64 expelled on the first day of HSC, equivalent exams in Bangladesh

Sixty-four students were expelled for cheating in the exams hall on the first day of the Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent examination on Tuesday, the education ministry said.

The ministry's control room also said that 7,714 students had not taken the exam in the Bangla first paper held on the day.

Of the 64 expelled, the highest of 40 students were expelled under the Technical Education Board, four under the Dhaka education board, four under the Jessore education board, five under the Rajshahi education board, two under the Chittagong education board, three under the Dinajpur education board, five under the Madrassah Education Board and one under the Barisal education board. No students were expelled

under the Comilla and Sylhet education boards.

The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, on Tuesday visited the Dhaka College and City College centres.

He said that the examinations were being held in a copy-free atmosphere. He said that government had taken all measures for the successful holding of the examinations.

However, many students in the Dhaka College and other centres in the city complained that they could not reach the exam halls on time because of severe traffic congestion.

Tariq-ul Islam, a student taking exams at the Dhaka College centre, said that he was 15 minutes for the exams. 'I started for the hall one hour before the schedule. Yet I could not reach the exams hall on time,' he said. Many students taking exams at the Dhaka College centre could not reach the halls on time.

This year 7,79,441 examinees from 7,288 educational institutes were registered to take the examinations at 2,074 centres across the country. Of the total 779,441 examinees, 4,24,823 are male and 3,54,618 are female.

This year, physically challenged students got 15 minutes of extra time to in the exams halls.

These examinations were also held in five overseas centres in Jeddah, Riyadh, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Libya for a total of 191 students.

The examinations will end on May 31. The result will be published after 60 days of the exams.

Source: New Age

Bangladesh private bus owners seek increase in fares whilst consumers suffer

Archita Baroi

Private bus companies which provide 98 percent of the city's bus services want to increase the bus fares though many city commuters do not think that the companies even now serve their basic needs.

Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Samity secretary general and Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Samity general secretary Khandaker Enayet Ullah told New Age that they have applied to the communication ministry for permission to raise the fares of privately owned buses and threatened if the permission is not given, they would stop their services.

They say that at the current fare the commuters pay the bus owners do not earn any profit and that, as a result, investors have lost interest in the sector.

Enayet Ullah said that the government has fixed the rate at Tk 1.2 per km. 'But this is not profitable for bus owners', he said.

He, however, did not say how much an increase in the fares they were seeking from the ministry.

Commuters however told New Age about the difficulties they suffer while using the city's bus service.

Atiqul Islam, a regular commuter who travels on Razarbag to Farmgate on 'Shakalpa Parbahan' and 'Labbayek Paribahan', told New Age that while he spent Tk10 to go from Razarbag to Farmgate, a distance of about 6 km, he had to spend the same on the route from from Razarbag to Malibagh, which was only a length of about 1 km.

Mirpur residents complained that on the Mirpur route there were not enough 'ticket' buses with most of the 'sitting' buses failing to provide a quality service.

Mirpur resident Sanzida Hossain said that female commuters do not get seats in buses from Mirpur because there are no reserved seats for women in the 'sitting' buses like the 'Bikalpa' bus. The only two ticket service buses in Mirupur are a BRTC bus and a 'Shakalpa Paribahan'  bus.

Another commuter, Safiq Arman, said the number of buses are much too few taking into account the number of passengers.

Mithun Rahman said, 'If the bus companies had competition then they might provide much better services. The government should also take initiatives to improve the situation'.

Dhaka metropolitan city area is served by around 4,000 buses and mini-buses. But the bus owners claim that due to mismanagement in the city's transport system in some parts of the city there are far too few buses, while in other places there are too many buses with the vehicles travelling with very few passengers.

Enayet Ullah said that about 150 private bus owners were running bus services in Dhaka city at present.

He claimed that in the last two years around 40 bus owners have stopped their services with only two new owners coming into the sector during the period.

'The price increase in CNG fuel and the level of traffic congestion are the reasons for the losses in this business', Enayet Ullah claimed.

'Previously, every day a bus could run seven or eight round trips, but now this has dropped by half,' Enayet said.

Other reasons he gave for lower profitability in the sector, and fewer buses, is that buses are sometimes requisitioned by the government agencies, strikes by opposition political parties and a tendency of students not to pay their fares.

State-owned Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation also provides bus services on ten routes in the city although this comprises only two percent of total bus operation in Dhaka.

General Manager of BRTC Quazi Shafique Uddin told New Age they would provide more buses in Dhaka city soon and have a target of operating 50 percent of buses in Dhaka in the near future.

Source: New Age

Special body mulls more Jatiya Sangsad reserved seats for women

The special committee formed to amend the constitution on Tuesday agreed to make a recommendation for increasing the number of reserved seats for the women in parliament.

The committee at a meeting also agreed that the technocrat ministers should be elected lawmakers within six months to continue in their offices, meeting sources said.

They said the committee held discussion up to Article 93 while the members decided to recommend increasing the number of seats for women lawmakers from existing 45 to either 60 or 100.

'We have in principle agreed to increase the number of reserved seats for the women. We are yet to decide whether it would be increased to 60 or 100,' committee member Abdul Matin Khasru told reporters after the meeting, adding that they would also consider whether the women lawmakers would be elected directly.

He said that the con-stituencies should be distributed in such a way so that one constituency should not get more than one lawmaker.

Talking to New Age, an AL member of the committee said that the seats for women would be increased gradually and for the first five years it would be 60.

The committee also discussed how to bring some changes in Article 56 inserting the provision that the technocrat ministers should prove their popularity through direct elections within six months of being appointed.

'We have discussed that if the technocrat ministers failed to be elected as lawmakers, their office would be vacant after six months,' said a committee member, adding that the committee was yet to make any recommendations in this regard.

He said that the present Article 56 should be replaced by the original Article in the constitution of 1972.

The committee also recommended that some changes should be brought to Article 70 ensuring more freedom for the lawmakers to express opinion in the parliament.

'The lawmakers will be able to express personal opinion, even if it contradicts the party's decision except some vital issues like no-confidence motion, finance issue and national security issues,' another AL member told New Age.

He also said that Article 78 regarding the privileges and immunities of the lawmakers should be unchanged but the

committee would make recommendations to upgrade the status of the MPs in the order of precedence.

The committee also discussed on keeping the provision for having two Deputy Speakers in the parliament but no recommendation in this regard was made, sources said.

The prime minister on July 21 formed a 15-member special parliamentary committee to recommend amendment proposals for the constitution following the High Court verdict regarding the fifth amendment of the constitution. The committee is  headed by deputy leader of the House, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury.

The committee held 15 meetings so far and the initial discussions would be completed after next two meetings scheduled to be held today  and tomorrow, the committee sources said.

After the final review by the committee, the bill for constitution amendment would be placed before the House in a special session in late April or early May, the sources said.

Source: New Age

No new gas connections to households in Bangladesh

The government has decided not to give new gas connections to households to maximise potential use of gas amid severe crisis and liquid petroleum gas will be promoted as an alternative to cooking fuel.

The energy secretary, Mohammad Mesbah Uddin, announced the decision as he was answering the questions of journalists at a press conference on Petrobangla's achievements and roadmap held at Petrocentre on Tuesday.

'We mainly want to reduce gas supply through pipeline. People will use LPG [liquid petroleum gas] for cooking,' Mesbah said.

The prime minister's energy adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, the state minister of power, energy and mineral resources, Mohammad Enamul Huq, and the Petrobangla chairman, Hossain Monsur, attended the conference.     

Amid severe gas crisis, the government has stopped giving new gas connections to the industries, commercial and household consumers from October 2009.

Mesbah said that Petrobangla was set to increase LPG production. In addition, the government was planning to go for LPG bottling projects under public-private partnership, he said adding that the country had produced 20,000 tonnes of LPG in 2010.

Answering a question whether it will create discriminations between household gas consumers as gas supplied through pipeline is cheaper than LPG, Mesbah said that the government would reduce

the price gap between LPG and pipeline gas to the households.

The government will increase the price of gas supplied through pipeline and reduce the price of LPG.

Petrobangla's distribution subsidiaries now supply 224 million cubic feet of gas a day to about 16 lakh households for cooking to meet a demand for 275 million cubic feet.

Hossain Monsur said that the country was running short of 500 million cubic feet of gas a day.

He said that Petrobangla with its subsidiaries and international oil companies would be able to supply 3000 million cubic feet of gas a day to the national grid by 2012.

'We will be able to supply gas according to the demand by 2012. Petrobangla by its oil and gas exploration subsidiary Bapex has planned to drill at least 34 exploration, development and work-over wells in different gas fields by 2013', he said.

He also said that Petrobangla has repaired (work-over) nine gas wells in different fields and added 284 million cubic feet of natural gas a day to the national grid from January 2008 to December 2010.

Source: New Age

Bangladesh Supreme Court dismisses Muhammad Yunus appeal

David Bergman and M Moneruzzaman

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court dismissed on Tuesday an application filed by Muhammad Yunus that had sought the court's permission to appeal against March's High Court ruling that had upheld the legality of the Bangladesh Bank's order seeking his removal as managing director of the Grameen Bank.

Following a 10-minute adjournment, that had been preceded by three hours of legal argument, the chief justice, Khairul Haque, told the lawyers and journalists in the court that the application had been 'dismissed.' He then left the room with the six other appellate court judges, without giving reasons.

At a press conference, held immediately after the Appellate Division's order dismissing the leave application, the attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, said that Yunus can no longer continue to hold the post of managing director legally as the apex court had now dismissed his application to appeal against the High Court order.

'Yunus had no further legal remedy,' he said.

However, a few hours later, Yunus's lawyers filed a new application seeking a recall of this 'dismissal' order on the basis that the court had made its ruling before hearing all the arguments that they wanted to place before it.

Mustafizur Rahman Khan, a member of Yunus's legal team, told New Age that whilst such an application was not common, 'it is not without precedent.'

'We are saying in the application that before the order of dismissal had been passed, we could not finish giving the entire case and we want to represent the whole case to the court,' he said.

'The order has not yet been drawn up and signed and we are praying for an opportunity to present the case fully.'

The application for recall of the order will be heard this morning along with another application, filed by nine of the directors of the Grameen Bank who, along with Yunus, had sought leave to appeal against the High Court order.

In the afternoon, the Grameen Bank postponed at short notice a press conference that was due to be held at its headquarters at Mirpur.

The hearing on Tuesday started with Dr Kamal Hossain arguing that the High Court should have issued 'a rule' on the Bangladesh Bank to explain its order of removal so that the Bangladesh Bank could file an 'affidavit in opposition.'

Without this affidavit, Kamal argued, it was not possible for the High Court to come to a number of factual conclusions that it had made in its decision.

He also argued that the threshold for the High Court to issue such a 'rule' was not high and quoted from a number of Indian court decisions that stated that the High Court should issue a rule if the matter 'was not frivolous and requires consideration.'

Kamal emphasised the importance of natural justice which he said should have required the managing director of the Grameen Bank receiving a show cause notice. 'After 30 years a letter suddenly comes and tells [Yunus] to go.'

In response to questions by the chief justice, Kamal argued that the 1993 Grameen Bank Staff Regulations, which imposed a regulation on all 'staff' to retire at 60 years of age, did not apply to the managing director.

The attorney general argued that the 1993 regulations did apply and as a result at the age of 60, Muhammad Yunus should have retired.

He said that as Yunus was no longer legally employed as managing director of the Grameen Bank from 2000 onwards, he did not need to be given a show cause notice in 2011.

Tawfique Nawaz, one of two lawyers acting for the Bangladesh Bank, accepted that although his client was guilty of acquiescence and had 'totally defaulted' in allowing Yunus to remain as managing director of the Grameen Bank since he reached the age of 60, 'the action of the law cannot be stopped.'

He also argued that there were no factual issues in contest which required a supplementary affidavit from the Bangladesh Bank and said that Yunus had no fundamental legal right to seek a remedy before the court.

The background to the legal dispute goes back to an order sent by a general manger at the Bangladesh Bank on March 2, 2011 to the chairman of the board of directors of the Grameen Bank seeking the removal of Muhammad Yunus on the basis that he was past his retirement age.

On the following day, Yunus and nine of the directors of the Grameen Bank filed an application seeking a 'stay' of the operation of the order as well as 'a rule' to be issued on the Bangladesh Bank to explain why the order should not be considered illegal.

There followed three days of legal argument which ended with the High Court bench of Justice Md Momtazuddin Ahmed and Justice Gobindra Chandra Tagore on March 8 summarily dismissing both the applications.

The High Court judges ruled that Yunus 'had/has no legal right and status to hold the post of managing director of the Grameen Bank… after expiry of his age of retirement at the 60^th year. Therefore, he has no legal right or even no locus standi to challenge the impugned orders.'

On March 9, the lawyers representing both Yunus and the nine Grameen Bank directors sought a stay of the High court order with the Appellate Division chamber judge.

Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, however, decided that the matter should be heard before a full bench of the Appellate Division on March 15. Subsequent adjournments resulted in Tuesday's hearing.

Source: New Age

Gaddafi using human shields to curb air strikes: NATO

Muammar Gaddafi is using human shields to foil air strikes on his forces, NATO officials said on Wednesday as rebels angry at alleged Western inaction battled anew to advance on the key coast road.

In their eastern heartland, ill-trained rebels set out yet again to retake terrain lost in several headlong retreats from Gaddafi's superior firepower, reporting heavy fighting west of their frontline town of Ajdabiyah as both sides tried to end a ragged stalemate in the oil-producing state's civil war.

Mohamed el-Masrafy, a member of a rebel special forces unit, said clashes broke out at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) after government forces were resupplied with ammunition and swung eastwards out of the oil port of Brega, 80 km (50 miles) from Ajdabiyah.

NATO found itself on the defensive against rebel complaints that air strikes had subsided since it took over the mission from a U.S.-British-French coalition last week.

Spokeswoman Carmen Romero maintained that "the pace of our operations continues unabated. The ambition and the position of our strikes has not changed."

She said that relieving the siege of Misrata, a rebel enclave in the west, remained the priority but conceded that Gaddafi's army was proving a resourceful, elusive target.

"The situation on the ground is constantly evolving. Gaddafi's forces are changing tactics, using civilian vehicles, hiding tanks in cities such as Misrata and using human shields to hide behind," Romero told reporters in Brussels.

She reiterated NATO's position that air power had destroyed 30 percent of Gaddafi's military capacity thus far.

Western air power has fashioned a rough military balance in Libya, preventing Gaddafi troops from overrunning the motley rebel force dominating the east -- but not forceful enough for the insurgents to advance solidly hundreds of kilometers along the Mediterranean coast to the capital Tripoli in the west.

Masrafy told Reuters that the front line was about 20 km (12 miles) east of Brega, the focus of a weeklong to-and-fro battle. A sustained government assault on Tuesday drove rebels about halfway back to Ajdabiyah, gateway to their Benghazi powerbase.

Tuesday's pullback "wasn't a full withdrawal, it's back and forth," said Hossam Ahmed, a defector from Gaddafi's army as pick-ups loaded with machineguns and rocket launchers rolled westwards while several families fleeing the fighting in cars packed with their belongings passed in the opposite direction.

Journalists were prevented on Wednesday from heading west from Ajdabiyah, making it difficult to assess the fighting.

Like other rebels, Ahmed expressed frustration at what he called NATO's hesitant approach. "There have been no air strikes. We hear the sound, but they don't bomb anything."

Source: Reuters

IMF economists see dire future for US taxpayers

AFP, WASHINGTON, April 4: Americans will need to pay much heavier taxes and accept less from public healthcare to put state finances on a sustainable track, according to an IMF study published Monday.

'The United States is facing an untenable fiscal situation due to the combination of high fiscal deficits, an aging population and rapid growth in government-provided healthcare benefits,' three International Monetary Fund economists said in a report.

The economists analyzed the large US public deficit and debt levels and their relation to the demands aging Baby Boomers will place on the government's Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs, while the birth rate lags at a record low.

In 'An Analysis of US Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?,' they said the problem lies in government entitlement programs and especially healthcare—among the most expensive in the world—that face rapidly rising costs in coming years.

Under their 'baseline scenario,' Americans need to pay more taxes and the government must cut spending on Baby Boomers—those Americans between about 45 and 65 -- and their immediate heirs.

Such steps 'would go a long way in returning the United States to a fiscally sustainable path.'

Fully eliminating current deficits and the long-term shortfalls on social plan commitments for the current generation 'would require all taxes to go up and all transfers to be cut immediately and permanently by 35 per cent,' they said.

'A delay in the adjustment makes it more costly,' they wrote.

'Unless currently living Americans pay more in net taxes or unless government spending on current generations is curtailed, future Americans will face net tax rates that are about 21.5 per centage points... higher than those facing current newborn Americans.'

The study came amid budget tensions between President Barack Obama's administration and opposition Republicans over taxes and spending, and as the spiraling US public debt nears its statutory ceiling of about $14.3 trillion.

The Treasury Department said debt totaled $14.19 trillion as of February 28.

Republicans have said any increase in the debt ceiling must be coupled to deep spending cuts, while denying that they will let Washington default on its obligations and precipitate a likely financial crisis.

The authors of the IMF study were economists Nicoletta Batini, Giovanni Callegari and Julia Guerreiro.

Australia holds interest rates at 4.75pc

AFP, SYDNEY, April 5: Australia's central bank kept interest rates unchanged at 4.75 per cent Tuesday, in line with expectations, saying inflation was likely to stay within target.

The Reserve Bank of Australia last hiked the cash rate in November 2010 in a pre-emptive move against inflation amid the threat of rising commodity prices and a tightening labour market.

'At today's meeting, the Board judged that the current mildly restrictive stance of monetary policy remained appropriate in view of the general macroeconomic outlook,' said Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens.

'Inflation is consistent with the medium-term objective of monetary policy, having declined significantly from its peak in 2008.

'These moderate outcomes are being assisted by the high level of the exchange rate, the earlier decline in wages growth and strong competition in some key markets, which have worked to offset large rises in utilities prices.'

He added that production losses due to floods in Queensland in January were temporarily raising prices for some agricultural produce, which will boost the March quarter consumer price index.

'But these prices should fall back later in the year. Overall, looking through these temporary effects, the Bank expects that inflation over the year ahead will continue to be consistent with the 2-3 per cent target.'

Moody’s downgrades Portugal rating by a notch

AFP, PARIS, April 5: Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday downgraded Portugal's ratings by a notch from A3 to Baa1 and warned that it expected the country to have to seek outside help to resolve its debt problems.

Moody's said its decision was 'driven primarily by increased political, budgetary and economic uncertainty, which increase the risk that the government will be unable to achieve (its) ambitious deficit reduction targets' in the period 2011-2014.

The downgrade follows others by Moody's itself and the other top ratings agencies after parliament rejected the government's latest austerity package last month, forcing its resignation.

The markets increasingly believe that Lisbon will be forced to seek outside help, like fellow eurozone strugglers Greece and Ireland last year, and are demanding ever higher rates of return to provide fresh funds to cover its debt.

On Monday, the rate of return on Portugal's benchmark 10-year bonds rose for a 10^th straight session to record highs near 8.5 per cent, an unsustainable level to have to pay for long-term funding.

Moody's said the political outlook—with elections to be held June 5 -- was uncertain following the resignation of the government and noted figures last week showing that Portugal missed its key deficit reduction targets.

The government had aimed for a public deficit of 7.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product in 2010 but this was revised up to 8.6 per cent, even further away from the EU limit of 3.0 per cent. The target for this year is 4.6 per cent.

Moody's warned that the terms of the recently agreed European Stability Mechanism (ESM) 'contemplates debt restructuring as a distinct possibility,' meaning that investors could lose money by investing in Portuguese bonds.

The ESM is to replace in 2013 the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) set up last year after the EU and International Monetary Fund bailed out Greece in May to prevent a debt default.

Moody's said it believes that the 'new government will likely approach the facility as a matter of urgency' to secure help as Portugal will not easily be able to raise fresh funds from the money markets for some time.

It was unclear how Lisbon was going to cover its debt refinancing needs over the next few months but Moody's said its eurozone partners would likely provide help on a short-term basis before it tapped the EFSF.

A ratings downgrade, which increases the risk profile of the affected country, usually results in it having to pay higher interest rates to raise fresh funds, adding to the pressure.

Malaysia exports up 10.7pc in February

AFP, KUALA LUMPUR, April 5: Malaysia on Tuesday said its exports, the mainstay of the country's economy, rose 10.7 per cent year-on-year in February although at a slower rate than the previous month.

The trade ministry said overseas shipments had hit 51.85 billion ringgit ($17.1 billion) while imports grew by 11.5 per cent to 39.21 billion ringgit.

It said total trade for February saw an annual increase of 11.0 per cent to 91.06 billion ringgit but exports decreased 5.5 per cent from January.

The increase in shipments was boosted by electrical and electronic products, liquefied natural gas, palm oil, chemicals and chemical products.

Electrical and electronic items account for about 40 per cent of Malaysia's total exports to key markets such as Singapore, China, United States, Japan and Hong Kong.

Export-dependent Malaysia, Southeast Asia's third-largest economy, was hit hard by the global slowdown but it rebounded with an impressive 7.2 per cent growth in 2010 and it is expected to grow five to six per cent this year.

Since taking power in 2009 Prime Minister Najib Razak has unveiled a series of economic reforms aimed at creating 3.3 million jobs and pushing the country towards developed nation status by 2020.

Among his promises are major infrastructure projects and financial market liberalisation, which came with a vow to stimulate the private sector to attract much-needed foreign investment.

European Commission wants more ambitious rescue fund

AFP, STRASBOURG, April 5: Eurozone governments should have taken more ambitious steps to strengthen the bloc's debt rescue mechanism, the European Commission president said Tuesday.

Jose Manuel Barroso, the head of the European Union's executive arm, said the 700-billion-euro European Stability Mechanism that was agreed by EU leaders last month was an 'important' move to protect the euro.

But the commission wanted the ESM, a permanent mechanism that will replace a temporary fund from 2013, to be given 'more flexibility' to help heavily-indebted nations, Barroso told the European Parliament.

'I will not hide the fact that the commission would have wanted to go further in several aspects of economic governance,' he said, referring to the principle of greater economic policy coordination within the EU.

The ESM will be allowed to buy bonds in the primary market—where states directly raise funds from investors—in return for strict budget cuts and other economic reforms agreed with the EU and the IMF where bailout loans are involved.

But the commission also wanted the ESM to be able to buy sovereign bonds of states in trouble in secondary markets where investors trade public debt. This would relieve the European Central Bank from a role it has had to take up on its own and which it wants to drop.

The EU executive also wanted the mechanism to provide more flexible lines of short-term credit for countries in financial difficulties to avoid the need for huge rescue plans.

After providing a bailout to Greece last year, the EU created a 440-billion-euro rescue fund to help any other state in the eurozone.

Ireland was the first state to tap that fund—the European Financial Stability Facility—late last year and fears have grown that Portugal too may need its own rescue package soon.

Bankers to succeed officials at Russia company boards

AFP, MOSCOW, April 5: Russia plans to pick investment bankers and professional directors to replace government officials at state company boards in line with President Dmitry Medvedev's orders, a report said on Tuesday.

Kommersant business daily published a list of candidates who could replace deputy prime ministers and ministers on the boards of the top 19 companies which accounted for 15 per cent of the country's gross domestic product in 2009.

Last week, Medvedev reeled off a list of measures to improve the investment climate that among other things calls for some of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's most trusted allies to stand down from company boards.

This prompted some observers to speculate that the Kremlin chief is seeking to assert himself ahead of presidential polls next year.

According to Kommersant, Igor Sechin, Putin's influential deputy and energy czar, could be replaced by Rair Simonyan, non-executive chairman at Morgan Stanley Russia, or Vyacheslav Martynov, general director for SAP CIS.

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who has to quit the board of VTB bank, could be replaced by Vladimir Gusakov, vice-president of MICEX exchange, former deputy economics minister Kirill Androsov or Nikolai Pryanishnikov, president of Microsoft Russia, the report said.

On Saturday, the Kremlin published a list of 17 companies whose boards state officials should leave by July 1. The Kremlin added that government officials should quit boards of all state companies by October 1.

Kommersant indicated that even though the lists of successors appeared to have been put together in haste, it must have taken at least several weeks to compile them.

'The presidential initiative was clearly not a completely impromptu move,' it said.

While many economists have said that if implemented, the move would improve corporate governance, others say Medvedev's order is another false dawn in an uphill struggle to dismantle a system of state control over the economy put in place under his predecessor.

Quake cuts Japan growth sharply, pickup Q3: OECD

AFP, Paris, April 5: Japanese growth will be hit sharply by last month's devastating earthquake but the economy should begin to pick up again in the third quarter as reconstruction kicks in, the OECD said Tuesday.

The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation said in a report that at this stage establishing the impact of the earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster was very difficult.

However, as a first estimate, 'growth in Japan might be reduced between 0.2 and 0.6 per centage points ... in the first quarter and by somewhere between 0.5 and 1.4 per centage points in the second quarter,' the report said.

'This includes the impact of the disaster on production in the areas hit directly, the rationing of power, the hit to confidence and supply chain disruptions.

'Reconstruction efforts are likely to begin relatively quickly and these could begin to outweigh the negative effects ... as early as the third quarter.'

At the same time, the OECD said growth in the Group of Seven top industrialised countries, excluding Japan, appears to have been faster than expected in early 2011.

As a result, the OECD said it expected 'growth in the G7 economies outside Japan could rise to an annualised rate of about 3.0 per cent in the first half of the year.'

The OECD, which groups the world's top developed economies, said that while labour market conditions have been improving, OECD-wide unemployment remains more than two per centage points above pre-crisis levels.

Inflation, too, due to rising commodity prices is on the increase, it added.

In terms of downside risks, the OECD said instability in the Middle East and North Africa driving oil prices higher 'could act as a drag on economic activity in the near term.'

The continuing eurozone debt crisis, especially in weaker member states, was another source of concern, it added.

On the positive side, the OECD said 'non-financial corporate balance sheets look very healthy and this could add momentum to economic growth via private investment.

'Moreover, in spite of still high unemployment in many countries, developments in labour markets look better than expected a few months ago, which could have a favourable impact on private consumption.

'More generally, the underlying momentum in economic growth in most countries appears stronger than in earlier projections,' it said, adding that overall 'it seems likely that the recovery is becoming self-sustained.'