Search Results for: Saudi Arabian

BY PAUL COCHRANE

BANGLADESH’S fledgling anti money laundering and counter terrorist financing regime faces an uphill struggle, with the country ranked as one of the most corrupt on earth and money laundering equivalent to 13% of the country’s GDP. Furthermore, Abul Barkat, Professor of Economics at Dhaka University told the Money Laundering Bulletin, an estimated US$7 billion flows into Bangladesh through illegal alternative remittance systems, and there is an ‘economy within an economy’ generating some US$300 million in profits every year for Islamist political parties linked to fundamentalist and terrorist activities.…

BY CRISTINA MUNTEAN

THE SECURITY of energy supply, including oil and gas storage capacity, dominates the current energy agenda of the Czech Republic, which took over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) from January 1, 2009.

This is no surprise: on July 10, 2008, Russian oil pipeline operator Transnieft cut monthly contracted oil deliveries by almost half from 500,000 tonnes to 300,000 tonnes via the Druzhba pipeline.…

BY MARK GODFREY

GIVEN that much of the world’s shoes, giftware and electronic appliances are made in China’s southeastern Fujian province, it is easy to understand why ExxonMobil fought so hard to join Aramco and China’s Sinopec in building a huge refinery here.…

BY MARK GODFREY

IT has been a bad year to be a fuel retailer in China. Local retailing leader Sinopec has had its profits squeezed by government price controls on petrol prices. Prices at Chinese pumps have risen by 9% in the last 12 months, even though the cost of crude has jumped 40% in the same time span.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 attacks on the US resulted in a raft of regulations to curb terrorist financing, but seven years on Al Qaeda is still at large, has adapted to the new regulatory environment to raise funds, and morphed into an international terrorist Hydra.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has swiftly approved the re-establishment of anti-dumping duties on imports of polyester staple fibres from Belarus, China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Ministers agreed with the European Commission that lifting them would lead to further dumping of this yarn on EU markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed re-erecting anti-dumping duties on imports of polyester staple fibres from Belarus, China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea after concluding that lifting them would lead to further dumping of this yarn on European Union (EU) markets.…

BY KENCHO WANGDI, in Thimphu, Bhutan; JUHEL BROWNE, in Port of Spain, Trinidad; BILL CORCORAN, in Johannesburg; and KEITH NUTHALL

THE RISING price in oil has hit the prosperity of many companies, communities and countries, but it is the world’s poorest people, living in what the United Nations calls least developed countries that are suffering the most.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

THE KUWAIT Project, the country’s multi-billion dollar plan to boost oil production capacity to 4million/bpd (barrels per day) by 2020, is still lagging way behind schedule, with the opposition in its parliament preventing progress while international oil companies are getting cold feet due to the delay.…

By Paul Cochrane, Beirut

And with Lebanese political leaders looking to outside powers to consolidate their domestic position, whether you are pro- or anti- Western depends on the politics of the day.
But that, like any brief summary of Lebanon, is a simplification, as although the Hizbullah led opposition is ostensibly anti-Western, strongly backed by Iran and ardently anti-Zionist, fellow opposition party the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) is predominantly Christian and pro-Western.…