Daily Excelsior...Business

CII, ASEAN set up two task forces in pharma and agriculture .....

FTA will be signed during Vajpayee’s Thailand visit .....

Naina Lal, Vidya Chhabria again in fortune 50 powerful women .....

Nalco’s half-yearly performance improves .....

ASEAN Econ ministers want fast action in key sectors

BALI, INDONESIA, Oct 6: ASEAN ministers are recommending 11 key sectors for accelerated integration as Southeast Asia moves towards a single production base, Indonesia Trade and Industry Minister Rini Suwandi said on Monday.

"We are recommending to leaders at their meeting tomorrow that we want to prioritise that those sectors have to be completed in terms of the integration" by 2010, she told reporters after chairing a meeting of Trade Ministers from ASEAN’s 10 members.

At a summit on Tuesday, ASEAN is expected to launch a process to establish a single market and production base by 2020 under an ASEAN economic community.

ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong has called that agreement "a strategic economic initiative aimed at Bolstering the position of southeast Asia as a competitive place to do business".

The automotive industry, electronics, health care, tourism, textiles, agro-based products and wood-based industry are some of the sectors that would have a 2010 deadline for integration instead of 2020.

An ASEAN document obtained listed specific issues to be addressed in achieving faster integration in the selected sectors. Some of those mentioned were:

— Tourism develop a plan to establish a single ASEAN visa, encourage private sector joint promotion and marketing of ASEAN.

— Automotive. Investment policy to respond to challenges posed by China, a common external tariff, component outsourcing, more uniform and specific rules of origin.

— Electronics. Fast track export/import documentation system, review non-tariff measures, harmonise customs procedures.

— Health care. Harmonise medical devices regulation, facilitate cross border movement of patients.

— Wood-based industry. Combat problems of illegal trade, improve customs practices, increase new investments in forest plantations and seedlings nurseries.

— Textiles. Facilitate cross border trade of raw materials and intermediate goods, promote specialisation of production processes based on strengths of individual countries. (AGENCIES)

Coke signs perfect relations at over Rs one crore

NEW DELHI, Oct 6: Coca-Cola India has contracted leading PR firm perfect relations for image building and public relations over ten states in India in the wake of recent controversy over pesticides in softdrinks.

The mega deal, which sources said, was closed at over Rs one crore, comes after admission that sales were adversely hit due to allegations levelled by the Centre for Science and Environment.

Perfect relations’ Bobby Kewalramani told PTI "in coke, we have bagged one of the largest accounts in the history of public relations in India. We have to help coke ensure that its image as a market leader is consistent with reality". (PTI)

Dollar retains jobs-led buoyancy, ECB stance mulled

LONDON, Oct 6: The dollar touched a one-week high on the euro and recovered versus the yen on Monday, buoyed by a surprise rise in US payrolls last week which fanned hopes for a stronger US recovery.

Central banks were the focus with traders contemplating what was beginning to look like the bank of Japan’s new line in the sand for yen strength at 110.00 yen per dollar and comments from outgoing European Central bank President Wim Duisenberg.

The Financial Times said Duisenberg implied in a interview with its Spanish sister paper expansion that the ECB was unlikely to intervene to temper the euro’s rise against the dollar. It has gained 10 percent this year versus the greenback.

But a ECB spokesman said Duisenberg did not comment on euro intervention in the interview.

Ryan Shea, senior international economist at bank one in London said: "It’s likely the ECB will not intervene, an interest rate cut is more likely, but it is something that will limit the upside for the euro."

"In terms of euro/dollar direction, most of it is still post-payrolls. Many people found Friday’s payrolls quite comforting from the point of view that the US economic recovery is probably a bit more sustainable."

By 0740 GMT the dollar stood unchanged on the day at 1.1577 after rising to the one-week high of 1.1533. It hit a three-month low of 1.1768 last week.

It was a quarter of a percent up from late Friday levels against the yen at 111.14 yen but still only one yen away from a three-year low set last week.

The greenback came under brief pressure in Asia after Jiji new agency, citing financial sources in Beijing, reported that China’s central bank was considering revaluing the yuan by nearly 30 percent over the next five years.

The group of seven (G7) industrialised nations, in a statement on September 20, called for more flexibility on exchange rates, a call the market concluded was aimed at Japan and China in particular.

Some analysts were expecting the dollar to hover near current levels against the yen this week since the market might be coming to respect a line in the sand the Japanese authorities drew at 110 yen by intervening loudly through the US federal reserve last week to support the greenback.

"The dollar’s weakness last week was based on speculation about two things — that Japan won’t be able to aggressively intervene in the wake of the G7 communique and that the US was opposed to Japan’s intervention," said Toru Umemoto, currency strategist at Morgan stanley.

"But Japan has continued to intervene and stopped the dollar’s fall, and they did it through the fed. Plus we got those payroll figures. So the momentum seems to have abated and I would expect a relatively quiet week ahead."

Japan’s top financial diplomat, Zembei Mizoguchi, repeated a familiar line on Monday saying the Japanese authorities would take action if currency movements deviated from fundamentals.

Euro zone policy makers say the euro is bearing more than its fair share of the burden of dollar appreciation to adjust the rising US current account gap.

Spanish newspaper expansion quoted duisenberg as saying the ECB would do all it can to ensure the dollar’s correction was slow and gradual.

"We hope and pray that this adjustment, which is unavoidable, will be slow and gradual. Until now, the adjustment is only against the euro," he said.

German Finance Minister Hans Eichel was quoted in a newspaper saying that the euro zone must be careful currency movements were not too rapid.

Eurozone July retail sales data is due at 1000 GMT. (AGENCIES)

No move to spilt IOC: Naik

NEW DELHI, Oct 6: Despite Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie’s asseration that Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will be spilt into two companies, the Petroleum Ministry has said that there was no such move since it was not mentioned or discussed at the last week’s cabinet committee on disinvestment meeting.

Highly-placed sources asked how can the IOC be spilt at a time when the Government is trying to make the country’s only fortune 500 company a multi-national company.

"IOC has entered into retail business in Sri Lanka as well as Mauritius and is now trying to enter into other countries, becoming a leading retail company of the developing countreies , officials said and added that the IOC has also been given the task of setting up a petro-chemical project in Iran.

"If the retail business of IOC is taken away, what will happen in those countries, where it is operating only as a retail dealer of the petro products," the sources said.

Giving details of last week’s CCD meeting, sources said Union Law and Justice Minister Arun Jaitley had suggested for selling IOC shares to other petroleum companies like BPCL, HPCL.

The option of selling IOC shares was endorsed by Petroleum Minister Ram Naik himself, who, during the CCD meeting, said his ministry would work out the suggestion, which could be taken up at the three ministers’ committee, set up to discuss all options relating to disinvestment of oil companines.

Mr Naik, Mr Shourie and Mr Jaitley are members of committee.

The Government, on Friday, had rejected the proposal of filing a review petition but decided to file for clarification in the Supreme Court of its order stalling the sale of the BPCL and the HPCL.

The Government has agreed to examine the option of selling Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) shares to the other public sector oil companies to meet the shortfall in budgeted revenues under the "disinvestment proceeds" head.

The CCD has also decided that efforts should be made for consenseus among the NDA partners as well as opposition so that a bill for repealing the act under which BPCL and HPCL were acquired, as directed by the Supreme Court, could be passed by Parliament.

However, the Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, who was present at the meeting, expressed his reservations on such a move, stating to the CCD that main oppostion party may not agree to the proposal.

The option paper, prepared by the Disinvestment Ministry, has suggested six options including promulgating of an ordiance, seeking clarification from the Apex Court and filing a review petition, which has to be done before October 16. (UNI)

Ispat lines up Rs 890 crore investment over next 15-18 months

KOLKATA, Oct 6: Fresh from getting huge reprieve following approval of their Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) proposal nine months back, Pramod Mittal promoted Ispat Industries Limited (IIL) has drawn up an ambitious Rs 890 crore investment plan to augment production facility and bring down cost to improve bottom line.

"We will be investing about Rs 890 crore during the next 15-18 months on setting up our own captive iron ore mines, increasing hot metal production capacity, expansion of jetty capacity to handle 10 million ton of cargo, develop production facility for replacement of iron ore and pellets and set up a 110 Mw captive power plant to reduce cost of production of steel," IIL chairman and managing director Pramod Mittal said.

He said the entire amount would be arranged from internal accruals and they would not approach institutions for extension of debt facilities, except for power plant for which equity arrangement has already been made.

"Completion of all these projects during next 15-18 months will result in an annual saving of Rs 1135 crore to the company," Mittal said.

To a querry, he said the equity portion for power plant had already been arranged and negotiations were on with institutions for financial closure. ICICI bank has already committed to extend a credit line of Rs 50 crore for the project.

Mittal said, they were expecting three per cent increase in their domestic steel market share to 14 per cent this fiscal from 11 per cent last fiscal and exports was also expected to increase from 4.80 lakh ton last year to 7.00 lakh tone.

Mittal said post CDR Ispat had started negotiations with foreign lenders to convert their bonds and a foreign bank was in talks with them.

"Debt settlement with foreign lenders will bring in a one time saving of Rs 547 crore and recurring annual saving of Rs 50 crore," he said.

About setting up captive mines, the CMD said, "we are going to buy mines and negotiations are going on for this,"

"Hopefully, we will be in mining in next two years. We are doing due deligence and feasibility study is going on," he said, but refused to hazard any guess on the volume that they would derive from the mines.

"It is difficult to look at volumes right now, because a lot of studies, including siesmic study, needed to be carried," he said.

He also indicated that they would possibly acquire mines in Goa and Karnataka as these were the most suitable locations to them. (PTI)

India to connect New Delhi with Hanoi by rail

BALI, Oct 6: In a move that may pose a serious challenge to the economic domination of China in the region apart from paving the way for large-scale interaction with the ASEAN countries, India has decided to establish a rail link between New Delhi and Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

Official sources said the proposed rail link would serve multiple purposes besides cementing India’s ties with ASEAN, one of the fastest growing regional groupings.

The rail link would help a great deal in correcting the trade imbalance as India’s economic ties were presently vibrant with only few of the ten Asean countries, they added.

The sources said friendly countries like Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar would be on the proposed rail route, which would obviously enable India to take on the competition in the region posed by China.

Beijing has reportedly already started work on a rail line between Singapore and Kuoming in southern China which would run through most of the ASEAN region.

The finer details of the rail link were still being worked out. India was in touch with the countries concerned on how the extremely difficult terrain was to be negotiated for constructing the rail line.

The sources said they were not in a position at this stage to say anything on the length of the rail line or how much it would cost.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also spoken about the rail line during his address to the second India-ASEAN business summit in early September in New Delhi.

"Under the Mekong-Ganga cooperation, we are looking at a New Delhi to Hanoi rail link," he had told the participants.

Mr Vajpayee had also told the gathering that work had already started on a trilateral highway project linking Thailand, Myanmar and India.

This highway could further link up with the existing road networks in ASEAN. These highway and rail projects, when realised, would provide affordable transport links for large-scale India-ASEAN interaction, the Prime Minister had observed.

The sources said the proposed highway, which might come up before the rail link becomes a reality, would usher in development in the region at a faster pace. (UNI)

India looking forward to enhance investments in SE Asia: Sinha

BALI (INDONESIA), Oct 6: Declaring India’s support for "integration" of 10-member ASEAN, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha today said New Delhi was looking forward to opportunities to enhance investments in South East Asia while cooperating in guarding security of sea lanes in the region.

"It is not not just two-way trade. India is looking for investment opportunities (in ASEAN) and exchanging technology," Sinha, who is accompanying Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the second Indo-ASEAN summit here said.

Lauding Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri for holding the 9th ASEAN summit and the India-ASEAN summit in Bali, which was hit by a terrorist strike last year killing over 200 people, he said the decision to organize the meetings gave a clear messsage that countries fighting the war against the scourge would not be cowed down by terrorist threats.

Observing that India and the regional grouping have been cooperating in a lot of security issues, the minister said India was extending help in guarding sea lanes. "We have an understanding of the security requirements (of the region) apart from the threat of terrorism," he told Doordarshan.

On the issue of integration of ASEAN, Sinha said four of the grouping’s newly inducted members— Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia — were being assisted by New Delhi to "catch up" with the rest of six more developed countries.

ASEAN is currently chaired by Indonesia and includes the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia Brunei and Thailand besides the four lesser developed countries.

Sinha said India was "encouraging the process of integration" of ASEAN, which he termed as a "very important" grouping for the country.

India would sign a joint declaration to combat terrorism, a framework agreement envisaged to lead to a free trade arrangement with ASEAN in about a decade and a treaty of amity and cooperation with South East Asia, during the delegation’s visit here.

Referring to the first India-ASEAN summit which was attended by the Prime Minister last year in Cambodia, Sinha termed as significant the efforts in the last 12 months to reach the stage of entering into the framework agreement.

Cooperation between India and ASEAN meant covering a population of 1.5 billion people, he said, adding the grouping offered huge GDP opportunities and excellent trade opportunities for India.

The minister, however, said India, whose tariffs were considered to be high, has to reduce them and bring them on par with those existing in ASEAN.

Meanwhile, in an interview to ‘The Jakarta Post’ daily, India’s Ambassador to Indonesia Hemant Krishan Singh dismissed a suggestion that there was growing rivalries among the ‘regional superpowers’ like India, China and Japan maintaining that "we view this not as a situation of emerging rivalries, but as a situation of emerging partnerships."

Singh said "these partnerships are emerging between ASEAN and Japan, between China and ASEAN, and now also between ASEAN and India.

"....We look at it, therefore, as a much more wholesome package of regional partnerships. As far as related countries are concerned, we enjoy excellent relations with China — our relationship is growing both in terms of political understanding and in terms of our economic relationship," the Indian envoy said.

Similarly, he said, India had a long-standing economic relationship with Japan. (PTI)

Tata steel registers record production of steel in H1

KOLKATA, Oct 6: Tata steel, the private sector steel major, has registered a record 10 per cent jump in its saleable steel production to 2.01 million tonnes in the first half of current fiscal as compared to 1.83 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year.

The company’s hot metal and crude steel production were at a record high of 2.23 million tonnes and 2.11 million tonnes as against 2.07 million tonnes and 1.91 million tonnes respectively, company officials said here today.

The record production figures were supported by strong domestic sales and exports.

The officials said total sales of flat products were recorded at 1.29 million tonnes and long products at 0.63 million tonnes, totalling 1.92 million tonnes of steel sales in the first half of the current fiscal.

Exports also exceeded 0.3 million tonnes, the officials said.

The officials said the company’s efforts to delink the performance from the cyclical nature of commodity based steel prices by enriching the product mix, entering into synergistic partnerships with customers and by branding its products had paid rich dividends.

The sale of branded products like Tata Tiscon reinforcing bars, Tata Shaktee corrugated galvanised sheets and Tata Steelium cold rolled sheets, witnessed a significant spurt.

The strategy has continued to facilitate the company’s ambition to becoming a eva positive company in future, the officials added. (UNI)

CII, ASEAN set up two task forces in pharma and agriculture

BALI (INDONESIA), Oct 6: Confederation of Indian Industry and ASEAN today set up two task forces in pharmaceuticals and agriculture and food processing to prepare a strategy document to outline a roadmap for cooperation in these sectors.

The strategy document would be discussed at the next meeting of ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN ABAC) in Myanmar in December, a CII spokesman said.

A CII delegation is here to attend various business conferences of ASEAN coinciding with second India-ASEAN summit on October 8 to be attended by Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee.

The task force on pharmaceuticals would be led by jose concepcion from the philippines and a representative from Vietnam on behalf of ASEAN ABAC. While from India it would be CEO Ranbaxy D S Brar and Deputy Director General, CII, Dilip Chenoy.

The task force on agriculture and food processing would be led by dato Syed Amin Aljeffri, MD, Mgi-Aljeffri, Malaysia and the co-leader would be Yogi Deveshawar, chairman, ITC, India.

"Based on the success of these two pilots other sectors could be identified, CII and ABAC secretariat would exchange periodic information on the progress of work on these two task forces," the spokesman said.

He said the total import of pharmaceuticals in ASEAN was US dollars 2.7 billion of which 80 per cent was not not made in ASEAN and only USd 220 million was imported from China or India.

Jamshyd N Godrej, chairman of CII’s ASEAN committee said "as a first step the task forces would look at means to address implementation issues, doing away with non-tariff barriers and promoting investment".

Lauding the position taken by India at the Cancun WTO meeting, ABAC said for once the developing countries all got together and spoke in one voice, the spokesman said, adding ASEAN business community felt that this partnership should continue. (PTI)

FTA will be signed during Vajpayee’s Thailand visit

BANGKOK, Oct 6: Several accords, including the free trade agreement will be signed during Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee’s three-day visit to Thailand this Wednesday, the first undertaken by an Indian Prime Minister since 10 years.

Indian Ambassador to Thailand Leela Ponappa told reporters ahead of Vajpayee’s official visit to Thailand that the Indian Premier’s visit was a substantive step in the implementation of India’s ‘look east’ policy.

An agreement signed during the visit would provide a platform to more such openings in areas of cooperation in scientific applications, tourism and trade, she said.

Vajpayee, who will arrive in Bangkok from the ASEAN summit in Bali on Wednesday night will hold talks with his thai counterpart Thaksin Shinawatara and sign several agreements including the landmark free trade agreement with Thailand.

An MoU on agricultural cooperation will be signed as also one on cooperation in tourism and another on cooperation in biotechnology.

The Prime Minister will be accompanied by External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley, Principal Secretary to the PM Brajesh Misra and a group of top-level businessmen representing India’s top business houses.

The highlight of Prime Minister’s visit will be to address the joint session of the Thai Parliament. Officials said that it was the first time ever that a foreign leader was addressing the Thai Parliament.

"Premier Vajpayee’s visit and the scheduled signing of the FTA will pave way for strengthening trade ties with Thailand and also present good investment opportunities," Ashoke Thakur, past president of the Thai-Indian Chamber of Commerce and a real estate businessman told PTI.

Thakur, who is of Indian origin, came to Bangkok when he was 18 years old. He felt that with China emerging as a major economy, it was time India too became serious and got its act together.

"Every Indian should act as an Ambassador of his country outside India and encourage other Indians and foreigners to invest in India, but a good business climate has to be created to make this happen," he said.

India and Thailand have tentatively agreed on an ‘early harvest’ package to slash tariffs to zero on 83 products as part of the bilateral FTA. The list of 83 fruits, vegetables, raw materials and other goods represents about 7.7 per cent of total two-way trade worth one billion US dollars. Ponappa said a joint negotiating team from India and Thailand had been meeting since January this year to discuss the FTA early harvest package.

She said a joint study conducted last year had concluded that by establishing a FTA there were significant prospects for Thailand’s exports to increase by 100 per cent said and for India’s exports to increase by 40 per cent.

India and Thailand may also consider "twining Port Blair and Phuket"," she added. Phuket is Thailand’s tourism’s great success story.

The Prime Minister will also address the business community during his trip to Bangkok and also call on Thai King Bhumibol before leaving for New Delhi on October 11 from the city of Chiangmai where Vajpayee is scheduled to visit a royal project. (PTI)

Naina Lal, Vidya Chhabria again in fortune 50 powerful women

NEW DELHI, Oct 6: Investment banking Guru Naina Lal Kidwai and Jumbo group chairperson Vidya Chhabria have moved up in the fortune list of world’s 50 most powerful corporate women, proving that Indian women are a force to reckon with in the global business arena.

While Ms Chhabria has moved up six notches to the 38th rank from 44th last year, 46-year-old Ms Kidwai - managing director of HSBC securities and capital markets India - has jumped up to the 47th rank from 50th in the 2002 list.

Ms Kidwai "is probably the highest paid women executive in India," says the Forbe magazine.

The "international power 50" is composed of women who have an operating role in business profit outside the US (including women based in the US who run overseas divisions, such as coke’s Mary Minnick), says the magazine in its latest issue.

The fortune ranking takes into reckoning those women who are vested with operating responsibilities and not those who merely exercise shareholding power. The journal measured the attribute of "power" by the yardsticks of revenues, profits controlled and importance of business in global economy besides others.

Ms Chhabria successfully took over the reigns of the two billion-dollar Jumbo group after her husband Manu Chaabria’s death last year and.

The Forbe magazine, while selecting Chhabria for the third annual ranking of the international power 50, has lauded the efforts of the 55 year old industrialist in taking up the challenge of running the group.

She runs the group’s 28 business with the help of two of her three daughters and its flagship business, the Dubai-based Jumbo electronics, is the largest distributor of Sony products in the world.

The Jumbo group’s Indian companies have interests in brewing and supply-chain management.

Ms Kidwai made her name at Morgan Stanley, which she joined in 1994 after a stint at Anz Grindlay’s bank. She engineered a joint venture with investment bank JM financials, making the resulting firm one of the largest in that industry in India.

She also brokered a joint venture between at T and two conglomerates, owned by the Birla and Tatas, to create the telecom company idea celluar. (UNI)

Nalco’s half-yearly performance improves

NEW DELHI, Oct 6: The Orissa-based public sector undertaking, National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO), has produced 148,102 tonnes of aluminium cast metal and 733,800 tonnes of calcined alumina during April-September, 2003 as against the target of 141,200 tonnes and 777,000 tonnes respectively.

According to an official release issued here today, during the period the company produced 2,134,165 tonnes of Bauxite against a target of 1,985,000 tonnes.

The company sold 146,331 tonnes of aluminium metal against a target of 141,400 tonnes during these six months. The aluminium export during the period was 67,634 tonnes against a target of 68,400 tonnes. It sold 447,243 tonnes of alumina/hydrate during this period against a target of 484,000 tonnes. The captive power plant of the company during the period produced 2,497.12 Million Units (MU) of electricity against a target of 2,476.5 MU and sold 258.22 MU to Gridco.

During September 2003, Nalco produced 24,984 tonnes of aluminium cast metal against the target of 23,200 tonnes and 404,675 tonnes of bauxite against a target of 360,000 tonnes. During the month, it produced 105.4 tonnes of calcined alumina against a target of 120,000 tonnes. Net generation of electricity from its captive power plant, during the month was 409.2 million units against a target of 406 MU. It sold 45.44 MU of power to Gridco during the month. (UNI)