UPDATE________________DECEMBER 24, 2009 THURSDAY
NEWS
Bureaucratic tangles delay
crocodile export
The maiden shipment of crocodile export from Bangladesh is going to be delayed due to bureaucratic tangles, claimed the top executive of Reptiles Farm Limited, country’s lone crocodile farm.
Despite applying about four months ago, the organization is yet to get permission to export the unconventional item, causing failure to meet the deadline of the first export order, he said.
In July, the crocodile farm received an order about $100,000 from Germany’s Heidelberg University for exporting 67 crocodiles to be used for research purpose.
The frozen crocodiles were supposed to be exported within December.
‘It is pure bureaucratic complexity. I applied to the department of forest under the ministry of environment and forest on August 31 for permission to export crocodiles. Sadly, we have not yet received the permission,’ Mushtaq Ahmed, managing director and chief executive officer of the farm, told New Age.
He said that after a long time an expert committee of the department of forest on December 10 decided in favor of giving permission to export.
‘Now the matter will be forwarded to the ministry of environment and forest for opinion. I do not know how long it will take. The file has not yet been sent,’ Mushtaq said.
He said that having received the export order, all the logistics have been put in place for shipment.
Mushtaq said, ‘If the shipment can not be made within December, there will be a difference in price as the issues of freight and airfare are involved with the process.’
‘Besides, the buyers will lose confident on the exporter and the reputation of my farm will be damaged, which may result in even loss of business,’ he added.
He said, ‘Now, it will not be possible to make the shipment in December. We will have to renegotiate the whole thing.’
Mustaq said that his farm has already been registered with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an organization that ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
When contacted, officials of the department of forest could not specifically say as to how long it would take for the crocodile farm to receive the export permission.
‘It is the matter for the ministry. I do not know how long it is going to take to make a decision,’ Haque Mahbub, assistant conservator of forest, told New Age.
Asked if the department is taking too much time to make a decision, he declined to make any comments.
Mahbub, however, said that the crocodile farm has yet to complete the tagging of the crocodiles despite advising them to do so.
According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, all the crocodiles at the farm should be tagged, he added.
About the tagging, the managing director of Reptile Farm said that they had procured enough tags for the crocodiles that would be exported. ‘But it will take quite a long time to tag all the crocodiles in the farm.’
He said, ‘I do not see it as a big problem,’
Mahbub of the department of forest further said that since the crocodile export is new in the country, the department tried to get the clearance from CITES that took some more time.
He said that the file would be forwarded to the ministry shortly for opinion.
Talking to New Age, Tapan Kumar Dey, conservator of forest, said he does not know exactly how long it would take for the farm to get the permission.
He, however, assured of doing everything possible to expedite the process.
With an area of 15 acres, the crocodile farm was set up in October 2004 at Hatiber village under Bhaluka Upazila in Mymensingh district. Initially, 75 crocodiles were brought from Malaysia for commercial breeding. Eight of them died on the way to the farm. There are now more than 800 crocodiles of different ages. The initial investment was Tk 5 crore, which now stands nearly at Tk 8 crore.
………………………………………………..
TCB to import pulses from Nepal
The state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh is going to import pulses from Nepal through direct contracts to bring stability in the domestic market, commerce minister Faruk Khan said on Wednesday.
‘We have already talked to the Nepal government for importing pulses to meet the huge demand of the food item and to keep stable the commodity market,’ the minister told the reporters after addressing a launching ceremony organized by Macro Cables Limited at Westin hotel in Dhaka.
Faruk said the prices of all but two or three commodity goods were at a tolerable level. The government would take measures for strengthening the monitoring system so that the commodity market remained stable, he added.
The minister launched as chief guest the new Macro Cables Limited product, Fire Retardant Cables. Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Fazlul Haque, REHAB president Tanveerul Haque and Trust Bank Limited managing director Shah Alam Sarwar attended the ceremony chaired by MCL chairman Chaudhury Ahmed Shoaib.
The minister said Bangladesh exported products worth $16.6 million to different countries in the last fiscal year despite the ongoing economic meltdown.
He urged the country’s business community to invest more, exploring creativity to build new industry at home. He assured the government would provide all possible support in this regard.
The minister said that majority of the fire incidents in the country happened due to electric short circuits, adding, the FR cables would mitigate the consequence of fire incident to a large extent.
‘We have launched our new product, FR cables, to ensure safety in the use of cables and serve our customers with quality,’ said Chaudhury Ahmed Shoaib.
He said that they also introduced SMS-based product originality assessment system titled ‘SMS authenticity concept’ to ensure genuine Macro cables. A customer can verify the authenticity of the product by typing ‘MACRO-product code’ and sending it to 5676, he said.
………………………………………………..
WORLD
Financial crisis strains
fiscal rules: IMF
The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that rules to keep budget deficits in check help improve member countries’ finances that have been strained by the global economic crisis.
The Washington-based IMF said it was examining ‘the evolution’ of fiscal rules using a new database spanning the whole fund membership and considering fiscal frameworks that could be adopted as countries emerge from the crisis.
It was part of the IMF’s ongoing analytical research on economic strategies to be adopted after the crisis as requested by the Group of 20 emerging and developed nations.
An IMF report found that almost 80 countries had national or supranational fiscal rules in place in early 2009 aimed at improving fiscal performance and adopting more prudent fiscal policies.
‘But the need to address the current global crisis has strained the rules in many cases,’ it said in the report.
It argued that ‘going forward and looking beyond the crisis, rules-based frameworks can be useful in anchoring expectations regarding fiscal sustainability, but they have to reflect country circumstances.’
The IMF said interest in fiscal rules was likely to increase further as countries sought to develop ‘exit’ strategies to meet challenges arising from the financial crisis.
The financial crisis stemming from a US home mortgage meltdown led to many countries adopting fiscal stimulus programs amounting to trillions of dollars to jolt their economies from recession.
………………………………………………..
Court bans Microsoft Word selling
A US court of appeals barred Microsoft on Tuesday from selling certain versions of its popular Word program and ordered it to pay $290 million in a patent dispute with a Canadian company.
The US court of appeals for the federal circuit upheld a jury verdict and lower court ruling in the patent case filed against the US software giant by Toronto-based i4i Inc nearly three years ago.
‘This ruling is clear and convincing evidence that our case was just and right, and that Microsoft willfully infringed our patent,’ i4i founder Michel Vulpe said in a statement.
‘This is what we’ve been looking for since March 2007,’ added i4i chairman Loudon Owen.
‘We are vindicated and we’re appreciative but we’re not surprised because we believed from the outset that we had a great case and that the trial judge made the right decision,’ Owen told AFP.
A US district court judge in Texas on August 12 upheld both a jury ruling that Microsoft’s Word program violates an XML patent held by i4i and the award of more than $290 million in damages and interest.
The judge also issued an injunction that would ban Microsoft from selling versions of its word processing program Word that infringe on the patented technology, which Microsoft dismissed on Tuesday as a ‘little-used feature.’
The Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft appealed but the three-judge court of appeals for the federal circuit ruled against the software powerhouse.
Microsoft indicated Tuesday it may file further appeals and said in a statement it was ‘moving quickly’ to comply with the injunction on selling certain Word products, which takes effect on January 11, 2010.
Microsoft stressed that the injunction only refers to US sales of versions of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 and said it has already ‘put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products.’
‘Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for US sale and distribution by the injunction date,’ Microsoft said.
‘Beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction,’ Microsoft added.
………………………………………………..
NEWS
BB resets criteria for export
development fund
Bangladesh Bank has reset the criteria for accelerating lending from the Export Development Fund to be implemented from January 1.
A circular of the central bank, issued on Tuesday, detailed the new criteria, which includes the interest rate and tenure of the loan and eligibility of clients.
‘The cheaper loans from the EDF will help exporters face the impact of recession and maintain competitiveness on global markets,’ the governor said.
Established in 1989, the EDF is intended to facilitate financing in foreign currency for input procurements by manufacturer-exporters. The central bank disburses the fund through authorized dealer banks. The present size of the fund is $300 million.
One of the major features of the new criteria is the increase in interest rate, which the central bank considers an encouragement for the participating banks to accelerate the loan disbursement process.
The interest rate against the loan from the fund will be 1.5 per cent higher than the present rate as the BB advised banks to charge their clients the interest, calculating the six-month average rate of London Inter bank Offer Rate plus 2.5 per cent.
Presently, the banks charge LIBOR plus one per cent to their clients when the BB charges the banks the interest at six month LIBOR rate.
The banks, however, will have to pay one per cent extra on LIBOR from January when they increase their interest rate for lending from EDF.
‘The interest rate will be lower even after the increase,’ BB governor Atitur Rahman told BSS on Wednesday.
The interest rate would be 3.5 per cent with the increase, which is much lower than the present market rate of 12 to 13 per cent, he said explaining.
He assured that the central bank would continue its support to the exporters so they can perform better in business.
Earlier on Monday, the central bank asked all the commercial banks to allow recession-hit exporters to reschedule their outstanding loans without any down payment until next June.
The new criteria will also recycle the fund faster than before as the banks will have to repay the loan to Bangladesh Bank in 180 days from the date of disbursement. The repayment deadline could, however, be extended up to 270 days upon suitable explanation to the central bank.
………………………………………………..
FI’s asked to maintain int’l
standard in reporting
Bangladesh Bank has asked all the financial institutions to submit their annual reports according to the international standard.
The central bank issued a circular on Wednesday for maintaining the international standard and following the provision 14 of the bank company law 1991 in preparing their report.
The circular also said that the financial institutions would have to publish their respective financial reports in the newspaper after submitting it to the central bank.
………………………………………………..
Govt to consider bourses’ proposals
The government is considering the proposals of stock exchange authorities, including lowering the minimum requirement of IPO placement of new companies.
After a meeting with Chittagong Stock Exchange delegation on Wednesday at his office, finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith told journalists that the finance ministry would consider the proposals of the bourses in the interest of the stock market.
CSE president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed led the delegation.
Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges on December 14 proposed the government some measures to further strengthen the country’s capital market.
The proposals include the increasing of paid-up capital of companies, lowering the minimum requirement of IPO placement, accelerating the flow of mutual funds into the primary market, rationalising the demand and supply in the secondary market, introducing uniformed market lot and face value of shares, speeding up the disposal process of the cases related to stock market and allowing brokerage houses open more branches.
The finance minister hinted that the government would lower the minimum requirement of IPO placement, considering the demand of the market.
The finance ministry on November 5 decided that a company would have to offer at least 40 per cent of its paid-up capital to general public for making debut in the capital market.
The stock market operators recommended lowering the requirement to 25 per cent as they apprehended that the higher requirement would hinder the flow of IPO.
The bourses also recommended increasing the paid-up capital of a company to Taka 50 crore so market can get more shares.
The finance minister said the government is considering all possible measures to increase the supply of shares.
………………………………………………..
ASIA
China hits back after
EU extends shoe taxes
Beijing said Wednesday it would impose penalties on metal fasteners such as bolts and nails imported from the European Union, in apparent retaliation to the EU’s extension of taxes on Chinese shoes.
The preliminary ruling will require importers of carbon steel fasteners from the 27 EU nations to pay a deposit from Monday, the commerce ministry said in a statement on its website.
‘[The ministry] finds that the European Union dumped carbon steel fasteners in China and China’s domestic carbon steel fastener industry suffered material damages,’ the ministry said.
Importers will have to pay a deposit based on the difference—up to 24.6 per cent—between the normal value of the fasteners and the cut price, the ministry said.
Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in another market at less than normal value.
The anti-dumping measures were imposed after the EU decided Tuesday to extend punitive taxes on imports of Chinese and Vietnamese leather shoes—first introduced more than three years ago—by a further 15 months.
The measures, designed to protect European leather manufacturers from below-cost Asian competition, carry import duties of 16.5 per cent levied on Chinese shoes with leather uppers and 10 per cent on shoes from Vietnam.
Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian said Beijing was ‘strongly dissatisfied’ with the decision and will launch a complaint at the World Trade Organization, in a statement posted on the ministry’s website Tuesday.
‘The Chinese government ... will appeal to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and take measures accordingly to seriously protect the legitimate interests of the Chinese industry,’ Yao said.
European products ‘do not compete directly with Chinese products and it is meaningless to continue to impose anti-dumping measures against China,’ Yao said.
Bigger manufacturers that make their shoes in Asia such as Diesel, Adidas and Puma, fought against the renewal of the shoe tariffs.
In a statement, the European Footwear Alliance, which speaks for brands including Diesel, ECCO, Levi’s, Timberland, Rockport and Hush Puppies, said the decision ‘lays to rest any lingering notion that the European Union still intends to fight protectionism.’
It said the EU’s ‘opaque trade policy will result in payment of anti-dumping duties well in excess of one billion euros [1.43 billion dollars] for European footwear businesses, which will ultimately be paid for by EU consumers.’
Figures from the European Commission show that Chinese and Vietnamese shoes make up 30 per cent of the EU footwear market.
………………………………………………..
WORLD
Recession forces British
firms to cut party
The office Christmas party, with its promise of free alcohol, flirting and a chance to see colleagues let rip on the dancefloor, has long been an annual highlight for many British workers.
But a deep recession and widespread lay-offs have taken a bite out of budgets and caused managers to downsize or cancel the festivities altogether.
A business survey this week estimated that Christmas party spending is down from about one billion pounds in 2007 — the year before the recession hit—to 600 million pounds (965 million dollars, 675 million euros) this year.
Banks are among those most likely to scrap the champagne, thanks as much to debts incurred during the credit crunch as a fear of exacerbating the public perception that they are living the high life while ordinary people struggle.
Royal Bank of Scotland last year kicked up a media storm after spending a reported one million pounds (1.1 million euros, 1.6 million dollars) on their Christmas parties, with another 300,000 pounds to treat its top executives.
RBS is now 70-per cent owned by the taxpayer after its huge exposure to risky assets forced a massive government bail out.
It was following a long tradition of big spending at Christmas, but this year managers have taken a more diplomatic approach, with the mass get-together scrapped in favour of events organised by individual teams of workers.
The firm will still make a contribution but it will be small, a spokeswoman said, telling AFP: ‘Our staff have worked very hard over the last 12 months.
‘We won’t waste bank money but the longstanding tradition of paying a small contribution towards staff parties has been judged appropriate.’
In the same vein, Lloyds TSB, another bank which has spared no expense in the past for its Christmas parties, has toned things down this year.
………………………………………………..
NEWS
Bureaucratic tangles delay
crocodile export
The maiden shipment of crocodile export from Bangladesh is going to be delayed due to bureaucratic tangles, claimed the top executive of Reptiles Farm Limited, country’s lone crocodile farm.
Despite applying about four months ago, the organization is yet to get permission to export the unconventional item, causing failure to meet the deadline of the first export order, he said.
In July, the crocodile farm received an order about $100,000 from Germany’s Heidelberg University for exporting 67 crocodiles to be used for research purpose.
The frozen crocodiles were supposed to be exported within December.
‘It is pure bureaucratic complexity. I applied to the department of forest under the ministry of environment and forest on August 31 for permission to export crocodiles. Sadly, we have not yet received the permission,’ Mushtaq Ahmed, managing director and chief executive officer of the farm, told New Age.
He said that after a long time an expert committee of the department of forest on December 10 decided in favor of giving permission to export.
‘Now the matter will be forwarded to the ministry of environment and forest for opinion. I do not know how long it will take. The file has not yet been sent,’ Mushtaq said.
He said that having received the export order, all the logistics have been put in place for shipment.
Mushtaq said, ‘If the shipment can not be made within December, there will be a difference in price as the issues of freight and airfare are involved with the process.’
‘Besides, the buyers will lose confident on the exporter and the reputation of my farm will be damaged, which may result in even loss of business,’ he added.
He said, ‘Now, it will not be possible to make the shipment in December. We will have to renegotiate the whole thing.’
Mustaq said that his farm has already been registered with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an organization that ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
When contacted, officials of the department of forest could not specifically say as to how long it would take for the crocodile farm to receive the export permission.
‘It is the matter for the ministry. I do not know how long it is going to take to make a decision,’ Haque Mahbub, assistant conservator of forest, told New Age.
Asked if the department is taking too much time to make a decision, he declined to make any comments.
Mahbub, however, said that the crocodile farm has yet to complete the tagging of the crocodiles despite advising them to do so.
According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, all the crocodiles at the farm should be tagged, he added.
About the tagging, the managing director of Reptile Farm said that they had procured enough tags for the crocodiles that would be exported. ‘But it will take quite a long time to tag all the crocodiles in the farm.’
He said, ‘I do not see it as a big problem,’
Mahbub of the department of forest further said that since the crocodile export is new in the country, the department tried to get the clearance from CITES that took some more time.
He said that the file would be forwarded to the ministry shortly for opinion.
Talking to New Age, Tapan Kumar Dey, conservator of forest, said he does not know exactly how long it would take for the farm to get the permission.
He, however, assured of doing everything possible to expedite the process.
With an area of 15 acres, the crocodile farm was set up in October 2004 at Hatiber village under Bhaluka Upazila in Mymensingh district. Initially, 75 crocodiles were brought from Malaysia for commercial breeding. Eight of them died on the way to the farm. There are now more than 800 crocodiles of different ages. The initial investment was Tk 5 crore, which now stands nearly at Tk 8 crore.
………………………………………………..
TCB to import pulses from Nepal
The state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh is going to import pulses from Nepal through direct contracts to bring stability in the domestic market, commerce minister Faruk Khan said on Wednesday.
‘We have already talked to the Nepal government for importing pulses to meet the huge demand of the food item and to keep stable the commodity market,’ the minister told the reporters after addressing a launching ceremony organized by Macro Cables Limited at Westin hotel in Dhaka.
Faruk said the prices of all but two or three commodity goods were at a tolerable level. The government would take measures for strengthening the monitoring system so that the commodity market remained stable, he added.
The minister launched as chief guest the new Macro Cables Limited product, Fire Retardant Cables. Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Fazlul Haque, REHAB president Tanveerul Haque and Trust Bank Limited managing director Shah Alam Sarwar attended the ceremony chaired by MCL chairman Chaudhury Ahmed Shoaib.
The minister said Bangladesh exported products worth $16.6 million to different countries in the last fiscal year despite the ongoing economic meltdown.
He urged the country’s business community to invest more, exploring creativity to build new industry at home. He assured the government would provide all possible support in this regard.
The minister said that majority of the fire incidents in the country happened due to electric short circuits, adding, the FR cables would mitigate the consequence of fire incident to a large extent.
‘We have launched our new product, FR cables, to ensure safety in the use of cables and serve our customers with quality,’ said Chaudhury Ahmed Shoaib.
He said that they also introduced SMS-based product originality assessment system titled ‘SMS authenticity concept’ to ensure genuine Macro cables. A customer can verify the authenticity of the product by typing ‘MACRO-product code’ and sending it to 5676, he said.
………………………………………………..
WORLD
Financial crisis strains
fiscal rules: IMF
The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that rules to keep budget deficits in check help improve member countries’ finances that have been strained by the global economic crisis.
The Washington-based IMF said it was examining ‘the evolution’ of fiscal rules using a new database spanning the whole fund membership and considering fiscal frameworks that could be adopted as countries emerge from the crisis.
It was part of the IMF’s ongoing analytical research on economic strategies to be adopted after the crisis as requested by the Group of 20 emerging and developed nations.
An IMF report found that almost 80 countries had national or supranational fiscal rules in place in early 2009 aimed at improving fiscal performance and adopting more prudent fiscal policies.
‘But the need to address the current global crisis has strained the rules in many cases,’ it said in the report.
It argued that ‘going forward and looking beyond the crisis, rules-based frameworks can be useful in anchoring expectations regarding fiscal sustainability, but they have to reflect country circumstances.’
The IMF said interest in fiscal rules was likely to increase further as countries sought to develop ‘exit’ strategies to meet challenges arising from the financial crisis.
The financial crisis stemming from a US home mortgage meltdown led to many countries adopting fiscal stimulus programs amounting to trillions of dollars to jolt their economies from recession.
………………………………………………..
Court bans Microsoft Word selling
A US court of appeals barred Microsoft on Tuesday from selling certain versions of its popular Word program and ordered it to pay $290 million in a patent dispute with a Canadian company.
The US court of appeals for the federal circuit upheld a jury verdict and lower court ruling in the patent case filed against the US software giant by Toronto-based i4i Inc nearly three years ago.
‘This ruling is clear and convincing evidence that our case was just and right, and that Microsoft willfully infringed our patent,’ i4i founder Michel Vulpe said in a statement.
‘This is what we’ve been looking for since March 2007,’ added i4i chairman Loudon Owen.
‘We are vindicated and we’re appreciative but we’re not surprised because we believed from the outset that we had a great case and that the trial judge made the right decision,’ Owen told AFP.
A US district court judge in Texas on August 12 upheld both a jury ruling that Microsoft’s Word program violates an XML patent held by i4i and the award of more than $290 million in damages and interest.
The judge also issued an injunction that would ban Microsoft from selling versions of its word processing program Word that infringe on the patented technology, which Microsoft dismissed on Tuesday as a ‘little-used feature.’
The Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft appealed but the three-judge court of appeals for the federal circuit ruled against the software powerhouse.
Microsoft indicated Tuesday it may file further appeals and said in a statement it was ‘moving quickly’ to comply with the injunction on selling certain Word products, which takes effect on January 11, 2010.
Microsoft stressed that the injunction only refers to US sales of versions of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 and said it has already ‘put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products.’
‘Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for US sale and distribution by the injunction date,’ Microsoft said.
‘Beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction,’ Microsoft added.
………………………………………………..
NEWS
BB resets criteria for export
development fund
Bangladesh Bank has reset the criteria for accelerating lending from the Export Development Fund to be implemented from January 1.
A circular of the central bank, issued on Tuesday, detailed the new criteria, which includes the interest rate and tenure of the loan and eligibility of clients.
‘The cheaper loans from the EDF will help exporters face the impact of recession and maintain competitiveness on global markets,’ the governor said.
Established in 1989, the EDF is intended to facilitate financing in foreign currency for input procurements by manufacturer-exporters. The central bank disburses the fund through authorized dealer banks. The present size of the fund is $300 million.
One of the major features of the new criteria is the increase in interest rate, which the central bank considers an encouragement for the participating banks to accelerate the loan disbursement process.
The interest rate against the loan from the fund will be 1.5 per cent higher than the present rate as the BB advised banks to charge their clients the interest, calculating the six-month average rate of London Inter bank Offer Rate plus 2.5 per cent.
Presently, the banks charge LIBOR plus one per cent to their clients when the BB charges the banks the interest at six month LIBOR rate.
The banks, however, will have to pay one per cent extra on LIBOR from January when they increase their interest rate for lending from EDF.
‘The interest rate will be lower even after the increase,’ BB governor Atitur Rahman told BSS on Wednesday.
The interest rate would be 3.5 per cent with the increase, which is much lower than the present market rate of 12 to 13 per cent, he said explaining.
He assured that the central bank would continue its support to the exporters so they can perform better in business.
Earlier on Monday, the central bank asked all the commercial banks to allow recession-hit exporters to reschedule their outstanding loans without any down payment until next June.
The new criteria will also recycle the fund faster than before as the banks will have to repay the loan to Bangladesh Bank in 180 days from the date of disbursement. The repayment deadline could, however, be extended up to 270 days upon suitable explanation to the central bank.
………………………………………………..
FI’s asked to maintain int’l
standard in reporting
Bangladesh Bank has asked all the financial institutions to submit their annual reports according to the international standard.
The central bank issued a circular on Wednesday for maintaining the international standard and following the provision 14 of the bank company law 1991 in preparing their report.
The circular also said that the financial institutions would have to publish their respective financial reports in the newspaper after submitting it to the central bank.
………………………………………………..
Govt to consider bourses’ proposals
The government is considering the proposals of stock exchange authorities, including lowering the minimum requirement of IPO placement of new companies.
After a meeting with Chittagong Stock Exchange delegation on Wednesday at his office, finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith told journalists that the finance ministry would consider the proposals of the bourses in the interest of the stock market.
CSE president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed led the delegation.
Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges on December 14 proposed the government some measures to further strengthen the country’s capital market.
The proposals include the increasing of paid-up capital of companies, lowering the minimum requirement of IPO placement, accelerating the flow of mutual funds into the primary market, rationalising the demand and supply in the secondary market, introducing uniformed market lot and face value of shares, speeding up the disposal process of the cases related to stock market and allowing brokerage houses open more branches.
The finance minister hinted that the government would lower the minimum requirement of IPO placement, considering the demand of the market.
The finance ministry on November 5 decided that a company would have to offer at least 40 per cent of its paid-up capital to general public for making debut in the capital market.
The stock market operators recommended lowering the requirement to 25 per cent as they apprehended that the higher requirement would hinder the flow of IPO.
The bourses also recommended increasing the paid-up capital of a company to Taka 50 crore so market can get more shares.
The finance minister said the government is considering all possible measures to increase the supply of shares.
………………………………………………..
ASIA
China hits back after
EU extends shoe taxes
Beijing said Wednesday it would impose penalties on metal fasteners such as bolts and nails imported from the European Union, in apparent retaliation to the EU’s extension of taxes on Chinese shoes.
The preliminary ruling will require importers of carbon steel fasteners from the 27 EU nations to pay a deposit from Monday, the commerce ministry said in a statement on its website.
‘[The ministry] finds that the European Union dumped carbon steel fasteners in China and China’s domestic carbon steel fastener industry suffered material damages,’ the ministry said.
Importers will have to pay a deposit based on the difference—up to 24.6 per cent—between the normal value of the fasteners and the cut price, the ministry said.
Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in another market at less than normal value.
The anti-dumping measures were imposed after the EU decided Tuesday to extend punitive taxes on imports of Chinese and Vietnamese leather shoes—first introduced more than three years ago—by a further 15 months.
The measures, designed to protect European leather manufacturers from below-cost Asian competition, carry import duties of 16.5 per cent levied on Chinese shoes with leather uppers and 10 per cent on shoes from Vietnam.
Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian said Beijing was ‘strongly dissatisfied’ with the decision and will launch a complaint at the World Trade Organization, in a statement posted on the ministry’s website Tuesday.
‘The Chinese government ... will appeal to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and take measures accordingly to seriously protect the legitimate interests of the Chinese industry,’ Yao said.
European products ‘do not compete directly with Chinese products and it is meaningless to continue to impose anti-dumping measures against China,’ Yao said.
Bigger manufacturers that make their shoes in Asia such as Diesel, Adidas and Puma, fought against the renewal of the shoe tariffs.
In a statement, the European Footwear Alliance, which speaks for brands including Diesel, ECCO, Levi’s, Timberland, Rockport and Hush Puppies, said the decision ‘lays to rest any lingering notion that the European Union still intends to fight protectionism.’
It said the EU’s ‘opaque trade policy will result in payment of anti-dumping duties well in excess of one billion euros [1.43 billion dollars] for European footwear businesses, which will ultimately be paid for by EU consumers.’
Figures from the European Commission show that Chinese and Vietnamese shoes make up 30 per cent of the EU footwear market.
………………………………………………..
WORLD
Recession forces British
firms to cut party
The office Christmas party, with its promise of free alcohol, flirting and a chance to see colleagues let rip on the dancefloor, has long been an annual highlight for many British workers.
But a deep recession and widespread lay-offs have taken a bite out of budgets and caused managers to downsize or cancel the festivities altogether.
A business survey this week estimated that Christmas party spending is down from about one billion pounds in 2007 — the year before the recession hit—to 600 million pounds (965 million dollars, 675 million euros) this year.
Banks are among those most likely to scrap the champagne, thanks as much to debts incurred during the credit crunch as a fear of exacerbating the public perception that they are living the high life while ordinary people struggle.
Royal Bank of Scotland last year kicked up a media storm after spending a reported one million pounds (1.1 million euros, 1.6 million dollars) on their Christmas parties, with another 300,000 pounds to treat its top executives.
RBS is now 70-per cent owned by the taxpayer after its huge exposure to risky assets forced a massive government bail out.
It was following a long tradition of big spending at Christmas, but this year managers have taken a more diplomatic approach, with the mass get-together scrapped in favour of events organised by individual teams of workers.
The firm will still make a contribution but it will be small, a spokeswoman said, telling AFP: ‘Our staff have worked very hard over the last 12 months.
‘We won’t waste bank money but the longstanding tradition of paying a small contribution towards staff parties has been judged appropriate.’
In the same vein, Lloyds TSB, another bank which has spared no expense in the past for its Christmas parties, has toned things down this year.
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