The New Nation - Internet Edition

Xinhua, Manila

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will cooperate with China in developing a market-based system to manage water pollution, said the bank in a news release on Thursday.

A policy study on market-based instruments for water pollution control seeks to strengthen water pollution management systems to help the country achieve its water pollution control target more effectively and efficiently, said the multilateral developing finance institution.

It added that the project will develop a set of policy advice and recommendations that will serve as basis for introducing market-based instruments and mechanisms to combat the country's water pollution problems.

ADB will provide a 500,000-U.S. dollar grant for the project, which is estimated to cost 650,000 dollars. The balance will be covered by the Chinese government.

The country has been experiencing rapid economic expansion since the late 1970s, maintaining an average annual gross domestic product growth of about 9 percent and lifting millions of people out of absolute poverty.

"Along with the rapid growth, however, the country has been faced with the increasingly difficult task of controlling environmental pollution, resources depletion and ecological degradation.

Despite government efforts and investment, the country has yet to arrest these problems," said Yue Fei, senior social sector economist of ADB's East Asia Department.

Water pollution has emerged as a most pressing environmental concern of the Chinese government.

To further enhance water pollution control, the government has determined to set for the 11th Five-Year Program a mandatory performance target to reduce the chemical oxygen demand discharge by 10 percent using 2005 as base year.

AFP, Singapore

World oil prices continued higher in Asian trade on Thursday after edging closer to a new record, as geopolitical tensions resurfaced and supplies tightened in the United States, dealers said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, rose 17 cents to 76.47 dollars per barrel from 76.30 dollars in late US trades Thursday, when the contract traded as high as 77.43 dollars.

That was not far off the record high of 78.77 dollars reached on August 1.

Brent North Sea crude for October delivery was three cents higher at 74.80 dollars a barrel.

Victor Shum, senior principal at Purvin and Gertz Inc in Singapore, said a combination of factors have helped push prices higher, including a United States warning of "terrorist" threats against US and other Western commercial operations in Nigeria, the world's sixth biggest crude producer.

Continuing unrest in Nigeria has already led to about a quarter of the country's 2.6 million barrels-per-day output being cut.

Additional price support came from a weekly report by the US Energy Information Administration, which revealed Thursday that American crude reserves tumbled by 3.9 million barrels in the week ending August 31.

That was far heavier than analyst consensus forecasts of a drop of 2.2 million barrels.

American gasoline inventories meanwhile sank by 1.5 million barrels.

The weekly report came one day later than usual because of Monday's Labour Day holiday in the United States.

Hurricane Felix slammed into Central America on Tuesday and top US experts predicted six more hurricanes would form in the Atlantic region this year.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel is to meet in Vienna on Tuesday but traders generally expect it to maintain its production quota at 25.8 million barrels of oil per day, a factor which is also supportive of prices, Shum said.

AsiaNet, Wellington

Voeveo is an online solution for people in the web environment wanting to sell mobile phone content (audio, images, games, videos, films, software) directly to buyers.

Annabel Youens, voeveo's director community says: "We believe in empowering independent artists to create and sell directly to their community.

The voeveo incubator competition invites musicians, graphic artists, game and application designers to submit their entries. The community will vote for the best and winners receive mentorships with some of brightest minds in the digital space."

Audio grand prize sponsor, Alex di Savoia, head of communications for Aardvark Records says: "Sponsoring the voeveo competition reinforces our belief in the opportunity for artists to connect directly with buyers in the mobile space. voeveo provides a direct channel to the global mobile market for our artists' music. This is the way of the future, no barriers and no constraints - a true free market."

Competition entries close 17 November and voting begins 23 November. "We want to empower independent artists," says Youens.

"The time is right for them to get involved and get creative on mobile phones."

voeveo director Jane Pollitt says voeveo provides a community space for buyers and sellers to come together to create, transact and connect on their own terms and conditions.

"There are no hidden costs and no subscription fees. Buyers choose content that matches their phone, at the prices they want to pay.

Content is delivered direct to mobile phones. We know UK buyers are tired of the old models and ready to embrace freedom of choice.

"UK sellers have been very receptive to our independent model. We've signed up well known brands such as V2, Telco Games and Aardvark Records. And there are more to come."

Voeveo sets itself apart with a focus on commerce with high quality content, interactive communities, and reliable information.

Voeveo entered Beta in December 2006 and this month began its first phase of commercialisation by launching in the United Kingdom. voeveo is owned by

TradeMobile Limited, a private company registered in the UK and New Zealand.

UNB, Bagerhat

The recent storm and heavy rainfall due to depression in the Bay has caused loss of over Tk 13 crore in agriculture and fisheries sectors of the district.

District Disaster Management and Relief office said the storm that swept over the district in last three days till Wednesday more or less caused damage to 74 unions, out of 75, in nine upazilas.

The storm damaged 1,590 dwelling houses, standing crops on 100 acres of land and uprooted 50,000 trees causing loss of Tk 7.70 crore.

Fish worth Tk 6 crore was washed away in Fakirhat, Mollahat and Chitolmari upazilas, the fish cultivators claimed.

Besides, ferry movement on Bhairab river remained disrupted for the last two days due to the damage of pontoon of Muniganj ferry ghat.

Moreover, 30,000 people in different upazilas were living in the dark till Wednesday as 26 electric poles have been uprooted in the district due to the storm. Deputy Commissioner Shahidul Islam said Disaster Management and Relief Ministry has allocated Tk 2 lakh for the affected people of the district.

India's robust growth does not mean WB slashes lending to it

PTI, Washington

The fact that India is posting strong economic growth does not mean that its portfolio and structure within the World Bank would have to be trimmed to make way for higher lending to other countries, President of The bank Robert Zoellick has said.

In a press meet ahead of this weekend's annual meeting of the bank and the International Monetary Fund, Zoellick told reporters that he will be visiting India shortly and find out the areas in which the bank is doing well and where it should be better.

"Because of the strong capital base, the deployment of our resources shouldn't be seen as a zero sum trade off. We can do more for many parts " Zoellick said in response to a question by PTI.

"For India in particular, you still have a very large number of poor people, about 600 million, in the rural areas. So the one reason I am going to India is that I want to hear the Indian plans and how we can support them," he added.

"But in general, for countries like India and China, what I have found is that the lending is less driven by financial needs and more by packaging the knowledge and expertise of the lending. And one of the things that I also want to explore (in India) is what we can do through the IFC and other bodies of the Bank," Zoellick said.

"So one of the reasons that I want to get to India very early-I had the chance to meet the Finance Minister at the United Nations General Assembly-was to get a sense of what they (India) think we are doing well and what we think we should be doing better" he said.

Zoellick stressed that a number of issues and strategic themes will be discussed at this year's annual meeting that will include governance and corruption, the deepening interaction with the IDA Group and sustainable development and climate change.

The top Bank official noted that the institution could play a meaningful role in climate change.

However, the developing countries will have to shed their anxieties that the allocation of Bank's resources for climate change runs contrary to and competes with traditional developmental projects.

AFP, Frankfurt

The eurozone current account showed a deficit of 1.4 billion euros (2.0 billion dollars) in the second quarter, as trade with countries like China and Japan outweighed surpluses with Britain and other EU members, the European Central Bank (ECB) said on Thursday.

The current account is the broadest measure of trade in goods and services and also includes certain financial transfers.

The ECB said the 13-nation eurozone showed a deficit of 26.5 billion euros with "other countries," a category which includes nations that are not in the European Union or the G-10, a group that in fact comprises 11 industrialised countries.

China and most oil-rich states are listed in the "other countries" category.

Trade with Japan, meanwhile, resulted in a 10-billion-euro deficit for the eurozone.

Those and other deficits were only partly offset by trade surpluses with the United Kingdom and new EU member states.

The current account position with the United States was close to balance, with the eurozone posting a surplus of 300 million euros in the second quarter to June.

BDNEWS, Brahmanbaria

Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) has undertaken a special project to protect a vast expanse of cultivable land in Sadekpur union under Sadar upazila.

The project involving Tk 44 lakh will save the agriculture field from flash flood and bring more land under irrigation.

Sources said under this small irrigation project a five-kilometer long embankment and two sluice gates will be constructed. The height of the embankment, which goes under water in rainy season, will be three feet. The sluice gates will remove access water of the canal.

Though this project has created wide response from farmers, but a section of farmer are oppose to this embankment. They think this project will be of no use for them. In protest overwhelming farmers last Sunday laid seige to the residence of local parliament member Advocate Haurn-ur-Rashid.

The farmers were later pacified after they were told of the benefits of this project. On this issue executive engineer of Brhamanbaria LGED Ataur Rahman Khan said a vested quarter is trying to create resentment among farmers through false propaganda about this project.

Some local farmers said flash flood causes colossal loss to farmers every year. Again crops cannot be grown on 400 hectares of land for want of irrigation. If this project is implemented irrigation will be possible on 250 hectares of land at low cost.

Along with the IRRI cultivation, vegetables can also be grown there and on the other hand 200 hectares of land could be free from flash flood. About 15,000 farmers will be benefited from this project and it will be able to yield additional 1500 metric tons of rice.

PTI, Johannesburg

Observing that India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) have reservations in fully opening up their markets, South African trade minister has said more needed to be done to reduce tariff barriers hampering South-South trade.

The barriers affecting trade between countries in the southern hemisphere are much greater than those in the northern hemisphere, he said while urging the countries to enhance trilateral trade volumes to USD 10 bn by year end.

"Research done by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that tariffs affecting South-South trade are about 11 per cent, while there is only a 4 per cent tariff affecting North-South trade," he said Tuesday while speaking at the India-Brazil-South Africa pre heads of state summit here.

"Our industrial development is underway and each deals with issues like poverty, unemployment and infrastructure development, making it very difficult to open up markets completely," he said.

Brazil, India and South Africa are all growing economies and more needs to be done to broaden the scope on tariff issues, the minister said, adding negotiations regarding these issues are underway.

President Thabo Mbeki, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold their political summit in Cape Town Wednesday.

They are set to sign six agreements aimed at boosting the South-South relationships and creating new programmes for developing trade between the countries.

Mpahlwa said South-South trade had been on the increase with trade between South Africa and Brazil having tripled in the last decade.

"Effective South-South trade serves twin purposes of assuring both positive trade and economic growth. Further targets have been set to increase the figure to USD 10 billion by the end of 2007 at the second annual IBSA summit," he said.

"Increased trade perpetuates Foreign Direct Investment, infrastructure development and increased competition in the developing countries. Recent analysis showed that developing countries accounted for about 30 per cent of world trade and that about 40 per cent of that trade was South-South orientated," Mpahlwa said.

AFP, Beijing

China aims to have trade unions established in at least 70 percent of all foreign-invested companies within about a year, up from 63.5 percent, a senior trade union official said on Thursday.

"Our goal for the current stage is to have more than 70 percent of foreign companies set up trade unions by autumn next year," said Sun Chunlan, vice chairperson of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, or ACFTU.

"I believe the goal for the next stage will be even higher," she told reporters.

In July 2006, the world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart set up its first trade union in a shop in southeastern China's Fujian province after two years of resisted efforts.

Other multinational companies like McDonald's, KFC and Carrefour have also formed local unions, which are all affiliated with the ACFTU, the only legal trade union in China with a membership of 170 million people.