Final design of PMS ready for implementation

The final design of a performance management system (PMS) for six public energy utilities presented on Tuesday is ready for implementation, says a press release. The PMS is a management tool to organize resource allocation, facilitate accountability, and enable informed decision-making- thus help to improve performance.

The World Bank, as part of the last several months’ consultative process, organized a workshop to share the PMS design and to reach a consensus on how this system can be implemented and maintained in a sustainable way. The PMS was developed under non lending technical assistance program of the World Bank funded by DFID Governance Trust Fund, and Ausaid Infrastructure for Growth Trust fund. The technical assistance aligns with the Government’s strategy for energy sector especially in terms of governance, performance, and regulation.

The participating utilities from generation, transmission and distribution entities are: Ashuganj Power Station, Energy Generation Company of Bangladesh, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, Gas Transmission Company Ltd, Dhaka Electricity Supply Company and South Zone Power Distribution Company Ltd.

The PMS, using a set of key performance indicators (KPI), will support senior management to become more accountable and enable to identify performance improvement opportunities through target setting, monitoring, and identifying capacity and training needs.

‘This MIS tool will help the public utility companies to improve their performance’ said Zafrul Islam, Acting Country Director, World Bank Bangladesh. ‘The World Bank is ready to support and work with the individual utility companies for implementation of the system through a short to long term program.’

The workshop also discussed setting up of a Planning and Performance Management Cell. The participants stressed that in the interim at least the utilities can assign a Monitoring Officer.

The World Bank provided the assistance in two phases where in the first phase diagnostic of various functional processes of the six utilities was carried out. Key stakeholders in the sector, including representatives from Government of Bangladesh, utilities, Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, and the development partners participated in the workshop.

60 RMG day-care centres to be built

Bangladesh’s top association of knitwear manufacturers and exporters and German based garment retailer ‘Metro’ will jointly set up a 60 child day-care centre for garment workers.

A contract was signed on Monday between BKMEA and Metro to set up the centres in Naryanganj by July this year.

BKMEA president Fazlul Hoque said that there are day-care centres in many big garment factories and they are planning to provide the services to the factories which do not have it.

The Metro will bear 70 percent of the cost and BKMEA will provide the remaining 30 percent.

Commerce minister Faruk Khan and the German ambassador to Bangladesh Holger Michael were present in the signing ceremony.

FBCCI demands tax cuts

The country’s apex business association demanded that people earning less than Tk 2 lakh per year should be exempted from paying tax.

At present, those earning more than Tk 1.65 lakh per year are required to pay tax.

Annisul Huq, president of the FBCCI made this recommendation whilst setting out his organisation’s proposals in a pre-budget discussion held on Saturday.

Whilst this proposal was supported by other businessmen during the open discussion, former caretaker government advisor AB Mirza Azizul Islam disagreed.

Azizul Islam said that the limit, at which tax should first be paid, should be fixed in line with the national per capita income.

Comparing Bangladesh to India, the limit in Bangladesh should be Tk 1.25 lakh he said.

“And even if it is raised, it must not be over Tk 1.75 lakh.”

FBCCI also suggested a cut in corporate tax as it was “the highest in the world” and said that lowering it would raise revenue collection.

In his presentation, Annisul Huq proposed 25 percent tax for listed companies, 30 percent for non-listed ones and 40 percent for banks, financial institutions and mobile phone operators.

On this issue Azizul Islam agreed that there should be a cut in corporate tax as it was “high”.

“However, it should be reduced gradually.”

He proposed a reduction between 2 and 2.5 percent for the next year.

The former finance advisor, however, was sceptical about the proposed rates for banks and financial institutions.

“The spread is still too high. Whenever, the lending rate is lowered the banks also slash their deposit rates.” he said.

He said that banks should still have their taxes lowered.

Finance minister AMA Muhith, agreed with his predecessor on banks and financial institutions, but noted that “their gains from the stock market are not taxed either.”

Muhith called for views on imposing tax on capital gains from the stock market, a provision which the government is considering for inclusion in the next budget.

On overall corporate taxes, Muhith felt that they were “not that high”.

The trade body also asked for a restructuring of import duties to favour local industries.

Many of the FBCCI recommendations involved measures that would protect local industries from foreign competition and foster further industrialisation.

Huq said that a reduction in import duties and raw materials along with higher duties on imports of finished goods would foster domestic industrial growth.

On this issue, Azizul Islam also felt the import tax structure should be revised.

“The current structure is aligned with the one formulated during the early ’90s when we were in the spirit of trade liberalisation,” he added.

Finance minister AMA Muhith, however, did not make any comments on income tax and import tariffs saying it was “tough to comment at this moment”.

“Our aim, however, is liberalisation and everything would be considered accordingly.”

Measures to widen the tax net, simplification of income tax procedures, VAT reforms and setting up a National Tax Tribunal also came up in FBCCI’s recommendations.

Responding to the issues, Muhith promised that a tax tribunal would be formed within this fiscal year.

He also said that reforms in VAT and duty would be completed by the next fiscal year.

“There will be no Income Tax Ordinance in the next fiscal year,” added Muhith indicating that a full-fledged law would be formulated.

On simplification of income tax return, Muhith said the current four-page income tax return form might be reduced to two pages to make it easier for people to file.

The FBCCI discussion also stressed power and energy issue along with the necessity of increased focus on railway and waterways development, and population control measures.

It also insisted on urgent measures to ease the traffic congestion of Dhaka. Annisul Huq said in his presentation that traffic congestion caused a loss of $1.84 million every day.

“Annually it stands at about $670 million per year.”

Google profit rise fails to impress

Google Inc (GOOG.O) posted a 23 percent jump in quarterly revenue on a rebound in Web advertising, but its stock fell 5 percent as the company disappointed some investors accustomed to blowout results.

Investors were also caught off guard by the company’s announcement that Chief Executive Eric Schmidt would no longer take part in quarterly earnings conference calls, as it aims to “streamline” the process.

Google said the decision should not be interpreted as having any other meaning about Schmidt’s role at the company.

Analysts said key indicators for the quarter — including a 7 percent rise in average cost-per-click, the price that advertisers pay when Web surfers click their search ads — appeared strong, even if investors had hoped for more from a company that had beaten earnings forecasts in seven of the past eight quarters.

With a brightening economic backdrop and encouraging signs from the retail industry, some investors had hoped that Google’s cost-per-click would remain flat or even increase from the seasonally strong fourth quarter, instead of declining 4 percent, said UBS analyst Brian Pitz.

“The trend looked more favourable based on the industry data that was floating around,” he said.

The stock, which has risen about 5 percent since Monday, gave up those gains to trade at $566.20 after hours on Thursday. The stock had gained 1.1 percent during the regular Nasdaq session.

“They’ve had a strong last few days … and some investors expected Google to beat by a wider margin and price-per-click to come in a bit higher than 7 percent growth,” said Edward Jones analyst Andrew Miedler.

Google executives said the company experienced strong growth during the first quarter across the board, with improvements in paid search, display advertising and in its nascent mobile business.

“Large advertisers have come back in force versus last year,” Google’s Pichette said during the call.

Google provided few details about its business selling ads that appear on mobile phones, but said its Android smartphone software was available on 34 different devices on the market and that the number of software apps designed to run on Android phones had grown to 38,000.

Executives declined to say how many of the Nexus One smartphones — which Google sells directly to consumers on its website — have been sold since being introduced in January, but said the company was pleased with the phone’s “uptake.”

Google faces an increasing threat from iPhone-maker Apple Inc (AAPL.O), in the mobile advertising business.

Other long-term challenges also face Google as it tries to sustain its rapid growth, including increasing regulatory headaches and the company’s withdrawal from China — the world’s largest Internet market by users — in a row over censorship.

In an interview with Reuters, Pichette said Google still has a sales force in mainland China catering to local advertisers, even though Google’s Chinese-language website is now based in Hong Kong.

“We have partners we can monetize in mainland China as well and we’ll continue to have them,” Pichette said. Asked how advertising by Chinese companies has fared since Google moved its Chinese-language search site to Hong Kong, Pichette said he could not comment.

HIRING AGAIN

Google, which controls roughly two-thirds of the US search market, said revenue in the first quarter totalled $6.77 billion, compared with $5.51 billion in the year-ago period.

Net revenue, which excludes costs that Google pays to partner Websites, was $5.06 billion, up 2.2 percent from the seasonally strong fourth quarter and above analysts’ average estimate of $4.95 billion.

To drive growth going forward and potentially fend off mounting competition from the likes of Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) Bing for the lucrative Internet search business, Google pledged to keep investing heavily.

Google said it increased its headcount by nearly 800 employees — the biggest increase in staff since the first quarter of 2008. Pichette said the company will keep acquiring companies and hiring aggressively throughout 2010.

Google posted net income of $1.96 billion, or $6.06 a share, up from $1.42 billion, or $4.49 a share, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding certain items, Google said it earned $6.76 a share, beating the $6.60 average forecast by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Whispernumber.com, which collects earnings expectations from professional and individual investors, said the outlook for Google’s earnings per share was $6.74.

During the conference call, an analyst asked whether there was any tension between Schmidt and co-founder Sergey Brin over the decision to exit China, and whether that might be related to Schmidt’s absence on the conference call.

The question elicited chuckles from Google executives on the call, and a denial from Pichette.

“I have heard every rumour, so thank you for asking the question so candidly,” Pichette said. “The answer is no, there is nothing going on at all.”

Social compliance ‘no threat to RMG export’

Providing more wages and facilities to workers would not threaten growth in the export of ready-made garments from Bangladesh, a visiting German parliamentary team observed on Monday.

This view contradicts the position widely held by local garment manufacturers.

The two-member fact-finding mission from Germany, which came to Bangladesh on April 7, said that it was not acceptable that Bangladesh manufacturers spend only one percent of the the final purchase price of the garment on workers.

They said the consumers in Germany, which imports garments from Bangladesh worth about Euros 1.9 billion every year, were ready to pay more if Bangladesh manufacturers increased their wages and facilities to the workers.

Jurgen Klimke, an MP of the ruling Christain Democratic Union party and a member of the parliamentary standing committee on economic cooperation and development, noted that 25 sitting MPs in Bangladesh had interests in the ready-made garments business.

Niema Movassat, a German opposition MP, also a member of the parliamentary committee, said only five percent of the garment manufacturers in Bangladesh are socially compliant.

He said some German importers obtain garments from Bangladesh at cheap prices without taking any responsibility for the workers – but they would have to spend money on social compliance if they purchased these same products in Germany.

“It is possible to develop exports and maintain social compliance at the same time,” said the German legislator.

“It is not acceptable for companies to fail to maintain social compliance,” he said, adding that most of the ready-made garment units in Bangladesh leave their workers poorly-paid and are unpaid for their over-time.

Jurgen Klimke said the German authorities may introduce a system whereby garments that are produced in socially compliant factories are ‘tagged’.

“The tag could state that a certain portion of the price of the garment will be used for the social welfare of the garment workers who manufactured it” said Kilmke.

The German MPs met with the political leaders, ready-made garment manufacturers, workers, and other stake holders to assess the situation.

The German government will decide its agenda for development cooperation with Bangladesh in the next two years following a report from the fact finding team.

It is standard practice for the German government to send a parliamentary teams to a country before it finalises its development cooperation programme.

Germany provides development assistance worth Euros 55 million every year.

Klimke said the German government was very happy with the development projects implemented in Bangladesh during the last two years.

Bangladesh, India chambers agree to speed up trade

The India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) yesterday agreed to speed up efforts to increase bilateral trade and investment between the two countries.

Both business bodies adopted a joint declaration to identify opportunities for Indian investment, technology transfer and joint ventures in Bangladesh. The declaration also includes ways in which Bangladeshi investment can reach India.

IBCCI and CII co-organised the seminar on ‘Bangladesh as an investment destination’ at Sonargaon Hotel, chaired by IBCCI President Abdul Matlub Ahmad.

Industries Minister Dilip Barua, State Minister for Science and Technology Yeafesh Osman and Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Rajeet Mitter spoke. Citibank Country Officer Mamun Rashid presented a paper highlighting investment opportunities in Bangladesh.

Both sides also agreed to organise roadshows styled ‘Invest in Bangladesh’ at major cities in India.

According to the declaration, a joint team of CII and IBCCI will visit border sites, particularly the northeastern states of India and Bangladesh, to help governments improve infrastructure. About 20 top officials from Indian IT companies will visit Bangladesh in the six months to see business opportunities here.

Barua urged Indian businessmen to take advantage of the investment opportunities in Bangladesh. He said the country has an abundant but cheap labour force, no ceiling on investment, 100 percent foreign equity participation, tax exemption and profit repatriation.

“We seek your support and cooperation for meaningful industrialisation in Bangladesh,” said Barua.

Rashid identified seven areas for Indian investment — power, telecoms, health care, education, business process outsourcing, pharmaceuticals and fast-moving consumer goods.

He invited Indian businessmen to come and invest in the right sectors to tap the potential.

Dr Ganesh Nataranjan, chief executive officer of IT and ITES of CII, said India wants to take Bangladesh along with them to expand the IT business across India and some other countries.

The balance of trade heavily has favoured India for years. The deficit now stands at nearly $3 billion.

At yesterday’s meeting, Nitol-Niloy Group signed an agreement with India business conglomerate Tata Group to set up a shoe and a bicycle industry in Bangladesh. But no time was set yet for the investment.

OK Kaul, executive director of Tata International, told The Daily Star that a team would visit Bangladesh in May to see how investment could be materialised.

Dhaka stocks keep falling

Dhaka stocks fell on Thursday with more than two thirds of traded issues closing down.

Market observers said the fall portrayed a continuing lack of confidence among investors.

The benchmark index dropped by one percent while the daily turnover also shrank by 16 percent from previous day’s trade.

Market is suffering from serious lack of fund flow and after angry protest by the investors on Monday confidence has hit low, says market experts.

The benchmark DSE General Index (DSE) shaded 70.62 points or 1.27 percent to close at 5502.74604.

Out of 248 issues traded more than 66 percent or 164 lost price and only 77 gained.

Total market transaction also fell by more than Tk. 1.18 billion from previous trading day to close at Tk. 5.94 billion screening fall in market participation.

Grameenphone (GP) came as turnover leader though it incurred a loss of 2.29 percent to close at Tk. 362.40 with Tk. 1018.803 million worth of shares changing hands.

Summit Power followed with turnover of Tk. 558.650 million and lost price by 1.18 percent to close at Tk. 1401.25.

Beximco Pharma gained nominally by 0.05 percent to close at Tk. 181.00 with shares worth Tk. 261.885 million traded.

Beximco also saw slight increase by 0.66 percent with closing price at Tk. 378.80 trading 209.623 million.

Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd. traded Tk. 177.435 million loosing price by 0.85 percent to close at Tk. 3490.50.

Hindustan Motors to export LCVs to Bangladesh

The C.K. Birla-owned Hindustan Motors Friday inked a deal with Intraco Motors of Bangladesh to export its light commercial vehicle (LCVs) ‘Shefing Winner’ to the country.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by Hindustan Motors executive vice-president Moloy Chowdhury, its chief general manager (sales and marketing) Ratan Singh and Intraco’s managing director Riyadh Ali and international business development manager Shariful Islam, HM said in a statement.

As per the deal, HM will supply the CNG version of the LCVs to Intraco.

FTA’s to be signed with India, Lanka, Pakistan

The government has decided to sign bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with three south Asian nations India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan with a view to increasing trade with those countries, sources said.

The first agreement will be signed with India followed by Sri Lanka and Pakistan, commerce ministry sources said.

To this effect the ministry of commerce will sit next Wednesday to review a submission by a core group formed to determine Bangladesh’s position in FTA negotiation. An inter-ministerial meeting will also be held later this month on this issue. Following that the ministry will later start formal negotiation with the three countries to sign FTA, sources said.

The government late last year formed the 12 member core group headed by chief executive officer of Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI) Dr Ali Taslim. The commitee recently has submited the report to the commerce ministry.

Informed sources said the core group in the report has suggested to sign FTA with India first and later with Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It also suggested to sign the goods-based agreement first before signing about service industry.

The report also suggested first to ascertain the preference of goods and service sector of those countries before signing the deals.

Core group members said, Bangladesh is already far behind in the race of bilateral trade deals. Now the country will have to offer concession to those countries under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) deal without gaining anything.

Sources said the signing of FTA with India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan was first discussed in 2003 but fell behind due to indecision. The caretaker government did not go forward with the issue considering it highly sensitive.

Commerce Secretary Golam Hosen said, alongside the multilateral trade agreements bilateral agreement is also needed to raise trade. “Different countries are also signing FTAs to raise regional and international trades.”

He said the FTA negotiation was stalled for some years but steps have been taken to go forward. The Ministry has called a meeting in this regard, he informed.

Dr Taslim said core group has submited a report on FTA issue. “I don’t know how much of it the ministry will take.”

Core group member Manjur Ahmed said if the negotiation starts now, it will take two more years to finalise the agreement

He said the FTAs in no way would be signed before 2012. “We will have to give tariff concession to these countries under SAFTA agreement from 2015. Then we will have to give concession to them without gaining anything.”

Sources said a World Bank study has opposed signing FTA between Dhaka and Delhi. It said bilateral trade between the two countries will increase substantially if trade policy is liberalised.

Former Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said Bangladesh is geting trade preference under the World Trade Organisation as least developed country. It has to be taken under consideration before signing FTA.

“No deal can be signed which may put local entrepreneurs at bay and destroy our agriculture sector.”

Source: The New Nation

Zoom™ Laptop Fair 2009

A three-day long Zoom™ Laptop Fair 2009 began yesterday at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the city.

It has been organized by Maker Communication.

Citycell is the title sponsor for this year’s fair. Acer, Asus, Hasee, and Toshiba are the four co-sponsors of while Intel is the technology sponsor, Radio Foorti is the radio partner and bdjobs.com is the online partner.

Lt Col (Retd) Faruq Khan, Minister, Ministry of Commerce, was present as the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony.

Michael Seymour, Chief Executive Officer of Citycell attended the program as special guest.

Advocate Md Qamrul Islam, State Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, and Mostafa Jabbar, President, Bangladesh Computer Samity were also present as special guests.

Speaking on the occasion, Michael Seymour said “It is my pleasure to be here today at the inauguration ceremony of the Zoom™ Laptop Fair 2009. In this day and age, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that information is power. When we started the first cellular operations of South Asia, our objective was to empower our customers with access to information through instant mobile communication. After almost one and a half decade of operations, our goal has not changed. As a logical evolution to voice communications, we have extended the horizon of our services by making internet available to people all over Bangladesh through our Zoom™ wireless internet service. We all know how mobiles have revolutionized telecommunications in Bangladesh. Laptops and mobile phones are similar in many ways. They are personal, they are mobile & convenient, and they offer more privacy and security. We see a clear synergy in bringing Zoom together with laptops, because a simple laptop can now be converted into a portable powerhouse of information and communication by simply connecting to the worldwide web through our Zoom service. While PC penetration has increased over the last decade, there has been significant growth in the past 2 years alone, spurred by the advent of affordable laptops and the favorable tax environment. Moreover, this was followed by the reduction in the domestic bandwidth lease cost. We look forward to such public initiatives to ensure a business environment conducive to sustainable public-private ventures that develop the ICT sector as a whole. Only then will we be able to spread the benefits of a knowledge-based society to the people of Bangladesh. We all dream of a Bangladesh which is economically robust and integrated by a knowledge-based society. This dream leads to the concept of Digital Bangladesh. Citycell is proud to be a part of this dream by helping to bridge the digital divide: We already have the infrastructure in place to spread internet to more than 500 thanas though our nationwide network.

We are hopeful that by truly harnessing the power of internet and ICT-based services, we can go a long way in achieving great results in mass communication, health, agriculture, commerce, education and good governance. We pledge our support for education and community development through data connectivity and the access to internet that will generate a win-win situation for the government, the business community and the people of Bangladesh. I congratulate the organizers, sponsors, partners and participants of this event and I wish the Zoom™ Laptop Fair 2009 every success.

Customers will avail special offers of Zoom™ at Citycell’s pavilion No.1 by showing the proof of purchase of any laptop from the fair.

These include attractive start-up prices for Zoom™ connections bundled with devices, together with exclusive monthly data plans and voice tariff for these packages.

Specific Zoom™-enabled handsets, USB Modems or PCMCIA Data Cards will also be available at unbeatable discounted prices.

Visitors will be able to enjoy free internet browsing using Zoom™ at the Pavilion. Other features of Zoom™ service will be displayed at the Pavilion using innovative touch-screen computers.

World renowned brands like HP, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Hasee, Gigabyte, Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, Great Wall, BenQ, Apple are participating in this fair and bringing brand new laptops with attractive prices on the occasion of the fair.

The fair will be open for visitors everyday from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm. There will be 10 pavilions and 06 stalls in the fair.

The entry fee will be Tk. 20 but only students (up to regular post graduate) can avail free entry by showing their ID card.

Participating organizations and Maker Communication will also jointly arrange raffle draw, quiz program etc.