was made at a recent meeting of the executive committee of the Mercantile Bank board, a news release said.
   The relief will be distributed through its Barisal, Khulna and Choumuhoni branches.

London investors will hunt for higher ground next week amid the latest policy announcements from the Bank of England and a smattering of company news.
   The British capital’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares finished Friday at 4,417.94 points, up 1.21 per cent or 52.65 points from a week earlier.
   Markets will focus next Thursday on interest rate decisions from both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, dealers said.
   ‘In a relatively quiet week in terms of corporate news flow, the ECB and BoE announcements after their respective meetings, scheduled for June 4, could be market movers,’ said New Edge analyst Daniel Roy.
   The BoE was widely expected by analysts to keep its key lending rate at the current record-low of 0.50 per cent.
   However, the central bank could also decide to pump more new money into the economy in an attempt to crack the credit crunch and help lift the embattled British economy out of a deep recession.
   The BoE’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee had chosen earlier this month to pump out another 50 billion pounds of new cash to boost bank lending.
   The nine-member MPC also voted unanimously on May 7 to keep interest rates at a record-low 0.5 per cent as Britain battles its sharpest slowdown in 30 years.
   The move to increase the new money supply to 125 billion pounds to boost bank lending is a form of monetary policy known as ‘quantitative easing’ or QE.
   Under QE, the bank buys up government bonds from commercial banks in the hope that the institutions will use the money to lend once again.
   On the corporate earnings radar, Irish airline Ryanair flies in on Tuesday with publication of the group’s annual results. Home improvements retailer Kingfisher releases a trading update the same day.
   Meanwhile, Lloyds Banking Group shareholders have until Friday to participate in the state-controlled bank’s 4.0-billion-pound (4.5-billion-euro, 6.0-billion-dollar) rights issue.
   The British government owns 43 per cent of LBG, as well as 4.0 billion pounds of preference shares, and could end up owning as much as 65 per cent of the group if other shareholders snub the shares sale. LBG wants to use the proceeds to redeem the preference shares.
   Lloyds Banking Group was created in January when Lloyds TSB bought rival lender HBOS, which faced collapse because it was struggling to raise funds due to the credit crunch.

Shares in General Motors, once the world’s top automaker, fell below one dollar Friday as the huge US company careens toward bankruptcy.
   The decline in value into penny-stock territory marked a major downfall for the 100-year-old auto giant, one of the 30 blue-chip stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
   At 1550 GMT, the share, which was worth almost 30 dollars in early 2008, plunged 20.93 percent from a day earlier to 88 cents, slashing the company’s capitalization to less than 550 million dollars. The stock plunge came a day after GM was finalizing a pre-packaged bankruptcy plan that would give the US government up to 72.5 percent of the new firm and sweetens the offer to bondholders.
   The biggest US automaker was widely expected to file for bankruptcy protection ahead of a June 1 deadline imposed by the administration of President Barack Obama, which has provided the automaker with billions of dollars in emergency loans.

Oil rose to a six-month high above $66 per barrel on Friday, marking its largest monthly percentage gain in more than a decade, after US, Japanese and Indian data suggested the economic downturn may be easing.
   Oil prices jumped around 30 per cent this month, the largest monthly rise since March 1999, buoyed by expectations of a global economic recovery later this year, which helped push stock markets higher.
   US crude oil for July delivery settled up $1.23 at $66.31, its highest settlement since November 4, after earlier hitting $66.47, the highest intraday trade since November 5.
   London Brent crude settled up $1.13 at $65.52, its highest settle since November 4.
   The dollar hit a five-month low against a basket of other currencies. A weak dollar makes oil cheaper for holders of other currencies and tends to support prices.
   Data on Friday showed Japanese industrial production rose 5.2 per cent in April on a monthly basis, and the government said it expected continued gains through June.
   US growth data on Friday also reinforced the sense that the global economic slump might be abating.
   The Commerce Department said the world’s largest economy contracted slightly less than initially estimated in the first quarter, dropping at a 5.7 per cent annual rate, rather than the 6.1 per cent fall published by the government last month.
   The revision was nevertheless below market expectations for a 5.5 per cent contraction for the January-March quarter.
   India’s economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter, helped by strength in farm and services sectors.
   ‘Oil market participants’ conclusion that the worst of the recession has passed and a recovery in demand must be at hand was bolstered overnight by higher-than-expected first-quarter growth in India and a sharp jump in Japan’s April industrial production,’ said Mike Fitzpatrick, vice president at MF Global in New York.
   Another supportive influence was Thursday’s report by the US Energy Information Administration on US crude oil stocks, which fell 5.4 million barrels in the week to May 22, way above analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 700,000 barrel decline.
   Gasoline inventories also fell for the fifth week in a row as demand rose in the week preceding the Memorial Day holiday, which traditionally marks the start of the summer driving season in the United States.
   ‘The market has reacted to the headline figures,’ said Harry Tchilinguirian, analyst at BNP Paribas in London. ‘That has helped extend technical buying as we moved above the psychologically important 200-day moving average (MA).’
   The front month for US crude oil futures crossed up through its 200-day MA on its daily price chart on Tuesday and it is now acting as a strong support, according to technical analysts who track prices on charts.
   OPEC’s decision to hold oil production steady also helped prop up prices. The producer group on Thursday kept its output targets unchanged as expected, betting on a strengthening world economy and tentative signs of increased demand.
   Analysts said Saudi Arabia’s statement this week that the global economy could now cope with $75 to $80 a barrel oil was a shift from the world’s largest oil producer, which has until recently hinted it would be happy with a lower price to help the world economy back on its feet.

Weeks before the first China-built Airbus rolls off the assembly line near Beijing, the European planemaker’s top official has pulled out the map and targeted future jetliner production in the United States and India.
   Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders, writing 40 years after the birth of the first plane project by a four-nation European consortium, said Airbus must become global to stay competitive.
   ‘We have to leave national sentiment behind us,’ Enders wrote in a column in Friday’s edition of the Financial Times.
   ‘Airbus will only remain competitive in the long term if it develops resources and markets globally and becomes a genuinely international company, with development and production also in the US, China, India and elsewhere.’
   Airbus agreed in 2006 to set up an assembly line for the A320 family of jets, its most popular model, at Tianjin in China to reduce costs and gain an edge over rival Boeing in one of the world’s largest aviation markets.
   The first plane will be delivered by end-June, the first time an Airbus has been assembled outside its two main host countries, France and Germany, supported by Britain and Spain.
   India has pressed Airbus to consider opening a production line there also, but so far the European company has been tied up in domestic restructuring and a series of aircraft production delays, as well as fierce union opposition to offshoring jobs.
   When India’s civil aviation minister floated the idea of an Indian assembly line at an Airbus ceremony at the Paris air show two years ago, Airbus officials cautiously welcomed the concept but said the costs might outweigh the benefits.

Publishers, booksellers and authors are holding a major annual convention in New York this week as the industry reels from a global recession and readers migrate to digital formats.
   ‘What is a book?’ asked Lance Fensterman, director of BookExpo America, held through Sunday at New York’s Jacob K Javits Convention Centre.
   ‘A book of pages, something you can listen to, or is it a book you can read on your handheld device?’ such as Amazon’s Kindle or the Sony Reader Digital Book, he added.
   The debate is on, but all sides agree that the publishing world always focuses more on distributing content over format.
   ‘The format that the content is in is secondary to the content,’ Fensterman told the AFP. ‘Publishers are evolving to content providers, not just printers of books.’
   BookExpo America is the biggest book fair in the United States, the second-largest worldwide after Frankfurt in Germany and the biggest English-language fair of its kind.
   Some 1,500 publishers and booksellers from across the world congregate at the event, as well as a thousand authors and 30,000 visitors, according to the organizers.
   From best-selling authors to celebrities like actress Julie Andrews or the pilot of Chelsey Sullenberger, the pilot who safely landed his crippled jet in New York’s Hudson River, the guests are varied and numerous.
   What’s hot these days in the book world? ‘Anything digital right now,’ Fensterman said.
   ‘Electronic support presents an opportunity to deliver your content in a much cheaper fashion. You don’t need to print something, you don’t need to ship it, you don’t have to worry about refurnishing, or re-stocking or returns.’
   According to industry analyst Book Industries Trend, three billion printed books were sold in 2008 in the United States, 1.5 per cent less than in 2007.
   But the figures do not reflect the true impact of the crisis. Borders, one of the biggest bookseller chains in the country, reported a 12 per cent drop in sales during the first semester this year.
   The sector is still struggling to adapt to changing the format for readers.
   ‘Everybody is trying to find their business models: how do we accomplish that? ... How do we protect our intellectual rights?’ Fensterman asked.
   Rick Royce, chief marketing officer for The Perseus Books Group, has launched a new project to respond to the challenge.
   During the three-day fair, visitors can help create a ‘book of the future,’ from its content to its format.
   We are going to publish this book in every format we can, including audio, text, digital,’ Royce said.
   According to Nielsen BookScan, Amazon and Sony’s digital formats saw their sales increase by seven per cent in 2008 for a total of 113 million dollars.
   But Fensterman still had some optimism from printed books.
   ‘There will always be people to consume the content in the printed book form. The question is what percentage of the population would that be? Would it be 3 per cent or 75 per cent? We don’t know, but we have to offer the option as an industry,’ he said.
   Janet Brown, of ThingsAsian Press, which publishes Asia-inspired books, called for an overhaul of the traditional book industry.
   ‘The hard cover book is becoming so expensive now, that people are beginning to think that there has to be another way of doing this. You can do a high quality hard cover book produced in a way that will be economical for the consumer,’ she said.
   ‘Face it, nobody wants to go reading with an e-book at night, a Kindle is not cosy,’ she added.

Thousands of first-time homebuyers will be able to get short-term loans so they can quickly make use of a new $8,000 tax credit to pay for some of the costs of buying a home purchase.
   The Federal Housing Administration on Friday released details of a plan in which borrowers who use FHA loans can get advances from lenders that let them effectively receive the credit in advance, so they don’t have to wait to get the money from the IRS.
   Most borrowers will still have to come up with the FHA’s required 3.5 per cent down payment, unless they work through a state or local housing agency or an approved non-profit. But there are many other potential uses, such as for closing costs and fees, or to beef up the down payment beyond the minimum level.
   The FHA which insures about a quarter of new home loans, is projected to guarantee about 2.2 million loans in the next budget year.
   Any buyer who has not owned a home in the past three years is considered a first-time buyer and eligible for the programme. Borrowers can claim the credit by filing an amended 2008 tax return or can wait for their 2009 return.
   The change ‘will present an enormous benefit for communities struggling to deal with an oversupply of housing,’ housing secretary Shaun Donovan said in a statement.
   The tax credit was included in the economic stimulus package signed by president Barack Obama in February. It is not available to individuals with incomes above $95,000 or couples with incomes above $1,70,000 and expires November 30.
   Real estate agents and homebuilders generally welcomed the change. Jerry Howard, chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders, called it a ‘great step in the right direction.’ On Wall Street, shares of builders as Toll Brothers and DR Horton rose on the news.
   Still, some real estate agents were concerned that many buyers won’t benefit at all if can’t use it for a down payment — a big hurdle for many first-time buyers.

Customers of Sonali Bank will now be able to use banking facilities and services through the online system from 53 branches nationwide.
   MetroNet Bangladesh Limited will provide the online connectivity to those branches, a news release said.
   Sonali Bank deputy general manager ANM Masrurul Huda Siraji and MetroNet chief operation officer Syed Almas Kabir on Thursday signed an agreement in this regard.

Raymond Limited opened its flagship store at Banani in Dhaka on Thursday.
   Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Zafar Osman inaugurated the store, a news release said.
   Raymond vice-president (international business) Ram Bhatnagar and Reliance Trade International chief executive (distributor and franchisee) Amirul Islam were present on the occasion.
   Raymond flagship store will showcase all kinds of international standard shirting, suiting and readymade wear, the release added.

Germany has agreed a deal with Magna International, a Canadian car parts maker, to take over Opel, part of the European wing of US carmaker GM.
   Talks in Berlin continued into early Saturday before Germany’s finance minister announced the rescue deal.
   The German government is expected to provide an immediate loan facility of 1.5 billion euros ($2.1b).
   The Magna deal should protect Opel if GM files for bankruptcy protection in the US on Monday, as is expected.
   The Canadian company has said it will put more than 500 million euros ($700m) into Opel, which employs more than 25,000 people in Germany.
   Significant numbers of workers are also spread around Spain, Belgium, Poland and the UK, where Opel cars are branded as Vauxhall for British customers.
   Magna’s bid was backed by Russia’s state-run bank Sberbank and Russian magnate Oleg Deripaska’s truck firm Gaz. The consortium hopes to see GM expand its reach into the Russian market.
   German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck told journalists outside the chancellery shortly after 0200 local time on Saturday that a deal had been agreed.
   Mr Steinbrueck said that although it was impossible to exclude all risk, the deal agreed would safeguard Opel’s sites in Germany and preserve ‘the highest possible numbers of jobs’ there.
   Before the announcement of the deal, Magna said it planned to cut 2,500 jobs in Germany, about 10 per cent of Opel’s workforce in that country. Italy’s Fiat, a former potential bidder, had said it would cut 10,000 jobs.
   GM operations in Europe will now be placed under the care of a trustee to shield them from the parent company’s filing for bankruptcy protection in the US.