The New Nation - Internet Edition

Monetary policy to remain expansionary :BB to announce monetary policy for second half of current fiscal year tomorrow

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

Bangladesh Bank is expected to announce its monetary policy for the second half of the current fiscal year tomorrow (Thursday).

The policy is of expansionary nature as before, Bangladesh Bank sources said.

'The new monetary policy to be announced is in line with the election manifestos of the ruling alliance components, such as containing the price spiral of essential commodities, generating employments and enhancing the purchasing capacity of the commons, a senior economist of Bangladesh Bank, told the New nation yesterday.

The current macro-economic indicators favour pursuing an expansionary monetary policy, he said.

'Under the new monetary policy, the central bank will keep the credit flow to sectors like agriculture, manufacturing and industry uninterrupted to achieve a higher economic growth,' he added.

BB Governor Saleh Uddin Ahmed has already explained the new monetary policy to Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith at the latter's secretariat office, sources said.

According to their views, the policy will be announced this week, if the government does not suggest any major changes to the draft policy.

The central bank had earlier forecast a 6.2 per cent economic growth in the current fiscal year, higher than the World Bank's growth projection between 4.8 and 5.8 per cent in view of the financial crisis in the West.

'To achieve the growth target, the monetary policy needs to be expansionary, so that it can help beef up both public and private investments in the last half of this fiscal year,' he explained.

During the last three months, the central bank has applied monetary tools at least once to contain private sector credit growth that went up by more than 26 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2008-09.

Nitol Insurance Company Ltd gets Credit Rating (A)

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

Nitol Insurance Company Ltd (NICL) has been rated 'A' by Credit Rating Information and Services Ltd (CRISL).

The above rating has been done on the basis of the good fundamentals of the company such as high claim paying ability, satisfactory financial performance, sound solvency, experienced management team, good liquidity position, sound IT platform, systematic internal control procedure, reinsurance agreement with foreign re-insurer etc.

Exports up 13.4pc on textiles in Nov

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

The country's export earnings in November surged 13.4 percent to $1.297 billion from a year earlier on the back of increased sales of clothing and other textiles, data from the Export Promotion Bureau showed yesterday.

Export earnings in the period from July to November, the first five months of the 2008/09 financial year, also grew 26.8 percent to $6.55 billion, the data showed.

Earnings from knit textiles during the period rose 35 percent to $2.7 billion from the previous year, while exports of woven garments rose 25 percent to $2.3 billion.

Exports hit a record $14.11 billion in the 2007-08 financial year, of which almost $10.7 billion came from garments. Bangladesh has set an export target of $16.298 billion for the year to June 2009.

The projected target for knitwear is $6.58 billion, up 19 percent from the last fiscal year. The target for woven garments is $5.68 billion, up 10 percent.

Exporters say many foreign buyers are now flocking to Bangladesh for low-end textile products because key markets hit by the global financial crisis, such as the United States and Europe, are looking for cheaper goods.

Divestment deal of Ctg Particle Board signed

The Privatisation Commission on Sunday signed an agreement with a private party to sell off the Particle Board and Veneering Plant, Chittagong, an industrial concern under the environment and forest ministry, for about Tk 21 crore.

This is the first case of disinvestment of state-owned enterprise after the Awami League-led government assumed office on January 7. The Particle Board and Veneering Plant, Chittagong, has remained closed since March 31, 2003. The commission, a statutory regulatory body responsible for disinvestment of state-owned enterprises, earlier floated and disposed of tender 11 times to privatise this industrial unit.

Surprise Industrial Corporation, Chittagong, won the bidding as the highest bidder for the plant set up on 7.8 acres of land.

The secretary of the commission, Mohammad Akram Hossain, and a managing partner of the bidder, Abdul Mottaleb, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.

BRAC Bank Ltd holds its 7th EGM

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

The 7th Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of BRAC Bank Limited was held in Dhaka on January 8 last, where the shareholders approved raising of Tk 3 billion in Subordinated Convertible Bond as Tier-II capital to support the business growth of the bank for the year 2009.

The shareholders approved the issuance of the Subordinated Convertible Bond of BDT 3 billion as Tier-II capital for the Tenor of 84 months having an interest rate ranging between 14% to 14.50%.

The face value of the bond will be BDT 1,000 each 25% of the total bond would be converted in phases starting from the end of 5th year to ordinary shares at 3 to 3.5 times Book Value.

The meeting was chaired by Muhammad A (Rumee) Ali, Chairman of BRAC Bank Limited.

In his brief address to the shareholders, he stated, among others, that deposit base of BRAC Bank registered a 55% growth in the year 2008, while assets grew by 60%.

Others attendees were, the Directors of the Board Dr. Hafiz G. A Siddiqi, Ms Nihad Kabir, Ms Tamara Hasan Abed, Shib Narayan Kairy, Managing Director and CEO AEA Muhaimen and Company Secretary Rais Uddin Ahmad.

ACI Agribusinesses holds Annual Conference 2008

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

Annual Conference of ACI Agribusinesses 2008 was held on January 11 last at the Hotel Sheraton in Dhaka.

The conference was inaugurated by Dr. Arif Dowla, Managing Director, ACI Limited and welcomed by Dr. F.H. Ansarey, Executive Director, ACI Agribusinesses.

Dr. Arif Dowla thanked the team for their performance during the year 2008 and inspired the team to do even better in the years to come. He assured full support to make this business growing in a bigger scale.

Dr. F.H. Ansarey gave an outline of the objectives for the year 2008 to an audience of about 600 representatives and assured the team of all the necessary assistance required for achieving the goals.

Under the visionary leadership of the dynamic business heads, Dr. F.H. Ansarey, Executive Director, Agribusinesses the highly skilled and motivated team of professionals is dedicated in formulating effective strategies to meet the challenges in the ever-changing market, developing new solution for crop protection to satisfy the farmers current needs, exploring new opportunities in every sector in crop protection and working for consistent growth and increased market share of ACI Crop Care.

ACI Agribusinesses is the largest Crop protection industry in Bangladesh. From ACI house we firmly believe National food security is our responsibility and through our honesty, values, knowledge, sincerity and hard work we can help the farmers to obtain the highest yield of their crop. We are providing the complete solution of crop protection to ensure farmer's clean harvest.

We are providing Insecticides, Fungicides, Herbicides, Miticides and Liquid fertilizer.

ACI Agribusinesses has six subsidiary units. They are as follows Livestock & Fisheries, ACI Motors, ACI Fertilizer, ACI Seed, ACI Crop Care & Public Health and Cropex.

A numbers team of highly dedicated professional personnel are working day night to make these high class products available at the next door· step of customers and thereby win their satisfaction and trust.

IBBL holds Shari'ah Council meeting

A meeting of the Shari'ah Council of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited was held on Monday, 12 January 2009 at the Board' Room of Islami Bank Tower. Sheikh Moulana Mohammad Qutubuddin, Chairman of Shari'ah Council & President of Biatush Sharf Anjuman-e-Ittehad Bangladesh presided over the meeting.

The meeting was attended among others by Moulana Delawar Hossain Sayedee, Vice Chairman, Prof. Dr. Abu Bakr Rafique, Member Secretary & Pro VC of International Islamic University Chittagong , Principal Mohammad Serajul Islam, former Principal, Madrasah-E-Mesbahul Ulum, Mufti Sayeed Ahmad, Head Mufti of Al lamiatus Siddikiah Darul Ulum (Madrasha-e-Furfura Sharif), Abdur Raquib, former Executive President of IBBL, Mufti Shamsuddin (Zia), Muhaddis, AI-Jamiatul Islamia, Patiya, Chittagong, Advocate Mujibur Rahman, Senior Advocate of Bangladesh Supreme Court, Moulana Abdus Shaheed Naseem, President of Bangladesh Quran Teaching Society, Dr. Hasan Muhammad Moinuddin, Asstt. Professor & Head of Dawa & Islamic Studies Department, Daru! Ihsan University, Dhaka, Dr. A.S.M. Toriqul Islam, Associate Professor, Department of Islami Studies & Dawa, Islamic University, Kushtia, Dr. Moulana Md. Abdus Samad, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Arabic Language & Literature, International Islamic University Chittagong, Dhaka Campus, Dr. Manzur-e-Elahi, Assistant Professor of National University & Moulana Muhiuddin Rabbani, Muhaddis, Fayzul Ulum Madrasha, Member of Shair'ah Council of the Bank.

The meeting was attended among others by Moulana Zainul Abedin, Vice Chairman, Board of Directors, Kazi Harun-ar-Rashed, Chairman, Audit Committee, M. Fariduddin Ahmad, Managing Director, Mohd. Shamsul Haque, Mohammad Abdul Mannan, Md. Habibur Rahman & Md. Setaur Rahman, Deputy Managing Directors, Syed Abdullah Mohammed Saleh and Md. Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan, FCA, Executive Vice Presidents and Md. Shamsul Huda, Senior Vice President of Shari'ah Council Secretariate of the Bank were present in the meeting.

Sri Lankan trade delegation meets DCCI members

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

A 22 - member trade delegation from Sri Lanka headed by Export Development and International Trade Minister of Sri Lanka Prof G L Pieris held a meeting with the members of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Chamber Building in Motijheel on Monday.

Sri Lankan Minister in his address said, both the countries should try and explore more areas to develop bilateral. trade. He mentioned about his fruitful meeting with the Commerce Minister Lt. Col. Muhammad Faruk Khan psc (Retd) where they agreed to make a new beginning given the new context and stressed on the need for pragmatic approach towards enhancing trade between the two countries. He said, Sri Lanka is on the verge of getting a peaceful politic atmosphere after on going success of the government forces over the Tamil Tigers and Bangladesh getting a newly elected government after two long years. Both countries stand on the juncture of a new beginning.

He further pointed out that despite constraints Bangladesh witnessed a 13 percent growth in its export while it was 15 percent for Sri Lanka in November 2008.

He also mentioned about the Granleen Bank models being adopted by Sri Lanka to boost the micro credit sector. He lauded the role of the SME's and laid emphasis in assisting the SME's with capital for their growth.

In his speech Sri Lankan Ambassador to Bangladesh V. Krishnamoorthy said, Bangladesh is the fourth largest trading partner of Sri Lanka and there are enormous prospects of trade between the two countries. Stressing on the importance of Trade between the two countries, he informed that about twenty companies are now participating in the ongoing DITF in Dhaka.

In his address President of DCCI, Zafar Osman thanked the Sri Lankan Minister and members of the trade delegation for the visit to DCCI. He also thanked them for their participation in the on going International Trade Fair in Dhaka. He stressed the need for further cooperation between the two important countries of SAARC.

He mentioned about a recent study by ADB which says that complementarities of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India has increased over time.

He said in order to eradicate poverty in the region SAARC countries should increase intra-regional trade.

He also said, under SAFT A the two countries can increase their bilateral trade in service and manufacturing sectors.

He suggested enhancing Chamber to Chamber relations for exploring potentials in the fields of Textile, Agriculture and IT to be implemented by the Private Sector.

Immediate Past President of DCCI, Hussain Khaled said there arc opportunities to expand the trade between the two countries.

He drew the attention of the Sri Lankan Minister to introduce direct air flights between the two countries.

In his address Senior Vice-President of DCCI, M S Shekil Chowdhury extended his special thanks to the Sri Lankan trade delegation being the first such delegation to visit Bangladesh after the newly elected government" assumed power and hoped this will play an important role in enhancing business between the two countries.

DCCI Directors Syed Moazzem Hossain, AX. Khan Schezade, Conveners Abdul Haque and Osama Taser took part in discussion and drew the attention of the Minister regarding whole gamut of trade and commerce between the two countries and invited Hon'ble Ministers comments and suggestions to improve the situation. The Minister responded positively and informed them about Sri Lankan experience of how they achieved growth in education, trade and other sectors and the way Sri Lanka is meeting the challenges of the current global economic downturn.

Among others who were present in the meeting, were DCCI Vice-President Sirajuddin Malik, Directors and leaders of the business community.

Two cos to run ATP at DEPZ

The Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority on Sunday held a meeting with D Water Tech Limited, a joint-venture company, and a Singapore-based company Flagship Eco System on the matter of setting up a central affluent treatment plant at the Dhaka Export Processing Zone.

The BEPZA will sign an agreement with D Water Tech and Flagship Eco System in the first week of February on setting up the central ATP at DEPZ. Under the proposed agreement, the companies will treat minimum 15,000 cubic metres of liquid waste per day using bio-electricity.

BEPZA executive chairman Brig Gen Jamil Ahmed Khan, Flagship Eco System chairman and chief executive officer Varnon Ku, and D Water Tech chairman AI Zoarder, among others, were present in the meeting, said a press release.