The Bangladesh Today (21-01-2018)
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ECONOMY & BUSINESS<br />
SUNDAY,<br />
10<br />
JANUARY <strong>21</strong>, 2<strong>01</strong>8<br />
Islami Bank Officer Kalyan Samiti (IBOKS) organized annual get together and picnic with the participation<br />
of the bank's directors, executives, all employees and their family members at<br />
Subarnagram Park of Rupganj Upazila of Narayanganj on Friday. Arastoo Khan, Chairman of the<br />
Bank was present in the program as Chief Guest. Dr. Md. Zillur Rahman, Chairman, Audit<br />
Committee, Professor Dr. Md. Sirajul Karim, Professor Dr. Qazi Shahidul Alam, Mohammed<br />
Humayun Kabir, FCA, Md. Mizanur Rahman, Md. Joynal Abedin, Professor Md. Nazmul Hassan<br />
Ph.D, Syed Abu Asad Directors, Abdul Hamid Miah, Managing Director & CEO of the bank & chief<br />
adviser of the samiti and Professor Dr. Mohammad Abdus Samad, Md. Mahbub-ul-Alam, Additional<br />
Managing Director, Member Secretary of Shari'ah Supervisory Committee of the Bank were present<br />
as special guests.<br />
Photo: Courtesy<br />
Sri Lanka, China to co-build<br />
dendro power plant<br />
Sri Lanka and China on Friday signed a joint venture<br />
agreement to construct Sri Lanka's largest dendro power<br />
plant in Moneragala in the country's south.<br />
<strong>The</strong> power plant will produce 70,000 megawatts of<br />
renewable energy per year to the country's national power<br />
grid.<br />
<strong>The</strong> joint venture was signed between Beijing Full<br />
Dimension Power Tech Company Ltd, Nanjing Turbine and<br />
Electric Machinery Group Company Ltd, and Sri Lanka's<br />
IMS Holdings.<br />
While speaking at the signing ceremony, Jinawara<br />
Dharmawardana, chairman of IMS Holdings Pvt. Ltd., said<br />
that dendro power is the generation of electricity from<br />
sustainably grown biomass (fuel wood) and in this project,<br />
the fuel would be produced from the wood of the Gliricidia<br />
Sepium tree.<br />
Hundreds of farmers in the drought-prone Moneragala<br />
district will benefit from this project as the farmers supplying<br />
Gliricidia Sepium wood will be making 3.2 million U.S.<br />
dollars per year as a result of the power plant,<br />
Dharmawardana said.<br />
Explaining the reasons for choosing Gliricidia Sepium<br />
wood as the fuel rather than solar power to run the turbines<br />
in the power plant, Dharmawardana said that the primary<br />
mission of the company is to financially secure the farmers in<br />
drought-prone area of the island country.<br />
Hu Xingzhong, chairman of the Beijing Full Dimension<br />
Power Tech Company Ltd, said the cooperation, not just a<br />
power generation project but also a "community<br />
development project," is of "great significance" not only to<br />
the partners but also to the two countries.<br />
<strong>The</strong> power plant will consist of six biomass boilers and<br />
three steam turbine generators as the core of the power<br />
generation system.<br />
<strong>The</strong> dendro power plant is expected to start operation by<br />
the end of September.<br />
Russia's Rosgeo expects 11-pct<br />
increase in revenue for 2<strong>01</strong>8<br />
Russian exploration company Rosgeo expects to see its<br />
revenue up 10.8 percent in 2<strong>01</strong>8, the head of the company<br />
said Friday.<br />
"Under the International Financial Reporting Standards,<br />
by the end of 2<strong>01</strong>8, the revenue is expected to reach 41 billion<br />
rubles (725.38 million U.S. dollars), a 10.8 percent of<br />
increase compared with 2<strong>01</strong>7," TASS news agency quoted<br />
Roman Panov, head of Rosgeo as saying.<br />
<strong>The</strong> revenue for 2<strong>01</strong>7 amounted to 37 billion rubles (654.61<br />
million dollars), said Panov, who also disclosed that the<br />
volume of Rosgeo investments amounted to 4.5 billion rubles<br />
(79.61 million dollars) in 2<strong>01</strong>7, and a similar amount has<br />
been pledged for 2<strong>01</strong>8.<br />
Established in 2<strong>01</strong>1, the company conducts geological<br />
exploration for various solid minerals including gold, silver<br />
and platinum, and resources such as natural gas.<br />
US to overtake<br />
Saudi as crude oil<br />
producer: IEA<br />
<strong>The</strong> United States are set to<br />
overtake Saudi Arabia as the<br />
world's number two oil<br />
producer this year, as shale<br />
companies, attracted by<br />
rising prices, ramp up<br />
drilling, the International<br />
Energy Agency said on<br />
Friday.<br />
"This year promises to be a<br />
record-setting one for the<br />
US," the IEA wrote in its<br />
monthly market report.<br />
Crude production of 9.9<br />
million barrels per day (bpd)<br />
in the US was now at the<br />
highest level in nearly 50<br />
years, "putting it neck-andneck<br />
with Saudi Arabia, the<br />
world's second largest crude<br />
producer after Russia," the<br />
IEA said.<br />
"Relentless growth should<br />
see the US hit historic highs<br />
above 10 million bpd,<br />
overtaking Saudi Arabia and<br />
rivalling Russia during the<br />
course of 2<strong>01</strong>8 - - provided<br />
OPEC/non-OPEC restraints<br />
remain in place," it said.<br />
A global supply glut<br />
pushed oil prices as low as<br />
$30 per barrel at the start of<br />
2<strong>01</strong>6. But producing<br />
nations-both inside and<br />
outside the OPEC oil cartelstruck<br />
a deal at the end of<br />
2<strong>01</strong>6 to cut back production<br />
and drive prices higher.<br />
Geopolitical tensions and a<br />
reduction in oil stocks have<br />
also contributed to the<br />
recovery.<br />
Crude recently rose above<br />
$70 per barrel for the first<br />
time since 2<strong>01</strong>4 after OPEC<br />
and non-OPEC countries<br />
agreed to extend their<br />
combined cutbacks until the<br />
end of this year.<br />
Rising prices have, in turn,<br />
made it more attractive for<br />
shale companies to increase<br />
drilling.<br />
And since the United<br />
States is not a party to the<br />
deal, its shale production can<br />
continue uninhibited.<br />
"US growth in 2<strong>01</strong>7 beat all<br />
expectations ... as the shale<br />
industry bounced back,<br />
profiting from cost cuts,<br />
(and) stepped up drilling<br />
activity," the IEA said.<br />
"Explosive growth in the<br />
US and substantial gains in<br />
Canada and Brazil will far<br />
outweigh potentially steep<br />
declines in Venezuela and<br />
Mexico," it said.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> big 2<strong>01</strong>8 supply story<br />
is unfolding fast in the<br />
Americas," the IEA said.<br />
Shale production is<br />
controversial, because in<br />
order to extract oil and gas, a<br />
high-pressure mixture of<br />
water, sand and chemicals is<br />
blasted deep underground to<br />
release hydrocarbons<br />
trapped between layers of<br />
rock.<br />
And environmentalists<br />
argue that the processknown<br />
as fracking, or<br />
hydraulic fracturing<br />
t e c h n o l o g y - m a y<br />
contaminate ground water<br />
and even cause small<br />
earthquakes.<br />
Turning to OPEC output,<br />
the IEA said that there was<br />
"no clear sign yet of OPEC<br />
turning up the taps to cool<br />
down oil's rally".<br />
In its own montly market<br />
report published on<br />
Thursday, the Organization<br />
of Petroleum Exporting<br />
Countries had said that the<br />
global oil market was moving<br />
closer to reaching a healthy<br />
balance between supply and<br />
demand.<br />
Hamdard Laboratories (Waqf) <strong>Bangladesh</strong> has arranged free medical treatment to provide health<br />
care facilities to millions of Muslim devotees every year in Biswsa Ijtema ground at Tongi.<br />
Photo: Courtesy<br />
Singapore sparks<br />
mockery with<br />
Instagram 'influencers'<br />
for budget<br />
Singapore's government has sparked<br />
mockery after hiring social media<br />
"influencers" to try to interest the<br />
younger generation in the budget, with<br />
messages about "inflationary pressure"<br />
and "balanced budgets" popping up on<br />
Instagram.<br />
<strong>The</strong> finance ministry hired more<br />
than 50 users on the platform to seek<br />
feedback from their followers about<br />
the forthcoming budget and ask them<br />
to head to booths in the city-state to<br />
share their views, local media<br />
reported.<br />
One typical post showed user<br />
Chelsea Teng posing next to a<br />
swimming pool while holding a laptop,<br />
alongside the message: "Great news-<br />
Budget 2<strong>01</strong>8 is coming soon!"<br />
Another showed user Josephine. T<br />
staring pensively at an iPad, with the<br />
post: "With inflationary pressure in<br />
mind, we all know that the cost of<br />
living is constantly rising... how do we<br />
manage our income and expenditure<br />
to keep a balanced budget?"<br />
<strong>The</strong> campaign, which began in<br />
December, began generating attention<br />
in recent days-but there was more<br />
mirth about the government's<br />
approach than enthusiasm for the state<br />
of the nation's finances.<br />
"How out of touch is this govt?!?"<br />
wrote one user on Facebook, Vincent<br />
Law, underneath an article about the<br />
campaign.<br />
"For the Ministry of Finance, they<br />
don't really know how to use their<br />
money," said another, Rave Simpson.<br />
Some also criticised the choice of<br />
"influencers", saying they were not<br />
well-known. <strong>The</strong>y were not among the<br />
top social media names in the citystate<br />
who can command huge fees.<br />
Local media reported that at least 30<br />
posts by the Instagram stars had<br />
appeared since December asking for<br />
feedback on the budget, which will be<br />
unveiled on February 19.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ministry of Finance did not<br />
immediately respond to requests for<br />
comment.<br />
But a spokesman told the Straits<br />
Times newspaper that the campaign<br />
was "an effective way to engage with<br />
youth participants". She did not<br />
disclose how much the Instagram<br />
users were paid.<br />
Operation of 9-bln USD<br />
oil refinery in Vietnam<br />
behind schedule<br />
<strong>The</strong> 9-billion-U.S.-dollar Nghi Son oil refinery in Vietnam's central<br />
Thanh Hoa province will not test run in the first quarter of this year as<br />
scheduled due to some technical errors, local media reported on Friday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> refinery has a design capacity of annually processing 10 million<br />
tons of crude oil.<br />
<strong>The</strong> test run is likely to take place in the second quarter or even third<br />
quarter, Vietnamese online newspaper VietNamNet reported, adding<br />
that construction of the refinery is now 96.6 percent complete.<br />
<strong>The</strong> refinery's investors include Vietnam's National Oil and Gas Group<br />
(PetroVietnam), a firm from Kuwait and two companies from Japan.<br />
According to Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company (BSR),<br />
which manages and runs Vietnam's biggest oil refinery Dung Quat in<br />
central Quang Ngai province, the country's annual demand for<br />
petroleum products will stand at some 6.5 million tons, and for diesel<br />
around 8.5 million tons in the 2<strong>01</strong>8-2022 period.<br />
Dung Quat oil refinery, which became operational fully in 2<strong>01</strong>1, has an<br />
annual capacity of 6.5 million tons of crude oil, meeting 30 percent of<br />
Vietnam's demand for petroleum products. It is expected to raise the<br />
capacity to 8.5 million tons in 20<strong>21</strong>.<br />
BSR, a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, sold 7.8 percent of its charter<br />
capital, equivalent to 241.5 million shares during its first initial public<br />
offering on Jan. 17, Vietnam News Agency reported, noting that BSR is<br />
the largest enterprise to be equitized ever, with a value of some 3.2 billion<br />
U.S. dollars.<br />
Under the BSR equitization plan, PetroVietnam will retain 43 percent<br />
of BSR's charter capital, while a maximum of 49 percent will be sold to<br />
strategic investors, expecting to earn nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars.<br />
BSR's net revenue is estimated at more than 4.5 billion U.S. dollars,<br />
and its after-tax profit at over 367 million U.S. dollars in 2<strong>01</strong>8.<br />
Chinese yuan strengthens to<br />
6.4169 against USD Friday<br />
<strong>The</strong> central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan,<br />
strengthened 232 basis points to 6.4169 against the U.S. dollar Friday,<br />
according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.<br />
In China's spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or<br />
fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate each trading day.<br />
<strong>The</strong> central parity rate of the yuan against the U.S. dollar is based on a<br />
weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening<br />
of the interbank market each business day.<br />
<strong>The</strong> following are the central parity rates of the Chinese currency renminbi,<br />
or the yuan, against 23 major currencies announced on Friday by<br />
the China Foreign Exchange Trade System:<br />
<strong>The</strong> central parity rate of the yuan against the U.S. dollar is based on a<br />
weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening<br />
of the interbank market each business day.<br />
<strong>The</strong> central parity rate of the yuan against the Hong Kong dollar is<br />
based on the central parity rate of the yuan against the U.S. dollar and<br />
the exchange rate of the Hong Kong dollar against the U.S. dollar at 9<br />
a.m. in international foreign exchange markets on the same business<br />
day.<br />
<strong>The</strong> central parity rates of the yuan against the other <strong>21</strong> currencies are<br />
based on the average prices offered by market makers before the opening<br />
of the interbank foreign exchange market.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 606th Executive Committee Meeting of the Board of Directors of Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd<br />
was held at the Board Room of the Bank on Thursday. Hafez Md. Enayet Ullah, Chairman of the<br />
Committee presided over the meeting. <strong>The</strong> Meeting reviewed overall business performance of the<br />
Bank and took various investment related decisions. Members of the Committee Nazmul Ahsan<br />
Khaled, Md. Harun-Ar-Rashid Khan, Engr. Kh. Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, A. N. Yeahea, Managing<br />
Director Md. Habibur Rahman, Deputy Managing Directors Kazi Towhidul Alam, Md. Fazlul<br />
Karim, Muhammad Mahmoodul Haque, S. M. Jaffar, Mohammed Zubair Wafa, Executive Vice<br />
President and Company Secretary Md. Mahmudur Rahman and other executives were present in<br />
the meeting.<br />
Photo: Courtesy<br />
Hong Kong stocks<br />
end record-breaking<br />
week on a high<br />
Hong Kong stocks ended<br />
Friday with further gains,<br />
bringing an end to a<br />
spectacular week for the<br />
benchmark index that has<br />
seen it push to new<br />
records.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hang Seng Index<br />
climbed 0.41 percent, or<br />
132.95 points, to finish at<br />
32,254.89.<br />
<strong>The</strong> benchmark<br />
Shanghai Composite<br />
Index climbed 0.38<br />
percent, or 13.11 points, to<br />
3,487.86 -- putting on 1.72<br />
percent over the week.<br />
But the Shenzhen<br />
Composite Index, which<br />
tracks stocks on China's<br />
second exchange, lost 0.14<br />
percent, or 2.66 points, to<br />
1,9<strong>21</strong>.54 -- a loss of 1.41<br />
percent since last Friday.<br />
UK retail sales slide in<br />
December after Black<br />
Friday boost<br />
British retail sales slid 1.5 percent in December from the<br />
previous month after consumers had brought forward their<br />
Christmas shopping, official data showed Friday.<br />
Retail sales had jumped by 1.0 percent in November,<br />
boosted by Black Friday price reductions, the Office for<br />
National Statistics said.<br />
Sales though climbed 1.4 percent in December compared<br />
with one year earlier, the ONS added.<br />
"Retail sales continued to grow in the last three months of<br />
the year partly due to Black Friday deals boosting spending,"<br />
said ONS Senior Statistician Rhian Murphy.<br />
"Consumers continue to move Christmas purchases<br />
earlier, with higher spending in November and lower<br />
spending in December than seen in previous years."<br />
Murphy added that "the longer-term picture is one of<br />
slowing growth, with increased prices squeezing people's<br />
spending".<br />
Britons' wages are being eroded by Brexit-fuelled inflation,<br />
according to recent official data.<br />
Since Britain voted to leave the European Union in June<br />
2<strong>01</strong>6, a drop in sterling-making imported goods more<br />
expensive-has pushed inflation upwards.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> latest retail sales data has shown a larger-thanexpected<br />
drop in month-on-month terms with a decline of<br />
1.5 percent," said David Cheetham, chief market analyst at<br />
XTB trading group, adding that the pound dropped in<br />
response.<br />
South Africa<br />
central bank<br />
chief to head<br />
IMF steering<br />
committee<br />
South Africa's central bank<br />
chief Lesetja Kganyago will<br />
take over as chair of the<br />
International Monetary<br />
Fund's policy advisory<br />
committee, the IMF<br />
announced Thursday.<br />
Kganyago, who has served<br />
as governor of the South<br />
African Reserve Bank since<br />
late 2<strong>01</strong>4, takes on a threeyear<br />
post as head of the<br />
International Monetary and<br />
Finance Committee.<br />
He replaces Agustin<br />
Carstens, former head of the<br />
Bank of Mexico, who<br />
resigned in December to<br />
take over as head of the<br />
Bank for International<br />
Settlements (BIS).<br />
His first major role will be<br />
to oversee the IMF's Spring<br />
meeting in Washington in<br />
mid-April.