Executives of the Sonali Bank Limited on Saturday said that the bank wanted to increase its investments for accelerating industrialisations, trade, business and commerce for socio- economic developments of the northern region.
   The bank has taken up a massive programme towards the directions for playing vital roles with a view to eradicate poverty once for all from the economically backyard region and building a developed digital Bangladesh, they said.
   They said this while exchanging views with the leaders of the leading business organisations, chamber and businessmen community leaders of greater Rangpur and Dinajpur regions at Begum Rokeya auditorium in Rangpur.
   Chairman of the board of directors of SBL Kazi Baharul Islam chaired the meeting that was attended by leading businessman and industrialist of the country and member of the parliament from Rangpur-4 Tipu Munshi as chief guest.
   The speakers discussed aspects for increasing investments in various prospective sectors.
   Later, the 122nd board meeting of the board of directors of the SBL was held at the same venue with chairman of the board of directors of SBL Kazi Baharul Islam in the chair.

Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel has appointed Sabrina Khan as public relations officer in the sales and marketing division of the hotel.
   Sabrina has obtained her bachelors of multimedia majoring in media innovation and management from Malaysia in 2009, said a news release.
   Prior to joining Pan Pacific Sonargaon, Dhaka, Sabrina has pursued her internship at Unilever Bangladesh Limited and also worked as a teacher in an English medium school in Dhaka. She has also worked as the public relations officer in an e-business company, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia while pursuing her bachelor degree, the release said.

Renewed fears on the US economic recovery have shaken confidence on Wall Street, where stocks registered a fourth straight weekly decline, leaving the market looking for a catalyst to emerge from its malaise.
   In the week to Friday, market action was volatile, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 0.55 per cent to 10,012.23.
   Action was especially tense on Friday, with the blue-chip index plunging to as low as 9,835 before snapping back to hold above the key psychological level of 10,000.
   The technology-dominated Nasdaq composite slipped 0.29 per cent for the week to 2,141.12 and the broad Standard & Poor’s 500 index shed 0.72 per cent to 1,066.19, amid roller-coaster market action.
   Several rally attempts over the past week have faltered in the wake of disappointing US economic news and growing concerns about debt problems in Greece that appear to be spreading to other eurozone members.
   ‘You are looking at a slow upturn in the eurozone... which makes it harder for the rest of the world to grow,’ said Jay Bryson, economist at Wells Fargo.
   ‘If this crisis becomes more generalized you may see stock markets continue to retreat, with credit markets getting tougher. In the worst case scenario we could have another downturn.’
   Kent Engelke, chief economic strategist at Capitol Securities Management, also cited fears of faltering global growth.
   ‘Markets are concerned about massive deficits and the perceived lack of political and social will to rein in expenditures of the PIGS countries — Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain,’ he said.
   Closer to home, markets failed to take comfort from US economic data including a disappointing report showing a loss of a further 20,000 jobs in January.
   The monthly Labour Department report contained mixed signals including a drop in the unemployment rate to 9.7 per cent from 10.0 per cent in December. But many said the job market is still far from recovery.
   ‘Taking a big picture viewpoint, the US labour market remains fundamentally weak,’ said David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates.
   ‘Despite the clarion calls for recovery from the legions of Wall Street economists and strategists, the reality is that labour market gaps remain very wide; here we are more than two years after the recession officially started and the ranks of the long-term unemployed continue to swell,’ Rosenberg added.
   Others say the crisis is not quite over yet.
   ‘It remains clear to us that the world simply cannot emerge from the worst financial crisis in modern history without working up a sweat and shaking investors out of any complacency that develops along the way to recovery,’ said John Stoltzfus at Ticonderoga Securities.
   Some analysts argue that the market is undergoing a normal ‘correction’ and will steady once the selling pressure is exhausted.
   ‘The correcting trend continues, and now that it is into an oversold condition, we watch for signs of a bottom,’ said Bob Dickey at RBC Wealth Management.
   ‘Given the rapid increase in the bearish sentiment, we are more inclined to believe the correction will end in a selling climax, potentially sparked by a news event.’
   Philip Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors, said that ‘market psychology remains decidedly fragile and negative, as we now find ourselves mired in a sharp correction.’
   But he said he anticipates a recovery fuelled by low interest rates, a steadying economy, solid corporate results and the relatively cheap valuation of stocks.
   ‘We believe that developments in economic and corporate fundamentals will ultimately be more responsible to drive the direction of the equity market over the balance of this year,’ he said.
   Bonds were favoured as a haven from the stock market turmoil. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond fell to 3.546 per cent from 3.609 per cent a week earlier and that on the 30-year bond dropped to 4.493 per cent from 4.510 per cent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
   In the coming week, the key economic data will be Thursday’s release of US retail sales figures, while more earnings reports are due, notably from Walt Disney and Coca-Cola.

A crisis in Europe over unsustainable government debts that sparked renewed global market turmoil leapt to the top of the agenda Saturday for global financial leaders meeting half a world away in the Canadian Arctic.
   Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven major industrial countries are also thrashing out differences on banking industry changes amid warnings that unilateral action like US president Barack Obama's plan to break up big banks will further hamper the fledging economic recovery.
   Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, the host of the gathering, is hoping that his choice of the remote town of Iqaluit, population 7,000, where temperatures can dip to 40 degrees below zero in February, would concentrate officials on the task ahead.
   The United States was represented by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The G-7 consists of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada.
   The discussions were focusing Saturday on developments in the global economy, banking reform and proposals to grant further debt relief for earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
   The meetings were scheduled to conclude with a joint news conference.
   In a break from the usual routine, several of the international visitors ventured out on the ice for a dogsled ride immediately after flying in to the tiny outpost Friday. Flaherty planned to keep the tone of the rest of the gathering equally casual, telling reporters that more chats were planned for the fireside than around a formal table.
   But in a contrast with the casual scene setting here, developments in Europe provided a sobering reminder that G-7 policymakers still face major hurdles repairing a broken global economy.
   The Portuguese parliament's defeat of a government austerity plan triggered renewed concerns that it and other countries like Greece and Spain were having trouble tightening budget controls to manage their budget deficits, a development that could threaten the economic recovery in Europe.
   Stocks fell in Asia and Europe, while the Dow Jones industrial average clawed back to a small gain after suffering the largest single-day drop in seven months, on worries about the global economy.
   'I think we have to be very mindful of the failure or potential failure of domestic economies,' Flaherty told reporters before talks formally started with a working dinner on Friday.
   On the issue of banking reform, the other G-7 countries were expected to press Geithner to explain the announcement by Obama last month that the United States would seek tougher rules to prevent risky actions by big banks from toppling the entire financial system.

Malaysia unrolled strategies in Kuala Lumpur on Friday to sustain its export growth in 2010, expecting the increase margin for this year could reach 3.5 per cent.
   Malaysia will improve access for its exports through strengthening its existing free trade agreements concluded, including improving the utilisation of them, Malaysian international trade and industry minister Mustapa Mohamed said when he unveiling the country’s trade performance in 2009.
   Malaysia also will speed up the negotiation and signing of new FATs with India, Chile and Australia, he said.
   Mustapa said that his country also would target fast growing markets, like China and countries in West Asia, as well as new and emerging markets like Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Libya in Africa, and Mexico, Panama, Brazil in South America.
   Meanwhile, Mustapa said Malaysia will diversify into new niches in traditional markets, including environment products and services, manufacturing related services, power generation machinery, and engineering supporting industry.
   He foresees Malaysia’s exports will continue the path of recovery this year.
   The report on Malaysia’s trade performance in 2009 unveiled here on Friday that the country’s exports in 2009 declined by 16.6 per cent to 553.3 billion ringgit ($158b), mainly due to the decline of prices for palm oil, rubber and crude petroleum.

Republicans sparred with president Barack Obama over proposals to create jobs in duelling radio addresses Saturday, highlighting the difficulty of reaching bipartisan solutions in a political climate marked by partisan bickering.
   Obama pushed Congress to use $30 billion that had been set aside to bail out Wall Street to start a new program that provides loans to small businesses, which the White House calls the engine for job growth. Republicans, meanwhile, taunted Obama with a familiar refrain: Where are the jobs the president promised in exchange for the billions of dollars already spent?
   The barb came a day after the government reported an unexpected decline in the unemployment rate, from 10 per cent to 9.7 per cent. It was the first drop in seven months but offered little consolation for the 8.4 million jobs that have vanished since the recession began.
   ‘Even though our economy is growing again, these are still tough times for America,’ Obama said. ‘Too many businesses are still shuttered. Too many families can’t make ends meet. And while yesterday, we learned that the unemployment rate has dropped below 10 per cent for the first time since summer, it is still unacceptably high — and too many Americans still can’t find work.’
   To help the recovery, Obama asked Congress to use leftover money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to provide to small banks so they can make more loans to small businesses. Republicans have criticized the move, arguing any money leftover from the bailout should be used to reduce the budget deficit.
   In the weekly GOP address, Rep Jeb Hensarling of Texas chided Obama for proposing a budget on Monday that would increase spending, taxes and the national debt.
   ‘Americans are still asking, ‘where are the jobs?’ but all they are getting from Washington is more spending, more taxes, more debt and more bailouts,’ Hensarling said.
   The Republican attack came even as key Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are working on a bipartisan jobs bill. The senators hope to unveil legislation as early as Monday that would provide tax breaks to businesses that hire unemployed workers, extend unemployment payments for those whose benefits have run out, and renew a program that offers the jobless a subsidy for health insurance premiums.
   Senate passage of a bipartisan jobs bill would mark an important political victory for Obama. But Saturday’s radio and Internet addresses showed that bipartisanship won’t be easy.
   The White House has repeatedly argued that the $787 billion economic stimulus package enacted in February helped save the economy from complete collapse. On Friday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told ABC News there is a much lower risk of a double-dip recession ‘than at any time over the last 12 months or so.’
   Hensarling, however, said the stimulus package and the growing government debt have added to the country’s economic problems.
   ‘Democrats chose to go it alone and jam through their stimulus,’ Hensarling said. ‘What did the American people get? A bill for $1.2 trillion and 3 million more jobs lost.’

Japanese media sharply criticised Toyota’s president Saturday for what they called a delayed and unconvincing explanation for the massive car recall that has sullied the world’s biggest automaker, a Japanese corporate icon.
   Akio Toyoda, the founder’s grandson appointed to lead Toyota Motor Corp last June, emerged late Friday to apologise and address criticism that the company mishandled a crisis over sticking gas pedals. But he stopped short of ordering a recall for Toyota’s iconic Prius hybrid over separate braking problems.
   Toyoda’s appearance before reporters at a company office in the central Japanese city of Nagoya made front pages of the country’s leading newspapers — but won no praise.
   ‘Words are not enough,’ the top Nikkei business daily commented in an editorial. ‘The company’s crisis management ability is being subjected to severe scrutiny.’
   ‘Utterly too late,’ the nationwide Asahi newspaper said of Toyota’s delayed reaction since the crisis arose January 21 with a global recall of millions of vehicles. ‘The entire world is watching how Toyota can humbly learn from its series of recent failures and make safe cars.’
   At his first news conference since the recall of 4.5 million cars, Toyoda promised to beef up quality control and said he would head a special committee to review quality checks, go over consumer complaints and listen to outside experts to develop a fix.
   Toyota’s failure to stem its widening safety crisis has stunned American consumers and experts who had come to expect only streamlined efficiency from a company at the pinnacle of the global auto industry.

Aftab Foods Limited and Adcomm Ltd signed an agreement in Dhaka on Tuesday.
   Aftab Foods managing director and Uttara Bank vice-chairman Iftekharul Islam and Adcomm Ltd chairman and managing director Geeteara Safiya Choudhury signed the agreement, said a news release.
   Under the agreement, Adcomm will act as the strategic partner of Aftab Foods and will handle the advertising and communication of the company's food products.
   Senior officials of the companies were also present on the occasion.

Bricks 2010 Limited and Nestor Consulting Limited signed an agreement in Dhaka on Monday.
   Bricks 2010 managing director Nina Shaheen Chowdhury and Nestor Consulting Limited managing director Zaydul Abedin signed the agreement, said a news release.
   Under the deal, the companies will collaborate on a project to set up an environment-friendly auto-bricks manufacturing plant.