Category: Business

PARIS — As Europe rang in the New Year 20 years ago, 12 of its nations said goodbye to their deutschmarks, French francs, liras and pesetas as they welcomed the euro single currency.

On January 1, 2002, euro notes and coins became a reality for some 300 million people from Athens to Dublin, three years after the currency was formally launched in “virtual” form.

Here is a recap of the event, drawn from AFP reporting at the time:

In a far cry from the austere New Year’s celebrations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic 20 years later, fireworks, music and lights blazed at midnight into the early morning of January 1, 2002, to mark the biggest monetary switch in history.

AFP reported that many people passed on their traditional New Year’s Eve parties, choosing instead to queue up at cash dispensers in their enthusiasm to get hold of the first pristine euro notes.

In Berlin, Germans said hello to the euro and goodbye to their beloved mark at a special ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate, as up to 1 million people thronged the streets for the traditional giant New Year’s Eve street party there.

The euro cash was also a hit in the coffee shops and red-light district of Amsterdam.

Irish revelers were, however, less in a hurry to welcome the euro, continuing to pay for Guinness, Ireland’s favorite tipple, in the national currency, leaving the headache of the changeover until the next day.

As many feared, the euro switch provoked sporadic price hikes across Europe.

From Spanish bus tickets, which jumped by 33%, to a Finnish bazaar, where “everything for 10 markka (1.68 euros)” was now “everything for two euros,” many price tags were a bit heftier since the single currency became legal tender.

The European Central Bank president at the time, Wim Duisenberg, who warned merchants not to take advantage of the euro launch to increase prices, said he had not seen signs of widespread abuse.

“When I bought a Big Mac and a strawberry milkshake this week it cost 4.45 euros, which is exactly the same amount as I paid for the same meal last week,” Duisenberg told reporters.

Europe surprised itself with the almost glitch-free transition to the single currency, AFP reported.

The Germans — reputedly skeptical about the single currency and nostalgic for their mark — turned out to be among the most enthusiastic.

An editorial in the popular German tabloid Bild proclaimed: “Our new money is moving full speed ahead. No problems whatsoever in saying adieu to the mark, no tears to be shed.”

Initial “europhoria” was, however, tempered as a few hiccups appeared, such as cash shortages and long lines in banks, post offices and at toll booths.

France urged citizens to not rush all at once to the banks with their savings, often hoarded under mattresses and in jam jars, since they had until June 30 to get rid of their francs at commercial banks and until 2012 at the Bank of France.

And the European Commission reported minor problems in getting small euro bills and coins distributed in most countries.

Duisenberg said, however, he was sure that January 1, 2002, would be written into history books as the start of a new European era.

Source: Voice of America

MALE (Maldives), Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and Maldives must grow further to enhance trade, investment and connectivity.

“Our bilateral relations must grow further to enhance trade, investment, connectivity, and people-to-people contact. It is my firm belief that the instruments we concluded today would bring our two peoples closer,” she said.

The Prime Minister was addressing the state banquet hosted in her honour by President of Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and the First Lady at Kurumba Island, Maldives.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh and Maldives share religious values, cultural affinity and stand on the same plane of developmental aspiration.

“With these commonalities in place, we look forward to striding ahead together in the days to come,” she added.

“As we believe in shared prosperity and socio-economic development, I feel happy to see thousands of Bangladeshis working together with their Maldivian brothers and sisters in the Maldives and contributing to both the country’s economies,” she said.

“We could set an example by our collaboration during the pandemic,” she added.

The Prime Minister admired President Solih’s commendable initiatives to radically reshape the economic landscape of the Maldives through the particular emphasis on inter-island connectivity, green tourism, climate-smart infrastructure, and transition to renewable energy.

She also appreciated Maldives for their determination in the face of acute climate adversity and for their resilience in keeping the tourism industry rolling, even amid shockwaves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, the premier said Bangladesh’s endeavor is also focused on implementing the development discourse and transforming Bangladesh into a developed country by 2041.

“Our government’s Vision-2041 is an image of Bangladesh that meets the hopes and aspirations of the country’s people for an economically, developed, and inclusive society envisioned by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib’s dream “Golden Bangladesh,” she added.

The premier said they are committed to implementing SDGs in the stipulated time frame. “We also have started implementing ‘Bangladesh Delta Plan-2100.’ With our all-out efforts, Bangladesh has already been branded as ‘the Development Miracle’ by the world,” she added.

The Prime Minister wished good health and wellbeing of President Solih and the First Lady, and the continued peace, progress, and prosperity of the friendly people of the Maldives

Source: Nam News Network

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has declined an effort by Apple Inc. to skip a shareholder proposal asking the iPhone maker to provide greater transparency in its efforts to keep forced labor out of its supply chain.

A group of shareholders earlier this year asked Apple’s board to prepare a report on how the company protects workers in its supply chain from forced labor. The request for information covered the extent to which Apple has identified suppliers and sub-suppliers that are a risk for forced labor, and how many suppliers Apple has taken action against.

In a letter from the SEC reviewed by Reuters on Wednesday, regulators denied Apple’s move to block the proposal, saying that “it does not appear that the essential objectives of the proposal have been implemented” so far.

The letter means that Apple will have to face a vote on the proposal at its annual shareholder meeting next year, barring a deal with the shareholders who made it.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

American lawmakers last week passed a bill banning imports from China’s Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labor.

“There’s rightfully growing concern at all levels of government about the concentration camplike conditions for Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims living under Chinese government rule,” Vicky Wyatt, campaign director for SumOfUs, a group supporting the shareholder proposal, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Apple routinely asks the SEC to skip shareholder proposals, and the requests are granted about half the time.

The SEC also denied Apple’s request to skip a shareholder proposal that would give investors more information about the company’s use of nondisclosure agreements.

Source: Voice of America

ACCRA, GHANA — Lawmakers in Ghana exchanged blows late Monday evening over a proposed electronic payment tax.The government says the new tax would boost revenue for development, but parliament has been split over the idea and fights broke out when supporters tried to force a vote.

Ghanaians in general, and the opposition in particular, have vehemently opposed the proposed 1.75% tax on electronic transactions, popularly known as e-levy, contained in the 2022 budget.

If passed, the law would include taxes on mobile money payments, which is used by 40% of Ghanaians 15 years and older, according to a 2021 data by the central bank.

Up against a deadline, the government wanted the bill passed under a certificate of urgency on the last day of sitting. But a brawl broke out on the floor when the first deputy speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, pushed for the vote.

The regular speaker was absent from the session. Opposition MP Mahama Ayariga says the deputy was circumventing normal procedure in an attempt to force the bill through parliament.

“The house is governed by rules. And so when you make it right for persons to undermine those rules what do you expect the MPs to do. They won’t just sit aside and watch the person undermine the rules,” he said.

The acting speaker, Osei-Owusu, says he operated within the standing orders of Ghana’s parliament and had the right to vote for the bill under consideration.

“As long as we can change over then that advantage is restored. In my view and I still hold that view strongly that as long as we can change the seat at any time there should not be that disadvantage,” he said. “Otherwise, no proceedings will go on. Why should I come and preside so that I can’t take any decision, what is the point?”

About 50 lawmakers took part in the brawl.Only one was injured, the minister of youth and sports who got a cut in the face.

The executive director of the African Center for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Rasheed Draman, told a local radio station that Ghana should brace for more gridlock in the current parliament.

“I have never seen anything like this. And for me I have said this since the beginning of the year that if we’re not careful this is how the eighth parliament is going to be. It will be characterized by a lot of confusion and a lot of gridlock,” he said.

Parliament has now been adjourned until January 18 to give lawmakers more room to consult on the controversial electronic levy.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON, The International Monetary Fund approved a disbursement of $258.1 million for Kenya after completing a second review under a 38-month program to address debt vulnerabilities, the Covid-19 response and enhancing governance.

The delivery of IMF funds brings total disbursements to $972.6 million out of a total $2.34 billion available under the country’s program approved in April, the IMF said in a statement.

Kenyan authorities have kept up a strong commitment to their reform agenda in a challenging environment and are acting to cut debt vulnerabilities while supporting the economic recovery, the IMF said. Officials have maintained careful control of government spending to limit the deficit and are taking steps to reform state-owned enterprises to limit pressure on the budget while protecting social programs, the fund said.

The fund estimated that Kenya’s economy will grow 5.9% this year. The nation’s Covid-19 vaccination program has picked up speed, though uncertainty and pandemic-related pressures will persist until vaccinations become widely available, and the political calendar is a source of uncertainty, the IMF said.

“Kenya’s medium-term prospects remain positive, and the authorities’ continued commitment to their economic program is essential to maintain macroeconomic balance, while ensuring a more sustainable, greener, and inclusive growth,” IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Sayeh said.

The board also completed Kenya’s Article IV consultation.

Kenya’s economy will probably expand by 5.8% in 2022 and 5.5% in 2023 after it contracted 0.3% last year, the IMF said.

Source: Nam News Network

WASHINGTON, More than 12 million children in mainland Tanzania will benefit from a new World Bank-supported program that aims to make preprimary and primary education better and more accessible across the country.

Primary enrollment in Tanzania increased by more than 2.5 million since 2013. Mainland now has 12.3 million students attending preprimary and primary classes. Nevertheless, Tanzania’s education sector remains constrained by several key factors including inequitable access to early learning and primary education for rural marginalized and vulnerable groups, inadequate school learning environments exacerbated by declining financing and increasing school populations, and a shortage of teachers and low teacher competencies.

The $500 million BOOST Primary Student Learning Program for Results that was approved today by the World Bank Board of Directors will help make Tanzania primary schools safer, more inclusive and child friendly, enhance teachers’ subject content knowledge and pedagogical competencies, and strengthen education finance and decentralized service delivery capacity. The overall goal is to ensure an education system that supports all children, including the most marginalized, to enroll early, develop strong foundational skills, and complete a quality education.

“*Tanzania has made important progress in education by expanding access and reducing gender disparity in basic education. Investing in the education of young and vulnerable children, especially girls, is a critical building block to accelerating the country’s progress towards inclusive growth, poverty reduction and stronger upward mobility of all Tanzanians,*”**said Mara Warwick, World Bank Country Director for Tanzania**.

BOOST which was jointly formulated with the government and other development partners will support the Government’s Education Sector Development Plan in the next five years by providing results-based financing to catalyze reforms and implement interventions in three main areas:

• Improving Public School Learning Environment. Supports the provision of safer and learning-conducive environments for pre-primary and primary pupils, helping schools meet minimum infrastructure requirements and implement a Primary Safe School Program (PSSP). This component will also support building at least 12,000 classrooms and associated facilities mainly in vulnerable rural communities.

• Improving Teacher Competencies and Quality of Classroom Teaching. Supports the nationwide implementation of Tanzania’s Teacher Continuous Professional Development policy, using a sustainable school-based approach complemented by a network of at least 800 primary hub schools empowered with ICT-smart classrooms and a Learning Management System that provides digitized teaching learning resources.

• Strengthening Education Financing and Decentralized Service Delivery Capacity: Support focuses on enhancing education financing, increasing community empowerment, and strengthening the oversight of local government authorities in improving the quality of education services delivery.

BOOST will also strengthen the capacities of the implementing agencies–the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology and President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government–as well as core education technical agencies, such as the Tanzania Institute of Education, the National Examination Council of Tanzania, and the Teacher Service Commission.

“The new program carefully balances system strengthening with direct provision to fill important service delivery gaps especially in rural and vulnerable communities. It builds on the strong foundation laid by the previous program for results but goes beyond to expand access to preprimary education, leverage ICT for teaching and learning, and strengthen decentralized education governance,” Xiaoyan Liang, World Bank Lead Education Specialist and Task Team Leader (TTL) for BOOST.

The Government of Tanzania’s decision to remove barriers to access education, including those that prevented pregnant girls or young mothers from attending formal school, underscores the country’s commitment to making education better, safer, and more accessible for its next generation, and to advance Tanzania’s social and economic development. BOOST will join the suite of education sector projects in Tanzania financed by the World Bank that will support implementation of this policy. BOOST will provide training for staff at the local level to enhance their understanding of Tanzania’s legal framework, adherence to a code of conduct concerning the rights of all children, and a move towards abolishing all forms of violence, whether gender-based, against children, persons with disabilities, pregnant girls, and other vulnerable and marginalized groups.

* The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 74 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.3 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has provided $458 billion to 114 countries. Annual commitments have averaged about $29 billion over the last three years (FY19-FY21), with about 70 percent going to Africa.

Source: World Bank

CNN is closing its offices in the United States to all nonessential employees as COVID-19 cases increase, the network said on Saturday in an internal memo to staff seen by Reuters.

CNN, part of AT&T Inc’s WarnerMedia division, will close its offices to all employees who do not have work in the office, the memo said.

“We are doing this out of an abundance of caution,” CNN President Jeff Zucker said in the memo. “And it will also protect those who will be in the office by minimizing the number of people who are there.”

Employees who need to come to the office will be required to wear a mask at all times, CNN said.

The network will also make changes to its studios and control rooms to minimize the number of people at offices, according to the memo.

The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The network had set a tentative return-to-office date in January and it isn’t known if that date will move, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

CNN requires all employees to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 to come to office or to work on field with other employees.

In August, the company terminated three of its workers for coming to the office unvaccinated.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON, Amid a severe food security crisis in the south of Madagascar, the World Bank is providing $100 million in additional financing to the Support for Resilient Livelihoods in the South of Madagascar (Mionjo) Project.

“The government has prioritized climate change mitigation and development in the southern region of the country.. This includes stepping up thefight against malnutrition, which requires concrete projects that empower the population and provide vital water infrastructure that is key to irrigating crops and protecting again the impacts of drought,” said Andry Rajoelina, President of the Republic of Madagascar. “This additional funding from the World Bank for the Mionjo project reinforces our efforts to enable people to develop income-generating activities and support development.”

This new financing, which includes $50 million from the Crisis Response Window Early Response Financing, is part of the World Bank’s ongoing engagement to strengthen the government’s response to the drought-induced crisis, address vulnerabilities, and enhance the resilience of communities and sustainability of food production and livelihood systems. It builds upon the objectives of the original Mionjo project to address longer-term development challenges and strengthen local government in the southern regions. It will benefit more than 920,000 people in 14 districts across three regions in the South (Anosy, Androy, Atsimo Andrefana), which areamong the hardest hit by the crisis.

“*We cannot develop the south of Madagascar, one of the poorest regions of the country, without breaking this recurrent cycle of drought. With this new support, which increases financing for the Mionjo project up to $200 million, we seek to link up near-term recovery with medium-term livelihood support and build-back better greening interventions to rehabilitate food production and livelihood systems and improve the health of ecosystems that underpin them,*” said Hafez Ghanem, World Bank Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa.

The project’s activities benefit from a cross-sectoral collaboration across four ministries, and involve investments in agriculture, water, environment and decentralization. At the household level, the aim is to reach those who are most food insecure with immediate water and cash assistance and climate-smart innovations to jumpstart their agriculture activities and help recover their livelihoods and assets. At the village level, the project will upgrade water supply sources to render them more efficient and capable of supporting both human and animal consumption, and in some areas, irrigated production of higher value, nutrient rich foods.

Interventions will also restore degraded ecosystems through reforestation and installation of windbreaks. They will also help improve community management of water and other natural resources that are fundamental to sustaining productive and resilient livelihoods. In response to threats posed by locusts, this additional financing will also finance locust surveillance and control measures led by the national locust management agency, with technical backstopping from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The southern region of Madagascar is experiencing the worst drought in 40 years, a dire situation that is amplified by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and other covariate shocks, and has resulted in a deteriorating food security situation that includes cute risk of famine in some of the hardest-hit communes.

Source: World Bank

HONG KONG — After lurching from deadline to deadline, China Evergrande Group is again on the brink of default, with pessimistic comments from the property developer raising expectations of direct state involvement and a managed debt restructuring.

Having made three 11th-hour coupon payments in the past two months, Evergrande will again face the end of a 30-day grace period on Monday, with dues this time at $82.5 million.

But a statement late on Friday saying creditors had demanded $260 million and that it could not guarantee enough funds for coupon repayment prompted authorities to summon its chairman – and wiped over a sixth off its stock’s market value on Monday.

Evergrande was once China’s top-selling developer but is nowgrappling with more than $300 billion in liabilities, meaning a collapse could ripple through the property sector and beyond.

Its statement on Friday was followed by one from authorities in its home province of Guangdong, saying they would send a team to Evergrande at the developer’s request to oversee risk management, strengthen internal control and maintain operations.

The central bank, banking and insurance regulator and securities regulator also released statements, saying risk to the broader property sector could be contained.

Short-term risk from a single real estate firm will not undermine market funding in the medium or long term, said the People’s Bank of China. Housing sales, land purchases and financing “have already returned to normal in China”, it said.

Analysts said authorities’ concerted effort signaled Evergrande has likely already entered a managed debt-asset restructuring process to reduce systemic risk.

Morgan Stanley in a report said such a process would involve coordination between authorities to maintain normal operation of property projects, and negotiation with onshore creditors to ensure financing for projects’ development and completion.

Regulators would also likely facilitate debt restructuring discussion with offshore creditors after business operations start to stabilize, the U.S. investment bank said.

After the flurry of statements, Evergrande’s stock slid as much as 15% on Monday to HK$1.92 – its lowest since May 2010.

Its November 2022 bond – one of two bonds that could go into default on non-payment on Monday – was trading at the distressed price of 20.787 U.S. cents on the dollar, compared with 20.083 cents at the end of Friday.

Liquidity squeeze

Evergrande has been struggling to raise capital by disposing of assets, and the government has asked Chairman Hui Ka Yan to use his wealth to repay company debt.

The firm is just one of a number of developers facing an unprecedented liquidity squeeze due to regulatory curbs on borrowing, causing a string of offshore debt defaults, credit-rating downgrades and sell-offs in developers’ shares and bonds.

To prevent further turmoil, regulators since October have urged banks to relax lending for developers’ normal financing needs and allowed more real estate firms to sell domestic bonds.

To free up funds at banks, Premier Li Keqiang on Friday said China will cut the bank reserve requirement ratio (RRR) “in a timely way” to increase support for the real economy.

Still, the government may have to significantly step up policy-easing measures in the spring to prevent a sharp downturn in the property sector, Japanese investment bank Nomura said in a report published on Sunday.

Contagion

Smaller developer Sunshine 100 China Holdings Ltd on Monday said it had defaulted on a $170 million U.S. dollar bond due Dec. 5 “owing to liquidity issues arising from the

adverse impact of a number of factors including the macroeconomic environment and the real estate industry.”

The delinquency will trigger cross-default provisions under certain other debt instruments, the developer said.

Its shares fell nearly 3%.

Last week, Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd – the largest offshore debtor among Chinese developers after Evergrande – said it had failed to secure approval from offshore bondholders to carry out an exchange offer of its 6.5% offshore bonds due Dec. 7, without which it said it would risk default.

The developer has begun talks with some of the offshore bondholders to extend the deadline for the $400 million debt repayment, sources have told Reuters.

Smaller rival China Aoyuan Property Group Ltd last week also said creditors have demanded repayment of $651.2 million due to a slew of credit-rating downgrades, and that it may be unable to pay due to a lack of liquidity.

Source: Voice of America