September 1999 Edition
MERGERS
The rush of worldwide mergers and acquisitions is accelerating. In the U.S., deals worth $570 billion were completed in the first half of 1999, compared with $528 billion for the same period last year. European deals, fuelled by monetary union, were worth $346 billion in the first half of 1999; in the whole of 1998 the total was $541 billion.
SPACE
Last year, there were 1.1 million people worldwide who were employed in jobs directly related to space. France launches 50 per cent of the world's commercial satellites. The U.S. is second with 40 per cent of them and Russia and China split most of the rest, using mostly surplus rockets left over from the Cold War.
Y2K
The U.S. Department of Transportation is heading an International Year 2000 civil aviation evaluation process, which is reviewing information about the Year 2000 (Y2K) readiness of foreign air traffic service providers, foreign airports, and foreign air carriers flying into and out of the U.S. The process will review and evaluate all available information regarding the Y2K readiness of foreign air traffic services providers and airports used by U.S. airlines, as well as foreign airlines. Beginning this month, travellers will be able to access information on the internet at http://www.dot.gov/fly2k.
ORGANIC
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, British farmers are cultivating five times more land using organic methods than a year ago.
GROWTH
One of the most significant business developments of this century is the dramatic growth of women-owned businesses. Eight million women own businesses that contribute nearly $2.3 trillion annually to the U.S. economy, and these businesses are increasing at nearly twice the national average.
SURGE
Export Development Corp., the Canadian government's trade finance arm, reports the number of smaller companies--annual sales up to $25 million--using its services rose nearly 21 per cent to 3,704 customers in the first six months of the year compared with the 1998 period. The value of exports grew 8.2 per cent to $3 billion. Smaller exporters account for 86 per cent of EDC's customers. These smaller exporters sold their goods and services in 142 countries.
INFLUENCE
Although 90% of all U.S. exporters are small businesses accounting for 30% of the dollar value of U.S. exports, small businesses are poorly represented on important global trade and export policy councils. The World Trade Organization (WTO), for example, represents 135 countries accounting for 90% of all global trade. Yet the WTO has no committee representing the interests of small and mid-sized companies. A number of critical overseas trade issues impact small U.S. companies, yet many cannot afford the legal and other costs involved for example, in protecting intellectual property rights abroad, staying on top of product safety certification requirements for overseas sales, among other issues.
CURRY
In 1950 there were just six Indian restaurants in Britain, now there are over 7,500. Twice as much Indian food is sold in Britain as fish and chips. Even McDonalds have had to adjust their British menus to include "curry and spice." However, last year there were at least 300 closures of Indian restaurants compared with just over 100 openings. Indian restaurants, while still the biggest players in the industry, are losing market share to pizzas, burgers and to new forms of eastern cuisine, such as Thai and Japanese food.
LABELLING
Over 30 agricultural products may be subject to mandatory biotechnology labelling under a proposal announced Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). Under the scheme, food items including corn snacks, popcorn, or those with corn starch, corn flour, corn grits or corn oil will be subject to labelling that denotes whether they contain "genetically modified or non-genetically modified ingredients." Both manufacturers and importers will be obligated to label these foods. The new labelling standards will be announced in April 2000 to be implemented by April 2001.
VIETNAM
European environmental groups are calling for a boycott of hardwood garden furniture made in Vietnam. They allege that the furniture products, while bearing labels claiming the products were "Made in Vietnam," are actually derived from wood bought illegally from Cambodia, where the wood was harvested to fund Cambodian military operations. The groups are encouraging consumers to only purchase wood furniture bearing the Forest Stewardship Council logo, indicating the wood was derived from a sustainably managed forest system. The groups also say that Cambodia's forest cover has declined from 70% of land area in the early 1970s to 30-35% today.
BRAIN DRAIN
Lured by lower taxes and booming job opportunities, Canadian professionals are flocking to the U.S. in numbers that are unprecedented according to a Conference Board of Canada study. About 98,000 Canadian emigrants--the bulk of them on temporary work visas--headed south in 1997, up from just 16,900 in 1986. The study provided additional ammunition to business groups and opposition Mps who argue that the federal government must dramatically slash taxes to stem the flood of highly skilled workers leaving the country.
ACCOUNTANTS
The management accounting organizations of Canada, the U.S. and Australia are forming an alliance that may ultimately lead to the mutual recognition of their national management accounting designations. The three national bodies have signed a letter of intent to form the nucleus of a worldwide organization. The idea is to supply international support that would assist in providing leadership, research and resources for the profession.
CAMPING
Because the stores sell gear, groceries, auto supplies and souvenirs, and they are often open all night, most of Wal-Mart's 2,910 parking lots across the U.S. have become more appealing to the trailer and RV set than the regular campgrounds just outside town. While they do not have hookups, they are free, don't require reservations and always have vacancies. K Mart Corp., a big competitor, discourages overnight campers because it often violates leases and local laws. On one evening recently in Anchorage, Alaska, about 90 campers with licence plates from as far away as Florida and North Carolina took up nearly half the Wal-Mart parking lot.
E-COMMERCE
Home Depot, the largest North American retailer of home-improvement products has written to more than 1000 of its suppliers asking them not to sell their products directly to consumers over the Internet or risk having their products dropped from the chain's shelves. The company said it may hesitate to do business with suppliers that also market products online because they would become competitors. Many manufacturers are treading carefully to find ways to get a piece of the lucrative and fast growing Internet market without angering companies that sell their products.
MONEY
The Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland estimated in April 1998 the scope of global trading by the world's financial institutions to be $1.5 trillion daily. This sum is larger than the annual GDP of Canada or any of the largest European countries, or the largest states in the U.S. In 1998, the average daily trade by financial institutions was equal to 5 per cent of global GDP. Or, to put it another way, it took the world's financial institutions less than three weeks to trade an amount equal to the world's entire production of goods and services in the whole year.
BOOKS
The $122 million Canadian books earned in export revenues in 1996-97 is still a modest portion of a $2 billion industry. But the growth from five years earlier is notable. In 1991-92 according to Statscan, export sales were $48 million, little more than a third of recent sales. Experts suggest that the NAFTA and the end of the recession are likely factors in book-sale growth.
SNIFFING
Engineers at the University of Warwick have developed a device to help both the fruit industry and ordinary shoppers. Most of the traditional methods used to assess fruit ripeness have ended up in the destruction of a piece of fruit. But researchers have put together the sensors of an electronic nose coupled to a neural network to produce a device that calculates the exact ripeness of the fruit by its smell. Once the electronic nose has been trained on a particular fruit it doesn't require a skilled operator and can obtain the results in a few seconds with over 92% accuracy.
FOOD
Canadians are eating more according to 1998 data. At the same time they continued the trend to healthier eating choosing lower-fat products. The 1998 general increase in food consumption coincided with an expanding Canadian economy and a falling unemployment rate. Per capita consumption of red meat increased in 1998 after declining since the mid-1970s. This increase can be attributed to pork demand, which rose 6.5% to 27.0 kilograms per person in 1998, as consumers responded to increased supplies and lower prices. Rice continues to rise in popularity as an alternative to potatoes. Its consumption has more than doubled over the past 15 years.
WEALTH
The UN Development Programme published its index of Human Well-being, noting that the world's three richest men have more wealth than the combined GNP of the 43 poorest countries.
BUGGIES
Shopping carts cost Canada Safeway Ltd. $175 each and losses due to stealing cost the company around $1 million annually nationwide. Cart thefts from a single store were $150,000 last year. Now they are introducing a new anti-theft system which costs $50,000 per store. The system involves a special wheel covered by a plastic braking shell. When the cart is pushed far enough away from a Safeway parking lot, sensors buried around the store's perimeter activate a battery powered device that lowers the shell over the wheel making it immovable. The system is already being used in California and Texas.
WIRED
Albertans lead the pack and Quebeckers lag furthest behind when it comes to the rate of Internet use in Canada. StatsCan found that 45 per cent of Albertan households were regular users of the Internet in 1998, higher than the national average of 35.9 per cent and nearly double Quebec's rate of 26 per cent. B.C. at 42 per cent, Ontario at 39 per cent and Nova Scotia at 37.9 per cent were the only other provinces to beat the average usage rate.
ENERGY
A person uses more household energy shaving with a hand razor at a sink (because of the water power, the water pump, and so on) than he would by using an electric razor.
SUNSCREEN
Miami Beach pharmacist Benjamin Green invented the first suntan cream by cooking cocoa butter in a granite coffee pot on his stove at home, and then testing the batch on his own head. His invention was introduced as Coppertone Suntan Cream in 1944.
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