Search Results for: Nigeria

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH

PAKISTAN’s automobile industry, contributing 2.8 % to the country’s GDP by financial year (FY) 2006-7, has grown impressively this decade. But the sector’s growth may turn negative this year because of high inflation, especially rising steel prices, political uncertainty and overall economic recession in Pakistan and elsewhere.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has offered financial and political support for a proposed Euro 15 billion trans-Saharan pipeline carrying natural gas from Nigeria to Europe. The move follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding by Russia’s Gazprom with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation over gas exploration and transportation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAN-MADE ecological disaster that almost destroyed a fishing industry is now being reversed. The northern Aral Sea – once a shallow saline remnant – is now growing again, boosting fish production. Excess irrigation shrank central Asia’s Aral Sea by 70% from 1960 to 2004, and its level dropped about 20 metres, splitting it in two in 1990: a small Northern Aral Sea entirely within Kazakhstan and a large Southern Aral Sea, shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EFFORTS to improve the poor safety record of African civil aviation have sparked a parallel process to improve the management of airports and air traffic management in the continent. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is to stage a conference on the issue from September 15 to 20 in Montreal, Canada, to update its policies to dovetail with a Comprehensive Regional Implementation Plan for Aviation Safety in Africa, which is now being rolled out.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ETHIOPIA COMMODITY EXCHANGE OPENS

ETHIOPIA has opened a commodity exchange, designed to bring order to the country’s often chaotic food markets. Their informality effectively forces farmers to sell locally to traders they know and trust. This prevents commodities moving from regions where there is abundance to those where there are shortages, intensifying the risk of famine and for prices to plummet in districts with a production glut.…

By Keith Nuthall

The potential riches that can be gained by universities spinning off successful science units into commercial operations has been made clear by a deal involving Britain’s University of Surrey and Airbus-maker EADS Astrium.

It has acquired the university’s Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) for an estimated GBPounds 50 million.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, in South Africa

SOUTH Africa is in a race against time to ensure the country’s

burgeoning economy is not crippled by fuel shortages, forcing its oil and gas companies to innovate to ensure security of supply, notably from neighbouring countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A COMPREHENSIVE environmental assessment of oil-production impacted sites is being undertaken in Nigeria’s Niger Delta by the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Development Programme. This follows a request by the Nigerian government peace initiative in Ogoniland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SECURITY of nuclear power installations may be a priority in terrorism-fearing rich countries, but not in poorer states, with many other problems. But it is equally important of course: nuclear accidents, sabotage and terror attacks are devastating wherever they occur.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states and the European Commission are squaring up ahead of a political battle this autumn over anticipated energy liberalisation proposals. A letter from France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovakia has been written to the Commission stating their firm opposition to comprehensive energy unbundling in anticipated proposed European Union (EU) legislation.…