The New Nation - Internet Edition

Business Desk

So far 21 percent of the target of agricultural credit has been disbursed during the first four months of the current fiscal, official sources said. Since the country's northern part was hit by the back-to-back floods in August and the southern part by the hurricane on November 15 night, an huge amount of agricultural credit is required to keep the working hands workable that the food production is not at all hampered. Experts fear that the food production during the fiscal 2007-08 may lag behind the target by 15 lakh metric tonnes, compelling the government to import additional quantity of food.

More import means more pressure on the country's hard earned foreign currency, leading to further rise of inflation, which is already hovering over double digit. Realising this reality, the government has stressed on the disbursement of agricultural credit throughout the country by the specialised and the commercial banks. But the ratio of disbursement is not hopeful.

During the period from July to October, 2007 the commercial banks disbursed taka 1780.29 crore out of the targetted amount of taka 8192.43 crore. The eight state owned banks and other organisations disbursed taka 1317.82 crore out of taka 6844.50 crore, on the other hand, the 30 private commercial banks disbursed taka 462.47 crore out of 1347.93 crore.

Bangladesh Krishi Bank disbursed taka 681.89 crore, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank taka 191.69 crore, Sonali Bank had disbursed taka 81.32 crore, Janata Bank taka 78.03 crore, Agrani Bank taka 50.39 crore and Rupali Bank taka 7.03 crore.

The amon season being over, the rabi season has stalked. The farmers need fertilisers, seeds and pesticides to start the cultivation of rabi crops. The marginal and the sharecroppers are badly in need of the agri-credit because they are the most sufferers. Failing to get loan from the banks, they approach to the moneylenders who lend on excessive rate of interest. As a result, both the marginal farmers and the sharecroppers could taka a little from the part of their crops after harvesting. To save them, the government must stand by them with financial assistance and valuable advice.

GrameenPhone Ltd. recently signed an agreement with Chhayanaut to provide complete communication facilities under its Business Solutions package.

Grameenphone Business Solutions is an integrated telecommunications service specially designed for the business entities of Bangladesh, providing customised telecommunications solutions through a consultative approach, tailored to the needs of individual businesses.

Chhayanaut the famous cultural organisation has become an institution in its own right over the last 46 years. This famous institution has become the heart of Bengali culture in the country. After the establishment of the school in 1963, some 40,000 students have studied at this institution and many of the country's leading cultural personalities have graduated from here.

GP Business Solutions, comprising of modern mobile telecommunications services for any business needs, provides voice, text messaging and mobile data and internet services. Also on offer is a complete Mobile-Office solution, including mobile email, mobile high-speed data access, internet access, mobile fax and more, providing the freedom to work from anywhere within Grameenphone's wide network coverage.

According to the agreement, Chhayanaut is being provided complete communications solutions tailored to its needs, including voice, data and other services. Chhayanaut will use the services to further improve communication amongst its different units, at an affordable cost.

The agreement was signed by Khairul Anam Shakil, General Secretary of Chhayanaut, and Sajjad Alam, Head of Dhaka Region, Grameenphone on behalf of their respective organisations.

Siddique Belal, Executive Officer, Suraiya Chowdhury, Officer, Administration of Chhayanaut and Khandaker Omar Farhan, Head of Regional Sales, Mahbub Ullah Group Manager, Imtiaz Salim, Accounts Manager, Sales, Shamim AI Arefin, Account Manager, Sales, of Business Solutions and Md. Golam Kibria, Officer, Sajjad Hossain, Customer Manager, of Grameenphone, were present at the signing ceremony.

Reuters, New York

U.S. stocks climbed on Saturday, led by retailers as the holiday shopping season kicked off in earnest, while oil closed at a record back above $98 a barrel.

Gold came close to $826 an ounce, making a run back toward a recent 28-year high, and the dollar recovered from a record low against the euro.

U.S. crude oil for January delivery settled at a record $98.18 a barrel, up 89 cents, or almost 1 percent, after heating oil futures hit an intraday record on weekend forecasts of cold weather in the U.S. Northeast.

Trading was anemic, however, in abbreviated market sessions in the U.S. the day after the Thanksgiving Day holiday and with Japanese markets closed for a holiday.

Retailers such as Target helped push stocks higher as consumers, many with the day off of work, loaded up their shopping carts during "Black Friday"-the name for the day after Thanksgiving when many retailers once turned a profit on the strength of Christmas sales and went into the black for the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 181.84 points, or 1.42 percent, to close at 12,980.88, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 23.93 points, or 1.69 percent, to finish at 1,440.70. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 34.45 points, or 1.34 percent, to end at 2,596.60.

For the week, stocks fell. The blue-chip Dow average declined 1.5 percent, the broad S&P 500 slipped 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq shed 1.5 percent.

But for the year, all three major U.S. stock indexes have held onto their gains so far: The Dow is up 4.2 percent, the S&P 500 is up 1.6 percent and the Nasdaq is up 7.5 percent.

Earlier in the day, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares shot up 1.52 percent, or 22.13 points, to close at 1,476.16, after a gain of 0.7 percent on Thursday.

The dollar was little changed after hitting various new lows early on Friday and briefly coming close to $1.50 to the euro as concerns about the U.S. economy rattled investors.

The dollar was down against a basket of major trading- partner currencies, with the U.S. Dollar Index down 0.04 percent at 75.04 from a previous session close of 75.073.

The euro was down 0.13 percent at $1.4834 from a previous session close of $1.4853 -- and well below its record high of $1.4966 set earlier in the session, according to Reuters data.

Against the Japanese yen, however, the dollar was down 0.29 percent at 108.20 yen from a previous session close of 108.52.

A gloomy prognosis for the euro zone from a European Central Bank member toppled the euro well off its high of $1.4966, a new record.

Bank of Spain Governor and European Central Bank council member Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said while there were some medium-term inflation risks in the euro zone, world financial turmoil threatened a stronger-than-expected slowdown.

"The comments reemphasize that while the market has been preoccupied with U.S. economic weakness, the U.S. is not alone in suffering and the euro zone will struggle or at least decelerate next year as well," said Jeremy Stretch, market strategist at Rabobank.

U.S. government debt traded mixed, with the rally in the stock market pulling investors' interest-and cash-away from Treasuries with shorter maturities.

The 2-year note was down 3/32 in price for a yield of 3.07 percent, up from 3.02 percent late on Wednesday. In contrast, the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 3/32, with the yield at 4.01 percent, down from 4.02 percent late on Wednesday. Bond prices move inversely to their yields.

The U.S. Treasury market and the U.S. stock market were closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving.

Some analysts were wondering whether a recent bond rally, driven by fears of further fallout among financial companies from a global credit crisis, was approaching an end.

"Daily technical momentum indicators are all quite overbought-they have been for some days now-and we're likely to hear technical types start to fret that the end is nigh for the bond rally," said William O'Donnell, a strategist at UBS. He added, however, that "our dim, and dimming, fundamental outlook for the U.S. economy will keep us from falling into that trap."

Spot gold prices surged to a session high of $825.70, its highest since Nov. 12, as the dollar's weakness prompted gold bulls to make a fresh run toward the recent 28-year high of $845.50 reached in early November. The record for spot gold is $850, hit in January 1980.

COMEX most-active gold for December delivery leaped $26.10, or 3.3 percent, to settle at $824.70 an ounce in New York. This was the biggest single- day percentage gain for a COMEX front- month gold futures contract since Feb. 21.

AFP, Hanoi

Vietnam's trade deficit has surged past the 10 billion dollar mark so far this year, a 142-percent rise over the same period last year, state media reported today quoting government estimates.

High costs of imports including fuel, raw materials and machinery were to blame for the trade gap widening to 10.47 billion dollars, far above the target of 3.9 billion dollars, the English-language Vietnam News reported.

Between January and November, Vietnam spent 54.1 billion dollars on imports, up 33.1 percent year-on- year, the daily said, quoting an early estimate from the General Statistics Office (GSO).

In the same 11-month period, Vietnam earned 43.6 billion dollars from exports, a rise of 20 percent - - mainly crude oil from Vietnam's offshore fields, followed by textiles and garments, footwear, and fish and shrimp. "The high deficit was attributed to substantial machinery and equipment imports and skyrocketing prices of petroleum, steel and other materials," the report said.

"The depreciation of the dollar against the Vietnamese dong and other world currencies also played a role in inflated import spendings," the paper said. In the 11-month period, Vietnam was estimated to have spent 9.21 billion dollars on buying machinery, raw materials and equipment, up by 56.3 percent.

Imports of oil and petroleum products-needed as Vietnam still lacks refineries to process its own oil-were also up by 20 percent, totalling 6.55 billion dollars, it said.

Revenues from crude oil exports reached 7.5 billion dollars, 2.3 percent less than in the same period last year, the report said.

Coffee earnings, however, boomed thanks to high world prices, bringing back 1.68 billion dollars, a 72.7 percent year- on-year increase. Vietnam is the world's top exporter of robusta coffee.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said last month the government set a target of between 10.8 billion and 10.9 billion dollars for the trade deficit for 2008, while it hoped economic growth would reach 9.0 percent.

In 2006, the country's trade deficit stood at 5.09 billion dollars.

The 14th Foundation Training Course for the newly recruited Management Trainee Officers of the Premier Bank Limited was concluded at Bank's Training Institute, Iqbal Centre, Banani, Dhaka on 21st November, 2007. A total number of 24 Management Trainee Officers took part in this course.

B. H. Haroon, Vice Chairman of the Bank was present on the occasion as the chief guest and distributed certificates among the participants while Harunur Rashid Chowdhury, GM Bangladesh Bank(BB), Director of the Premier Bank Limited, Abdus Salam Murshedy, were present as special guests. In his speech, B.H Haroon, Vice Chairman of thank adviced the trainees to utilise the knowledge earned in the training properly in their work places. He also suggested them to be very competitive while delivering service at the branches that are expected to be highly benefited from their updated knowledge earned all through their training course.

The Managing Director (Current Charge) Md. Mukhlesur Rahman, Additional Managing Director Nurul Alam Chowdhury and Consultant Kazi Anuarul Mahbub along with other executives at HO were also present on the occasion.