The New Nation - Internet Edition

A.T.M.Nurun Nabi

Bangladesh switched over to the market economy from the socialistic structure during late seventies. About the role of the government in economy, the advocates of the laissaz faire theory say that it should play the role of a referee in a football match and not more than that.

The functions of the government should be limited to signing trade pacts only. In truth, this view is extreme. As the legal agent of the state, government can't shut its eyes to that kind of trading in which the traders create artificial crisis for making quick money and the cost of living of the people increases.

In reality, modern state is an welfare state, and not a state as depicted by Hobbs in his famous book the Leviathan. The word 'leviathan' means monster. Hobbs supported absolute kingship in order to wipe out chaos and confusion from the state in the interest of the people's welfare, law and order. Hobbs view is very useful when the law and order breaks in a society and security of life and property is at stake.

Yet, many political philosophers have termed Hobbs doctrine as extreme and advocated for moderate role of the government in administering the country's economic and political affairs. They say that the government shall respect the people's desire and need, and accordingly formulate policies.

When the price of a particular item goes beyond the purchasing power of the people, the government surely has something to do, however, in co-operation with the business community if the character of the state economy is capitalistic.

But in case of the non-co-operation, the government, as the legal agent of the state, shall follow its own course to redress people's sufferings.

With this view in mind, Islam has banned hoarding of the food items for more than three days and in case of non-food items for more than 40 days. Islam condemns artificial crisis and willful increase of price, awards punishment to the transgressors.

Economists supporting socialistic economy say that the state will fix prices of the both food and the non-food items and shall ensure its strict compliance. Anyone found disrespecting the government's order should be severely dealt with.

As a matter of fact, government being the agent of the state is the legal authority to take any measure to make the country's economy strong, to improve the standard of living, to check attempt to create artificial crisis and to increase purchasing power.

The Monitor-Malaysian Palm Oil Chef of the Year 2007 competition was formally launched on November 8, 2007. It was disclosed at a press conference the same day.

The Bangladesh Monitor, which has been organising the competition for the past two years, is joined by Malaysian Palm Oil Council this time as the Title Sponsor, while Emirates Airline acting as the Premium Partner. Kazi Wahidul Alam, Editor, The Bangladesh Monitor, fonnally launching this year's competition said, "We are holding the Chef of the Year 2007 competition for the third time to present before the nation and the world, the varied cuisines of Bangladesh as well as to discover and foster local talents."

AKM Fakhrul Alam, Country Manager, Malaysian Palm Oil Council, Hanif Zakaria, Area Manager, Emirates Bangladesh and Eminent Nutritionist Siddiqua Kabir, Chairman of the Jury Committee of the competition, were also present at the conference among others.

Kazi Wahidul Alam, also Chairman of the competition said, "This competition officially commences from today and interested participants can send their entries up to December 20, 2007."

The competition is divided into two categories: Professional Chef and Amateur Chef. Housewives or any person interested in cooking can participate in the Amateur group. Chefs working in hotels, restaurants, catering or any organisation involved in preparation of foods can participate in the Professional group, he said.

All recipes should be authentic Bangladeshi dishess made of vegetable, fish or meat items and the ingredients used for cooking the dishes should be locally available. One contestant can submit more than one recipe and each recipe should be quantified for six persons. Participation in the competition is open and there will be no entry fee, he said.

All participants should clearly write or computer type either in English or Bangla, name of the dish and the ingredients to be used in A-4 size paper d should send their entries to the office of The Bangladesh Monitor, City Heart, 9th Floor, 67 Naya Paltan, Dhaka-1000 within December 20, 2007. Another A-4 size paper should contain the name profession, contact details and a passport size photograph of the contestant, he said.

New innovative recipes will be given preference, while judging the entries. The jury board will primarily judge all entries and will select five top recipes from Professional category and five top recipes from Amateur category. These ten top entrants will be invited for the final competition at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel in January 2008. They will cook their recipes in front of the distinguished guests and the Jury board will select one winner each from Professional category and Amateur category, who will be named as Monitor Malaysian Palm Oil Chef of the Year 2007.

Each winner will be awarded a Tk. 10,000.00 each prize, a crest and a host of prizes. All other finalists will also be receiving prizes as well. The award giving ceremony will be held in presence of distinguished guests.

Malaysian Palm Oil Council will also be promoting this event through its distributors and dealers all over the country.

Business Desk

The 9th Review Meeting of the branches of Bangladesh Krishi Bank was held on Thursday in the boardroom of the bank.

Managing Director M. Fazlul Haque presided over the meeting participated by Mangers of 25 selected branches in the city where Bank Chairman S.A.Chowdhury was also present.

The chairman asked the managers, regional managers, chief regional managers and general managers to work hard to achieve 10 business targets. He asl advised them to increase the export-import business, to reduce the volume of the classified advances and to increase the deposit with care. Mr. Chowdhury said, "The role of the city branches in making the bank profitable is vital and care should be taken that no city branch became a losing one. For this proper planning must be chalked out right now, concluded the chairman.

Managing Director M. Fazlul Haque highlighted on the multi-diverse business, disbursement of qualitative loan, increase of inward remittance, recovery of classified loan as pet target and sending of fund to Head Office. The managing director stressed on becoming careful about inspiring the farmers to produce more rabicrops in the one-crop and the two-crops land.

In the second phase of the review meeting, Deputy General Manager Masud Ahmad of Central Accounts and Fund Management Division, Deputy Managing Director Md. Nurul Huda Chowdhury and the Head Office general managers spoke on the necessity of arresting 10 business targets.

Xinhua, Geneva

Switzerland has not yet reached its pain threshold in terms of oil prices even though they are hovering just below the level of 100 U.S. dollar per barrel, the Swissinfo website reported on Friday.

U.S. crude for December delivery stood at 96.23 U.S. dollars a barrel on Friday morning, reversing the previous day's 91-cent drop but down on its record high of 98.62 U.S. dollars earlier in the week. Overall oil prices have risen by 60 percent this year.

With the current volatility, the 100 U.S. dollar level might be easily reached, according to Eliane Tanner, an analyst at Credit Suisse. "But we do not think that this is a sustainable level t we rather think that the price will come down soon afterwards," Tanner told Swissinfo.

Rolf Hartl, director of Swiss Oil Association, which represents the oil business in Switzerland, also foresees the possibility of prices "climbing the 100 U.S.- dollar ladder."

"The demand is still increasing even with such high oil prices, but the offer is quite limited due to the production policies of the oil countries, especially the OPEC counties," Hartl told Swissinfo. As for the effect on Switzerland, Hartl said that the situation had dramatically changed since the 1970s, when the country was hit by two oil crises.

"Our economy can bear these high oil process because the oil and energy prices make up only around 4 percent of Swiss household expenses. This figure was significantly higher in the 1970s. We are now not so dependent on the oil price," said Hartl.

Swiss consumers also seem to be weathering higher petrol charges. Hartl said over the past few years petrol and diesel consumption had actually increased by 1 percent despite higher prices at filling stations.

"In Switzerland this pain threshold has not been reached yet," he said.

Both Tanner and Hartl do not expect the high prices to continue indefinitely, with Hartl predicting a "massive reversal" in the medium term. However, Credit Suisse believes that the market could tighten again in late 2008.

Yeasin Ali has been reappointed Managing Director of Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) for another two years term. The Board of Directors of the bank took this decision in a board meeting held on Saturday, says a press release. Mr. Ali served different state owned banks in different capacities before joining DBBL. He was General Manager at Agrani Bank, and Managing Director at Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, Bangladesh Shilpa Bank and Rupali Bank. He also worked in Bangladesh Krishi Bank.

The reappointed managing director participated in a number of training programs/seminar on various subjects, and traveled in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. Mr. Ali successfully completed a certificate course on 'Investment Appraisal and Management' from Harvard University, Boston, USA and an overseas Fellow of the EDI of World bank, Washington.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is starting its fifth round of emergency food distributions in 26 flood-affected districts of Bangladesh, targeting more than 1.4 million people worst-hit by the disaster. this follows four earlier distributions to more than 2.1 million people, says a press release.

While announcing the distribution plan of food assistance, Douglas Broderick, WFP Country Representative Bangladesh said, "Due to the recent floods thousands of poor families lost their incomes and livelihoods, the prolonged affect of the flood has reduced food security in many part of the country. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) enabled us to meet food need of people living in communities affected by floods."

WFP will distribute over 8,935 metric tons of rice following a contribution of US$4 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund to support emergency food assistance. Donors to WFP's relief and recovery operation in Bangladesh include the Australia (US$1.3 million), German (US$ 680,000), Canada (US$24,000), Spain(US$640,000), and the CERF (US$4 million).

"WFP has been vigilant about the market situation and price of commodities which affects the food security and livelihood of the poor people especially during the lean season for employment including Monga," said Broderick.

A two-week long 'Refresher's Course for Officers grade-I of IFIC Bank Limited’ was inaugurated by Mohammad Abdullah Deputy Managing director of the bank on 4th November, at its Academy in Chamber Building (8th floor), 122-124, Motijheel C/A., Dhaka Eighteen Officers working at various desks of the branches and Head Office are attending the course. The main objective of the course is to impart different operational aspects of General Banking, Credit, Foreign exchange, Accounting and Marketing to the participants. It may be mentioned here that this is the 33rd programme of IFIC Bank Academy in the year 2007. Course Directors are Dr. RM Debnath, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Training and Research and Mr AK Mojibur Rahman, Assistant Vice President.

UNB, Comilla

The four state-owned banks have filed 7,706 certificate cases against defaulters in different upazilas of the district to realise Tk 28.20 crore outstanding loans. Of the total, Sonali Bank filed 259 cases to realise Tk 56.30 lakh, Janata Bank filed 383 cases for Tk 44.73 lakh, Agrani Bank filed 722 cases for Tk 61.26 lakh and Bangladesh Krishi Bank filed 6,342 cases to realise Tk 26.57 crore.

Upazila wise break up of the cases: 1,113 cases filed in Adarsha Sadar, 312 in Brahmanpara, 449 in Burirchang, 312 in Barura, 1,016 in Laksam, 529 in Debidqar, 741 in Chandina, 1,245 in Nangolkot, 268 in Homna, 321 in Muradnagar, 624 in Chouddagram and 676 cases in Daudkandi. Some arrest warrants have also been issued against the loan defaulters.