Search Results for: Tunisia

Dogs have a troubled life in Tunisia. While in some neighbourhoods pet ownership has become more popular, as evidenced by the proliferation of new pet stores, these areas give an illusion that Tunisia is generally a dog-loving society. In reality, there is a much darker side of life for dogs in this country, where pedigree pooches are stolen for resale on the black market or females are made to breed puppies for profit, yet it is the native breeds that suffer the worst treatment.…

The leaders of Tunisian textile industry argue that their independent development plans will help them weather Tunisia’s ongoing political storms, staying on track in growing export and internal markets.

When President Kais Saied announced froze parliament and sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi on July 25 (2021), there were initially scenes of jubilation, but these have morphed into fears about instability and uncertainty as he gathered power into his hands to rule by presidential decree.…

Tunisia’s higher education system is split over whether to support the country’s President, now ruling by presidential decree without a suspended parliament, with earlier majority support for his summer takeover starting to ebb away.

When President Kais Saied took executive control of Tunisia in July, sacking the country’s former prime minister and freezing parliament, his actions were met with dancing in the streets, and attracted widespread student and academic support.…

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

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

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

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.…

STUDENTS in Tunisia are playing a moderating role in the country’s ongoing political crisis which has seen the seizure of power and dismissal of parliament by the country’s President Kais Saied. A planned demonstration by student and other supporters of the move scheduled for Sunday was cancelled amidst concern about political violence and now moderate democratic Moslem-oriented union UGTE (Union Générale Tunisienne des Etudiants) and the left-leaning UGET (Union Generale Étudiantes Tunisien) are calling for calm.…

A high-tech medical simulation centre in Tunisia has found a winning solution to teaching technical clinical procedures online, meeting student and professional training needs during the Covid-19 pandemic, while opening up opportunities for remote learning and medical research across Africa. The Honoris Medical Simulation Centre (1), in the capital Tunis, part of the Honoris United Universities network of African higher education institutions (2) was opened just 14 months before the pandemic struck in earnest, on November 10, 2018.…

Tunisia’s garment industry has declared that it is open for business despite the political upheaval instigated by the seizure of power and dismissal of parliament by the country’s President Kais Saied.

His move, which also involved him dismissing Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, followed often violent protests about government corruption and failures during the Covid-19 pandemic.…

Tunisia’s garment manufacturing industry is actively encouraging British brands to visit this key North African near sourcing hub to discover the quality and real potential of its workwear.

The campaign is building on a December 2020 webinar when Tunisian producers connected with potential British buyers within the workwear segment, to create new trading partnerships.…

Nearly a year on from a spottily-respected UN-brokered ceasefire between Libya’s warring factions, the country’s universities are hoping a planned new national government will deliver sufficient stability to overhaul their higher education system. Their goal is raising standards in both teaching and research.…

Despite government red-tape, Tunisian garment and denim companies looking to expand production away from Tunisia’s traditional industrial hubs, into lower cost more rural and remote regions.

Tunisia’s textile and garment manufacturing has been especially focused on coastal towns of Monastir and Sfax, creating labour supply and cost challenges.…

MALTA’S only multiple casino operator has been fined over serious AML/CFT failings, with the country’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) ordering Tumas Gaming Ltd to undertake AML control reforms.

The company must pay EUR233,156 for breaching the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations.…

The Tunisian clothing industry association will this week launch a major review of the sector’s market positioning as it seeks to help manufacturers survive the ongoing political turmoil that is wracking the country.

Nafaa Ennaifer, vice president of the Fédération Tunisienne du Textile et de l’Habillement (FTTH), told just-style his organisation would on Friday (March 12) launch a new market study in partnership with the Global Textiles and Clothing Programme (GTEX) and its Middle East and North Africa arm MENATEX.…

A left-wing student union has been at the forefront of political protests currently wracking democratic Tunisia, actions that have led to its activists being arrested and held in jail.

Warda Atiq, the secretary general of UGET, (L’Union générale des étudiants de Tunisie), told UWN that 50 members of UGET have been arrested and 32 remain in pre-trial detention.…

WHEN governments talk about how to reduce the risk of terrorism, the most oft-voiced policies are security-based: detecting and cracking down on extremist cells and targeting online propaganda.

But the reality is that a more effective way of reducing societies’ exposure to criminal groups seeking to achieve political ends through violence and fear is simply to make regular life more interesting.…

The medieval scholar Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun, a famous Tunisian historian of the 14^th and 15^th centuries, created a model for the history of states, which he said had a natural life of birth, maturity and death.

His Muqaddimah, published in Arabic in 1377, written as a prelude to an ambitious survey of global history, said states went through three stages, always ending – as the adage about politics says – in failure.…

Denim companies in Tunisia are pushing forward to create a sustainable circular economy segment, making high quality jeans from recycled fabrics.

The work is being encouraged by a European Union (EU) funded regional resource efficiency initiative called SwitchMed, which is led by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).…

ARAB COUNTRIES MUST JOIN WEST IN DIPLOMATIC ENGAGEMENT WITH SYRIA TO FORGE NEW PEACE

After a 10-year-old civil war in which an estimated 400,000 people have died, calls for restoring diplomatic relations with the ruthless government of Bashar al-Assad, now controlling around 75% of the country, sound like bitter medicine.…

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

Tunisia’s textile and clothing industry association, the FTTH (Fédération tunisienne du textile-habillement) has commissioned a report on the impact of Covid-19 on this outsourcing centre, including policy options to enable its companies to recover. It will work with the Middle East and north African wing of the Global Textiles and Clothing Programme (GTEX/MENATEX) over two months to generate a post-pandemic plan.…

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

The vice president of the Tunisian Textile and Garment Federation (FTTH) has warned that this important north African outsourcing hub faces harmful disruption from the Covid-19 crisis, despite the proactivity of the Tunisian government. It and the Central Bank of Tunisia have announced emergency measures to support businesses, such as cutting interest rates, delaying the date of tax payments and supporting banks who lend with delayed repayments.…

AS online food sales boom to aid self-isolation during the Covid-19 outbreak, the risks of counterfeiting and piracy within the food and drink sectors will become more evident. This comes as regulators are mulling tougher action to fight this commercial crime.…

IMPROVING on performance in AML/CFT is never a simple process, and that is especially a case with a country such as Bulgaria which has had a long-standing corruption problem, causing this east European country to be under special monitoring by the European Commission from the day it joined the European Union (EU) in 2007.…

Morocco’s textile and garment industry is undergoing an intense process of development to better meet today’s business challenges and the intense competition within the crowded international garment production sector.  With a mere 10 kilometres of Strait of Gibraltar seawater between Morocco’s key port Tanger-Med and Spain, Morocco should be a natural choice to lead in short ordering and fast fashion for European markets, however things are never just that simple.…

HONG Kong has signed an avoidance of double taxation agreement with its neighbour Macao, designed to boost trade and investment in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area of southern China. The deal will ensure that any Macao tax paid by Hong Kong residents earning income from Macao will be a tax credit in Hong Kong and vice versa for Macao residents.…

African garment and textile manufacturers are trying to create more synergy to better integrate the supply chain within the continent, but North African producers still dominate, and are expanding capacity, particularly in Egypt, say participants at a major regional industry meeting.…

African manufacturers are trying to integrate sustainability in their textile and fashion supply chains as retailers demand compliance with increasingly high standards fuelled by consumer pressure. But to do so, manufacturers are asking for assistance from international organisations to implement change.…

The British subsidiary of French engineering giant Alstom has been fined GBP15 million (USD19.37 million) plus GBP1.4 million (USD1.8 million) costs over bribes it paid to win a key contract to build trams to serve the Tunisian capital Tunis. The fine comes more than a year after Alstom Network UK’s April 2018 conviction for bribery and corruption, in a case brought by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO). …

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

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

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

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

THE GOVERNMENTS of Mauritius and Madagascar are intensifying their efforts to improve cooperation between the respective textile and clothing sectors of these Indian Ocean island states.

Mauritius officials stressed to just-style how nine major Mauritian textile and clothing enterprises have set up production units in Madagascar, helping boost the economy of this relatively less developed country.…

WHILE concern grows about the use of social media to spread falsehoods, it does at least allow information to circulate that governments might prefer to suppress, speakers at the Worldviews on Media and Higher Education Conference, held at Canada’s University of Toronto have stressed.…

CLOSE links between Tunisian and German higher education systems are boosting Tunisia’s higher education system, but both sides agree importance of encouraging Tunisian graduates to return home after exchange studies.

The opening of a new German library at the faculty of arts, letters and humanities (FAHM), of the University of Manouba, in Tunis on May 29 is a key example of Tunisian-German collaboration in HE.…

Tunisia is underpinned its sustained growth as a denim supplier through promoting its quality specialist production that employs sustainable environmental and social practices.

Since its 2011 revolution that launched the ‘Arab Spring’, exports of denim jeans from Tunisia have doubled. According to the Tunisian exports and promotions agency CEPEX the value of jeans exported from Tunisia have risen from Tunisian dinars TND586.40 million (USD202 million) in 2010 to TND1.32 billion (USD455 million) in 2018.…

MARCH’S approval by the European Parliament of new European Union (EU) electricity market rules, designed to increase consumer choice, boost renewables access and cap power subsidies, were hailed by the European Commission as a new dawn for the creation of the EU’s much vaunted Energy Union.…

Tunisia’s textile and garment manufacturers hope that the signing of a new public/private partnership pact with the government will enable industry to meet its full potential.

Tunisian head of government (Prime Minister) Youssef Chahed signed on February 21 an agreement with UTICA (Tunisian Union of Industry, Business and Artisans) and FTTH (Tunisian Textile and Garment Federation) to create a public/private partnership to push through a five-year recovery and development plan.…

WITH Kenya’s economy still growing fast – its GDP is projected to increase by 5.8% this year (2019) east Africa’s economic hub is expected to provide the paint and coatings sector plenty of extra sales. Such growth in the construction industry is reflected in its neighbouring countries, notably Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, offering additional sales for companies with the scale to score regional sales.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has included four American external territories – Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa – on a proposed blacklist of weak AML/CFT jurisdictions released today (Feb 13).

Brussels’ updated list includes 12 countries that are viewed with concern by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the Bahamas, Botswana, North Korea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and Yemen. …

A SHORTAGE of dairy products is not an experience that consumers in middle-income and wealthy countries are accustomed to – but in autumn 2018, that is what happened in Tunisia, when shop shelves emptied of milk, which was made subject to rationing.…

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

MOROCCO’S clothing and textile industry association is optimistic about growth in the country’s apparel sector, with fast fashion sales to Europe driving expansion. Mohamed Tazi, general director of Morocco’s clothing and textile industry association AMITH (Association Marocaine des Industries du Textile et de l’Habillement) told just-style he is satisfied with the results of the sector regarding production and exports.…

THE TUNISIAN Textile and Garment Federation (FTTH) on Thursday (Dec 20) signed final papers agreeing a process of salary increases over the next two years with the country’s National Labour Union (UGTT) giving textile and garment industry managers the chance to encourage productivity by giving their workers financial stability.…

AFRICAN garment and textile manufacturers have a long way to go to increase capacity, develop the supply chain and diversify overall production away from North Africa, an industry conference staged in Cairo has been told. But while north Africa accounts for more than USD10 billion out the continent’s USD13.54 billion in clothing and textile exports (during 2016, according to international trade data), the much discussed potential of Africa as the world’s next sourcing hub is starting to materialise.…

AFRICAN garment and textile manufacturers have a long way to go to increase capacity, develop the supply chain and diversify overall production away from North Africa, an industry conference staged in Cairo has been told. But while north Africa accounts for more than USD10 billion out the continent’s USD13.54 billion in clothing and textile exports (during 2016, according to international trade data), the much discussed potential of Africa as the world’s next sourcing hub is starting to materialise.…

DIGITAL production technologies could help African manufacturers pick up business lost by Chinese rivals because of the trade war in the USA, with brands looking to take advantage of the free trade agreements that many African countries have with the USA and Europe.…

Charities continue to be at risk of being exploited by terrorist groups looking to transfer money and finance their operations, with the Middle East a high-risk area.

These non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are, however, criticising the extra scrutiny the sector is facing from regulators, banks and governments, saying it is driving charity financing into the shadows, actually increasing risks of financing by crime and terror groups.…

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

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

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.…

VIETNAMESE textile manufacturers should invest in new machinery so they can take advantage of the incoming free trade agreement between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) say German trade and industry representatives.

Germany’s Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (Verband Deutscher Maschinen-und Anlagenbau (VDMA) expects the forthcoming EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (EVFTA) to lift Vietnamese garment exports to the EU with the help of more imported machinery to boost textile production.…

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

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

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

EUROPEAN UNION (EU) finance ministers have agreed to remove eight jurisdictions, including much-criticised Panama that gave the world the ‘Panama Papers’ scandal, from the bloc’s tax haven blacklist, only a month after it was created.

A EU Council of Ministers statement said this decision, which has now been slated by members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and environmentalists, followed “commitments made” by the listed jurisdictions “to remedy EU concerns”.…

SINGAPORE is to levy good and services tax (GST) on imported services from January 1, 2020, to help city state e-commerce service providers compete with foreign suppliers. B2B imported services will be taxed via a reverse charge mechanism. The move was announced in the government’s 2018 budget, that was announced on February 19.…

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

*The European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has published a blacklist of jurisdictions it thinks do not cooperate sufficiently with international efforts to reduce tax evasion. They are American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers today (December 5) adopted a money laundering blacklist, bringing widespread criticism because the listing – designed to prevent tax fraud and evasion – only covers countries outside the 28-nation bloc. Despite the European Commission screening 92 jurisdictions worldwide, the final list of non-cooperative jurisdictions in taxation matters only contains 17 jurisdictions: American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam (another US territory), South Korea, Macau (a China special administrative region), the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).…

OECD SAYS 49 JURISDICTIONS WILL AUTOMATICALLY EXCHANGE TAX INFORMATION THIS YEAR

THE IDENTITY of 49 jurisdictions that will automatically exchange tax information in 2017 under a global standard has been revealed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).…

Africa governments are waking up to the fact that the continent could be a ‘new frontier’ for clothing manufacturing sourcing, export associations and manufacturers at Destination Africa, a trade event in Cairo, Egypt, have told just-style.

They stressed that Africa has significant opportunities to divert manufacturing from Asia due to rising production costs, especially in China, and take advantage of the proximity to European markets.…

African clothing exporting countries are banking on rising costs in China and changing consumption patterns worldwide to attract buyers to the continent to take advantage of lower production costs.

Major hurdles abound, but manufacturers are hopeful that clothing facilities built from scratch that abide by international best practices will help the continent’s apparel sector develop.…

THE EGYPT government and leather industry is planning to boost the country’s leather exports by 80%, to USD1 billion by 2020, through modernising the sector and developing dedicated manufacturing hubs. The Egyptian leather sector took a major hit in terms of lost sales and output during the political and economic instability following the 2011 revolution, and there has been no major investment for the past 15 years to upgrade facilities and improve output.…

EGYPT is trying to develop its upstream textile capabilities to bolster exports and be part of an integrated African continent-wide supply chain, linking its cut-and-sew and quality cotton fibre base. While Egypt exported USD764 million worth of fabric and yarn in 2016 according to the country’s Textile Export Council (TEC), challenges abound regarding Egypt’s efforts to generate more value-added textiles.…

DATA has been released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) that shows how African governments collect less tax as a proportion of their countries’ wealth than in Latin America and the Caribbean. Africa’s average 2015 tax-to-GDP ratio was 19.1%; compared to 22.8% in Latin America/Caribbean and 34.3% for the 35 richer countries within the OECD.…

THE ARAB Spring, for all its faults, inconsistencies and disappointments, has delivered the world one thriving open and pluralistic Arab society – Tunisia – where women especially have seized new freedoms and spending power. This is reflected in spending on spa and salon services in the country, where, according to market researcher Euromonitor International, in the year of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution the turnover of the Tunisian spa sector was just USD32.4 million.…

Greater collaboration between private sector organisations is the key to even greater use – and success – of artificial intelligence (AI) in combating money laundering, cross-sector experts believe.

Specialists from banking and finance, compliance, the legal profession, law enforcement and AI developers all concur that the most effective way forward in the ongoing anti-money laundering (AML) battle is to increase the amount of shared data.…

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

The Tunisian’s government decision to overhaul the system of educating and examining law students wishing to become judges has sparked widespread student dissent. Students have been boycotting exams and classes, while staging protests and demonstrations – actions that are ongoing, although a partial retreat by the government has mollified some protestors.…

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

The oil and gas industry is reshaping its strategies, practices and values as it responds to global agreements on climate change and sustainable development. The 2015 United Nations Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – which came into effect in January 2016 – are prominent among global governance challenges driving change in the oil and gas industry, but pressure just keeps building.…

WHILE Jordan usually has a reputation for reliability, security and stability, the truth is that the Hashemite Kingdom is behind the compliance curve as regards anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) compared to many of its Middle Eastern peers.…

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

The official leading Switzerland’s efforts to combat money laundering in the country’s banking system has denied that a scandal unveiled last week involving Credit Suisse shows weaknesses in efforts to stop ill gotten gains being hidden in Swiss banks. Credit Suisse has acknowledged that tax authorities in France, the Netherlands and the UK are investigating the bank for tax evasion and money laundering.…

SHEREMETYEVO International Airport has strengthened its commanding position in the Moscow civil aviation market, posting a 7.6% growth in passenger traffic during 2016 to 34.03 million passengers. By contrast, its rivals Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports saw their passenger numbers fall last year by 6.6% to 28.5 million and 11.8% to 13.94 million respectively.…

THE CONTINUED success of Europe’ major technical textile fair, Techtextil, Frankfurt, (the next event runs from May 9 to 12) illustrates how the continent’s technical textile sector is thriving on its innovation.

“We don’t know what the future brings. We only know where it will be exhibited.…

THE OLIVE oil industry has traditionally been dominated by some key major European players, notably Spain, Italy and Greece, but with global consumption rising, production is emerging in countries which have previously relied on imports.

International Oil Council statistics show how new production centres are being created.…

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

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

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

The Moroccan bath and shower products market grew by 8% in 2015, with a sales value of Moroccan Dirham MAD868 million (USD86.1 million) according to UK-based market research company, Euromonitor International, while the highest growth rate was reached by intimate washes with 12%.…

The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) spa market experienced healthy growth in 2015 compared to 2014, increasing 11% in value terms to reach Emirati Dirham AED1.57 billion (USD428 million), according to market research company Euromonitor International.

In 2016, the market is predicted to grow by 9% to hit USD435 million year-on-year, accounting for nearly 14% of the Middle East and Africa’s USD3 billion spa market, according to Euromonitor.…

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

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

Tunisia’s financial and political situation is shaky by any measure but the installation of a new national unity government under Prime Minister Youssef Chahed in August does offer some grains of comfort for anti-money laundering (AML) professionals. Chahed, a university professor and agricultural science expert, told the Tunisian parliament this summer that his priorities were defeating terrorism, stimulating  economic growth and fighting corruption as well as strengthening the country’s democratic system.…

AFRICA’S economic growth means it does not just have more banks than before, banking groups are spreading across national borders. And while this can boost banks’ lending and savings security, it also complicates the job of regulators charged with ensuring such institutions are honest and solvent.…

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

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

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

Turkish denim firms have roared onto the global market in recent years, impressing consumers, terrifying the competition.

These companies are aided by Turkey’s high quality cotton – particularly that produced in the country’s Aegean region on the west coast. Aegean premium cotton is renowned for its ability to retain paint and for its softness and absorbency, all without genetic modification.…

A MEETING of the European Parliament’s special committee on tax rulings has grilled multinationals over European Union (EU) member state tax rulings. The European Commission fears they have been abused by governments giving companies low tax rates in return for registering businesses in their jurisdictions.…

Organisers of the 13th annual Istanbul Yarn Fair remain optimistic about the future of Turkey’s yarn segment, despite the country’s recent diplomatic crisis with Russia depressing this year’s turnout.

“Although the recent political issues have affected the number of Russian buyers who come to the fair, the relationship between Turkey and Russia is very strong and [built on a long history],” said Gülbin Bozkurt, project group director of Tüyap Fairs and Exhibitions Organization Inc, which organised the fair.…

Organisers of the 13th annual Istanbul Yarn Fair remain optimistic about the future of Turkey’s yarn segment, despite the country’s recent diplomatic crisis with Russia depressing this year’s turnout.

“Although the recent political issues have affected the number of Russian buyers who come to the fair, the relationship between Turkey and Russia is very strong and [built on a long history],” said Gülbin Bozkurt, project group director of Tüyap Fairs and Exhibitions Organization Inc, which organised the fair.…

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

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

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

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

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.”…

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.…

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.…

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

In the Gulf, the harsh desert climate has always made agricultural production difficult, so fats in the form of animal lard or milk ‘ghee’, have traditionally dominated diets.
But population growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – UAE), rising affluence, booming ex-patriot populations, and increasing diversity in imports, have driven increases in sales of higher end edible oils in the region.…

The Egyptian energy sector is facing numerous challenges in the immediate and long-term, mirroring how the country is struggling to secure political stability. Insufficient power supply is resulting in sporadic power cuts in the major cities, driving up sales of private generators.…

The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) is reaching out to higher education institutions in other neighbouring countries to establish collaborations that will encourage more foreign students to enroll for distance learning.
University vice chancellor Professor Tolly Mbwette said the institution’s board hoped to spread its influence regionally: “We are now the largest distance learning university in the region and our plan is to take distance learning to most countries in East Africa and those under the Southern African Development Community [SADC] by 2016.”…

The Middle East and North African nonwovens sector is in flux. At the same time as extra capacity has come online, regional demand has been affected by political instability, forcing manufacturers to focus on exports and diversify their offerings.

“It is showing clearly now that the Arab Spring and political consequences have definitely delayed investment decisions by potential customers.…

With the conflict in Syria into its fourth year, the pharmaceutical and health care sectors in the country have been decimated, while an estimated 9 million people have been displaced. More than 3 million refugees have fled Syria to neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office.…

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

EDITOR’s NOTE: Proceedings area active and Contempt of Court applies. This version is safe.

A JUDICIAL hearing is scheduled for September 9 in London after the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged the UK subsidiary of French engineering group Alstom with fraud and conspiracy to corrupt.…

THE MIDDLE East cosmetics market is weathering the region’s current political and economic instability in the region. While the markets in the Levant are experiencing tough times, Gulf sales continue to grow. Retailers and manufacturers are also offsetting the losses incurred in depressed and unstable countries by exporting to burgeoning African markets.…

EGYPT’S paint market is in flux due to the political and economic instability that has raged in the North African country since 2011. This 180 million litre paint market, valued at USD275 million, slumped 10% in 2011, according to paint major Jotun, following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, and has struggled to recover.…

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

IRAN and Turkey are regional giants within the Middle East oilseeds sector, and while their industries have been performing the threat of political instability and unstable energy subsidies threaten their profits.

According to Bill Baker, foreign agricultural service analyst at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Turkey and Iran constitute the two “major producers of oilseed crops in the Middle East.”…

IRAN and Turkey are regional giants within the Middle East oilseeds sector, and while their industries have been performing the threat of political instability and unstable energy subsidies threaten their profits.

According to Bill Baker, foreign agricultural service analyst at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Turkey and Iran constitute the two “major producers of oilseed crops in the Middle East.”…

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

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

IT is common sense that for really fast fashion, sourcing should be made as close to a home market as costs will allow. And for the world’s two largest fast fashion markets – the European Union (EU) and the United States – geography does provide some useful neighbours able to offer lower cost out-sourcing, albeit not as cheap as in east and south Asia.…

PERSONAL care product market in the Middle East can be divided into two current trends: sales in the affluent Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are booming, while on the other side of the region, in the Levant, markets are feeling the effects of the Syrian conflict, with the loss of tourists and low consumer confidence impacting bottom lines.…

A PLANNED deepening of trade relations between the European Union (EU) and Morocco should streamline customs procedures for the EU clothing and textile industry, whether importing or exporting products from this key north African trading partner, the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (Euratex) has told just-style.com.…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IT is a long way from China, east Asia and south Asia to the key developed world markets or Europe and America. And with fashion being so dynamic, demand for a line could have dampened in the months between placing an order and receiving delivery.…

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.…

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

NONWOVENS manufacturing has grown fast in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with most of the major players less than two decades old. With a burgeoning population and strong export potential, MENA production has in general doubled over the past five years, especially in the region’s manufacturing hubs of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which currently have the strongest nonwovens sectors.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has put forward an action plan aimed at creating a lasting remedy for Europe’s troubled olive oil sector which has suffered a near-calamitous loss of profitability in recent years. Unveiled last June, the plan follows a sequence of temporary and not wholly successful boosts to the sector in the form of injections of private storage aid between October 2011 and May last year.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

THE UPRISINGS in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the past two years have had a negative impact on the construction and paint sectors, throwing a proverbial spanner in the works when the region was striving to come out of recession.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE SATURATION of mobile devices, telecommunications and social networking in today’s digital age has created a society of real-time connectivity, where the Internet and its applications are no longer confined to a desktop computer. However, an increasing dependency on digital identity has also generated new risks in terms of cybercrime, where technology users have become more susceptible, depending on the number of devices and applications they use.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

10 SEPTEMBER 2012

MOROCCO, Tunisia, and Egypt – respectively the sixth, seventh and sixteenth largest exporters of knitwear to the European Union’s 27 member states, as measured by sales value – have traditionally been competitive knitwear producers and exporters.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS

THE TURKS used to run the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as colonial overlords – now with the country enjoying its independence since 1991, its government has shown its confidence in welcoming a Turkish company TAV Airports Holding to run its two international airports.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

OUTSOURCING textile and apparel production is a necessary step along the supply chain for many large international brands, which – more than often – have long-standing relationships with manufacturers abroad. These partnerships have to start from somewhere, though – and with economic development continuing to grow in the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and other emerging market countries, there are many third-party companies and services that can help international buyers choose the right manufacturer.…

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

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

BY PAUL COCHRANE IN BEIRUT

THE ‘ARAB Spring’ uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the past year have had a mixed effect on Arabic publishing. Book sales have plunged due to instability, and while some countries have loosened up on censorship, others have clamped down.…

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 ALAN OSBORN

OLIVE oil growers in the European Union (EU) are currently facing an increasingly frustrating situation: while demand is growing internationally and harvests have been unusually good in recent years, prices are falling at a rapid rate, threatening the livelihood of the thousands of farmers in the main growing countries.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

THE SYRIAN economy is in bad shape: sanctions have been slapped on the country by the United States and the European Union (EU), and the uprisings that began in March last year continue unabated. But while one of Syria’s main revenue earners – fossil fuel oil – has been affected by instability and international sanctions, its olive oil sector has had its best year ever harvest, estimated at 200,000 tonnes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WINNERS

TUNISIA

Of all the countries disrupted by the Arab Spring revolts in 2011, Tunisia liberated itself in the swiftest and most business-friendly fashion. This key European supplier rid itself of despotic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January14, and one week later, its textile and clothing sector was back at work.…

BY MEGAN DETRIE and KACI RACELMA

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

BY LEE ADENDORFF, MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN, KATHERINE DUNN, MARTINA MARECKOVA, GERARD O’DWYER and MINDY RAN

Pantelleria Airport, located on the small, volcanic island of Pantelleria in the Strait of Sicily, is about to become the first airport in Italy to make use of an innovative new co-generation technology project co-funded by the US’s Solergy Inc.…

BY VILLEN ANGANAN

THE FINISHING and dyeing plants of the Indian Ocean island state of Mauritius are feeling the pinch of high cotton yarn prices, putting profit margins under pressure.

"The order book of our dye house is relatively full as we have seen over recent months customers coming back to as they are looking for alternatives to Chinese producers.…

BY KACI RACELMA

THE MOROCCAN textile and clothing industry has been recovering energetically from the 2009 recession, with North Africa’s recent political turmoil yet to significantly impact on its fortunes, although it has prompted concerns in the industry.

Exports to Europe are of critical importance to Morocco’s clothing manufacturers, with the government and industry groups combining efforts to improve standards, promote sales abroad and create a nascent design hub for the sector within this north African kingdom.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project is developing an innovative business model which can allow consumers to design and choose their own clothing online, with manufacturers shipping remotely-controlled bespoke work. The Euro 5.17 million Open Garments project aims to create a secure and practical electronic communications system delivering customer requirements to manufacturers, who can act on them swiftly.…

BY KACI RACELMA

THE EXECUTIVE director for the textile and clothing sector at Tunisia’s export promotion agency has claimed that his country’s democratic revolution will bring major benefits for the industry. Speaking to just-style, Nejib Torjman said political change would attract foreign direct investment to Tunisia, whose robust textile and clothing sector was well-placed to attract investors.…

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

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

By Paul Cochrane, in Beirut 

BY VÉRONIQUE NARAME

AFTER the collapse of the regime of deposed Tunisian President Ben Ali, the country’s key textile and clothing sector is gradually returning to work. Indeed, companies speaking to just-style reported problems getting their products to market, but no overwhelming chaos and shut-down, despite the mass protests that brought down the government.…

By Paul Cochrane

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

BY PAUL COCHRANE, BY VÉRONIQUE NARAME AND BY SEYDOU TRAORÉ

North Africa’s tobacco market opens to the world

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MJ DESCHAMPS, PAUL COCHRANE

MOROCCO is perfectly placed to be a major bio-based oils and fats exporter to Europe. It is of course very close – being separated from Spain by only nine miles of sea. And with its agriculture fed by plentiful sunshine and its rich fishing grounds, Morocco has huge potential to become a major oil and fat feedstock producer as well as an oils and fats manufacturer in its own right though its developed industrial sector.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY’S clothing and textile sector has rebounded this year on the back of strong sales to Europe and emerging markets, with clothing exports up 11% to US dollar USD9.5 billion as of August 2010, and textile exports reaching USD4.1 billion, up 23% on 2009.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

AN IMPORTANT step has been made towards guaranteeing the safety of electric and hybrid cars, with the adoption by the UN’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations of a new technical standard on this subject – a global first.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE and KEITH NUTHALL

SYRIA is such a staple of Middle East political turmoil, it is easy to forget that it is a near neighbour of Europe: less than 200 miles of sea separate it from Cyprus and it borders Turkey, which could be a European Union (EU) member by 2020.…

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) auto manufacturing industry has a good chance to grab more market share in Syria following a newly signed wide-ranging association agreement, slashing steep duties imposed on EU-made auto exports. Syria already imports a significant number of EU-made cars: according to the ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association) in 2008, 7,241 (Euro 106 million’s worth) cars and SUVs were exported from the EU to Syria and this year, 3,427 (worth Euro 52 million) were sold from January to June.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

EGYPT

Eastern Tobacco Company

450 Al Ahram Street, Giza

Tel : +20-18-5724711- 5724332 – 5724945

+20-23-5793326

www.easternegypt.com

British American Tobacco Egypt

City Stars Complex

Star Capital – Tower 4A

Omar Ebn El Khattab Street

Postal Code 11771

Heliopolis, Cairo

T: (+20) 2 480 1080

Japan Tobacco International (Regional)

2nd Floor, Lophitis Business Centre

249, 28th October Street & Emiliou Hourmouziou Corner

CY-3035, Lemesos

P.O.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT has long been outmoded and inaccurate to split the world into two camps: industrialised developed economies, and largely agricultural developing countries. The growth of the 1990s and the current decade means there is a wide range of social and economic sophistication and wealth amongst the poorer of these two old-fashioned categories.…

BY IRINA PRENTICE

WHILE finding accurate statistics about the Libya industry is as easy as finding your way around the country’s vast deserts without a map, it is undeniable that this is a growing paint and coating market: the country is in full economic development which includes construction, boosting demand for coatings of all kinds.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is developing plans to finance the construction of a new airport at Enfidha, in north eastern Tunisia. It could lend Euro 150 million of a total project cost of Euro 550 million to a special purpose company established for a 40-year concession to operate the airport: TAV Tunisie SA, created by Turkish sponsor TAV Havalimanlari Holding.…

By Keith Nuthall

The launch of a new Euro-Mediterranean University in Slovenia dedicated to higher education courses focused on issues of importance to European, African and Levantine countries bordering the sea has been given a formal seal of approval. The creation of the institution was welcomed within a joint declaration issued by heads of state and government from 43 countries at a Paris summit launching a Mediterranean Union organisation.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH Dmitry Medvedev becoming Russia’s new president, the European Union (EU) has been pushing ahead to secure oil and gas supplies independent of Moscow. EU energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and external relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner met with Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey diplomats and officials to discuss gas pipeline links.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DEAL has been struck at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over unbundling of gas (and electricity) networks, which will allow formal ownership of production and distribution operations.

However, this compromise option will insist on transmission systems being managed by an independent operator.…

BY LUCY JONES, in Dallas; ALAN OSBORN, in London; KARRYN CARTELLE, in Tokyo; BILL CORCORAN, in Johannesburg; PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut; RACHEL JONES, in Caracas; MARK ROWE; and KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round being slow to proceed since its 2001 launch – and only this year approaching something resembling and end game – free traders wanting to encourage global commerce have looked to bilateral and regional trade deals.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Tripoli and Beirut

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HUMAN nature’s tendency to let sleeping dogs lie means that international initiatives to deal with chronic problems often only come to fruition after a major disaster. And such was the case with the formation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has launched a research project – called EuroMedCitrusNet – aimed at reducing the transfer of pathogens from citrus fruits, through processing into final food and drink products, such as juice. Researchers will look at processing chains amongst key Mediterranean suppliers, boosting training and technology, while increasing small and medium-sized citrus fruit business participation in food safety research.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) summit has agreed a 10% binding minimum target for all 27 member states regarding the share of biofuels in overall EU transport petrol and diesel consumption by 2020. The agreement, which followed weeks of political manoeuvreing, has however been qualified in that biofuels must be “introduced in a cost-efficient way”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWISS tobacco manufacturers are set to benefit from free trade agreement negotiations launched between the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) – of which Switzerland is a key member – and Tunisia. An EFTA note on the talks stressed that Switzerland’s third largest export item to Tunisia was tobacco, representing 10% of all consignments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is maybe reassuring that during an era where food companies must increasingly grapple with often complex global and regional cross-border trade, health, packaging and marketing regulations, there is one international organisation that actually designs rules with their practical use in mind.…

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

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

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

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

BY MARK ROWE AND PAUL COCHRANE

INTRODUCTION

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WELL-FINANCED international programme to remove stocks of obsolete pesticides from Africa has been launched, protecting communities from persistent organic pollutants. The first phase of the Africa Stockpiles Programme (ASP-P1) has now been approved by the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FERROUS and non-ferrous metal companies paid together millions 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 150 suppliers of ferrous metal products ranging from carbon steel plates, steel coil, steel joists, galvanised steel cores, steel bars, steel pipes, fabricated steel and others are named in the report, as are around 50 suppliers of aluminium, copper and lead.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA’S competitors in the race to exploit this year’s abolition of clothing and textile import quotas have been holding their own in sales to the European Union (EU), new trade figures show. Released by the European Commission, the statistics illustrate how China has – as expected – grown EU exports sharply: from January to May, it sold Euro 7.3 billion’s worth of clothing and textile products, up from Euro 5.4 billion the previous year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TECHNOLOGY enabling local authorities to issue targeted alerts about impending air pollution or other environmental problems will be presented to a global telecommunications summit this November. The UN meeting in Tunisia will learn of the European Union (EU)-funded Air Pollution Network for Early warning and on-line information Exchange (APNEE) project, which could also, its developers say, warn citizens about oncoming disasters, such as storms and tidal waves.…

BY MARK ROWE AND PAUL COCHRANE

INTRODUCTION

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

Keith Nuthall
INTERNATIONAL tourist travel has rebounded strongly this year from its September 11-attacks induced torpor, the World Tourism Organisation has claimed. Between January and August 2004, the number of international tourist arrivals grew 12% compared to the same months in 2003, said the UN agency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NORTH African and Levant trade ministers are meeting in Tunisia today (Tues Sep 28) with outgoing European Union (EU) trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy at a conference on the global phase out of textile import quotas on January 1.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy ministers have agreed new rules for applying value added tax to cross-border gas supplies that will reduce confusion created by increasing cross-border trading in energy supplies. Now, traders re-selling supplies who are not established in the same country as the supplier will pay VAT through an obligatory reverse charge system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has drawn up plans to lend Tunisia’s Tunisacier SA Euro 35 million to help modernise and expand an existing steel plant. It is currently producing galvanised steel sheets and the loan would also help transform it into a rolling and coated steel production centre, fully integrated with the upstream and downstream operations of the company’s parent, the Riva Group.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The UN Environment Programme says that within five years most African countries will be close to phasing out leaded petrol. Egypt, Libya, Mauritius and Sudan – are already lead-free, to be joined this year by Morocco, Reunion and Tunisia.…

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.…