The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The overall balance of payment (BoP) of the country continues to be surplus despite shortage in current account balance for widening trade deficits and unfavorable receipts from services and other sources.

The overall BoP during the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year (2007-08) stood at US$130 million as against US$107 million in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, showing a rise of 21.50 percent.

The surplus BoP was registered mainly due to sharp rise in current transfers owing to increased flow of remittance and growing inflow of foreign direct investment during the period, sources in the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said.

The country has a surplus of $170 million in the financial account, the central bank, says in its Major Economic Indicators: Monthly Update-November 2007. Although there was a robust growth of inward remittances, the current account balance showed a deficit of $68 million during the period, they added.

The current account deficit, however, is expected to come down in the near future due to higher inflow of remittances and an upward trend in the overall export performance. The overall balance of payments is likely to improve further as the country is set to receive foreign aid and foreign loans because of the recent cyclone, an official of BB said.

The overall trade deficit was estimated at $717 million in July-August period of the fiscal 2007-08 because of higher import payments. The deficit was $156 million in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, according to the BB statistics.

"Despite larger current transfer of $1.128 billion, the current account balance recorded a deficit of $68 million during July-August, 2007 against the surplus of $389 million during July-August, 2006 due to larger deficit in trade balance, service and income," the Update adds.

The flow of net foreign direct investment (FDI) stood at $132 million in the period. That was against $137 million of the same period of the previous fiscal year. The portfolio investment was recorded in the period at $43 million against a $1.0 million deficit in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal term.

Reuters, Bali

A 190-nation climate meeting in Bali took small steps towards a new global deal to fight global warming by 2009 on Tuesday amid disputes about how far China and India should curb rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official, praised the December 3-14 meeting of 10,000 participants for progress towards a goal of launching formal talks on a long-term climate pact to succeed the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol.

"But in this process, as in so many, the devil's in the detail," he cautioned in an interview with Reuters at a beach-side conference centre on the Indonesian island.

Governments set up a "special group" to examine options for the planned negotiations meant to bind the United States and developing nations led by China and India more firmly into fighting climate change beyond Kyoto.

The meeting also agreed to study ways to do more to transfer clean technologies, such as solar panels or wind turbines, to developing nations. Such a move is key to greater involvement by developing nations in tackling their climate-warming emissions.

The Kyoto Protocol now binds 36 rich nations to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, by an average of 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 in a step to curb droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising seas.

But there was skirmishing about how to share out the burden beyond Kyoto and environmentalists accused Kyoto nations Japan and Canada of expecting China and India to do too much.

Canada said in a submission to the talks that "to be effective, a new international framework must include emission reduction obligations for all the largest emitting economies." It did not mention deeper cuts for rich nations beyond 2012.

And Japan on Monday called on all parties to effectively participate and contribute substantially. A Japanese official said it was "essential" that China and India were involved.

"Canada and Japan are saying nothing about legally binding emission reductions for themselves after 2012," said Steven Guilbeault of environmental group Equiterre. "They are trying to shift the burden to China and India."

Green groups gave Japan a mock award as "Fossil of the Day" -- made daily to the nation accused of holding up the talks.

De Boer played down the environmentalists' objections, saying that all nations were merely laying out ideas. "A marriage contract is not something to discuss on a first date," he said. "No proposals have formally been made."

China and India say that rich nations must take on far deeper cuts in emissions and that they cannot take on caps yet because they need to burn more fossil fuels to end poverty.

The Bali talks are seeking a mandate to widen Kyoto to all nations beyond 2012. Of the world's top-five emitters, only Russia and Japan are part of Kyoto. The United States is outside the pact, while China and India are exempt from curbs.

And de Boer also said the talks should not focus solely on the plan to launch new negotiations. "There's a bit of a risk that countries that are very keen to see negotiations being launched go over the top and focus only on that," he said.

Developing nations were worried that more immediate issues -- such aid to help them cope with droughts, floods and rising seas -- could "be forgotten in all the excitement about the future," he said.

Outside the Bali conference centre on Tuesday, a group of environmentalists gave a mock swimming lesson to delegates, saying that rising seas could swamp low-lying tropical islands such as Bali unless they acted.

Agencies

Climate change during the past 17 years caused Himalayan glaciers to melt at an unprecedented rate, restricting water supply and sanitation access for millions of people in Asia, said delegates at the Asia-Pacific Water Forum Summit in Japan.

Summit delegates from more than 30 Asian countries called on world leaders now meeting in Bali to consider the relationship between climate change and water shortages as they craft a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

``All the speakers clearly identified climate change as a critical challenge to effective and sustainable water management,'' said former Japan Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who served as chairman of the summit in Beppu, on Japan's southern island of Kyushu.

At least 700 million people among Asia-Pacific's 3.7 billion population don't have access to safe and affordable water, and more than 1.9 billion don't have adequate sanitation, according to the United Nations and other agencies.

Country representatives hope to reduce those figures by half by 2015, and then to zero by 2025, according to a closing statement released by summit organisers today. About 94 percent of Himalayan glaciers shrank from 1990 to the present, compared with about 50 percent from 1950 to 1970, according to the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. Rapid melting causes floods in the short term and water shortages in the long term.

Melting glaciers threaten water supplies for at least 1.4 billion people living near rivers that flow down from the Himalaya, including the Indus and Ganges, according to the centre's Director General Andreas Schild. A total of 45 per cent of the Indus water flow is glacier water, he said.

Bhutan's Prime Minister Kinzang Dorji said melting glaciers are increasing the risk that lakes may burst their barriers, causing flash floods. When that water is gone, so too will be Bhutan's hydroelectric industry, which supplies 40 per cent of the nation's power, he said.

Japanese Prime Minister and Crown Prince Naruhito attended the opening day of the Beppu conference yesterday.

``More than half of the problems related with water in the world are here in the Asia-Pacific region,'' Fukuda said.

The UN summit on climate change opened yesterday on Indonesia's island of Bali. For the next two weeks, officials there will try to build a framework for a treaty to replace the carbon emission-limiting Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Ken Noguchi, a Japanese mountaineer and activist known for expeditions to clear garbage from the Himalaya, said too little progress was being made at conferences. Delegates have no idea of the urgency of climate change problems now facing people in developing nations, Noguchi said.

``I have participated in these conferences many times and there is a huge gap in the sense of crisis between delegates and people in Nepal or Bangladesh,'' he said. ``There, people have already died in flash floods caused by glacial melting.''

Netherlands Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, who serves on the UN Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, said the meetings were needed to keep issues on the political agenda.

``These conferences are often criticized, but they are necessary to raise awareness among people who are not usually involved in water management,'' he said.

Staff Reporter

Banglalink is expected to enter the capital market with 10 per cent market share by the end of 2008, said the Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Telecom Rashid Khan.

"Meetings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is underway to determine how many shares and at what price they should be offered at open share market," he said.

Moreover he also said that the company has set its subscription target up to five crore by the end of 2008. "Following current market expansion, Banglalink is expected to grow 5 crore mobile connections by the end of 2008," he added.

Rashid Khan was addressing a press briefing yesterday, held in the capital to formally announce the 3rd Quarter financial results for 2007 of Banglalink.

According to him, the Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH), the holding company of Banglalink has added over 27 lakhs subscribers to its base till September 2007, which is the 2nd highest share of net addition in the industry.

"Banglalink has consolidated its position and increased overall market share to 18.9 per cent at the end of Q3 2007, compared to 15.3 per cent at the same period a year earlier," said Rashid Khan.

"At the quarter end, Banglalink operates 60 lakhs subscribers and posted a year-to-date revenue of Tk 926 crore (US$133 million). Both the figures doubled over the past 12 months as the subscriber base was 27 lakhs and revenue was Tk 440 crore for the same period last year," he explained.

Therefore, Banglalink has consolidated its number to 2nd position in the market to revenue terms, said the CEO of Banglalink.

At the Press briefing, he also extended his sympathy to the cyclone survivors and recalled Tk3.5 crore donations by the Chairman at the very next day.

"Banglalink has always been a company for the people and will stand beside them in every needs," Rashid Khan said.

He also mentioned his company's SMS service and upcoming Bangla Music Festival 2007, to collect donations for the cyclone victims. "Collected amounts from both the services will be donated to the Chief Advisor's Relief Fund," he ended.

UNB, Dhaka

Five firms have come out as pre-qualified bidders to stake a claim to the proposed 450MW Bibiyana Power Plant project on completion of the evaluation of their pre-qualification bids.

The five pre-qualified bidders are Korea Electric Power Corporation of South Korea, AES Corporation of the USA, Chevron Corporation of the USA, the consortium of Powertek Berhad of Malaysia & Siemens Project Ventures GmbH of Germany, Summit Industrial Mercantile Corporation Limited of Bangladesh, and GE Energy LLC of the USA.

Power Cell, the reform implementation wing of the Power Ministry, today (Tuesday) announced the PQ-assessment results, after scrutinizing the initial offers of a total of six PQ bidders.

Now, the five pre-qualified bidders will be asked to submit the financial and technical offers to the government for final bidding under the Request for Proposal (RfP) format which is expected to take place in the first quarter of next year.

Among the six aspirants, the Malaysia-based YTL Power International failed to qualify in the pre-qualification round of bidding as its statement was found "non-compliant with the pre-qualification criteria", the Power Cell said in a release.

However, the first three of the five pre-qualified bidders-Korea Electric, AES Corporation and Chevron Corporation-were fully pre-qualified while Consortium of Powertek-Siemens and the consortium of Summit-GE have been conditionally selected for the next round.

The Power Cell said the consortium of Powertk-Siemens and the consortium of Summit-GE have conditionally qualified pending their submission within 45 days of the revised financial statements compliant with the International Accounting Standard (IAS).

"The submission of IAS financial statement was a requirement of the qualification package to allow the government to verify the financial strength of the applicants," the Power Cell maintained.

A seven-member tender-evaluation committee, headed by Power Cell director general Abdul Jalil, conducted the PQ evaluation.

As per the bidding proposal, the finally winning private sponsor will have to implement the Bibiyana Power project on Build-Own-Operate (BOO) basis as independent power producer (IPP) in accordance with the Private Sector Power Generation Policy 2004.

The state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) will purchase electricity from the plant for about 22 years.

Earlier, the Power Ministry had initiated move for setting up three large-scale IPP projects: 450MW Sirajganj plant, 450MW Meghnaghat phase-III plant and the 450MW Bibiyana.

But, a Power Ministry source said among the three, they are giving priority to Bibiyana project as natural gas is available for the project nearby for the plant.

Bibiyana power plant will be installed at a location closed to the existing Bibiyana gas field in Habiganj. The Bibiyana Field has abundant surplus natural gas, which, for lack of infrastructure, will remain unutilized, industry-insiders believe.

Bibiyana is the first large-scale power project for which the caretaker government initiated the physical move to implement project to resolve a nagging power crisis.

The World Bank has made a commitment to finance the project while its private-sector window-the International Finance Corporation (IFC)--has been working as an advisor to assist the Power Cell in dealing with the tender process.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has promised to finance the private sponsor to install the Sirajganj and Meghnaghat-III plants.

Industry-insiders said such big projects need more than three years time for implementation after tendering. "Even if the projects are given special care, those are unlikely to come into operation before 2010," said an executive of a private power company.

Staff Reporter

Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday put forward some conditions to the donors saying procedure of funding should be simple and reasonable.

"It is widely believed that donors often attach tough conditions to funds… but now I am giving conditions for funding. The condition is to make funding procedures more simple and reasonable," he said at the inaugural session of a workshop in the city.

Donor agencies -- UNDP, European Commission, World Bank, DFID, CIDA and IFC jointly organised the workshop titled 'Creating a National Strategy for Trade and the Enhanced Integrated Framework'.

Dr Aziz also advised the donors not to mix up aid with market access. "Any assistance must not be tagged to market access. The two are different," he said.

He opined that global aid must be increased to accelerate development process in the developing countries.

Dr Aziz sought assistance from the donors in trade related infrastructure, improvement of existing products, identification of new products, new markets exploration and improving skills.

UNDP country director Manoj Basnyat, and Ambassador and head of delegation of European Commission Stefan Frowein also spoke on the occasion.

Additional commerce secretary Golam Mustakim moderated the discussion session.

Staff Reporter

Leaders of the BNP and Awami League have continued their relief operation in the Sidr affected areas separately.

Both the anti-reformist and reformist groups of the BNP yesterday dispatched two separate relief teams from Dhaka to the affected areas of Bagerhat and Barguna while the Awami League (AL) collected relief materials from leaders and activists of its Dhaka City Committee.

Chairman of the AL Relief Committee and party Presidium member Abdur Razzak called for proper distribution of relief materials among the distress people in cyclone affected areas.

“The Government has got lot of relief materials and donations from within

and outside the country. Those should be properly distributed among the distress people,” Razzak said while addressing leaders and activists of the city committee, who handed over relief materials to the party’s relief committee at its Bangabandhu Avenue central office.

Razzak demanded of the Government to sanction fresh loans to the farmers and businessmen of the cyclone affected areas and waive all interest on their loans.

He also demanded immediate steps to rehabilitate the distress people in coastal belt and distribute agriculture inputs to the farmers.

Razzak said AL would continue relief operation “Our leader Sheikh Hasina is not present among us. It is our responsibility to continue the relief activities.”

Party leaders Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Faizuddin Mia, Habibur Rahman Seraj and Mukul Chowdhury were among those present at the programme.

Staff Reporter

Eminent columnist and freedom fighter Maj Gen (Retd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim yesterday launched a new party Bangladesh Kalyan (Welfare) Party.

Maj Gen (Retd) Ibrahim announced the formal journey of the new party at a press conference at Hotel Imperial at Bangabandhu Avenue in the city.

"We want politics for change, change for a better Bangladesh of development and prosperity", he said in a written statement describing the party's political aim.

The initiator of the new party said the 1/11 had provided us a great chance to practice good politics for the people and to practice such we have decided to float a new party.

The party is focusing on five basic ideologies nationalism, democracy, economic development, welfare state and humanism.

While addressing the audience Maj Gen (Retd) Ibrahim clarified his stance on some vital political issues confronting Bangladesh.

"We want to remove division among politicians of the country regarding issues of national leadership and nationalism" he said, "We want to practice politics of assistance and coordination."

The Liberation War veteran said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the founder of Bangladesh and president Ziaur Rahman read out the declaration of independence firstly on his own name and later on behalf of Bangabandhu on March 27 in 1971.

The chief of the newly floated party said, "Debates are there whether we are Bangladeshi or Bangali, we will say we are both,"

"We are born as Bangali but we have earned the identification as Bangladeshi by the nine-month Liberation war. So we cannot deny any of those identifications," he said.

About his party Maj Gen Ibrahim said the party would not contest the established parties of the country like Awami League, BNP or Jatiya Party. It would work as supplement of those parties in creating a new Bangladesh."

He said, "BWP is not floated from the high pedestal of power, it had come from the people and for the people, like Awami League, NAP and JSD."

"In the 90s we had practiced parliamentary democracy but we could not bring out the best for the country, nevertheless we have to go ahead," he said.

The former Army general said the main focus of the party would be towards the youngsters. Integration of the courage of the youngsters and experience of the veterans would move the country towards development.

About the absence of any high profile leaders in his party he said, " We do not want to give any surprise by bringing somebody in front of the media and that person gives another surprise."

The first national council of the party will approve the constitution of the party. It will have a 183-member central committee founder chairman of which will be Maj Gen (Retd) Ibrahim. It would also have student wing but they would not participate in politics.

Freedom fighters, foreign delegates, businessmen and people from different professions were present at the conference.