Samsung pleads guilty
Samsung, the world's largest maker of computer memory chips, has pleaded guilty to a charge it conspired with other companies to fix the price of chips used in personal computers and other electronic devices, boosting the cost to consumers.

After accepting the plea and a previously arranged deal ordered Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and its U.S. subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor Inc., was ordered to pay $300 million. The plea deal, which was announced in October, requires the company to pay $300 million, plus interest, in installments over the next five years. The government agreed to not pursue additional prosecutions against Samsung or most its officers and employees.

The deal also did not seek restitution from Samsung. Instead, victims -- ranging from other chip makers and computer makers to private individuals -- can sue for damages.

It was the culmination of a three-year US investigation into price fluctuations in the dynamic random access memory market from April 1999 to June 2002. Prosecutors said Samsung, which is based in Seoul, South Korea, and other companies engaged in price fixing through e-mails, telephone calls and in-
person meetings.

Bangladeshi exports face a lot of non-tariff barriers
Bangladeshi items face a lot of non-tariff barriers in the global market that retard trade growth in the country. This acts as a constraint to the prospect of Bangladeshi products entering into the international market. Domestic non-tariff barriers to trade are higher in Bangladesh than those in other countries. There are several emerging challenges, such as environmental standards for Bangladesh's exports. Bangladesh might lose duty preferences it currently enjoys if the WTO's Hong Kong ministerial reaches an agreement on zero tariff market access for non-agricultural products.

The erosion of 12.5 per cent duty on items from other countries will put Bangladesh in a precarious position. The local industries should be supported with import subsidy in the next decade and effective linkages be developed between small and medium enterprises and multinational companies for export promotion. The country will have to comply with cash subsidy for exports within the WTO rules and also raise the level of our efficiency, so that the export items can compete in the global market efficiently.

New generation of investors active in debt market
The European debt market is awash with cash from a new generation of investors, including hedge and specialist debt funds and foreign banks that are hungry for the type of yields available in leveraged finance. Private equity groups, also sitting on large amounts of capital after an unprecedented fund-raising drive, are increasingly buying assets with the help of aggressive debt packages. Banks are encouraging UK private equity groups to take on excessive levels of debt in buy-out transactions.

Authority prefers policy of persuasion to realise outstanding electricity bills
The authority prefers a policy of persuasion to realise outstanding electricity bills. The government has asked local government bodies and state-owned agencies to clear their arrears under a flexible payment arrangement. Big power-bill defaulters including some major city corporations and municipalities, the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) have received the directives in this connection.

Under the arrangement, the defaulters will have to pay at least 10 per cent of their respective outstanding bills as down payment immediately to their respective suppliers. This is seen as a flexible and persuasive payment arrangement. They have also been allowed to clear their remaining amounts of arrears bills in equal instalment basis within the following 10 months.
The latest initiative to recover arrear electricity bills is in line with a pressure from the World Bank (WB). The donor has recently tagged the condition of realisation of such arrears electricity bills with its credit support for the power-sector development projects. The government will have to realise outstanding power bills from big defaulters, especially from the government agencies and autonomous bodies

For bigger amounts in remittances
The government is contemplating introduction of a new policy for encouraging and facilitating people to get employments abroad. The nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) may be asked to provide easy loans on easy conditions to pay for the fees of manpower firms, air fares, etc. The repayment of the loans is to be made from the earnings abroad. The relevant departments of the government should liaison with the private manpower agencies to ensure the genuineness of the contracts so that those who go out with the assistance of the NCBs do not fall prey to frauds and can service their loans without difficulty.

Unlike the readymade garments (RMG) and other sectors where increase in earnings would require substantial fresh capital injection, much greater earnings from manpower export are possible for Bangladesh through only improved strategies and their implementation at relatively modest costs. The full potential of the manpower export sector remains hardly tapped. The country could be earning five or six times more than its present earnings from remittances of expatriate workers.

Both the number of people going out with jobs and the remittances sent by them could rise, if only more skilled or qualified people were sent out. In each of these areas, the government has a role to play. Private operators are after quick money. They have no concern for individual happiness, justice or the national economy. It is for the government to look after these issues.

The government should have started executing a policy long ago -- after careful survey abroad to determine the demand situation of the types of workers and their needed skills -- and established by now many training centres to produce regularly a large number of workers who would acquire skills to meet this demand. This would mean some investment in the public sector. But such investments would be easily recouped as a greater number of people found jobs abroad and started sending their earnings home.

Such a policy would essentially meet two objectives. On the one had, more people would be finding jobs abroad and, on the other hand, as they would be in the skilled category, remittances in greater volumes would be sent both because of the rising number of the senders of remittances and because they would be sending individually bigger amounts of remittances as their salaries or wages would be substantially higher than those of unskilled workers. Bangladesh at present sends out a large number of unskilled workers whose earnings from their jobs are

Buyers reluctant to buy flats
Buyers are discouraged from buying flats due to high registration cost that is deterring the overall growth of real estate sector. More than 6,000 apartments in Dhaka now remain unregistered for long because of high registration cost, which is as high as 20 percent of an apartment price.

The real estate businesses sold between 25 and 28 thousand apartments in the last 10 years and around 20 percent of those still remain unregistered mainly due to high registration cost. Registration cost of apartment in Bangladesh is the highest in the region.

At present, an apartment buyer has to pay five percent stamp duty, five percent as registration fee, five percent as gain tax and 1.5 percent as value added tax (VAT) to register an apartment. Besides, a real estate company has to pay Tk 175 per square metre as advance income tax (AIT) for building apartments and 2.5 percent (of the value) for developing lands.