Year: 2023

Jan 18

Imported eggs help alleviate local shortage in Malaysia, says agriculture minister

KUALA LUMPUR: The shortage of eggs in Malaysia was reduced to one million in December last year, Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu said on Tuesday (Jan 17), following the import of the product from foreign countries. This is compared to the shortage of 157 million eggs in November and 118 million eggs the month before. Mr Mohamad said that the reduced shortfall was because the government had temporarily allowed the import of chicken eggs from foreign countries to Read Full Details…

Jan 18

DECEMBER DECLINE IN BRISBANE CONTAINER THROUGHPUT

PORT of Brisbane saw a slowdown in container throughput in December, with throughput declining 13% compared with the same month in 2021. Last month the Port of Brisbane handled a total of 114,710 TEU. Of this, 30,992 TEU – or 27% of the total – were empty. The vast majority of empties (27,966 TEU) were exported, making fresh Queensland air the port’s top containerised export by far. Other major containerised exports from Brisbane last month included “export other” (10,110 TEU), Read Full Details…

Jan 18

Mineral Production registers growth of 9.7% in November 2022

In a significant development, mineral production in India has gone up by 9.7% for November 2022 as compared to the same month in the year 2021. The index of mineral production of mining and quarrying sector stood at 105.8 mark for November last year. The provisional statistics of Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) indicate that the cumulative growth for the period April-November, 2022-23 over the corresponding period of previous year is 4.7%. Many important minerals have also shown positive growth Read Full Details…

Jan 18

Palm oil slips on India, China demand concerns

Malaysian palm oil futures reversed early gains on Tuesday, weighed by growing concerns of slowing export demand on talks of higher Indian import duty and reports of weak China economic data. The benchmark palm oil contract FCPOc3 for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 55 ringgit, or 1.43%, to 3,797 ringgit ($877.92) a tonne. Palm oil earlier received support from tight supplies as some planters estimated an 11%-15% fall in production for the Jan. 1-15 period from Read Full Details…

Jan 18

Oil product exports rise 139% on year to 32-month high in December

China’s oil product exports rose 138.7% year on year to hit a 32-month high of 7.7 million mt (1.02 million b/d) in December 2022, data from the General Administration of Customs showed Jan. 13, as domestic demand weakened amid the strongest wave of COVID-19 infections and sufficient export quotas. China removed all the domestic movement controls in December, leading to an estimated 80% of the population in big cities being infected with COVID-19, according to S&P Global and market analysts. Read Full Details…

Jan 17

A new era for global business and investment in Africa

The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was established in 2018 to provide opportunities for the world to benefit from the continent’s economies and businesses. A new report from the World Economic Forum, AfCFTA Secretariat and Forum partners provides tools and strategies for leveraging the new trade area’s opportunities. Four sectors – the automotive industry, agriculture and agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, and transportation and logistics – were analyzed in the report as they are expected to accelerate in production and trade volumes Read Full Details…

Jan 17

Sweden is navigating an international identity crisis

By many criteria, Sweden is the envy of Europe. It has tremendous soft power to wield as it takes on the rotating presidency of the EU’s ministerial councils. Yet a recent visit to Stockholm left me thinking that Swedes feel as disoriented by a rapidly changing world as everyone else. One reason is domestic malaise. An epidemic of shootings — 60 gun murders across Sweden last year, against 9 in London — no doubt fuelled the rightwing nationalist Sweden Democrats’ Read Full Details…

Jan 17

E-commerce propelled by linguistics

Speakers of Southeast Asian languages help drive cross-border biz in Nanning Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has seen a spark in business thanks to residents who speak languages that, while regionally important, are not spoken widely across the globe, officials said. The city is incubating its cross-border e-commerce livestreaming business as a result of the talent living there being fluent in what are sometimes called minor languages. Unlike Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Nanning doesn’t Read Full Details…

Jan 17

Reimagining your talent and technology strategies amid deglobalization

The deglobalization trend will accelerate as enterprises try to secure themselves from uncertainty, boost business resilience and mitigate risk. The most visible impact of deglobalization will be the urgency to exploit local markets, build proximity to customers, and re-shore and near-shore. To thrive in a deglobalized environment, enterprises will have to acquire new tools and technologies, in addition to technical capabilities. The last two decades have seen a slow but remarkable change: the growth in the flow of goods across Read Full Details…

Jan 17

China-Sri Lanka FTA: Will it benefit Sri Lanka in the long run?

The year 2014 was a watershed year for Sri Lanka-China relations. The official launch of negotiations for the Sri Lanka-China Free Trade Agreement was witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Chinese Minister of Commerce, Gao Hucheng, and the Sri Lankan Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapaksa, signed a memorandum on the launch of the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations, officially announcing the launch of bilateral FTA negotiations. The two parties confirmed that the Read Full Details…