June 2006 Edition
CHARITY
About US$11.1-billion a year is funnelled to poor countries through private charities, according to the OECD, which tracks aid from 22 donor countries. Private giving is stimulated partly by public policies. Some governments provide tax breaks for charitable giving. In others, low taxes assist private giving by leaving more money in the pockets of citizens.
WEIGHT
With the weight-loss products market slowing after the low-carb craze, marketers are refocussing their energies on low fat, low sugar, and low glycemic index products to regain market momentum. The industry was once expected to reach US$9-billion by 2008. It won't regain the drive it enjoyed in the low- carb craze which helped the market surge by 22 per cent between 2002 and 2003. It is now estimated the market will reach 7.5-billion by 2010, bolstered by strong growth in the weight-loss desserts and diet candy sectors.
DAMAGES
More than 73,000 people died in last year's earthquake in Pakistan and India. Swiss Re, a reinsurance company, estimates the total cost of the damage was US$5-billion, but most of it was uninsured. Hurricane Katrina caused the greatest damage last year, at $135-billion. Claims on insurers amounted to $45-billion, the biggest in post-war history.
TOURISM
A record 808-million people visited a foreign country last year, up 5.5 per cent from the previous year. According to the UN World Tourism Organization the number of international tourists is expected to hit one billion by 2010 and the 2020 forecast is 1.6-billion. Europe still attracted the lion's share of travellers with 444-million arrivals. Africa saw a 10 per cent increase while Asia-Pacific and the Middle East saw arrivals forge by seven per cent. The Americas were visited by 133-million travellers.
MEXICO
Two years ago, China pushed Mexico from second to third place as a supplier of imported goods to the U.S. and some experts predict the Asian country will replace Canada as the No. 1 country within two years. China also became Mexico's second-largest trading partner after the U.S. though the trading relationship is very uneven with China sending Mexico US$14-billion worth of goods while only importing $400-million worth.
OIL SANDS
India has jumped into the intense competition for Canadian oil sands assets with plans to invest US$1-billion this year. India has mounted a high-profile hunt for foreign reserves to help power its growing economy. India is reportedly now worried its plans will put it head-to-head with long-time rival China in bidding for Canada's oil assets.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The average age of the four main components of Canada's public engineering infrastructure has stabilized in recent years after 20 years of steady increases, thanks to higher investment. A new study examines the aging, from 1963 to 2003, of the main components: roads and highways, sewer systems, wastewater treatment facilities and bridges. Wastewater facilities, the oldest infrastructure, had 63 per cent of useful life behind them. Bridges, the youngest infrastructure, had reached 49 per cent of their useful life.
UKRAINE
The U.S. and Ukraine have signed trade agreement on market access issues bringing Ukraine a step closer to membership in the World Trade Organization. U.S. service providers and exporters of industrial and agricultural products will get more opportunities to sell their wares in Ukraine.
SHOPPING
Non-traditional retailers will continue to pose a serious threat to supermarkets as market share in the food retailing industry shifts even more from food-focused to general merchandise-focused retailers. In 2005, 51 per cent of market share in the U.S. for food and consumables went to food-focused retailers, while a significant 33 per cent went to general-merchandise-focused retailers. Industry experts predict that in 2009 49 per cent will go to food-focused retailers and 39 per cent to general merchandise-focused retailers
VIEWING
In Britain, surfing the Internet is now more popular than TV. On average, adults in Britain spend more time online, 41.5 days a year, than in front of the TV. Government figures show they now spend just 37.5 days a year watching television. Londoners spend the most time on line, 183 minutes a day, but it is the high-tech Scotland that is second with an average of 181 minutes each day.
HONESTY
Japan is revising a century-old law because of its people's honesty which has overwhelmed the police by swamping them with lost property. Over 10 million items were handed in to police in 2004. The figure, more than double that of 1964, reflects the law-abiding, yet forgetful nature of the Japanese. Unclaimed items become the property of the finder.
UNDERWEAR
Turkey is the third-largest exporter of underwear in the world. Revenue from the industry, which employs close to one million Turks, reached US$4-billion in 2004 giving Turkey eight per cent of the world market for bras, panties and bathing suits, behind China and Hong Kong. Turkey's textile industry owes its success to good quality, low production costs, technology and proximity to Europe.
FISHING
Recently, fishermen off the coast of Japan have often been pulling in giant jellyfish which can be over a metre across and weigh 150 kilos. Their arrival has been a disaster for many fishing communities, breaking nets and gear, crushing the fish catch or spoiling it with poisonous tentacles. The jellyfish spawn along the coast of the East China Sea and drift towards Japan.
WEALTH
In the latest Forbes ranking of the world's super rich, 22 Canadians have made the billionaire list including one, the son of a Saskatchewan pig farmer, who made his fortune in Internet gambling. The rise of emerging markets and a host of new billionaires from third-world countries helped boost the 10-figure club to a record 793. The average net worth of the list's members is US$3.3-billion. Their combined wealth grew 18 per cent last year to $2.6-trillion.
ADS
A church in England has been told it needs planning permission and has to pay $150 to put up a wooden cross because it constitutes an advertisement.
ENERGY
Alarmed by a surge in energy costs and the threat of an acute gas shortage, the European Commission is trying to get control of energy policy from national governments. The EU claims that Europe can no longer afford 25 different and uncoordinated energy policies. Brussels proposes the creation of a single European electricity grid, new gas and oil pipelines into the heart of Europe from North Africa and the Middle East and the setting up of emergency gas stocks.
BENEFITS
More than half Canadian employers, burdened by spiralling health care costs and bracing for the flood of baby boomer retirements, plan to cut the level of benefits they provide to retired employees, a new survey indicates. The cuts will primarily affect future retirees who will face tighter eligibility requirements and who, increasingly, will be forced to dip into their pension income to help pay for their drug, dental and vision benefits.
AUSTRALIA
More than 150 years after the discovery of gold sparked a digging frenzy in the Australian state of Victoria, prospectors are once again striking it rich as a new gold rush gets under way. Better equipment and sophisticated geological mapping are enabling modern mining companies to find gold deposits that were beyond the reach of the 19-century forebears. Victoria once produced 40 per cent of the world's gold.
BEER
Soon, Budweiser beer is to be sold in Russia, one of the few brands it doesn't already have. Russia's beer market has doubled since 1999 and is expected to expand a further 33 per cent by 2010. Bud will be sold at high end bars and restaurants in major cities. Russia was the fourth-fastest growing beer market in terms of volume in 2004 among the top 12 markets and the fastest-growing among emerging markets after China and Brazil.
FARMS
More than 1,000 years after the last Viking invaders settled on the East Coast of England, the Danes are back, and buying British farmland because it is a more attractive prospect than their own. In the past two years, some 7,500 acres of prime farmland in the East of England have been sold to Danish buyers. Not since Dutch bulb and vegetable growers started buying up land in the same area in the 1970s has there been such a large invasion.
WOOD
Manufacturers of B.C. wood products are aiming to make an aggressive return to South Korea in a bid to capture a share of the rising market there for wood-frame homes and building materials. Interest in Korea among B.C. manufacturers dipped in the late 1990s during the Asian economic crisis. Within the next five to 10 years, an estimated 40,000 single-family wood-frame homes will be built in Korea each year.
ROADS
The Indian government has begun a 15-year project to widen and pave some 40,000 miles of narrow, decrepid national highways, with the first leg budgeted at US$6.25-billion to be completed within a year. It amounts to the most ambitious infrastructure project since independence in 1947 and the British building of the subcontinents railway network the century before.
DISEASE
At least one new disease is jumping the species barrier from animals to humans each year, exposing people to emerging germs at an unprecedented rate. The first work to catalogue the range of germs capable of infecting people has disclosed that 38 new human pathogens have emerged in the last 25 years of which three-quarters originated as animal diseases.
CHEESE
The European Court of Justice has ended a thirteen year dispute ruling that the name "feta" must be used only for white cheese soaked in brine and made in Greece. This was done under the same legislation that ensures champagne comes from Champagne, France and Parma ham must come from Parma, Italy. The ruling has caused chaos in the European feta industry. There are large-scale feta manufacturers in Denmark, Germany and France.
POWER
Britain's dominant supermarkets could be stopped from opening more stores after a Government watchdog suggested that they had become too powerful. The Office of Fair Trading claims that the four big chains may be restricting choice and driving independent convenience stores out of business. These stores have nearly a 75 per cent share of Britain's US$250-billion grocery market.
COMMUTING
Japanese auto maker Mazda says it will pay employees who walk to the office, rather than commute by car, as part of an effort to improve their health and protect the environment. All the company's 20,000 workers at domestic plants are eligible.
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