Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST World Health Organisation (WHO) figures on HIV/AIDS indicate some heavily afflicted countries are seeing infection rates fall. Kenya and Zimbabwe are among those with declining infections: amongst all adults in Kenya, from 10% in the late 1990s to 7% in 2003; and among pregnant women in Zimbabwe falling, from 26% in 2003 to 21% in 2004.…

BY MARK ROWE AND PAUL COCHRANE

INTRODUCTION

JUST as chocolate sells well in cold countries, so do soft drinks flourish in hot countries, which would suggest that North Africa and the Levant presents an inviting face to the international drinks market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TRADE ministers at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Hong Kong summit are struggling today to reach a compromise deal on the vexed question of cotton subsidies that will prevent west African exporters scuppering an overall agreement. The United States has been under pressure to abandon its production payments to American growers, which are highly politically sensitive in the US.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MULTILATERAL Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA, is the international organisation companies turn to when they want to invest in a jurisdiction where their assets might not be that safe. Mining companies have long used MIGA to cover risks that are too tasty for the private insurance industry, and the agency has issued 58 guarantees for the sector since it was formed in 1988.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

SOUTH Africa’s move to slap fines on leading foreign car manufacturers for price collusion with dealerships is not expected to lead to a serious price war in the country’s busy showrooms.

South Africa’s Competition Tribunal decision to impose Rand 31.6 million (US$5 million) in collective penalties on leading manufacturers General Motors, Nissan, DaimlerChrysler, Citroën, Volkswagen came after an official investigation found evidence that manufacturers, including Toyota, imposed minimum resale prices on dealers, dealer collusion and anti-competitive franchise agreements.…

BY KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo

A YEAR after the Boxing Day tsunami, the four badly affected universities in Sri Lanka’s north, south and east are boxing on, with a bare minimum of repairs and reconstruction for want of funds. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had estimated the damage to the buildings and hostels at Ruhunu, South Eastern, Jaffna and Eastern universities to be SL Rupees 72 million (Pounds 387,000 at local prices), but its Chairman Professor Ranjith Mendis regretted that "the government and foreign donors had not been able" to find these sums.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

COSMETICS, perfume and personal hygiene companies in the Mercosur region of South America will have to stage annual health inspections of their manufacturing systems under a resolution agreed by member states Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. These will have to demonstrate that companies are following prescribed Mercosur standards of good practice, with written reports being produced by in-house laboratories, detailing results and any reforms that are required.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is forecasting a “moderately positive” outlook for European Union (EU) meat and poultry markets, with the industry recovering from its recent BSE, bird flu and Food and Mouth Disease scares. Its ‘Prospects for agricultural markets in the European Union 2004-2011’ report says that the sector is also being helped by Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, favourable world market conditions and an assumed future return to a stronger US dollar.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is staging regional training and research programmes to cut the thousands of gallons of milk spoiled in east Africa every week. It estimates that US$59.7 million dairy products are lost annually in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan facing unprecedented pressure for his resignation over the involvement of his son in the brewing Iraq oil for food scandal, the spotlight has again fallen on the finances of his global body.…