The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

The retail prices of most essentials remained almost stable in the city markets, according to a market report of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) issued here on Sunday.

The price of some vegetables including squash, brinjal and onion, however, declined yesterday by Taka 2 to 3, the report added.

The price of coarse rice in different markets, including Kamalapur, New Market, Karwanbazar, Kalyanpur, Kachukhet and Mohammadpur, ranged between Taka 22 and Taka 23 per kg yesterday.

Rice was being sold at Taka 23 at BDR-run open markets and Taka 19 at BDR-run sales centers yesterday while in Kolkata per kg coarse rice was being sold at a price equivalent to Bangladesh Taka 21.42.

Onion (imported) was sold at Taka 32 to Taka 34 per kg in ordinary city markets while its price in Kolkata was Taka 26.78. Onion was being sold at Taka 38 per kg in BDR-run open markets and Taka 28 at BDR-run sales centres.

The price of one-kg packet of flour was between Taka 31 and Taka 33 in ordinary markets yesterday while the price of the item was Taka 30 in BDR-run open markets and Taka 29 at BDR-run sales centres. In Kolkata, the flour was being sold for equivalent of Taka 26.78 per kg, the report said.

The price of imported lentil (mashur) was between Taka 60 and Taka 65 per kg in ordinary markets, while it was being sold at Taka 63 in BDR-run open markets and Taka 58 at BDR-run sales centres. In Kolkata, the price of the lentil was Taka 62.50 per kg.

The price of imported gram (Chhola) was between Taka 60 and Taka 65 per kg in different retail markets yesterday while in Kolkata, the item was being sold at equivalent of Taka 57.14. The item was being sold at Taka 64 in BDR-run open markets and Taka 52 at BDR- run sales centers.

Sugar was being sold at Taka 28 per kg in ordinary markets compared to Taka 32.14 in Kolkata and Taka 28 in BDR-run open markets.

The price of green chili, however, was ranging from Taka 60 to Taka 80 per kg in ordinary city markets. The item was sold at Taka 80 at BDR-run open markets. The price of green chili in Kolkata was equivalent to Taka 53.57.

The potato was being sold at Taka 19 to Taka 20 per kg in all the ordinary markets. The price of potato in BDR-run open market was Taka 19 and at BDR sales centers Taka 14. In Kolkata, the price of the item was equivalent to Taka 16.96.

Soyabean oil was being sold at Taka 77 to Taka 80 per litre in ordinary markets, while it was available at Taka 80 in BDR-run open markets and Taka 73 at BDR-run sales centres. In Kolkata, the price of soyabean oil was Taka 107.14 per litre.

Palm oil was being sold at Taka 73 to 76 per liter in ordinary markets. In Kolkata, the price of palm oil was Taka 101.78 per litre.

The item was being sold at Taka 78 per kg in BDR-run open markets and Taka 73 at BDR-run sales centres the report added.

HP Consumer Fall Media Launch held on September 11, 2007 at Singapore. HP is among the world's largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $100.5 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2007. HP's regional consumer launch event announced a broad range of industry-leading digital printing solutions, designed to make it easier for consumers to get high-quality prints and photo projects at home, online and at retail. HP will strengthen its home printing leadership with the introduction of the most user-friendly and broadest offering of wireless-enabled printers. In addition, HP will extend the company's leading consumer online offering with the launch of Snapfish in the region and continue to revitalize the retail space with HP Retail Photo Solutions.

'HP's new print 2.0 strategy will see the company extending our digital publishing platform to allow consumers to print or share their content wherever they are and whenever they choose. We will consistently offer the easiest and best printing experience at home, online and retail,' said Christoper Morgan, Senior Vice President, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Asia Pacific and Japan. 'HP's Print 2.0 strategy will make it even easier for consumers to print from websites like blogs and travel sites with innovative tools such as HP Smart Web Printing, specifically designed to help consumers' print web-based content with ease.'

HP the number one PC vendor, unveiled an innovative line-up of personal mobile and desktop computing products that have been designed to reflect consumers' personal and professional lives through meaningful innovations and the next-generation designs. Commenting on the extensive consumer experience HP offers, Chin Hon Cheng, Vice President, Consumer Products and Mobile Business Group, Personal Systems Group, Asia Pacific & Japan, HP said, 'A new energy at HP is creating an ever more personal experience in computing. HP is innovating and designing PCs and delivering experiences that are reflections of consumers' personal and professional lives.' Chin added, ' The concept of personal takes many forms. It can be a more natural user interface using touch, or the beautiful high gloss finish that personifies elegance and has become an HP trademark.'

HP is continuing to deliver on 'The Computer is Personal Again' promise by connecting consumers to experiences that mater to them. Building on the successful partnership with MTV- for the hit 'Meet or Delete' show last year, HP is launching the HP & MTV 'Take Action. Make Art' Design contest to inspire the next generation of designers to design exclusive designs for HP notebooks PCs. The winning designs will be produced as special edition designs and sold globally. HP will produce four special edition skins of the designs of the regional finalists (Asia, US, Europe & Latin America) and a special edition notebook PC of the winning design of the global winner.

HP's new products are : Entertainment Desktop PC HP Pavilion Elite m9000 series Desktop PC, Notebooks HP Pavilion dv6500 series Entertainment Notebook PC, HP Pavilion dv2600 series Entertainment Notebook PC, Compaq Presario b1200 Notebook PC, Handhelds and Smartphones HP iPAQ 612 Business Navigator, HP iPAQ 912 Business Messenger, HP iPAQ 312 Travel Companion, HP iPAQ 112 Classic Handheld, HP iPAQ 212 Enterprise Handheld, All-in-Ones HP Photosmart C8180, C7280, C6280, C5280, C4835, C4280, Single Function Printers HP Photosmart D7460, D7260, D5360, Appliance Printers HP Photosmart A626, A826, A526, A320, Wireless Print Accessories HP Wireless Printing Upgrade Kit, and HP Retail Photo Services Snapfish Online Photo Service.

All items mentioned above will marketed very soon. In the meantime some of these items are already been launch in the market of America & Europe. Gradually all items will be supplied for sale to Southeast Asia, Bangladesh and Japan

USA-Turkey company in the name & style M/s. r-Pac Bangladesh Packaging Co. Ltd. is going to set up a Garments Accessories Manufacturing Industry in the Adamjee Export Processing Zone.

100 pc foreign owned company will invest US$ 5.548 million and will produce barcode, price ticket & labels, care labels, woven labels, Integrated security labels, offset labels, hang tag security labels. The company will create employment opportunity for 106 Bangladeshi including 01 foreign nationals.

An agreement to this effect was signed between the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and the M/s r-Pac Bangladesh Packaging Co. Ltd. in BEPZA Complex, Dhaka on Wednesday Mr. Prasanta Bhushan Barua, Member (Investment Promotion) of BEPZA and Ms. Mae Nadine Urn, Regional Director of M/s. r-Pac Bangladesh Packaging Co. Ltd. signed the lease agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

Among others, Brig. General Ashraf Abdullah Yussuf, Executive Chairman, Member (Finance) AKM Mahbubur Rahman, General Manager (Investment Promotion) W. A.Z.M. Azizur Rahman and Manager (Industrial Relations) Md. Sobhan of BEPZA were present at the signing Ceremony.

Popular Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (PPL) has signed a contract for exclusive Marketing and Distribution of world renowned brands of Merck KGaA, Germany in the field of advanced cardiology and anti-cancer therapy.

The growing demand for new medicines is driven by increasing population and improved life expectancy as modern medicine supports an ageing population. Popular Pharmaceuticals Ltd. intends to focus its skills and resources on all major therapeutic areas that represent majority of the burden of disease profiles of Bangladesh.

Popular Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is also commited to delivering new, medically important and commercially successful products to the market every year. Along with its commitment to competitiveness and high performance, PPL will continue to be led by its core values to achieve sustainable success.

Grameenphone Ltd. has recently crossed the 15 million mobile phones subscriber mark. The company has also signed a taka 200 crore loan agreement with a consortium of local banks. Grameenphone signed the syndicated loan agreement with 16 local financial institutions for the BDT 200 crore loan. Standard Chartered Bank is the lead arranger of this syndicated loan. Senior officials from the participating financial institutions and Grameenphone were present on the occasion at a city hotel recently.

"We are proud to serve 15 million customers. This is a great milestone for the company," said Erik Aas, Chief Executive Officer of Grameenphone. "Grameenphone is commited to provide quality service at an affordable cost to our valued customers and also to make mobile telephony available to a much larger number of people in the country."

Grameenphone has so far invested more than BDT 9000 crore up to June 2007. "Such timely and large investments have enabled us to aggressively increase the network capacity and prepare for continued growth," observed the Grameenphone CEO.

Since its inception in March 1997, Grameenphone has built the largest cellular network in the country with base stations in more than 5000 locations. Presently, nearly 98 percent of the country's population is within the coverage area of the Grameenphone network.

The entire Grameenphone network is also EDGE/GPRS enabled, allowing access to high-speed Internet and data services from anywhere within the coverage area. There are currently nearly 3 million EDGE/GPRS users in the Grameenphone network. The BDT 200 crore syndicated loan is being financed by Agrani Bank, Bank Asia, Citibank N.A., IDCOl, IFIC Bank, Jamuna Bank, National Bank, Pubali Bank, SABINCO, Sonali Bank, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Trust Bank, The City Bank, United Commercial Bank and Utara Bank.

Standard Chartered Bank together with Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association (BAFEDA) has organized a 5-day long BOURSE Course in Dhaka from 9 to 13 September 2007. The participants of the course are the inter-bank foreign exchange dealers from private and nationalized commercial banks of the country.

BOURSE is an internationally accepted professional course for the foreign exchange and money market dealers. Bangladeshi dealers have so far had the only option to atend the course in foreign countries. This new initiative of Standard Chartered and BAFEDA would enable them to atend this course locally from now on.

In the opening ceremony on Sunday, the Chief Guest and Chairman of the Executive Commitee of BAFEDA Naser Bukhtear urged the participants to make the best use of the resources available during the course. He affirmed that the course would help the foreign exchange dealers to develop in-depth and intrinsic understanding of foreign exchange dealings and, as a result, would help the overall development of the country's foreign exchange market Bukhtear thanked Standard Chartered Bank for facilitating the course locally.

Osman Morad, Chief Executive officer of Standard Chartered Bangladesh, assured that as a leading bank, it is the duty of Standard Chartered to assist in the market development through sharing of knowledge and best practices. He hoped that this dissemination of knowledge would lead to a healthy competitive environment

Ashrafullah, General Secretary of BAFEDA also spoke on the occasion.

Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited organised. A discussion meeting and Iftar Mahfil on 'Role of Women in Building Society and Civilization, on Friday, September 21, 2007 at a local restaurant Dr. Tazmeri S.A. Islam was present in the function as the chief guest Presided over by Principal Tahmina Khanam, Viqarunnisa Noon School & College, the function was addressed among others by Dr. Umme Kulsum Raoujatur Rumman, Professor, Department of Chemistry, Dhaka University and Prof. Khondoker Ayesa Khatun and Dr. Sayeda Sultana, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering of BUET. Women of different segments of the society were present in the function.

M. Tazmeri S.A. Islam said in his speech that role of women in building society is inevitable. Women can play important role in developing the country and the nation. Half of the population of the country are female. Hence, the success and prosperity of our country largely depends upon the success and failure of the women.

Other speakers said that we come to know from the history that women side by side the men played significant role in shaping the world. Now, many educated women of our country are also contributing to the development of the country and nation.