The purchases include wider stretchers, more lifting gear and reinforcing existing vehicles.

BBC: Ambulance

Heavy lifting gear is now being used to raise slabs of concrete at the Rana Plaza garment factory, where at least 380 died after Wednesday's collapse.

BBC: Bangladesh 'death toll rising'

Rescue co-ordinators said that work with heavy-lifting gear would be done carefully to avoid further collapses and to protect bodies trapped under the debris as much as possible.

BBC: Dhaka building collapse: Hopes for rescue fade

Teams from the army, the fire service and border guards are still working around the clock at the site to find survivors, using heavy lifting gear, tools and their bare hands.

BBC: Dhaka building collapse: Fears for hundreds still missing

Asian governments and companies did much of it last year -- restraining credit, trimming corporate fat, lifting productivity -- to cool overheating economies and gear up enterprises for competition.

CNN: BUSINESS FORECAST '96