Agni test may hamper Indo-Pak trade
NEW DELHI, April 12 — A visiting Pakistani business delegation has expressed disappointment over India test-firing Agni-II ballistic missile, but hoped it would not hamper the conducive business atmosphere between the two nations.

Indian banks face ‘risk’ from Y2K bug
NEW DELHI, April 12— Indian banking system faces “medium risk” of not being able to achieve Y2K (year 2000) compliance on time, international credit rating agency Moody’s has warned.

VIP Lounge opens
CHANDIGARH, April 12 — The VIP Industries, known as Asia’s top luggage manufacturer and the second largest in the world, next to Samsonite, opened a company showroom in Sector 17 today.

SBI donation
LUDHIANA, April 12 — The State Bank of India celebrated tercentenary of the birth of the Khalsa Panth by donating cycle-rickshaws to five physically handicapped persons.

M&M sales fall
MUMBAI, April 12 — The sales of the utility vehicles maker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd have gone down by 7 per cent in 1998-99, company Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra said today.

WB scales down growth prospects for India

NEW DELHI, April 12 (PTI) — Painting a gloomy picture for the Indian economy, the World Bank (WB) has scaled down the GDP growth from about 5.5 per cent to 4.8 per cent during 1999 and forecast that the turnaround would begin only in 2000.

A senior WB economist, Ashok Modi, told newsmen here that considering the difficult world economic situation, the Indian growth prospects were, however, none-too-bad compared to the performance of the other emerging economies which had been hit badly by the East-Asian crisis.

The recovery in 2000 was likely to be modest, but the real turnaround could be expected only in 2001 for the world economy when the situation would revert to the pre-1997 crisis price levels.

Giving a detailed analysis of the WB’s “global development finance, 1999”, Modi said though current account deficit (CAD) in India was likely to widen marginally because of poor export performance nonetheless, “it was not alarming”.

A significant aspect of a fall in global trade was that though the trade in volume terms had increased by 4 per cent. In value terms during 1998, the growth had remained stagnant, implying there has been a 4 per cent fall in prices, particularly, commodities, hitting hard developing nations.

This fall in commodity prices in unit terms is expected to continue in 1999 as well, making global trade prospects during the year bleak, he said.

On the capital flows, Modi said India has not been able to attract significant flows in the wake of poor infrastructure unlike China which attracted sizeable investments despite the current situation.

Just as in other emerging markets, India has experienced a sharp fall in portfolio investments (loans, bonds and equities) and a marginal fall in foreign direct investments.

Despite a decade of economic reform process in the country, India has not been able to attract large flow of foreign investments in China because of poor performance of infrastructure sectors, Modi said.

Citing an example, he said, China had added about 10 million phone connections every year during the last decade, as compared to India which has so far only 20 million connections.

The situation was similar in other sector such as ports, roads and power, putting a major impediment for attracting large inflows of investment, Modi said.

Modi said Korea and Thailand have started recovering steadfastly from the East Asian crisis and this could make the inflow of foreign capital into India that much difficult.

He said the recovery of the East Asian economies would make the manufacturing much cheaper, making their exports competitive.

VIP Lounge opens
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 12 — The VIP Industries, known as Asia’s top luggage manufacturer and the second largest in the world, next to Samsonite, opened a company showroom in Sector 17 today.

Mr Arun Warey, Managing Director of the VIP Industries, today said the new showroom styled as VIP Lounge has the same format as the company’s other showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Nasik with early accessible display of luggage.

Mr Warey told TNS that his company with a turnover of Rs 220 crore annually paid due attention to the needs and comforts of the customer and spent between 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent of its turnover on R&D. While the company’s Punjab turnover including that of Chandigarh, was around Rs 6 crore annually, the smaller Haryana State’s sales managed from Delhi were worth around Rs 3 crore. With the opening of the company showroom, he expected the sales in the area to go up by 12 to 14 per cent.

The company which enjoyed 65 per cent share of the domestic organised market had a production capacity of 50 lakh pieces annually through its integrated manufacturing facilities at Nasik, Nagpur, Jalgaon and Sinnaur.

Although the company exported soft luggage and suitcases to 17 countries, it did not have any collaboration for manufacturer of these products. In spite of this, Mr Warey said the company had got nine worldwide patents distributed in luggage of various categories.

Procter & Gamble unveils 2-tier plan

NEW DELHI, April 12 (PTI) — Fast moving consumer goods major Procter & Gamble India Ltd today unveiled a two-tier strategy, pushing personal care brands to the backstage while focusing on detergent, shampoo and health care brands to suit the prevailing market conditions.

The company has identified Old Spice Mens’ toiletries, beauty soap Camay and cosmetics oil of Olay as well as Clearasil as the laggards and decided not to push these aggressively.

Agni test may hamper Indo-Pak trade

NEW DELHI, April 12 (PTI) — A visiting Pakistani business delegation has expressed disappointment over India test-firing Agni-II ballistic missile, but hoped it would not hamper the conducive business atmosphere between the two nations.

“We are upset that India test fired Agni-II just when trade relations between the two nations have shown signs of improvement after the Lahore declaration signed between Pakistan and India in February”, Fazul-ur-Rehaman Dittu, who led the Pakistan business delegation, told PTI.

Mr Dittu, who is President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce, wanted easing of trade barriers to necessitate free flow of goods and commodities between the two nations.

At present, official trade between both the countries is estimated at Rs 500 crore per annum and unofficial trade in the region of Rs 1,500-3000 crore annually.

“The amount of trade is negligible as compared to the potential that exists”, he said.

Rehmatullah Javed, Secretary General of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the Agni-II test would have an impact on the trade relations, which had been improving over the past few months.

“India and Pakistan should be concerned with the economic prosperity and should find ways to get over the clutch of poverty”, Mr Javed said.

Mr Dittu said India and Pakistan should conduct trade and other business interactions on a regular basis, besides undertaking proper follow up steps so that real business was generated between the countries.

“The conditions are suitable for making in-roads into trade and security issues should not hamper business interests”, he said.

However, Shabid Rashid Butt, former President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said business should not get itself involved with politics.

“Agni-II, hopefully, may not affect the growing business relationship between India and Pakistan”, he added.

According to members of the Pakistani business delegation, the need of the hour was to remove the mood of suspicion that existed between officials and businessmen.

M&M sales fall

MUMBAI, April 12 (PTI) — The sales of the utility vehicles maker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd have gone down by 7 per cent in 1998-99, company Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra said today.

However, the last three months showed buoyancy and the company made record sales in March, Mahindra told PTI here.

He attributed the sales downturn to the general recessive conditions prevailing in the economy, but said, “going by the trend in February and March, we except a better performance this year”.

During 1997-98, the company reported sales of 75,000 vehicles (excluding tractors), he said.

In the automobile sector, M&M is not the only one to be affected by recession, Maruti Udyog Ltd had also reported a decrease of 22 per cent in its sales last year.

Meanwhile, M&M is planning to launch its four-wheel drive sports utility vehicle in a month’s time, Mahindra said.

Conceived as an image builder, the vehicle is meant to further strengthen the brand in the customers’ minds.

SBI donation
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, April 12 — The State Bank of India celebrated tercentenary of the birth of the Khalsa Panth by donating cycle-rickshaws to five physically handicapped persons.

At a function organised at the bank’s Sarabha Nagar branch in association with SBS Road branch and Stock Exchange Branch the Deputy General Manager of SBI, Mr O.P. Bhardwaj, said this gesture would help the physically handicapped persons to earn their livelihood.

Indian banks face ‘risk’ from Y2K bug

NEW DELHI, April 12 (PTI) Indian banking system faces “medium risk” of not being able to achieve Y2K (year 2000) compliance on time, international credit rating agency Moody’s has warned.

A number of banks in 30 emerging markets, including India, could face serious difficulties from 2000 a Moody’s report on “emerging markets banks and the year 2000 bug” has said.

However the report said it was difficult to know how hard Y2K would hit these banks.

It said Russian banks had the highest degree of risk that they would not complete the Y2K preparedness on time, followed by banks in Pakistan, Egypt, Romania, Slovakia and Tunisia with medium to high risk.

The banking system in India, Greece and Kazakhstan would face medium risk from the bug. That would hit the world on the midnight of December 31 the report said.

In comparison with progress in Western Europe and the USA, these banks find their situations complicated by government control, weak leadership from regulators, lack of resources and a shortage of available information technology experts. The Moody’s report said.

However the analysts said these markets’ risk from Y2K might be lower because they tend to be less reliant on computer sophistication than their western counterparts.

Spice offers special services to pilgrims
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 12 — On the occasion of tercentenary of the birth of Khalsa Panth, Spice Telecom (Punjab) has announced some special services to facilitate communication in the holy city of Anandpur Sahib. Sean Dexter, Managing Director, Spice Telecom said, “Spice Telecom has put in a very special effort to support the Khalsa tercentenary celebrations. We recognise that such an important event must have world class coverage and connectivity, as many of the visitors will want to share their experiences during the Khalsa celebrations with family and friends throughout the world.”

By dialling 300 over their mobile the subscribers can now listen to the “Mukh vak” or prime sermon that is issued daily from the Golden Temple. The subscribers can listen to it round the clock a day from anywhere in Punjab. The service is free of cost till April 15 and after that there will be a charge of Rs 2 per minute.

In addition to providing cellular coverage of Anandpur Sahib, Spice has also set up PCO’s at various strategic points in the city offering mobile phone facilities to the pilgrims. Along with this a “mobile bus” has also been stationed. It will work as an extension of a showroom.

PSB counters at Anandpur Sahib
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 12 — Punjab and Sind Bank has opened a special small denomination counter at Anandpur Sahib and also made arrangements for giving new currency notes to the general public on this occasion, the Khalsa tercentenary. The bank has also made arrangements to encash foreign currency and travellers cheques at Anandpur Sahib with a view to help the foreign visitors in the holy city.

The Punjab Small Scale, Industries and Export Corporation has also chosen Punjab and Sind Bank, Anandpur Sahib branch, to sell gold, silver medallions released by the Punjab Government on this occasion.

Commemorative medallions
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, April 12 — On the occasion of the tercentenary of the birth of the Khalsa, Punjab Small Industries and Export Corpn. Ltd, is issuing commemorative gold and silver medallions in limited editions, for which the bookings have already started at select branches of Punjab National Bank, Bank of Punjab and Punjab and Sind Bank, all branches of Phulkari showrooms and the Export Department of PSIEC.

These medallions are available against booking but they will be specially made available against cash payment on April 12, 13 and 14 at Gurdwara Sri Keshgarh Sahib, Anandpur Sahib from Punjab and Sind Bank and Punjab National Bank.

Japan to continue banking clean-up

TOKYO (AFP): Japan’s premier Keizo Obuchi vowed to press ahead today with a clean up of the banking system in the world’s second largest economy as a major regional bank admitted it was in trouble.

The country’s banking watchdog, the financial supervisory agency, has spent weeks investigating Japan’s bad loan-ridden banks.

The government, yesterday, forcibly took control of Kokumin Bank Ltd, a shaky regional bank, and brought in state officials to replace management.

Now a larger bank, Kofuku Bank Ltd, has admitted it too has a weak capital level and will look for support from business allies.

“The financial supervisory agency needs to investigate these small-and medium-seized financial institutions appropriately,” Obuchi told reporters.

Tokyo has already forcibly taken over two major banks and pushed others into mergers in the past six months as it finally tries to tackle a widespread banking crisis.

Under a bank recapitalisation programme begun last October, Tokyo has injected more than 7.450 billion yen of public money into 15 major banks to prop up their capital and encourage them to clear out bad loans.

Coke exports

BEIJING (PTI): China has announced drastic changes in its export policy on metallurgical coke trade with India, by selecting for the first time seven leading exporters which will represent a United Front in its biggest coke market, the China daily reported.

The seven companies will be the only Chinese coke exporters authorised to deal with India, the daily reported, quoting Yu Dahai, a senior official from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for metals, minerals and chemicals importers.

The seven Chinese coke exporters have established a united front to co-ordinate their bidding for India’s coke market, it said.

The move follows India’s decision to slap hefty anti-dumping duties on Chinese metallurgical coke last year after an investigation showed dumping of coke by Chinese producers, hurting Indian coke producers.

In 1997, China exported 1.91 million tonne of coke valued at $ 135 million. Last year, China’s coke exports to India are reported to have come down by around 20 per cent.

Asian economy

SINGAPORE (AFP): US businesses do not expect crisis-hit Asian economies to recover from recession this year, contrary to most expectations, according to a poll released

The poll by the Asia Pacific Council of the American Chambers of Commerce (APCAC) showed that nearly three quarters of US business executives in the region surveyed did not expect economic recovery until 2000 or 2001.

Findings of the poll covering 549 executives were presented at an APCAC meeting here to discuss business opportunities in the next millennium.

Most Asian economies are mired in recession following turmoil caused by a debilitating financial crisis that erupted in mid-1997. The governments as well as analysts have been predicting a recovery in the second half of 1999.

Demand for US products in Asia has fallen as regional currency devaluations following the crisis have made American imports more expensive, according to documents presented at the meeting.

“American Chamber of Commerce members do not expect an economic recovery in their host countries in 1999”, a report on the poll said.

China Telecom

BEIJING (PTI): China has ended government’s monopoly of the key telecommunications sector by establishing four specialised companies, ahead of crucial negotiations in Washington on Beijing’s bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The state media, quoting Minister of Information Industry (MII), Wujtchuan said the State-run China Telecom will be divided in to a fixed telephone, mobile telecommunications, paging services and satellite telecommunications companies.

The breaking up of China Telecom is aimed at smashing the telecommuncations monopoly in China and introducing competition to set up a fair and orderly market, Wu said without mentioning its significance to China’s WTO bid.

But Wu said China will further enhance exchanges with other countries in telecommunications sector and introduce foreign capital in an active and steady manner.

Yuan

LOS ANGELES (REUTERS): China’s Premier and Zhu Rongji has reiterated Beijing’s pledge not to devalue the country’s currency, the Yuan, while forecasting faster economic growth in 1999.

“I state again that the Chinese rerenminbi (Yuan) will not be devalued”, Zhu told a banquet hosted by Chinese Americans on the first day of his nine-day tour of the United States.

Zhu’s remarks were the latest attempt by Beijing to reassure financial markets that China will not follow other countries in devaluing its currency in the wake of the financial crisis that has devastated Asian economies over the past two years.

The Chinese leader also issued a rosy forecast for Chinese economic growth in 1999, saying he expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth to beat the official target of 7 per cent and even outstrip last year’s 7.8 per cent performance.

“China’s economic performance this year will definitely be better than last year”, Zhu said, “based on the data for the first two months, that is an annualised rate of 8.5 per cent”.

US $ Rs 42.68/69
Stg £ Rs 68.93/95
Euro Rs 46.37/39
Jap Yen (100) Rs 35.57/59

The RBI reference rate was Rs 42.70.

Gold improves
NEW DELHI, April 12 (PTI) — Gold prices maintained their upward march on the bullion market following persistent buying by local parties coupled with firm overseas advices and closed with gains. Silver also improved on stockists buying and industrial units purchasing fresh stocks. The quotations: Silver .999 (ready) 7490, delivery 7510, coins buyer 10,300 and seller 10,400. Standard gold 4350, ornaments 4200 and sovereign 3570.