Search Results for: Indonesia

INTRODUCTION 

ACCOUNTING used to be restricted to financially measurable matters of profit and loss; expenditure and revenue; taxes and subsidies; investment and liabilities. But the mathematical and statistical skills underpinning a solid set of books and filed accounts are today increasingly being used to measure the environmental and social sustainability of a product, input, production process and supply chain.…

INTRODUCTION

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a reassessment of the model of relying on one or two outsourcing locations. It has demonstrated that when there is a major disruption caused by an emergency as serious as a pandemic, shipping and industrial processing can be disrupted.…

Japan may become a significant market for the halal food sector in future, predicts the Japan Halal Association, whose members are looking ahead to sustained growth once the Covid-19 pandemic ebbs. Faslin Mohammed Lafir, head of halal certification and international relations, of the Japan Halal Association, stressed that the country’s Muslim population is around 120,000 individuals at present, with an estimated 10,000 Japanese converting to the religion every year, boosting potential halal sales.…

When France’s fast-food chain O’Tacos (www.o-tacos.fr) announced in 2020 that it would be selling in Italy its halal-certified French-style meat and vegetable wraps, Italian Muslims took this as a sign that halal was going mainstream in their country. O’Tacos’ first Italian outpost will open in January 2022 in Rome (delayed by Covid-19) and more openings in 2022 are planned in major Italian cities, including Milan and Bologna, said Yassin Baradai, founder of Milan-based Meem Communication (https://meemcommunication.com/…

Malaysia is expected to launch in January a detailed (although voluntary) halal certification for medical devices in an innovative regulatory move, making the country a world leader in this segment.

Its government published a halal medical device standard in September 2019, known as MS2636, but the halal division of the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM) agency has since been enhancing “their online system” and staff, since the new “scheme for halal medical devices must comply with other requirements”, Johari Ab Latiff, senior assistant director at JAKIM’s Malaysia Halal Council Secretariat, told Salaam Gateway.…

Fraud in the global halal food sector is emerging as a widespread problem. A series of scandals have rocked the industry worldwide, and shone a spotlight on the difficulty of eliminating non-halal practices from increasingly large and complicated food supply chains. …

The use of ‘sewbots’ that can replace human sewers and other robotics look set to transform the clothing and textile supply chain and facilitate reshoring or near-shoring to developed countries currently reliant on lower income outsourcing hubs, maybe thousands of kilometres away from buyers.…

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.…

Indonesia’s drive to require pharmaceutical products to be halal-certified is gathering pace, but the country’s pharma industry’s reliance on imported raw materials for medicines is impeding progress, officials and industry players say.  

In October, Indonesia issued a government regulation requiring pharmaceutical products to be certified halal by 2029 for over-the-counter drugs and 2034 for prescription medicines.…

Halal food exports from India are growing fast, according to a key Indian certification organisation, with domestic consumers among India’s 200 million Muslims also being increasingly demanding about halal standards.

According to Faiyaz Khan, the master technologist in food technology, of certification body the Jamait-Ulama-I-Hind Halal Trust, the volume of halal certified exported food products sold from India have grown by more than 50% over the past two years.…

On November 11 (2021), Indonesia’s National Ulema Council (MUI), the country’s top Muslim clerical body, ruled that “using” cryptocurrency is haram, due to its “uncertainty” and “potential for wagering and harm”. 

The ruling, which was not accompanied by any public clarification of MUI’s position on what constitutes “using” cryptocurrency, sent ripples through the Islamic world and reignited discussions about the role of the rapidly expanding digital assets sector in Sharia-compliant finance. …

The Bangladesh food industry is increasing its efforts to export halal foods to Muslim majority population countries. A senior government delegation is planning to visit Turkey and Indonesia this year to gather facts and advice on improving Bangladesh sales in these countries of halal food.…

The Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated a revision of the island’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Law, partly to help paint and coatings manufacturers maintain access to the European Union (EU) market. The reform will take account of the EU’s planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which may levy duties on products the EU deems have been made with excess carbon emissions.…

A comprehensive study of 3,650 students from 55 counties worldwide has indicated that the expansion of online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has not reduced the attraction of moving countries to undertake in-person higher education in foreign universities and colleges.

Indeed, the study, by IDP Connect, part of Australia-based international student recruitment leader IDP Education, showed that 79% of students questioned were only considering overseas on-campus options.…

WHILE the imposition of age limits on the consumption of tobacco and other nicotine products remains very much a national, and in some cases sub-national jurisdiction decision, there is no doubt that the general trend worldwide is for tighter restrictions on younger consumers, even if they are often tough to enforce.…

INTRODUCTION

Without doubt, the world’s clothing and textile sector is undertaking a technical upgrade that is unprecedented in decades, with new digital systems offering automation and efficient internal controls. As these are worked into the businesses of brands, manufacturers and their suppliers, a new potential emerges, and that is linking these digital systems in a way that could revolutionise efficiencies within the supply chain.…

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted Indonesia’s efforts to digitalise its textile and clothing sector, with only a few large companies adopting new industrial revolution 4.0 technologies amid a slump in exports, government officials and industry executives have warned.

Three years ago (2018), Indonesia’s industry ministry unveiled an ambitious ‘Making Indonesia 4.0’ plan to encourage manufacturers to adopt virtual reality, 3D design, automation and internet of things technologies.…

AS COVID-19 batters the world into its second year of the most destructive global pandemic since the Spanish Flu of 1919, its impact on AML/CFT is becoming clearer. FATF released an updated assessment in December (2020) (1) highlighting an increase in certain predicate offences caused by the disease itself and the increased online activity it has generated: phishing scams, business compromise fraud; internet child sex exploitation; corruption and fraud related to medical supply contracts; and property thefts of vacant homes and offices.…

In five years, the Europol-hosted website ‘No More Ransom’ (NMR) (1) “prevented criminals from earning almost a billion euros through ransomware attacks,” the European Union (EU) police agency claims. Launching a new more user-friendly home for its ‘Crypto Sheriff’ app on Monday (July 26), Europol said that through 121 free tools, able to decrypt 151 ransomware families of this malware, the NMR repository has helped more than six million people recover locked files for free.…

Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced amendments to the island’s Registration Procedures for New Chemical Substances and Existing Chemical Substances. In addition to delaying a registration period for the standard registration of existing chemical substances in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has added a number of simplified administrative and convenient measures to optimise registration applications, review and reporting requirements.…

A south-east Asian regional power grid is moving closer in the latest stage of a phased 10-year plan to bring energy security, accessibility, affordability and sustainability,

New, upgraded, extended, stronger, and more flexible electricity transmission and distribution grids are key to this ongoing programme, helping the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to meet the power demands of population and economic growth, rising urbanisation and affluence.…

Apparel and footwear brands, especially those in the United States, may come under increasing distribution strain as an uptick in Covid-19 cases in the Chinese clothing and textile manufacturing hub of Guangdong exacerbates already fraught global logistics.  The southern Chinese province recorded 135 total infections over the period June 10–23 and a seven-day average of nine new cases as of June 23, according to data from the USA’s Johns Hopkins University.…

INNOVATIVE confectionery and sweet bakery companies will be able from next month (July) to explore applying for research funding from the European Union’s (EU) Horizon Europe programme, which has a budget of around EUR95.5 billion. This spending will last until 2027, with companies needing to form international consortia focused on food, ingredients and packaging projects to have the best chance of securing funding.…

Indonesia’s National Textile Centre (BBT – Balai Besar Tekstil) in Bandung, West Java, this year (2021) established a melt spinning laboratory helping the country’s nonwovens industry develop products with special functionalities, including medical supplies and personal protective equipment such as masks and hazmat suits.   …

Demand for knitting machines in China has been recovering remarkably fast from the Covid-19 crisis, with Chinese textile factory owners growing bolder in investment decisions, and exports to south Asia growing too.

Chinese knitting machine-makers Suzhou ReHow Machinery Manufacturing and Fujian Taifan Industrial, which supply mainly T-shirt fabrics single jersey circular knitting machines, saw their sales dip in 2020 but not to a dramatically low level.…

Covid-19 has reshaped commercial crime, and one lucrative offence taking a real turn for the worse is tobacco smuggling and counterfeiting. Keith Nuthall reports.

The Covid-19 pandemic has depressed incomes worldwide and forced lower income smokers to look for cheap smokes, which has included counterfeits or smuggled goods.…

There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled the black-market trade in illicit and smuggled licit tobacco products. The disease has depressed income and forced lower income smokers to look for cheap smokes, which has included counterfeits or smuggled goods.…

THE COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions that followed may have slowed down fibre development and innovation in the past year, but Singapore-based world’s largest viscose fibre producer Royal Golden Eagle, known as RGE Pvt Ltd, is forging ahead. A company statement sent to WTiN said that its “USD200 million investment commitment in next-generation textile fibre innovation [over 2019-29] is regardless of economic cycles.”…

EUROPEAN confectionery and sugar processing associations have appealed to the European Parliament not to reimpose market controls on the European Union’s (EU) sugar sector. MEPs have pressed for new restrictions during the ongoing negotiations about reforming the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).…

PEACE appears to be breaking out between the European Union (EU) and the UK on one side the USA over an aircraft subsidy-prompted trade war that had led to billions of dollars of duties being levied on food and drink exported between these countries.…

Brief:

This article provides an analysis of why the world’s largest regional trade deal (in population terms) – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – was signed last November (2020). It assesses China’s role in this important political and economic event, and how it reflects its relations with other signatory countries.…

The paint and coatings industry in Indonesia still has ample room for growth amid booming infrastructure development, although it has had to struggle with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, say officials and industry experts. 

With the property sector being the primary growth driver Indonesian paint and coating sales, the high demand for new housing and the repainting cycle assures the steady demand for paint and coating products, said Mahendra Chahar, senior consultant at Frost & Sullivan.…

The paint and coatings industry in Indonesia still has ample room for growth amid booming infrastructure development, although it has had to struggle with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, say officials and industry experts. 

With the property sector being the primary growth driver Indonesian paint and coating sales, the high demand for new housing and the repainting cycle assures the steady demand for paint and coating products, said Mahendra Chahar, senior consultant at Frost & Sullivan.…

Islamic finance is flourishing across parts of the Middle East and south-east Asia. Assets are increasing, there is a greater diversification in product offerings, and Islamic fintech is starting to take off.

Islamic finance assets were estimated at USD2.88 trillion globally in 2020, and are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 5% to 2024, to reach USD3.69 trillion, according to New York-based research firm DinarStandard’s State of the Global Islamic Economy (SGIE) 2020-21 report.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) international food and drink trade has withstood the challenges of Covid-19, with figures for the first eight months of 2020 valuing EU exports (excluding the UK) at EUR119 billion, up 1.2% compared to January-August 2019. Imports also rose slightly to EUR81.6 billion (up 0.8%).…

BRITISH and European Union (EU) confectioners must take care to ensure their products meet new origin rules if they want them covered by the duty free goods provisions of the new EU/UK trade agreement struck on Christmas Eve.

The 1,256-page deal includes complex and comprehensive origin rules, such as for chocolate, which can be deemed made in the EU and Britain if all dairy, eggs and honey used are sourced locally, as well as at least 40% of grains, malt, starches and wheat, (which must also not exceed 30% of costs).…

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is consulting on proposed new accounting requirements for mergers and acquisitions involving companies within the same group. At present IFRS 3 on business combinations covers mergers and acquisitions involving third party-owned businesses, not intra-group deals.…

A new Transparency International (TI) survey has reported significant concern in 17 Asian countries (1) that corruption continues to be a problem or is getting worse, undermining equitable access to public services and trust in government. TI’s ‘Global Corruption Barometer – Asia’ (2) found 74% of the 20,000 people surveyed believe that government corruption is a major problem in their country, with 19% of citizens surveyed admitting to paying a bribe and 22% using personal connections when accessing public services in the previous year.…

China’s recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) materials market is heading for another distortion with repercussions for apparel and footwear brands. While the likes of Adidas, Nike and Decathlon continue shifting from virgin fibre to recycled fibre to improve their environmental impact standings, China’s PET market is heading for another distortion, raising the spectre for supply bottlenecks and price increases.  …

AUSTRALIA has chosen an unorthodox path in transitioning to a low carbon economy. Its centre-right government has advised the country’s clean energy agencies to decrease investment in renewables such as solar and wind and instead increase investment in hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, microgrids and energy efficiency.…

AUSTRALIA’S digital textile finishing market is small and therefore challenging compared to markets in Asia, Europe or the US. Australian fashion and fabric manufacturers usually outsource finishing to partners in Asia, notably in China or India, but use local digital print companies for smaller runs and sampling, said Romeo Sanuri, general manager Next Printing, which offers digital printing services to textile customers from Sydney.…

THE CHINA Coatings Industry Association on September 14 published a draft standard for the manufacture and sale of antibacterial and anti-viral coatings – a key growth segment during the Covid-19 pandemic. The draft specifies the terms, definitions, requirements, test methods, inspection rules, labelling, marking, packaging and storage of coating products with antibacterial and antiviral properties.…

A WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel will assess whether import restrictions created by the European Union (EU) to reduce the use of carbon-intensive biofuels comply with global trading rules.

The Indonesian government is challenging portions of the EU’s renewable energy directive (RED) linked to EU guidance limiting the indirect land use change (ILUC) of biofuel feedstock cultivation.…

Textile industry innovators are seeking to create and improve naturally coloured cotton, that can reduce or even remove the need for manufacturers to add dyes that can be expensive and generate significant levels of pollution.

Natural coloured cotton is not new, with Liv Severino, head of Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, a state-owned research corporation affiliated with Brazil’s ministry of agriculture, livestock and food supply, noting evidence that human clothes were made from such fibres in the Andes 5,000 years ago.…

The China National Coatings Industry Association (NCIA) on July 31 informed members that it has been told by the ministry of ecology and environment to investigate the production, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste in the coating industry and compile a management guide based on the investigation’s findings.…

THE PERSONAL care product sector in south-east Asia has been looking ahead to how it emerges from the Covid-19 crisis, which has hit this diverse region in differing ways.

According to Finland-based Global Research & Data Services, sales of personal care products in Malaysia’s 31.6 million people market last year (2019) were worth USD557 million, based on UN data.…

DAIRY products are supposed to be healthy, tasty, clean and legal, but unfortunately, as with other industries, criminals seek to exploit demand created by honest suppliers through smuggling, mislabelling, adulterating and selling unsafe stock.

These concerns prompt regular action by police, for whom food fraud and related crime is an increasing risk worldwide, and given the international nature of today’s supply chains, cross-border collaboration between law enforcement forces is of special value.…

THE PERSONAL care product sector in south-east Asia has been looking ahead to how it emerges from the Covid-19 crisis, which has hit this diverse region in differing ways.

According to Finland-based Global Research & Data Services, sales of personal care products in Malaysia’s 31.6 million people market last year (2019) were worth USD557 million, based on UN data.…

Indonesia’s clothing industry is among the international outsourcing hubs that has been struggling during the Covid-19 pandemic, with foreign buyers cancelling orders and the domestic market in the doldrums, industry association and government officials have told just-style.

“Since the pandemic, many buyers in foreign countries, mostly the United States and Europe, have cancelled or postponed orders because of lockdowns and other reasons,” said Rizal Rakhman, secretary general of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia).…

AUSTRALIA’S existing regulatory framework for importing and manufacturing industrial chemicals, the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) will be replaced by a new system called the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS), starting July 1. The AICIS covers a broad range of chemicals and polymers used in adhesives, paints and solvents among many others. …

Malaysia’s digital textile printing industry and market is growing at a steadfast pace, with local demand driven by regional designers and fashion brands, particularly when producing Islamic wear, such as scarfs and shawls.

However, the industry faces challenges securing enough orders to fully utilise its capacity.…

South-east Asia is not known for a tradition of eating dairy products, but actually consumers in the region’s most populous country Indonesia (population 270 million people) have been eating cheese for more than a century (partly thanks Indonesia’s historic links with the Netherlands) and the country has a thriving domestic dairy industry.…

With the Korea Cosmetic Industry Institute (KCII) estimating there were USD11.7 billion’s worth of South Korean-made personal care products (‘K-beauty’) sales in 2019, including nearly USD6.49 billion in exports, and more than 16,000 individuals and businesses officially licensed to provide cosmetic products and services, South Korea’s cosmetic industry has the innate strength it will need to cope with the Covid-19 crisis.…

Indonesia’s industry ministry launched an initiative in February (2020) aimed at eliminating lead used in paint made and sold in the country. It involves the Indonesian paint industry, is part of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) project and is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an international investment body.…

The Philippines department of trade and industry is finalising a roadmap to revive the textile and garment industry, devised by the government’s Board of Investment. 

Latest drafts of this Textile-Garment Industry Roadmap 2020-2029, which has yet to be formally released, lays out the path for an integrated textile-garment industry, strong linkages between industry, government and private sector, as well as a dedicated trade office.…

NATIONAL minimum wages have been rising in clothing manufacturing outsourcing hubs around the world, with low and medium-cost manufacturing centres increasing pay rates, as their governments seek to balance the need for export competitiveness with the value of industrial peace to avoid production disruption and the ability to retain experienced staff.…

IN southeast Asia’s humid and hot climate, the need for coatings to protect homes, businesses and public service buildings from mould is significant – expanding demand for anti-microbial coatings, especially as strong economic growth fuels construction.

The regional economic powerhouse that today’ Vietnam recorded slightly above 7% gross domestic product (GDP) growth for a second consecutive year, making it one of the best performers globally.…

CONSULTATIONS are being assessed in Australia to develop a National Standard for Environmental Risk Management of Industrial Chemicals, which will include coatings and their chemical ingredients, Australia’s department of agriculture, water and the environment has said in a note. The national standard, for which consultations were to end in February, is being designed to ensure that potentially harmful high-risk chemicals are subject to appropriate and consistent environmental controls across the nation.…

Indonesia’s paint and coatings sector is expected to continue to grow, driven by an expanding middle-class population, the fast-growing construction sector and ambitious government infrastructure projects, encompassing transport networks, energy and utilities.

The south-east Asian country’s paint and coatings market has grown to almost USD2.5 billion in sales revenue in the past year and sales are expected to expand at a fair clip of between 6% and 7% annually in the next five years, according to industry analysts Frost & Sullivan. …

THE MALAYSIAN government has issued a Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIB) Framework, which tells financial institutions of importance to Malaysia’s wider economy to hold minimum levels of reserves to protect themselves against troubled times. Mandatory ‘higher loss absorbency’ (HLA) requirements for listed systemic banks, ranging between 0.5% to 1.0% of risk-weighted assets, will come into force from January 31, 2021.…

AN INDONESIA-based fabric and yarn innovation centre has hailed success in developing wood-based cellulose fibres that it says are set to drive business in the multibillion-dollar Asian ethnic wear market. The ‘Lenzing Centre of Excellence’ (LCOE), operated by Austria’s Lenzing Group in Purwakarta, West Java, Indonesia, has just completed its first year of operations, with its R&D focus ranging from Indonesian batik to Muslim hijabs and Indian saris.…

THE INDONESIAN government is trying to integrate digital technologies into the country’s batik sector to differentiate and authenticate its products from other Asian competitors. The world’s largest batik exporter, Indonesia’s batik exports reached USD52.4 million in 2018 and USD17.99 million in the first quarter of 2019, according to data gathered by Indonesia’s Antara news agency.…

IN a bid to modernise Cambodia’s textile and garment sectors through digitalisation, the industry is introducing innovative new software next month (February) that will help improve efficiency by improving fabric handling and cutting down repeat clothing defects by almost half – in addition to making overall gains on factory productivity.…

Airbus is to pay out EUR3.6 billion (USD4 billion) under a trio of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) with British, French and United States authorities that were simultaneously agreed by national courts January 31 as part of a global resolution over bribes to clinch civil and military aircraft sales.…

A queue formed at the L’Oréal stand at November’s China International Import Expo fair, in Shanghai: the French firm had set up photo opportunities to appeal the ‘Da ka’ set – Chinese slang referring to generation of selfie-taking youths who seemingly live to photograph themselves at important landmarks.…

INDONESIA is seeking to diversify its fibre production, developing new ways of utilising this country’s significant biomass to produce fibres such as rayon to create low-cost and quality clothing and achieve global competitiveness, the country’s industry ministry has told WTiN.com.

“The Indonesian textile and clothing sector is headed in a new direction, with rayon serving as a substitute for cotton,” said Muhdori, the ministry’s director of the textile, leather and footwear industry.…

KEY textile manufacturing countries in southeast Asia are investing in new machinery to upgrade their textile technology, boosting backward linkages as they seek to strengthen and update local supply chains, international trade data shows. While that level of investment in imports seems to have declined in 2018, key textile manufacturing Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc countries have been importing millions of dollars of new machinery, helping them make the most of trade deals that can insist in local fabric, yarn and fibre sourcing.…

Data by the Asia Nonwoven Fabrics Association (ANFA) shows that nonwovens production in Asia increased by a robust 6.5% year-on-year in 2018, to 5.6 million tonnes. China-based manufacturers were responsible for the bulk of this output, producing 4 million tonnes. However, but India-based production increased at faster pace, at 15.9% up, year-on-year.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission will next year (2020) consider whether to add zirconium to the European Union (EU) critical raw material list, with the aim of encouraging production and recycling of a mineral so resistant to corrosion, it is widely used in the nuclear industry.…

INDIA maybe a populous and diverse country with its 1.36 million potential consumers who speak 22 languages, but one company maintains a strong, even dominant, position in India’s fast-growing chocolate market which saw sales of USD1.8 billion in 2018, according to GlobalData – Mondelēz International Inc’s Cadbury brand.…

A sharp increase in imports of cars into Vietnam has underlined how this south-east Asian country of 96 million people, could become a major auto market, especially as Vietnamese drivers move from motorcycles to cars.

At present, the motorcycle is king in Vietnam.…

THE INCOMING European Commission may seek to further harmonise European Union (EU) food labelling rules on sugar content. This pledge comes from the nominee for new EU health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, a Cypriot parliamentarian, whose EU role includes being responsible for food safety and standards.…

THE PHILIPPINES and Thailand cigarette industries are still fighting a long trade dispute that has seen litigation rumble through the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since 2008. That year, the Philippines government lodged a series of complaints with the WTO’s disputes settlement body (DSB) that the Thai Customs Department had imposed unjust restrictions on imports of cigarettes from the Philippines.…

Described by environmental campaigners as “the elephant in the COP21 negotiations room” when climate change proposals were agreed in Paris during 2015, today – the electrification of shipping is moving ahead apace.

From inland ferries to cargo barges and cruise ships, vessels are being built or retrofitted with renewable power propulsion sources, curbing the shipping industry’s major emissions.…

CHINA’S ministry of finance drafted regulations punishing accountants violating national accounting laws. Proposals under public consultation would include blacklisting accountants found guilty of fabricating, hiding or destroying financial reports, books and documents, or telling other accountants to undertake such malpractice. Accountants involved in embezzlement would suffer the same fate.…

THE US-China trade dispute could offer an incentive for Chinese companies to dump textile products into Indonesia, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service.

But Indonesian textile representatives told WTiN they are confident safeguards are in place to minimise the risk of such dumping.…

REMOVING non-tariff-barriers (NTBs) impeding the trade in automobiles, parts and materials between the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is key to unlocking the regional automotive industry’s full potential, experts argue. However, they agree that such moves cannot be achieved without short-term pain.…

A WAVE of oil and gas structure decommissioning in the North Sea, a steady continuing flow in the USA’s Gulf of Mexico fields, and a similar longer-term challenge in south-east Asia are concentrating minds on the infrastructure needed to dismantle such equipment safely.…

SOUTH-EAST Asia’s beauty and personal care product market continues to grow, with more mature markets in the region demonstrating an increasing preference for natural products.

As might be expected, consumers in the wealthy city state of Singapore are especially keen to spend more money on lines with natural ingredients.…

A GROUNDBREAKING collaborative international educational programme, staged at the University of Oregon (UO), Eugene, USA, has pushed the participating 52 students to ally their intellectual research skills with empathy and practicality to deliver effective solutions to global problems.

They have now entered the second week of an Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Undergraduate Leaders Program designed to foster innovative thinking and problem solving.…

STUDENTS from top Pacific Rim research universities have embarked on an innovative programme of problem solving, designed to create fresh solutions on pressing socio-economic problems that leverage leadership skills and community contacts.

The University of Oregon (UO), in Eugene, Oregon, welcomed 50 undergraduate students from 30 universities based in the Pacific Rim region, including from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Japan, Australia, and more.…

INDONESIAN clothing and textile industry experts and the government say there is continued need to boost investment in creating efficient upstream supplies to enable the country to profit sustainably from growing demand for clothing export sales.

Textile and garment production grew 19% in the first quarter of this year (year-on-year) – but that was largely thanks to a strong performance from the clothing sector.…

EVERY manufacturing and agricultural industry has an impact on climate change – and the tobacco sector is no different. Faced with long-standing criticism of the health impact of its products, the tobacco industry is now facing attacks that its work generates carbon emissions and hence climate change.…

JAPAN clothing brands have protected themselves in advance against exposure from the US-China trade war by decreasing their reliance on China-based manufacturing outposts in recent years. This sourcing diversification has occurred initially because of rising costs in China.

According to the Japan Apparel Fashion Industry Council (JAFIC), this movement away from Japan means the impact on Japanese textile and apparel companies from US tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on China-made exports would be “slight”.…

ANTI-fraud experts understand that managers always need to be aware of the potential for their organisations to lose money to fraud and corruption. But the fact that the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/acfepublic/2018-report-to-the-nations.pdf

estimates an average 5% of public and private revenues are lost to fraud indicates that more awareness is needed.…

ANTI-fraud experts understand that managers always need to be aware of the potential for their organisations to lose money to fraud and corruption. But the fact that the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/acfepublic/2018-report-to-the-nations.pdf

estimates an average 5% of public and private revenues are lost to fraud indicates that more awareness is needed.…

THE AUSTRALIAN coating and paint market has experienced volatility over the past five years, with mergers and acquisitions consolidating the industry, whilst consumer demand and legislation have boosted the sale of more environment-friendly products. Across the Tasman Sea, meanwhile, New Zealand has seen growth due to innovation in high-performance and green coatings.…

This July is the 30th anniversary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which developed its 40 recommendations on anti-money laundering (AML) and nine special recommendations on combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) – but the jury is still out on whether the AML/CFT system it has created is really working.…

CHINA continues to be the largest source of clothing and accessories detected as being unsafe for consumers in the European Union (EU), according to data analysed by just-style from the EU Safety Gate database.

Formerly the EU Rapid Alert System (RAPEX), the database shows that of the 221 safety warnings issued by the system about apparel and accessory products in 2018, 102 of these lines were supplied from China.…

INTERNATIONAL efforts are under way to improve how airports can serve as effective humanitarian logistics hubs, reducing the risk that they become bottlenecks in disaster relief efforts. These moves follow research and a growing consensus in the air and aid sectors that while airports are undoubtedly a lifeline during crises, they can also hamper the efficient delivery of aid to victims.…

MALAYSIA has extended its grace period for taxpayers who have under-paid in the past, allowing for low penalties should undeclared income be filed on returns this year. This even covers taxpayers who have yet to register with the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia, and those who have registered but have not submitted ITRF/PRF/RPGTRF returns.…

IN a country where tax collection remains weak, Bangladesh accounting experts now hope that a 2012 transfer pricing (TP) law is finally starting to increase revenues, although progress is slow. Demonstrating the difficulties involved in rolling out complex tax legislation in emerging market states that targets powerful multinationals, the country’s National Board of Revenue (NBR) says that it collected just USD1.2 million’s worth more taxes from 10 multinationals (which it would not name) in the financial year to last June (2018) than without taking TP into account.…

CANDIDATES in next month’s presidential election in Indonesia have pledged to bolster the country’s textile industry but remain tight-lipped about specific details for improvement. 

Industry association leaders have said incumbent President Joko Widodo’s infrastructure investment drive has yet to result in lower logistics costs for the sector – but still favour his plans over those of his presidential rival.…

THE RANA Plaza tragedy pushed Bangladesh’s USD30-billion clothing industry into making health and safety improvements to reassure brands they would not be tarnished by similar disasters. But now, the industry is going a step further, and seeking to establish a reputation for environmental excellence.…

INDONESIA is rolling out its ambitious plan to digitalise its clothing and textile industry, a key policy devised to meet the government’s goal of helping the country become among the world’s top five textile and apparel producers by 2030.

The plan was unveiled last August (2018), encouraging Indonesia’s growing apparel industry to adopt industrial revolution 4.0 technologies such as virtual reality, 3D design, automation and using the internet of things.…

INDONESIA is seeking to be among the world’s top five textile and apparel producers by 2030, partly by taking advantage of digital technology, a government official has announced.

The adoption of industrial revolution 4.0 technologies will make Indonesia’s textile industry more efficient and competitive globally, said Muhdori, director for textile, leather, footwear and multifarious industries at the industry ministry.…

BRITAIN’S Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has closed two long-running major investigations into allegations of corruption and bribery at two of the UK’s largest companies: aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce and medicine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline. Rolls-Royce has been subject to a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), approved in January 2017, where it paid a GBP497.25 million (USD616 million) plus interest penalty and GBP13 million costs (USD16.1 million) over 12 counts of conspiracy to corrupt, false accounting and failure to prevent bribery in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Russia, Nigeria, China and Malaysia.…

The coatings market of South Korea looks on track to achieve modest growth this year, with gains in architectural coating sales and a mild revival of marine coatings projected to offset a deteriorating outlook for automotive coatings. The overall South Korea paint and coatings market in 2018 has been estimated by market researchers Frost & Sullivan at USD4.5 billion in sales and 1 million tonnes in 2018, making it the fourth largest coatings market in Asia, in both value and volume terms – behind China, Japan and India.…

INCREASES in minimum wage rates are likely to be of significant concern to brands sourcing from south-east Asia in 2019, with pay on an upward trajectory – although governments’ approaches vary.

For some governments in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, raising minimum wage serves as a populist measure (for instance by Thailand’s military government, whose supporters will face an election this year), while for others, an annual review is a statutory requirement, for example, in the Philippines.…

WITH the Asia-Pacific coatings market and industry being one of the most dynamic worldwide, experiencing continuous robust growth, the potential for additives to give brands an edge in seizing market share is increasingly important.

Backed by buoyant construction, automotive and marine industries across the Asia Pacific, the region’s paint and coatings additives market is showing promising growth, analysts say.…

DRAWING inspiration from the sustainable fabric-making methods of Indonesia’s Baduy tribal community, who live in a remote region of Java, a high-profile Indonesian textile designer has commercialised is these textiles to create runway fashion for a global audience.

Woven fabric designs developed by Merdi Sihombing, called Suat Songket and Samping Aros, are “unique traditional weaving patterns that are used by the Baduy community,” Mr Sihombing told WTiN.com,…

AS the second largest economy within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc, Thailand remains a key market in the region for paint and coatings sales. Regarding sales of home paints and coatings, including lacquers and varnishes, London-based market researcher Euromonitor International says that sales have been growing strongly.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has approved establishing disputes settlement panels ruling sought by the USA on whether retaliatory duties imposed by the European Union (EU), Canada, China, and Mexico on US confectionery and sweet bakery and associated ingredient exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

BANGLADESH’S unions have yet to be satisfied by an increase in the country’s minimum wage, which was published in a government gazette on October 8, hiking minimum wages for entry-level knitwear workers by 51% to USD95-a-month from December, up from the USD63 set in 2013.…

A PROPOSED Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and Indonesia could generate notable structural shifts in Indonesia’s textile (fabric and yarn) sector, expanding the workforce by up to 2.5% for skilled and unskilled workers, expert analysis suggests.

Indeed, a new European Commission’s Sustainability Impact Assessment (see http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2018/october/tradoc_157431.pdf)…

The recent sight of a Chinese internet celebrity in a milking parlour in Limerick could be a hint of what the future holds for Ireland’s increasingly international dairy industry. Xiao Lu Yu, one of the ‘influencers’ who monetise Chinese social media (see https://m.weibo.cn/status/4279583182420503…

Indonesia is seeking to open new markets for its textile and garment products – not only are free trade agreements with Australia and fellow Asian countries are on the cards, the industry’s association and the government has announced, but the industry is also targeting African export sales.…

IN its trade war against China, the Trump administration in the USA has added tariffs on a wide range of upstream textile inputs and fashion-related consumer products, raising the spectre of fraudulent rerouting of Chinese textile-garment products through neighbouring regions, notably south-east Asia.…

Cryptocurrencies have made a big splash across Asia, and governments have taken very different regulatory approaches to curb associated financial scams and money laundering.

While there is one group of countries that has banned the operation and use of cryptocurrencies entirely, including China, India and Vietnam, a second category spans countries that see cryptocurrencies as potentially boosting their own financial sectors.…

COULD digital textile printing help bring the Australian textile and clothing manufacturing sector back to sustainable growth? There are experts who believe this scaleable finishing technology can give Australian design talent room to thrive.

Faced with the proximity of China’s manufacturing juggernaut, it is no surprise that mass textile and clothing manufacturing declines in Australia, but digital technologies are giving the industry a chance to find new niches.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has released a new standard on reporting financial instruments – IPSAS 41 – to improve the relevance of financial assets and liabilities data. It replaces financial instruments reporting rules in IPSAS 29, introducing a single classification and measurement model for financial assets, considering an asset’s objective and cash flows.…

NEGOTIATIONS for a free trade agreement between Indonesia and the European Union (EU), which will pave the way for greater opportunities for the textile and garment sectors, are entering a final phase, the head of Indonesia’s textile industry association said.

“Negotiations are entering the sixth round.…

Signs of an accelerating relocation of garment investment from China to the Philippines are emerging, amidst the US imposing an additional 10% duty on textile and some clothing products from China. The Chinese government retaliation of an additional 25% duty on US cotton imports making raw material sourcing for China-based manufacturers more expensive has also raised the cost of doing business in China.…

INDONESIA has criticised USA plans to punish its exporters over Washington claims that the south-east Asian country has failed to fully lift contested restrictions on meat and meat products have been found breaching international commerce rules by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).…

INDIA’S paint industry has been exempted from a mandatory biocide registration requirement under the national Insecticides Act (1968) if the biocides are used as a dry film preservative. However, new guidelines issued by Central Insecticide Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) in June have told the Indian paint industry that they must use registered biocide products at recommended dosages, or protective labelling rules will kick in.…

PLAIN packaging rules, or approximations, are growing around the world, but the tobacco sector still argues that these controls are over-reaches that do not reduce smoking and instead encourage counterfeiting and smuggling.

Since January 2017, French smokers have been buying non-branded packs of cigarettes, seeing only a warning picture with text about how tobacco consumption affects people’s health, along with the name of the manufacturer in a simple typeface.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) customs’ long-standing struggle with counterfeit textile products coming from south-east Asia and the resulting economic losses have sparked the EU to invest in two initiatives aiming at preventing the trade of fake goods. 

IP Key South East Asia (IP Key SEA) and ASEAN Regional Integration Support from the EU (ARISE Plus), both launched this April, will be strongly promoting the protection of intellectual and industrial property rights in the textile and other impacted sector.…

THE ASIA-PACIFIC (APAC) region’s oil and gas sector faces an unprecedented level of decommissioning for which it is under-prepared and lacks experience, analysts have warned. Unclear regional government regulations coupled with a lack of local expertise mean that companies and regulators face a steep learning curve, high initial costs and the potential for mistakes, according to the consultancy group Wood Mackenzie’s latest analysis.…

THE ASIA-Pacific region has many of the elements needed to create a burgeoning nonwovens market and industry. It has growing middle class consumption of basis personal products and continued manufacturing and infrastructural expansion for industrial nonwovens. These items can be supplied my new mass-production in emerging market countries and niche lines from the region’s richer developed industrial economies.…

ALL Indonesian airlines have been removed from a European Union (EU) safety blacklist, which has blocked them from flying to EU airports. All carriers from the country had been banned in 2007, but since then seven operators, Garuda Indonesia, Airfast Indonesia, Ekspres Transportasi Antarbenua, Indonesia Air Asia, Citilink, Lion Air and Batik Air, had been allowed to fly to and from Europe.…

JAPANESE eateries are expanding in Indonesia as the appetite for beef rises among south-east Asia’s most populous country’s growing middle class.

In 2016, Indonesia’s beef consumption was 1.84 kg per capita (its population is 261 million), up from 1.45 kg a decade earlier, according to business researcher Statista.…

SOUTH-EAST Asia maybe a diverse and hence complicated region in which to market personal care products, but the growth in sales in all its countries make it an attractive target for beauty brands.

The Philippines is a case in point. The gross domestic product (GDP) of this 103 million people archipelago recorded 6.7% GDP growth in 2017, and the World Bank projects it to grow further at an annual rate of 6.7% in both 2018 and 2019, before settling at 6.6% in 2020.…

THE NEWLY signed 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) could help Vietnam boost garment and textile exports to the lucrative Australian market significantly. But the Asian clothing makers may still face big challenges in taking market share in this mature market away from China, experts warn. …

INDONESIAN President Joko Widodo’s drive to upgrade the country’s infrastructure is set to benefit the textile industry, but the problem of high energy costs remains an obstacle to competitiveness, industry players have warned.

Since taking office in October 2014, Widodo’s administration has embarked on ambitious projects to tackle infrastructure bottlenecks by building roads, ports, airports and power plants.…

THE NONWOVENS sector has always been at the cutting edge of materials production, and so established developed economy manufacturers have often had the edge. But with global markets integrating, and emerging economies becoming increasingly sophisticated, new nonwovens manufacturing bases are growing all the time.…

THE ECONOMIES of the Asia Pacific region are impressively dynamic, but HR experts agree much more could be gained if the region were to succeed in improving women’s skills and providing them with equal opportunities at work.

Illustrating just how much potential there is, the latest report from the McKinsey Global Institute published in April, ‘The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in Asia Pacific’, has found that advancing women’s equality in the region could add USD4.5 trillion to their collective GDP annually in 2025 – a 12% increase over the “business-as-usual trajectory”.…

Japan’s halal wagyu industry is poised for rapid growth thanks to demand from an increasing number of Muslim tourists and the opening of new export markets.

Relaxed visa requirements, a growing middle class with a large disposable income and the expansion of low-cost carriers has yielded a boom in visitors from Moslem south-east Asian citizens, from countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.…

MALAYSIA has long positioned itself as a higher-tech source of textile manufacturing and so it is maybe no surprise that it has been growing its digital textile printing segment.

That has been to the benefit of key Japan-based digital imaging and printing solution supplier Epson, which currently claims a Malaysian market share of 87% – based on data harvested last year (2017).…

The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam, a religious duty every Muslim should perform once in their lifetime. But with 1.7 billion Muslims worldwide and the Hajj only occurring over five days every year, the event is a logistical challenge for the Saudi Arabian government, tour operators, hospitality service providers, retailers and accountants.…

AS China’s retreat from mass market clothing production continues, Bangladesh knitters are eyeing another added value knitwear niche – sportswear. Following the industry’s success in boosting sales within the profitable lingerie segment, Bangladesh manufacturers are ramping up production in sports apparels, although some experts say that work is needed on boosting its supply chain, particularly of manmade fibres.…

EXPERTS have expressed mixed reactions on how a proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), now years in the making, could help revive the garment and textile sector in South East Asia.

The 16-member bloc that includes the 10 ASEAN member countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and six other countries – Australia New Zealand, China, India, Japan and South Korea – have been negotiating the deal since November 2012.…

INDONESIAN textile and garment manufacturers continue to flout environmental laws and dump hazardous waste into rivers despite pressure for the industry to be more environmentally friendly, activists and industry leaders warned.
“Medium and small sized companies, particularly those that serve the domestic market, have no incentives to be environmentally-friendly because their margins are small,” said Redma Gita Wirawasta, secretary general of the  the Indonesian Synthetic Fibre Manufacturers
Association (Apsyfi, Asosiasi Produsen Serat dan Benang Filament Indonesia).“So…

SWEEPING tax reforms introduced by The Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte designed to raise funds for infrastructure improvements, may cool a protracted vehicle sales boom in the country, experts warn.

The first stage of changes under a Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law (TRAIN) came into force in January and the resulting higher excise taxes saw sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles drop by 9.5% and 8% respectively in the first quarter of the year compared to January-March 2017.…

For the first time since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, the African country’s tobacco selling season opened on March 21 this year with long time ruler Robert Mugabe no longer in power.

Former President Mugabe resigned last November (2017), faced with impeachment proceedings from Zimbabwe’s lawmakers, with the country’s generals and his own ZANU-PF party having turned against him.…

VISITORS to the INDO Intertex in Jakarta, Indonesia, will not only be introduced to the state-of-the-art textile and garment machinery, but also meet with potential clients, exchange business insights around key areas such as sustainability and energy efficiency and expand connections, organisers said.…

The INDO Intertex textile machinery exhibition will be staged in the Indonesian capital Jakarta next month to boost investment in a textile and clothing sector that is growing, the show’s project manager Paul Kingsen said. 

“The theme for this year INDO Intertex is investment growth acceleration.…

THE FUTURE of Indonesia’s textile and garment industry could be bright, but it companies must deal with the challenges of high energy costs and competition from regional neighbours to succeed, said Ade Sudrajat the chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia).…

SOUTH Korean companies in the digital textile print supply chain are aware that Asian rivals beat them on price, but are managing to stay afloat through better quality, company managers have told Digital Textile.

“Chinese products are very competitive with their prices, but their quality is still not good enough to satisfy global standards,” said Hani Kim, a manager at the overseas sales department of Unitrade, a Seoul-based manufacturer of heat transfer film for digital textile printing.…

THE INDIAN perfumery and cosmetics sector is facing increased taxation and shortage of raw material supplies even as it is yet to cope with the functioning of the country’s new Goods and Services Tax (GST).

In the national budget presented on February 1, Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley doubled the customs duties for cosmetic and toiletry preparation products from 10% to 20% “to provide adequate protection to the domestic industry”.…

TEXTILE industry representatives have welcomed an anticipated move by the Indonesian government to make new corporate income tax cuts to boost investment and make its manufacturing industry – notably textile and clothing manufacturers – more competitive both at home and overseas.…

THE IMPORTANCE of Brazil as the world’s top supplier of internationally-traded tobacco leaf and manufactured products has been waning for the past decade, with India, notably, improving its position. New statistical analysis released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) shows that this market share fall for Brazil also represented a decline in volume sales, given the global trade in tobacco leaf and products has shrunk since 2013 – until 2016, the year for which the latest data is available.…

THAILAND maybe in political stagnation, with its military government unlikely to stage elections until November at the earliest, but its paint and coatings market is expanding robustly. Demand for coatings in Thailand, during the whole of 2017, was estimated at 510,000 tonnes worth USD1.5 billion, according to US-based consultancy for the chemical industry Kusumgar, Nerlfi & Growney.…

FINANCIAL crime experts are urging Indonesia to step up its war on terror financing and money laundering highlighting the south-east Asian nation’s vulnerability to these threats. The USA state department’s 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) noted these threats are significant despite Indonesia neither being a regional financial centre nor an offshore financial haven.…

INDONESIA’S textile and garment exports rebounded strongly in 2017, rising about 5% to USD12.4 billion after four years of stagnation, the head of the country’s textile industry association has revealed.

Factory relocation, political stability and less labour unrest contributed to the growth, said the chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia), Ade Sudrajat.…

THE GLOBAL speciality chemical market has been showing steady gains over the past few years and is set to continue in its growth trajectory, according to latest data. According to data from Pune, India-based global research company Allied Market Research, the global industry was worth USD175.4 billion in 2014 and has since shown promising growth to USD184 billion in 2015, USD193 billion in 2016 and USD202.5 billion in 2017.…

WITH full supply chains and innovative products, Thailand’s knitwear industry is thriving, making the country a nucleus for fashion manufacturing in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. Thai Garment Manufacturers Association (TGMA) executive director Chartchai Singhadeja said: “Thailand’s strength lies in our full-value supply chains, starting from fibres to yarns and fabrics, then apparel and clothing within the fashion industry.”…

LURED by a shifting global market and better margins, Bangladesh’s apparel producers are rushing into the lingerie space, predicting Chinese manufacturers will secure fewer export orders for these lines as their costs rise.

This new niche opportunity for the Bangladesh industry is fortuitous, as it dovetails with the country’s textiles and clothing makers’ core strategy of moving from their traditional low-cost growth pillars, such as t-shirts, shirts, trousers, jackets and sweaters.…

DEFERRED Prosecution Agreements (DPAs), that allow companies and individuals that admit to wrongdoing and cooperate with investigators to pay a fine and avoid prosecution, are becoming increasingly common worldwide. Enabling wrongdoers to avoid being debarred from bidding for many contracts and providing law enforcers with a commitment that companies and individual fraudsters will avoid fraud in future, DPAs offer benefits for police and suspects.…

THE EXECUTIVE secretary of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has said that he hopes his government will make progress next year in forging trade deals with the USA and European Union (EU), boosting textile exports to these key markets.…

THE HUMAN resources sector has been urged to put pressure on governments and investment fund managers in Asia to strengthen pension provisions as they deal with the consequences of rapidly aging populations.

And HR and economics experts have warned that corporate HR teams have a critical role to play in educating the workforce about the extent, however limited, of their pension provision and working with company bosses to strengthen policies within their organisations to compensate for the lack of robust schemes in existence.…

HONG Kong regulators have laid down binding rules on financial institutions insisting that they practice effective cybersecurity management. The special administrative region’s (SAR) Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has issued ‘Guidelines for Reducing and Mitigating Hacking Risks Associated with Internet Trading’ requiring all licensed or registered internet traders to implement 20 steps to reduce cyber-attack vulnerabilities.…

TOUGH Indonesian import restrictions on meat and meat products have been declared in breach of international commerce rules by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) appellate body. It is the highest tribunal within the global trade body and it today (Wednesday, Nov 9) rejected Indonesia’s claims that its barriers complied with the WTO general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) and its agreement on agriculture.…

THE MEMBER countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC) need to expand the remit of current skillsets identified in the grouping’s blueprint to ensure greater labour mobility during the fourth industrial revolution, according to a leading economist in the region.…

MORE could be done by the Indonesian government to improve the opportunities for job seekers as unemployment figures continue to rise, say HR experts.

While the IT sector is set to drive the economy forward, the skillsets of local would-be employees are still lacking and a push is required towards stepping up education levels, they warned.…

SPECIALITY textile producers in Indonesia are seeking increased investment as demand in the automotive, construction and furnishings sectors is soaring, according to industry experts.

“There’s a lot of demand and more investment is being directed toward that technical textile production,” said Redma Wirawasta, secretary general of the Association of Synthetic Fiber Producers (APSyFI).…

MALAYSIA is making progress in combating money laundering but political interference is still a problem in implementing policies and enforcing laws, experts have told Money Laundering Bulletin.

A dynamic upper middle-income country (USD9,850 per head gross national income in 2016, says the Word Bank), some of Malaysia’s ML and TF [terrorist financing] risks derive from its geographic position.…

AFTER introducing digital printing and leading Bangladesh’s knitwear sector by example, the country’s knitting major, the Knit Concern Group, has said it will ramp up its capacity to digitally print 1 million metres of fabric monthly by 2022. Presently, the knitter, based in Narayanganj, near Dhaka, can digitally print 260,000 metres of fabric a month.…

Multinationals and suppliers in the personal care product sector are unilaterally implementing measures to reduce their carbon footprint in the wake of the 2015 Paris climate treaty, taking steps to reduce energy use, their impact on forests and cutting water use and pollution.…

*Brands should never under estimate the power of Asian women to decide their own make-up destiny. Female consumers in Asia are increasingly driving demand and trends in their own direction. Especially younger female urban consumers. Brands that listen will be in.…

INDONESIA is an important market – it does not just have 261 million people, but its female consumers especially are becoming more assertive and shaping colour cosmetic trends that brands should follow if they want to boost revenue. Last year, market observers have said, women consumers in Indonesia decided they wanted to buy matte lipstick, and this demand has mushroomed.…

THE PAKISTAN textile industry is worried that a potential trade free trade deal with Thailand, now under discussion, may cause more harm than good to Pakistani manufacturers. Thai and Pakistan government negotiators are preparing for what maybe the final round of talks to forge a free trade agreement (FTA) between these two textile producing countries, with a deal potentially being signed in January.…

VIETNAM’S textile and clothing and textile sector is looking to sell more product into Asian markets such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, while solidifying its traditional export bases like the US and EU, the latest trade data indicates. 

Last year, Vietnam exported USD2.28 billion’s worth of clothing and textiles to South Korea – a 7.45% gain compared with 2015, according to Vietnam customs data analysed by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS). …

WHILE there is little doubt that the Asian fire resistant coating market is large – indeed New Jersey-based chemical consultancy Growney Kusumgar, Nerfli & Growny has argued that it is several times larger than that of the USA’s USD100 million-market – marketers can struggle to make sales. …

HONG Kong continues to be a thriving cosmetics and personal care market, with its local consumer base enjoying ample spending power and with traders benefiting from its strategic location as an import gateway to mainland China.  

GlobalData, a provider of business information and analytics, valued Hong Kong’s cosmetics and market at Hong Kong dollars HKD18.1 billion (USD2.3 billion) in 2016, largely dominated by imports.…

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.…

CAMBODIA’S tripartite talks that will set a new minimum wage limit for 2018 for the country’s garment and textile sector opened yesterday (Sept 25).

The three parties, representing government, industry and unions, however proposed three different monthly wage floors. Cambodia’s ministry of labour and vocational training suggested a minimum clothing and footwear sector monthly wage of USD162.67 and the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia proposed USD161 – but unions have pushed for USD176.25-a-month, up from the current USD153 (and USD140 in 2016), Sokny Say, secretary general of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) told just-style. …

AN ELDERLY person at home is like a living golden treasure. So runs an oft-quoted Chinese proverb – but Hong Kong is starting to ponder its worth in the wake of a warning that the city faces an “ageing tsunami” along with much of the region where innovative plans are being considered to tackle the looming crisis.…

NEW research suggests traditional gender roles are hindering women from getting active in the workplace in the Philippines.

A research paper released in July by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) think tank shows traditional gender roles of female home-makers and male providers hamper female employees’ chances of success breaking into the labour market.…

INDONESIAN textile factories must improve their production of motif designs and colours to satisfy domestic consumers and boost local sales, said textile retailers at south-east Asia’s busiest garment and textile market in Jakarta’s Tanah Abang district. “We expect producers make more unique textile motifs, so customers will have more choices, which they will like,” said Eryanto, a trader who has been working for about 11 years at the Arjuna Bombay textile shop at Tanah Abang Block A market.…

WHEN the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) released its annual set of global statistics in June (2017), and South Korea was not among the world’s 24 countries that performed the most surgical and nonsurgical procedures in 2016, there was considerable surprise.…

SOUTH east Asia’s countries are as culturally diverse as those in Europe, and far more contrasting in economic development, so it is no surprise that their personal care product markets differ in their tastes and priorities. Fortunately, with the region’s largely emerging market economies still on a robust growth trajectory, and its more developed economies solidifying their wealth, the usual personal care product sale trend is one of expansion, albeit unevenly and sometimes with set-backs.…

THE ONGOING economic integration of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) block is creating potential opportunities for Indonesia’s workforce, but thy may not have skills to take advantage without proactive vocational training programmes, economists have warned.

“Qualification mismatch is still a significant issue for young people in Indonesia today,” Emma Allen, Jakarta-based country economist for the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), told People Management.…

SINGAPORE has been rated the best city in the world to live for professionals wanting to work in start-ups, according to a survey by furnished apartment web-rental platform Nestpick. The website’s researchers assessed 85 cities, looking at their start-up ecosystems. It assessed average salaries for entry level and experienced positions regarding project management, technology and marketing roles.…

CHINESE customers bought 28 million vehicles in 2016, up 7.3% from 2015, which saw a year-on-year growth of 4.7%, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. However, such sales were largely stimulated by tax incentives released by the Chinese government in 2015 to encourage the sales of low-emission cars.…

INDIA’S hopes of capturing more business within the international textile market lay in expanding its man-made fibre (MMF) production, experts suggested at the three-day Textiles India 2017 exhibition that concluded in Gujarat, on July 2. This, combined with innovative product design, improved labour laws, quick delivery systems and drastically improved logistics, could help Indian textile and clothing producers become a more important sourcing hub for the industry worldwide, said speakers at the event.…

The European Commission will press trading partners at this week’s July 7-8 G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, to remove unfair obstacles to European Union imports, after a EU report detailed such restrictions, many affecting clothing and textile trades.

Referring to the Commission’s latest annual Report on Trade and Investment Barriers (TIBR), EU trade Commissioner Cecilia Malström warned G20 leaders it was prepared to launch World Trade Organisation cases if necessary: “We are taking action.…

INDIA’S hopes of capturing more business within the international textile market lay in expanding its man-made fibre (MMF) production, experts suggested at the three-day Textiles India 2017 exhibition that concluded in Gujarat, on July 2. This, combined with innovative product design, improved labour laws, quick delivery systems and drastically improved logistics, could help Indian textile and clothing producers become a more important sourcing hub for the industry worldwide, said speakers at the event.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) meat industry has expressed disappointment over the decision by Russia to extend by 18 months its ban on EU exports of meat and meat products, but is optimistic that producers will continue finding alternative markets.

Leaders of EU farm industry association Copa-Cogeca and the European Livestock & Meat Trading Union (UECBV) stressed to GlobalMeatNews that the European Commission, food industry companies and EU member states had successfully adapted to Russia’s actions.…

WITH the Asia-Pacific continuing to be the hub of global industrial growth and also a nexus of technological innovation, the region’s non-wovens sector has been making the most of these benefits, increasing both output and quality.

The Chinese nonwoven fabric sector, for instance, has been growing steadily, with 8-10% year-on-year growth in recent years, surpassing the average growth rate of the country’s entire textile industry.…

The European Commission will press trading partners at this week’s July 7-8 G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, to remove unfair obstacles to European Union imports, after a EU report detailed such restrictions, many affecting clothing and textile trades.

Referring to the Commission’s latest annual Report on Trade and Investment Barriers (TIBR), EU trade Commissioner Cecilia Malström warned G20 leaders it was prepared to launch World Trade Organisation cases if necessary: “We are taking action.…

There is no sign that Taiwanese textile investors will rethink their commitment to Vietnam six months after US President Donald Trump pulled America out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement that would have greatly boosted Vietnamese garment exports to the USA.…

Singapore will review its 80 bilateral agreements on avoiding double taxation to ensure they do not help companies avoid paying tax where relevant business activity took place. This follows its signing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD)-sponsored Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.…

THE HUMAN resources sector has been urged to put pressure on governments and investment fund managers in Asia to strengthen pension provisions as they deal with the consequences of rapidly aging populations.

And HR and economics experts have warned that corporate HR teams have a critical role to play in educating the workforce about the extent, however limited, of their pension provision and working with company bosses to strengthen policies within their organisations to compensate for the lack of robust schemes in existence.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

BRIDGING the digital divide in a largely conventional and labour- intensive industry such as garment and textile manufacturing is often a challenge. But Malaysia’s G.PRO Technologies – an arm of Apparel Alliance Sdn Bhd – is re-defining shop flow operations in the apparel business with its innovative software and hardware – helping the industry transition towards digitalisation. …

THE INDONESIAN government needs to establish new livestock production zones as it proactively tries to boost the country’s national meat production and consumption through encouraging the import of livestock, and temporarily of frozen beef, the country’s executive director of the Indonesian Meat Importers Association has said.…

EUROPEAN electricity industry federation Eurelectric hews closely to the views of its national associations, so when all but two of its members made a commitment in April (2017) not to fund investments in new-build coal-fired power plants after 2020, the energy sector can be sure this is a solid promise.…

An increasing and unprecedented desire to smell good at all times is driving an increase in deodorant sales within Indonesia, an emerging market of more than 260 million people, whose tropical climate sees average daily highs generally exceed 28C.

The affordability of deodorants and their widespread availability at supermarkets have been boosting sales, especially among the country’s growing middle class, although there has not been a constant increase in sales in recent years, with a fall in the value of the Indonesian Rupiah in 2013 and 2014 depressing imports, which are of key importance for supplies of this consumer product in Indonesia.…

AN INITIATIVE led by Singapore’s Textile and Fashion Federation (Taff) along with the International Enterprise Singapore agency (part of the ministry of trade and industry) is helping city state textile companies strengthen their market position by integrating technology into fashion.

A key part of this initiative (launched last year – 2016) is organising trade shows in the world’s fashion capitals –  New York, Paris and Shanghai – helping Singapore designers to “link up with buyers, retailers and stockists,” Taff CEO Lynette Lee told WTiN.com…

THE INDONESIAN government must do better in controlling illegal imports of textile and textile products, Anies Soengkar, chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) branch Pekalongan, Central Java told WTiN.com.

This representative of a key textile production zone in Indonesia said that illicit imports are entering the country for distribution by door-to-door delivery networks.…

VIETNAM is working hard to develop an upstream parts manufacturing base, but this goal is proving hard to achieve and meanwhile, regional liberalization through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is threatening the country’s auto assembly segment.

In many ways, it is crunch time for Vietnam’s auto sector.…

Indonesia’s textile sector and government has been actively implementing workplace safety and health policies in its textile and garment factories that follow Garment Factory Construction Guidelines issued by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). These have been promoted since ILO’s Jakarta unit released its Better Work Indonesia (BWI) programme in May 2014 said an official from the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) told WTiN.com.…

MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Najib Razak used his Labour Day (May 1) speech to send a key message to employers: prioritise locals over foreigners when recruiting. In a country with 200,000 unemployed graduates as of last year, the PM’s call could be justified – although a lot needs to be done in reskilling locals, experts argue.…

INDONESIA is grappling a serious shortage of skills with as much “half of its workforce underqualified for their jobs,” Indonesia-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) economist Emma Allen has told People Management.

Despite improvements to educational achievement in recent years, older workers especially have not completed secondary school, Ms Allen said.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) cosmetics and soaps companies are awaiting with interest the results of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s appellate body’s decision on Indonesia’s claim that the EU’s anti-dumping duties have been unfairly placed on imported fatty alcohols from the south-east Asian economic giant.…

A STAGGERING 62% of Asia-Pacific consumers (including China and India) buy natural and organic cosmetics and another promising 32% are keen to buy them – making the region a hotspot for manufacturers of such lines. But this impressive growth also has made the region a perfect breeding ground for greenwashing, experts warned.…

Vietnam has an amendment to its criminal code under way that would make the crime of illegal dismissal of employees punishable with a jail term of up to one year. That textile executives could be affected by this draconic measure has followed the Vietnam government adopting a policy principle of “piercing the corporate veil” on January 1 this year.…

THE CHIEF executive of a major Pakistan government economic development agency has told wardsauto that Volkswagen has made significant progress in talks to establish new manufacturing production in this key south Asian market’s port city of Karachi. The latest fruit of the business-friendly policies pursued by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, “Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is in final talks with Premier Systems Private Limited – the authorised importer of Audi vehicles in the country – to set up a manufacturing/assembly plant for its Amarok and T6 (transporter range) models and Volkswagen,” Tariq Ejaz Chaudhary, CEO of Pakistan’s Engineering Development Board told wardsauto.…

Companies in Vietnam have been warned they are at risk of seeing their executives going to jail over contested sackings following anticipated new national penal code sanctions.

Law firm Duane Morris Vietnam LLC is warning its corporate clients that the crime of illegal dismissal of employees can now earn their executives up to one year in prison.…

A MALAYSIAN government scheme encouraging foreign investors to buy property in Malaysia may have led to thousands of Bangladeshis breaching their country’s strict capital control restrictions.

A total of 3,493 Bangladeshis has participated in the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) long-term residency programme since 2003, according to statistics updated in December (2016) – 10.7% of all investors taking part worldwide.…

Brazilian overseas beef meat sales are set to grow in 2017, according to projections from the Associação Brasileira das Indústrias Exportadoras de Carne (ABIEC). “Our export forecasts for 2017 are USD5.5 to USD6 billion, said Antônio Jorge Camardelli, the ABIEC president.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission should bring forward legislation to enhance due diligence for supply chains in the garment sector, the European Parliament’s development committee said yesterday (March 21). MEPs backed a report by Spanish MEP Lola Sánchez Caldentey from the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group which asked the Commission to propose a European Union (EU) law saying a binding reporting system should generate data linking each product to its respective producers.…

THE ASEAN Audit Regulators Group (AARG) and the big-four audit firms have agreed a measurable goal to improve audit quality within south-east Asia. The project involves Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand; along with Malaysia’s Audit Oversight Board, Indonesia’s Finance Professions Supervisory Centre, Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission.…

THE PAINT and coatings sector in Indonesia looks set to grow significantly in coming years as rising salaries and job creation mean more disposable income for middle class purchases of residential product. The south-east Asian archipelago’s poverty rate has dropped from 17.2% in 2002 to 11.1% in 2015, according to the World Bank.…

MALAYSIA’S mature textile industry is keen to re-define its position – moving away from making low-end products to higher value-added goods. Creating a niche export market for highly-priced technical textiles is a priority, a government official has told WTiN.com.

“Our textile industry is competitive and there is no need to compete with Asian countries on low value-added products,” a spokesman for Malaysia’s ministry of international trade and investment (MITI) told WTiN.com.…

The chairman of the Indonesian Textiles Association (API) has expressed cautious optimism about President Donald Trump’s rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact and re-confirmed the need to boost Indonesia’s competitiveness.

Trump pulled the USA out of the agreement on January 23, and while that could be bad news for the other 11 TPP partners, including regional textile sector competitors Malaysia and clothing hub Vietnam, the deal had yet to include Indonesia.…

INDONESIAN human resources departments are having to adapt to a growing challenge – an increase in the number of Indonesians returning home to work in the world’s fourth most populous nation and Southeast Asia’s biggest economy by far.

The continued economic rise of this archipelago nation of 250 million people has been accompanied by a wave of returning Indonesians who have received years of university education or job training in faraway places such as the US, the UK, continental Europe and Australia.…

THE EUROPEAN beef sector must keep its direct payments at a time when the European Union (EU)’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is under review, according to new research highlighted by the European Parliament.

‘The EU cattle sector: challenges and opportunities – milk and meat’ report, published February 27 by the parliament’s agriculture and rural development committee, says these payments play an important part in farm-household income.…

KEY MESSAGES

*The nuclear industry has an ageing staff and needs to recruit new professionals as they retire

*Its strong health and retirement benefits packages could help it attract the new staff it needs

*The nuclear industry outside north America has a strong expat component, making it easier for recruit staff from abroad

INTRODUCTION

The nuclear industry sector is facing some significant human resources challenges, but new research carried out by Airswift and Energy Jobline indicates that the nuclear sector can still compete for talent.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) food exporters will in 2017 be offered an increased amount of money by the European Commission to better promote their products, especially in non-EU markets. The Commission has said that EUR133 million will be available this year to co-finance at 70%-85% such marketing campaigns, compared to EUR111 million in 2016.…

A JUDGE yesterday (January 17) approved Britain’s largest ever commercial crime enforcement action – a GBP497.25 million (USD616 million) plus interest and GBP13 million costs (USD16.1 million) deferred prosecution agreement with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Sir Brian Leveson, President of the Queen’s Bench division, agreed the penalty for Rolls-Royce, covering covers 12 counts of conspiracy to corrupt, false accounting and failure to prevent bribery.…

UNITED States (US) President Donald Trump’s decision on January 26 to sign an executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) should provide opportunities for European Union (EU) dairy exporters, according to European dairy experts.

“From an EU dairy perspective, we would hope that the European Commission will continue to make an effort in our European trade negotiations, especially with Japan,” Alexander Anton, secretary general of the European Dairy Association, told Food & Drink Technology News.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) food exporters will in 2017 be offered an increased amount of money by the European Commission to better promote their products, especially in non-EU markets. The Commission has said that EUR133 million will be available this year to co-finance at 70%-85% such marketing campaigns, compared to EUR111 million in 2016.…

Indonesian batik producers are turning to social media to boost sales, helping them maintain production when not only standard marketing and distribution channels are not delivering enough revenue but standalone websites and major e-commerce sites.

Rusydi Bawazir, producer of Nargis Batik Podhek, from Madura, East Java province, started online marketing three years ago by using website: nargis.web.id.…

HUMAN resources specialists are advising Vietnam’s government and private sector to get smarter over their personnel policies if it wants to maintain the productivity improvements that have helped pull this southeast Asian country out of poverty.

A report released in October (2016) by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) on the issue has cited research from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to highlight Vietnam’s strong record: the report notes that Vietnam’s productivity grew 184% from 1991-2012, far surpassing Thailand’s 85%, Singapore’s 81% and Malaysia’s 80% growth over the same period.…

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has urged Malaysia to reverse a trend of 15 years of low labour productivity by improving education and labour skills – helping the country meet its government goal of becoming a developed nation by 2020.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Confederation of European Beet Growers (CIBE) and the European Association of Sugar Producers (CEFS-Comité Européen des Fabricants de Sucre) have jointly called on the European Union (EU) to continue protecting producers with import tariffs, even as the EU negotiates 12 trade deals affecting the food industry.…

Vietnam’s upstream textile manufacturing sector remains hampered by lack of investment, poor infrastructure and personnel shortages, although government efforts are expected to ease some difficulties, a seminar at the recent VTG Textile & Garment Exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) has heard.…

A global player in the textile tyre, composite and construction reinforcement technologies market, Turkey’s Kordsa Global is benefiting from a new research initiative as it seeks to remain a world leader in the market of tyre reinforcement technologies.

Keen to reinforce its own position as an innovator, in 2014 Kordsa Global entered into a partnership with Sabancı University to create the Composite Technologies Centre of Excellence.…

A leading textile designer from Brunei has told WTiN.com that his country’s traditional woven fabric industry needs to innovate to boost domestic sales, while it struggles to compete in the global marketplace. However, he admits that persuading locals to work in this potentially successful niche sector can be tough.…

A senior official at Indonesia’s industry ministry has told WTiN.com of its plans to boost the effectiveness of newly established warehouse storage systems for textile industry inputs, helping the country’s manufacturers source supplies swiftly and efficiently.

Achmad Sigit Dwiwahjono, the industry ministry’s director general of chemical, textile and various industries, hailed the government’s new bonded warehouses, where supplies can be admitted without paying excise duty, as a major advance, hailing improvements in operations facilitated by a cotton handling logistics centre.…

The chairman of the Indonesia textile association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has welcomed his government’s initiative to open bonded logistics centres, saying that they will reduce textile manufacturers’ logistics costs by as much as between 25% and 35%.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo inaugurated 11 bonded logistics centres earlier in the year as part of a series of economic reforms designed to boost trade in southeast Asia’s largest economy.…

top official at Indonesia’s industry ministry has told WTiN that his government plans to give various incentives to the country’s textile industry to encourage exports and competitiveness in the global marketplace.

The ministry’s director general of international industrial cooperation Mr Harjanto (NOTE HE HAS ONE NAME ONLY) said officials were exploring the idea of applying energy cost refunds subsidising electricity bills for manufacturers who want to export textile products.…

The Association of South East Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) “large structural differences in the education system” are challenging the 10 country group’s efforts to harmonise skills across the board, an expert from Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) has warned. His comments follow the August launch of an initiative to benchmark tourism industry skills in the 10-member bloc.…

Non-wovens textile manufacturers are likely to benefit from a soaring Chinese market for their products, thanks to a fast ageing population, the government’s recently launched two-child policy, and demand created by air pollution that continues to plague the country, and international conference in Shanghai has head.…

INDIA’s domestic warp knitting sector is still small but the industry has “tremendous potential” to take global market share off China, an expert from the German textile machinery specialist, Karl Mayer Textilmaschinenfabrik GmbH told Knitting International.

In five years (2010-2015), India’s warp knitting machinery imports boomed – increasing “roughly 20 times more than the number imported in the preceding 16 years,” and are still growing, noted Ulrike Schlenker, head of corporate communication for Karl Mayer Textilmaschinenfabrik.…

Vietnam’s National Salary Council may have increased the country-wide minimum wage by the smallest proportion in a decade of such rises (7.3% for 2017), but the country’s clothing manufacturers are still warning this is a hike too far.

The Vietnam Textile & Apparel Association (VITAS) has opposed the increase.…

The demand for processed and packaged food is growing fast among India’s young, often aspirational and fast-expanding population. And this has made Nestlé India target a double digit annual growth in upcoming years. To realise this goal, the company is steadily introducing premium international products into India, such as its impending launch of Alpino chocolates this month (October 2016).…

THE ASIA-PACIFIC region has been regarded as the workshop of the world for most of the 21^st century, and this is especially true for the technical textile sector, where output has continued to grow, partly fuelled by growing regional demand.…

Indonesia’s personal care product sector is faring well at first glance, with domestic sales more than doubling in size in value terms over the past five years. Multinational companies see it as a lucrative market, while local firms also seem to hold their own.…

SINGAPORE has signed deals allowing for the automatic exchange of financial account information with two key trade partners – Britain and Australia. The agreements were struck by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) with the UK’s Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).…

Thailand’s online packaged food market is small, but growing fast. Indeed, online sales of packaged food in Thailand are expected to grow dramatically by 2020 as Internet penetration increases and traffic in major cities makes in-person shopping inconvenient. Just over 40% of Thailand’s population can access the Internet at home, up from just 22.4% in 2010, according to the World Bank.…

SINGAPORE has signed deals allowing for the automatic exchange of financial account information with two key trade partners – Britain and Australia. The agreements were struck by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) with the UK’s Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).…

EUROPEAN COMMISSION LAUNCHES GLOBAL TAX AVOIDANCE BLACKLIST ASSESSMENT

THE EUROPEAN Commission has completed the first phase of an assessment designed to help the European Union (EU) frame its own blacklist of jurisdictions deemed un-cooperative over tax avoidance and evasion. Brussels has released a ‘scoreboard’ of non-EU jurisdictions judging whether they exchange information with foreign tax authorities, have preferential or low tax regimes, have close and important economic and financial links with the EU and are politically stable (and hence more attractive as a tax haven).…

The cosmetics surgery sector in South Korea, the industry’s undisputed bellwether in Asia, expanded strongly in 2015, with the number of total cosmetics surgery procedures growing by 17.9% year on year, to 1.2 million, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS).…

MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Najib Razak has come under renewed pressure over allegations that he personally profited from a sovereign wealth fund, after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced it would seek to recover more than USD1 billion in “misappropriated assets”.…

WORKFORCE DEMOGRAPHICS

East Asia is a very varied region in terms of economic development. Take the 10 members of trade bloc ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations): with 632 million people, demographics greatly vary, from aging Singapore and Thailand, to the younger and emerging economies of Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.…

Ethiopia’s government is promoting what it says is Africa’s largest eco-industrial park dedicated to textile and garment production. The Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP), boasting state-of-the-art water recycling facilities, has attracted major textile producers from Asia and the US including American clothing giant Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH).…

The Indonesian Textiles Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has told WTiN.com that it enthusiastically endorses the opening of negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Indonesia to forge a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) free trade deal.

The goal of the talks announced in July will be to create an agreement that goes beyond traditional agreements that focus on duty and quota abolition, to include removing non-tariff barriers through regulatory mutual recognition and harmonisation.…

WITH personnel managers in Britain and continental Europe worrying about the impact of the UK’s Brexit vote to quit the European Union (EU), human resources experts in the 10 country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc are facing the opposite challenge, an increase in freedom of movement of workers.…

THE ASIA Pacific region remains the workshop of the world in terms of nonwovens production, and it is not only China’s producers who are growing, local suppliers are feeding growing domestic markets for nonwovens products elsewhere in east and southeast Asia.…

Metal traders will be examining new trade talks between the European Union (EU) and Indonesia, with negotiators targeting non-tariff red tape that has been hindering Indonesian exports to Europe of its key tin reserves.

The talks, announced last month (July) will begin later this year and Indonesian non-ferrous metal exporters could benefit from the abolition of tariffs and other trade barriers.…

THE INDONESIAN knitwear sector stands to boost its access to European Union (EU) markets should new talks to forge an EU-Indonesia trade deal prove successful. Trade is already significant – Indonesian exports to the EU of knitted or crocheted men’s and boys’ shirts generated receipts of USD35.1 million in 2014, for instance; for knitted and crocheted fabrics the figure was USD14.1 million in 2014, according to international trade data.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has told just-style it is planning to launch a sustainability impact assessment on a proposed European Union (EU)-Indonesia free trade deal that is expected to boost apparel and textile trades on both sides.

A spokesperson from the European Commission’s trade directorate general said the assessment’s “valuable input” will help negotiators on both sides to hone the deal, the spokesperson said.…

INDIA’S 1.3 billion population and a rapidly growing economy provides ideal conditions for the spread of its hair care products market, which, according to market researcher Euromonitor International, is growing at an annual rate of 8%, with sales of USD3 billion in 2016.…

INDONESIA’S hand-made traditional textile sector, especially its famous batiks, is lagging behind growth on its large scale machine-printed batik motifs on apparel and textiles, industry experts have warned. And this is a pity, given this potentially lucrative high end production has not been recognised for its true potential value on the international market, they have said.…

Thailand-based automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are set to benefit from the expansion of an existing auto tariff-free zone to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in 2018. These would then join this ASEAN-linked trading zone’s member countries Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to forge an ASEAN-wide automotive market bloc.…

THE COMMON market launched on January 1 by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has so far failed to promote a sustainable increase in legitimate intra-ASEAN meat and livestock trades. Instead, imports from outside the bloc, domestic production and US dollar-based smuggling continue to thrive, say experts.…

South-east Asia is a region that has sharp contrasts in economic development, from between the wealth of Singapore to countries such as Myanmar, where poverty is endemic and consumer markets are relatively undeveloped.

Such contrasts pose challenges for personal care product companies seeking regional strategies to tap the markets of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) 10 countries, whose cosmetics suppliers have to comply with the standards of the ASEAN Cosmetics Directive, which was modelled on European Union legislation.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) chocolate sector stands to access supplies from the world’s third largest cocoa producer – Indonesia – should new talks to forge an EU-Indonesia trade deal prove successful. The country produced around 400,000 tonnes of cocoa in 2015.…

HAVING a strong reputation for sustainable practice is increasingly a strong marketing card, for the confectionery sector as much as any other consumer industry. But with its extended international supply chains, demonstrating a high regard for environmental good practice is not always easy for the confectionery sector.…

Asian paint and coatings manufacturers are set to benefit from the expansion of an existing automotive tariff-free zone spanning Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.…

SINGAPORE has promised that it will implement the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has said it accepts profits should be taxed where real economic activities generating them are performed and where value is created.…

The goal of uniting Europe under a single sky of system-wide ATM interoperability, once an improbably futuristic idea, was given a tangible push forward at the SESAR Global Demonstration held in Rome on June 8 and 9. The two-day event, which took place at the Prototype Systems Centre of Italian civil aviation authority ENAV (Ente Nazionale per l’Assistenza al Volo), spotlighted the ways that System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) can simultaneously and seamlessly streamline ATM operations.…

Indonesian negotiators must press harder to make progress on the European Union (EU)-Indonesia free trade agreement or textile manufacturers risk losing market share to neighbouring competitors like Vietnam, according to the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia). Its chairman Ade Sudrajat told WTiN.com…

A new textile training academy in the Javanese city of Solo is an important step towards addressing the critical shortage of middle managers in Indonesia’s garment industry, according to chairman of the Indonesia textile association Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia (API), Ade Sudrajat.…

Bangladesh’s knitwear manufacturers see sunny prospects ahead, pinning their hopes on the transformation of the factories and equipment within their industry. But infrastructure gaps could undercut their ability to expand, making it difficult for the industry to fully capitalise on opportunities created by China’s rising costs and loss of business.…

Outgoing Philippines President Benigno Aquino has signed into law a consolidated measure on halal exports, which may help his country’s meat exporters grow more competitive in the Middle East, as well as in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Currently, most of the Philippines’ meat exports are processed meats, including corned beef and hot dog, while chilled chicken yakitori nuggets and Peking duck are also shipped to overseas markets.…

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.”…

INDONESIAN consumers are becoming increasingly brand-savvy as their incomes surge, driving up the country’s body care product market. As of 2015, this retail segment generated USD169.41 million in sales, and is expected to reach USD245.09 million by 2020, according to Ghina Romani, a researcher with the London-based market intelligence company Canadean.…

EUROPEAN confectionery manufacturers and the Indonesian government have agreed that they need to work together to ensure that 100% of all palm oil is made sustainably in future. At an April debate hosted at the European Parliament by British conservative MEP Julie Girling, Indonesia’s ambassador to the European Union (EU) Yuri Thamrin said: “We are ready to consider good cooperation projects with our partners in Europe to attain 100% sustainable palm oil and overcome all impediments.”…

Indonesian negotiators must press harder to make progress on the European Union (EU)-Indonesia free trade agreement or textile manufacturers risk losing market share to neighbouring competitors like Vietnam, according to the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia). Its chairman Ade Sudrajat told WTiN.com…

Indonesia’s mosquito net industry is facing high demand due to the growing number of middle class consumers in the country and their increasing desire to live a more natural lifestyle, according to Citra Maya, an Indonesian mosquito net supplier.

Arif Novianto, a marketing manager at Citra Maya, told WTiN.com…

As the European Union (EU) dairy industry continues to face challenges, it is calling for EU institutions and member governments to have a greater focus on resolving Russia’s ban on EU agricultural goods, while continuing to open up new markets. In the meantime, the Russian ban has not helped an oversupply problem that is depressing prices.…

The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has refused to deny claims that it is extending a criminal investigation into allegations of bribery and corruption at luxury car and aeronautical engine maker Rolls-Royce by examining fresh allegations of wrong-doing in Nigeria. The SFO probe was launched in December 2013 to look into possible bribery and corruption by the company’s aerospace division in China and Indonesia, and the investigation was already extended at last December to take in Rolls-Royce activities in Brazil.…

INDONESIAN consumers are becoming increasingly brand-savvy as their incomes surge, driving up the country’s body care product market. As of 2015, this retail segment generated USD169.41 million in sales, and is expected to reach USD245.09 million by 2020, according to Ghina Romani, a researcher with the London-based market intelligence company Canadean.…

DETAILS have been released about knitwear and yarn tariffs that will be scrapped regarding products exported and imported between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) under their new trade deal. The full text of the agreement struck last August (2015) has been released and shows how the EU is prepared to remove its tariff barriers to Vietnam knitwear exports.…

The new business director of Birla Cellulose (part of India’s Aditya Birla Group), Dilip Gaur, has his priority set: to build on the popularity of the Liva fabric and take it to new heights.

Barely two weeks into his new position as the head of multi-billion dollar Aditya Birla Group’s cellulose business, Mr Gaur told Twist International, “My focus will be to see how I can scale it up.…

An anticipated boost for garment exports has failed to materialise since the Philippines was granted Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) by the European Union (EU) in December 2014. Receiving GSP+ status meant that a total of 6,274 Philippines export products were given duty-free access to the EU market.…

Ministers from 41 countries worldwide have pledged more robust enforcement of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development’s (OECD’s) convention on combating bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions. The pledge came in a declaration on the 17-year-old convention at an OECD Anti-Bribery ministerial meeting held yesterday (March 16) in Paris.…

Rising affluence, together with growth across feeder industries are translating into solid results for the Indonesian coatings sector. The paints and varnishes market in the country generated sales of Indonesian Rupiah IDR24,733 billion (USD1.9 billion) in 2014 according to the latest data available from market researcher Euromonitor International.…

WHILE international clothing buyers today have a lot of sourcing choices, this multiplicity of options can bring its own management headaches, making it important that brands make subtle, complex and fluid purchasing decisions to keep ahead of the competition, Global research firm McKinsey’s biannual sourcing survey – last published in 2015 – of chief procurement officers (CPOs) at leading apparel companies is an interesting window onto today’s complex sourcing landscape.…

With fast fashion demands growing and China’s costs rising, sourcing closer to home is certainly becoming a more commonly considered option for brands, speeding up clothing and textile supply chains, being particularly beneficial for smaller producers, according to experts. Companies sourcing locally can have faster turnaround times, potentially better relationships with suppliers, and greater quality control.…

India is battling to contain a boom in organised cigarette smuggling, which is fuelled by high domestic taxes, complex regulations and weaker criminal penalties compared to those levied for trading in other contraband. This trend is becoming a “growing threat to the national interests of not [only] India but several economies worldwide,” according to a detailed assessment called ‘Emerging Challenges to Legitimate Business in the Borderless World,’ released in January.…

A JAKARTA-based designer and exporter of soft furnishings has told WTiN.com how her country’s home textile sector could prosper by using more of the country’s rich and varied tradition of woven fabrics in its design, especially if production could be scaled up reducing unit costs.…

Inspired by one of its biggest ever banking scandals, Bangladesh has launched a host of reforms to bolster internal control in public banks, but it is finding it difficult to fix the problem. Politics continues to threaten implementing the anti-fraud measures.…

If there is one region in the world that could benefit from a rationalisation of corporate governance structure, it is surely Asia, with its shifting sands of complex company ownership structures. Globalisation has only increased the size of subsidiary/parent relationship webs.…

A LEADER of Indonesia’s important sarong manufacturing industry has told WTiN.com that he expects sales in this sector to rise by 20% this year compared to 2015. Anies Soengkar, chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) branch in the key sarong producing centre of Pekalongan, central Java, said domestic and export sales were healthy.…

Free trade agreements with the United States and Europe are essential if the Indonesian textile market is to flourish and compete with strong regional rivals, according to analysts and sector leaders.

The Indonesian government has said it wants to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement agreed by 12 Pacific Rim countries last October (2015).…

A report released yesterday (Mar 10) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) has advised textile manufacturers to support government efforts to tighten environmental rules, saying they are unlikely to cause a loss of business.

The report is an attempt to dispel the widely-held view that tighter environmental rules increase costs and damages business – especially in emerging market manufacturing hubs.…

As in many other areas, the Asian city-state of Singapore punches above its weight when it comes to fabrics and textiles. According to its ministry of trade and industry, in terms of sourcing volume the island ranks as the second largest textile and apparel business and sourcing hub in the Asia-Pacific region after Hong Kong.…

A JAKARTA-based designer and exporter of soft furnishings has told WTiN.com how her country’s home textile sector could prosper by using more of the country’s rich and varied tradition of woven fabrics in its design, especially if production could be scaled up reducing unit costs.…

THE DEVELOPMENT of fibre plant and tree plantations to solidify backward linkages for textile fibre within Indonesia is under consideration as the south-east Asian country seeks to diversify its fibre, yarn and textile production.

Of key importance is how textile producer the Sritex Group, which last year announced it would be building a USD250 million rayon factory in Java, to lower its dependence on imports of its key fibre.…

MANY garment manufacturers in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) block will have to cope with raises to the minimum wages in 2016. The move comes as ASEAN launches its Economic Community (ASEAN EC) on December 31, easing labour movement across the region.…

The conflict in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of Crimea has had significant ramifications for both countries’ oils and fats industries. These are sizeable sectors in Russia and Ukraine, and the industries – and consumers – have certainly felt the impacts of these often traumatic geopolitical events.…

After the Thai military staged a coup and overthrew the country’s interim government in May 2014, many in the country’s tobacco industry wondered what policies the new regime would bring to one of the Asia’s more tightly regulated tobacco marketplaces.
One year later, the ruling junta sent a powerful signal that they would be carrying forward the tough anti-smoking measures of previous regimes.…

Good sourcing practice at the Indonesian mill of India-based viscose fibre giant Aditya Birla has paved the way to the company’s commitment this month to a global policy to eliminate sourcing materials from ancient and endangered forests, according to the international environmental group that helped develop the policy.…

THE INDONESIAN textile industry is being put under pressure to boost its environmental performance by international non-governmental organisation (NGO) Greenpeace, which has accused sector of poisoning a major river in West Java.
WTiN.com visited elderly residents in Majalaya, a small town by the Citarum River, who say it was once clean enough to wash in.…

THE PAKISTAN government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is actively looking for the right minister to steer the textile sector out of its current distress, after former federal minister for the textile industry Abbas Khan Afridi stepped down in March.…

The Danish Agriculture & Food Council (DAFC/ Landbrug & Fødevarer) has invited the country’s leading meat industry players to round-table talks to deepen collaboration between producers, brokers and marketers regarding halal meat exports.
This DAFC initiative would help create a range of common industry guidelines that take into account country-by-country differences in halal slaughtering conventions.…

American pharmaceutical industry officials and trade groups remain cautiously optimistic that intellectual property (IP) negotiations with India can be resolved to the benefit of both nations’ medicine sectors. For now, however, India remains on a so-called ‘priority watch list’ of nations the US is urging to address key IP protection concerns.…

In recent years, brands that source from textile and garments manufacturers in Asia have been targeted by bad publicity for everything from poor wages, long hours and dangerous exposure to chemicals and unsustainable use of water.
In response, they have tended not to work unilaterally but to sign up for either regional or international standards schemes, or co-operate on open platforms, where knowledge is shared.…

Sustainability improvements in the Asian outsourced clothing and textile sector are far from being the sole preserve of China. In Cambodia, Tonlé, a sustainable garment-making firm based in Phnom Penh, obtains 90% of its fabric from factory cut-out and 10% through sustainable suppliers to make a zero-waste clothing line.…

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an increasingly dynamic and affluent 10-member bloc with a population half the size if China’s, plans to achieve a single aviation market (SAM) by the end of 2015 as a part of its broader ambition to launch its ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).…

China’s new found taste for olive oil is growing, opening up new sales channels for olive oil producing countries and Morocco is one potential beneficiary. Morocco is the fourth largest exporter of olive oil and olives after the European Union (EU), Turkey and Tunisia, currently producing between 100,000 and 120,000 tonnes per year of which 25,000 tonnes are exported.”…

AUSTRALIA’s push to re-define its agricultural produce under a unified name -‘True Aussie’ that signifies products are clean, green and safe – is helping the countries meat exporters, claim industry leaders.
In Japan alone 50% of Australian beef packs sold at retail now carry this logo, Meat and Livestock Australia International Business Manager in Japan, Andrew Cox told GlobalMeatNews.…

After years of strong economic growth, salaries of Chinese clothing makers have increased, resulting in more expensive Chinese textiles and clothing manufacturing. But while cheaper outsourcing locations such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and India have picked up the slack, experts both in China and abroad have yet to buy into the notion that garment production is dramatically shifting out of China.…

THE MIDDLE Eastern halal meat market is anticipating significant growth in the next few years, driven by rising populations and rising consumer awareness about food content. However, the lack of a common global halal standard is hindering the market’s potential, given that the region is heavily dependent on imports from non-Muslim countries.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission may block or impose conditions on a planned acquisition by US-based Cargill of the industrial chocolate business of its American rival Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). The European Union (EU) executive’s directorate general for competition has opened an in-depth investigation into the deal, to assess whether it could damage the availability of reasonably priced supplies of this key confectionery input.…

Indonesia is pushing to expand its domestic vaccine manufacturing, so that the domestic market is covered with vaccines in Indonesia’s regular immunisation schedule. The country’s state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma is at the centre of these efforts, and has been expanding exports so that 60% of its production (NOW?…

The United States and New Zealand have joined forces in asking the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to create a disputes settlement body ruling on whether Indonesian import restrictions on livestock, meat and other food products breaks global commerce rules.
Washington and Wellington have been formally consulting with Indonesia about their concerns since last May (2014).…

A recent breakthrough in negotiations means there is a likely end of troubles experienced by many non-ferrous metal importers and exporters and their supply chains during the ongoing USA west coast ports labour dispute. But what happens now? Just how badly has the industry been affected and how swiftly can it recover should normal port service be resumed?…

EGYPT’S USD1.23 billion oils and fats market has still to recover from the country’s post-revolutionary environment following the January 2011 uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Since then, Egypt’s economy has been on a downward trajectory, affecting consumer demand across the board.…

THE TRADE agreement currently being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the USA could bring significant opportunities for paint machinery manufacturers if the two parties agree to align their technical standards.
The European Commission, which is negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on behalf of the EU, has said it would like to close the gap between the two sides regarding technical regulations affecting the marketing, use and conformity assessment of machinery, as well as electrical and electronic products.…

The Hong Kong unit of Luthai Textile Co Ltd, China’s leading producer of yarn-dyed fabric and shirts manufacturing, has informed its shareholders of a plan to invest USD150 million building a new Vietnam-based textile plant. The factory, whose location has yet to be disclosed, would have 60,000 spindles, with an annual output of 30 million metres of yarn-dyed fabric.…

Indonesia’s industry ministry is planning to boost the growth of the country’s domestic textile manufacturing sector in 2015, with the expansion of an initiative that will help finance businesses buying new equipment and machinery.
“Especially for the fiscal year 2015, we have budgeted [Indonesia Rupiah IDR100 billion [USD7.6 million].…

THE INDONESIAN batik industry may be set for record profits in 2015, on the back of strong growth of both the domestic and export market in recent years, according to an industry insider. “Our turnover trade has approximately doubled in the last five years,” Dewanto Santosa, director of Batik Danar Hadi, said.…

THE INDONESIAN batik industry may be set for record profits in 2015, on the back of strong growth of both the domestic and export market in recent years, according to an industry insider. “Our turnover trade has approximately doubled in the last five years,” Dewanto Santosa, director of Batik Danar Hadi, said.…

The Philippines’ once formidable knitwear sector has been shrinking in size in the past two decades, but the Pacific archipelago’s inclusion in the European Union’s (EU) Generalized System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) preferential tariff scheme from January 1 is now filling remaining manufacturers with some hope for another heyday.…

A BOOM in Australian live cattle exports to Vietnam look set to continue this year, thanks to favourable currency conditions; the depletion of the Vietnamese herd by exports to neighbouring China; and increasing demand for fresh quality beef from Vietnamese consumers.…

TOILETRIES sales in the Arab Gulf countries remain robust, an oasis of economic and political stability in a turbulent Middle East. Elsewhere in the region, the ongoing conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and the rise of the Islamic State, has seen toiletries sales plummet.…

THE NEW European Union (EU) food labelling rules that started applying from December 13 have brought harmonisation about how and what information should be given to EU consumers, representatives of the confectionery industry say. But upcoming changes that are still being discussed may pose some challenges for manufacturers and packagers alike.…

THE SOUTH Korean men’s toiletries market in 2014 grew to a value of USD221.81 million and a volume of 28.25 million units. New data from market research provider Canadean Ltd shows 2014 year-on-year increases in value of 6.9% and volume of 5.6%.…

Technical textiles will be a key focus at textiles and clothing trade shows staged in Jakarta during the coming year, according to a senior event organiser. The Indonesia textile sector is planning a range of conferences for April, designed to educate potential investors about new technologies and business opportunities in Indonesia’s textiles sector.…

The panoramic view from D22, a chic new restaurant and skybar, offers the local executive Deloitte has tapped to head up their Cambodian expansion a quick insight into a rapidly developing Phnom Penh. Once a low-lying urban sprawl, Cambodia’s capital city has begun to develop a skyline, with a handful of high-rise towers already in place and several more green-tarped construction projects underway.…

2015 will be an important year in southeast Asia, with the launch of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC) in December. But analysts question whether the region’s non-ferrous metal giant Indonesia is ready to integrate its industry with those of its neighbours.…

The panoramic view from D22, a chic new restaurant and skybar, offers the local executive Deloitte has tapped to head up their Cambodian expansion a quick insight into a rapidly developing Phnom Penh. Once a low-lying urban sprawl, Cambodia’s capital city has begun to develop a skyline, with a handful of high-rise towers already in place and several more green-tarped construction projects underway.…

Indonesia remains the world’s fastest growing soap market, say researchers Mintel, which point to Indonesian bathing habits encouraged by the country’s sweltering humidity, but wealthier Indonesians are starting to prefer liquid products to bar soap. Indonesians have for centuries opted for a quick ‘mandi’, the traditional bathing method of using a scoop to pour cold water on oneself.…

CHINA’S huge cosmetics market remains a battleground for the world’s multinational personal care product players and they are still more than holding their own against local manufacturers and brands, especially in higher end segments.

The country’s overall cosmetics and personal care product market was worth Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY274 billion (USD44 billion) in 2013, according to data provided by market analysts Euromonitor International.…

Tax evasion drained a record USD991.2 billion in illicit financial flows from developing economies in 2012 – facilitating crime and corruption, according to a new study by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington DC-based research and advisory organization. “To put this in perspective, the cumulative total of official development assistance to the developing countries in this report… was just USD809 billion,” said a GFI note.…

The newly announced textile joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries and China’s Shandong Ruyi Science and Technology Group could inspire many more such deals, shifting of textile and clothing production bases from China to India, experts have told just-style.

“The aim of this joint venture is to try and capture the global market,” said Devkishan Manghani, chairman, textile trade, Southern Gujarat Chambers of Commerce told just-style, regarding the deal, which will see Reliance integrate its textile manufacturing capacity with the JV.…

WITH just over 12 months to the launch of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC), experts anticipate that the European Union-style economic union will promote trades in industrial minerals.

The 10 ASEAN nations have been moving towards a more cohesive approach to minerals trading for many years.…

Consumers in Japan are notoriously fickle and constantly in search of the next greatest product – and in a nation that takes its food very seriously, that applies doubly to the confectionery sector.

Sales of ice cream have been strong in recent years and continue to grow, although chocolate confectionery sales came to Japanese Yen JPY342 billion (USD2.95 billion) in the calendar year 2013, a minor contraction on the previous year – blamed on poor weather during the traditionally busy summer months.…

THE JOINT Aviation Authorities Training Organisation (JAA TO) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia’s PT HESA Air Service to improve civil aviation safety and security standards in this key emerging market country. The JAA will work with PT HESA to deliver training programmes on these topics, “as per the market’s demand or tailored to special request and delivered at the premises designated by PT.…

The Indonesian unit of Japanese probiotic drinks giant Yakult Honsha Co Ltd has confirmed to just-food.com that it will expand its production facility in East Java to meet growing demand in the country. Details of the plan were announced by Indra Tjahjono, managing director of Yakult Indonesia, who told local media that the firm will upgrade its plant at the Ngoro Industrial Park.…

THE INDONESIAN textiles association (API) is to partner with the Indonesian ministry of industry to set up free training courses for textiles workers, according to API chairman Ade Sudrajat. The initiative is seen as an early indicator of the investor-friendly credentials of the new administration, under President Joko Widodo, who took office last month.…

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.…

By the end of next year, the increasingly wealthy 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc aims to establish its own European Union-style common market for its combined population of 600 million.
Experts say that the new ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is expected to deepen cohesion and liberalisation within a regional market that has already made significant strides in removing trade barriers that can impact tobacco product sales.…

THE GOVERNMENT of Indonesia’s new President Joko Widodo — who was inaugurated on Monday (Oct 20) — will need to invest heavily in infrastructure to boost the country’s textiles and broader manufacturing sector, according to a senior industry consultant.

“The major challenge presented by Indonesia’s poor infrastructure are shared by every industry,” Keith Loveard, senior risk analyst, at Jakarta-based Concord Consulting.…

As the global apparel sector searches for more eco-friendly fibres and fabrics, innovative developments are increasingly focusing on more sustainable and often unusual alternative feedstocks.
Companies are being encouraged to innovate also by recent high cotton prices and a growing awareness that tighter control of supply chains can help keep costs down in general.…

Indonesia’s upstream textile industry is turning to onsite combined heat and power (CHP) on the back of double digit electricity price hikes this year, according to an industry insider. Nils Hansen, sales director for Jakarta-based Navigat Energy, which supplies gas turbine engines in Indonesia, CHP is becoming an increasingly attractive option as the country’s textile manufacturers seek to avoid spiralling energy bills.…

FOR all sceptics who say that the benefits of participating in international book fairs is hard to quantify, the New Zealand publishing sector says it can be very valuable. “Being ‘Guest of Honour’ at the Frankfurt Book Fair two years ago [in 2012] was a big success for us”, Paul Bateman, Managing Director at David Bateman Ltd told The Bookseller.…

If Cambodia’s USD5.5 billion garment industry is not quite at a crossroads, it is approaching one, according to participants at an industry trade show held in Phnom Penh over the weekend.
The Cambodia International Textile & Garment Industry Exhibition, which closed on Monday (August 18), brought 260 exhibitors from 21 countries to display their latest wares and look for buyers and distributors.…

 Australia’s cotton industry is anticipating a significantly reduced yield in the 2014/15 harvest if the ongoing drought in the country’s cotton-growing regions does not ease.

Adam Kay, CEO of peak industry body Cotton Australia, told just-style.com that if the very dry conditions continued, preliminary forecasts were for a total harvest of around 2.5 million bales in the 2014/15 season, compared to the nearly 4 million bales harvested in 2013/14.…

With less than one-and-a-half years until the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) creates its own European Union (EU)-style single market, the bloc is about to sign off on a ‘mutual recognition arrangement’ (MRA) on accountancy services. This is designed to help the mobility of accounting professionals wanting to work across the 10 member states, and all their governments bar the Philippines (expected to sign in October) have now signed up.…

INDONESIAN garment manufacturers are moving to the Central Java province to capitalise on lower minimum wage costs, according to a senior industry figure.
Ade Sudrajat, chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API), said the industry’s established manufacturing hub in West Java, greater Jakarta and Banten province (all in western Java) had become less competitive as unions have won repeated inflation-busting wage increases.  …

One consequence of the ageing population in many parts of the world is a significant increase in demand for nonwoven adult incontinence products, notably adult nappies. Indeed, in Japan, which has one of the most rapidly ageing populations, there have been reports of adult diaper sales exceeding those of babies for some manufacturers.…

VIETNAM’S production of powder coatings and liquid protective coatings has in the past been a small part of the country’s paint and coatings output – but foreign investment maybe about to change that. The country has around 80 coatings manufacturers, who have together manufactured a relatively meagre 30,870 tonnes of these specialist products, generating USD91 million’s worth of revenue in 2012, according to the most recent data made available by market researcher Frost & Sullivan.…

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has concluded that five jurisdictions need to improve their tax information exchange standards – Andorra, Anguilla (a UK dependent territory), Antigua & Barbuda, Indonesia and Saint Lucia. The OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes said these jurisdictions were “partially compliant” with its standards.…

The decision by India’s new BJP government to increase the country’s export duty on bauxite from 10% to 20% may not bring down the domestic price of the ore or even the quantum of its exports, Metal Bulletin has been told.…

A proposed antidumping duty on imported yarns being considered by the Indonesian anti-dumping agency (KADI) could increase production costs, eroding Indonesia’s competitive edge, the chairman of the Indonesian Textiles Association (API) Ade Sudrajat has warned.

The committee’s inquiry was sparked by a petition from a group of Indonesian yarn producers, including Indorama and Asia Pacific Fibers, who say they are being undercut by foreign companies aggressively entering the market, selling yarn below cost price and allegedly breaking World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulations.…

The global market for halal food is expected to grow from USD698 billion in 2012 to reach USD830 billion in 2016, according to Malaysia’s department of Islamic development, and manufacturers in its country and neighbouring Thailand are competing to service this demand.…

INDIA’s new government may impose a 20% anti-dumping duty on saturated fatty alcohols from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand – an important raw material for shampoos and cosmetics. Administrative proceedings that may spark the creation of this tariff started in this February, before the May general election, which brought the current BJP administration to power.…

THE MARKET for perfume and other scents in Asia is developing fast in most of the continent, especially in emerging markets, where consumers are using their new purchasing power to explore new tastes and brands.
To some extent, perfume has been lagging behind colour cosmetics and skincare, which have been targeted by the bigger brands as products likely to be regarded as affordable luxuries in the masstige market segments.…

THE INDIAN cosmetics market has been growing consistently at around 15% annually, and given the country’s large and growing population, much of which still spends very little on cosmetics, long term growth seems assured. This is the assessment of Technopak, a consultancy firm based in Gurgaon, near New Delhi.…

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has secured agreement from its 34 rich world member countries to apply a new single global standard on automatic exchange of tax information. Endorsed by G20 finance ministers, the standard obliges countries and jurisdictions to obtain all financial information from their financial institutions and exchange that information automatically with other jurisdictions annually.…

Extreme weather events in 2013 were plentiful in the Asia-Pacific region – increasing demand for high performance coatings. Typhoons and cyclones brought devastation to parts of the central Philippines with typhoon Haiyan, while India was hit by Phailin, the second strongest tropical cyclone to strike the country since accurate meteorological records began.…

Energy production and distribution is often the bedrock of sustainable economic development, and for an archipelago such as Indonesia, onsite power and small grids will always be the most sensible option. The government of south-east Asia’s most populous country has released a Masterplan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia’s Economic Development (MP3EI) whose goal is developed economy status by 2025.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a new European Energy Security Strategy, aimed at further reducing Europe’s reliance on energy imports, notably on politically unreliable trading partners such as Russia.

Its new policy plan was to be debated at the next European Union (EU) summit (European Council) on June 26-27, in Brussels.…

A DISPUTES panel has at last been formed at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to consider whether Australia is breaking WTO rules by insisting since December 2012, under the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011, that all tobacco products must be sold in plain packaging.…

The Indonesian textiles industry is facing a crisis of competence that will worsen if vocational training continues to be neglected by the government and manufacturers, an industry training leader has warned. Johann Höpflinger, director of the International Garment Training Centre (IGTC), based in Citeurup, West Java, called on industry leaders to provide extra funding to address the skills shortage.…

There is nothing better for a financial professional to oversee the transformation of an innovative company from a small scrapper to a big player – and ACCA qualified Australia-based Paula Kensington knows how this feels.

She is CFO of Rubik Financial – a Sydney-based provider of banking software – whose revenue since the end of 2011 has increased by 200% and its share price multiplied, driving market capitalisation exceeding Australian dollar AUD150 million (USD140.39 million).…

JAPANESE food manufacturers are targeting south-east Asia as key export markets, leveraging their products’ sophisticated, fashionable and healthy image. Indeed, with a significant proportion of south-east Asian consumers becoming richer, the perception that Japanese brands can be relatively expensive can help marketing and certainly not harm sales, they say.…

The Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) is considering proposing a nationwide tiered system of minimum wages based on the size and sector of businesses. Apindo chairman Sofjan Wanandi told just-style.com that wage obligations should differ between small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms, as well as between labour-intensive and capital-intensive industries, due to their varying productivities and wage capacities.…

Increasing power tariffs in Indonesia could force textile and garment manufacturers to double their raw material imports, according to Ade Sudrajat Usman, chairman of the Indonesian Textiles Association (API).

The API chair told just-style that electricity consumption already constitutes 15% to 20% of production costs for textile manufacturers in the country.…

Global technology analysts Gartner Inc is well known for its articulated predictions. An announcement in January 2014 to accompany its report on ‘Predicts 2014: The Rise of the Postmodern ERP and Enterprise Applications World’, highlighted the complex, and at times conflicting scenario facing companies considering moving their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to the cloud.…

SINGAPORE has been working hard to lose its past reputation for lax anti-money laundering (AML) controls.

Its ‘steering committee for combating money laundering and terrorist financing,’ jointly headed by the ministry of home affairs, ministry of finance, and the monetary authority of Singapore (MAS) published the country’s first ‘national risk assessment report’ on money laundering and terrorist financing in January 2014.…

India’s steel industry is anticipating progress under the incoming Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Narendra Modi, which it hopes will boost domestic steel demand and improve the supply of raw materials.

“The entire investment cycle in the steel capacity has to be reinvigorated,” said Abhishek Poddar, partner at consultants AT Kearney India, “if the infrastructure span, real estate and automotive sectors improve, then the demand for steel itself will automatically go up.”…

Investment in the Indonesian textiles industry is set to remain stable this year, but with expansion in technical textiles, according to Ade Sudrajat Usman, chairman of the Indonesian Textiles Association (API).  Technical textiles – including medical textiles, geotextiles and agri-textiles – are a growing market and industry within Indonesia, with USD150 million worth of investment anticipated for 2014, according to Ade.…

The increasingly fluid global market for outsourcing enables brands to switch countries for their manufacturing needs, and it is in the interest of exporting countries to make it easy for them.

Cambodia’s garment industry has been the beneficiary of sourcing shifts from more expensive countries such as China in recent years, attracting manufacturers with some of the lowest labour costs in the world, a past reputation for reasonable working conditions and favoured access to US and European Union (EU) markets.…

Innovations in sustainability for cosmetics and packaging were highlighted at the 47th Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna (April 4-7), in Italy. From natural, innovative materials to using traditional materials specifically designed to protect sustainable and organic products, Cosmoprof and its related Cosmopack exhibition emphasised the latest in cosmetics and personal care innovations, and offered a look at trends to come in 2015.…

A GLANCE at Hong Kong’s official trade data gives the impression that all is rosy for the Chinese special administrative region’s (SAR) knitwear manufacturers. In 2013, Hong Kong exported knitted and crocheted fabrics worth USD2.5 billion, up 4.1% year-on-year, easily outpacing the 1.6% growth posted by the city’s overall textile exports valued at USD10.7 billion, according to figures from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).…

DANISH dairy giant Arla Foods has merged its Bangladesh interests with Bangladeshi distributor Mutual Foods in a joint venture to accelerate already strong sales growth of powdered milk in a national liquid and powdered milk market estimated at USD700 million.

“We will plough USD40 million into the joint venture over the next three

years with an ambition to become the leader in this market,” Sanayet Kabir

Khan, chief financial officer of newly formed Arla Foods Bangladesh, told just-food.…

THE FOURTH largest country in the world by population, with an expanding middle class, Indonesia is an attractive base for many of the world’s global paints and coatings companies.

Mr Yoichi Yonehara took over the helm at PT Kansai Prakarsa Coatings two years ago and in that time he has had the opportunity to witness not only a coatings industry in evolution but also a country in a period of great change.…

AS the 2015 deadline for the full integration of the ASEAN economic community (AEC) approaches, it is becoming clear that while trade and standards harmonisation is right on target (and in some sectors well advanced) among member nations, the infinite details of this process for the coatings sector will be a work in process for many years to come.…

THE INDONESIAN government’s decision to promote natural fibres in place of synthetics may have merit, but the country’s garment and textile export industry may not gain from the move, industry experts argue.

Indonesia’s ministry of industry recently announced plans to promote banana and pineapple fibres to minimise its textile industry’s dependence on polyester and rayon.…

Bangladesh is pushing ahead with its plan to pick contractors to build two economic zones in Chittagong district, which could further boost its fast-growing steel industry.

Muhammad Abdus Samad, secretary of the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority, told Steel First it will invite expressions of interest from contractors following a study released in February that found the sub-districts of Mirershrai and Anowara, near Chittagong “suitable” for clustering heavy industries, such as steel and shipbuilding.…

New Zealand has recorded bumper beef exports to Saudi Arabia and Indonesia in the first four months (October 2013 to January 2014) of the meat export year, according to figures from industry body Beef and Lamb New Zealand (BLNZ).

Saudi Arabia took 861 tonnes of New Zealand beef in the first quarter of 2013-14, continuing on last year’s gains.…

The Indonesian government has launched an inquiry that could lead it to levy temporary protective ‘safeguard’ duties against imports of I and H sections made with certain alloyed steels.

This probe will be staged by the Indonesian Safeguards Committee (Komite Pengamanan Perdagangan Indonesia – KPPI) and comes after a request from Indonesian steel manufacturer PT.…

THE WORLD’S tobacco trade is not always a straightforward affair, being held up by export and import licence applications, port dues, quality checks, corruption and unusual red tape. A new World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade Facilitation, struck last December, is designed to ease some of these difficulties.…

As Myanmar’s economic and political reforms continue at a steady pace, its indigenous traditional textiles could become commercialised. Myanmar does not yet systematically export its traditional fabrics and there are no official associations to promote the industry. It currently relies largely on tourists for small-scale revenues.…

WHATEVER happens in Europe, an automobile manufacturing base will always be needed on the continent, Erik Jonnaert, the new secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) told wardsauto in his first interview since taking office in October 2013. (THAT’S WHAT WE WERE TOLD – BUT WE’RE DOUBLE CHECKING THIS AND WILL ADVICE MONDAY)

“I don’t think there should be any fear that we will evolve towards a situation where all manufacturing would move out of Europe,” he said, convinced that vehicle manufacturing still had a role to play on the continent despite historically low sales and increased competition from Asia.…

INDONESIAN textile manufacturers have warned that a government plan to raise electricity tariffs in 2014 may cause apparel prices to rise by 50% and could increase trade deficits in the industry.

In January, Indonesia’s House of Representatives Commission VII approved a plan from the country’s energy and mineral resources ministry to increase electricity tariffs for major industrial consumers. …

SOURCING in Asia has been a merry-go-round for many buyers in recent years. As the era of low-cost Chinese manufacturing draws more or less to a close, several countries have leveraged their low cost labour to capture a significant volume of the world’s lower end knitwear manufacturing, while others have sought to extend their reach into higher value-added manufacturing by investing in infrastructure and training.…

SOURCING in Asia has been a merry-go-round for many buyers in recent years. As the era of low-cost Chinese manufacturing draws more or less to a close, several countries have leveraged their low cost labour to capture a significant volume of the world’s lower end knitwear manufacturing, while others have sought to extend their reach into higher value-added manufacturing by investing in infrastructure and training.…

AUSTRALIAN beef and veal exporters have been buoyed by data from the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) showing record export numbers for the industry in 2013. The country exported nearly 1.1 million tonnes of chilled and frozen beef and veal in 2013, up 14% from the 963,779t achieved in 2012.…

THE UK pharmaceutical industry has welcomed last month’s World Trade

Organization (WTO) trade facilitation agreement, saying it will improve the

efficiency of import and export procedures that hold up deliveries of pharma

products.

“It [the deal] improves transparency and predictability of customs process,”

said Sean Palmer, spokesperson for the Association of the British

Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).…

Poor logistics, including a lack of infrastructure and trained manpower, keep modern branded food retail from actualising its potential in India, industry experts have told the country’s 7th Food and Grocery Forum India, in Mumbai.

India wastes Indian Rupees INR440 billion’s (USD6.95 billion) worth of fresh produce and grains annually because of poor distribution, according to Central Institute for Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, in the Punjab.…

A PLANNED increase in electricity tariffs in Indonesia has sparked concern in the garment industry that it will raise production costs, which may affect the industry’s competitiveness in the export market.

Asep Setiaharja, vice secretary general of the Indonesian Textile Association (API), said that the upstream end of the garment production chain will bear the biggest brunt of rising electricity costs: “The increase of electricity tariffs mostly hits upstream industries such as man-made fibre manufacturers and spinners who are more energy intensive than their colleagues of fabric and garment manufacturers,” he said.…

AUSTRALIA’S live cattle exports posted strong growth in 2013, with an 18% year-on-year increase in the 10 months from January to October. According to figures from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), Australia exported 650,830 head of cattle during this period, with nearly half (314,879) absorbed by the Indonesian market, Australia’s most import livestock export destination.…

TURKEY’S tobacco leaf industry enjoyed a boom year in 2013, with total tobacco production for the 2012 crop (purchased in 2013) up 52.6% to 69,348 kilogrammes (kg), according to data from Turkey’s Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulatory Authority (Tütün ve Alkol Piyasası Düzenleme Kurumu – TAPDK).…

A country famed for its beautiful traditional ‘batik,’ Malaysia is also home to a highly specialised textiles industry and these niche skills may prove vital for the country’s numerous finishing factories in what is shaping up to a challenging year. Economists are predicting a general slowing of the Malaysian economy, with average real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the next five years estimated in Q4 2013 at 3.4%, revised down 0.2% from Q4 in 2012 (slightly slower than the Asian average of 3.7%), according to the Ifo Institute for Economic Research/International Chamber of Commerce’s World Economic Survey of business experts published in November last year.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

A country famed for its beautiful traditional ‘batik,’ Malaysia is also home to a highly specialised textiles industry and these niche skills may prove vital for the country’s numerous finishing factories in what is shaping up to a challenging year.…

INDONESIA’S nonwovens market is expanding rapidly, in particular because of rising demand for consumer products. At around 246 million people, Indonesia has easily the largest population among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc. The country’s economy has grown at an annual average of 6% over recent years, although there are signs that growth could be slowing, with the World Bank forecasting growth of 5.6% in 2013 and 5.3% in 2014, compared with 6.2% in 2012.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has struck a global deal that should ease import and customs procedures that can hold up the delivery of paints, coatings and their ingredients to export and import customers.

This agreement on trade facilitation was agreed by a WTO ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December.…

WITH the 2015 deadline approaching for the establishing a common market within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesian textile manufacturers need professional competency standards to be harmonised across the 10 member countries, according to the country’s peak textiles association.…

THE AGREEMENT by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to reduce import-export red tape may lead to a seismic shift in the global automotive sector, an industry expert has told wardsauto.

Peter Cooke, the emeritus professor of automotive management at Britain’s University of Buckingham, said that major emerging markets without a substantial auto sector may create capacity because of the deal.…

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has struck a global deal that should ease import and customs procedures that can hold up the delivery of steel and steel products to export customers.

This agreement on trade facilitation was agreed by a WTO ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia, which wrapped up on Friday night (Dec 6).…

The European steel association Eurofer has welcomed the striking of the new global trade deal by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which should ease import and customs procedures that can slow the delivery of steel and steel products to export customers.…

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has struck a global deal that should ease import and customs procedures that can hold up the delivery of plastics, ingredients and plastic products to export customers.

This agreement on trade facilitation was agreed by a WTO ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia, which wrapped up on Friday night (Dec 6).…

European non-ferrous metals trade association today welcomed this weekend’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal on reducing import-export red tape.

Speaking to Metal Bulletin from her Brussels office, Elena Vyboldina, the trade and economy manager for Eurometaux, said the WTO agreement on trade facilitation was “positive”.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Meat Trade Association (IMTA) has welcomed the striking of a new global trade deal by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which should ease import and customs procedures that can slow the delivery of meat and livestock to export customers.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has struck a global deal that should ease import and customs procedures that can hold up the delivery of meat to export customers, sometimes causing deliveries to spoil.

This agreement on trade facilitation was agreed by a WTO ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia, which wrapped up on Friday night (Dec 6).…

INCREASINGLY stringent regulations governing the cold chain transport of medicines for human use are tipped to become a major driver for the uptake of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology by pharmaceutical suppliers in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to a recent report published by industry analysts Frost & Sullivan, America and Europe currently divide the biggest slice of market share in the global market for cold chain RFID.…

AUSTRALIA’S livestock export traders have said they want to ensure that their lucrative export business with Indonesia is not damaged by fallout from a diplomatic row over spying.

This follows outrage from the Indonesian authorities over revelations that Australia had tapped the phones of its President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and close collaborators in 2009.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has struck an agreement that will put pressure on rich-world cotton producers to reduce subsidies that undercut their emerging market rivals.

While stopping short of a deal that will sweep away production hand-outs, the WTO ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia, did agree that cotton subsidies would be debated in detail twice a year by the organisation’s agriculture committee.…

BRANDS and environmental groups are calling on the apparel and textile industry to use alternatives to wood pulp-based fibres such as rayon and viscose sourced from endangered forests as demand for these fibres is expected to explode.

Forest-based fabrics make up about 5% of total textile industry inputs, but demand is expected to increase by 112% in the next 40 years, said Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Canada-based non-profit organisation, Canopy.…

BANGLADESH’S garment makers face a drought of summer 2014 orders as western retailers have begun fleeing the South Asian nation after recent political violence and a physical attack on Spanish buyers.

Top industry leaders said that global buyers, seeking stable alternatives, have already diverted 30%-35% of orders to Bangladesh’s rivals, with India, Indonesia and Vietnam emerging as winners.…

THE LAST few years have brought significant changes to the apparel sourcing landscape in Asia. The era of Chinese low-cost apparel manufacturing is well behind us, and several countries have stepped up to claim their part of the manufacturing pie.

Apparel industry analysts say that although China’s dominance continues, a clear segmentation in Asia is now taking place.…

WHILE Australia’s healthy economy is the envy of most countries in the world, and obviously this boosts the personal care product industry in the country – there are concerns that retailers and brands are over-charging consumers. Indeed, Australian consumers are paying as much as 50% more for the same cosmetics as United States and European consumers, according to a recent investigation by Australia’s consumer organisation Choice.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has struggled for 12 years since the launch of its Doha Development Round in 2001 to secure a global agreement promoting world commerce. And while many of the issues debated under the Doha process remain out of reach – most notably an agreement on reducing food production subsidies and tariffs – it has now struck a deal on cutting trade red tape.…

THE FEDERATION of European Publishers (FEP) has welcomed this weekend’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal on reducing import-export red tape.

Speaking to The Bookseller, FEP deputy director Enrico Turrin told the Bookseller: “It can only help. Anything that helps remove barriers will facilitate trade.”…

THE AGREEMENT by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to reduce import-export red tape may lead to a seismic shift in the global automotive sector, an industry expert has told wardsauto.

Peter Cooke, the emeritus professor of automotive management at Britain’s University of Buckingham, said that major emerging markets without a substantial auto sector may create capacity because of the deal.…

WITH the 2015 deadline approaching for the establishing a common market within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesian textile manufacturers need professional competency standards to be harmonised across the 10 member countries, according to the country’s peak textiles association.…

THE LIBERALISATION taking place in Myanmar has been making the global textile and clothing sector excited about the country’s thus far untapped potential to export indigenous and mainstream textiles. Aung Min, research director of the business insight and social insight department at the Myanmar Marketing Research and Development Co.…

The chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – or Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has welcomed a move by the Indonesian trade ministry to end restrictions on imports of cotton fabrics that have been in place since May 1, 2012.

Ade Sudrajat told WTiN.com…

Bharat Coking Coal Limited, India’s main supplier of coking coal to the country’s steel industry, has announced plans to increase production 10-fold, reducing the country’s dependence on expensive imports.

“By 2017, we will be able to provide 11 to 15 million tonnes of washed coal annually,” Ashoke Sarkar, Bharat’s technical director told Steel First.…

ANTICIPATED market liberalisation in democratising Burma is enticing global tobacco companies such as British American Tobacco (BAT) to sell and manufacture cigarettes in Myanmar. However, rampant smuggling of duty-free cigarettes into the country and the dominance of low-end local brands pose a challenge to legitimate business ventures.…

THOSE who have spent some time walking Chinese supermarket aisles in the past decade will have noticed astonishing changes in the local diet. Increased sales of dairy products and meat are driving demand for soy as an animal feed ingredient, and demand for higher-end consumer products such as ice cream, and confectionery are increasing palm oil requirements.…

Battle lines have been drawn across the international palm oil industry as its companies prepare to comply with the incoming European Union (EU) food information regulation No 1169/2011, which comes into force from December 13, 2014, and requires product labels to list types of vegetable oil used in food.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian oil exporters are to benefit from a new free trade deal struck between the EU and Canada. Once the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been ratified (probably in 2015), it will lead to all existing non-food duties imposed on goods traded between the parties being scrapped.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is attempting to move the legal boundary where tax avoidance becomes tax evasion, criminalising some aggressive tax planning that has caused controversy across Europe. The move is one a number of recent practical tax and anti-fraud law reforms that Brussels has been pushing to help tax authorities in the European Union (EU) collect reasonable levels of revenue.…

Many confectionery manufacturers in the United States continue to make strides in sustainable packaging, focusing on reducing inputs and using more recyclable materials. However, ice cream manufacturers have prioritised cost savings and consumer trends in the past few years over eco-friendly features, stagnating innovation in sustainable ice cream packaging.…

WHILE the international market for certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) was boosted at a Berlin conference last autumn (2012) when Germany and France established national business forums, there are concerns that this green market system could be failing. And according to the governing body, the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), production of certified sustainable palm oil is now about 9.6 million tonnes annually (16% of global crude palm oil production).…

THE CHAIRMAN of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – or Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has told WTiN.com that it is anticipating steady growth in exports of Indonesian textiles and garments over the next few years. Expansion in Japan, the Middle East and other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) markets would prove increasingly important, he predicted.…

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.…

INDIAN consumer product company Godrej has been pushing into Africa’s hair care market with four acquisitions in the last five years, putting it in a strategic position to compete with major western companies.

Selling hair colourants, hair extensions and soaps in Africa through brands such as Inecto, Renew, Tura and Darling, Godrej is banking on Africa’s fast growing demand for cosmetics and other personal care products and is moving towards becoming an established multinational.…

For manufacturers looking for a cost effective fibre in current global markets, cotton prices are at last stabilising following the last few years’ price distortions and increases, said Mark Messura, US-based Cotton Incorporated’s senior vice president of global supply chain marketing.…

China’s textile industry must create new competitive advantages to compete with emerging low-cost producers such as Vietnam and Bangladesh in today’s tough export climate, according to a senior official with the China National Textile and Apparel Council.

“It’s clear from the trade data that apparel exports in low-cost countries including Vietnam and Bangladesh are growing faster than those in China and we must increasingly look to expand the value of exports rather than rely on bulk selling at low prices,” said Liu Yaozhong of the council’s international trade office at a seminar during the Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics trade show Tuesday.…

COAL might be regarded as the oldest energy source going, but it is still currently the world’s largest long-term source of electricity. It fuels around 40% of global electricity production, according to the UK-based World Energy Council, a United Nations (UN) accredited body representing some 3,000 private and public-sector member organisations across 90 nations.…

Turkey’s textile and garment sector is aiming to significantly expand its sales to key global markets outside of Europe, such as the US, while continuing to grow exports to European Union (EU) countries over the next few years, WTiN.com has been told.…

THE INDONESIAN textile industry is being targeted by Italian machinery suppliers, who are aiming for further strong growth in sales to Indonesia over the next few years noting that the south-east Asian country’s textile industry is set to update much of its plant.…

THE WIDESPREAD disruption to European air-travel caused by the dramatic large-scale volcanic eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in March 2010 has prompted close assessments of air traffic control procudures in countries with significant seismic activity.

The 2010 disruption was a costly experience for airlines and air-passenger traffic.…

The Indonesian Textile Association (API – or Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has told WTiN that it expects the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Indonesia and the European Union (EU) would significantly grow its industry’s European exports. It also predicts a deal, for which substantive negotiations are still being prepared, would also increase the purchase by Indonesia’s textile sector of European-made textile manufacturing equipment and finishing chemicals.…

THE INSURANCE risks involved in oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) are rising in line with growing industry complexity and the move into deeper, remoter and more environmentally sensitive environments.

This is placing ever greater demands on the need to identify, quantify and insure against risk, particularly when the financial and reputational repercussions of getting it wrong are escalating too.…

BRAZIL is an innovative technical textile producer, declares a report from a senior São Paulo’s business school the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), despite the sector experiencing teething problems as it expands. Looking at the Brazilian textile sector as a whole, the study estimates that 77% of investment into the sector during 2012 was used to buy innovative machinery – and the technical textile sector especially has a lot of demand to meet.…

FOOD technology innovation could have a European Union (EU) budget of Euro EUR4.1 billion to tap from 2014 to 2020 under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. Political agreement over its funding and spending rules was secured in June, creating an overall pot of EUR70.2 billion, from which EUR4.1 billion could be earmarked for food and food-related research projects.…

BANGLADESH’S fast growing economy is developing a robust and booming personal care product market. Mosaddeq Hossain, owner of a general store at the Shagoria Bazaar in Hatiya sub-district, neat Chittagong, recalls 10 years ago, there was almost no demand for his stocks of Sunsilk shampoo.…

To meet apparel and textile brands’ desire to move into fast fashion, manufacturers have begun to embrace new production processes that improve efficiency and performance. Apparel and textile manufacturers have been slower than many other manufacturing industries to embrace supply chain improvements in speed, but are now succumbing to pressure from brands moving into fast fashion retail.…

THE INDIAN cotton textile industry has increased its global competitiveness over the last decade, but still its exports have not shown the corresponding results, said a report compiled by Zurich-based consultancy agency Gherzi. Entitled ‘Cost Benchmarking Study – India vis-à–vis Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, China, Pakistan and Turkey’, it was commissioned by the Indian Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council and released in New Delhi last week (July 25).…

INDONESIA’S paints and coatings industry is introducing a growing range of new products and innovations as the market becomes increasingly competitive, as recent robust growth continues into the foreseeable future.

A 2012 report by UK-based market researchers Euromonitor International, said the total turnover of the Indonesian paints and varnishes sector was forecast to grow by 10% in 2012 to Indonesian Rupiah IDR15.3 trillion (USD1.53 billion), up from IDR6.4 trillion (USD640 million) in 2005, with a combined annual growth rate of 8.4% between 2005 and 2012.…

Making money in the mobile communications sector is always about the art of the possible, but ambitious companies will always seek to tap the most revenue streams. The question, as ever, is how to achieve such goals, without being weighed down with additional layers of management that eat into those vital profit margins.…

WHERE European Union (EU) legislation is concerned, it’s been one step forward and one step back for the European oleochemicals sector so far in 2013, though Chantal De Cooman, secretary-general of the European Oleochemicals and Allied Products Group (APAG), was in breezy mood when speaking to Oils & Fats International last month (July).…

THE INDONESIAN Textile Association (API – or Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has told WTiN that the Indonesian government is considering revamping its policy programme designed to boost investment in the sector. He added that the industry is also looking to improve its own competitiveness by focusing increasingly on higher value products.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has now formally approved a new European Union (EU) offshore oil and gas drilling directive, designed to prevent accidents such as the Deepwater Horizon spill happening in coastal EU sea waters.

These new rules will require oil and gas firms to prove they can cover potential liabilities from accidents and submit major hazard reports and emergency response plans to regulators before drilling operations start.…

IF there is one country where the need to improve environmental performance in clothing and textile production is clear it is surely Bangladesh. With more care and attention paid to industrial processes and premises comes improved safety and working conditions, and after the recent factory collapse and fire, Bangladesh knows it has to raise its game.…

INDONESIA’S mining industry is richly endowed with natural resources. United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports stress how the country ranks among the world’s leading producers of tin, copper and nickel, with sizeable reserves of other key ores such as bauxite, gold and silver.…

A EUROPEAN Commission green paper on the EU’s medium-term energy strategy looking ahead to 2030, suggests that renewable energy might not need to be protected by growth targets in future. These have been a key plank of EU energy policy to 2020, but Brussels’ paper on ‘A 2030 framework for climate and energy policies’ noted renewables would be more mature in the next decade and “competing increasingly with other low-carbon technologies,” such as carbon capture and storage.…

CHINA and Japan offer two contrasting case studies in the punishment of fraud: while China is under pressure to dial down penalties from their past severity; in Japan, there have been moves to make punishments tougher.

Certainly China cannot get much tougher, given the death penalty is available to judges for fraud.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) recent decision to impose antidumping duties on imports of bioethanol from the United States is triggering fears that trade remedy measures may become the new tool of choice for protecting domestic biofuel producers from foreign competitors.

EU ministers decided on February 18 to impose a definitive (long-term) antidumping duty of Euro EUR0.63 cents per metric tonne on US bioethanol imports in response to a complaint from the European Renewable Ethanol Association (ePURE).…

AFRICA’S beleaguered clothing and textile industry could take advantage of a projected downturn in exports from Chinese manufacturers, but only if a wide range of reforms are implemented locally.   

Industry experts have told the Source Africa trade event in Cape Town on April 12 that if the difficulties currently hamstringing the sector could be overcome then Africa’s clothing and textile sector could thrive.…

WITH global cocoa prices continuing to rise and concerns growing that climate change will hinder efforts to boost production, the confectionery sector’s key Asia Choco Congress 2013 this year explored solutions to assure sustainable cocoa supplies.

Experts from industry giants such as Cargill, Mars and CAMOI joined with international cocoa specialists to assess ways of solving ongoing and potentially worsening market disfunction.…

THE EVER-CHANGING sourcing equation is a challenge to the global garment and textile industry supply chain. There is talk of moving production back home to western countries – bringing it closer to market- but its viability is being questioned. Meanwhile in Asia, where the majority of clothes are currently produced worldwide, the sourcing landscape is changing, experts say.…

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has made a lot of noise about its anti-bribery convention. But some countries are failing to comply, and where others do – otherwise honest companies can lose trade. David Hayhurst and Keith Nuthall report.…

IS the suitcase or manila envelope full of cash still a favoured means of exchange between briber and bribed, or has bribery become so sophisticated that such basic methods are now foresworn? It would appear so – at least, third parties are now readily employed to obscure a bribe trail.…

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has highlighted its increasing focus on emerging markets, as the battle among global dairy companies for a share of markets in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America hots up. Just-food’s Jonathan Dyson spoke to Fonterra CFO Jonathan Mason as the company released its latest half-yearly results.…

THE ASIAN oleochemicals industry is introducing an increasingly diverse range of product innovations, and looking at different ways to utilise feedstock, as it looks to combat key industry challenges such as high stocks, low utilisation rates, market volatility and environmental issues.…

INDIA’s auditors have had a difficult time in the court of public opinion since the revelations of the USD1 billion Satyam Computer Services scandal. A new Companies Bill might change that – although it will also inflict some pain on India’s auditors.…

ETHIOPIA’S potential as a source of industrial minerals is beginning to be realised, with a growing number of exploration and mining projects underway, and rapidly increasing foreign investment.
To date, its Ministry of Mines has granted 72 industrial minerals exploration licenses – 61 to foreign companies, eight to Ethiopian/foreign joint ventures, and three to local companies; and 52 mining licenses – 28 to foreign companies, 17 to Ethiopian/foreign joint ventures, and seven to local companies.…

DECLINING demand from the USA and European Union (EU) for Bangladesh knitwear has not dampened the world’s second largest clothing exporter from aiming high. Rather, Bangladesh is planning to more than double its current knitwear exports, to USD20 billion by 2020, seeking out new markets.…

Malaysia’s textile and clothing industry is planning to focus on three key areas – higher value fashion, dyeing and finishing, and technical textiles – to sustain strong growth and continue to compete with significantly lower-cost competition elsewhere in Asia.

The country’s textile and apparel exports grew 28.4% to USD3.8 billion in 2011, according to the Malaysian Textile Manufacturers Association (MTMA), with a further significant increase expected in 2012.…

THE CREATION of a harmonised customs system within the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by 2015 should be better exploited by its regional clothing and textile industry through better vertical integration, a conference was told this week.…

BY POORNA RODRIGO

The Indonesian Textile Association (API) has said it will be trying to increase export sales for its members in other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member countries in 2013, amidst declining European Union (EU) and USA demand.…

UNTIL now, much of Russia’s exploitation of lucrative Siberian gas and oil deposits has targeted the western sectors of this vast region, rather than the central heartlands or the distant east. The reasons are clear enough, as the abundant fields of western Siberia have fed strong demand from Europe.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

EVER since the European Commission announced last month that it would stop subsiding food-based biofuels from 2020 and support the production of secondary biofuels based on waste matter and algae, Europe’s biofuel sector has been preparing to fight for survival.…

BY POORNA RODRIGO

THE INDONESIAN Textile Association (API) has branded a government decision to increase the minimum wage in the capital Jakarta and its surrounding region by 44% as "illogical", arguing the country’s garment and textile industry will be hit hard by the hike.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

FOR multinational businesses, comprehensive and precise financial reporting is critical for a company’s success, and such good practice is also essential for companies striving for profits within emerging markets.

Earlier this year, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) released a report ‘Being the Change: Inspiring the Next Generation of Inclusive Business Entrepreneurs Impacting the Base of the Pyramid’, which highlights the IFC’s ‘inclusive business models’ strategy.…

BY MARK ROWE

The cosmetics market for Asian men is thriving where other sectors struggle. "Men’s skin care products appear to exist in a different economic world to much of rest of the industry," said Diyva Sangameshwar, a spokeswoman for market researchers Euromonitor based in Singapore.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

JAPANESE cosmetics ingredients company Ajinomoto has unveiled a joint venture with Indonesia chemical company PT Lautan Luas Tbk (LTL). Western Java-based PT Lautan Ajinomoto Fine Ingredients will use amino acids to manufacture cosmetics ingredients, especially for Asia customers.…

BY CONNLA STOKES, IN HO CHI MINH CITY

As one of the world’s fastest-growing accountancy bodies, ACCA is attracting more finance and management professionals in Asia eager to get to the top. This is certainly the case for Shanghai, China-born Katherine Wu.…

BY MARIANI DEWI

BRANCH campuses of established western universities can be major prizes for emerging market higher education systems – but attracting these institutions is not easy, even for economically dynamic countries such as Malaysia.

There are still only six branch campuses in this south-east Asian country.…

BY DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS

THREE years ago, the Group of Twenty (G20) finance ministers and central bank governors stated the organisation’s intention was to "rationalise and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption".…

BY POORNA RODRIGO AND MUNZA MUSTAQ, IN COLOMBO

Of course the BRICs countries are far from being the only emerging market suppliers for the global apparel sector – and a knot of competitors such as Bangladesh and Vietnam have long been vying for business.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN RIO DE JANEIRO

THE WORLD’S energy ministers are pondering policy responses to ‘The Future We Want’, a document summarising recommendations from the United Nations (UN) Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) which ended June 22 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

OPERATIONS at Canada’s largest open-pit asbestos mine will be re-starting shortly, with exports of chrysotile set to begin within a year, following the signing of a financing agreement between the Québec government and a consortium of shareholders.

Mine Jeffrey’s Canadian dollar CAD83 million (USD 81.45 million) financing agreement to restart operations – which includes a CAD25 million investment from shareholders of the mine, and a CAD58 million loan bearing 10% interest – will help the Asbestos, Québec, mine complete the construction of its underground infrastructure, rendering the mine productive for the next 20 years, at least.…

BY KARRYN MILLER, IN HANOI

WITH similar tropical and sub-tropical climates giving personal care product consumers some similar requirements as regards skin care, the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region could be regarded as one by lazy marketers.…

BY MARK ROWE

FOR products that are marketed for their ability to sooth and generate the feel-good factor, the sustainable sourcing of cosmetics ingredients causes plenty of headaches for manufacturers and suppliers. The industry is in a period of transition, in which several of the world’s multinationals are engaging in a step change in how they go about sourcing the oils they need, and the public wants.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN AREQUIPA, SOUTHERN PERU

PERU’S Inkabor, one of the world’s leading borates producers, is significantly increasing its product range as it capitalises on growing demand in several key sectors, senior managers told Industrial Minerals. Speaking at its Rio Seco boric acid and borax plant in Arequipa, southern Peru, Flavio Magheri, Inkabor managing director, said that Inkabor’s sales grew by 15% in 2011, with 10% growth forecast for 2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Union’s (EU) anti-fraud unit has hailed the breaking of an international conspiracy to export China-made iron and steel tube and pipe fittings via other Asian countries to evade 58.6% EU anti-dumping duties usually levied on these products.…

BY MARK ROWE AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S oils and fats exporters probably drew a sigh of relief when Russia secured agreement for it to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) last December. The country has a history of using unpredictable and, some say, arbitrary bans on food imports to punish exporting countries with which it is unhappy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MJ DESCHAMPS, PACIFICA GODDARD AND KARRYN MILLER

GOVERNMENTS can get things wrong – badly wrong – and alter the planet’s human and natural geography in ways that were never intended. And one of those embarrassing events is now unfolding: over the promotion of biofuels.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI

INDIA is planning to create a special fund to enable its dominant state-owned miner to acquire overseas coal mines to compensate for severe domestic coal shortages that are hurting the country’s power, steel and other industrial sectors.…

BY HANA KAMARUDDIN, IN SELANGOR, MALAYSIA

Students in some Asian countries, such as Japan, Indonesia and South Korea now earn credit hours for voluntary work, an incentive that builds volunteering into the university assessment system and promotes community work as an integral part of higher education, a conference has been told.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI

India’s domestic supply of coking coal should be brought under the control of the country’s steel ministry instead of the coal ministry, the chairman of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has told a major New Delhi conference.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES

THE UNITED States government has told the Meat Trades Journal that there should be no reason why countries should ban its beef imports following the discovery of its first BSE case in six years, in California. Of all major US trade partners, only two South Korean retailers and Indonesia have thus far suspended American beef imports.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

DINERS in Beijing were appalled recently to discover that restaurants on the city’s most famed dining street have been using recycled – or so called ‘gutter’ – cooking oil processed by an underground industry of oil collectors.…

BY KARRYN MILLER, MJ DESCHAMPS, LEAH GERMAIN AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE BYELECTION victories in Myanmar/Burma by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her political allies have loosened the tough trade sanctions that have thus far hampered efforts to develop the country as a new sourcing hub for knitwear and other clothing products.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE UNITED States Trade Representative (USTR) has joined forces with the European Union (EU) to press Indonesia to simplify its licensing for meat and livestock imports. The US and Canada, with the support of the EU, Brazil, New Zealand, Japan and Switzerland, have complained to the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) import licensing committee, claiming that Indonesia’s tough licensing for meat and livestock imports could seriously damage trade.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

DESPITE recent rumours in Russian media that 7-Eleven, the US-based international chain of convenience stores, would be expanding into Russia, the company has denied the claims.

"There is no basis of foundation about 7-Eleven developing in Russia," a spokesperson for the company told just-food from its Texas, USA, headquarters.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, IN OTTAWA

ONE of Canada’s last two remaining asbestos mines has filed for bankruptcy protection, leaving no active asbestos operations currently ongoing in the country.

The announcement by LAB Chrysotile, which operates the Lac d’Amiante mine near Thetford Mines, Québec, follows a production halt last October, which resulted in the loss of about 350 jobs for local miners.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

THE SYRIAN energy sector is currently reeling from the sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) and the United States in the last quarter of 2011 in response to Damascus’ severe crackdown on protests that began in March of last year.…

BY WANG FANGQING

THE INDONESIAN government has yet to impose comprehensive and specific environmental controls on its domestic coatings industry, but manufacturers, especially multinationals, are ready to move one step ahead and reduce their pollution footprint.

The issue was a key focus of the 12th Asia Coatings Markets conference held on November 2 in Jakarta, with debates on cutting carbon emissions associated with production and making eco-friendly paints and coatings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONSERVATION group WWF has lauded six major British cosmetics retailers for doing all they can to monitor their palm oil-based product sourcing, reducing its environmental impact. Palm oil has long been a concern of environmentalists worried about clearances of natural habitat in Indonesia and Malaysia to make way for palm oil plantations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RETAIL – WINNERS AND LOSERS

WINNERS

MARKS & SPENCER

Times may still be tough in its home British market, but M&S showed forward-thinking foresight in 2011- on sourcing transparency and the environment: potential key issues for future consumers.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE INDONESIAN Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI) has pulled out of the international Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) eco-certification system, as the Indonesian government is planning its own sustainable palm oil regime, Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO).…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THREE former executives of UK speciality chemicals company Innospec Ltd (and predecessor companies Octane Additives and Associated Octel Corporation) have been charged with conspiracy in connection with the making of corrupt payments to officials and other agents of the government of Indonesia for the supply of Innospec products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has imposed definitive anti-dumping duties on imports into the EU of certain fatty alcohols and their blends, used as pharmaceutical ingredients, made in India, Indonesia and Malaysia. Indian companies will be charged Euro EUR86.99 per tonne; Indonesian companies EUR80.34/tonne; and Malaysian companies EUR61.01/tonne, with some special lower tariffs for selected companies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has imposed definitive anti-dumping duties on imports into the EU of certain fatty alcohols and their blends, used as cosmetics ingredients, made in India, Indonesia and Malaysia. Indian companies will be charged Euro EUR86.99 per tonne (bar VVF Ltd’s EUR46.98).…

BY MATTHEW BRACE

AUSTRALIA is fast developing into a global force for natural gas, cementing its reputation as a source of valuable materials, such as iron ore, coal, gold, silver, uranium, aluminium, nickel, lead and zinc. In 2010, Australia became the fourth largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) gas – trading 18.38 million tonnes (Mt) in total – according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2011.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE WESTERN financial system is undergoing profound change, of weakened trust in the sector, heightened tax regulations, pressure to curb banking secrecy and tougher regulatory compliance. As a result, the owners of legal and extra-legal capital who are looking for a safe haven for their money are starting to consider destinations outside the established offshore jurisdictions – the less regulated financial centres of the Middle East and Asia.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE CANADIAN federal government is planning to scrap the legal monopoly operated by Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) for grains grown in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of British Columbia. The legal requirement that farmers in this area sell wheat and barley to the CWB would disappear on August 1, 2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the Indonesian government have launched a project to boost energy efficiency in the key Java tourist zone of Pangandaran. It includes introducing energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies in hotels and public buildings; integrating low-carbon goals into planning; plus seminars and workshops on energy efficiency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has repealed Euro EUR3,479-per-tonne anti-dumping duties imposed on imports into the EU of the fragrance fixative coumarin from China, India, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. The reason, said a European Commission note was that "the sole producer of coumarin, which constituted the EU industry…decided to discontinue production of coumarin…at the end of August 2010."…

BY MARK GODFREY

COTTON prices have eased in 2011, lifting the price pressure on major brands, according to VF Asia Pacific president Aidan O’Meara. The Hong Kong-based executive, who oversees 30 brands in the region, says it was the first time in 19 years at VF that he had seen inflation of production costs.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIA is known for its rich history of garment making traditions; however, its knitwear manufacturing centres have been facing serious labour shortages of late – leading to the underutilisation of capacity, spiralling costs and even relocation of some factories to more rural areas.…

BY WANG FANGQING

INDONESIA’S paint and coating market is expected to grow 10% from 2011 to 2012 after a previous average annual growth of 8% between 2006 and 2011.With the strong recovery from the recession in the domestic economy, the market – with an estimated value of US dollars USD1.1 billion – will grow robustly in the following years, according to market research company Frost & Sullivan.…

BY WANG FANGQING

Japanese probiotic drinks manufacturer Yakult Honsha Co. has revealed a plan to further expansion in emerging markets including India, Indonesia and Brazil. "As the population in Japan continues to shrink, we have to seek sales growth in emerging markets, where the economy and young populations are booming," said a Yakult spokesman in Tokyo.…

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 JULIAN RYALL

AS if Japanese clothing manufacturers did not have enough to worry about already from the physical and logistical damage caused by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and the tsunami that it triggered, there are now fears it could cause a labour shortage.…

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 MARK GODFREY

THE ENDLESS undulating hills of southwestern China’s Yunnan province may represent the future of biofuels in the country. These sparsely populated, red-soiled hills of pine and scrub are being touted as the place to grow feedstocks such as jatropha to make up for a clamp-down in using edible alternatives such as corn, rice and wheat.…

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 MARK ROWE

WITH awareness growing in regards to their impact on the environment, the chemical make-up of fire retardants is becoming increasingly targeted by legislation around the world, and the Asia-Pacific region is no exception.

According to global paints and coatings company AkzoNobel (SPELLING CHECKED) – which recently opened a EUR7 million fire protection laboratory in the UK to serve as its global headquarters for fire retardant research – increasingly stringent worldwide regulations mean that the demand for more environmentally-conscious fire retardants will double by 2018.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

THE ASSOCIATION of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) covers 10 distinct countries, each with a unique culture, mirroring the personal care product markets of the European Union (EU). However, these nations do share some similarities – and maybe more than northern, southern and eastern Europe, especially when it comes to what ASEAN consumers have inside their cosmetics cabinets.…

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 LEE ADENDORFF

For some it was a total disaster, for others a bump in the road, but the recession left no part of the clothing and textile retail sector unscathed. World Trade Organisation (WTO) statistics from 2009 show that while globally important manufacturing jurisdictions such as China and the European Union (EU) suffered 11% and 15% drops respectively in clothing exports, countries such as India, Vietnam and Bangladesh lost just a couple of percentage points and in India’s case, exports remained stable.…

BY WANG FANGQING

Nissin Foods Holdings, the Japan-based instant noodle manufacturing multinational, will invest about Japanese Yen JPY 3.4 billion (US dollar USD41.5 million) to build an instant noodle plant in Vietnam to meet growing demand in this key emerging market.…

BY AHMAD PATHONI

INDONESIA’S paint and coating market has grown by about 3-4% annually by average over the past decade. Indeed, consumption rose to 688,863 tonnes in 2010, from 646,700 the previous year, according to the Indonesian Paint Manufacturers’ Association.

And a mini-boom could be approaching.…

BY WACHIRA KIGOTHO

CLASSIFIED as a failed state, Somalia is one of the world’s poorest countries, but oil production could change its fortune. Indeed, politically fractured Somalia is being touted as a potentially rich oil and gas producer. Given security, Somalia is increasingly regarded as economically strategically-located, a view fuelled by recent interest by Chinese and western nations’ oil and gas investment companies.…

BY MARK GODFREY

VIGOROUS economic growth and stimulus spending in key growth markets such as Indonesia, Thailand and India is ensuring Asia remains a bright spot in the global US dollar USD100 billion paint and coatings sector. Yet in terms of raw material supplies, south-east Asia and India are not as geared towards production as China, which has been ramping up chemicals refining capacity largely through ventures between local and multinational firms.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

HAS the world found the means to drive rapid growth of distributed power generation in the rural areas? Yes, believes a group of young entrepreneurs in India who are using the rice husk-fired gasification process to operate small generation units in off-grid remote villages.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

DESPITEthe global economic downturn of the last few years Vietnam’s paint industryhas continued to experience growth.According to Vietnam’s General Statistics Office234,000 tonnes of paint was produced in Vietnam between January 2010 and November 2010.In the same period last year production was at 181,200 tonnes.Sales…

BY KARRYN MILLER

DESPITE the global economic downturn of the last few years Vietnam’s paint industry has continued to experience growth. According to Vietnam’s General Statistics Office 234,000 tonnes of paint was produced in Vietnam between January 2010 and November 2010.…

BY MUNZA MUSHTAQ

Asia has long been accused of fostering corruption and governments have often turned a blind eye, while their countries grow richer. One answer is increasing the role of non-state actors in dealing with the problem. Munza Mushtaq reports from the 14th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, Bangkok, Thailand.…

BY BARBARA BIERACH

WHILE the Reserve Bank of Australia has a licence to print cash, two subsidiaries wanted one too, it seems – only using international sales agents to bribe foreign public officials over banknote printing contracts. Barbara Bierach reports from Sydney.…

WINNERS

TURKEY

This was the year when Turkey really came into its own. With a well-established and successful clothing and textile industry, supping Europe, Russia and the Middle East, its industry this year laid claim to becoming a fashion centre. August’s Istanbul Fashion Week caught a lot of global attention with 21 catwalk shows, an audience of 40,000, and more than 500 overseas guests.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN it comes to palm oil production, there are – despite growing production in South America and west Africa – only two major players on the global stage – Malaysia and Indonesia. Cultivation in south-east Asia accounts for around 80% of the world’s global supply – which in turn reached a record high of 45.9 million tonnes in 2009-2010.…

BY WANG FANGQING and MINI PANT ZACHARIAH

A GROWING construction industry paired with a push towards more environmentally friendly paints is currently driving the emulsion polymers (EP) market in the Asia Pacific region, with paints and coatings manufacturers in China and India especially, slated to see major growth in years to come.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

THE INDIAN government-owned National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) is going to build a USD4.5 billion aluminium smelter of 500,000 tonnes annual capacity in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province. On Tuesday, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the provincial government for setting up the smelter and a 1,250MW power plant, which is expected to take four years to construct.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

THE IMMEDIATE priority for the company that has evolved from the merger of Japan’s Nippon Oil Corporation and Nippon Mining Holdings is achieving stability. But even while efforts to achieve that aim are ongoing, JX Holdings Inc. is drawing up plans to acquire new energy assets.…

BY MARK ROWE

IN the truly global market of the paint industry, nowhere has the maxim of work local, sell local, been adhered to more rigorously than in southeast Asia. The region’s paint market is fiercely competitive, driven by developed nations such as Singapore and populous rapidly developing countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A GROUP of 28 governments from the Asia-Pacific region has adopted advice on the criminalisation of bribery drafted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Couched as a ‘Thematic Review on Criminalisation of Bribery’ this detailed set of guidelines was adopted in September by the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific, meeting in Kuala Lumpur.…

BY KARRYN MILLER, AHMAD PATHONI, MARK ROWE

SOUTHEAST Asia is a growing and diverse market for international personal care product brands, despite the challenges (and some losses) cased by the recession. The region contains relatively rich emerging markets (and the very rich city state of Singapore), and its major poorer countries, notably Vietnam and Indonesia are growing fast and emerging robustly from the recession.…

BY ALYSHAH HASHAM

AS with many oils and fats industries, the cocoa sector has distinct elements: producers, processors, distributers, wholesalers and retailers. Their collective environmental impact can be reduced if they work together in the most efficient way possible. And it is partly for that reason that there is a growing trend towards pressing and grinding the cocoa near the source, particularly in Ghana and Ivory Coast (which together account for 60% of the world’s cocoa supply), as well as Indonesia.…

BY WANG FANGQING

JAPAN’S leading food seasoning manufacturer Ajinomoto Co.,Inc is expanding across Asia and the Middle East. In Jakarta, Indonesia, Ajinomoto is building a new plant at about Japanese yen JPY6 billion (US dollar USD67.7 million), scheduled to start manufacturing food seasonings in 2012.…

BY ALYSHAH HASHAM

AS with many oils and fats industries, the cocoa sector has distinct elements: producers, processors, distributers, wholesalers and retailers. Their collective environmental impact can be reduced if they work together in the most efficient way possible. And it is partly for that reason that there is a growing trend towards pressing and grinding the cocoa near the source, particularly in Ghana and Ivory Coast (which together account for 60% of the world’s cocoa supply), as well as Indonesia.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIAN garment exporters are losing to competition from China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh, said a recent report released by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Shipments to the European Union (EU) and the US account for nearly two thirds of the country’s textile and apparel exports, but registered a decline by value of 11% in 2009.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has been asked to approve a new open skies deal negotiated by the European Commission with Indonesia, which will allow EU airlines free access to Indonesian airports. Similarly, airlines from Indonesia will be able to fly to airports in all 27 member states.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE OIL palm is a prolific shrub that can be converted into palm oil, one of the most versatile fats known to man – rich in solid saturated fatty acids and able to withstand refining at high temperatures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TOWN of Asbestos in French-speaking Québec, Canada – named after the mineral that underpins its economy – is waiting to see whether its provincial government will approve a Canadian dollar CAD58 million (US dollar USD56 million) loan enabling an underground mine to tap an immense deposit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and EMMA JACKSON

AUSTRALIA’S tobacco industry can be expected to put up a strong fight against a federal government proposal to mandate plain paper packaging for its products. And it will doubtless have the support of the international tobacco industry because this planned legislation is a clear test case.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

PAINT companies looking for an edge may very well find themselves turning to robots, as the industry in the Asia-Pacific region increasingly embraces automation. Cost effective, efficient and consistent, robots are indeed replacing employees in paint manufacturing processes and applications of coatings to products such as cars and machinery.…

BY MARK GODFREY

MALAYSIA’S emergence as an airport centre for Asia’s low fare airlines has hit turbulence in a squabble between the country’s aviation authority and the region’s fastest growing airline, Kuala Lumpur-based Air Asia. At issue – the expansion of airport capacity for low fare airlines.…

BY DANIEL PRUZIN

REPRESENTATIVES from around 160 countries are moving toward clinching a deal on new World Health Organisation (WHO) Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, which could be wrapped up within the next 12 months. Unlike its predecessor, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (under whose authority this latest agreement is being negotiated), the protocol is something of a mixed blessing for the tobacco industry.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, AHMAD PATHONI, GAVIN BLAIR, RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, WANG FANGQING, HELEN FLUSFELDER, KARRYN MILLER, KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN

THE BRITISH writer Oscar Wilde wrote: "A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, FRANCES WANG, AHMAD PATHONI, WILLIAM BARNES, KARRYN MILLER and KEITH NUTHALL

THE PEOPLE of Okinawa are famous – even in ageing Japan – for their longevity. The women of this sub-tropical chain of islands have the longest life expectancy in the world, at nearly 89 years, they have the lowest mortality rate from chronic diseases linked to ageing and the highest ration of centenarians in the world – nearly six times the rate in other industrialised nations.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

WHEN an earthquake of a magnitude of seven on the Richter scale struck Haiti in January, it transformed the poorest county in the Western Hemisphere to its largest construction site.

As the country’s leaders unveiled a US$14 billion reconstruction plan for the battered country, international excavation and construction companies, including some from Great Britain have lined up for contracts to rebuild the hundreds of commercial and residential properties that were destroyed.…

BY MARK ROWE

BOTH the oils and fats industry and environmentalists have long been aware of concerns over the oil palm, the prolific shrub that can be converted into palm oil, one of the most versatile fats known to man.

For almost as long, there have been campaigns to improve its cultivation in south-east Asia, which accounts for around 75% of global supply; but concern is now focussing on South America, where cultivation is growing rapidly, placing pressure on the Amazon rainforest and other wildlife-rich habitats in a belt stretching across central Brazil and Ecuador to Colombia’s Caribbean coast.…

BY AHMAD PATHONI, ALYSHAH HASHAM, MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

GIVEN the constant flow of news about tougher tobacco industry regulations from all continents, tobacco executives could be forgiven for thinking there are no countries where they have a relative free hand to sell their products.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

INTRODUCTION

There are signs around the world that the textile market is beginning to recover from the global economic crisis, and developing markets will be leading that recovery. Asia is, of course, at the forefront, but many countries in Latin America have also weathered the crisis and have come out in a surprisingly decent position, with their dynamic textile and apparel industries well positioned for future expansion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DEMAND for fossil fuels in Indonesia should fall with the approval of a US$400 million plan to boost renewable energy, especially from large scale geothermal plants. The Clean Technology Fund (CTF), run by international development banks, including the World Bank, will bankroll the programme.…

BY MARK ROWE

SEQUENCING the human genome has brought widespread interest and the potential for treatment of diseases, but confectionery industry researchers are increasingly applying this technique to key components in the food chain. One of the most high-profile sequencing programmes gathers pace this year, as Mars continues the sequencing of the cocoa genome, a project it is working on with the US department of agriculture’s subtropical horticultural research substation and IBM.…

By Alan Osborn and Mitch Vandenborn, International News Services

BY MARK GODFREY

A SLUMP in exports dented China’s economic growth in 2008, but a strong recovery which lifted GDP growth to 10% in the second half of 2009 appears to have ensured strong retail sales across all fronts. That is why growth of cosmetics sales in China remained strong at 10% in 2009, according to the China Association of Fragrance Flavour and Cosmetic Industries (CAFFCI).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA and Ukraine appear to have headed off an oil transit dispute that could have created a repeat of last year’s major disruption of European natural gas supplies. Moscow and Kiev have signed an agreement increasing by 30% the fees Ukraine charges on transporting Russian oil to the European Union (EU) – this alters a 2004 contract and the change had sparked a diplomatic tussle.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

While many had hoped December’s Copenhagen Conference would be the necessary first step in the global fight against climate change, in the wake of the signed partial accord, we are left with many more questions than answers. Now, 2010 is the new deadline for whether the world can agree a practical response to the dangers of global warming.…

By Julian Ryall, in Tokyo  

International aid for emergencies comes in many forms, and necessity really can be the mother of invention amongst donors. Just ask the Japan-based World Instant Noodle Association: when disaster strikes - they send noodles.

And the world’s hungry and sick are happy that they do.

The association – whose acronym is WINA – draws donations from instant noodle producers and a disaster relief fund created by the late inventor of the instant noodle, Momofuku Ando, and former chairman of the International Ramen Manufacturers’ Association.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

AS Indonesia’s economy continues to grow so too does demand for paint and coatings in the region. In 2008, the archipelago recorded a 6.1% increase in gross domestic product (GDP), moving from a GDP per capita of US$3,700 in 2007 to US$3,900 the following year (using purchasing power parity adjustments).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ERIC LYMAN

THE COPENHAGEN climate change conference ended on December 18 with an accord where key world economies promised to make binding agreements to cut carbon emissions. But detail on exactly how much will be settled at a later date, meaning its long term effects on the oil and gas industry are unclear.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FIRST coalbed methane exploration well in Indonesia has been sunk by Canada’s CBM Asia Development Corporation. The company is assessing methane reserves in the Sekayu block of Indonesia’s south Sumatra basin, tapping coal seams with prolific shallow coal reserves from 600 feet to 2,750 feet.…

BY AHMAD PATHONI

INDONESIA’S cigarette production has continued to increase in the past four years after a period of decline between 2000 and 2003, according to the country’s industry ministry.

Production rose 3.89% in 2008 from the previous year to 240 billion sticks, the ministry said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ITALIAN luxury fashion house Brioni is launching a fragrance in London today (Oct 14), as its new CEO Andrea Perrone pushes ahead with expansion plans, especially in Asia. Perrone, nephew of company founder Gaetano Savini, assumed control of the company this July from a governing committee (which served upon).…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

AN INDIAN textile mills federation is demanding an immediate ban on cotton exports as weak production in the country is leading to a "grave situation" for industry supplies. The Southern India Mill Association says a delayed monsoon and heavy floods in many cotton growing areas may lead to a 10% lower output in the world’s second largest producer of cotton.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Commission report has highlighted concerns about some steps taken by European Union (EU) trading partners to protect their personal care product sectors from the recession that could restrict EU exports. A key worry was Indonesia’s draft regulation on cosmetics labelling and packaging that insists product information such as usage advice, product numbers and expiry dates be labelled in Indonesian.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ANDREA Perrone talks of when he was a child, and his father – a lawyer and the CEO of Brioni Retail – used to bring home customers from South America for lunch or dinner at the family’s residence in Abruzzi, Italy.…

BY WILLIAM BARNES

IN Southeast Asia confectionery is important, perhaps deceptively so.

"No Asiatic regime practices the art of confectionery," opined Richard Sterling in his robust book, "The Fearless Diner."

Sterling may have been to too many Chinese-style banquets, where an abrupt finish is common.…

BY WILL ROBERTSON, MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

THE ROBUST nature of the southeast Asian palm oil industry has been illustrated by the way the market has remained strong despite both the global recession and the arrival of weather phenomenon El Nino this year and its attendant drought conditions.…

BY WILLIAM BARNES

IN the good old days in south-east Asia, a market stallholder might hope to capture the neighbourhood cosmetics market with a simple range of soap, talc, lipstick (usually red) and cheap perfume.

The typical female routine was clean yourself, calm and whiten the face with talc, then add a dash of lipstick.…

BY MUNZA MUSHTAQ

SRI LANKA, which saw an end to its quarter-century-long war recently, is stepping up efforts against money laundering and terrorist financing by introducing technologically savvy software. The initiative is led by the Sri Lankan Banks Association (SLBA), which includes retail, commercial banks and licensed specialised banks.…

BY MARK ROWE

AIRLINES and airports are perfect carriers for infectious diseases and have helped swine flu to spread around the world within a matter of weeks, to the extent that it is now classified as the first pandemic of the 21st century.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GLOBAL initiatives designed to promote sustainable practices in the bio-based oils and fats industry are making strong progress. The key Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) has now released "principles and criteria" designed to ensure soy production does not cause long term damage to the environment and society.…

BY DOMINIQUE PATTON

DEMAND for halal cosmetics worldwide is on the rise, driven not only by more affluent Muslim consumers but also growing interest in high quality, safe products.

Sales of all kinds of halal-certified goods have surged in recent years alongside higher purchasing power in Muslim countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SEA cucumbers – oddly shaped seafood rarely eaten in the west – are under pressure of overfishing because of Asian demand, the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is warning. Indeed, the FAO wants consideration of conservation management plans, just like the oft-criticised systems of quotas, breeding season protection and minimum catch sizes used for most finfish.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

IF there was a year when long-term textile and clothing market forecasters missed by a mile, 2008 was it. Forecasts made in 2007 were dominated by looming concerns about trade restrictions, investment in technology, a potential slow-down of production and a consolidation of business investment but no one predicted what devastating effects an unexpected recession would have on the textiles and apparel sector.…

BY MARK ROWE

DESPITE the gathering storm of global economic recession, the Vietnamese paint industry has so far turned in a reasonably strong performance through 2009. Projected growth of 8.1% for the whole of 2009 – made by Vietnam’s General Statistics Office (GSO) back in November 2008, now looks slightly optimistic, but the reality may not be too far from that figure, suggest experts.…

BY WILL ROBERTSON

THE INDONESIAN government is facing legal action over its failure to sign and ratify the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). But the treaty is still unlikely to be formally adopted in this smokers’ haven because of political reasons, tobacco industry observers have told World Tobacco.…

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 MARK ROWE

INDONESIA’S paint industry appears likely to weather the worst of the global economic downturn. Indeed, Indonesia may be one of the few major countries where sales of paint for industrial and domestic use will rise. In January 2009, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono forecast economic growth of 6.2% for the year in a budget that revealed capital spending plans that were 14.3% up on 2008.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE MIDDLE East and North Africa region (that economists like to award the acronym ‘MENA’) consumes 6% of the global vegetable oil market and sucks in 15% of global imports, with strong growth across the board on the back of rising per capita GDP and a burgeoning population.…

By Paul Cochrane, in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the unexpected gainers, especially as 75.83% of its national exports come from knitwear (39.21%) and woven goods (36.62%), primarily to the European Union (EU) and US markets. The expectation might be that exports of Bangladeshi ready made garments would slide in accordance with the drop in global stock markets and plummeting retail sales.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

BANGLADESH’S knitwear sector is undergoing unprecedented growth: averaging 24% per year over the past 12 years, and an astonishing 45% in the first three months of this fiscal year, with exports projected to reach US$10 billion by 2011.…

By Paul Cochrane

The old dictum goes – ‘one man’s loss is another man’s gain’. Curiously, in a globalised world in the midst of a financial downturn, this saying is particularly true, with certain countries unexpectedly benefiting from an otherwise near universal crisis.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, DOMINIQUE PATTON and LUCY JONES

The growth in outsourcing within the clothing and textile sector worldwide has highlighted a key issue, and that is the relative merits of running an integrated company that handles basic production and design, or relying on a string of specialist suppliers to deliver the goods, from fibre supplies, to textile manufacture, design, clothing assembly and retail.…

BY ERIC LYMAN

SPEAKING to the Petroleum Review, the United Nations’ top climate change official has urged oil and gas companies to stay focused on sustainability despite the world economic turmoil, and predicted that the coming years will reward efficiency more than ever.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE CHOCOLATE giant Mars has begun work on sequencing the cocoa genome, a move that it says could dramatically improve the health and yields of cocoa growers around the world, guaranteeing food manufacturers with more reliable and high quality supplies.…

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 MARK GODFREY

IT has been a bad year to be a fuel retailer in China. Local retailing leader Sinopec has had its profits squeezed by government price controls on petrol prices. Prices at Chinese pumps have risen by 9% in the last 12 months, even though the cost of crude has jumped 40% in the same time span.…

By Gavin Blair

Though the number of academic specialists in commercial crime in the Asia-Pacific region may be fewer than in the US or Europe, many of the leading figures are both willing to work with corporate clients and have a great deal of experience outside the ivory towers.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS

SOUTH African restrictions on the import of Chinese textiles and clothing have not come to the rescue of the country’s ailing textile sector as effectively as had been hoped, Brian Brink, executive director of South African industry group Textile Federation (Texfed), has told just-style.…

BY WILLIAM BARNES

A WOMAN brushes past palm fronds into the pastel lights of a busy Bangkok salon. At the counter she turns what looks to be a flawless, ivory face towards a woman in a vaguely medical uniform: "Aiyee! I am getting so old.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

SUSTAINABILITY has moved firmly to the top of the corporate agenda in the oils and fats sector following Unilever’s announcement in May that it intended to have all of its palm oil certified sustainable by 2015. By any measure this would be a bold pledge but coming from the world’s largest consumer of palm oil (Unilever takes 4% of total global production to make its food and cosmetic products) it serves additionally to raise the bar for others.…

By Eric Lyman in Rome

There are problems in the world that cannot be confronted with any success by a single state, no matter how powerful. Big environmental issues and world hunger and poverty immediately come to mind, along with many regional peacekeeping needs and most economic and trade-related problems.

Enter multilateralism, the consensus-driven process that democratically pulls countries together for collective problem solving, usually under the auspices of an umbrella organisation such as the United Nations or the World Trade Organisation.

Multilateralism has been hailed as the natural evolution from the bipolar world order that marked the period after World War II – with influence split between the camps of US and the Soviet Union – and the unipolar order based on the power and influence of the US since the end of the Cold War.…

By Keith Nuthall

Plans to sweep away some restrictions preventing private universities and higher education service providers from teaching, researching and examining in foreign countries have been put on ice at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

This follows the collapse of negotiations at the July ministerial meeting of the WTO IN Geneva, Switzerland, which had lasted 10 days.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

WORRIES about inflation and food shortages have left the Chinese government struggling to balance efforts to temper inflation with its ambitious biofuels development programme. Increasing demand for food and biofuels in China have been a key driver in increasing global consumption of fats and oils at an average 4% per year according to the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO).…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

THE OBSESSION among many European women for tanned skin is fading, particularly among women in their late 30s, according to a new study by Japan’s Kanebo Cosmetics, meaning there is a small but growing market for whitening products.…

BY KARRYN CARTELLE

AUSTRALIA is currently ranked as the eighth largest market in the world – third largest within the Asia-Pacific region after Japan and Hong Kong – in terms of its total stock market capitalisation of AUD$1.63 trillion (USD$1.53 trillion) in 2007 (World Federation of Exchanges figures).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LARGE mining companies take the environment seriously today, maybe rather more than in times past. They are devoting significant resources to reducing or mitigating the environmental problems caused by mining. But what about the small and artisanal mines that pepper much of the developing world?…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi; SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH, in Lahore; and KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo

THE SOUTH Asian knitwear industry is experienced mixed fortunes at present, with the impact of China’s production boom and the global liberalisation of the textile sector still changing sub-continental fortunes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that Euro 3,479/tonne anti-dumping duties on exports into the European Union (EU) from China of anticoagulant precursor coumarin be extended to cover cargoes from India, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Brussels fears that dumped Chinese exports are being diverted through these countries to evade the duties.…

By Keith Nuthall and Monica Dobie

Universities and colleges are constantly working with business and industry to undertake commercially valuable research. University World News here again features a selection of these cutting edge developments in its business pages.

*The University of Latvia’s Institute of Polymer Mechanics Eureka has helped create construction bricks with domestic waste polymers usually considered too varied or dirty to be recycled.…

BY DINAH GARDNER

SINGAPORE may rank highly on global anti-corruption ratings league tables but it has been coming under considerable fire recently for its strict bank secrecy laws. Last October, in the wake of the brutal crackdown on protests in Myanmar, the island state was accused of being a money laundering hub for top junta officials.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

METHANE recovery is a boom industry in China. A frenetic dig for coal to drive its economy means atmospheric concentrations of methane are growing. And this is a problem – methane is not only a greenhouse gas that retains 25 times more heat than carbon dioxide, it hangs around in the atmosphere a lot longer.…

BY GAVIN BLAIR, in Tokyo

THOUGH the number of academic specialists in commercial crime in the Asia-Pacific region may be fewer than in the US or Europe, many of the leading figures are both willing to work with corporate clients and have a great deal of experience outside the ivory towers.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL

TOURISM is continuing to boom in developing countries, boosting their economies, according to the latest figures from the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). Its claims the number of individual international tourism journeys leapt by 6% in 2007 (compared to 2006) to 898 million visitors.…

BY MARK GODFREY

A GLANCE at the bustling Kwun Tong Wholesale Fish Market suggests Hong Kong’s live seafood market is thriving. Every morning with typical Hong Kong efficiency fish are hauled from holding tanks onto queuing trucks fitted with wooden boxes and air pumps.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHICHEVER way you look, the oil and gas sector is investing in biofuels. The larger energy companies – driven by an eye for a new and potentially lucrative market as well as shareholder concern and governmental and international political pressure – are investigating both first and second generation biofuels.…

BY ANDREW SALMON, in Seoul

THE WORDS ‘nuclear’ and ‘Korea’ automatically conjure up images of Kim Jong-il’s underground atomic weapons programs, but south of the heavily militarised border, it is South Korea that has quietly built up one of the world’s most competitive nuclear industries.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

LEGEND has it that Mogul Emperor and the maker of Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan, was so fond of rose attar – traditional Indian perfume, that he reserved its use for his royalty. The complexity of making 10 grams of this distilled scent from 40 kg of pink rose petals made it so exclusive that all his royal letters were laced with it to give them a mark (smell) of authenticity.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

BIOFUELS have generated earnest debate ever since German inventor Rudolph Diesel ran the world’s first diesel engine on peanut oil back in 1894, but suddenly there is a biofuels boom that’s moving global markets.
World economies are in a race to find alternatives to fossil fuels and turning crops such as wheat and corn into ethanol or oilseed rape, soya, or palm oil into biodiesel is having an impact on farmers, manufacturer and industrial producers worldwide.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MANY international organisations have an impact on the fish farming sector, although with quite a narrow remit, drawing up specialist health and environmental standards for the industry, for instance. However, the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has a broader role, with freedom to pursue a wide variety of imaginative schemes.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

WITH demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) surging across the globe, the Persian Gulf is at the epicentre of LNG developments due to its vast gas resources. But the rapid expansion of the sector is not without complications.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE
SLATED European Union (EU) free trade agreements (FTA) with South Korea, India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries would dramatically boost commercial activity in the clothing, textile and apparel sectors if the agreements are passed, European Commission analysis says.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut
WITH demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) surging across the globe, the Persian Gulf is at the epicentre of LNG developments due to its vast gas resources. But the rapid expansion of the sector is not without complications.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

SLATED European Union (EU) free trade agreements (FTA) with South Korea, India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will dramatically boost commercial activity in the leather industry if the agreements are passed, claims a study by Copenhagen Economics for the European Commission.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

SLATED European Union (EU) free trade agreements (FTA) with South Korea, India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries would dramatically boost commercial activity in the clothing, textile and apparel sectors if the agreements are passed, European Commission analysis says.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BOOM in counterfeit cosmetics and perfumes being smuggled into the European Union (EU) is intensifying, according to the latest figures from the European Commission. It says EU customs officials seized 1.5 million counterfeit personal care products in 2006, up 128% on 2005.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE
SLATED European Union (EU) free trade agreements (FTA) with South Korea, India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will dramatically boost commercial activity in the leather industry if the agreements are passed, claims a study by Copenhagen Economics for the European Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BOOM in counterfeit cosmetics and perfumes being smuggled into the European Union (EU) is intensifying, according to the latest figures from the European Commission. It says EU customs officials seized 1.5 million counterfeit personal care products in 2006, up 128% on 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE AMERICAN Red Cross and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have launched a joint US$7.5 million project to restore seafood and finfish aquaculture and wild harvesting in Indonesia’s Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province, which was devastated by the 2004 tsunami.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Dubai
THE UNITED Arab Emirates’ (UAE) US$310 million tobacco market is set to grow by 8% this year on the back of population growth, tourism and a strong economy, but the sector faces sizeable problems with illicit trade that accounts for as much as 33% of the market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PHILIP Morris International (PMI) has released a detailed intelligence dossier on cigarette and other tobacco product counterfeiting, in a bid to encourage the international cooperation it deems necessary to effectively fight this crime. The report highlights 17 countries around the world where it thinks cigarette counterfeiting is a particular problem and where the cigarette company has specific advice: Latvia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Egypt, Belize, Panama, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Ghana.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States Trade Representative (USTR) has released a series of detailed reports outlining the threats posed by counterfeiters worldwide and the inability of many governments to fight the problem.

Its sheaf of intelligence includes comprehensive warnings from cigarette giant Philip Morris, a company that has adopted a high profile in fighting counterfeiters and smugglers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SOUTH Asian tsunami did not just destroy homes and businesses – it wrecked schools, social clubs, and sports facilities. Now a donation of 50,000 footballs has been made to encourage sporting fervour in Aceh, Indonesia, the region worst hit by the disaster.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced plans to reimpose definitive antidumping duties on imports into the European Union (EU) of certain polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan. The original duties were imposed in 2000 and were to lapse, but the Polyethylene Terephthalate Committee of Plastics Europe called for their reimposition, claiming the “expiry of the measures would… result in a continuation or recurrence of dumping and injury to the EU industry.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has re-imposed definitive antidumping duties on imports into the European Union (EU) of certain polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, as proposed by the European Commission.…

BY MARK ROWE
INTERNATIONAL cosmetics companies are increasingly casting an eye over south-east Asia. In the middle of the first decade of the 21st Century it would appear to offer all things to all companies.

With Asia (including nearby China) representing half of the world’s population and an economic growth rate ranging between 5 and 10%, many companies are interested in entering or developing these markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SOUTH Asian tsunami did not just destroy homes and businesses – it wrecked schools, social clubs, and sports facilities. Now a donation of 50,000 footballs has been made to encourage sporting fervour in Aceh, Indonesia, the region worst hit by the disaster.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has re-imposed definitive antidumping duties on imports into the European Union (EU) of certain polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, as proposed by the European Commission.…

BY ANDREW SALMON, in Seoul
LAST October, South Korea was admitted as an observer to the world’s premier group of money laundering fighters – the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and given the nation’s recent moves to strengthen its anti-money laundering regime its path to full membership in approximately two years appears smooth.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) anti-fraud agency OLAF has helped uncover three rules-of-origin frauds costing EU coffers millions of Euros. In one case, an OLAF-German police inquiry has uncovered the loss of Euro 50 million in duties by the illicit rerouting of Chinese energy-saving lamps via Vietnam, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka and Tunisia to evade 66.1% anti-dumping duties on China-made lamps; Euro 7 million of avoided taxation has been recovered.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH global trade ever increasing, and the power of brands to generate massive profits made starkly clear with every company report, the counterfeiting of goods is one of international organised crime’s major boom areas. The European Commission has been researching the threat posed from around the world.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH global trade ever increasing, and the power of brands to generate massive profits made starkly clear with every company report, the counterfeiting of goods is one of international organised crime’s major boom areas.

It is a serious problem for legitimate business, especially those based in developed countries with tough piracy controls, who are seeking to export to poorer countries where intellectual property crimes are a low priority.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has warned of a continued boom in counterfeits of clothing and accessory products entering the European Union (EU), with more than 10.9 million fake items seized by customs officials last year. This is 140% more than the numbers of seizures in 2004.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has warned of a continued boom in counterfeits of clothing and accessory products entering the European Union (EU), with more than 10.9 million fake items seized by customs officials last year. This is 140% more than the numbers of seizures in 2004.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London

WHEN DISASTER strikes, public generosity and government donations direct huge sums of money to help survivors and repair local economies. However, what happens next is out of the donors’ hands. They have to trust that the various aid agencies and organisations overseas are directing funds to bona fide projects and individuals.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

"REFINERY Process Outsourcing" or simply RPO is an exciting buzzword in the otherwise hard-pressed Indian petroleum industry, as the term represents newly found and highly profitable venture of operating refineries to fulfil surging international demand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Commission global survey into counterfeit goods has revealed concerns about Mexico being a centre for the counterfeiting of fake medicine packaging and leaflets. The study of businesses, industrial federations and diplomatic missions was told the problem is particularly rife in the large cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, along with the northern frontier zone with the United States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE REIMPOSITION of quota limits last year on some Chinese textile products has driven official overseas sales down, according to European Commission figures. During the first quarter of 2006, China saw an overall decrease in exports to the EU of minus 12% in volume, although unit prices increased by 9%.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

STRONG demand for leather luggage in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is lining the pockets of tanners in Italy, Pakistan and Thailand.

According to a recent global online survey by marketing data company AC Nielsen, the UAE ranks among the top five countries worldwide for luxury branded luggage bags.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE

INDONESIA’S paint and coatings industry continues to develop, with growth in sectors being led by increases in exports of furniture, and the introduction of new coatings products and systems.

Overall increased domestic demand for paints and coatings in Indonesia has led some companies to expand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved linking the European Union’s (EU) design protection system to that run globally by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). This will formally tie the EU’s design protection regulation to WIPO’s Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement concerning the international registration of industrial designs.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

CANADIAN scientists have confirmed a hybrid bear born of a grizzly bear and a polar bear was recently killed by a sports-hunter in Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT). The bear was a creamy polar bear colour but also had long claws, a humped back, shallow face and brown patches around its eyes and nose: grizzly traits.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Bank has launched a comprehensive anti-corruption initiative, to drive graft out of developing countries in general, and its own aid projects in particular. Bank president Paul Wolfowitz announced the plan at a speech in Indonesia, displaying some the zeal he displayed at the Pentagon, only this time in fighting financial crime rather than Saddam Hussein.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London

THE POLITICAL institutions of the European Union (EU) are debating how to join an international system that would protect EU manufacturers’ design rights across a wide range of non-European countries in one simple operation. In an initiative that could help auto manufacturers secure the creative aspects of their vehicle design from plagiarism, the European Commission wants to link the EU’s existing Community Design system, (which protects manufacturers’ designs within the 25 EU member states), to a global design registration system run by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a UN agency.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney

RECENT positive advances in the paint and coatings industry symbolise general satisfaction with Malaysia’s business outlook. It might not have the cheapest labour in Asia but the workforce is skilled, productive and highly competitive. Access to infrastructure (especially ports) for exports is also reported to be good.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
OILS and fats companies paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to the toppled Saddam Hussein regime, the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN Iraq Oil for Food programme scandal has claimed. More than 200 suppliers from countries including Jordan, India, Indonesia, Russia and Egypt paid Iraq to secure contracts to supply humanitarian supplies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of certain stainless steel fasteners and associated parts (bolts, nuts, etc) from Taiwan (23.6%), China (27.4%), Indonesia (24.6%), Thailand (14.6%) and Vietnam (7.7%), with lower duties for some companies cooperating with a European Commission inquiry into the problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TEA companies paid hundreds of thousand of dollars in kickbacks to the toppled Saddam Hussein regime, the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN Iraq Oil for Food programme scandal has claimed. More than 200 tea suppliers from countries including India, Indonesia, Russia and Sri Lanka bribed the Iraq government to secure contracts to supply humanitarian supplies under the scheme, out of 2,200 companies named in a committee report.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of certain stainless steel fasteners and associated parts from Taiwan (23.6%), China (27.4%), Indonesia (24.6%), Thailand (14.6%) and Vietnam (7.7%). Stainless steel products covered are wood screws, self-tapping screws, screws and bolts without heads of stainless steel, slotted and cross-recessed screws, hexagon socket head screws and hexagon bolts.…

BY MARK ROWE
ON Boxing Day 2004, as the shockwaves from the tsunami rolled out across the Indian Ocean, one very important procedure quietly went according to plan. Detectors at the Indira Gandhi Kalpakkam power station on India’s east coast sensed the rising water levels and automatically shut the plant down.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned major international donors have given only 20% of the money needed to control bird flu in poultry and animals before the epidemic spreads again this winter. The FAO wants mass vaccination campaigns in east Asian countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam, where the disease is most entrenched and from where a global epidemic is most likely to spring.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned major international donors have given only 20% of the money needed to control bird flu in poultry and animals before the epidemic spreads again this winter. The FAO wants mass vaccination campaigns in countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILS of restrictions imposed on exports to European buyers of leather raw materials have been highlighted in the detailed European Union (EU) market report. It identifies India, China, the US, Pakistan and Russia as “very important markets” for the supply of leather raw materials, whilst Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, South Africa, Malaysia and Brazil are labelled as “important suppliers (mainly by tanners)”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ASSOCIATION of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed how its member governments should cooperate in the event of a major disaster, such as another Tsunami or earthquake. The international organisation, which includes such major countries as Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, has approved a comprehensive deal that lays down how they should mitigate disaster damage, reducing the insurer payouts in a region increasingly interested in insurance.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
FIGHTING money laundering is about getting your hands dirty. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) may pronounce global standards that it would like jurisdictions to follow, but all governments need help, and often regional bodies are better placed to do the detailed work than more remote global organisations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MINERALS and mines ministers of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed wide-ranging cooperation plans to promote their respective mining sectors. At the first of a series of ministerial meetings, (in Sarawak, Malaysia), an ASEAN Minerals Cooperation Action Plan (AMCAP) 2005-2010, containing 19 actions was approved.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MINES and minerals ministers of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed wide-ranging cooperation plans to promote their respective mining sectors. At the first of a series of ministerial meetings, (in Sarawak, Malaysia), an ASEAN Minerals Cooperation Action Plan (AMCAP) 2005-2010, containing 19 actions was approved.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ASSOCIATION of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed how its members should cooperate in a major disaster, such as another Tsunami. Countries including Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand approved a comprehensive deal on how they should coordinate military and civil emergency services.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
INSURERS should have a much clearer idea of the risks involved in extending cover to the areas hit by the tsunami at the end of last year following agreement by 23 Indian Ocean nations to share data and set up seven regional warning centres.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GLOBAL tea production hit a new record high in 2004, growing 2% to reach an estimated 3.2 million tonnes, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has reported. The expansion was mainly due to increases in Turkey, China, Kenya, Malawi, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, offsetting declines in other major producing countries, notably India and Bangladesh.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
THERE are not many countries left on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) blacklist of dodgy jurisdictions regarding money laundering regulations, and one of the last stragglers – the South Pacific nation of the Cook Islands (a New Zealand dependency) – was provisionally removed in February.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SUDDENLY accountants are being held in unusually high esteem and it’s all because of their work in connection with the relief effort for victims of the Boxing Day tsunami. To date some Pounds 4.7 billion for the stricken countries has been raised worldwide but nothing like that sum has yet got through to the people affected; some of it stolen perhaps and some of it wasted, but a lot of it bogged down in inadequate financial infrastructures: step forward the big multinational accountancy firms who have provided staff, management and professional advice and training, a good deal of it on a pro bono publico basis.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE TERMS of reference for a Commission of Truth and Friendship have been agreed by Indonesia and Timor-Leste (East Timor). The tribunal aims to apportion responsibility for the violence during and after the East Timor independence referendum of 1999.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
SINGAPORE’S economy is rejuvenating after the horrors of early 2004 when the threat of terrorism (both internationally and closer to home in South East Asia), and then the SARS virus hit the city state hard, shrinking demand for construction and hence the amount of money to be made by the coatings sector.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
PRESIDENT George W Bush’s re-election last November has pretty well ruled out any change in the US ban on Cuban cigars for the next four years – if anything, things are likely to get tougher. One of the last things the previous Bush administration did last October was to actually tighten the import ban by barring Americans travelling to Cuba from bringing back up to US$100 dollars worth of Cuban cigars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE 2005 Yearbook of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned environmental change is spreading diseases beyond their traditional range, while causing pathogens to mutate and become more deadly.

It includes a number of case studies, illustrating one message: “Loss of forests, road and dam building, the spread of cities, the clearing of natural habitats for agriculture, mining and the pollution of coastal waters are promoting conditions under which new and old pathogens can thrive”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced plans to bring forward by three months – to April 1 – its planned introduction of tariff preferences for developing countries for those states affected by the Tsunami disaster. European Union (EU) tariffs cuts will follow for a wide range of food products exported by India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A BAN on imports into the European Union (EU) on poultry meat or poultry from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, China, Vietnam, Pakistan and Malaysia has been extended until this September, because of concerns that bird flu is still present in these countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SEPTEMBER 11 attacks sparked a tightening of security restrictions around the world and the shipping industry has been a key focus. The latest initiative is the creation of a global system of biometric identifiers for seafarers. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
THE WORLD is waking up to biofuels, increasingly produced from food crops and their waste by-products, and now one of the growing energy alternatives to conventional fossil fuels. As prices for traditional energy rise year on year, and energy watchers warn of oil production peaking around 2010, governments are looking towards food producers to grow the raw feedstock for the fuel of the twenty-first century.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has extended to Sri Lanka and Indonesia 58.6% definitive anti-dumping duties imposed in 2003 on imports into the EU of iron or steel tube or pipe fittings manufactured in China, because of concerns about tariff evasion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FORMAL decision has been taken by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers to abolish all remaining textile and clothing import quotas for World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries from January 1. It means 210 quotas affecting exporters from Argentina, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand will go.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has identified eight priority countries as sources of counterfeit goods as the focus of special diplomatic efforts to pressure their governments to deal with the problem. China, Thailand, the Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, South Korea and Indonesia will receive encouragement and advice on fighting counterfeiting.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRUSSELS whistle-blower and now anti-fraud MEP Paul van Buitenen has been using his new position to undermine his countrywoman competition-commissioner designate Neelie Kroes. Van Buitenen followed up a short broadside against Kroes’ commercial links at this week’s European Parliament hearing by circulating detailed allegations on paper to its press officers: these were all vigorously denied by Kroes as “unfounded and nonsensical”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SUSPENSION of chicken product imports into the European Union (EU) of chicken products and birds from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea and Vietnam will remain until March 31, 2005. The extension, (from December), of the bird flu ban was confirmed by the EU’s Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT could be the most underestimated commercial crime in the world, the illegal trade in wildlife and their products. Some estimates put its value at US$5 billion-a-year, but governments do not really seem to care. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SUSPENSION of chicken product imports into the European Union (EU) of chicken products and birds from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea and Vietnam will remain until March 31, 2005. The extension, (from December), of the bird flu ban was confirmed by the EU’s Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
THE day I met Kadek he was sitting on the well-worn black saddle of his 50cc Yamaha, shades perched on his nose and obligatory Djarum smouldering on his bottom lip. “Transport?” he asked; the signature call of Kuta Boys who earn pin money from scooting tourists, frugal businessmen and journalists through the traffic-clogged streets of this fabled Bali beach resort.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU import bans of poultry products from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea and Vietnam have been extended to December 15 by the European Commission over continuing bird flu concerns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COUNTERVAILING and antidumping duties imposed by the United States on Canadian exports of carbon and certain alloy steel wire rod have been undermined by a strongly critical ruling a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) panel.

US International Trade Commission (ITC) inquiries leading to the tariffs’ imposition in 2002 were challenged by Canada’s Ivaco Inc and Ivaco Rolling Mills Inc.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
‘CATCH me if you can’ might well be the motto of international money launderers. Despite laws criminalising the practice being well established, international organisations are continuing to extend their legal and geographical scope. Keith Nuthall reports.

IF a continent has need of comprehensive cross-border anti-money laundering legislation, it surely has to be Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IMPORT bans into the European Union (EU) of poultry products (and poultry) from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea and Vietnam have been extended to December 15 by the European Commission. The existing restrictions were to expire on August 15, but Brussels is still concerned about bird flu in these countries.…

Keith Nuthall
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, is lending Indonesia’s high quality viscose staple fibre producer (VSF) PT South Pacific US$9.5 million to achieve self-sufficiency in electricity, modernise production and refinance medium-term debt. The company supplies 7-8% of world consumption, working with Austria’s Lenzing AG, its major shareholder and the world’s second largest VSF producer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ATTACK has been made on the United States, European Union (EU), and other textile importing jurisdictions for waiting until the last minute to abolish most restrictive quotas under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Textile and Clothing.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
REPORTS of fresh bird flu outbreaks are still being reported to the Office International des Épizooties (OIE) by the Indonesian and Vietnamese governments. The most recent cases in Indonesia involved 6,610 chickens being killed in Yogyakarta and Lampung provinces; 200 died in Dông Tháp, Vietnam.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S largest producer of chrysotile asbestos fibres, LAB Chrysotile, has announced it will indefinitely shut one of its two mines near Thetford Mines, Quebec, this November. The company has blamed the closure of its Black Lake mine, which will result in 450 job losses, on a high Canadian dollar in comparison to the US dollar and tough international competition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NOBODY likes to be on a blacklist, especially one written by the American government. But every year, the US state department issues a comprehensive rogues gallery of countries involved in the narcotics trade and related criminal problems. One surprising entrant: the United States.…

BY MARK ROWE
WHEN anti-money laundering officials draw up their lists of most notorious nations, Burma – or Myanmar by its official name – is routinely identified as one of the murkiest epicentres of money laundering. Ignore the fact that Burma has only been classified as a non-cooperative country or territory (NCCT) by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) anti-money laundering body for just three years.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, ALAN OSBORN and MARK ROWE
SENDING employees abroad or setting up overseas branches always take some preparation and maybe the most important job is taking care of workers’ health needs. Not only must local employment laws be followed, but companies must ensure that they can manage the alien health risks faced abroad.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND MARK ROWE
THE SPREAD of the bird flu virus is still not under control, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned, pointing to new outbreaks amongst poultry in Cambodia, China, Indonesia and Laos. The FAO said that more than 80 million chickens have so far been culled, excluding those in China: (Indonesia 15 million; Thailand 30 million; Vietnam 30 million; and Pakistan, 4 million).…

BY MARK ROWE
BUMI Resources, Indonesia’s largest coal producer, has set a target of increasing coal output by 40 per cent this year. In a move that the company says is aimed to capitalise on an increase in global coal prices that may rise by as much as 20 per cent, Bumi says it plans to produce around 43 million tons, up from 30.6 million last year.…

BY MARK ROWE
INDONESIA’S parliament has passed a cyber-crime act on information technology to combat credit card fraud, which costs the country US$6 million every year. Indonesia does not have a coherent law that deals with credit card fraud cases over the Internet and credit card companies and legal authorities have been pressing for a legal framework.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed the permanent abolition of anti-dumping duties on imports into the European Union (EU) of sacks and bags made of polyethylene or polypropylene from China, India, Indonesia and Thailand. Its move follows a U-turn by the European Association for Textile Polyolefins (EATP), which had in 2002 requested a review into the impending expiry of the duties on behalf of its members (who comprise 32.03 per cent of total EU production).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MARK ROWE
THE STANDING Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health of the European Union (EU) has extended until August 15 the suspension of EU imports of fresh chicken meat and chicken products from Thailand because of the bird flu outbreak.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
1) PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) is considering obtaining new oil and gas blocks, both onshore and offshore, despite the current decline in output due to maturing oil fields. CPI President Humayun Bosha said that “Caltex will invest between US$300 million to $400 million next year.”…

BY MARK ROWE
INDONESIAN parliamentarians have called for ban on sugar imports until February to stabilise the tumbling domestic price of the commodity. Sugarcane farmers have complained about low-cost sugar imports from Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.…

BY MARK ROWE
INDONESIAN parliamentarians have called for ban on sugar imports until February to stabilise the tumbling domestic price of the commodity. Sugarcane farmers have complained about low-cost sugar imports from Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.…

BY MARK ROWE
INDONESIA’S second largest cigarette producer PT HM Sampoerna recorded a three per cent rise in revenue in the first nine months of this year, from Rupiah 10.8 trillion (US$1.3 billion) from Rp 10.5 trillion a year earlier, though sales volumes declined.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALL but one of the commonly used forms of asbestos have been added to a United Nations blacklist, enabling countries to block further imports without being challenged in global tribunals such as the World Trade Organisation. Amosite, actinolite, anthophyllite and tremolite were added to the Rotterdam Convention Prior Informed Consent (PIC) list by an intergovernmental negotiating committee, meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.…

Keith Nuthall
THE NUMBER of women seafarers working in the world’s merchant navies is on the rise, but female ship workers still face discrimination and a lack of tailored facilities, an International Labour Organisation report has said. It claims women make up between one and two per cent of the world’s 1.25 million seafarers, on around 87,000 ships.…

Keith Nuthall
THE NUMBER of women seafarers working in the world’s merchant navies is on the rise, but female ship workers still face discrimination and a lack of tailored facilities, an International Labour Organisation report has said. It claims women make up between one and two per cent of the world’s 1.25 million seafarers, on around 87,000 ships.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNITED Nations cultural and scientific agency UNESCO has welcomed a pledge by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) not to exploit, explore or mine in official World Heritage sites. The council represents 15 of the world’s largest metals and mining companies, namely Alcoa, Anglo American, AngloGold, BHP Billiton, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Mitsubishi Materials, Newmont, Nippon Mining & Metals, Noranda, Pasminco, Placer Dome, Rio Tinto, Sumitomo Metal Mining, Umicore and WMC Resources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved European Commission proposals to abandon moves to extend existing anti-dumping duties on imports of polyester textured filament yarn (PTY) from Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia beyond 2005 and 2006, when the tariffs are due to expire.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MOVES by the European Commission to extend anti-dumping duties on imports into the European Union (EU) of polyester textured filament yarn (PTY) from Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia have been abandoned. This follows a note from (CIRFS) the International Rayon and Synthetic Fibres Committee that it was formally withdrawing a request for expiry reviews of the anti-dumping measures that could have led to their extension.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE REFORM of the world’s anti-money laundering campaign is continuing apace. Defying critics of its alliance with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the Financial Action Task Force of the OECD has issued a revised set of its key 40 Recommendations to fight the crime.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE INDONESIAN government has vowed to protect its beleaguered sugar industry and regulate imports in an effort to increase national production levels. A rate subsidy is to be issued through the Food Security Credit Scheme for People’s Sugarcane worth Rupiah900 billion (US$106 million) and fertilizer subsidies worth Rupiah1.3 trillion (US$140 million).…

BY MARK ROWE
PT MERCK Indonesia, the pharmaceutical and chemical company, is to boost production capacity to reach Rp 37 billion (about US$4.1 million) by the end of this year by upgrading its machinery and renovating its plants, laboratories, office buildings and storehouses.…

Keith Nuthall
THE INTERNATIONAL Maritime Bureau (IMB) of the International Chamber of Commerce has called upon the Indonesian government to take action against a gang of pirates who attacked and hijacked six vessels in six days in the Gaspar Straits, east of Java.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE INDONESIAN government has awarded the country’s state logistics agency, Bulog, a license to import an extra 150,000 tons of sugar this year, in a bid to halt the dramatic increase in the price of sugar. A drastic sugar shortage has seen prices rise from 45 cents (US$) a kilo to 68 cents in recent weeks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TEMPORARY safeguard measures protecting Brazilian producers of dried coconuts, (shelled and shredded), have been imposed on imports into Brazil of this confectionary ingredient from the Ivory Coast and Indonesia. These countries supply 4.67 per cent and 59.49 per cent of dried coconut imports into Brazil respectively, said a note to the World Trade Organisation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS with many projects inspired by the start of the next 997 years and the last three, the framing of the United Nations’ (UN) Millennium Development Goals was an ambitious enterprise.

Imposing statistically measurable targets for international organisations and national governments in making improvements in global poverty, education, gender equality, health, the environment and education, they have proved tough to attain.…

BY MARK ROWE
IT is only four letters long but for a little word AFTA is having a big impact on the Malaysian tobacco industry. AFTA, the impending free trade block for south-east Asia, is forcing the Malaysian tobacco industry, widely regarded as having the most sophisticated (and expensive) leaf production and manufacturing infrastructure in the region, to radically overhaul the way it goes about its business.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A BAND of pirates that hijacked a ship carrying aluminium ingots off Indonesia in 1999 has been convicted and jailed by an Indian court. The decision has been welcomed by the International Chamber of Commerce as a welcome and rare example of a country prosecuting piracy in international waters.…

BY MARK ROWE
THREE Belgian-owned dredgers detained for nearly seven months by Indonesian authorities for alleged illegal sand mining in the Riau islands, south of Singapore, have finally been released. Dredging International – the owner of the Lange Wapper – and Jan de Nul – the owner of the Vasco da Gama and Alexander Von Humboldt – are understood to have agreed to pay fines demanded by Indonesian authorities for the release of their dredgers.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
WITH Australia sharing the front-line in President Bush’s war against terrorism with Britain and the USA, and also having witnessed its citizens dying in last year’s Bali nightclub terror attack, it is maybe not surprising that it has been tightening its money laundering legislation, especially as regards terrorists.…

Keith Nuthall
THE INTERNATIONAL Criminal Court (ICC) has welcomed the conviction of a band of pirates in an Indian court, as a welcome and rare example of a country prosecuting piracy in international waters. Seven-year labour camp sentences were handed down to 14 Indonesian pirates for hijacking the Japanese-owned Alondra Rainbow off Indonesia in October 1999, along with its aluminium ingot cargo.…

BY MARK ROWE
PERTAMINA, Indonesia’s state oil company, has nominated South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co to build two very large crude carriers as part of the company’s US$300m program to buy 12 new oil tankers to ship refined oil products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MALAYSIA has been awarded control of part of the Celebes Sea by the International Court of Justice, enabling it to control local oil and gas prospecting. The area surrounds the islands of Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan, off Borneo, which had also been claimed by Indonesia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WAY back when….last December….the International Maritime Organisation agreed a compulsory maritime security code for its member countries, covering ships and ports involved in international trade. Governments have to write the code into their laws by December 31 and shipping companies and port authorities are supposed to comply by June 2004.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TOO many cooks spoil the broth. Or do they? As far as the world’s fight against money laundering is concerned, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund think that they can bring extra flavour to the struggle waged by the OECD’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, PHILIP FINE and ALAN OSBORN

THE NEW International Code for the Security of Ships and Port Facilities, agreed by an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Diplomatic Conference, held in London, aims at reducing the industry’s exposure to terrorist attacks and resulting damage.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BETS are off over whether the new code on maritime safety and security agreed by the International Maritime Organisation this month will actually allow insurance companies to reduce the premiums that they charge shipping companies and ports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCIENTISTS have used data from NASA and the European Space Agency to examine the impact of the 1997-98 Indonesia bushfires, and have concluded that they contributed significantly to the largest recorded annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. They calculated the fires released up to 2.57 gigatonnes of carbon, 40 per cent of average worldwide fossil fuel carbon emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCIENTISTS have used data from NASA and the European Space Agency to examine the impact of the 1997-98 Indonesia bushfires, and have concluded that they contributed significantly to the largest recorded annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. They calculated the fires released up to 2.57 gigatonnes of carbon, 40 per cent of average worldwide fossil fuel carbon emissions.…

BY MARK ROWE
SAND quarrying in Indonesia has been suspended for two months amidst claims by mining companies that they cannot afford new taxes and royalties imposed by the central government; investors have also blamed complicated licensing procedures designed to reduce smuggling.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCIENTISTS have used data from NASA and the European Space Agency to examine the impact of the 1997-98 Indonesia bushfires, and have concluded that they contributed significantly to the largest recorded annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. They calculated the fires released up to 2.57 gigatonnes of carbon, 40 per cent of average worldwide fossil fuel carbon emissions.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE AMERICAN Textile Manufacturers Institute (ATMI) is urging its government to take action against Indonesia’s ban on textile imports from all countries. The ATMI said the move flies in the face of international rules and its chairman, Van May, says a fair response would be for the United States to immediately prohibit all imports of Indonesian textile goods which totalled US$350 million last year, until the ban is lifted.…

BY MARK ROWE
INDONESIAN textile producers have warned that their industry faces thousands of job losses as smuggled used garments flood the Indonesian market. The past few months have seen a rise in smuggled goods from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the United States and some European countries.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE WORLD Bank has warned Indonesia that foreign donors may further reduce their environmental grants to the country in response to the government’s recent decision to allow several mining firms to operate in protected forests. “We can’t give our funds to improve environmental conditions where there is a high risk of not succeeding,” said Kathy MacKinnon, the World Bank’s senior biodiversity specialist.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE INDONESIA The Indonesian textile market is being hit hard by a black market in used garments made overseas, according to the Indonesian Textile Association. At least 480 million pieces of used garments are shipped into the country every year, from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the United States and European countries, it said.…

BY MARK ROWE
MONEY launderers looking to process their criminal gains look favourably upon south-east Asia. Authorities in the region are under-funded and overworked, while cash-transactions are a cultural norm, making it easy to ensure that money you would prefer not to be traced can simply disappear, with little likelihood that anyone will have the time to investigate the transaction.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
1902-1912

British American Tobacco was created on September 29th 1902 as a joint venture between Imperial Tobacco Company of the UK and the American Tobacco Company of the US following a fierce trade war. The parent companies agreed not to trade in each other’s domestic territory and to assign trademarks, export businesses and overseas subsidiaries to the joint venture.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A HIJACKED tanker ship was recently retrieved for its rightful owners in a joint effort by the International Maritime Bureau and Thai marine police. The “Han Wei” disappeared two days after leaving Singapore in March containing 1,950 metric tonnes of gas oil bound for Yangon, (Rangoon), Myanmar.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
Japan’s Nissan Motor Ltd has begun exporting vehicles from plants in Thailand to Indonesia as part of a plan to make the south-east Asian kingdom its main supplier of vehicles in the region. Nissan plans to take advantage of the fact that the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is lowering duties on locally made vehicles to increase shipments in the region of passenger cars and pickup trucks from Thailand, and commercial vehicles from Indonesia.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund is to help set up an Islamic Financial Services Board to regulate and lay down standards for financial transactions throughout the Islamic world. A key aim of the project is to incorporate the special insurance tenets that exist in the Islamic business world into the wider capitalist system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CRIMINALS dream of a world without police and although such a concept might seem science-fiction, it is actually easy to commit offences away from the eyes of law enforcement: just hire a boat. On the high seas, there is no-one watching, which is why fishing crime is so common and difficult to detect.…