Search Results for: International business

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INSURANCE industry has been advised by the world’s largest think-tank on how to simultaneously improve its customer service, while becoming more efficient and profitable. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has drawn up with the help of the industry ‘guidelines for good practice and insurance claim management’.…

BY MARK ROWE
THERE is no doubt that water quality in eastern Europe has improved immeasurably since the break up of the Soviet Union and its related satellite states, a process reinforced by the wholesale privatisation now taking place. But while standards have improved, concerns about pollution, old pipes and outdated treatment works are likely to continue.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank Group, has launched an ‘HIV/AIDS Guide for the Mining Sector’, advising mine operators, especially in developing countries, on how to minimise the exposure of their workforce to the disease.…

Keith Nuthall
THE WORLD Tourism Organisation is researching the potential for creating subsidised international flights to developing countries poorly served by air links. It is working with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on the project.…

Keith Nuthall
THE JAPANESE government has come under pressure from the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office to cut landing and user fees at its major international airports. The call came in advice from USTR deputy Josette Sheeran Shiner, handed over to Japan foreign minister Ichiro Fujisaki, in Washington.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed abolishing rules setting pack sizes across Europe for a range of consumer products, including detergents, pet food, ice cream, frozen food, low alcoholic drinks, soft drinks, cleaning products, paints, shampoo and toothpaste. As existing detailed European Union (EU) rules regulate the sizes for products being exported to other EU countries, the liberalisation would make it easier for retailers to import goods at whatever size they want.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
JUDICIAL reform is the number one priority for Croatia’s bid to improve its civil, government and business systems to prepare for European Union (EU) membership, said a new report. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) 2004 Transition Report has highlighted Croatia’s establishment of a Judicial Academy, in cooperation with the Law School of Zagreb University and its Supreme Court.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
GREECE has failed to approve legislation implementing the European Union’s (EU) second money laundering directive and has provided neither an explanation nor a promise of future action to the European Commission, laying itself open to action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND ALAN OSBORN
THE TOP selling guidebook Lonely Planet is rather dismissive of San Marino, calling the world’s oldest republic and Europe’s third smallest state “a silly place”. True, there is a touch of the comic opera about this Italian-speaking enclave, with it spiffily unformed ceremonial guards and its reliance on sales of colourful stamps, but San Marino does have a significant financial sector, and so is of interest to anti-money laundering professionals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BOARDS of major corporations worldwide are failing to disclose to financial investors how environmental and social issues pose strategic risks and opportunities for their businesses, according to an international review of corporate reports. Out of 50 reports examined in detail by non-governmental organisation SustainAbility, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, only three assessed the balance sheet implications of these potential problems.…