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WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters): Ford Motor Co will petition to avoid a US recall of about 2.5 million vehicles with Takata air-bag inflators that the Japanese auto supplier declared defective last week, US regulators and the automaker said on Friday. Separately, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Nissan Motor Co agreed to recall 515,394 2007-2011 Versa cars after Takata declared 2.7 million vehicles to have potentially defective inflators.   Ford spokesman John Cangany said the automaker will file a petition requesting "to continue testing and analyzing our inflators." The NHTSA said the petition will seek an exemption from the recall because Ford believes the issue is inconsequential. Ford said the issue covers 2.5 million vehicles, including the 2007-11 Ranger, 2006-12 Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, 2006-11 Mercury Milan, and 2007-10 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX. Ford previously said it covered about 2.2 million vehicles.   Last week, the NHTSA said that new testing prompted Takata to declare inflators defective in Ford, Nissan and Mazda Motor Corp vehicles in some driver-side air bags built from 2012 through 2015. The NHTSA said in a statement on Friday that "testing data shows that the propellant in this inflator is degrading and on the path towards potential ruptures in the future. There are no reported ruptures in the real-world or in testing." Takata air bag inflators are already linked to 17 deaths and more than 180 injuries worldwide, and the recalls will eventually cover about 125 million inflators.  Nissan said last week it would recall 627,000 Versa cars from the 2007-12 model years, including 515,000 in the United States "out of an abundance of caution."....

Published at: 2017-07-23 00:00:06

FE Desk Mirsarai Economic Zone is expected to fetch US$ 20-25 billion investments by 2030 opening up a new era of industrialisation and job creation in the country. "We've so far received investment proposals worth around US$ 10 billion. In Mirsharai, we expect it will cross US$ 20 billion," executive chairman of the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) Paban Chowdhury said. "It won't be surprising if the real investment there stands at US$ 20-25 billion by 2030." He said there were some factors considered by the investors in making their investment decisions where connectivity was the main. "They want a location which is well-connected with highway, railway having seaport and airport proximity. The investors also consider whether the economic zone has access to sea connectivity," Mr Chowdhury said. He argued that big industrial units cannot be set up here and there and these require direct access to sea. "Mirsarai Economic Zone, being established, enjoys the direct access to sea. It's a big opportunity for the investors. We've already received proposals to establish two big steel mills," the BEZA executive head said. BEZA is now working to establish zone with China and Japan in Chittagong and Narayanganj on G2G basis. "BEZA is also in discussion with India to establish three zones where we follow the China model in terms of equity share," he said. Sharing his initial days at the BEZA back in 2014, Chowdhury said he then threw a slogan to attract investors, saying they wanted to establish 100 economic zones within 15 years, which has now become a 'national slogan'. "Now people keep asking me when I'll visit their place. Now we've come up with another slogan - we'll create employment opportunity for 10 million people and will develop 75,000 acres of land," he said. The BEZA executive chairman said that the agency has recently revised its target and it will develop 100,000 acres of land. "We've already 38,000 acres of land, which we achieved in only 30 months. We want to go a long way exceeding our targets." Responding to a question, the BEZA executive chief said they could create employment for over 10 million people but there were big challenges in this area, too. "We want to keep our eyes wide open. We want to feel the changes and want to keep eyes on those changes in the world." Accordingly, he said, the agency was ready to act on and react as there was a claim that employment rate was low despite higher economic growth and good investment flow. "It's true. There's no way to ignore this fact. You may not recognise. But, the reality is different. Technology has occupied the presence of human workforce. Except the RMG industry, the number of workers in other areas is gradually decreasing," he noted. Mr Chowdhury said it needed to give a greater focus on the service sector-- hotel, tourism -- where they need skilled manpower. "We've taken control over islands from Cox's Bazar to Kutubdia. We're working on these islands."....

Published at: 2017-07-23 00:00:06

Bangladesh One-Day International (ODI) skipper Mashrafe Mortaza is most likely to be awarded as ‘Sera Bangali’ 2017 in the sports category by the renowned Indian media group – ABP. It has been learnt that Mortaza will come to Kolkata to receive the award, which is to be given on July 29, according to www.cricketsoccer.com. In this annual event, the ABP group honours celebrated Bengali personalities across the border, who excel in different sectors of life. Mortaza will be the third Bangladeshi cricketer to receive this award after Habibul Bashar in 2007 and Shakib al Hasan in 2012. The prestigious achievement is a representation of the impact which Mortaza has had a leader both on and off the field with the current Bangladesh team for the past few years. Under his leadership, Bangladesh have accomplished some tremendous achievements in white-ball cricket. Captain Mortaza guided his team to their maiden World Cup quarter-final in 2015 and then they went on to register six back to back ODI series victories at home and qualified for the final of the Asia Cup at home, which was played in T20 format last year. During this dream run in 50-over cricket, Mortaza’s boys outclassed top sides like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, South Africa and New Zealand. Recently they achieved their best ever ODI rankings – number six. The 33-year old pacer, who is currently at the twilight stage of his career, has battled through injuries since the early days of his journey as a cricketer. Mortaza does not feature in Test cricket of late and earlier this year, he announced retirement from T20 Internationals to prolong his career till the 2019 World Cup. “I am playing international cricket for the last 16 to 17 years and with [my] head held high. I don’t want to spoil my reputation trying to continue playing for six to 12 months, even after knowing that my time is over. I can assure you that I have the knowledge and experience to understand when my time is over,” Mortaza mentioned while talking about the speculations about his retirement in the Bangladesh cricket fraternity. Mortaza has always been known as a symbol of dedication, hard work and determination. He is a national hero in Bangladesh. For the ABP group, he may be a ‘Sera Bangali’ this year, but for the last half a decade, Mortaza has been the ‘sera’ [Best] achiever in the nation for the 160 million Bangladeshis  ....

Published at: 2017-07-23 00:00:06

As part of countrywide education activities, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) held an Investors and Entrepreneurs Conference and Investment Education Fair, 2017 in Rajshahi on Saturday. The day-long conference and fair was held at Moonlight Garden Convention Centre in the city. BSEC Commissioner Professor Helal Uddin Nizami inaugurated the conference as the chief guest. The conference and fair, divided into two sessions, began at 10:30am.  In the first session, an article titled 'investment education programme' was presented while discussion was held in the second session on another article 'method of picking up the invested money from share market and investing the money for the industrialisation of Rajshahi'.  Alongside the conference, the investment education fair also held at the same venue. In addition to the local investors and entrepreneurs, a large number of students from various educational institutions including Rajshahi University and Rajshahi College joined the conference. Besides, ten organisations, related to share market, participated in the fair. source – BSS  ....

Published at: 2017-07-23 00:00:06

Unveiling a master plan (2017-41) on the power and energy system, the National Committee to Protect Oil-Gas, Mineral Resources and Power-Port claimed on Saturday that power generation is possible at a price lesser than the government estimated, reports UNB. It has showed that generation of 91,700 MW power by 2041 is possible at a cost of $110 billion, less by $19 billion than that of the government's estimated cost of $ 129 billion for generation of 57,000 MW during the same period. Presenting the 24-year mega plan, Committee's member secretary Prof Anu Mohammad said the core policy of the plan is to make the country self-dependent in power generation by building capacity while the 'government's focus is on making the country dependent on import-based energy'. "We've focused on energy-mix prioritising the use of renewable sources and natural gas while the government has been prioritising imported coal for power generation," he said while addressing a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club. President of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) Muzahidul Islam Selim and other leaders of the National Committee, including Saiful Huda, Moshrefa Mishu and Ruhin Hossain Prince were present at the press conference. Mahbub Sumon, a member of the expert team which prepared the master plan on behalf of the National Committee, made a power-point presentation on it. Anu Mohammad said it was a draft master plan and it would be finalised after debate and discussion on it. He said if the National Committee's master plan is implemented, the power tariff will come down to Tk 5.10 per unit by 2041 while the tariff will be Tk 12.79 per unit if the government's master plan is implemented. In the master plan, divided into short (up to-2021), medium (up to 2031) and long term (up to 2041), he said the idea of using coal for power generation has been rejected and instead the priorities were shifted to different renewable energy sources because of their decreasing cost. He said the plan forecasts the generation of 25,250 MW of electricity by 2021, where 59 per cent power will come from natural gas, 19 per cent from liquid fuel, 10 per cent renewable energy, and 12 per cent from other sources. Some 49,700 MW of electricity will be generated by 2031, of which, 49 per cent will come from natural gas, 39 per cent renewable energy and 12 per cent from other sources while 91,700 MW will be generated by 2041, of which 55 per cent power will come from renewable energy, 37 per cent from natural gas and the remaining 8.0 per cent from other sources. Anu Mohammad said renewable energy is globally getting focus for future electricity generation. Even, India and China have been focusing on the renewable sources, especially solar power, because of its decreasing trend of cost. But Bangladesh's main focus is on imported energy, especially imported coal for power generation, when both India and China have announced their plan to shut down coal-based power plants, he said. "China has cancelled 110 coal-fired power plants in recent years considering environmental aspects," he added. He also criticised the government for its nuclear power plant project saying that the project is being implemented in a non-transparent way and it would put the country at stake.....

Published at: 2017-07-23 00:00:06