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THE KAZAKH steppe is the world’s largest expanse of open grassland – 804,500 square kilometres of northern Kazakhstan, a natural resource that feeds dairy breeds such as Kazakh white-headed cattle. Indeed, this central Asian country does not just have the environment to become a global dairy hub, it has a long-standing set of domestic dairy food traditions it can draw upon, such as ‘tvorog’, which is similar to cottage cheese, or ‘kurt’, a snack made from dried salty cheese.…

A EUROPEAN Commission plan to identify online and physical marketplaces outside the European Union (EU) where counterfeiting piracy or other forms of intellectual property (IP) abuse are common practices has brought hope to the cosmetics sector. Continuously confronted with counterfeit and black-market goods, the legitimate industry sees the EU’s upcoming ‘Counterfeit and Piracy Watch-List’ as a way to minimise financial losses from pirates and smugglers.…

TAKING tips online, Malaysians are increasingly adopting a DIY stance for comparatively simple home maintenance tasks such as painting walls – a trend that has led the country’s home paint sales to surge – notwithstanding weak economic conditions, experts say.

Indeed, an economic softening in 2016 partly led consumers to opt for DIY so that they can cut the cost of hiring professionals to paint walls, an analyst from London-based market intelligence company Euromonitor International said.…

A VOTE by the UK parliament to insist that Britain’s overseas territories introduce publicly available beneficial ownership registers by December 31, 2020, has sparked anger and dismay within these autonomous, mainly small island, jurisdictions.

An amendment to a UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill requires the British government to impose such registers on its OTs by this deadline, if the local administrations have not created their own.…

THE MALAYSIAN government has effectively scrapped the country’s Goods & Services Tax (GST) reducing its rate from 6% to 0%, effective June 1. The move follows the election of a new administration under former opposition alliance Pakatan Harapan, defeating the incumbent Barisan Nasional.…

CHINA’S State Council has announced reductions in mainland VAT, with businesses being saved Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY400 billion (USD62.8 billion) in this year alone, it has said. Rates have been lowered (from May 1, 2018) from 17% to 16% for manufacturing and other industries, and 11% to 10% for transport, construction bills, standard telecommunications service, and direct farm output purchasers by consumers (12% when these goods are bought by manufacturers for onward processing).…

The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam, a religious duty every Muslim should perform once in their lifetime. But with 1.7 billion Muslims worldwide and the Hajj only occurring over five days every year, the event is a logistical challenge for the Saudi Arabian government, tour operators, hospitality service providers, retailers and accountants.…

THE AMERICAN and Canadian automotive industries will be counting the cost of new tariffs being imposed on steel and aluminum traded between their countries, following the decision yesterday by the Trump administration to start collecting 25% on Canadian steel and 10% on aluminum.…

PAKISTAN’S textile industrialists are downbeat over the diminishing prospects of investment by Chinese financiers and manufacturers, holding the government responsible for the apparent stalemate with its continued prohibitive production costs.

Speaking to WTiN.com, Pakistan textile industry insiders believe that sensing the high cost of doing business compared with rival manufacturing countries in south Asia, Chinese investors are losing interest in the Pakistani sector.…

Argentina’s auto industry had expected a near record year in 2018, but unexpected financial problems that have hit the country in the past month could push the economy into recession and dampen local demand for cars. 
These problems are a far cry from the optimism expressed on April 4, when the heads of three carmakers spoke bullishly about production and sales growth at a business conference staged in Buenos Aires by economic consultancy Invecq Consulting. …