Search Results for: Czech Republic

BY VILLEN ANGANAN, IN BEAU-BASSIN, MAURITIUS

INTERNATIONAL accounting firms are exploring opportunities within Africa, and are using the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius – a regional financial centre – as a stepping stone. All the Big Four: Ernst &Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), KPMG and Deloitte are already successfully offering their services to African clients.…

BY VILLEN ANGANAN, IN BEAU-BASSIN, MAURITIUS

ACCA fellows can be found in many influential positions worldwide and in Africa, they are often the backbone of financial and management best practice, in many jurisdictions. That is certainly the case on the Indian Ocean state of Mauritius, where environment and sustainable development minister and ACCA member Devanand Virahsawmy belongs to the inner circle of prime minister Navin Ramgoolam who secured a second mandate in May 2010 elections.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPE’S confectionery industry is fighting rearguard moves at the European Parliament to delay the abolition of European Union (EU) quotas on EU sugar production. A report from French conservative MEP Michel Dantin on the new EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has proposed that the quotas stay until 2020 – they are currently to be phased out by 2015.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

IVAN Hodac, the secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has attacked proposals from the European Commission to reduce vehicle noise from European Union (EU) autos, saying the implementation costs would be exorbitant. Speaking yesterday at a European Parliament workshop on the issue in Brussels, he said reaching the noise limit levels currently proposed by the EU executive would add manufacturing costs of between Euro EUR1,500 (USD1,143) to EUR3,000 (USD2,288) per truck and anywhere between EUR300 (USD228) and EUR600 (USD457) per car for automakers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A RESTRICTIVE open skies agreement has been negotiated between the European Commission and Sri Lanka that incorporates existing bilateral civil aviation agreements struck with individual European Union (EU) member states. The agreement includes deals previously struck by Sri Lanka with Austria, Belgium, Britain, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, IN CAPE TOWN; MOHAMMED YUSUF, IN NAIROBI; AND KEITH NUTHALL

A BOOK launched at last December’s Durban international climate change conference has focused on the growing potential for sugar to be a biofuel feedstock in Africa. ‘Bioenergy for Sustainable Development and International Competitiveness:

The Role of Sugar Cane in Africa’ was written by 44 authors representing 30 organisations in 16 countries and was published by Routledge.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

A STROLL through Myeong-dong, one of Seoul’s busiest shopping districts, gives a good idea of the magnitude of the popularity of South Korea’s cosmetics and skincare industry: according to the Korea Tourism Organisation there are approximately 1,000 cosmetic shops and hundreds of skincare stores within this small quadrant, alone.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

BILATERAL trade agreements between European Union (EU) and emerging economies have helped cushion EU plastics moulders and machinery suppliers as more important domestic markets have weakened in recession and the Eurozone crisis.

It is a two-way street: lower priced machinery from China and India has made inroads into EU markets for applications requiring less technologically sophisticated kit.…

BY MARK ROWE

ALTHOUGH it has been likened to a 21st century Silk Road, the southern gas corridor is currently making painstaking and troubled progress; inching its way through the political and economic strife that stands between the Caspian Sea and Western Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have expressed broad support for tightening rules insisting EU industrial minerals companies declare payments made to governments who regulate their mines and processing facilities. EU officials now are confident that these rules will be agreed by a June 30 deadline imposed by heads of government in January.…