March 2008 Edition
TOURISM
Canada is threatening to haul China before the WTO for discriminating against Canada by refusing to negotiate a tourism agreement that could provide billions of dollars for Canadian tourism businesses. Canada believes it could attract at least 700,000 and perhaps a million Chinese tourists annually if it wins an agreement known as "Approved Destination Status (ADS) which Canada has been seeking since 1999. Without an ADS, Canada is banned from advertising itself as a tourist destination in China and Chinese tour groups are prohibited from going to Canada.
BUMBERSHOOT
This is another name for an umbrella. A new one should be able to tell Americans when to prepare for rain. The device tracks the forecast for any of 150 U.S. locations. When rain is expected in the next few hours, the umbrella's handle illuminates. Patterns change to indicate rain, drizzle or thunderstorms.
SIZE
Panasonic recently introduced the "life screen," a TV set with a screen six feet high and 11 feet long. It enables viewers to watch everything in life size. The 227-kilogram set is expected to cost around $100,000. One drawback is that the life screen can only be watched comfortably from 30 feet away, making it unsuitable for most living rooms.
TAXES
A new theory hypothesizes that high taxes, not incomes, redistributes people. As proof it is noted that New York State, with maximum personal income tax rate of 10.5 per cent, lost more than 1.9 million people between 1997 and 2006. California with a maximum personal income tax rate of 10.3 per cent lost more than 1.3 million people. In contrast, Florida and Texas, both with a zero tax personal income tax rate, gained more than 1.6 million and 769,000 people respectively.
PIPELINE
The new 1,200 kilometre pipeline being constructed between Vyborg, Russia under the Baltic Sea to Greifswald in Northern Germany is both controversial and a huge technical and logistical challenge. Once construction is completed at the end of 2010, the pipeline will supply Russian natural gas to customers all over Europe. The long-term goal is to supply up to 55-billion cubic metres of gas each year. The project is expected to cost US$7.4-billion, but due to delays could cost much more.
TALENT
Last November, the International Baccalaureate exam, one of the world's most challenging tests of academic proficiency, was taken by 5,500 students from 125 countries. Twenty of them scored the maximum of 45 points and almost half of them were from a single school, the independent Anglo-Chinese school in Singapore. A score of 40 qualifies a student for admission to an Ivy League university in the U.S. or to Oxford in the U.K.
TASTE
Marmalade companies in the U.K are to launch a new form of the orange spread to appeal to youngsters in the hope of halting slumping sales. This market was worth about US$100-million but fell by two per cent in value over the past year because of a drop in demand. One company which has launched an orange spread has also developed apricot and carrot varieties which combine jam and marmalade properties.
DISASTERS
From winter storms in Europe, flooding in Britain and wildfires in the U.S., losses to natural disasters nearly doubled in 2007 to just below US$30-billion globally after an unusually quiet 2006.One large insurer warns that climate change could mean a growing number of weather-related catastrophes in coming years.
VEHICLES
GM executives claim that cars that drive themselves, even parking at their destination, could be ready for sale within a decade. Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to drive themselves such as radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. The most significant obstacles could be human rather than technical; government regulations, liability laws, privacy concerns and people's passion for the control of automobiles.
ELEVATORS
Mitsubishi in Japan has opened the world's tallest elevator testing tower, a 173 metre-high structure. It is worth US$50-million and will be used to conduct research into high-speed elevators to serve the next generation of super tall buildings. It will test new drives, gears, cables and other lift systems. The world's current tallest building is the Taipei 101 at 1,666 feet but it will soon be dwarfed by towers in Dubai, Shanghai, Moscow and Chicago. Even traditionally low-rise London will soon have a 1,017 foot building, the tallest skysc****r in Europe.
LIGHTS
A new type of super-efficient household light bulb is being developed which could spell the end of regular bulbs. Experts have found a way to make Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) brighter and use less power than energy efficient light bulbs currently on the market. The technology, used in gadgets such as mobile phones and computers, had previously not been powerful enough to be used for lighting.
JOBS
According to analysis of U.S. Labour Statistics, department stores have slashed 247,100 jobs since 2001. Economists believe that technology has played a significant role in the downsizing. The industry spends US$34.5-billion annually on all kinds of in-store and stockroom technology.
TRENDS
The number of Christmas cards sold in Britain has dropped by 20 million in the past two years. The fall has been blamed on the rise of the "eCard," an electronic greeting sent over the Internet or by mobile phone. This is increasingly popular with young people who say it is easier, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than traditional cards. A new survey found that 40 per cent of 16 to 35-year-olds are happy to abandon traditional cards in favour of eCards.
PLASTIC
China is declaring war on "white pollution" choking its cities, farms and waterways and is banning free plastic shopping bags and calling for a return to the cloth bags of old, steps largely welcomed by merchants and shoppers. There is no estimate of the number of bags used in China or the savings in terms of petroleum used to produce them.
KNIVES
The iconic Swiss Army Knife fell out of favour when airlines banned pocket knives and mobile phones and MP3 players vied for pocket space. Still, the strong Swiss-made label and perceptions of quality have recently helped lift sales of the knife by five per cent in the past two years in the face of cheaper competition and imitations. The private company that makes them had sales of US$418-million in 2006 and has now diversified into products such as luggage, kitchen knives, clothing, watches and even a perfume.
WINE
European governments are to pay wine makers to tear out 175,000 hectares of vines yielding low-quality g****s and put quality over quantity in a push to make wines from Chianti to Bordeaux more competitive with "New World" producers. Mass produced wines from California, Australia and South Africa are flooding into Europe. The 27-nation EU bottles and drinks three-fifths of the world's wine.
MAINTENANCE
The value of the global industry for aircraft maintenance and overhaul (MRO) in 2007 was US$41-million. 37 per cent of the work was done in North America, one per cent in India, five per cent in the Middle East, six per cent in China and the balance spread around the world. The market is expected to grow by almost nine per cent a year for the next five years and by 2017 will be worth $62-billion annually with both India and the Middle East increasing their share of the market.
ADVERTISING
Eleven leading companies in the European food and beverage industry have voluntarily agreed to change their policies on advertising for children by the end of 2008, setting standards on nutritional content to encourage more healthful lifestyles. They have agreed not to advertise food and beverages on television programmes, web sites or in the print media where children under 12 could be considered target audience, except for products that meet specific nutrition criteria.
AFRICA
A 14-teraflop Blue Gene supercomputer capable of making 14-trillion floating point calculations per second and worth about $2-million is being donated by IBM to a Centre for High Performance Computing in Cape Town, South Africa. This will be the most powerful supercomputer on the African continent and will be available free of charge to any qualifying African institution for use on advanced scientific projects. The donation is to stimulate scientific and socio-economic progress in the region.
HEALTH
Walt Disney Co., which claims to employ more people in one place than any other company in the U.S., has announced plans to build a medical centre for its workers at its Florida theme park. The $6-million, 15,000-square-foot clinic, to be open nights and weekends, is scheduled to open in 2009.
EATING
Restaurant industry sales in the U.S. are expected to reach $558-billion in 2008. The industry is entering its 17th consecutive year of real sales growth this year. Sales at full-service restaurants are projected to reach $188-billion this year, an increase of 4.3 per cent over 2007. Expanded menu choices, meeting the demand of today's increasingly sophisticated and value conscious consumer and added off-premise options (takeout and delivery) will drive the growth.
FUNDS
Saudi Arabia plans to establish a sovereign wealth fund that is expected to dwarf Abu Dhabi's US$900-billion and become the largest in the world. The new fund will be a formidable rival for other government-owned investment funds in the Middle East and Asia which are playing an increasingly active role in channelling capital to western companies.
COMPETITION
Tesco is Britain's biggest supermarket group and the world's third largest retailer. The company now intends to build 50 Fresh & Easy stores in southern California, Las Vegas and Phoenix by February 2009, and 200 more stores per year after that in these areas, becoming about a US$10-billion operation by 2015.
HAM
Pure Iberian ham is one of Spain's most famous and possibly its most expensive export. It can cost up to US$2,000 for a whole leg. Acorns, the staple diet of the thoroughbred pigs used to produce the ham, are in short supply due to the rapid spread of a fungus that has been linked to climate change. Fuelled by drought, the fungus is killing up to 190,000 trees, or 10,000 acres annually. Exports of ham to Europe alone are worth US$90-million a year to the Spanish economy.
RECYCLING
Mourners shivering in a chapel in the U.K. are to be kept warm by using heat generated from cremating their loved ones. The City Council says that the heat generated will be enough to power the boiler and light the chapel. They admit this is a sensitive issue and have promised to consult clergy and the wider community. One priest says that as a final act of generosity, it's a lovely way for the dead to provide comfort for the living at a difficult time.
Thank you for reading the A & A Economic News Digest. For more information visit our website www.aacb.com
TOURISM
Canada is threatening to haul China before the WTO for discriminating against Canada by refusing to negotiate a tourism agreement that could provide billions of dollars for Canadian tourism businesses. Canada believes it could attract at least 700,000 and perhaps a million Chinese tourists annually if it wins an agreement known as "Approved Destination Status (ADS) which Canada has been seeking since 1999. Without an ADS, Canada is banned from advertising itself as a tourist destination in China and Chinese tour groups are prohibited from going to Canada.
BUMBERSHOOT
This is another name for an umbrella. A new one should be able to tell Americans when to prepare for rain. The device tracks the forecast for any of 150 U.S. locations. When rain is expected in the next few hours, the umbrella's handle illuminates. Patterns change to indicate rain, drizzle or thunderstorms.
SIZE
Panasonic recently introduced the "life screen," a TV set with a screen six feet high and 11 feet long. It enables viewers to watch everything in life size. The 227-kilogram set is expected to cost around $100,000. One drawback is that the life screen can only be watched comfortably from 30 feet away, making it unsuitable for most living rooms.
TAXES
A new theory hypothesizes that high taxes, not incomes, redistributes people. As proof it is noted that New York State, with maximum personal income tax rate of 10.5 per cent, lost more than 1.9 million people between 1997 and 2006. California with a maximum personal income tax rate of 10.3 per cent lost more than 1.3 million people. In contrast, Florida and Texas, both with a zero tax personal income tax rate, gained more than 1.6 million and 769,000 people respectively.
PIPELINE
The new 1,200 kilometre pipeline being constructed between Vyborg, Russia under the Baltic Sea to Greifswald in Northern Germany is both controversial and a huge technical and logistical challenge. Once construction is completed at the end of 2010, the pipeline will supply Russian natural gas to customers all over Europe. The long-term goal is to supply up to 55-billion cubic metres of gas each year. The project is expected to cost US$7.4-billion, but due to delays could cost much more.
TALENT
Last November, the International Baccalaureate exam, one of the world's most challenging tests of academic proficiency, was taken by 5,500 students from 125 countries. Twenty of them scored the maximum of 45 points and almost half of them were from a single school, the independent Anglo-Chinese school in Singapore. A score of 40 qualifies a student for admission to an Ivy League university in the U.S. or to Oxford in the U.K.
TASTE
Marmalade companies in the U.K are to launch a new form of the orange spread to appeal to youngsters in the hope of halting slumping sales. This market was worth about US$100-million but fell by two per cent in value over the past year because of a drop in demand. One company which has launched an orange spread has also developed apricot and carrot varieties which combine jam and marmalade properties.
DISASTERS
From winter storms in Europe, flooding in Britain and wildfires in the U.S., losses to natural disasters nearly doubled in 2007 to just below US$30-billion globally after an unusually quiet 2006.One large insurer warns that climate change could mean a growing number of weather-related catastrophes in coming years.
VEHICLES
GM executives claim that cars that drive themselves, even parking at their destination, could be ready for sale within a decade. Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to drive themselves such as radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. The most significant obstacles could be human rather than technical; government regulations, liability laws, privacy concerns and people's passion for the control of automobiles.
ELEVATORS
Mitsubishi in Japan has opened the world's tallest elevator testing tower, a 173 metre-high structure. It is worth US$50-million and will be used to conduct research into high-speed elevators to serve the next generation of super tall buildings. It will test new drives, gears, cables and other lift systems. The world's current tallest building is the Taipei 101 at 1,666 feet but it will soon be dwarfed by towers in Dubai, Shanghai, Moscow and Chicago. Even traditionally low-rise London will soon have a 1,017 foot building, the tallest skysc****r in Europe.
LIGHTS
A new type of super-efficient household light bulb is being developed which could spell the end of regular bulbs. Experts have found a way to make Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) brighter and use less power than energy efficient light bulbs currently on the market. The technology, used in gadgets such as mobile phones and computers, had previously not been powerful enough to be used for lighting.
JOBS
According to analysis of U.S. Labour Statistics, department stores have slashed 247,100 jobs since 2001. Economists believe that technology has played a significant role in the downsizing. The industry spends US$34.5-billion annually on all kinds of in-store and stockroom technology.
TRENDS
The number of Christmas cards sold in Britain has dropped by 20 million in the past two years. The fall has been blamed on the rise of the "eCard," an electronic greeting sent over the Internet or by mobile phone. This is increasingly popular with young people who say it is easier, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than traditional cards. A new survey found that 40 per cent of 16 to 35-year-olds are happy to abandon traditional cards in favour of eCards.
PLASTIC
China is declaring war on "white pollution" choking its cities, farms and waterways and is banning free plastic shopping bags and calling for a return to the cloth bags of old, steps largely welcomed by merchants and shoppers. There is no estimate of the number of bags used in China or the savings in terms of petroleum used to produce them.
KNIVES
The iconic Swiss Army Knife fell out of favour when airlines banned pocket knives and mobile phones and MP3 players vied for pocket space. Still, the strong Swiss-made label and perceptions of quality have recently helped lift sales of the knife by five per cent in the past two years in the face of cheaper competition and imitations. The private company that makes them had sales of US$418-million in 2006 and has now diversified into products such as luggage, kitchen knives, clothing, watches and even a perfume.
WINE
European governments are to pay wine makers to tear out 175,000 hectares of vines yielding low-quality g****s and put quality over quantity in a push to make wines from Chianti to Bordeaux more competitive with "New World" producers. Mass produced wines from California, Australia and South Africa are flooding into Europe. The 27-nation EU bottles and drinks three-fifths of the world's wine.
MAINTENANCE
The value of the global industry for aircraft maintenance and overhaul (MRO) in 2007 was US$41-million. 37 per cent of the work was done in North America, one per cent in India, five per cent in the Middle East, six per cent in China and the balance spread around the world. The market is expected to grow by almost nine per cent a year for the next five years and by 2017 will be worth $62-billion annually with both India and the Middle East increasing their share of the market.
ADVERTISING
Eleven leading companies in the European food and beverage industry have voluntarily agreed to change their policies on advertising for children by the end of 2008, setting standards on nutritional content to encourage more healthful lifestyles. They have agreed not to advertise food and beverages on television programmes, web sites or in the print media where children under 12 could be considered target audience, except for products that meet specific nutrition criteria.
AFRICA
A 14-teraflop Blue Gene supercomputer capable of making 14-trillion floating point calculations per second and worth about $2-million is being donated by IBM to a Centre for High Performance Computing in Cape Town, South Africa. This will be the most powerful supercomputer on the African continent and will be available free of charge to any qualifying African institution for use on advanced scientific projects. The donation is to stimulate scientific and socio-economic progress in the region.
HEALTH
Walt Disney Co., which claims to employ more people in one place than any other company in the U.S., has announced plans to build a medical centre for its workers at its Florida theme park. The $6-million, 15,000-square-foot clinic, to be open nights and weekends, is scheduled to open in 2009.
EATING
Restaurant industry sales in the U.S. are expected to reach $558-billion in 2008. The industry is entering its 17th consecutive year of real sales growth this year. Sales at full-service restaurants are projected to reach $188-billion this year, an increase of 4.3 per cent over 2007. Expanded menu choices, meeting the demand of today's increasingly sophisticated and value conscious consumer and added off-premise options (takeout and delivery) will drive the growth.
FUNDS
Saudi Arabia plans to establish a sovereign wealth fund that is expected to dwarf Abu Dhabi's US$900-billion and become the largest in the world. The new fund will be a formidable rival for other government-owned investment funds in the Middle East and Asia which are playing an increasingly active role in channelling capital to western companies.
COMPETITION
Tesco is Britain's biggest supermarket group and the world's third largest retailer. The company now intends to build 50 Fresh & Easy stores in southern California, Las Vegas and Phoenix by February 2009, and 200 more stores per year after that in these areas, becoming about a US$10-billion operation by 2015.
HAM
Pure Iberian ham is one of Spain's most famous and possibly its most expensive export. It can cost up to US$2,000 for a whole leg. Acorns, the staple diet of the thoroughbred pigs used to produce the ham, are in short supply due to the rapid spread of a fungus that has been linked to climate change. Fuelled by drought, the fungus is killing up to 190,000 trees, or 10,000 acres annually. Exports of ham to Europe alone are worth US$90-million a year to the Spanish economy.
RECYCLING
Mourners shivering in a chapel in the U.K. are to be kept warm by using heat generated from cremating their loved ones. The City Council says that the heat generated will be enough to power the boiler and light the chapel. They admit this is a sensitive issue and have promised to consult clergy and the wider community. One priest says that as a final act of generosity, it's a lovely way for the dead to provide comfort for the living at a difficult time.
Thank you for reading the A & A Economic News Digest. For more information visit our website www.aacb.com