The New Nation - Internet Edition

Economic Reporter

Bangladesh and India have fixed US$399 as the price of one tonne of rice that the neighbouring country had agreed to export to Bangladesh following the attack of cyclone Sidr.

The decision was taken Wednesday, the final day of a four-day meeting in Kolkata between a Bangladesh delegation and Indian officials, according to the BBC Bangla Service.

The director general of the Directorate of Food led the Bangladesh delegation in the meeting while chief secretary and commissioner of the food ministry of West Bengal led the Indian side.

The meeting decided that representatives of both the countries would inform their governments of the summary of the meeting's outcome for approval. If the governments approve the decision, Bangladesh will import five lakh tonnes of rice from India in the next three months, the import beginning in the last week of February.

As per the decision of the meeting, four lakh tonnes of rice will be imported in the first two months, with two lakh tonnes each month. The remaining one lakh tonne will be imported in the third month.

The meeting also decided that the rice would be imported through rail, road and river ways. The three-member Bangladesh team led by Molla Wahiduzzaman went to Kolkata on February 3.

World Bank chief safely bets on Chinese economist

AFP, Washington

In confiding World Bank research services to a Chinese economist, president Robert Zoellick has signaled to emerging-market countries his desire to see their representation grow, without taking major risks.

Justin Lin Yifu, the founding director of the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University, was appointed Monday the chief economist of the multilateral development lender, succeeding Frenchman Francois Bourguignon in May.

He will be the first economist of a developing country to occupy the post, which has been held by such luminaries as Stanley Fischer, Lawrence Summers and 2001 Nobel laureate in economics.

Joseph Stiglitz.

"In some ways this is a stroke of genius on Bob Zoellick's part," said Dennis de Tray, vice president of the Center for Global Development, a think tank in Washington.

"He's got himself a good economist who has an international reputation, who has solid credentials in probably the most important emerging-market economy," de Tray said.

At the same time the Bank president is sending "a clear signal to the middle-income countries, that are one of Mr. Zoellick's six priorities areas, that he is serious about bringing them into the tent."

Daniel Bradlow, a law professor and director of the International Legal Studies Program at American University in the US capital, agreed.

"It does suggest more openness in Zoellick in having emerging markets occupy positions of influence in the Bank," Bradlow said.

More specifically, "it's part of the China charm offensive," the law professor said, referring to efforts by Zoellick, a former US trade representative, to persuade China to contribute in a more coordinated fashion its aid to the poorest countries.

China, considered a major rival to the multilateral lenders, particularly in Africa, joined in December a group of new contributor countries to the International Development Association, the arm of the Bank that helps the poorest countries.