In BANGLADESH one district one product project on the move

The government has primarily selected three products to develop under
a "one district one product (ODOP)" scheme, which was chalked out to
diversify the country's export basket. Export Promotion Bureau (EPB)
of the government has selected agarwood of Moulvibazar, clay tiles
of Satkhira, and rubber of Chittagong Hill Tracts to develop for
attaining global standards and enhancing productivity. The concept of
ODOP was developed from the " One Village One Product" movement of
Japan launched in 1989 , which became successful and later was
followed by a number of countries across the world. "We have already
made a plan, which is now awaiting approval of the commerce ministry,
to develop these products," said Shahab Ullah, vice chairman of EPB.
EPB officials said there is a huge demand for these products in the
global market and Bangladesh has a potential to cater to the demand.
But now the country is failing to tap the potential because of poor
expertise and absence of proper communication with the export market.
The EPB officials said the clay tiles of Satkhira have a huge demand
in the European market but the local artisans are not capable enough
for maintaining international standards. In this context, EPB plans to
assign consultants who would make the local artisans aware of the
quality and train them in line with the export market requirements.
About 60 percent tiles break while burning if the clay for the tiles
is not properly selected. The experts will identify which type of clay
is ideal for producing tiles, said an EPB official. EPB has also
found a huge demand for perfumes made from agarwood but the problems
are inadequate trees and the indigenous production method. "In the
present method farmers hammer nail in agar trees, which is a very
lengthy process. We have come to know about a kit being used instead
of nail, which we would try to give to the farmers," said the EPB
official. Experts in the field will also conduct research to enhance
production of such perfume. The ODOP project will also take
initiatives to improve the quality of rubber produced in the
country. The EPB officials said the project was undertaken in the
backdrop of a huge flow of rural population for jobs to the urban
areas where most of the industrial units are located. The project
aims at creating employment opportunities locally through enhancing
skill of the local artisans. Another aim of the project is to reduce
the country's export vulnerability since only six major export items
now account for 90 percent of the country's total export earning.
For exporting garment products, manufacturers need to import a huge
amount of raw materials, while items to be developed under ODOP
project will be made of hundred percent local products, the EPB
officials said. "At first we had selected 14 products to develop
under the project but the government approved three items since it
could be burdensome to deal with many products at a time," said EPB
Director (Commodities) Omar Faruq.

Asian stocks higher on Wall Street journal

Asian shares picked up Tuesday as dealers took their cue from a rise
on Wall Street overnight but a weak dollar weighed on exporters.
Tokyo added 0.15 percent, while Seoul rose 1.13 percent and Sydney
lifted 0.20 percent. TOKYO: Up 0.15 percent. The Nikkei-225 rose
15. 56 points to 10 , 217.62. Steelmakers declined on a report that
they have agreed to price cuts for major shipbuilders. Nippon Steel
fell 1.2 percent to 335 yen and Kobe Steel declined 2.4 percent to
161 yen. HONG KONG: Down 0.31 percent. The Hang Seng Index finished
down 65.83 points at 20 , 866.37. SYDNEY: Up 0.20 percent. The
S&P/ASX200 rose 9.2 points to 4 ,540.3. Telstra lost 14 cents or
4.31 percent to end at 3. 11 dollars, with rival Singtel steady at
2.58. SHANGHAI: Up 0.23 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index, which
covers both A and B shares, rose 6.99 points to 3 , 033.73. Foreign
direct investment in China rose seven percent year-on-year in August,
compared with a 20.3 percent fall in the first seven months and
snapping 10 straight months of declines. SEOUL: Up 1.13 percent. The
KOSPI ended up 18. 49 points at 1 , 653.40. Shinhan Financial Group
rose 4.5 percent to 48 , 050 won on expectations for third-quarter
net profit. TAIPEI: Up 1.23 percent. The weighted index rose 89.31
points to 7 , 346.26. Fubon Financial closed up 1.75 percent at 34.9.
SINGAPORE: Flat. The Straits Times Index fell 1. 34 points or 0.05
percent to 2 , 638.40. BANGKOK: Up 1.27 percent. The Stock Exchange
of Thailand gained 8.84 points to close at 703. 16. KUALA LUMPUR: Up
0.34 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index gained 4.11 points
to close at 1 , 207.47. Proton added 5.40 percent to 3.91 ringgit
while builder IJM gained 1.30 percent to 6.33. JAKARTA: Up 1.57
percent. The Jakarta Composite Index gained 37.40 points to 2 ,
420.10. Coal miner Bumi Resources advanced 4.0 percent to 3 ,225
rupiah. MANILA: Down 1.15 percent. The composite index fell 32.37
points to 2 , 789.36. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. fell 1.04
percent to 2 ,380 pesos and Ayala Land Inc. dropped 2.27 percent
to 10.75 pesos. WELLINGTON: Down 0.93 percent. The NZX-50 fell
29.05 points to 3 , 099.63. Telecom fell four cents to 2.68 dollars,
Fletcher Building rose five cents to 7.96 and Contact Energy was
down 11 cents at 5.90. The Warehouse rose three cents to 4.25
dollars. MUMBAI: Up 1.48 percent. The 30- share Sensex rose 240.26
points to 16 , 454.45.

BANGLADESHI foreign missions to be stronger to help workers

Bangladeshi missions abroad are not proactive in serving their
workers' interests in the respective countries, Expatriates' Welfare
and Overseas Employment Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain told
the House yesterday. He said his ministry has decided to increase the
number of labour attachés and social welfare officials in the foreign
missions to assist Bangladeshi workers. "We have already asked
Bangladeshi workers abroad to form welfare associations and
communicate with the local embassies there if they face any
problems," the minister said replying to some lawmakers' queries. He
said manpower export to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Kuwait is on a
downward curve because of the global financial meltdown. Mosharraf
said 342 ,409 workers went to different countries in the last eight
months between January and August 2009 , while the total number is
650 ,059 between July 2008 and August 2009. The minister said
another 250 ,000 workers are likely to go to the United Arab
Emirates, Libya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Romania and some
other countries in the current year. Bangladesh received remittance
worth Tk 66 , 674 crore during the period between July 2008 and
August 2009 , he said. He informed the Parliament that steps have
been taken to expand the labour market. Mosharraf, also labour and
employment minister, in scripted answer to a query, said the
government has formulated a draft policy to eliminate child labour,
and the next course of action in this regard will be taken soon. He
said the existing law also does not permit engaging a child aged
below 14 with an organisation. The existing law also does not allow
engaging children in hazardous labour, the minister said. The law has
provision of taking action against employers of child labourers and
guardians who engage their children in hazardous labour. "The
government is determined to formulate a national policy and implement
it to eliminate hazardous child labour," the minister said.

San Miguel keen to invest in abroad

Top Philippines firm San Miguel said Tuesday it was on the prowl for
big natural resource investments abroad as part of an increasingly
aggressive expansion outside of its core brewing business. "It does
not matter where, as long as it is viable and is a big company with
big volume, we will be interested in investing in coal companies, (
and) for oil and gas," San Miguel president and chief executive Ramon
Ang told AFP. In an interview, Ang said Southeast Asia's largest food
and beverage company was also looking to invest in more major
infrastructure projects in the Philippines, including toll roads and
airports. Ang has over the past year led the domestically listed
firm's diversification drive with multi- billion-dollar acquisitions
in local power firms, oil refining and retailing, telecommunications
and toll roads. Last month San Miguel won the right to sell power
from the country's largest coal-fired plant, with a capacity of 1
,000- megawatts, and bought a 620- megawatt power plant on Manila
Bay for a combined 1.085 billion dollars. The investments outside of
its core brewing, food processing and packaging businesses offered
high-growth opportunities and a hedge against economic downturns,
according to Ang. "You can't have all your eggs in one basket in case
there's a downturn," he said. Ang spoke enthusiastically about San
Miguel's global ambitions, although he would not give any specific
details about where the company was hoping to invest. "We are
leveraging left and right. I hope we can buy some good oil fields,
gold mines or gas fields... something that will propel the company, "
Ang said. San Miguel this year expressed interest in acquiring a
stake in top Indonesian coal miner PT Adaro, but then pulled back from
the deal, saying the stake offered was not big enough. Domestically,
Ang said San Miguel planned to build its infrastructure portfolio,
after recently taking a 35- percent stake in Private Infra Dev
Corp., which will build a 312- million-dollar toll road in the
northern Philippines. He said the company would make a bid to extend
an existing toll road linking Manila with the northern provinces,
called the North Luzon Expressway. "We (also) hope to develop more
new, major airports to help our country," he said, but declined to
give details. Ang said San Miguel would likely not exercise an option
to acquire a 51- percent stake in a holding company that controls top
Philippine oil refiner Petron until next year. "Because we can use
our money for a lot of other things beforehand," he said. In the same
interview, San Miguel chief financial officer Ferdinand Constantino
told AFP the big- ticket acquisitions had been safely financed by a
combination of equity and debt. "I think it's really moderate
leveraging. We have our own cash and borrowings, and we are very
conservative when it comes to borrowing," Constantino said.

ADB sounds alarm over falling investment in BANGLADESH

Investment sluggishness remains a big concern for Bangladesh, said an
Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released yesterday. The
Manila-based development partner said Bangladesh has to address its
infrastructure and business environment constraints, including acute
energy crisis if it is to attract greater investment, particularly
foreign direct investment (FDI). "A matter of considerable concern is
the stagnation in the investment to GDP ratio within a range of 24.2
percent to 24.7 percent over the past five years," said the ADB
quarterly economic update for June 2009. It said although private
investment rose marginally to 19.6 percent in fiscal year 2008-09
riding on the improved business confidence following the return to an
elected government, the fallout of the global economic slowdown is
evident in lower disbursement of industrial term loans. Import of
capital machinery has also slowed down significantly. Letter of
credit for such imports fell by nearly 30 percent in FY 2008-09
from that in the previous year. Bangladesh attained 5.9 percent GDP
growth in FY 2008-09 , down from 6.2 percent a year ago. "Slowing
private consumption and investment activities are expected to exert
further downward pressure on GDP growth in FY 2009- 10 ," says the
quarterly economic update. Private consumption, which rose by 6
percent in the past fiscal year, accounts for about 75 percent of
the country's GDP. The consumption growth was slightly higher in FY
2007-08. Industry sector that contributes about 30 percent of the GDP
declined to 5.9 percent in the immediate past fiscal year from 6.8
percent the previous year. The ADB attributes this growth decline to
slowdown in exports in the second half of the fiscal year following
the global recession. "Weak investor sentiment also affected
manufacturing growth; as did slow implementation of power and energy
projects, despite the new government's high priority on power
generation and gas development, and weak construction activity," the
report pointed out. Growth in power and gas sub-sectors dropped by
over 2 percentage points to 4.5 percent. The services sector growth
also slowed slightly to 6.3 percent in FY 2008-09 , due to the
slowdown in remittance inflows, lower trade activities and moderation
in industry growth. Slower export growth and a fall in import
volumes affected trade and transport services. The agriculture sector
grew by 4.6 percent, up from 3.2 percent a year ago, owing to high
growth in food grain production (8.1 percent) aided by favourable
weather and strong government support, including delivery of inputs.
Revenue collection also remains a challenge for this year, the ADB
said. Revenue from the National Board of Revenue sources increased by
10.7 percent, far below the budget target of 18. 6 percent and the
27.4 percent growth the previous financial year. On inflation, the
ADB is agreed with Bangladesh Bank's target of 6.5 percent for the
current fiscal year. The overall balance of payments surplus
ballooned to $2.1 billion in FY 2008-09 from just $331 million in
FY 2007-08 due to substantial decline in import, it says. The
lending agency hailed the government for placing a budget with a
prudent balance between the need to stimulate the economy against
the backdrop of the financial crisis worldwide. "In view of the
widening infrastructure gap, the new budget also unveiled bold
initiatives to create a framework for PPP to enhance private
investment and streamline project approval processes to accelerate
ADP utilisation," says the ADB.