Search Results for: America

BY KEITH NUTHALL
*A south-south project – backed by World Bank Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) will raise Burundi’s teledensity ratio above one per cent. It is guaranteeing Mauritius Telecom Ltd’s US$1.01 million investment in Burundi’s Africell GSM mobile network.

*An emerging international market in hosting regional and international headquarters of transnational corporations benefits developing countries, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); 829 HQs were established or relocated January 2002 to March 2003, nearly a quarter in developing countries.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AN ASSUMPTION has been made by many in the past few months in the international food industry: the unveiling of so many new low-calorie and low-fat alternative food items must have something to do with obesity-related litigation lurking in the US.…

BY RICHARD HURST
SOUTH African mining company AngloGold recently announced that it was seeking to divest from some of its Australian gold fields to continue other diversification efforts outside South Africa. AngloGold Australia ‘s general manager, Barrie Parker, said that the company’s current properties in the central Australian Tanami Desert, particularly the Coyote deposit, had been earmarked for sale in to raise money for AngloGold’s recent explorations in Ghana, Mongolia, Canada and South America.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NON-FERROUS metal producers in the existing 15 European Union (EU) countries could see some lowering of labour costs after enlargement of the EU next year as low-paid Polish and other workers move into the higher wage countries like Germany, according to industry sources.…

BY PHILIP FINE

ONE of America’s largest clothing retailers is being sued for alleged racial bias

in their hiring practices. Nine young adults, including students and graduates of the University of California and Stanford, have accused Abercrombie & Fitch of discriminating against Latino, Asian American and African American applicants and employees.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AGRICULTURAL economists may disagree, but predicting trends in world food markets is not necessarily rocket science. A dose of healthy common sense can be as good a guide for the future demand for commodities as any amount of slide rules and complex economic equations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALTHOUGH air traveller numbers fell last year, with the civil aviation industry still reeling from September 11, the global travel retail market for perfumery and cosmetics grew by 7.2 per cent last year, the strongest performer of all duty-free shop goods.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE US government wants to limit pharmaceutical manufacturers to a one-month window in which to challenge a generic patent. Washington says multiple, consecutive patent challenges have been costing American billions of dollars in drugs costs. The Bush administration estimates that its planned regulatory changes will save consumers an estimated US$35 billion over 10 years.…

BY PHILIP FINE

ONE of the most public forms of corporate ostentation, the annual report, is dressing down in America. Many US companies are eschewing glossy paper and colour photos, choosing instead to print out sober unadorned messages. The average budget for annual reports dropped from US$209,600 in 1999 to US$184,700 in 2002, according to the USA’s National Investor Relations Institute.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW report on accountancy fraud has found that US companies are so desperate to inflate their earnings they are prepared to pay millions of dollars in tax on this fantasy income. Is this the ultimate example of pure greed trampling over common sense or are such businesses once more ahead of the game?…