Algeria's oil state-run Sonatrach signed a $62 million deal with Australia's Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd (BHP) on Saturday for oil and gas exploration and exploitation, Algeria's official APS news agency reported. The agreement, signed in Algiers, covers exploration and exploitation in Boukhechba area, northwest of Illizi basin, for 10 years, APS said. Eight wells were expected to be drilled in Boukhechba area, it said. APS said the $62 million agreement with BHP was the second of its kind concluded since Algeria liberalised its oil and gas laws in 1991 to attract foreign investors.Audi Q1 sales up: German carmaker Audi, the luxury carmaker unit of Volkswagen AG, said on Friday its 1997 first quarter sales rose slightly to five billion marks ($2.9 billion) and it remained optimistic for higher results for the full year. Audi said vehicle deliveries during the first three months of the year rose 18.5 per cent to 137,100 units, while deliveries in Germany rose 13 per cent to 59,094 units.

Singapore telecoms bid: Marine-based conglomerate SembCorp Ltd, state-owned railway Singapore MRT (SMRT) and WorldCom Inc of the United States said on Friday they would make a joint bid for a Singapore domestic telephone service licence.

Bundesbank denies EMU delay: Germany's Bundesbank denied on Sunday that its president, Hans Tietmeyer, had suggested a delay in the planned 1999 start date for European monetary Union (EMU). A bank spokesman, reading a prepared statement from Tietmeyer over the telephone to Reuters, said the Bundesbank stood by the Maastricht Treaty which sets the entry criteria and timetable for EMU.

Manila in fresh talks with GM: The Philippines, beaten by Thailand in a bidding war for General Motors Corp's manufacturing plant in Asia, is holding talks with the US company on building a car component factory in the country, officials said on Sunday. ``We've been working on this for eight months," trade and industry secretary Cesar Bautista said. He did not give figures, but said capit al expenditures would be "10 to 15 times more than an assembly plant". The project would export to other countries in Asia-Pacific, he said.Yaskawa, Iwatani in China venture: Japan's Yaskawa Electric Corp and Iwatani International Corp have decided to set up a joint venture with a Chinese steelmaker to make industrial robots in China, the China Daily Business Weekly said on Sunday. The venture, Shougang Motoman Robot Co Ltd, is expected to open in September. Industrial robots would be used in automobile, motorcycle and chemical manufacturing. Beijing's Shougang Group would have a 45 per cent stake in the $10 million-venture, with Yaskawa holding 43 per cent and Iwatani 12 per cent.

Samsung ups refrigerator output: Samsung Electronics, the flagship company of the $87 billion Samsung Group of South Korea, is augmenting its production facilities for state-of-the-art refrigerators with a view to boosting its exports. The South Korean Cheabol is adding another modern production line to its refrigerator manufacturing plant here to manufacture an additional one million units of their project refrigerators for export and domestic markets, the company's Kwangju unit managing director Hyung Keun Seo said.

Amman Bank for Investment may be closed: A Jordanian court has ruled that the troubled Amman Bank for Investment, under Central Bank control since March, should be shut down because of heavy losses, a court official said on Saturday. The court decision puts a legal seal on a deal with the Central Bank to liquidate Amman Bank for Investment and sell off its banking licence to Jordan's biggest bank, Arab Bank. Jordan's Central Bank was quoted by the state news agency Petra as saying that the bank was unable to raise its capital to 20 million dinars ($28 million) by bringing in new investors despite Central Bank incentives.

UAE firm lifts capital to $500m: The board of directors of Al-Thurayya, a UAE-based satellite telecommunications company, agreed to increase the company's capital to $500 million from $25 million, the official WAM news agency said on Saturday. "A memorandum to this effect will be sent to the founding members, telecommunications authorities in the region and to other investment bodies who had expressed a desire to participate in the project," WAM quoted Mohammad Hassan Omran, al-Thurayya's board chairman as saying.Freer trade costs Brazil $18bn: Brazil's policy of reducing import tariffs to encourage freer trade cost domestic industry nearly $18 billion in three years, a newspaper said on Saturday. A study drawn up by the ministry of industry and commerce estimated Brazilian manufacturers lost $17.7 billion to imported goods between 1993 and 1996, equivalent to 25.8 percent of industrial sales during the period, Jornal do Brasil said.

Pay TV ads yet to pick up in Australia:The potential for pay television advertising in Australia is over-stated and it will be several years before it becomes a meaningful revenue stream, Australis Media Ltd chief executive Sean O'Halloran said on Sunday. Australis is one of three major pay-TV operators in Australia and the only one that is listed on the stock exchange. The other operators are Optus Vision, owned by Optus Communications Pty Ltd, Australia's second biggest telecommunications company, and Foxtel, owned by News Corp Ltd and state-owned telecoms carrier Telstra Corp.

Turkey government on brink of collapse: Shorn of absolute majority and facing a standoff with the military and the powerful business community, Turkey's first Islamist-led government headed by Necmattin Erbakan is on the verge of collapse. The strength of the ruling coalition was reduced to 245 seats in a house of 550 - one short of majority - when Yildirim Aktuna, a member of coalition partner True Path Party (DYP) of former prime minister Tansu Chiller quit on Friday saying four more resignations were likely.GCC opposes Israel entry: Gulf-Arab countries have opposed the Qatar's decision to invite Israel to an international economic conference to be held in Doha in November. The foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, who are in the Saudi capital for the two-day conference which began yesterday, pointed out that the Arab League had in a resolution asked the member states to freeze ties with the Jewish state.

Pak plan to eliminate child labour:

The famous soccer ball manufacturing industry of Pakistan's Sialkot town, has undertaken an ambitous plan to eliminate child labour with the help of International Labour Organisation (ILO). The project - ``elimination of child labour in soccer ball industry in Sialkot'' - at a total cost of $1.5 million is a joint effort between the International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) of ILO, the Unicef and the Sialkot chamber of commerce according to Gert A Gust, ILO-IPEC programme manager here.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.