by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Medium Enterprise, SMEs
Madrid : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Spanish counterpart Josep Borrell on Tuesday agreed, following a bilateral meeting in the Spanish capital, that both countries supported the promotion of multilateralism and a rules-based concept of free trade.
The two leaders met at Madrid’s Viana Palace, the Spanish foreign ministry’s official headquarters, to discuss the most pressing issues on the international agenda, according to a ministry statement.
“The meeting has allowed us to confirm the growing degree of interlocution between Spain and Indian authorities and the current understanding between two partners that share values, democratic principles and vision regarding international affairs,” read the statement, Efe reported.
Both chief diplomats broached the budding potential of closer economic ties and industrial and technological cooperation between the Mediterranean and South Asian nations, especially in fields in which Spanish businesses are global leaders such as the civil use of nuclear energy, transport, the railway sector and renewable energy.
The ministry highlighted India’s increasing influence when it comes to the promotion of international stability and security.
Borrell and Swaraj congratulated each other for the imminent signing of a bilateral deal on water resources.
In addition, Borrell presented Swaraj with the prestigious Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit medal to honour India’s support for Spanish victims of the earthquake that devastated Nepal in April 2015.
The Spanish official expressed his condolences and solidarity in the aftermath of a brutal suicide bombing that has killed at least 40 paramilitary troopers in Indian-administered Kashmir and has sparked international condemnation.
India and Spain had already strengthened their relationship on December 1 when Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina.
In early January, Borrell visited India to continue the high-level talks between both countries and prepare a planned state visit by Sánchez scheduled for the third trimester of 2019, although the PM has since called snap elections for April, which has, for now, put those plans on hold.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Muslim World
By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun,
Ankara: The 20th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) urged the member countries to ratify a tripartite free trade agreement.
The COMESA Summit 2018 summit ended in Zambia’s capital Lusaka on Thursday evening.
The final communique released by the Africa’s largest trade bloc after the summit urged the member countries to ratify the free trade agreement signed by the COMESA, East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional blocs.
The tripartite free trade agreement was launched in June 2015 and set a stage for the establishment of a single market for the 26 African countries in the eastern and southern region, Xinhua news agency said.
The trade bloc on Wednesday added Somalia and Tunisia as members.
The announcement came at the official opening the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) summit in Lusaka, Zambia.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by heads of state from member countries of COMESA.
Chileshe Kapwepwe from Zambia became the first woman to head the trade bloc. She was preceded by Sindiso Ngwenya, a Zimbabwean economist.
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World

British Prime Minister Theresa May
London : The British government on Thursday published the long-awaited white paper on Brexit seeking to create a free trade area with the EU. Prime Minister Theresa May said it delivers on the Brexit vote.
The 98-page document, titled “The Future Relationship between the UK and the EU”, was published amid chaotic scenes in the House of Commons. It spelled out that workers from the other 27 EU member states will be able to travel to Britain visa-free to take up temporary employment, the Guardian reported.
It also stated that businesses that provide services will be able to move their talented people to and from Europe and Britain. Media reports in London said the white paper had been amended to soften the restrictions on Europeans coming to Britain after Brexit.
Dominic Raab, newly-appointed Brexit Secretary after the shock resignation of David Davis, gave details of the proposals to MPs in the Commons. The release of the document sparked chaotic scenes when it became apparent that copies of the paper were not immediately available to MPs.
He described the proposals as a “principled and practical Brexit”, describing the white paper as “the most significant Brexit publication” since the referendum in 2016.
Asked if there was a possibility of no-deal being struck between the EU and Britain, Raab said every eventuality was being planned for, but his aim was to see a future trade deal with Brussels.
May said the document “delivers on the Brexit people voted for”. But, pro-Brexit politicians vowed to table amendments saying May’s plan did not amount to Britain fully leaving the EU. It will see Britain leaving the European single market and the customs union.
The Department for Exiting the EU said the document proposed “a free trade area for goods that ensured continued frictionless access at the border, protected jobs and livelihoods and ensured Britain and EU meet their shared commitments to Northern Ireland and Ireland”.
Raab said the white paper outlined a vision that respects the result of the referendum and delivers a principled and practical Brexit. “It would maintain frictionless trade in goods between the UK and the EU through a new free trade area, responding to the needs of business,” he said.
Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said it was a “bad deal for Britain”.
EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said he would analyse them (proposals) with the European Parliament and member states and was “looking forward” to negotiations with the UK next week.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Muslim World, Social Round-up
Nouakchott : African leaders from across the continent on Monday discussed ways to promote and sustain peace, development, and security on the closing day of the 31st African Union summit. The leaders emphasized the need for establishment of a free trade area for the entire continent.
The summit wrapped up late Monday in Mauritania’s capital with advisory decisions on Libya, Somalia, and South Sudan.
Attending the two-day summit in Nouakchott were 22 African presidents, four prime ministers, and two foreign ministers. In a written statement, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council said international actors should resume their efforts to implement a UN plan which aims to secure stability, territorial integrity and security in Libya.
Emphasizing the humanitarian conditions in South Sudan, which are worsening day by day due to war, the statement said the parties should fulfill their obligations.
Regarding Somalia, the council said the African Union supports the activities of its federal government in the transition period. It also asked the UN to finance the African Union’s mission in Somalia.
Speaking at a news conference, African Union Chairperson and Rwandan President Paul Kagame said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement was among the topics that topped the summit’s agenda. Kagame said five more countries signed the agreement.
He added that the establishment of a free trade area would have a great impact on the welfare of the African continent.
Africa urgently needs a comprehensive approach to deal with extremist attacks that take into account the cultural and economic issues that are the root causes of the violence, said Mauritanian President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz from his side.
The summit also focused on the union’s 2063 socio-economic transformation plan, which aims to make Africa a strong and integrated player on the global stage.
—SM/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Kula Saikia,
The tsunami of change was all-pervasive to engulf most of the nation states. Liberalisation, free trade, WTO, TPP, NAFTA, EFTA, EU, the information revolution et al came together and broke the historically defined geographical barriers. Isolationism became a hated and much maligned term in international trade, commerce and strategic considerations. There arose new hope of transnational job opportunities cutting across organisations and authorities.
The belief in the new world order was overwhelming with dreams of a better tomorrow where manmade restrictions would crumble, allowing unhindered migration of people, free flow of goods and technology and knowledge transfer, leading to the growth of the manufacturing and service sectors, employment creation and enhancement of living standards. The undercurrent was that the benefits would percolate down the line. Aspirations and ambitions were local but the vision was global in a wirelessly wired world.
Information and communication technology (ICT) clubbed countries together through the internet highway and, like a great medieval conqueror, created a one-world syndrome. However, the factors that were thought to be ushering in a new age of progress and prosperity turned out to be serious disruptors.
The developed countries witnessed the migration of jobs to the army of cheap labour in less developed countries, coupled with the huge inward migration of displaced people from war-ravaged countries, leading to unforeseen pressure on domestic tax payers.
Soaring unemployment levels, coupled with a fall in the real wage, broke the golden dream of sunny days in a free economy environment. Cities like Detroit, once bustling with industrial activities and manufacturing giants witnessed a slow death with the shifting of their nerve centres to a number of developing countries providing cheap and capable manpower.
Disenchantment grew in the rich countries against apparent loss of their sovereignty in the name of a borderless world which siphoned away their economic opportunities.
Things were no better in the developing countries either. No doubt shedding protectionism helped some of them garner production-line units and service sector benefits leading to absorption of both the skilled and semi-skilled human resource of the local pool.
Capital inflows improved but at a price. The volatile nature of such inflows impacted the economic decision-making process in these countries by integrating them to the frequent ups and downs of the rich economies.
Now, it seemed the developing countries had lost their economic sovereignty in the big empire of the virtual world. The unhindered flow of cultural values, ethics and lifestyles along the borderless internet highway generated a perceived fear and apprehension of being uprooted from their traditional social and cultural milieu — the fear of the big fish eating the smaller ones.
The apprehension was not only that Wal Marts would devour the kirana shops or McDonalds would alter eating habits through the likes of the McAloo tikki but that indigenous knowledge, traditions, religious beliefs and cultural milieu would all get swept away in the deluge. The fashion you favour, the apparel you approve, the music you compose, the food you relish, the opinions you form — as if all these have origins elsewhere in a society alien to your own and you feel an unknown and invisible ‘colonial power’ has stealthily demolished your sovereign boundary in the name of a connected world; as if the culture of the land is being swept away by a mighty cultural aggressor.
Part of such fear and apprehension may be perceived, part may be genuine but could lead to the redefining of nationalist ideas and interests in different parts of the globe.
The issues highlighted through Brexit in the UK, the stricter US immigration policy and the recent electoral agendas of several political groups in the EU and elsewhere are the inevitable fall out of this worldwide phenomenon.
Similar waves have hit the socio-political environment of a number of developing countries to rediscover and redefine their national identities so that the virtual borderless world does not demolish their geographically-defined sovereign borders and sweep away their unique cultural ethnicity.
All this has necessitated a fresh look at policy frameworks by suitably redesigning multilateral institutions so that local needs, ethos and pathos of the member countries are adequately reflected to ensure a win-win strategy. There should be sufficient prescriptions to ensure redistributive justice for the citizens so that inequalities perpetrated by the open economy architecture are taken care of.
Globalization has been there since birth of civilisation in different avatars. It has to retune itself to the needs of the time. After all, no nation would like to go back to the cocoon of isolation and monolithic existence.
(Kula Saikia, a Fulbright scholar and a Sahitya Akademy awardee, is Special Director General of Police, Assam. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at kulasaikia@yahoo.com)
—IANS