Caribbean businesses must focus on competitiveness
TRADE and Competitiveness in the Caribbean was one of the key subjects discussed at last week’s three-day conference on Trade Policy in Barbados.
There were a number of presentations with one of them being done by Annabelle Haynes of the Competitiveness Company of Jamaica.
She made the point that competitiveness which is the new buzz word in international marketing cannot be undertaken in isolation. Haynes believes that competitiveness takes into account international competitors, value chain and other cultural attributes which must be exploited. She said that market tracking and public relations to accompany them are also vital in that they helped to drive Caribbean companies. She told participants at the seminar that the Competitiveness Centre had registered 11 trademarks to protect Jamaican products, and noted as well that the Company’s Intellectual Property programme has identified opportunities for regional collaboration, within a regime which is usually marked by exclusivity.
Productivity is only one of the sources of competitiveness. This view came from Mrs. Indera Sagewan-Alli, of the Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness at the University of the West Indies.
She said that the issue which productivity raised in relation to competitiveness is the actual selling of a product/service at a cheaper price. In this way, the official pointed out, the firm is able to realise maximum return from greater efficiencies. She explained that competitiveness spans a wide gamut of things.
She said too that focusing on a differentiation strategy also allows a firm to develop a competitive advantage especially when it is focusing on niche market and where a higher price because the market is prepared to pay that price.
Market intelligence is also a source of competitiveness.
Sagewan Alli remarked that it is important especially for firms operating in a global environment and in a world which is changing so rapidly where we have to come to terms with the fact that fossil fuel for energy is a dying industry.
“So issues of the environment are important. So having good market intelligence requires a good understanding of market trends where the world is going in terms of products, in terms of environmental issues that allow you to unveil that knowledge and that intelligence into your decision making process and into determining what are the products that can be produced and what are the niches,” she said.
According to her, the success of a firm and the sustainability of that success is linked to the competitiveness in both local and international markets.
Other presenters were Garik Joseph and Nicardo Nell.
BARBADOS ADVOCATE
Australia's Fairfax cuts jobs and changes newspapers
Australia's Fairfax Media will shed 1,900 jobs over three years and give two high-profile broadsheets a new "compact" format, it has announced.
Websites of the two newspapers, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, will also introduce pay walls from 2013.
Two printing facilities in Sydney and Melbourne are also to be closed by 2014 as part of the cost-cutting measures.
Fairfax said it was taking "decisive actions to fundamentally change the way we do business".
"No one should be in any doubt that we are operating in very challenging times," said Fairfax Chief Executive Greg Hywood.
"Readers' behaviours have changed and will not change back."
The moves are expected to save Fairfax A$235m ($237m, £151m) annually by mid-2015, the company said.
It said editorial standards and content at the two newspapers would not change despite the new format.
Cuts are also expected at Fairfax's biggest rival, Rupert Murdoch-owned News Ltd, Australian media reports say.
The two companies together dominate Australia's newspaper market.
Italy selling off state assets to reduce debt mountain
The Italian government hopes to raise 10bn euros (£8.1bn; $12.6bn) selling off three state-owned companies, in a bid to reduce its crippling debt mountain.
Prime Minister Mario Monti described the measures, which include a reduction in the number of state employees, as "very robust".
The companies, Fintecna, Sace and Simsest, are all owned by the country's economy ministry.
More privatisations are likely.
The government is also reducing the size of its military forces and plans to sell off property released by this process.
The property will be put into a fund, then valued and sold to private investors.
In other cost-cutting measures, the government intends to merge some departments and reduce the number of employees.
Italy is in danger of buckling under the weight of its public debt, equal to about 120% of its gross domestic product (GDP).
On Thursday, the Bank of Italy announced that the country's public debt level had reached a record high of 1.95tn euros (£1.57tn).
Egypt's military 'grants itself sweeping powers'
Egypt's ruling military has issued a declaration apparently granting itself sweeping powers, as the country awaits results of presidential elections.
The document by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (Scaf) reportedly says new general elections can not be held until a permanent constitution is drawn up.
It also allegedly gives the Scaf legislative control.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood says its candidate, Mohammed Mursi, has won Sunday's presidential election.
Mr Mursi, an Islamist, is competing against Ahmed Shafiq, who served as prime minister under former President Hosni Mubarak.
Mr Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood said he was holding a 52%-48% lead over Mr Shafiq with almost all teh vote counted after Sunday's second-round run-off election.
"Mohammed Mursi is the first Egyptian president of the republic elected by the people," said a tweet from the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
But an official at Mr Shafiq's campaign headquarters told Reuters news agency: "I do not accept this, I will not file wrong numbers."
The election - the first since Hosni Mubarak was forced from office in 2011 - also comes amid a bitter row over the dissolution of parliament following a court ruling on Thursday.
The Brotherhood has denounced the step as unlawful and a coup against democracy.
Iran nuclear talks to resume in Moscow
A new round of talks on Iran's controversial nuclear programme is due to open in Russia's capital, Moscow.
The two-day meeting between Iran and six world powers follows inconclusive sessions in Istanbul and Baghdad over the last two months.
Earlier this month, the UN's nuclear watchdog admitted that its talks with Tehran had ended with "no progress".
The West suspects that Iran is seeking to build a nuclear weapon - a claim denied by Tehran.
The talks between negotiators from Tehran and six world powers - Britain, the US, China, Russia, France and Germany - are due to start at 0700 GMT.
The powers are expected to repeat three specific demands made last month, the BBC's James Reynolds in Moscow reports.
Our correspondent says that they want Iran to stop enrichment of uranium to 20%, to export its stockpile of 20%-enriched uranium and to to close a heavily-fortified underground enrichment facility near the city of Qom.
In return, the world powers say that they are prepared to start by offering help with nuclear safety measures.
But for Iran that is not enough, our correspondent says.
Tehran wants the West to lift sanctions, including an EU oil embargo and US measures against Iran's Central Bank.
It also says that Iran's "non-negotiable" right to enrich uranium must be recognised.
The UN's nuclear watchgod, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been trying to get access to sites inside Iran, including one at Parchin suspected of being used for experiments related to nuclear weapons.
However, the IAEA's chief inspector Herman Nackaerts said earlier this month that the lack of progress at talks in Vienna had been "disappointing".
Last November, an IAEA report claimed Iran had "carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device".
Iran denies its nuclear programme has any military aspect.
Greece Conservatives Win Parliamentary Elections
Greece's pro-bailout parties won a slim parliamentary majority in Sunday's elections, after an inconclusive general election in May failed to produce a government.
The radical leftists who had vied for first place conceded defeat, after official estimates showed the conservative New Democracy party winning 29.5 percent of the vote, the radical leftist Syriza party receiving 27.1 percent and the PASOK Socialists taking 12.3 percent.
New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said “the Greek people today voted for Greece to remain on its European path and in the eurozone.”
In Washington, a White House statement said that “as President Obama and other world leaders have said, we believe that it is in all our interests for Greece to remain in the euro area while respecting its commitment to reform.”
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, has been a major contributor to Greece's two multi-billion-dollar bailouts. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that “if the New Democracy's win is confirmed, Germany would consider such a result a decision by Greek voters to forge ahead with the implementation of far-reaching economic and fiscal reforms.”
New Democracy has promised to renegotiate the harsh austerity conditions of Greece's bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund. But Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Syriza party, called for the annulling of the austerity package altogether, a decision which could have forced Greece to leave Europe's common euro currency.
Samaras said Tsipras' policies will put Greece into a worse situation than it is in now.
The monetary crisis in Greece, which first exploded in 2009, set off a chain reaction across Europe. Greece is now in its fifth year of recession, with unemployment spiraling to above 22 percent. Opinion polls show that Greeks overwhelmingly favor remaining in the euro, but are just as opposed to the austerity drive.
Greek political leaders share optimism, casting ballots in critical national polls
Greek political leaders shared optimism over the outcome of Sunday's critical national polls, the second in six weeks that could determine the country's economic future and whether it could stay in the eurozone.
"I am certain my fellow Greek compatriots are fully aware of what is at stake in today's electoral race and that it will lead as soon as possible to the formation of a new government that will address the country's problems," outgoing caretaker Prime Minister Panayiotis Pikrammenos said after he cast his vote in a polling station in Athens.
He expressed solidarity with hundreds of fire-fighters and citizens who were still battling with several wildfires since Saturday across Greece.
"We won the battle against fear. Today we are paving the path to hope, towards a better future, with Greek peoples united, with dignity and pride," Alexis Tsipras, head of the anti-austerity Radical Left Coalition SYRIZA, and one of the main contenders, told reporters, after casting his ballot in central Athens.
"Today it is Greek peoples' turn to have a say and tomorrow a new era starts for Greece," conservative pro-reform New Democracy (ND) party leader Antonis Samaras had commented earlier on Sunday in the southern peninsula of Peloponnese.
Opinion polls indicate that the outcome of the duel between ND and SYRIZA which are at odds over whether Greece should stay with the austerity introduced in exchange of two international bailouts since 2010 to avoid a financial meltdown or tear the memorandum off and take a different path to resolve the debt crisis, is too close to call.
Pollsters predict that no party will win outright parliamentary majority, despite the 50-seat bonus granted to the first party under the electoral law. A coalition government therefore will have to be formed.
Marathon coalition talks after the first inconclusive May 6 elections ended in impasse, fueling anxiety within Greece and abroad over whether the country could avoid the worst case scenario - a chaotic Greek default and eventually an exit from the eurozone - that could send shockwaves across the single currency area and global markets.
About 9.8 million Greek citizens eligible to vote, wearied by deep recession, queue at polling stations to make a hard choice between a mild revision of deals or a more radical approach.
Leaders of smaller parties, such as the Left-wing moderate Democratic Left and the Right-wing Independent Greeks, which are expected to pass the three percent threshold and most likely join a coalition government, sent similar messages of confidence Sunday.
Opinion polls forecast that at least seven parties out of twenty-one competing will enter the new parliament, including the pro-bailout socialists of PASOK led by Former Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, and anti-bailout Communist party, the Independent Greeks and the neo-fascist Chryssi Avgi (Golden Dawn).
The first estimates of exit polls will be announced by local television channels once poll stations close at 19:00 p.m. local time. The first official projections are due later in the evening, with the final results expected Monday.
EVote Counting Begins in Egypt, Military Asserts Power
As election officials began counting ballots in Egypt's presidential runoff, the ruling military issued an interim constitution handing itself sweeping powers, including legislative authority, after a court dissolved the Islamist-led parliament.
Egyptian state television reported late Sunday that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces would explain the widely anticipated declaration at a news conference the next day.
According to military sources, the move would grant the SCAF exclusive legislative powers in addition to control of the nation's budget until a new parliament is elected. The decree also gives the military the authority to compose its own 100-member panel that would draft Egypt's new constitution.
After polls closed Sunday night and counting began, aides to both candidates in the runoff – Ahmed Shafiq, the Mubarak-era representative, and an Islamist, Mohammed Morsi – were claiming their man was in the lead.
The Muslim Brotherhood announced Mr. Morsi was running ahead with at least 52 percent of the votes counted so far, compared to 48 percent for Mr. Shafiq. A Shafiq campaign official dismissed the Brotherhood's count, saying his candidate was ahead but gave no numbers.
The Brotherhood has warned it would launch protests if Mr. Shafiq is declared the winner.
Turnout appeared low compared with the 46 percent reported in last month's first round – a sign of dampening morale as the military tightened its grip on power.
The lack of participation likely also reflects dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates. Mr. Shafiq is a former air force general and confidant of former President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in an uprising last year. Mr. Shafiq promised to restore order and push back against the rise of Islamism. Mr. Morsi represents the once-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, a religious party committed to reversing liberal social traditions.
Many of Egypt's 50 million eligible voters saw neither man as an acceptable choice. Some cast ballots against both candidates in a sign of protest.
Voters shared with VOA Sunday their disillusionment about the stark differences between the two contenders, as the first round eliminated centrist candidates.
The announcement of the winner as Egypt's first freely elected president is set for Thursday, but unofficial results are expected sooner.
Last week's Supreme Constitutional Court ruling to dissolve the country's current parliament led to accusations from some leading Islamists and liberals that the military is instituting a de facto coup through the judiciary.
The official MENA news agency said parliament received notice of the decree Saturday and that lawmakers will be barred from entering parliament, except with permission.
Ronaldo double sends Dutch out
A scintillating Cristiano Ronaldo double put Portugal into the European Championship quarter-finals and sent the Netherlands out.
The Dutch needed to win by two clear goals to stand a chance of progressing and Rafael van der Vaart's lovely curling strike put them ahead.
But the Netherlands faded badly and Ronaldo equalised by slotting in from Joao Pereira's precise pass.
Ronaldo drove in a winner and Portugal will next play Czech Republic.
The Dutch, meanwhile, will be left to reflect on a tournament in which they have lost all three of their matches, just two years after finishing as World Cup runners-up.
The Netherlands will first have to get the spectre of Ronaldo out of their minds as the Real Madrid star produced a performance of pace, power and poise to leave them mesmerised.
He was only denied a deserved hat-trick when a thumping late shot came back off the post as the Dutch were outgunned, with coach Bert van Marwijk's tactics backfiring.
Striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and playmaker Van der Vaart had started on the bench in the Dutch defeats by Denmark and Germany but both were unleashed from the start this time around.
The pair joined Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie as Netherlands tried to utilise the attacking prowess at their disposal and, initially, the move paid off.
Van der Vaart took a touch to control Robben's pass before curling in a 20-yard shot past the dive of Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio.
But Dutch hopes soon turned into the despair that has followed them around this tournament.
While the Netherlands had an array of potent talent, most of Portugal's reliance up front is on Ronaldo, and he was at his dancing and darting best as the Dutch goal brought his side out of their shell.
Ronaldo bamboozled right-back Gregory van der Wiel as he cut in from the left and struck a shot which clipped the outside of the post.
Van der Wiel must still have been in a daze moments later as his backpass put Helder Postiga through on goal, with his strike being palmed wide by keeper Maarten Stekelenburg.
Confident and creative, Ronaldo was proving a nightmare for a defence left exposed by their attacking tactics.
He had a header beaten away by Stekelenburg before he equalised, timing a run to perfection to collect a defence-splitting Pereira pass before slotting home to become the first Portuguese player to score at five major tournaments.
The former Manchester United man had a dipping 35-yard shot fended away by Stekelenburg and headed another chance wide as his energy and exuberance constantly had the Dutch backtracking.
Portugal supporterd their star with a stubborn defence marshalled by Bruno Alves and Pepe, a hard-working midfield trio of Miguel Veloso, Joao Moutinho and Raul Meireles and the trickery of Nani.
Nani helped set up Portugal's winner when he laid the ball across for Ronaldo to step inside and fire in.
Huntelaar may have claimed he should have been a starter for the Dutch in earlier games but his case was not helped by a virtually non-existent performance.
Van der Vaart and Ronaldo each hit the post with late shots before the referee ended the Dutch misery, while Portugal celebrated reaching the quarter-finals and maintaining a record of never going out in the group stages at the European Championship tournament.
IMF puts Jamaica's debt at 140% of GDP
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Jamaica's debt is 140 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), 10 percentage points worse than the figure used by the Government, and has warned that it could climb to a Greek-like 150 per cent, or higher, in the medium term if the Simpson Miller administration fails to push through tough fiscal reforms. In this scenario, growth could limp along at one per cent a year. At the same time, the Fund's executive directors stopped just short of an open rebuke of the former Jamaica Labour Party Government for failing to make good use of the opportunity provided by the rescheduling of J$702 billion of domestically held debt two years ago to begin a fundamental assault on the debt crisis.
"They regretted that the successful debt exchange under the 2010 standby arrangement (under which the IMF loaned Jamaica US$1.2 billion) had not been accompanied by fiscal consolidation to put Jamaica's public debt on a sustainable downward path," the IMF said in its assessment of a report by the Fund's staff of the Jamaican economy.