Search Results for: Korea

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

IRAN’S US$1 billion paint sector is going through a boom period: it is expected to grow by up to 20% this year on the back of strong decorative paint growth, an expanding automotive sector, and surging demand for specialised paints in the shipping and energy sectors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HONG Kong and China have been branded as the world’s serious hotspots for counterfeit clothing and accessories, in a global European Commission survey of countries where product fakes are manufactured. The Commission’s directorate general (DG) for trade gathered the information from companies, diplomatic missions and trade federations.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

ON October 9, North Korea carried out its notorious nuclear test in a mine shaft some 240 miles to the north of Pyongyang. The North Korean government proclaimed the test to be successful and an "historic event."…

BY ALAN OSBORN

It looks as though you’re going to have to pay even more to run a big car in Europe soon if the motor industry there doesn’t smarten up its act to cut CO2 emissions. This follows a new report from the European Commission in Brussels on the progress made since 1998/9 when auto manufacturers from Europe, Japan and Korea pledged to voluntarily reduce carbon dioxide emissions in new cars sold in the 25-nation European bloc to 140g/km by 2008/09.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

The Iranian tobacco market has been partly opened up to international players in the past five years and growth is expected to rise strongly, but development of the sector is beset by extraordinarily high rates of smuggling and governmental regulations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Energy Agency (IEA) has said in its latest annual report that wind energy still only satisfies 1.2% of power demand in its 20 rich country members, although that proportion is increasing fast in some cases. It said that from 1995 to 2005, the contribution of wind power to national electricity demand rose from 0.2%, with 12 IEA members being in the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TAX authority bosses from the world’s richest countries have banded together to fight international tax avoidance caused by the abuse of increasingly liberal capital movement and trading laws. Tax collectors from more than 30 countries – mostly members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – met in Seoul, South Korea to plot against such tax manoeuvres.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE FIRST appearance of counterfeit "supernotes" in America last year has the US Secret Service concerned – not so much because of the volume of these forged US dollar bills as because of the superb skill with which they’re made.…

BY KEITH NUTHAL

AN INTERPOL-coordinated global hit squad has been created to detect and combat the production of high quality counterfeit US dollars, known as ‘supernotes’, believed to be printed in North Korea. The group has been established by a conference meeting at Interpol’s Lyon headquarters, in France, attended by representatives from the US Secret Service, law enforcement experts and security printing industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CHINESE exporters have been fraudulently routing clothing and textile exports via Hong Kong and South Korea to evade quota limits imposed last year, following the ‘bra wars’ spat with the European Union (EU). Swedish government figures claim Hong Kong clothing and textile exports to the EU rose by 234% in the past year, which would mean every Hong Konger was employed in the textile industry.…