Search Results for: Algeria

Spain, which in the early Middle Ages was part of Islamic state called Al-Andalus – remembered as a golden age of Spanish tolerance and reason – has finally started to seriously play to win in the global halal market, through tourism and exports.…

Spain has been expanding its halal tourism and food sales, as it leverages its geographical proximity to Muslim countries in north Africa to provide travel and accommodation services.

In the CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index 2021, by CrescentRating & Mastercard, Spain climbed six positions to the 16th in the top non-Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations (https://www.crescentrating.com/reports/global-muslim-travel-index-2021.html).…

South Korea’s pharmaceutical industry, a global player with exports reaching South Korean Won KRW7.93 trillion (USD6.8 billion) in 2020, has been expanding its foothold in the world’s Muslim markets, offering guarantees that manufacturers avoid inputs that are offensive to Muslims.…

The food halal market for Portugal, a largely Christian country that was in the early Middle Ages part of the Muslim world, has been expanding, serving a growing local Muslim community and Muslim tourists keen to taste Portuguese food.

Between 711 and 1249, most of Portugal was under Muslim rule, which influenced its language and culture.…

Many friends ask me why, as a businessman and investor controlling pioneering projects, why I am concerned with politics? I always answer that my experience has taught me that the key to progress lies in politics, and this is especially true in Arab countries, where, frankly, politics is everything. …

After the Second World War, Europe emerged economically and socially drained. The war had destroyed so much housing, industry and infrastructure and killed millions of people. Unsurprisingly, the societies of countries who had fought – or been fought over – and that was most of the continent – were brought their knees by the conflict.…

“Yes, to coexistence.” It sounds like a platitude – yet sometimes, it is simply a statement describing a most important principle of real life. This statement is written on the entrance of the Max Rayne Hand in Hand School in Jerusalem, that teaches Jews and Arab students side-by-side.…

From sustainability to flammability, anti-viral protection to anti-corrosion, the potential applications of nanocoatings in the aerospace industry are “nearly endless,” say researchers who have noticed a sharp uptick in their use. This is particularly in relation to space missions and technologies.…

The cutting edge IT field of quantum computing is developing across Africa, with South Africa considered the hub, in part through an IBM centre in Johannesburg that enables academics throughout the continent to freely access its quantum computer network, based in the USA, through the cloud.…

Only a handful of countries in the Middle East and Africa have dedicated whistleblowing laws – South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana, Liberia, Algeria, Morocco, and the Israel-occupied Palestinian territories, according to Blueprint for Free Speech, a charity promoting freedom of expression (https://www.blueprintforfreespeech.net/).…

Paint and coating manufacturers and retailers in North Africa have been struggling with the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, just as have their counterparts in other regions, however some markets and industries in the region seem better placed to cope with the pandemic’s economic impact than others.…

AFRICA is commonly hailed as the world’s next big focus of economic growth, but for the civil aviation industry, this prospect will require significant investment in new intra-African routes and related airport and ATC infrastructure. It will also require governments to remove immigration barriers preventing African air travellers flying to other countries on their home continent.…

NORTH Africa is a region where care for appearance, grooming and personal hygiene is integral to its cultural DNA, so while personal care product majors have a strong presence, it is maybe no surprise that local beauty manufacturers continue to bubble up with fresh ideas and products that capture the imagination of consumers.…

TUNISIA is partnering with France to open a new university based in the north African country offering teach business skills and provide degrees that will help build sustainably growing economies in Africa.

The Franco-Tunisian University for Africa and the Mediterranean (UFTAM – Université Franco-Tunisienne pour l’Afrique et la Méditerranée) is the first structural academic collaboration between France and Tunisia – http://uftam.net/.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission – the European Union (EU) executive – has claimed its Erasmus+ higher education exchange initiative is significantly boosting tertiary studies for African students and academics, with 8,500 Africans benefiting this year (2019).

In a report on the programme, which has been hailed as a flagship of the EU’s positive international impact, the Commission said that this figure was poised to keep growing, so that it will have helped more than 35,000 African students and academics by 2020.…

The former CEO and chief operations officer (COO) of Monaco-based energy services company Unaoil have pleaded guilty to facilitating millions of US dollars in bribes to officials in multiple countries. Britons Cyrus Ahsani and Saman Ahsani accepted they made illicit payments in countries including Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya and Syria.…

THE TURKISH plastics manufacturing sector has grown exponentially over the past decade, but growth has spluttered over the past year due to the country’s economic downturn and currency depreciation raising the cost of raw materials. Investment has also slowed, but manufacturers are optimistic the sector will rebound, with exports remaining strong.…

THE EGYPTIAN economy is still struggling to overcome the problem of low hard currency reserves, a challenge that has negatively affected the local paints and coatings industry due its high dependence on imports.

“There has been a crisis in terms of availability of US dollars to purchase raw materials and most of the raw materials are imported,” said Himanshu Vasisht, project lead for energy and chemicals at India-based market researcher Mordor Intelligence.…

NORTH Africa offers personal care product majors populous markets, close to European manufacturing centres, with large and growing middle classes (outside troubled Libya) – but trading in these countries is not without complication. Regulatory shifts, counterfeiting and some security concerns make these useful markets a challenge for brands to tap.…

With traditional universities increasingly using web-based learning as a way of recruiting students world-wide, University World News spoke to the head of Italy’s top online university to see how it has developed a successful model for international higher learning

Enrollments for the 2018-2019 school year at the Rome-based International Telematic University, Uninettuno, have exceeded expectations, university rector Maria Amata Garito, shared with UWN: “I can confirm that enrolments have jumped quite a bit this year – up by circa 200% compared to last year,” said Garito.…

THE OUTLOOK for European Union (EU) beef, sheep and goat meat imports looks bleak, with sales tumbling, according to an EU agricultural markets 2018 and 2019 forecast released by the European Commission.

Beef exports started falling by December 2017, and this has continued into this year, with exports almost 15% lower in the first four months of 2018 year-on-year.…

A report prepared for the European Commission has questioned whether a planned EUR3 billion pipeline across the Pyrenees linking France and Spain would be commercially viable, unless Algeria reduced exports of gas to Europe. Brussels asked consultancy Poyry to assess the Midi-Catalonia (Midcat) pipeline, which it has supported as a way of easing European reliance in Russian gas through boosting access to Span’s LNG terminals.…

Brazil is by far the country most-named in American investigations for crimes against the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), with China trailing behind in second place, according to the latest listing from a blog, FCPA Tracker. It says industries cited in the different FCPA probes tied to Brazil include power generation, waste management, oil and gas services, food production, steel manufacturing and telecommunications.…

NORTH Africa is never an easy market in which to do business, and the Arab Spring and its turbulent aftermath has not helped ease trade, but as the paint industry looks to 2018, there is optimism that profits can be made.…

Brussels South Charleroi Airport has has to rethink its development plans after a January 25 ruling in the European Union’s (EU) General Court forced a 500% hike in its concession fee.  The court (part of the European Court of Justice) threw out Charleroi’s challenge to the European’s Commission 2004 decision that the EUR3 million annual concession fee that Belgium’s Wallonia Region was charging the airport was an illegal subsidy under the bloc’s state aid rules.…

PROTECTIONISM and currency problems are posing challenges for north Africa’s beauty and personal care market, often forcing consumers to change their purchasing behaviour and turn to locally manufactured products, when they are available.

In Egypt, the region’s most populous country, the fall in value of the local currency, the Egyptian pound, against the Euro, has helped increase the price of imported products.…

A NEW Turkish-Algerian public-private joint venture clothing and textile manufacturing facility is now under construction – with operations due to start this year. Its goal is to help transform the Algerian economy, diversifying it away from an over-reliance on oil and boosting its struggling clothing and textile sector.…

THE LAUNCH of a Turkish-Algerian joint venture is set to reduce textile imports into the North African country by as much as 90%, according to government officials. Claiming the initiative will operate Africa’s second largest manufacturing textile complex, in Sidi Khettab, in the northwestern province of Relizane, in Algeria, the country’s ministry of industry and mines says it will employ 25,000 people within three years.…

THE NONWOVENS market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is increasingly important to the global nonwovens industry, with rising consumer demand being generated by middle classes that are growing in size. Countries in the region are also comparatively young, with high birth rates, boosting demand for diapers and wipes.…

*The Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) is closer to being in effect, with Barbados, Côte d’Ivoire, Jamaica, Malaysia, Panama and Tunisia signing. Now 78 jurisdictions have signed the convention, with Algeria, Kazakhstan, Oman and Swaziland to sign soon.…

THE UNITED Arab Emirates (UAE) may hold an enviable portion of the world’s oil and gas reserves, at 4% and 3.5% respectively. But this has not stopped the country diversifying its long-term energy sources through developing nuclear power. With generation imminent, nuclear energy regulators and companies are watching closely how this rare event – a country embarking on a new civilian nuclear programme – rolls out.…

THE LEAGUE of Arab States’ 22 countries have imported more Brazilian textiles and clothing between January and July of 2017 than during the whole of 2016, according to the latest industry figures from the Brazilian-Arabic Chamber of Commerce (CCAB – Câmara de Comércio Árabe-Brasileira).…

With a capacity to handle two million passengers annually, Mauritania’s new Nouakchott–Oumtounsy International Airport, serving its capital Nouakchott, is important in terms of its scale: it is “the largest project undertaken” in the country since 1960, Mauritania’s minister of culture and handcraft, Mohamed Lemine Ould Cheikh has said. …

THE MIDDLE East and Africa is certainly a promising regional market for nonwovens manufacturers, given the high level of economic growth in many countries and the rise of consumer-culture focused middle classes. But companies need to be sophisticated in their investment and sales tactics given the immense variety of economic and social fortunes experienced by countries in this most diverse region.…

IF the Arab Spring has often disappointed in political terms, leading more to armed conflict, oppression and chaos than civic democracy, it is undeniable that citizens in north Africa at least have often been able to indulge more personal freedom. This is well illustrated by women’s smoking habits, with more women choosing to smoke openly – and whatever the health risks, it is clear that women themselves are making the choice to smoke, a sign of social change in one of the world’s most conservative regions.…

NORTH Africa has never been a particular easy place to do business, but female and male consumers are prepared to spend on personal care products, and profits are there for the taking for companies that take time to understand these vibrant and often contrasting markets.…

THE MOROCCO poultry sector is expanding steadily, and is eyeing export markets in neighbouring African countries for new sales.

Poultry meat production in Morocco, one of the most important livestock sectors in the country, has increased by 7.7% over the past four years, according to statistics published by the Morocco professional poultry farming federation – FISA (Fédération Interprofessionnelle du Secteur Avicole).…

PAKISTAN’S denim export industry hopes that help for the textile announced by the government in February (exemption from paying sales tax and payment of long overdue tax refunds) and in a meeting with industry leaders in September (a promised reduction in energy costs) will boost this promising segment.…

The male grooming market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has grown significantly over the past decade as men become more image conscious and brand aware.

This MENA market “is growing and performing quite well, at around five per cent growth a year in constant terms,” said Amna Abbas, a research analyst at Euromonitor, in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Dubai.…

THE UNITED States Trade Representative (USTR) has highlighted its continuing concern about intellectual property rights violations in the pharma sector, citing claims that 20% of medicines sold in India are fakes.

In its annual ‘Special 301 Report’, the USTR said it notes “its particular concern with the proliferation of counterfeit pharmaceuticals that are manufactured, sold, and distributed in trading partners such as Brazil, China, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Peru, and Russia.”…

A NEW survey has concluded at least 50 million people paid bribes just to access basic public services in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in a 12 month period. Transparency International estimates are based on its September 2014 to

November 2015 survey of nearly 11,000 adults in nine countries and territories across the region: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian territories, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen.…

THE ARAB Spring has certainly been a mixed blessing for North Africa, with political instability as common as progress towards democratisation, and the region’s paint sector has not been insulated from these changes. Sales have swung up and down, with North Africa’s economies performing unevenly as the Arab Spring’s political changes shake out.…

The European Commission has today (February 26) categorically denied that Algeria has backed down from the European Union-Algeria Association Agreement by imposing a 15% import duty on EU-origin rebar; and Algeria is backing up its claims. Under this agreement, which came into force in September 2005, Algeria is supposed to have a completely duty-free regime for all trades with the EU by next year (2017).…

Five years since the start of the Arab uprisings in 2011, instability is still impacting cosmetics sales in the Levant and north Africa. Last year saw a slight improvement on overall sales in 2014, the year the Islamic State spread through northern Iraq and Syria, but figures are down on 2013, and the growth projected in 2010, according to figures from market researcher Euromonitor International and estimates from cosmetics companies.…

The professional coaching sector is booming in the Middle East. Over the past decade the region has become increasingly interconnected in the global business system, and accordingly adopted international standards. This has driven the need for professional coaching and training. But with coaching modelled on US and European norms, there is a need for greater localisation, while more coaching accreditation is needed to develop further confidence in the fledgling sector.…

NEWLY trained medical graduates are now receiving degrees for studies completed within Mauritania, following an expansion of medicine higher education in this impoverished north-western Africa and largely desert country.

Mauritania has few doctors. Its 3.89 million people is served by just 0.12 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, according to 2015 World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics.…

WHILE Russia has signed an agreement deal to build a nuclear power plant (NPP) in Egypt, a move that would give the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region its only NPP with third generation plus technology, significant obstacles remain before operations could be launched.…

Jordan maybe a small country – with a population of just 6.6 million people, but it is one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in the Middle East. A key reason is that production is export focused, particularly of generics. The country’s USD500 million-a-year turnover manufacturing sector had been steadily growing at 8% to 10% per year until 2012, according to the Jordanian Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Medical Appliances (JAPM).…

Gas companies have been asked to comment on a new 10 year strategy for developing European Union (EU) gas distribution released by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG).
The network stresses that Europe faces supply and pricing challenges, mitigated by investment in its pipeline and interconnector networks.…

ANIMAL welfare group Compassion in World Farming (CWF) has told globalmeatnews.com that European Union (EU) livestock transport rules are being broken within the EU and also when animals are exported outside the bloc.
Olga Kikou, the organisation’s European affairs manager, is concerned that while the EU’s regulation EC 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport insists that livestock receive rest, feeing and watering, it does not cap total journey durations.…

North Africa’s entire paints and coatings market is valued at about USD1.1 billion on approximately 0.5 billion litres of coatings, according to the International Paint and Printing Inks Council (IPPIC). Of this, nearly 60% of the market value and more than 75% of market volume is comprised of decorative paints and coatings, according to data collected for the IPPIC by US-based Orr & Boss Inc.…

THE EXPANSION of Renault’s manufacturing operations in Algeria looks set to continue, providing new jobs in the north African nation, fuelling speculation about its strategic significance. The company has already created 250 direct jobs and 500 indirect jobs according to Guillaume Josselin, chief executive officer of Renault Algeria, through the opening last November 10 (2014) of a car manufacturing plant, based in the coastal city of Oran.…

AUTOMOTIVE dealers in east Africa have welcomed a comprehensive trade deal, finalised earlier this month (Thursday Oct 16), between the European Union (EU) and the East African Community (EAC) as demand in EAC countries grows for European vehicles.

The deal is designed to boost trade, including automobiles and parts, between the two regions.…

As a matter of urgency, the European Union (EU) should get involved in the common purchase of gas, Maroš Šefčovič, newly installed European Commission vice-president for energy has told an international meeting of experts in Brussels.

The meeting was called to discuss energy policy and competitiveness, topics claimed as one of the top ten priorities of the new Commission of president Jean-Claude Juncker, and policies that Šefčovič is charged with coordinating, with new energy and climate action Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete.…

THE FINANCIAL Action Task Force (FATF) has warned Iran it faces tighter international scrutiny of its financial services and dealings, should it fail to criminalise terrorist financing and boost its suspicious transaction reporting (STR) requirements.

In its latest assessment of jurisdictions failing to comply with FATF anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) recommendations, the global AML body singled out the Islamic republic, giving Tehran until February (2015) to make reforms, or face the consequences.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission dispatched on Friday (Aug 1) an emergency shipment of 1.1 million foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccines in Algeria and Tunisia after the first cases in 15 years were detected in these countries. Industry spokesmen told the Meat Trades Journal they welcomed the move as there are worries the highly contagious virus might find a way of spreading to European cattle, sheep and goat farms.…

Chinese construction firms have cornered plenty of business in Africa and Latin America, but they need upskilling to consolidate their position. Anyone who observes the queues of nervous young men lining up in the early morning in Beijing’s tree-lined Sanlitun diplomatic district will be in no doubt of the intensity of Chinese activity in Africa and Latin America.…

The cogeneration market in Turkey is in flux. Overall combined heat and power (CHP) capacity has dropped over the past decade from 15% of total energy capacity in 2004, to 14% in 2013, primarily due to high oil and gas prices in the wake of market liberalisation that made CHP less cost effective.…

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region ranks poorly in intellectual property rights protection and enforcement. While some countries, notably in the Gulf, are gradually improving, political and economic uncertainty in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings is hampering progress in much of the rest of the region.…

NEGOTIATIONS for a renewed International Agreement on Olive Oil are intensifying in Madrid. The agreement runs out at the end of this year and its member jurisdictions, of which the European Union (EU) is the biggest, are working to forge a new agreement by December.…

THE NORTH African paint market has yet to rebound from the political and economic unrest in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt over the past three years. Demand remains sluggish compared to 2010, with many projects and government tenders on hold.

In Egypt, the 180 million litre paint market, valued at USD275 million, said Yasser Hassan, marketing and national retail sales manager, decorative department, at Jotun Paints in Cairo, dropped 10% in 2011 following the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak.…

TURKEY’S paints and coatings industry has set itself the target of becoming the third largest paints and coatings sector in Europe by 2023 as it seeks to become a key regional hub within the international industry as a whole.

According to data from Turkey’s Association of Paint Industry (Boya Sanayicileri Dernegi – BOSAD), the size of the Turkish paints and coatings market reached 840,000 tonnes in 2012, with a value of USD2 billion.…

SINCE 2007, Turkey has been on the receiving end of repeated warnings from Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to improve its combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime. While an anti-terrorism bill has now been passed, shortcomings still remain and new risks have emerged in Turkey’s difficult neighbourhood.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted to reduce the support the European Union (EU) gives to the traditional biofuel sector, backing European Commission proposals to amend the renewable energy directive (2009/28/EC). MEPs agreed that the law should insist that first-generation biofuels (from long-standing sources, notably food crops) should not exceed 6% of EU energy consumption in transport by 2020, compared to the 10% target for all biofuels in the existing legislation.…

TWO of the world’s largest fertilizer suppliers will face investment cuts after Sweden’s four largest national pension funds decided to sell their holdings over purchases of phosphate rock in the disputed Western Sahara region.

The decision to sell stock in Canada-based PotashCorp and Australia-based mining company Incitec Pivot came on the recommendation of the funds’ joint Ethical Council, which keeps tabs on allegations of environmental and human rights violations among the portfolios of the A1, A2, A3 and A4 funds.…

In the West Bank, everyone calls him ‘The Godfather’ or ‘The Duke of Nablus’ – Munib al-Masri, 79, is the richest Palestinian, the patriarch of a prominent Palestinian family that has produced bankers, consultants and politicians, and also one of the most influential.…

By Kaci Racelma, in Tizi Ouzou, Algeria; and Paul Cochrane, in Beirut 

This article appeared last March (2012) in Commercial Crime International, a specialist title run by the International Chamber of Commerce. It foreshadowed the Islamist-related unrest and rebellion that actually occurred later in Mali and Algeria….

COMMERCIAL crime may not be as omnipresent in North Africa as in some other parts of the world, but companies operating in the region have risks to contend with. Corruption is rife, smuggling across the borders with Sub-Saharan countries is a major activity, and terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are in the ascendancy. Kaci Racelma and Paul Cochrane take a detailed look at these problems.

 “CORRUPTION is systemic in all of the Maghreb, and not likely to change,” said Dr Geoff Porter, a political risk and security consultant specialising in North Africa. “We’ll have to see what happens in Tunisia. It was a cesspool of corruption under the previous government and while the new one seems to have a zero tolerance policy to corruption, it has not been in power long enough to gauge its effectiveness,” said Dr Porter, founder of US-based North Africa Risk Consulting.…

THE ARAB Spring may have increased short-term doubts about the political stability of Europe’s southern and eastern Mediterranean neighbours, but the long-term case for energy cooperation between these regions is surely unarguable.

Europe needs more energy than it can generate, and it has (for the time being at least) money to buy energy from north Africa and the Levant.…

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has advised the European Union (EU) to launch a series of studies to help assess the risk of Rift Valley Fever being introduced to livestock and humans in north Africa and the Middle East, potentially threatening Europe.…

WHEN the authors of the US declaration of independence said that “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” were goals of their nascent state, they knew what they were talking about. For what is the point of life and the freedom to direct it, if it does not generate happiness?…

THE BRITISH government is creating a unique regime of energy price incentives to spur commercialisation of carbon capture and storage systems, yet significant barriers remain to unlocking the billions of Pounds Sterling needed to build a CCS industry of sufficient mass in the UK able to create economies of scale for investors.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

It has been a been a turbulent time in the Middle East since the Arab uprisings swept much of the region over the past year-and-a-half, with not only sales of cosmetics, toiletries and perfumeries being depressed by losses in consumer confidence, but also distribution being harmed, especially by the protracted conflict in Syria.…

BY KACI RACELMA

WHILE the majority of north African paint and coatings markets have been disrupted by the wave of political and economic unrest brought on by the ongoing Arab Spring revolution, relatively stable Morocco has generated modest growth.

The country’s paint companies predict an increase in domestic paints and coatings production and sales in 2012, following sluggish sales since the international financial crisis hit in 2008.…

BY KACI RACELMA, IN TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA

A TERRORIST attack on March 3 targeted the local headquarters of Algeria’s national rural police force ‘El Dark El Watani’ (in the southern Algerian border town of Tamanrasset with a booby-trapped car, leaving 23 people wounded.…

BY KACI RACELMA, IN TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA; AND PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

COMMERCIAL crime may not be as omnipresent in North Africa as in some other parts of the world, but companies operating in the region have risks to contend with.…

BY KACI RACELMA, IN TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA

ALGERIA: Ongoing reforms transform the north African country’s research and education landscape

Kaci Racelma

Significant education reforms are on the horizon for Algeria’s higher education sector, with the latest push being the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers’ approval of a scientific and technological agreement with this north African country.…

BY MEGAN DETRIE and KACI RACELMA

THE IMPACT of the Arab Spring revolution has rattled though North Africa, leaving no economic sector unscathed – including the personal care products industry. Despite the fact that the growth of the cosmetics markets in countries like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya remains limited in lieu of the year of demonstrations and political upheaval, efforts are currently being made to boost the industry.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY is the fifth largest importer of oils and oilseeds in the world, with demand being driven by its burgeoning economy, sizable food export industry, and a population of 74.8 million people. But while its demand for vegetable oils is outstripping local production, in olive oil production the country has set its sights on rising up the global rankings from its current fifth place to become the second largest producer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ARGENTINA, Uruguay and Iran are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their food exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system, which lowers EU import duties for emerging market and developing countries for more 6,200 tariff lines, including many food products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRAZIL and Argentina are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their knitwear exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system.

The European Commission announced yesterday (May 10) it wanted to focus import duty concessions on poorer countries and so henceforth those regarded by the World Bank as high or upper middle income states would no longer qualify from January 2014.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Iran are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their plastics exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system.

The European Commission announced yesterday (May 10) it wanted to focus import duty concessions on poorer countries and so henceforth those regarded by the World Bank as high or upper middle income states would no longer qualify from January 2014.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRAZIL and Argentina are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their cosmetics exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system. The European Commission wants to focus import duty concessions on poorer countries and so those regarded by the World Bank as high-or-upper middle income states would no longer qualify from January 2014.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRAZIL and Argentina are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their textile and clothing exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system.

The European Commission announced yesterday (May 10) it wanted to focus import duty concessions on poorer countries and so henceforth those regarded by the World Bank as high or upper middle income states would no longer qualify from January 2014.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

UNDER the United Nations’ Al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctions regime, more than 30 states have frozen at least US dollars USD90 million in assets as of September 2010. But Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other designated terrorist groups in the Middle East and Central Asia continue to receive funding despite the region’s widespread adoption of international regulations on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CTF).…

BY LEE ADENDOORF, ALYSSA MCMURTRY, MAKKI MARSEILLES, and KEITH NUTHALL

GLOBAL olive oil manufacturing is on a roll, with the International Olive Council (IOC) saying 2009-10 world production was 3.02 million tonnes, a season-on-season increase of 354,500 tonnes (+13%). This would be the second best olive oil production year ever, next only to the record of 3.17 million tonnes produced in 2003/04.…

By Paul Cochrane, in Beirut 

BY PAUL COCHRANE, BY VÉRONIQUE NARAME AND BY SEYDOU TRAORÉ

North Africa’s tobacco market opens to the world

North Africa’s tobacco markets have long been dominated by state-run companies and monopolies. But change has slowly come to the region through increased economic liberalisation, enabling international brands to gain market share.…

By Paul Cochrane

Countless times I’ve read analysis and the blurb on the back of books that the Middle East is ‘on the brink’, a ‘tinderbox’ ready to explode due to the nepotistic nature of governments and the dire economic conditions of much of the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled its gas infrastructure investment priorities for the next 20 years. They are pipeline and other transit projects delivering gas directly from the Caspian Sea to Europe; integrating the Baltic gas market, connecting it to central and southeast Europe; and boosting north-south infrastructure in western Europe to remove internal bottlenecks.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

IT has been a tough last few years for north African knitwear, clothing and textile manufacturers, but the signs are that the knitwear sub-sector is outperforming its woven textile partners. With the European Union (EU) the region’s primary export destination, the region’s manufacturers have been hit by the end of restrictive quotas on imports from China in 2008, and then by the impact of the global financial crisis when demand slumped.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR report on Africa from consultants McKinsey Global Institute has called on African oil exporting countries to boost growth through diversifying their economies. It said: "Africa’s oil and gas exporters have the highest GDP per capita but the least diversified economies."…

BY EMMA JACKSON, KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, PAUL COCHRANE and BILL CORCORAN

WEST Africa is becoming a key region in the booming trade of illicit cigarettes, counterfeit copies of premium brands and smuggled properly branded and manufactured sticks. So much money is being made by criminals using this often-chaotic region as a hub to receive illicit sticks and then distribute them throughout Africa that this trade is becoming a matter of serious concern to the United Nations and even NATO.…

BY GEORGE STONE

GHANA, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are Africa’s latest upstream hotspots as major energy firms seek new provinces outside of regional heavyweight oil producers Nigeria and Angola. But jockeying for position has already led to friction between governments and the industry.…

By Katherine Dunn, International News Services

The travails of Roman Polanski in Switzerland this autumn have offered some lessons to the world’s wanted over extradition laws and how to deal with them. The Polish director has of course been living in France, with little fear of extradition, since 1978, when he fled the USA facing statutory rape charges. Only now of course this autumn was he arrested on an American warrant on a visit to Switzerland, while movie stars and directors crowed for his release.

Now, he is out on bail, secured with the help of French president Nicholas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, who intervened on Polanski’s behalf. 

As Polanski languishes in Alpine house arrest in a luxury Swiss chalet, it’s clear that extradition is still, at base, a political decision – and to avoid it, one key is not supporting international causes unpopular with powerful governments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Find has praised anti-recession strategies amongst Middle East and north Africa oil and gas exporting countries. It said using "reserve buffers for countercyclical spending by [Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen] mitigated the impact on their own economies and generated positive spillovers for neighbours."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DETAILED European Commission report has listed trade barriers impeding European Union (EU) automobile, parts and components sales imposed to protect export market industries from the recession. Brussels fears that while these restrictions were designed to help vulnerable businesses survive the recession, they could cause long-term damage to Europe’s auto manufacturers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THESE are uncertain times for international aviation deals generally thanks to the global recession, but nowhere is the situation more fraught than in Washington where negotiations for the second stage of the 2007 ‘open skies’ agreement between the European Union (EU) and the USA appear to have run into the buffers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo, EMMA JACKSON and LEAH GERMAIN

TIME was when counterfeit personal care products were commonly crude fake perfumes pedalled in markets and workplaces during the Christmas and other festive periods to bargain hunters who knew they were buying rubbish.…

BY MARK GODFREY

THE BUREAUCRATS and engineers who run China’s booming hydropower sector will be in listening mode in April when the world descends on Beijing for the second International Conference on Hydropower Technology & Equipment. The theme of this year’s government-sponsored gathering – ‘Sustainable China Hydropower Industry’ – reflects worries about the environmental impact of recent massive hydropower projects in China.…

By Katherine Dunn

The travails of Roman Polanski in Switzerland this autumn have offered some lessons to the world’s wanted over extradition laws and how to deal with them. The Polish director has of course been living in France, with little fear of extradition, since 1978, when he fled the USA facing statutory rape charges.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has frozen its partnership and cooperation negotiations with Russia over the Georgia conflict, just three months after the talks were launched following long delays. An emergency meeting of the EU Council of Ministers has ordered no meetings will take place with Moscow on the agreement until its "troops have withdrawn to the positions held prior to 7 August", prior to its short war with Georgia.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 attacks on the US resulted in a raft of regulations to curb terrorist financing, but seven years on Al Qaeda is still at large, has adapted to the new regulatory environment to raise funds, and morphed into an international terrorist Hydra.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Balkans ministerial council has approved the rules of a dispute settlement mechanism for countries participating within the southeast Europe Energy Community. This links Balkans’ gas (and electricity) regulation with that of EU member states and ensures EU energy legislation is adopted in participating countries.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

FEW people would challenge the European Commission’s assertion earlier this year that, in practice, market integration in the gas market in the European Union (EU) "is still far from a success."

In its report Progress in Creating the Internal Gas and Electricity Market published in April, Brussels said that major barriers to the efficient functioning of the market still existed largely because of "insufficient implementation of European legislation."…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

ALGERIA’S paint sector has been experiencing healthy growth in recent years on the back of a petro-dollar fuelled construction boom, yet should the country’s initiatives at modernising and expanding its economy continue at the same pace as over the last decade, there is potential for significantly greater expansion in the paint and coatings market.…

By Paul Cochrane, Beirut

And with Lebanese political leaders looking to outside powers to consolidate their domestic position, whether you are pro- or anti- Western depends on the politics of the day.
But that, like any brief summary of Lebanon, is a simplification, as although the Hizbullah led opposition is ostensibly anti-Western, strongly backed by Iran and ardently anti-Zionist, fellow opposition party the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) is predominantly Christian and pro-Western.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN the European Union’s (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, visited Turkmenistan last autumn it served notice that this central Asian ex-Soviet republic had come in from the cold. Once a pariah on the international stage, because of the activity of its crazed former president Sapamurat Niyazov (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT), Turkmenistan has become something more than a bit player in the international energy sector.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

OF all the European Union’s (EU) flagship energy projects, maybe none is more central to the goal of ensuring security of supply and none more fraught with political and technical complexity than the proposed Nabucco pipeline designed to bring natural gas from the Caspian region, the Middle East and Egypt into Austria and then on to consumers in western Europe.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Tripoli and Beirut

THE MARKET for cosmetics and toiletries in North Africa has been growing annually by a steady 5-6% over the last five years according to market participants and official data. Overall market value for the five countries – Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco – combined is more difficult to come by due to a dearth of data, but reasonable estimates put it slightly above US$1 billion, less than half the value of the Middle East and Gulf markets.…

BY FIDELMA COOK, PAUL COCHRANE and KEITH NUTHALL

SONATRACH, Algeria’s national oil and gas company, has made no secret to its determination to strengthen its position in Europe, which already accounts for around 60% of Algeria’s export earnings….the bulk of which is in gas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN oil and gas executives think of European Union (EU) funding for their projects or companies, they may consider the European Commission, with its high profile in energy spending and investment. But there is another EU institution with an important role as a financial fountainhead for European energy loans: the European Investment Bank (EIB).…

BY KARRYN CARTELLE, in Auckland; LUCY JONES, in Dallas, Texas; MONICA

DOBIE, in Ottawa; and BILL CORCORAN, in Johannesburg

NEW Zealand has long retained a position of prominence in the global butter products

industry, despite the fact that competitors are always looking to seize export markets in

what is an increasingly competitive market.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Tripoli and Beirut

THE OPENING up of Libya’s economy could not have come at a better time for international oil companies, which have been beset in recent years by dwindling easily accessible oil reserves, tighter controls over exploration rights and extraction, and heightened security concerns.…

THE DEPENDENCE of the European Union (EU) on gas from Russia has been made starkly clear by the latest detailed trade figures released by EU statistical agency Eurostat – 42% of imported natural gas came was Russian in 2005. This 4.9 million terajoules compared with 2.6 million terajoules (22%) from Norway; 2.2 million terajoules from Algeria (19%) and 1.9 million from other sources (17%).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states and the European Commission are squaring up ahead of a political battle this autumn over anticipated energy liberalisation proposals. A letter from France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovakia has been written to the Commission stating their firm opposition to comprehensive energy unbundling in anticipated proposed European Union (EU) legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has struck an important deal with Algeria, ensuring it supplies gas to European markets competitively, scrapping restrictive profit sharing contracts. Algeria is a key gas exporter in the EU’s fight to secure energy security without relying on Russia, and Algiers has now agreed with the European Commission that pipeline gas can be sold-on within Europe, without a cut going to Algerian gas producer Sonatrach.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BOOM in counterfeit cigarettes being smuggled into the European Union (EU) is intensifying, according to the latest figures from the European Commission. It says EU customs officials seized 156 million packets’ worth of fake cigarettes in 2006, up 380% on 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BOOM in counterfeit cigarettes being smuggled into the European Union (EU) is intensifying, according to the latest figures from the European Commission. It says EU customs officials seized 156 million packets’ worth of fake cigarettes in 2006, up 380% on 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN and PAUL COCHRANE
WITH the European Union (EU) securing around 25% of its gas from Russia and natural gas being an ever more important fuel for thermal power plants, the failure thus far of the European Union and Russia to agree a new long-term energy agreement has to be of concern to the electricity industry.…

BY MARK ROWE

MORE countries are increasing market share and production levels, according to TDC Olive, with non-EU producers now securing significant market share: Syria (8% of global market share of olive production), Morocco (8%), Turkey (7%), Argentina (5%), Algeria (5%) and Egypt (7%).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the European Union’s (EU) flagship Erasmus student exchange programme approaches its 20th birthday, EU education Commissioner Jan Figel has criticised it for failing poorer students across Europe. The Slovak said: "The Erasmus grant remains far too low to allow students from less favourable financial backgrounds to enjoy the benefits of the programme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has visited Algeria to discuss closer energy ties with this major gas producer, the latest initiative to boost gas supplies from north Africa. A meeting last week (Nov 30) of the Euro-Mediterranean Conference, in Tampere, Finland, uniting EU, north African and Levantine states, agreed to further integrate Euro-Mediterranean energy markets, developing common energy projects, priorities being set in 2007.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is casting around for allies in central Asia and north Africa in its diplomatic tussle with Russia to secure cheap and reliable energy supplies. EU energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has flown to Algeria to discuss closer energy ties with this major gas and oil producer.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

MOROCCO’S US$1.37 billion tobacco market is undergoing a transformation following Altadis’ full buyout of the country’s tobacco monopoly earlier this year, with the distribution process to be overhauled and leaf production increased and diversified away from dark tobacco.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is casting around for a coherent policy on securing its external energy supplies, and while it is unsure of securing a solid deal with Russia, it is making ever more strident overtures to north Africa, the Caucasus and central Asia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE RUSSIAN government has rejected claims in a NATO economic committee report it is constructing a gas cartel from north Africa to central Asia to lever further concessions from Europe. NATO is warning Russian could form an alliance with Algeria, Libya, Qatar, central Asia and maybe Iran.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is moving towards supporting environment-friendly road transport, rather than dedicating resources to promoting public transport, a European Parliament debate organised by the Automobile and Society Forum, has heard. The European Commission is currently reviewing its 2001 transport white paper and its working papers have noted "disappointment" over the results of the EU’s pro-public transport policies.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels, and KEITH NUTHALL

1. The Commission is a keen supporter of creating increased gas storage capacities. But who should pay for developing these facilities?

The Commission believes that investment in storage should be left to the market, and the costs allocated through market forces.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a list of priority projects under its 2007-13 trans European network (TENs) energy programme. Three of the 10 gas pipeline projects link Europe to Algeria, a key alternative source to Russia, and there are also priority gas pipelines to Libya and Turkey listed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a list of priority projects that will draw in EU funding and diplomatic support under its 2007-13 trans European network (TENs) energy programme. Agreed with the European Parliament, the schemes are designed to fulfil the EU’s energy policy goals of improving security of supply, especially from outside member states, and underpinning Europe’s internal market in gas and electricity.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN UNPRECEDENTED joint paper from the European Commission and European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana calls for the EU to diversify its energy sources beyond Russia. In particular, the paper suggests the EU looks closer to home: at Algeria and Turkey.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of government have approved a strategy paper at a Brussels summit that involves creating a fresh and comprehensive energy agreement with Russia. This would build on the existing Partnership & Cooperation Agreement (PCA) forged in 1997, and could supersede the Energy Charter Treaty negotiated in 1991.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

OVER the last five years the Middle East and North Africa region has firmly joined the global effort to fight money laundering and terrorist financing by setting up national financial intelligence units and a regional watchdog, the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENA-FATF).…

BY MARK ROWE AND PAUL COCHRANE

INTRODUCTION

JUST as chocolate sells well in cold countries, so do soft drinks flourish in hot countries, which would suggest that North Africa and the Levant presents an inviting face to the international drinks market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ASSESSMENT from the Kyoto Protocol Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by power plants before it enters the atmosphere could be crucial in minimising climate change. The Geneva-based panel has estimated that capture and storage technologies could lower climate change mitigation costs over the next 100 years by 30%.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) says there remain “serious deficiencies” in a number of airports in Algeria yet to be eliminated under its safety certification process “owing to the difficulties encountered during field-works.” These assessments were begun in October 2002 and have been “proving too heavy” to complete, ICAO officials told Janes Airport Review.…

BY MARK ROWE AND PAUL COCHRANE

INTRODUCTION

JUST as chocolate sells well in cold countries, so do soft drinks flourish in hot countries, which would suggest that North Africa and the Levant presents an inviting face to the international drinks market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BINDING energy conservation targets have been proposed for European Union (EU) Member States by the European Commission, a move that could further tighten fuel economy rules for Europe’s transport sector. Brussels has proposed a general energy saving target of one per cent a year from 2006-12, measured against average energy distribution from the previous five years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio has called for a redoubling of efforts to create gas networks linking European, north African and Levantine countries. Speaking to a Euro-Mediterranean ministerial conference, in Rome, de Palacio highlighted the available resources of natural gas in the EU’s Mediterranean neighbours and called for cross-border infrastructure to be improved.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BINDING energy conservation targets have been proposed for European Union (EU) Member States by the European Commission, a move that could further tighten fuel economy rules for Europe’s transport sector. Brussels has proposed a general energy saving target of one per cent a year from 2006-12, measured against average energy distribution from the previous five years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union gas federation Eurogas is hopeful that the proposed EU directive on securing Europe’s gas supplies will be substantially recast, after opposition from the industry to proposals allowing the European Commission to intervene in the market to depress high prices.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission and the Algerian government are to cooperate to ensure that sub-standard shipping does not ply the seaways of the Mediterranean, notably through the phasing out of old single hull tankers.

European Union (EU) transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio and Algeria’s transport minister Abdelmalek Sellal agreed at a meeting in Algiers that a joint group of experts should draw up a cooperation programme on improving maritime safety.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AGREEMENT on legislation lowering the maximum level of sulphur content in European Union (EU) diesel and petrol to 10 ppm has been struck by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. They agreed these low sulphur fuels must be available throughout the EU from January 1, 2005, and mandatory from January 1, 2009.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
MOROCCO has been granted a loan of Euro 120 million, (about GBPounds 73 million), by the European Investment Bank, to help extend its electricity connections with Spain and Algeria. The project is part of an ambitious exchange of electrical power between Europe and north Africa, designed to help boost the liberalisation of the electrical energy markets in the EU’s African neighbours.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
MINISTERS of the 15 European Union countries have reached agreement on the Trans-European Energy Networks directive. The ministers have essentially supported the Commission proposal of last year and Brussels officials predicted that the European Parliament will do likewise later this year.…