Search Results for: International business

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has announced that it is lending US$40 million to Volkswagen Argentina S.A., a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, to support investment for the production of gearboxes for passenger cars in its plant located in Cordoba, Argentina.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE CREATION of a European Aviation Safety Agency has moved closer following a “broad preliminary agreement” by EU transport ministers on common rules for civil aviation safety between the 15 member countries. The European Commission has been given 12 months to draw up “adequate proposals” on how the proposed regulation could be applied to third country aircraft.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH schools have featured in an international study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which highlighted good practice examples of how sensitive building design can help education.

The report, Designs for Learning: 55 Exemplary Educational Facilities, looked at how technological change in learning techniques – such as the Internet – and in environmental requirements – such as energy efficiency – has been incorporated in new schools, universities and colleges.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CHAPTERS INC, Canada’s largest book retailer has revealed heavy losses in the past fiscal year of CAN$84.5 million, compared to a profit of CAN$17.2 million last year. However, the gloomy figures disguises good news about overall sales, which rose to CAN$686.5 million from CAN$660.3 million from the previous year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INDONESIAN navy has recovered a stolen oil tanker from pirates, who seized it near the Shell refinery at Port Dickson, the Malacca Straits. The International Maritime Bureau – part of the International Chamber of Commerce – provided important information about the ship, via its Piracy Reporting Centre in Malaysia.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN ACROSS-THE-BOARD reduction in EU fishing activity lasting for several years and including a cut of 40 to 50 per cent in cod and hake catches is to be formally proposed by the European Commission in an effort to safeguard the future of the fishing sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RESEARCHERS in developing countries are to be offered US$ 17 million in grants for work on tobacco control policies, via a new programme co-sponsored by the US National Institutes for Health and the World Health Organisation. Their International Tobacco Health Research and Capacity Building Programme will, over the next five years, support research on tobacco consumption and related health risks in developing countries and fund studies about how tobacco use impacts on low and middle-income countries..…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIPLOMATS are working hard to lay the groundwork for the launch of a new general round of trade talks at the World Trade Organisation, when the international commerce body holds its biennial ruling ministerial meeting this November.

By the time trade ministers congregate in Doha, Qatar, it is hoped that the bulk of a deal will have been stitched up behind the scenes, allowing governments to rubber stamp a move into negotiations mirroring the depth and breadth of the Uruguay Round that set up the WTO in 1994.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIFFERENTIAL pricing in world pharmaceutical markets has been backed by a joint workshop involving the World Trade Organisation, the World Health Organisation, the Global Health Council and its national host, Norway.

A report released from the meeting has born out a general consensus reached by participants that “differential pricing could, and should, play an important role in ensuring access to existing essential drugs at affordable prices, especially in poor countries, while allowing the patent system to continue to play its role of providing incentives for research and development into new drugs.”…

BY DERIDRE MASON
MANY health and safety leaflets are going over their targets’ heads because the reading age needed to understand them is too high, delegates at the recent Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents health at work conference at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, heard.…