Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY ROUND UP – ILO FORGES KNITWEAR HEALTH AND SAFETY DEAL IN BANGLADESH
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) to cooperate on boosting the occupational health and safety of workers in the country’s knitwear factories. The work will focus on the 50 member factories of the BKMEA in this globally important knitwear hub.…
GERMAN PAINT SECTOR FACES UP TO SLUGGISH YEAR-ON-YEAR GROWTH
Continuing supply chain problems, worsened by Covid-19, and price hikes for raw materials have depressed the outlook for sales faced by the German paint business in 2021. Germany’s Verband der deutschen Lack- und Druckfarbenindustrie (VdL), the industry association for coatings, paints and ink production, predicts that overall sales will have fallen 4% in 2021 compared to 2020, partly because because 2020’s DIY boom, fuelled by pandemic lockdown orders, has run out of steam.…
EU REGULATORY ROUND UP – EFSA CRACKS DOWN ON BPA
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has declared it will impose an effective European Union (EU) ban on using bisphenol A (BPA) to make food contact materials coatings. It is consulting on plans to reduce a tolerable daily intake by consumers of BPA to almost zero – 0.04 nanograms per kilogram of body weight per day.…
EU ROUND UP – BULGARIA STRIVES TO FIGHT REPUTATION AS HOTBED FOR CORRUPTION
Bulgaria’s new government has promised to fight corruption and challenge the country’s reputation as the European Union’s (EU) worst blackspot for graft. The new Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov defeated former PM Boyko Borissov last November amidst demonstrations against government corruption.…
CHINA TO SHAKE UP VAPING INDUSTRY WITH STRICT RULES
Chinese e-cigarette companies have long enjoyed a close to regulation-free environment, able to sell products freely, but that is about to change. On November 26, China’s highest government body, the State Council, announced that in future “novel types of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, must comply with the tobacco monopoly law”.…
COMPANIES BALANCE STABLE SUPPLY AND COST CONTROL FACING CHINA’S STRICT COVID RESTRICTIONS
The Chinese government’s policy of pursuing zero Covid-19 cases in China has been causing significant supply chain challenges across all the country’s industries and markets. But in the food industry, companies importing ingredients or frozen foods have had to tackle the toughest issues.…
INDUSTRIAL IOT GIVES FIRST STEPS TO BECOME A GAME CHANGER IN LAUNDRY SERVICES
In an age when competitiveness in the textile and garment manufacturing sector is increasingly measured by sustainability and on-demand production, efficiency in laundering finishing processes plays an important role for production companies. The textile sector has significant improvements it can make in sustainability – a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said the textiles industry’s share of the carbon budget, which is the amount of CO2 that humanity can emit while still having a chance to contain global warming, will grow from 2 per cent in 2015 to 26 per cent in 2050 if it failed to make environmental reforms [1].…
AML PROFESSIONALS HAVE A TOUGH JOB, CAN THE JOB BE MADE EASIER AND MORE EFFICIENT?
Financial professionals involved in AML/CFT are facing a growing set of professional, regulatory and technical pressures, from top AMLO managers to the front-facing staff onboarding customers, and backroom technical staff screening transactions. AML/CFT regulations in most jurisdictions are becoming increasingly broad and detailed, with implementation and enforcement ramping up.…
HMRC ANTI-FRAUD SQUAD SAYS IT HAS RECOVERED GBP 1 BILLION IN CRIME PROCEEDS IN FIVE YEARS
A specialist fraud squad for Britain’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has seized crime-tainted assets and money worth more than GBP1 billion (USD1.35 billion) since it was formed of five years ago, the organisation has revealed (1).
HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service (FIS) utilises both criminal and civil enforcement powers to pursue suspected proceeds of crime.…
CYBER ATTACKS: HOW PREPARED ARE ORGANISATIONS TO DEAL WITH THE THREAT?
Businesses and government agencies continue to face a barrage of attacks from cyber-criminals, which have continued unabated in the past year, keeping up the pressure of frauds and hacks that have increased since Covid-19 spread worldwide in March 2020.
Organisations around the world faced more cyberattacks than ever before in 2021, say some data collectors.…