The New Nation - Internet Edition

ADB admits lending to poorest Asian countries lacked focus

AFP, Manila

The Asian Development Bank admitted in an in-house report released on Friday that many of its loans made over the past seven years have failed to deliver their desired results.

The report assessed the outcome of funds contributed by the Manila- based bank's wealthy Western members to the operation of its Asian Development Fund.

The fund provides concessional loans to its poorest member countries at minimum or no interest. The report said the administration of some 5.4 billion dollars worth of concessional loans approved between 2001 and 2004 was "less than efficient" and added that there was a "decline in effectiveness in the period."

The study was released amid reports that major donor nations to the ADB are demanding that the bank overhaul its operations amid growing disillusionment with the bank's slow pace of reform.

Concerns about the ADB have prompted the United Kingdom to withdraw a commitment to provide more funds, citing a "lack of significant progress on the reform agenda", the Financial Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

The in-house report said sometimes conflicting demands by donors as well as recipient governments meant less of the money went to projects meant to advance the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals of reducing global poverty, "such as health and agriculture, and to microfinance."

It said "efficiency has been improving" since 2005, and the adjustments made should ensure some seven billion dollars of soft loans alloted for 2005-2008 are "likely sustainable in terms of effective poverty reduction."

The report urged the bank to "avoid goal congestion in operations and in ADB as a whole" because supervision and resources were spread too thin.

Prime Finance receive SAFA Award

Prime Finance & Investment Limited, one of the leading non-banking financial institutions and merchant banks, was adjudged Runners Up in the Non-Banking Financial Sector category. The award was presented by the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) for the Best Presented Accounts. Prime Finance is the first Financial Institution in Bangladesh that secured Runners-Up position in the financial sector category in the competition among the SAARC countries. Prime Finance wins this prestigious award for the best presented accounts and reports for the second successive year since its listing with Stock Exchanges.

Prime Finance has also been awarded first prize of ICAB National Award for the Best Published Accounts under the Financial Institutions category.

Such Award reflects the financial soundness, good corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, compliance to the Rules & Regulations, adherence to the International Accounting Standards (IAS), transparency, quality of the report and adequacy of disclosures in Financial Statements of Prime Finance and Investment Limited.

A. K. M. Nozmul Haque, Managing Director of Prime Finance received the award from Indrajit Fernando, President of the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) at the ceremony held in New Delhi, India recently.

VoIP misuse: Citycell pays Tk 150 cr in fine

Staff Reporter

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has realised a sum Tk 150 crore fine from mobile phone operator Citycell for illegal use of Voice over Internet Protocol to terminate international calls causing revenue loss to the government.

'The BTRC has recently received Tk 150 crore from Citycell in compensation for the lost revenue of the government due to illegal VoIP,' the regulatory commission said in a statement Monday. Citycell is the fourth mobile operator fined for misuse of VoIP. Earlier, Grameenphone, the country's largest operator, was fined Tk 168.40 crore, AkTel Tk 145 crore and banglalink Tk 125 crore. In total, Tk 588.4 crore will be deposited to the government exchequer as compensations from mobile phone companies.

The state-owned landline telephone operator, Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, enjoys the monopoly of overseas call termination business. Use of VoIP, still unauthorised in Bangladesh, deprives the BTTB of its revenue expected from international calls.

To check the revenue theft, law enforcing agencies and BTRC jointly launched a crackdown on illegal VoIP operators after the interim government took office in January 2007, the regulatory body said.

Earlier in May, law enforces raided Citycell's Mohakhali office and seized huge amounts of VoIP equipment. Citycell in a statement said it had agreed to pay Tk 150 crore ($21 million) to the BTRC.

"As a matter of goodwill, Citycell has agreed to pay the said sum to the BTRC in full and final settlement of claims by the BTRC relating to the alleged misuse of Citycell products by some of its subscribers in Bangladesh in illegally transferring international calls," said the statement.

"Citycell has cooperated fully with the regulator and government authorities investigating the case. Citycell has been conducting its business in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations and shall continue to do," said Michael Seymour, chief executive officer of Citycell, whose 45 per cent is owned by SingTel.

NSU committed to high quality education

The Spring 2008 semester orientation ceremony of the newly enrolled undergraduate students of BBA programme of North South University (NSU) was held on 17 January on NSU campus. NSU Vice Chancellor Dr. Hafiz GA. Siddiqi. spoke on the occasion as the chief guest. Dean, School of Applied Sciences Dr. SAM Khairul Bashar, Dean, School of Business Professor Amirul Islam Chowdhury, BBA Director Dr. Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, Registrar Mohammad Ali and Proctor Iqbalur Rahman also spoke on the occasion. NSU faculty members, new students and guardians also attended the event.

The orientation programme of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, Economics, Environmental Science and Management, English, Architecture, Pharmacy & Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Microbiology will be held on 21 January Monday at NSU campus.

Dr. Siddiqi, mentioned, as the leading private university in Bangladesh, NSU is committed to ensure high quality higher education and conducive academic atmosphere in the context of globalisation. He mentioned that at the present situation, the quality education is imperative to face the competition.

Highly qualified faculty and students are the strengths of NSU, he added. Registrar Mohammad Ali thanked the entering students and their parents for showing trust and confidence in NSU and gave an overview of rules, regulations, academic and extracurricular activities.

Training activities of DBI reviewed at DCCI seminar

DCCI organised a discussion seminar on training activities of the DCCI Business Institute (OBI). M. H. Rahman, former President, DCCI chaired the session; Mr. Hossain Khaled, President, DCCI made the introductory remarks; Dr. Dietrich Stotz Programme Coordinator of GTZ was present as Special Guest to comment on the study.

Akramul Aziz, Consultant presented the findings of the study. The objectives of the study were to further enhance the capacities of the DBI, assess the effectiveness, strength & weaknesses, identify areas of overleaps, duplication of areas of unmeet needs etc.

The Study said that about 90 pc of the participants are happy with the DBI courses and they are willing to send more and more participant to the training programmes of DCCI. He also mentioned that young generation & relative highly educated persons are interested for the training programs. International trading IS the most attended area, where banking & information technology are also encouraging sector to them to be trained. The Consultant suggested to establish more direct relation with the DCCI members through electronic way. So that they are able to send participants. DCCI should upgrade the quality of the training and convince the participant about the value of the training. He also suggested for impact analysis on a regular basis, encourage participants to complete the evaluation form properly, send Training Calendar to the companies at the beginning of the year. So that they take decisions and plan sending their employees.

M H. Rahman suggested for a meeting with the H. R. Manager and CEOs of the companies to share their views on the topics of the training to be conducted by DCCI. He also emphasised for increasing course fee gradually for the long term sustenance of the Business Institute, in this context he suggested for a market survey to see whether raising courses fees reflects in getting number of participants.

Dr. Dietrich Stotz, Programme Coordinator of GTZ said GTZ is happy to see that chamber in cooperation with GTZ has been adding same values to the ongoing chamber activities. He said the chamber should offer training programmes very carefully so that it can fill up the gaps which is not done by others.

Internal IT training ends at PBL

A training course titled 'Internal IT (Information Technology) Audit’ for officers was held in the Pubali Bank Head Office recently. Managing Director Helal Ahmed Chowdhury was present as the chief guest in the ceremony.

The managing director urged everyone to provide correct and complete information in relation to the opening of bank accounts, transfer of funds and identification of customers. He underscored the need for better and prompt customer services through utilisation of the modern Information Technology He advised all officials to be vigilant about safety & security while exchanging banking information in a right way. He further advised all officials to be meticulous in compliance of instructions of Head Office, Bangladesh Bank and other regulatory bodies.

General Manager of Human Resources Division A.H.M. Badrul Alam, Principal of the Training Institute Badruddin Ahmed & faculty member DGM Sushil Kumar Paul were present in the workshop.

Carlos Coene takes over as CEO of House of Pearl Bangladesh

Staff Reporter

Carlos M. Coene has joined House of Pearl Fashions Ltd in its subsidiary, Norwest Industries Limited.

He has taken over as Chief Executive Officer for its Bangladesh Operations and will focus in European market. He will oversee marketing, distribution and sourcing business from Bangladesh.

Carlos has 30 years of experience in buying, sourcing, market development, retail, sales, import and export in the apparel Industry.

Carlos has worked as Executive Director of Linkmark and was responsible for their operations in Delhi and Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey and UAE and was also responsible for the group sales in Europe where Linmark increased sales by more than 300% during his tenure.

Before joining, Carlos has worked with many Companies of repute like Avvivo International, Adidas, Globesend Ltd, British Van Heusen Ltd, Burton Group and Brookland.

The appointment of Carlos M. Coene will immensely benefit in marketing, distribution and sourcing arm of the Company and his vast experience will help company in managing future growth.

Malaysian tourist arrivals hit new high in 2007

AFP, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia attracted 20.88 million foreign visitors last year, a 19 percent rise, setting a new record and bringing in 14 billion dollars in revenue, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said.

Tengku Adnan said he expected an even better performance for the 12 months of Visit Malaysia Year 2007 -- held to attract visitors on the 50th year of its independence-which ends in August.

"In view of this, the government has revised the target for tourist arrivals for this year," he told the state Bernama news agency late Thursday, without giving any new figures.

The 20.88 million foreign visitors in 2007, however, represented an annual rise of almost a fifth, up from 17.5 million in 2006.

The tourism boom meant that Malaysia's hotels, which are cheap compared to neighbouring nations and often half-empty, were packed out for several months of 2007.

Tengku Adnan in August was forced to tell tour operators to "cool off" as the nation experienced a room shortage in the capital Kuala Lumpur as well as other popular spots including Penang and Langkawi islands and on Borneo.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned in December however that a spate of street protests, which police dispersed with tear gas and water cannons, had hurt the tourism industry, with hotels and tour agencies reporting cancellations.

Mesbahuddin Ahmed new MD of PKSF

Dr. Quazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed, former Member, General Economics Division of the Bangladesh Planning Commission, has been appointed Managing Director of Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF). PKSF is the country's apex organisation for funding microfinance programmes of NGOs and other organisations and providing them various institutional development services for poverty alleviation. Prior "to his posting as Member, Planning Commission, Dr. Ahmed was Additional Secretary, ERD in 2003. He had been Economic Minister at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, DC during 1997-2002.

While serving at Planning Commission, Dr. Ahmed played a pivotal role in preparing Bangladesh's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. He was also the chief of the National Poverty Focal Point (NPFP) located at the Planning Commission.

Starting his career at the Department of Research, erstwhile State Bank of Pakistan in 1969, Dr. Ahmed joined the then East Pakistan Planning Department as Assistant Chief in 1970 and retired as member of the Bangladesh Planning Commission.