Search Results for: Czech Republic

CHINESE auditors connected to big accountancy firms are facing a potential ban on them practicing before the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). This might happen if a judge confirms they willfuly withheld details of audits or interim reviews of nine unidentified Chinese firms whose principal operations are in China but whose shares are traded in the US and who are the subject of ongoing SEC fraud investigations.…

European Union (EU) police agency Europol says it has broken a sophisticated value-added tax (VAT) fraud, involving trading scrap metal between Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The scam involves so-called ‘carousel’ or ‘missing-trader’ fraud where scrap has been sold in a chain or buyers, with VAT being charged on each sale.…

THE BIDDING for a contract to expand Temelín nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic is approaching decision time, with the winner of the four-year long tender process to be chosen in 2013. Worth USD10 billion, the contract represents the largest public tender in the country’s history and has generated considerable debate, from safety issues and the distinctions between the various reactor designs and their technologies, to political and economic issues regarding everything from energy security to the deal’s transparency.…

BULGARIAN authorities have reported more than 350 cases of Newcastle disease in flocks of backyard poultry. According to the World Animal Health Organisation, the Office International des Épizooties (OIE) all sick birds have died. The outbreak follows a report from the OIE earlier this month from Czech Republic, where backyard pigeons were killed by Newcastle disease.  …

CYPRUS is under intense pressure to clean up its act  – at least on the south of the island, controlled by the internationally recognised government- in battling what some foreign creditors, with Germany at the forefront, see as a widespread money laundering problem.…

THE UNITED States government has unveiled details of proposed flexibilities it wants to introduce into the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement which will allow importers to buy scarce clothing, textiles and yarns from outside the bloc.

Speaking at a New York conference yesterday (Wed, Jan 9), Kim Glas, deputy assistant secretary for textiles and apparels of the US Department of Commerce stressed proposals that may appease concerns of US garment and clothing importers concerned about restrictive ‘yarn forward’ rules in the draft TPP.…

BY MARK ROWE, MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS, AND MOHAMMED YUSUF, IN NAIROBI

INTERNATIONAL civil aviation procedures are designed to create predictability. But they are not usually applicable for airports in territories that have declared independence, but have not achieved full international recognition, or a seat at the United Nations.…

BY TRICIA OBEN, IN DOUALA

THE GROWTH in the Cameroon personal care product sector in the past few years has been phenomenal. Imports of cosmetic products alone grew by more than Central African Franc XAF10 billion (United States Dollar USD19.1 million) in 2011, up from XAF31 billion (USD 62 million) in 2010, according to figures supplied by Cameroon customs.…

BY MARK ROWE

TO describe recent times as difficult for the eastern European cosmetics industry would be something of an understatement. Since 2010, some countries have experienced dizzying declines in production and sales that indicated the industry was more or less in tune with the wider economic mood across the region.…

BY MARK ROWE

ANYONE looking for straightforward conclusions about the impact of the recession on eastern Europe’s cosmetics market is likely to be disappointed. Some countries, such as Poland, fared relatively well in the crisis, while others such as Latvia faced punishing economic contraction, therefore signals coming from the region in these uncertain and ever-changing times, are hugely varied.…