The New Nation - Internet Edition

Export-import activities through Bhomra land port halted Sunday

UNB, Satkhira

Export and import activities through the Bhomra land port came to a halt Sunday due to indecision of Indian C&F Agent Association.Kazi Naushad Delwar Raju, general secretary of Bhomra C&F Agent Association, told journalists that it was decided in a joint meeting of Bhomra Customs authorities, BDR, Bhomra C&F Agent Association and Indian C&F Agent Association on September 17 to submit an invoice and other necessary documents along with each goods-laden truck. Export-import activities could not be held on the day as India's Ghozadanga C&F Agent Association declined to give necessary documents along with their goods laden trucks carrying their goods to Bangladesh. Shahjahan Kabir, Assistant Commissioner of Bhomra Customs, admitted the incident saying that export-import activities were halted though local customs functioned as usual.

World holds its breath over bailouts

Reuters, Kuala Lampur

The world readied on Monday for a slew of bank bailouts worth hundreds of billions of dollars in an effort to staunch the credit rout that threatens to tip the global economy into recession.

Britain is expected later on Monday to detail plans to inject about 45 billion pounds ($68.4 billion) into four top banks which could see the government becoming the biggest shareholder in Royal Bank of Scotland and lender HBOS.

That comes after Washington said last week it was working on ways to buy stakes in struggling banks, an about face for a country that has prided itself on its free markets and lack of state intervention.

"The weekend produced the hoped-for result, a broad assault on the main problem, undercapitalized banks," said ING Bank economist Tim Condon.

"The Fed's liquidity creates a firewall against a cascade of bank deleveraging - think Great Depression."

Risky assets from U.S. stock futures to the Korean won, which have been pummelled by the crisis that has engulfed the world financial system, rallied on Monday after world leaders agreed at the weekend to take coordinated action.

Asian stocks markets also gained, but so did the yen and gold -- two gauges of risk aversion -- highlighting investor caution.

Media reports said Britain's Barclays Plc was trying to raise cash from private investors rather than rely on a state bailout. But Morgan Stanley, which recently went a similar route and secured a $9 billion investment from Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, will have to renegotiate the deal after its share price plunged 58 percent last week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised after a meeting of European leaders on Sunday that there would be "worldwide action that will make people see that confidence in the banking system can be restored".

France, Germany and Italy are also expected on Monday to announce how they will buy stakes in their ailing banks as the Euro zone economies sought to draw a line in the sand.

The German bank rescue plan alone could be worth up to 400 billion euros ($539.4 billion), according to media reports, and is being fast-tracked through the parliament in Berlin.

What world leaders are trying to avoid is a repeat of the situation where the likes of Lehman Brothers were allowed to go bust. Far from drawing a line between fundamentally sound and unsound institutions, it has frozen credit markets, the lifeblood of the financial system, as banks feared their counterparty could be the next to go down.

"Systemically important banks in Europe means all banks," European Central Bank Executive Board Member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said in Washington on Sunday.

Markets were looking for European leaders to match U.S. promises to stem market panic.

Last week, the Standard & Poor's 500 index plunged more than 18 percent last week, its worst-ever weekly fall. European stocks fell 22 percent and Tokyo's Nikkei crashed 24 percent.

"This is not a gift to banks but to help them function," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, mindful of the public opinion backlash in the United States when Washington pushed through a $700 billion taxpayer-funded rescue plan for U.S. banks stuck with unsellable debt tied to the housing slump.

"I believe that temporary nationalization of banks in developed countries would have clear advantages: injecting much needed capital into banks, providing confidence to depositors, facilitating interbank lending, facilitating crucial lending to companies and households-which seems almost frozen," said Stephany Griffith-Jones, Executive Director of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at New York's Columbia University.

ACTION ACROSS THE BOARD

Portugal said it will offer a financing line worth 20 billion euros ($27.5 billion) to guarantee the liquidity of its banks.

The Norwegian government announced a plan to provide $57 billion in liquidity for commercial banks.

Australia and New Zealand said they were working together to offer blanket bank deposit guarantees.

Gulf Arab states also took steps to boost confidence in the financial system, including a cut by Saudi Arabia of its benchmark repo rate and a vow by the United Arab Emirates to protect national banks and guarantee deposits.

South Korea's top finance official said that Asia's fourth-largest economy, which has been hard hit by the crisis, insisted that its financial system was sound and that it had sufficient reserves to weather the storm.

"Our foreign reserves are enough to tackle this situation -- $240 billion is enough to finance our short-term liabilities," he said.

The Korean won's recent weakness was driven by a current account deficit that stemmed from high oil prices earlier this year and outflows of $30 billion that foreign investors had pulled out of the stock market this year, Kang said.

IBBL earns tk19,227 crore in nine months: Growth rate is 18.9 pc against the same period of last year

BUSINESS REPORTER

Total Deposit of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited reached Tk.19, 227 crore upto September of the current year; showing the growth rate 18.98% against the same period of last year. The total Investment has reached amounting to Tk.20, 780 crore showing the growth rate 28.18% against the same period of the last year. The Bank handled foreign trade amounting to Tk.31, 854crore showing the growth rate 66.96% against the same period of the previous year. The Bank imported Tk. 14,127 crore, exported Tk. 7,247 crore and collected remittance Tk.l0, 480 crore showing the growth rate 65.85%, 53.19% and 79.77% respectively against the same period of the previous year.

This information was disclosed in the opening session of a day long Business Promotion Meeting of the Bank. Mominul Islam Patwary, Chairman, Executive Committee of the Bank inaugurated the function at a local hotel as Chief Guest. Presided over by M. Fariduddin Ahmad, Managing Director the inaugural session was addressed by Kazi Harun-ar-Rashed, Director of the Bank. Engr. Md. Eskander Ali Khan and M.A. Motaleb Chowdhury, Directors, top Executives and Branch Managers of the Bank were present on the occasion.

Mominul Islam Patwary urged the Branch incumbents to explore new investment fields and invest there for the economic development of the country. He said IBBL has been able to achieve the reliance of all by exposing itself as a 'Model Bank' to local & foreign financial institutes. He said customer service should be improved in order to sustain the success achieved so far. He called upon the officials to receive the best training course in the light of globalization for serving the purpose.

M. Fariduddin Ahmad, Managing Director of the Bank said in his speech that we have to acquire the highest 'professional qualities through hard work and supreme sacrifice. We must have to achieve the capability to solve all the problems with efficiency and acceptance raised in the way of banking transaction. He urged the Branch Managers to conduct the Banking activities in line with the speed of the global economy.

Western Marine signs MoU with two government agencies: Plans to develop skilled workforce for shipbuilding industry

Business Report

Bangladesh's leading shipbuilding firm, Western Marine Group, has signed Memorandum of Understanding with two government agencies to develop skilled manpower for the rising shipbuilding industry.

Western Marine Group signed the two separate MoUs with the Department of Youth Development under the Ministry of Youth and Sports and Narayanganj-based Institute of Marine Technology under the Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry on Wednesday. The Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training runs the Institute of Marine Technology.

Director General of the Department of Youth Development Fakhrul Islam, Md Alamgir, Principal of Institute of Marine Technology, and Executive Director of Western Marine Services Limited and Chief Executive of Western Marine Institute Engr. Sajid Hussain signed the MoUs on behalf of their respective organisations. Earlier, the group signed similar deal with Chittagong-based Technical Training Centre on August 11.

The office of the Chief Adviser in April asked for public-private partnership to launch short-term courses on shipbuilding to produce skilled workforce for the booming industry.

Western Marine Group established Western Marine Institute in July after getting approval from the Technical Education Board. Under the MoUs, Western Marine Institute will offer course on 'Welding and Fabrication' jointly with Chittagong based Youth Development Training Centre and Narayanganj based Institute of Marine Technology. Spoken English course will also be provided to the Students to hone their language skill. After receiving training, participants will acquire necessary skills to find jobs in shipbuilding sector in home and abroad. Director General of the Directorate of Youth Development Fakhrul Islam hoped that the present activities of the department will get boost due to this association with the country's one of the leading shipbuilding company. Executive Director of Western Marine Services Limited and Chief Executive of Western Marine Institute Engr. Sajid Hussain said this tie-up with the government would prove that Bangladesh's huge population could be turned into human resources. He said 11 welders/fitters, who received training from the Western Marine Institute, have already selected for working in a Dubai based shipyard.

Md Nasir Uddin Ahmed, Director (Administration), and Mr KM Amanur Rahman, Director (Training), among others, were present during the signing ceremony. Director General of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training Mr Md Abdul Malek hoped that Bangladesh will be able to take a commendable position in the world labour market in shipbuilding industry due to this pact with Western Marine. Engr. Sajid Hussain of Western Marine Institute termed skilled manpower as 'Human Software' for shipbuilding industry. He said knowledge on welding and fabrication is a basic prerequisite for shipbuilding.

During the signing ceremony with the manpower bureau, Engr. Hussain also said that through an initiative by the Managing Director Engr. Sakhawat Hossain, Western Marine Shipyard has received order from a French company to build four ocean-going ships during a shipbuilding fair held in Germany's Hamburg between September 23 and 24.

The company so far received orders to manufacture 21 ocean-ships amount to $210 million, he added.

Additional Director General of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training Md Hazrat Ali and Director (Training) Ahsan Habib, Md Alamgir, Principal of Institute of Marine Technology, among others, were present during the signing ceremony held at the bureau's office in Dhaka.

DBBL holds workshop on 'Retail & SME Banking'

Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited organized a day-long workshop on new SME products namely 'DBBL SMART Term Loan' & 'SMART Cash Credit'. The workshop was inaugurated by the Managing Director of the Bank Md. Yeasin Ali in a simple ceremony held at the DBBL Training Centre, Dhaka on October 11. AHM Nazmul Quadir, Additional Managing Director of the Bank also spoke on the occasion.

The workshop was aimed at familiarizing the participants with the conceptual aspects of attractive two products and the various features and advantages of these products to find out the new investment opportunities in the retail and SME banking services. Credit Officer/nominated officer from all branches other than Chittagong Region of the bank participated on the workshop.

In his address, the Managing Director Ali laid emphasis on the retail banking products for improving life style of individuals and on SME Banking for helping small & medium entrepreneurs to grow further. He pointed out that DBBL has a massive IT infrastructure consisting of on-line banking system, the country's largest ATM network, modern POS network, internet banking, sms & alert banking system.

The Additional Managing Director Nazmul Quadir underscored the need of investment plan, to find out the proper entrepreneurs and the potential sectors of investment before disbursement of any loan. He emphasized on Retail and SME banking to provide the outmost services to clients through DBBL branch network with its IT facilities.

Among others, Md. Shams Uddin Ahmed, Senior Vice President & Head of Human Resources Division and Mir Mominul Huq, SAVP and Head of Retail & SME Banking were present on the occasion.

SIBL quarterly managers' conference held

A Quarterly Business Conference of Social Investment Bank limited (SIBL) was held on the October 12 in the Board Room of the Bank at its Head Office, Dhaka. SIBL Managing Director K. M. Ashaduzzman presided over the conference. Bank's Chairman Abdul Awal Patwary was chief guest in the conference.

Vice Chairman Alhaj Nasiruddin, Audit Committee Chairman Mr. Kamaluddin Ahamed, Additional Managing Director Abu Sadek Md Sohel, Senior Executives of Bank's Head Office and all Branch Incumbents were present in the conference.

In the conference, the overall performance of all the branches was discussed in length and the targets and strategies for the remaining months were adopted.

Awal Patwary advised the Branch Managers to work with total commitment to achieve the business targets. He also stressed the need for participation of all officers and employees of the Bank in all activities so that targets fixed for the year is achieved.

Markets surge after crisis talks

BBC, London

European and Asian markets have rallied in response to efforts by world leaders to end the recent financial turmoil.

The UK's FTSE 100, France's Cac 40 and Germany's Dax index all jumped more than 6%, tracking earlier gains on Asian markets.

Major central banks said they would offer financial institutions an unlimited amount of short-term dollar loans to help stem the crisis.

EU leaders said on Sunday no big bank would be be allowed to fail.

UK shares got a boost after the government said it would inject up to £37bn of taxpayer cash into Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds TSB and HBOS.

The FTSE 100 index was up 268.56 points, or 6.83%, at 4,200.62 points, with gains led by banking stocks.

"Today marks another momentous day in both UK and global financial history," said Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.

"The hope in the markets is that political leaders have finally 'grasped the nettle', with substantial and coherent rescue plans now being formulated and rolled into place.

Governments in Germany, France and Italy are expected to unveil their individual plans this week, within an agreed eurozone framework, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said on Sunday.

Reports said that Germany's financial rescue plan will total about 400bn euros ($545bn;£318bn), with Chancellor Angela Merkel due to make a statement later.

Trading on the Russian stock market resumed after regulators halted operations last week because of unprecedented volatility.

The rouble-denominated MICEX - where most of Russia's trading takes place - rose 3.9% to 727.7.

The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of England unveiled further measures to thaw frozen credit markets.

They said they would provide unlimited dollar funds to financial institutions via money market auctions.

"Central banks will continue to work together and are prepared to take whatever measures are necessary to provide sufficient liquidity," the ECB said in its statement.

Lifelines

Governments around the world had been racing to throw financial institutions a lifeline before the major markets re-opened.

At the weekend, finance ministers from the main industrialised nations - the G7 - approved a five-point plan to unfreeze credit markets, and a number of countries announced individual rescue packages.

A European plan was confirmed after an emergency Paris summit of the 15 eurozone leaders.

Under the eurozone plan, members pledged to guarantee loans between banks until the end of 2009, and said they would put money into them by buying preference shares.

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said his government would guarantee all bank deposits, however large, for the next three years.

The move raised confidence as markets opened, and Australia's central bank on Monday pumped $2bn into the banking system to facilitate improve lending between banks.

Asian shares rally

Australia's benchmark index ended 5.6% higher and South Korea's main Kospi index finished up 3.8%.

Hong Kong shares ended up 9.7% and Shanghai's benchmark index rose 3.65% after falling earlier.

But Taiwan stocks fell 2.15%.

Japan's stock market was closed for a public holiday.

Orientation Ceremony-Fall Semester, 2008" at Eastern University

The Orientation Ceremony for Fall Semester, 2008 of Eastern University was held at University Auditorium on Campus 2, House No. 8/A, Road No. 4, Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka. on October 11. The Program was held into two sessions. The first session was organized for the fresher students of the Faculty of Business Administration. M. Shakil Washed, Member, Board of Governors, Eastern University Foundation was the Guest of Honour in the first session. The second session was organized for the fresher students of the Faculty of Engineering & Technology, Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Law which was held in the same venue at 2.30 PM. In this session, Prof. Dr. A.K.M. Saiful Majid, Vice-Chairman, Eastern University Foundation was the Guest of Honour. Prof. Dr. Abdur Rab, Pro-VC & Daan, Faculty of Business Administration, Prof. Dr. Nurul Islam, Dean, Faculty of Arts. Prof. Dr. Borhan Uddin Khan, Advisor, Faculty of Law, Prof. Liaquat A. Siddiqui, Dean, Faculty of Law, Iffat Ara Nasreen Majid, Coordinator, M.A (ELT) Program, Dr. Md. Hasanuzzaman, Advisor, Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, Lt Col (Retd) Md. Ali Ambial Haque Khan, Registrar and the faculty members were present in the program. Both sessions were presided over by Prof. Dr. Rahim B. Talukdar, Vice-Chancellor, Eastern University.