The New Nation - Internet Edition

President, CA greet their Tunisian counterparts

UNB, Dhaka

President Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed and Chief Advisor Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed have felicitated their counterparts of Tunisia on the occasion of National Day of the country that falls on Thursday.

President Dr Iajuddin, in his message to Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, expressed his belief that the excellent bilateral relations that so happily exist between the two countries would continued to grow and flourish in depth and dimension to the mutual benefit of the two friendly peoples in the year to come. In a separate message to Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, Chief Advisor Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed said, "I am confident that our two friendly countries will engage more in all possible areas of cooperation for the mutual benefit of the two friendly peoples in the years to come".

Both the President and the Chief Adviser also wished their good health, personal well-being and long life and for the continued peace progress and prosperity of the friendly people of Tunisia.

Bangladesh needs help to cope with global price hike: UNDP

Staff Reporter

Visiting United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) senior official called on oil-rich countries to help impoverished Bangladesh to cope with surging global prices as it recovers from two floods and a devastating cyclone.

Kemal Dervis, UNDP Administrator also expressed support for elections, which is expected by the end of this year to replace Bangladesh's military-backed caretaker government.

"The real issue is protecting the vulnerable from these shocks," said the

UNDP Administrator who just completed a three-day visit to Bangladesh. "The international community cannot leave these huge world events unattended."

He called on the international community to do more for Bangladesh. "Support from oil-rich countries, as well as other donors, could have positive benefits for Bangladesh and other lower income countries," he said.

Skyrocketing oil prices have driven up the cost of food worldwide, but their impact has been particularly dire in Bangladesh, where almost half of the 145 million people live on less than one dollar a day, Dervis said in a statement yesterday.

He said petroleum-producing countries that are benefiting from the high price of oil should use the gains to help people unable to afford adequate food.

He said annual food inflation in Bangladesh reached 16 percent in December. Many poor households spend nearly 70 percent of their income on food, according to government statistics.

He also explained that the situation has been exacerbated by food shortages resulting from floods and a cyclone in November that caused huge crop losses, the statement said. Tropical Cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,300 people.

Dervis met with Government officials and leading economists to discuss the issue of global price surges and their consequences for poorer and food-importing countries such as Bangladesh, the statement said.

Another factor that makes assistance to Bangladesh crucial is the political climate, Dervis maintained. "It is determined to build stronger democratic institutions and deeper practices of democracy," he said.

"A successful democratic Bangladesh that can overcome political and economic difficulties is an example to other lower income countries, to the Muslim world, and many other countries facing similar problems," he added.

Criminalised politics had vitiated country's atmosphere: Kamal

Staff Reporter

Gano Forum president Dr Kamal Hossain yesterday said diseased politics in recent past had vitiated the pro-people politics of father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

"In recent past the trend of criminalised and diseased politics had stained the politics of honesty of father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman."

He was speaking as chief guest at a discussion meeting to mark the 88th birth anniversary of Bangabandhu at the party office of Gano Forum at Matijheel in the city.

He said, "There is still honest people in the country and they should come forward to clean politics."

"Leaders now are in jail getting corruption charge on their heads but Bangabandhu spent 13 years of his life in jail for fighting for people's right," the Gano Forum president also a close associate of Bangadanhu said.

The meeting organised by Dhaka City Gano Forum was presided over by Mostafa Mohsin Mantu. Acting general secretary of GF Subrata Chowdhury, presidium member Pankaj Bhattacharya, central leaders Zahirul Islam, Mafizul Islam Khan Kamal, Altaf Hossain, Mostak Ahmed, and Saeedur Rahman Saeed, among others, spoke on the occasion.

JCPenney sees fantastic future for fashion apparel, ceramics exports

Staff Reporter

Chairman of JCPenney Purchasing Organisation Peter McGarth said BEXTEX's flexible, vertical manufacturing facilities and progressive corporate culture made Beximco's operation unique in South Asia, and presented tremendous opportunities to major retailers like JCP to rapidly increase their sourcing volumes from Bangladesh.

Peter's remark came while he and his top-level delegation visiting Beximco Industrial Park yesterday. Other members of the delegation include Vice President Strategic Sourcing Janet Fox, Director Sourcing Steve Bohman, a, Regional Director Jackie Nixon and Director Adil Raza.

They visited BEXTEX's extensive design and product development facilities and were very impressed with the new fabric and apparel collections developed for the Autumn/Winter 2008 season as well as Spring/Summer 2009 seasons.

Syed Naved Husain, CEO and Group Director BEXTEX informed Peter McGarth that due to fantastic needlework skills developed over the last 30 years, and tremendous investments made in spinning, knitting, denim and woven fabrics in recent years, Bangladesh was well positioned to become a world leader in fashion apparel exports.

Already, Bangladesh was the largest exporter of denim apparel to EU, and all other categories had this year shown significant growth. Beximco was increasing fabric capacity by a million yards a month by June 2008, and also doubling its apparel production by 2009.

Beximco shirting made with double mercerised compact yarns, and double faced fabric technology were comparable to high end Italian fabrics. In denims, Beximco's focus was on specialized tencels, yarn dyed patterns and special finished fabrics. Beximco R&D had commenced working in collaboration with EU centres of excellence in the area of bulletproof fabric and vests.

JCP delegation also visited Shinepukur's Ceramics and Bone China facilities. Syed Naved Husain informed them that Shinepukur's fine ceramics and bone china crockery was supplied to top customers including Royal Doulton, Wedgewood, Royal Albert and Richard Ginori. JC Penney showed strong interest to buy crockery from Shinepukur.

Ershad calls for provincial govt system

Staff Reporter

Former President and Jatiya Party Chairman Lt Gen (Retd) Hossain Mohammad Ershad emphasised on creating provinces in the country as he said the present unitary system of government has failed to work properly in achieving the development goals.

"The unilateral system of government earned a little good for the country. So far the system persists, no regional development would be up to the mark. So we have to go for provincial system," he said

He said this yesterday evening at a function of the Rangpur-Dinajpur Business Development Forum at Sonargaon Hotel in the city. He was speaking as chief guest.

"We want to help ourselves for our development, but it's not possible under the central government system," the JP chairman said.

Ershad said in the unitary system, the prime minister enjoys lot of power, but it's not possible for him to look after all the affairs of all the areas of the country of 15 crore people.

The former President advised the Forum leaders to intensify their demands for extraction and local utilisation of coal at Phulbari in Dinajpur.

Opting for open-pit mining extraction of coal he said, "It's better to extract coal by open-pit mining system as it ensures 87 per cent extraction, while the underground mining can extract 15 per cent at best.

He suggested using gas for producing fertiliser instead of power generation. He said, "Time has come to save the limited resource of gas. Electricity should be generated using coal in order to save natural gas."

Former Board of Investment (BoI) executive chairman and president of the Forum Nazrul Islam, ndc, presided over the function. Former Army Chief Lt Gen (Retd) Mahbubur Rahman also addressed the function.

ACC sues Zafrullah for non-submission of wealth statement

Staff Reporter

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday filed a case against Awami League presidium member Kazi Zafrullah and his wife for not submitting his wealth statement in due time.

ACC Assistant Director Ashraful Islam filed the first information report (FIR) with Gulshan police station against Zafrullah, one of the listed corrupt suspects, for not timely complying with the Commission directive.

The case was filed at 12:40pm under Gulshan police Station and the number 64, under section 26(2) of the Anti Corruption Commission Act, 2004.