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THE HIGHER education system in the Francophone west African country of Benin is getting back to work, after the government said a ban on classes being held to fight the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic would end on May 11.

However, while the public higher education segment has quickly returned to teaching, partly leveraging a new remote learning system, the country’s private universities have struggled to return to normal, with one major obstacle being cross-border movement controls imposed on overseas students from Nigeria, who have been a key component of their classes.…

EAST Asia’s auto-making hubs may have been making a better fist of dealing with the Covid-19 crisis than manufacturing centres in Europe and north America, but the pandemic has been harming the industry in the region.

Government responses have varied, however, with no major scrappage packages being announced.…

CANADA’S automotive industry associations are pressing the Canadian federal government to launch a scrappage scheme to help the country’s automotive market out of its Covid-19 related slump. The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), the Global Automakers of Canada (GAC) and the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association (CVMA) have made a formal proposal that the government subsidises automotive consumers by between CAD1,500 and CAD3,000 when they trade in an old vehicle and replace it with a new model.…

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. …

THE EUROPEAN Commission has confirmed that it wants the European Union (EU) to significantly expand its AML/CFT powers, releasing an action plan that – if enacted – would significantly reduce the autonomy of the current 27 member states over dirty and terror money controls.…

New aspiring entrants to the AML/CFT and other compliance sectors will be hard hit regarding available jobs and related pay and conditions by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, according to international recruitment agency Randstad. Its Hong Kong director banking and financial services Rick Chung warned: “Similar to what we have witnessed during the global financial crisis, it will be challenging for fresh graduates to secure jobs during these extraordinary times.”…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has confirmed that it wants the European Union (EU) to significantly expand its AML/CFT powers, releasing an action plan that – if enacted – would significantly reduce the autonomy of the current 27 member states over dirty and terror money controls.…

With spring/summer now a write-off for most retailers, creating excess inventory levels, Richard Hyman, an independent UK-based retail analyst, said that the excess stock flooding the market, and the subsequent discounting and margin erosion, will lead to widespread administrations for clothing brands in the UK, Europe and the US, to varying degrees.…

The European Commission has launched a series of infringement procedures for shortcomings in national legislation implementing the European Union’s (EU) fourth and fifth anti-money laundering directives (4AMLD and 5AMLD), including one against Britain, even though it left the bloc on January 31 (but remains subject to EU law during a transitional period to December 31. …

WHEN a crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic hits a supply chain as complex as the clothing sector, financing problems can gum up commercial relationships, so in the short term, governments, along with regional and international organisations, need to step in.…