Search Results for: United Nations

The Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), a technical agency of the Organisation of American States (OAS), is playing an increasingly influential role in the Americas in terms of fighting drug-trade linked money laundering. Specifically, CICAD has a central role in the unfolding of the Hemispheric Plan of Action on Drugs 2011-2015 which was adopted by the OAS in 2011, and includes key anti-money launderingAML components.…

THE FORMER Soviet, Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan is being wooed by the West for its oil and gas reserves, but attention is increasingly turning to its solid mineral wealth. According to the country’s State Committee on Statistics, explored mineral reserves are put at USD3.27 trillion and from a key plank of the country’s economy: in 2012, according to the committee, metals processing accounted for 17% of all the country’s industrial output and was valued at Uzbekistani Som UZS8.6 trillion (USD4.2 billion), a rise of 12.4% on 2011.…

PERSONAL care product packaging has entered a new era of ultra-customisation in which nearly everything is possible, and careful choices must be made by design teams in order to effectively communicate to consumers. “In the cosmetics and personal care product industry, where competition is so high, packaging design is crucial because otherwise, consumers don’t have a clear way of differentiating the quality of a product without opening it,” remarked Gabriel Alvarez-Jacobo, managing director of Imagemme, a New York-based packaging design and branding agency.…

ETHICAL sourcing in the garment and textile industry is a key consideration – not just because it is the right thing to do, but because consumers are keen to know how their clothes and accessories have been produced. But one key question is who sets the parameters of what is ethically sourced?…

THE EVER-CHANGING sourcing equation is a challenge to the global garment and textile industry supply chain. There is talk of moving production back home to western countries – bringing it closer to market- but its viability is being questioned. Meanwhile in Asia, where the majority of clothes are currently produced worldwide, the sourcing landscape is changing, experts say.…

IT is a long way from China, east Asia and south Asia to the key developed world markets or Europe and America. And with fashion being so dynamic, demand for a line could have dampened in the months between placing an order and receiving delivery.…

WITH Chinese clothing and textile manufacturers struggling with rising costs – through inflation, wage increases and currency adjustments – international brands have been shopping around for new sourcing countries. There are plenty of options, especially in China’s east Asia neighbourhood, where Vietnam and Cambodia have developed lower cost centres.…

INTERNATIONAL and domestic cosmetics brands are capitalising on strong economic growth in the Philippines, which at 95 million has the 12th biggest population in the world. It is also among the Next Eleven economies highlighted by Goldman Sachs with a high potential of becoming, along with the BRICS, the world’s largest economies in the 21st century.…

A SLOW revolution in the use of biomass for firing or co-firing power generation is picking up pace this year as a number of competing technologies for the production of ‘biocoal’ move more convincingly towards full commercialisation.

Biocoal produced through torrefaction – in which dry biomass such as wood, paper, food waste and even sewerage waste is slow-heated anoxically (to avoid combustion) at 200C to 300C to reduce moisture and drive off low-energy volatile chemicals – offers slightly degraded fuel with lower emissions and carbon footprints (it is carbon neutral) than traditional biomass and, certainly, than coal.…

The latest financial crisis to hit the Eurozone – hitting the diplomatically-recognised portion of Cyprus – is perhaps a case study in how to mismanage a banking-reliant economy and of how the international community can err when applying a fix.

As Accounting & Business went to press, the divided Mediterranean island was faced with the prospect of having to stop all government payments unless fresh money pours in by April 24.…