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The coronavirus pandemic, which is yet to hit its peak in Russia, has put increasing pressure on the country’s food manufacturers by increasing health and safety operational costs and a related decline in the value of the rouble. Major food manufacturers continue to operate at full capacity despite President Vladimir Putin announcing a nationwide lockdown, telling Russians to remain at home on April 2, an order that currently expires on May 11.…

India’s large-scale dairy industry is reorienting procurement and processing towards making solid dairy products, taking advantage of the supply chain and demand disruptions caused by the 21-day national lockdown from March 25 imposed by the government to control the spread of Covid-19.…

ANTI-money laundering authorities in Nepal hope an upcoming 2020-21 review by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) will conclude this Himalayan state is at least largely compliant with all FATF recommendations and special recommendations, although experts admit the review will be tough.…

ASIA Pacific Rayon (APR) has broken ground in the Indonesian viscose manufacturing sector by receiving the internationally recognised STeP sustainable textile and leather production certification from the Switzerland-based standards body OEKO–TEX.  APR, a vertically integrated viscose-rayon manufacturer, with a production capacity of 240,000 tonnes-a-year, is hoping to boost sales through the STeP recognition of its modular analysis of chemicals, environmental performance, environmental management, occupational health and safety, social responsibility and quality management.…

THE PHILIPPINES government hopes to jumpstart its tropical indigenous textile sector through more innovation, but the country’s exporters say significant work needs to be done to score export orders. The Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Textile Research Institute (DOST-PTRI) last November (2019) inaugurated a Regional Yarn Production and Innovation Center (RYPIC) in Miagao, Iloilo, Panay island, which now produces crafted yarns from blends of natural local textile fibres – culled from abacá, banana and pineapple leaf – combined with cotton.…

Italy’s textile sector is running at reduced capacity due to the tougher health protocols that have been put in place to protect workers from Covid-19 contamination, the president of Confindustria Toscana Nord, Andrea Cavicchi, told WTiN.com.

All textiles mills in manufacturing centre Prato were operational following the March 12 decree, which shuttered until March 25 much commercial activity across the country, including clothing stores, allowing manufacturing activities to continue only if companies respected stricter health protocols aimed at mitigating the spread of the infectious disease.…

Innovative textile materials are proving to be a game changer in the auto industry’s drive towards sustainability, electric transmission and autonomy. Experts have noted how the amount of textiles used in the automotive sector have been growing and will continue to do so: up from 20kg in a mid-size car on average in the year 2000 to 26kg in 2020, said the chair of a ‘Textile Opportunities in a Changing Automotive Industry’ conference, held in Birmingham, England, at the Jaguar Experience centre.…

GIVEN the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by banks on fighting money laundering, fears that trade-based money laundering (TBML) remains widespread, as stressed by FATF, the APG (http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/methodsandtrends/documents/trade-basedmoneylaunderingtypologies.html), and most recently, the European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/supranational_risk_assessment_of_the_money_laundering_and_terrorist_financing_risks_affecting_the_union_-_annex.pdf), are of serous concern. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) said that in 2018, global merchandise exports were worth USD19.48 trillion, so there is plenty of place for laundered money to hide.…

DURING the Yugoslav wars and their aftermath, the government of Serbia President Slobodan Milošević, and his family, were accused of laundering millions of dollars from Serbia, notably to Cyprus – see https://www.tax-news.com/news/Cyprus_Traces_Two_Accounts_Linked_To_Milosevics_Alleged_Money_Laundering_Activities____3063.html. Today, 20 years after the fall from power of the man held responsible for whipping up the nationalism that broke up Yugoslavia, Serbia’s AML/CFT affairs are more prosaic.…

• 1MDB SCANDAL IN MALAYSIA SEES USD BILLIONS STOLEN AND HIDDEN

Malaysia 1MDB scandal is one of the largest money laundering cases ever, worldwide, with Malaysian courts considering charges over how at least USD4.5 billion was stolen and then spent or laundered from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad by former Prime Minister Najib Razak and his associates.…