Search Results for: International business

BY Alan Osborn
Top level plans drawn up for the future of Europe aren’t green enough says an informal coalition of eight leading environmental organisations. The group has strongly challenged the constitutional blueprint for the future of the EU set out by the European Convention (composed of governments, parliaments, EU institutions, academics and others) and has proposed significant changes in the detail as well as the overall thrust of the text.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
*A south-south project – backed by World Bank Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) will raise Burundi’s teledensity ratio above one per cent. It is guaranteeing Mauritius Telecom Ltd’s US$1.01 million investment in Burundi’s Africell GSM mobile network.

*An emerging international market in hosting regional and international headquarters of transnational corporations benefits developing countries, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); 829 HQs were established or relocated January 2002 to March 2003, nearly a quarter in developing countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WORLD Health Organisation agency has concluded that chewing betel quid causes cancer, whether or not tobacco is included in the ‘pan’ mix especially popular with ethnic south Asians. It came to the same conclusion regarding another popular chewing ingredient, the areca nut.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
THE INCREASED international availability of cashews and a consequent price slump reduced Indian exports by more than INDRupees 500 million (US$10.9 million) this year. Total exports of the nut April-June 2003 were 21,192 tonnes, compared with 23,770 tonnes the same period in 2002.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THERE has been a lot of talk about water in international meetings and organisations this year. Report after report has spelt out that we are all using too much water and if reforms do not make systems more sustainable, then a thirsty future beckons.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HONG Kong is free of the chicken flu that devastated its poultry industry last year, say Office International des Epizooties documents. Only five outbreaks of avian influenza virus strain H5N1 were detected in Hong Kong during December 2002 and this January and no further cases have been detected since January 31.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WE know that British farmers are generally lining up behind EU farm commissioner Franz Fischler’s bid to reform the Common Agriculture Policy but how do they see things the other side of the Irish Sea? Neither the government nor farmers in Ireland have so far expressed much enthusiasm about the plan to switch from production-linked to flat payments – the so-called de-coupling process.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
France has launched a legal action at the European Court of Justice aimed at overturning the EU ban on animal testing for cosmetic products. Under the EU directive, agreed earlier this year after 13 years of negotiations, there will be a virtually total ban on the sale of animal-tested cosmetic products across the EU from 2009.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE, in Columbo
SRI Lankan finance company Sadaharitha Investment (Pvt) Limited, has introduced a new scheme – called Thurusetha – encouraging citizens and business to invest in planting mahogany on the island. The company claims that more than 1,000 investors have already signed up, leading to 40,000 trees being planted on more than one hundred and fifty acres in Ratnapura, Colombo and Kalutara districts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is predicting that the world’s air industry will emerge from its September 11 inspired doldrums next year. The UN agency’s forecasts say that following 2001’s decline in business and two years of stagnation, traffic should rebound with 4.4 per cent growth in 2004 and 6.3 per cent in 2005.…