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Category: Business

  • NZ part of worldwide corruption surveys whitewash?

    By Jason Brown in Auckland

    Worldwide anti-corruption rankings – or first world whitewash?

    Long-standing questions about the fairness of corruption ratings and rankings from Transparency International surveys now have answers.

    From the Pacific, at least.

    For example, why was New Zealand dropped from TI’s Global Corruption Barometer (GCB)?

    “I do know about this because we tried to get NZ included,” says Transparency International New Zealand chair Julie Haggie.

    “Unfortunately it is a funding issue.”

    This lack of funding means supposedly more corrupt “developing” countries are scrutinised more closely than allegedly cleaner “developed” countries, fuelling criticisms of bias against developing and poor countries.

    GCB surveys the public
    Unlike Transparency International’s much better-known Corruption Perceptions Index, the GCB surveys members of the public about actual experiences of corruption, not just “perceptions” from “experts” and “business leaders”.

    So how did the gap between the two surveys come about?

    “Funding for the GCB Pacific came out of aid funding from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia) and Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade (New Zealand) under the Pacific reset and Pacific Stepup programmes,” said Haggie.

    “Their funding specifically excludes activities in donor giving countries that are not directed out to the Pacific.”

    However, New Zealand did feature – once – in the barometer survey.

    That 2013 survey found that 3 percent of those responding reported incidents of bribery – some 30 people directly, or around 80,000 people if taken as a representative sample of the wider New Zealand population.

    Those experiences are all but ignored across government websites there, with GCB survey results mentioned only once.

    Responses from Berlin
    So why was New Zealand dropped from the barometer?

    Islands Business sent questions to the press section at the global headquarters of the Berlin-based organisation in early February, but got no reply.

    Asked for help with getting a response from Berlin, Haggie replied that:

    “As I understand it this was not a TI decision.

    “They did have a limited pool of funding which may have determined how many small Pacific nations they could include. Australia was not included in this set as well, I think they were previously included in an Asian GCB which NZ was not included in.”

    Haggie is correct – Australia has disappeared from the barometer as well.

    In 2017, however, Australia reported a bribery rate of 4 percent, or just short of a million people if those surveyed are representative of the general population.

    Lacks funding for survey
    At the same time Transparency International claims it lacks funding to survey actual corruption in Australia and New Zealand, both countries are instead funding research that focuses attention on corruption – in the Pacific.

    “We are undertaking research this year which will look at the connection between money laundering and corruption across the Pacific,” said Haggie.

    While this will no doubt be welcomed by island-based anti-corruption campaigners, criticism of the fairness of Transparency International surveys go well beyond Australia and New Zealand.

    Global concerns go back years, focused around developed countries ignoring their own backyard.

    Similar concerns were already long standing enough for the inventor of the index to withdraw from future surveys over a decade ago.

    “In 1995, I invented the Corruption Perceptions Index,” wrote Passau University professor Graf Lambsdorff in a 2009 email to the TI network, “and have orchestrated it ever since, putting TI on the spotlight of international attention.

    “In August 2009, I informed Cobus de Swardt, managing director of TI, that I am no longer available for doing the Corruption Perceptions Index.”

    Gaps in the Pacific
    Back in 2021, Transparency International’s Pacific regional perspective Miriam Mathew agrees there are gaps.

    “When New Zealand was last included in the GCB in 2013, it was undertaken as part of a global rather than a regional report, and TI had access to other sources of funding covering corruption measurement tools globally,” Mathew said.

    “If future opportunities arise to survey New Zealand (and Australia) for the GCB, we would be very interested to do so, as of course it does leave gaps in our understanding of people’s lived experience of corruption around the world and in the region.“

    Ironically, Transparency International itself has referred to concerns about a whitewash by first world countries in other spheres.

    Quoting an Oxfam report in May last year, titled “Blacklist or whitewash?”, TI noted the example of the European Union, which leaves its own countries off lists of tax havens.

    Jason Brown is founder of Journalism Agenda 2025 and writes about Pacific and world journalism and ethically globalised Fourth Estate issues. This article was originally published in Islands Business news magazine and is republished with permission.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • GST mop-up hits record Rs 1.23 lakh crore in March

    Collection tops Rs 1L cr for 6th month in a row

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Status quo on small savings interest rate

    The decision to rollback was taken hours after the government announced the steepest cut in the rate on small savings schemes on Wednesday

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Government withdraws cut in rate on small savings schemes

    Orders issued by oversight shall be withdrawn, Sitharaman said in a early morning tweet

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • RBI extends timeline to comply with new rule for online transactions by 6 months

    The primary objective of the framework was to protect customers from fraudulent transactions and enhance customer convenience

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Biden extends small business support for two months

    Web desk,

    US President Joe Biden Tuesday signed a law extending financial support for small businesses for two-months, one day before the relief fund was set to expire.

    “It is a bipartisan accomplishment,” Biden said about the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that was extended to May 31. He said it would help small businesses, especially the Hispanic and Black population.

    The Senate voted 92-7 last week to extend the deadline for the PPP Extension Act of 2021 from March 31 after the House of Representatives passed the measure.

    “Nearly 90,000 business owners are still in line. Without signing this bill today there are hundreds of thousands of people who could lose their jobs and small family businesses might close forever,” he said at the White House. “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, representing almost 50% of all employees.”

    He noted that the government in the last two months has approved forgivable loans for 3.6 million small businesses, while 3.3 million had fewer than 20 employees.

    Congress has approved more than $800 billion in PPP loans to support businesses and employees in the coronavirus pandemic-hit largest economy in the world.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • State of Surveillance: Online Safety Bill captures the bad stuff but Commissioner’s powers too broad

    Online Safety Bill
    The Online Safety Bill, if passed in its current form, could further undermine political accountability by ensuring footage of police violence or human rights abuses, for example, is taken down. That the government is not listening to concerns about the bill’s wide powers suggests some of the consequences may be intended. Samantha Floreani reports.

    This post was originally published on Michael West.

  • TATA stocks raise after Supreme Court verdict

    As the SC upheld Tata Sons’ decision to remove Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of Tata Sons, shares of Tata Group companies started gaining

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • One year since COVID-19 lockdown: India still recovering from unemployment blow

    The CMIE data showed that the unemployment rate had risen to 9.1 per cent in December 2020 and improved in January to 6.5 per cent

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Adani Ports to acquire controlling stake in Gangavaram Port for Rs 3,604 cr

    Through APSEZ’s 89.6 per cent stake in Gangavaram port, the Adani Group will greatly expand its pan-India cargo presence

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Nationwide bank strike continues to impact PSB services on Day 2

    Government transactions related to treasury as well as business transactions will also be impacted

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Nationwide strike impacts banking services of PSU banks

    Branches of private sector lenders like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank are open as they are not part of the strike

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Local arts and film jilted in favour of foreign streaming majors Foxtel, Netflix, and Nine’s Stan

    Local screen industry on the chopping block
    Another kick in the guts for the local screen industry as Nine Entertainment, chaired by Liberal Party stalwart Peter Costello, is exempted from local content rules and foreign streaming giants such as Netflix are structured to skirt them too. As for the Coalition’s supposed rescue package for small players it is simply Kafkaesque and designed to fail. Elizabeth Minter reports.

    This post was originally published on Michael West.

  • British aircraft maker Rolls-Royce hit hard by pandemic, which lost $5.6 billion in 2020

    Muqeem Ahmad, London,

    Rolls-Royce, the world’s largest supplier of jet engines, lost 5.6 billion in 2020. According to experts, they did not expect such a big loss. Corona virus, lockdown and travel bans leave thousands of planes stranded around the world.

    Rolls-Royce collects from its customers on an hourly basis. Due to which Rolls-Royce company is facing profit reduction and difficulties. However, Rolls-Royce is ready to face the worst situation as it still has enough capital and foundations.

    Rolls-Royce plans to raise $2.8 billion from the sale of its assets in Spain, after the news broke Shares of the company gained 2.7%.Experts say the sale of assets by Rolls-Royce is a viable plan

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • TV prices to go up from April as open-cell panels get costlier in global markets

    The cost of open-cell panels has gone up in the global markets by up to 35 per cent in the past one month

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Apple starts assembly of iPhone 12 in India

    While the company did not name the supplier partners, sources said Foxconn will be making the iPhone 12 at a facility in TamilNadu

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • NZ Super Fund dumps Israeli banks for funding settlements in Palestine

    By Roger Fowler in Auckland

    The multi-billion-dollar NZ Super Fund  – New Zealand’s state pension fund – has finally divested from five of Israel’s biggest banks due to their funding of illegal settlement construction in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

    New Zealand Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman said the party welcomed the decision, telling The Spinoff:

    “Our nation’s values and legal obligations have been long in breach by investments facilitating what the United Nations has consistently called an illegal occupation, causing the suffering of the Palestinian people, and leading to a number of other breaches of humanitarian law.”

    A Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) statement last week said that Palestinian supporters in Aotearoa-New Zealand had frequently complained about these banks to the NZ Super Fund, especially following a 2018 report by Human Rights Watch which identified their active participation in settlement building in breach of international law.

    In 2012, the NZ Super Fund ended its investment with three Israeli companies on ethical grounds. These were companies that were directly building illegal settlements on Palestinian land.

    Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa spokesperson Janfrie Wakim said that the NZ Super Fund had, at last, conducted a thorough investigation and reached a firm conclusion that it would be unethical to continue to invest in these banks.

    “There is a wealth of reliable information and law that makes any continuing NZ Super Fund investment with these banks untenable. No New Zealand institution should provide any support to the ongoing dispossession of the Palestinian people in their homeland and the brutal Israeli occupation,” she said.

    “The fund still has investments in other Israeli companies, and the fund says it will be paying close attention to any future reports from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights about the culpability of other Israeli companies in illegal settlement construction.”

    NZ government ‘lagging behind’
    Janfrie Wakim also said that the NZ Super Fund divestment decision – and the evidence it had used – had shown up what she called a “dreadful lagging behind” by the New Zealand government.

    “The NZ Super Fund divested in weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems in its first round of Israeli disinvestment in 2012,” Wakim said.

    “Yet, the New Zealand government has admitted to buying military equipment, ground tested on Palestinians, from Elbit Systems, which is the very same company which the NZ Super Fund dropped from its portfolio in 2012.”

    Roger Fowler is a veteran peace activist and community advocate from Auckland, Aotearoa-New Zealand, and coordinator of Kia Ora Gaza which organises support for international solidarity convoys and the Freedom Flotillas to break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza. Fowler is editor of kiaoragaza.net. This article was first published in The Palestine Chronicle and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

    • The NZ Super Fund document on the Israeli banks is here.

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • MEPs back law to hold firms to account for environment and human rights abuses

    Big majority in EU parliament vote for corporate due diligence along entire supply chains, which will include UK businesses

    The EU took a step closer to holding companies to account for environmental damage and human rights abuses committed by their subsidiaries and suppliers overseas, with a vote in the European parliament on Wednesday.

    MEPs voted by a large majority, 504 to 79 (with 112 abstentions), to push forward with proposed legislation that would require companies to conduct due diligence throughout their supply chain, to root out abuses and environmental harm such as deforestation and pollution.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • State Capture: top corporations identified as members of both Liberal and Labor parties

    Political donations, Liberal Party, Labor Party, AEC
    Companies which benefit enormously from government policy are also actual members of both the major political parties. A surprising data investigation by Stephanie Tran shows the likes of Woodside, Wesfarmers, PwC and ASX are Platinum members of the Liberal and Labor parties and membership fees are identical.

    This post was originally published on Michael West.

  • Aged care giants extort government for funding hike, threaten campaign in marginal seats

    aged care royal commission
    Australia’s biggest private and corporatised charities in aged care are threatening the government with a political campaign if they don’t get more money, on top of the $21 billion in government funding they get already. Throwing money at large providers has not worked, write Elizabeth Minter and Dr Sarah Russell, in a call for greater transparency and significant reform for the sector.

    This post was originally published on Michael West.

  • Cars regain speed, clock 24% growth in February

    Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest car maker by sales, said it sales in February jumped 11.8 per cent to 1,52,983 units from 1,36,849 units

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Indian economy in +ve zone, grows 0.4%

    The size of the economy had shrunken in the April-June and July-September quarters, pulling down the country into a technician recession

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Union Cabinet nod for PLI scheme for pharmaceuticals, IT hardware

    It proposes production linked incentive to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large investments in the value chain of these products

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • IT sector continues to see sequential growth in hiring in January: Report

    Bengaluru and Hyderabad are the highest paying cities for IT jobs in India for the salary bracket of Rs 25 lakhs or more

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella bats for global regulation on privacy

    He says, regulations are in place and initiatives such as General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are spreading worldwide

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Laughing Stock: Australia’s new media code rivals our climate policy for absurdity

    Google good, Facebook bad. That sums up mainstream media coverage of the Coalition government’s bizarre new media code. Google paid up, Facebook decided it was extortion and called Josh Frydenberg’s bluff, banning Australian news. Kim Wingerei and Michael West report on the corruption of mainstream media.

    This post was originally published on Michael West.

  • Globo Asia Pakistan, Bahrain Chapter hold a Real estate and property exhibition in Manama.

    Zaka Mohsin, Manama,

    Globo Asia Pakistan, Bahrain Chapter will hold a Real estate and property exhibition in Manama, Bahrain on February 25 and 26. A meeting of Pakistani and Bahraini businessmen was held in Bahrain for this important exhibition which aims to promote investment opportunities in real estate in Pakistan.

    On finalizing of the arrangements for the exhibition, the organizer of the exhibition Imran Khattak said that a property exhibition is being organized to promote foreign investment in Pakistan.

    In addition to investing in real estate for Pakistani businessmen abroad, the aim is to educate foreign investors about real estate in various sectors of Pakistan and to draw their attention to it.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • $614 million loss force Airbus to halt production of A380 Super Jumbo.

    Muqeem Ahmad, London,

    Year 2020 was the most difficult for Airbus and it lost becomes 510 million Euros or 614 million dollars, according to European aircraft maker Airbus.

    Global travel restrictions, lockdowns and the closure of business and tourism activities forced Airbus to halt production of A380 Super Jumbo, and many such projects had to close with heavy losses. While Airbus has not received any major orders for jets in 2021, it has stopped distributing profits to shareholders this year in a row.

    On the other hand, Airbus’s customer airline is also facing severe difficulties. Air France’s, KLM and other international airlines have been affected by the pandemic and the sale of new aircraft is almost non-existent.

    The Airbus factories still have 100 jets ready and have no buyers. The global aviation industry has high hopes for an end to the Corona virus pandemic, which will be able lead to resumption of travel and tourism.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Job prospects look up for freshers: Survey

    Information technology, telecommunications, e-commerce and technology start-ups seem to be the leaders in terms of hiring intent

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.

  • Tata Electronics to set up component-making plant in TN

    These industrial parks will create employment opportunities for more than one lakh people, the government said

    This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.