The New Nation - Internet Edition

Siemens Bangladesh Limited (SBL) has taken initiatives to help the cyclone affected people. "As a part of the corporate social responsibility, Siemens always tries to work for the nation with warm hearts" says Rudolf P. Klink, Managing Director and CEO of SBL while handing 20 water purification filters to the Chief of Army Staff General Moeen U Ahmed. These water purification filters will be used in the cyclone affected areas under supervision of Bangladesh Army.

Mr. Klink told that SBL brought the water filters from Sky Juice Foundation of Australia which produces these units in Australia using the Siemens technology. These units including the accessories have a commercial value of BDT 600 thousand per unit and therefore would constitute a total value of taka 12 million for 20 units.

The managing director added that the employees of Siemens Bangladesh had contributed two day's salary and matched the equivalent from the organisation to raise the fund locally. In relation to this, SBL had also accumulated fund from the Siemens Caring Hands Foundation based in the Headquarter in Germany to procure these 20 units. Siemens engaged an engineer from Australia who would assist to install these units with the support of Army personnel.

Siemens Head Quarter (Germany) had donated Euro 10,000 for the Cyclone SIDR victims through the German Red Cross. As a step forward, Siemens Bangladesh will also contribute 3 Mobile X-ray machines worth an amount of taka three million for the health check up of the victims through the Ministry of Health of Bangladesh. These units would be placed in the hospitals in the affected areas where there is a dire necessity of such units after the post-cyclone period. These units being mobile can be taken to different locations for ease of a patient.

National Housing Finance and Investments Ltd. (NHFIL) secured the "ICMAB Best Corporate Award 2007" given by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB).

Evaluation for the award by the Award Committee was based on the assessment of all Financial Institution's Capital Adequacy, Asset Quality, Earning Profitability, Liquidity & Financial Flexibility and Transparency in financial disclosure. Capital Adequacy, both in quantitative and relative terms, was considered.

National Housing is a unique Loans and Savings institution operating in the country licensed by Bangladesh Bank under the Financial Institutions Act, 1993.

Incorporated in 1998 with a paid up capital of Tk 40.00 crore, its shareholders are corporate based. Among them are 3 Banks (IFIC Bank, National Bank & United Commercial Bank) 7 Insurance Companies (Pragati, Reliance, Jiban Bima, Sadharan Bima, Eastern, Eastland & National Life) 7 Corporate/Business Groups (Square Pharmaceuticals, Bangladesh Lamps, HRC Bangladesh, Shaw Wallace, Borak Travels, Summit Industrial and Mercantile Corporation & Unicorn Equities), 1 Development Finance Company and 2 Non-Resident Bangladeshi Overseas Investors Forums (UK and Zambia). Its core business is Housing Finance but also include Term Loan, Lease Finance & Equity Finance for Industrial and commercial purposes.

M. Haider Chowdhury is the Chairman of the Company and Md. Abdur Rob is the present Managing Director.

Because of visionary approach, National Housing has earned a profound reputation among its customers and well wishers National Housing will certainly end over for further improving its performance in the coming years.

The 101st branch of National Bank Limited has been opened recently at Anderkilla, Chittagong.

Parveen Haque Sikder, Chairperson of the bank, formally inaugurated the branch as the chief guest. A discussion meeting was held on the occasion.

The Chairperson in her inaugural speech said that NBL will put remarkable contribution in the business development of Chittagong City Area.

Md Abdur Rahman Sarker, Managing Director of the bank mentioned in his speech, the banking network of NBL has further been extended in the greater Chittagong.

Our Anderkilla branch will fulfil the cherished desire of the people of this locality for modem banking facility, he also added.

Among others, Md. Badiul Alam, Executive Vice President & Regional Head of the Bank delivered his welcome address and Ahmed Karim Bhuiyan, Assistant Vice President & Manager of Anderkilla branch, delivered his vote of thanks.

Besides, S K Sur Chowdhury, General Manager, Bangladesh Bank, Chittagong of the invited guests also spoke on the occasion.

The elite and businessmen in the area were also present in the opening ceremony.

Air India, the national flag carrier of India, has been invited to become the member of Star Alliance. The CEOs of Star Alliance member airlines at their Annual Board Meeting in Beijing recently voted to accept the application of Air India to become a future member of the Alliance.

Responding to the invitation to become a member, V. Thulasidas, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India said: "Air India is' delighted in being invited to join Star Alliance. This invitation comes in the wake of Air India's merger with India's leading domestic carrier Indian Airlines, thus making Air India the prime player in the Indian subcontinent."

"In addition, the recently announced fleet expansion of over 100 aircraft will help Air India serve the travelling public better in terms of global reach and services. In being selected as a future Star Alliance member, Air India will add value to passengers patronising member airlines of the alliance," he added.

Glenn Tilton, Chairman and CEO of United Airlines, in his capacity as the Chairman of the meeting, said: "India has long been on the radar of Star Alliance; after all it is one of the world's fastest growing economies and aviation markets. Having now come to an agreement with Air India makes us the first airline alliance to secure a member in India, which will enable our customers to receive more benefits when travelling to, from and within India in the future."

The specialised teams at Air India, Star Alliance and its member carriers will now be working on the integration process, which once completed, will make Air India a part of the Star Alliance network.

AFP, Singapore

Oil prices rebounded in Asian trade on Monday after falling sharply overnight following a smaller- than-expected decline in US energy reserves, dealers said.

In afternoon trading New York's main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, rose 1.42 dollars to 92.04 dollars from 90.62 dollars in late US trades Wednesday.

The contract had fallen 3.80 dollars overnight after the release of the US energy report. Last week, New York prices soared close to 100 dollars, touching an all-time high of 99.29 dollars.

Brent North Sea crude for January delivery was up 1.11 dollars to 90.92 dollars.

"After the very dramatic fall Wednesday, we've got a rebound," said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) said US crude inventories fell by 400,000 barrels in the week to November 23, much smaller than analyst forecasts for a drop of 1.0 million barrels.

Stocks of distillates, which include heating fuel, shed only 100,000 barrels last week. The market forecast had been for a drop of 1.2 million.

Distillate stocks are closely watched in the run-up to the northern hemisphere winter, when demand for heating fuel tends to soar.

The DoE added that US refinery usage jumped to 89.4 percent of capacity, up 2.4 percentage points compared with a week earlier.

Shum said prices could still resume their rise if the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decides at a meeting next Wednesday to leave current production levels untouched.

The decline in oil prices was largely due to speculation that OPEC will decide to raise production during its December 5 meeting in Abu Dhabi, analysts have said.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Nuaimi has said that the world oil market is well supplied and that fundamentals do not support high oil prices.

Shum said the comments could be interpreted as meaning that OPEC's most influential member is not in favour of an output increase. "The Saudis are really the de facto OPEC leader," Shum said.

AFP, Tokyo

The dollar edged up towards a fresh four-and-a-half year high against the yen in Asian trade on Monday as players braced for another batch of US economic data, dealers said.

They said the Japanese currency was likely to remain under pressure following its recent slide to multi-year lows against the dollar and to an all-time nadir versus the euro, pressured by Japan's low interest rates.

The dollar rose to 123.92 in Tokyo afternoon trade from 123.85 in New York late on Friday when the unit had briefly hit 124.14 yen, the highest level since December 2002.

The euro slipped to 1.3459 dollars after 1.3467 and to 166.77 yen from 166.83, easing back from last week's record high against the Japanese currency.

"The market is not moving very much with traders expecting few surprises from this week's data," said Nobuo Kihara in forex sales at BNP Paribas.

The Federal Reserve kicks off a two-day policy meeting Wednesday and with the central bank widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at 5.25 percent, the focus will be on the accompanying statement for clues on the chances of further rate hikes in the future, dealers said.

The yen remained under pressure as expectations that Japanese interest rates will remain low for some time encouraged players to keep borrowing cheap credit in Japan to put into higher yielding currencies, dealers said.