Search Results for: South Africa

CORRUPTION saps economic competition that drives productivity improvements and grows emerging market economies – this is a key reason behind the establishment of the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre (CAACC). Another is the established link between the perception of risk from corrupt practices in a country and foreign economic investment.…

Most organisations in the Middle East today acknowledge the importance of gender diversity, yet the current number of females on boards does not reflect this, according to participants at a recent networking breakfast in Dubai, hosted by ACCA.

An important reason for this is the self-perception of women, who feel that they lack the experience to be a board member, according to research from Hawkamah, the Institute for Corporate Governance at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), whose CEO Dr Ashraf Gamal El Din addressed the meeting.…

Japan is now the United States’ leading export market for beef, in value and volume, and largest market for pork exports in value, according to 2017 trade data released by the US department of agriculture (USDA).

In the past calendar year, Japan imported 307,559 metric tonnes of US beef, an increase of 19% year-on-year, worth USD1.89 billion, which marks a 25% increase in value year-on-year from 2016.…

SENOR Russian government officials have conformed to GlobalMeatNews plans to build Russia’s largest duck meat production unit, in the Iskitimsky district of Novosibirsk region (oblast), south-western Siberia.

Russian ministry of agriculture and Novosibirsk oblast bureaucrats said the unit would be constructed by the Ulybino Poultry Factory Company, a major Russian poultry producer.  …

MORE companies have ‘fraud response plans’ (FRPs) than ever before to try and mitigate the recurrence and fallout from fraud incidents. But greater adoption does not always equal efficacy, with companies not always had the right procedures to learn from past mistakes.…

PROTECTIONISM and currency problems are posing challenges for north Africa’s beauty and personal care market, often forcing consumers to change their purchasing behaviour and turn to locally manufactured products, when they are available.

In Egypt, the region’s most populous country, the fall in value of the local currency, the Egyptian pound, against the Euro, has helped increase the price of imported products.…

SOUTH Korean companies in the digital textile print supply chain are aware that Asian rivals beat them on price, but are managing to stay afloat through better quality, company managers have told Digital Textile.

“Chinese products are very competitive with their prices, but their quality is still not good enough to satisfy global standards,” said Hani Kim, a manager at the overseas sales department of Unitrade, a Seoul-based manufacturer of heat transfer film for digital textile printing.…

THE HONG Kong financial secretary has proposed a 75% reduction of profits tax, salaries tax and tax under personal assessment for the 2017-18 assessment year, up to Hong Kong dollars HKD30,000 (USD3,820) per case. In his annual budget speech, Paul Chan also proposed widening tax bands, adding one more (HKD150,000 to HKD200,000); adjusting marginal tax rates for salaries tax; introducing a personal disability allowance; increasing basic, additional child allowances, dependent parent/grandparent allowance and additional allowance.…

A KEY Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) conference on fighting graft has heard how auditors can play a key role in promoting honesty in local government.

Speaking to Accounting & Business at the 2018 OECD Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum, in Paris, on March 27, Richard Chambers, President and CEO of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), said: “There are inherent risks involving local government where you often have less oversight and where you have officials or individuals who have motives to benefit from positions of authority.”…

*A newly approved European Union (EU) directive on transparency requirements for tax intermediaries will insist that accountants designing or promoting aggressive tax planning schemes report them to national tax authorities. The requirements, approved by the EU Council of Ministers, apply from July 1, 2020, and member states will have to fine intermediaries, including lawyers and bankers, that fail to report.…