Five jute mills to go under private management

Five mostly inoperative state-owned jute mills are set to go under private management as the government has completed formalities to lease them out to the private entrepreneurs, said a senior jute ministry official Friday.The move will create employment for around...

G8's Toyako summit and all the talks

The eight most advanced nations on Earth met in Toyako on the island of Hokkaido in Japan to talk on a set of issues ranging from global warming to soaring food and fuel prices to the election in Zimbabwe. The...

Ctg Customs destroys 150 tonnes of powdered milk

The Chittagong Customs House destroyed 150 tonnes of date-expired imported powdered milk worth US$ 0.25 million Monday last.The powdered milk was imported in six containers in 2004 and its date expired in 2006. The cargo has since remained stuck up...

Moral maze for retailers reliant on developing world suppliers

Primark, the clothing retailer, last month announced it had fired three suppliers in India after it was found that they had subcontracted work to home workers who used child labour. George Weston, chief executive of Associated British Foods, which owns...

Made in Melbourne, exporting to Asia

ONE look at the soaring profits of mining companies is enough to show how important exports to China and other emerging markets are to the success of domestic companies.But it is not just the vast multinationals such as BHP Billiton...

Horrors of genetically modified crops

MAJOR biotech companies like, Monsanto, Syngenta, Bunge, Cargill, etc. are all bent on controlling the world's food supply. Monsanto has played the leading role in destroying organic agriculture and millennia-old biodiversity.They have no respect whatever for the lives and the...

Japan business confidence falls

Japanese business sentiment has deteriorated across the board, according to the widely watched Tanoan survey, although the fall was not as bad as many feared and capital investment plans remained reasonably firm at large manufacturers.The headline diffusion indices, which subtract...

Share trading of Rupali Bank to resume this month

Share trading of Rupali Bank Limited, the top market capitalisation leader of 2006 and 2007, is likely to resume in the stock market sometime in the third week of this month, officials said.Trading on the largely state-owned bank share has...

DU students take refuge in mosque as there is not enough room in halls

Students of the Dhaka University (DU) have started to take refuge in the mosques located on the campus as there is not enough room in the residential halls and the rent of mess in the city has gone up significantly...

sports digest

preliminary Trophy squadSYDNEY, July 10:Test newcomer Beau Casson was left out of a 30- man preliminary Australian squad announced Thursday for the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in September. The left-arm wrist spinner played in the final Test of the recent...

Fund raising for presidential race a teneous job

NEW YORK, July 10: Millions of dollars are spent on the US presidential race. Beginning from primaries to election day on Nov 7, it is flow of ceaseless fund that is what is of pivotal interest to the candidates. Fund...

The moment of truth

DG, WTO------------------------------------A memorandum to the world's trade ministers:As the world economy is on a downturn, most trade agreements were concluded under the pressure to create additional welfare from trade. For the past eight years, the global economic pressure has not...

Prices of non-brand edible oil defy govt-fixed cap

Prices of non-brand edible oil remained unchanged Thursday at their previous highs at the retail level amid lax government monitoring despite setting a cap on their wholesale rates earlier on Wednesday.In a meeting between the officials of the Directorate General...

Taming the unwieldy essentials' market

The prices of essential commodities have again shot up following the latest hike in fuel oil price effected by the government. The prices of essential commodities have again started the old cat and mouse game with the hapless common consumers...

Govt opts for long-term borrowing

The government has gradually changed its debt management strategy towards long-term borrowing from short-term to facilitate development activities.Under the new strategy, the government will increase borrowing for longer tenure by issuing different bonds instead of short-term borrowing through treasury bills...

Syria heads east to boost its foreign investment

Western isolation has forced Syria increasingly to look eastwards for its economic future. As the country pushes through much-needed reforms, Bashar al-Assad, the president, is focusing on links with rising economic powers such as India and China.Even as Syria is...

G8 club under pressure to expand

Some of the Group of Eight leaders might have choked on their green tea when Nicolas Sarkozy this week proposed expanding the organisation to 14 or 15 members.Not only should China and India, the world's two biggest emerging economies, be...

Diesel price hike takes toll on garment, fish exporters

CHITTAGONG, July 10: Following rise in price of diesel, average production cost on alternative consumption of power in view of load-shedding in the garment factories and frozen fish exporters' factories has increased by 30 to 40 per cent.According to concerned...

Asian exchanges plan trading link

FT Syndication ServiceBANGKOK: Six Asian stock exchanges are planning to establish a trading platform linking their 180 largest companies to help promote cross-border and foreign investment.The plan, being elaborated by the stock exchanges of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and...

Why obstacles to a deal on climate are mountainous

Something has changed in the debate on man-made climate change: the US is engaged. But its engagement - or at least the engagement of President George W. Bush - is neither enthusiastic nor unconditional. In particular, at discussions among the...

Workers Party has no connection with AL or 14-party combine: Rono

NEW YORK, July 09: Haider Akbar Khan Rono, a firebrand student leader of the 60s, now a leading light of the left politics, categorically stated here the other day that the Workers Party has no connection either with the Awami...

Energy demand boosts Indonesian coal mines

Bayan Resources highlighted early this month the interest investors are taking in Indonesia, the world's largest thermal coal exporter, when it announced plans to raise up to $695m by floating 25 per cent of its shares on the country's stock...

An endless process of destitution goes unnoticed

Photographs showing schools or homes being devoured by rivers are often published in national dailies. During lean days, those are accommodated on the front page but related stories are marked for inside pages. Nobody, actually, takes the problem of river...

UCB hopes to hold pending AGMs by Sept

United Commercial Bank Ltd (UCB) will hold its pending annual general meetings (AGMs) by September next subject to the receipt of the High Court order, the bank's newly appointed top official said on Tuesday.Dhaka Stock Exchange suspended the share trading...

Emerging sectors to get priority attention

The central bank is going to roll out its half-yearly (July-December) monetary policy without making any projection about inflation during the period.The policy scheduled to be announced sometime next week by Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed, however, would have the...

Irregularities affecting different cadre services

A storm has been raised in the tea cup about the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and its policy. The authorities are indifferent to discriminatory treatment between the BCS cadre groups.Cadre corruption and inter-cadre irregularities have been increasing unchecked.Even the Pay Commission...

How to protect tenants' rights?

APPROXIMATELY 90 per cent of an estimated 15 million Dhaka city population are tenants. Though a majority, they are voiceless due to lack of proper laws and also because they remain unorganised.There is no law and no initiative to protect...

ADB plan to buy carbon credits after 2012

FT Syndication ServiceBANGKOK: The Asian Development Bank is setting up a new climate change fund to invest in carbon credits that will be generated after 2012, the cut-off date for the Kyoto protocol.Most carbon trading funds do not invest in...

Energy pioneers face test of strength

International oil groups are rarely deterred by troubled environments. But their foray into Iraq will present more than a security challenge. Five years after the US invasion, the country's political future remains uncertain with new legislation regulating access to its...

Baby milk prices increase in local market significantly

The prices of different brands of baby milk increased significantly in the local market during the last one month forcing the people to count an extra cost in addition to their monthly family expenditure.According to the traders in the city's...