Smoking and Global Warming

From a hotel room in Central Jakarta, Indonesia news agency Pena's final report describes the development of the tobacco industry today. This report in the form of 65 pages thick magazine with the headline on the front page "Hypocrisy & Myths Behind the Tobacco Industry".

Pena Indonesia claims this report is based on investigative reports on various search tobacco industry documents. Also includes two CD or compact disk that contains thousands of documents multinational industries in Indonesia. As the documents from British American Tobacco or BAT, Philips Morris and others.

The workshop was attended among journalists and health activists. Aim to provide insight into the existence of secret documents related to the coming of the giants of the world tobacco industry and its relationship with Indonesia.

This workshop also received support from the world health agency WHO's Indonesia representative, IAKMI-Public Health Specialist Association of Indonesia and SEATCA-The Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance.

Pena Indonesia to work for three months and glared through the computer. Digging thousands of documents online from seven giant cigarette recorded in the period 1960 until the early 2000s. At least there are about 28,000 of thousands more documents from British American Tobacco or BAT Indonesia is stored in digital libraries of the University of California, San Francisco, United States.

Walk through also take place in the site's Legacy Tobacco Documents Library that contains an internal document of Philips Morris, RJ Reynolds, Lorillard and Brown & Williamson. The result is reported and written by Farid Gaban and Alfian Hamzah from Pena Indonesia news agency and Mardiyah Chamim of Tempo Magazine. Coverage and support in the form of grant funding from Essential Action Global Partnership for Tobacco Control, based in Washington.

This story began in 1998. This year may be spelled out in the most unfortunate for the cigarette industry in America. Attorney General State of Minnesota, United States, Hubert Humphrey III blew the whistle loud warning to cigarette industry. Attorney General asked the seven smoking industry giants to open all their secret documents to the public. Aim to find the truth.

These documents are internal documents containing various letters to the authorities, scientists, media tricks to boost the tobacco business. Seven giant companies, among others, from Philip Morris Incorporated, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, British American Tobacco (BAT), Brown and Williamson, the Ligget Group and The Tobacco Institute and The Council for Tobacco Research and the Lorillard Tobacco Company.

American courts have six million documents with 35 million pages. Each page is a seal and code number of lawyers the industry to ensure its authenticity. The court also requires the tobacco industry parties in order to deposit the documents until the year 2008.

While in England, the mountains of British American Tobacco documents typically stored in the warehouse Guilford, Surrey, England. BAT archiving online documents is done by the University of California, San Francisco, United States.

There are seven million documents in the form of scanned documents. And spent about four years to make efforts for their hard work. Unfortunately, according to Duncan Cambell, an American investigative journalist who helped search smoking industry documents, the claim that there are about 181 file that contains thousands of pages of documents had been lost. These missing documents are not clear and it is possible rimbanya associated with regions of other countries, like Indonesia.

One of the investigations of this American smoking industry had contrived movie "The Insider" that tell about the search an American television journalist uncover fraud in the levels toxins. Media in the United States to encourage and influence the people that smoking is a threat. Cigarettes became citizen issues and then encouraging the birth of a strict smoking regulations and basic.

Tobacco industry should be controlled and strictly controlled. For owners in the U.S. tobacco industry is not a condition of a good climate. And ask the American government to the strict rules that only apply in the United States alone. And does not apply to international business networks in different parts of other countries. Post-1998 invasion was in progress. And objectives that cigarette owners are the countries that enter the third country groups.

How to countries in the region, especially Indonesia in association with the document? Indonesia belonged to a third country is not it? Indonesia is a land tender and a haven for the global tobacco industry of the world. Tobacco industry in Indonesia incarnate and was like a "kingdom" of its own. He played many roles and automatic movements do not get a lot of obstacles and barriers.

Either statutory, economic, social to the political path. The smoking industry in Indonesia grew rapidly and slippery. Borrowing the term's largest daily newspaper in West Java, the People's Mind, the tobacco industry as "Spreads and entrenched". Not a lot of media in Indonesia to criticism, preaching especially to make a profound statement relating cigarette industry is. Indonesia received with open field every movement, ideas, and the influence of the tobacco industry in developing its business extensively.

We can learn many things from the tobacco industry documents. Learn how they work, determine the position and influence policy makers, economic, media until the "buy-sell" research. The document gives a clear and detailed. We just need to work hard, carefully detailing, and built of sheets of documents to obtain a complete picture of the building of the world tobacco industry as a whole.

According to the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA)-based institutions in Thailand, in its report Profiting from Death: Exposing the Tobacco Industry Tactics in ASEAN Countries, October 2007, explained that until now the region cigarette consumption of about 50 per cent of world tobacco consumption. And Asia considered as an important market future of the world tobacco industry.

While 10 countries joined to the ASEAN approximately 31 percent or 125.8 million ASEAN youth population are smokers. Or about 10 percent-1, 25 billion-from the number of young smokers smokers of the world continue to increase and the country joined ASEAN contributed to the death rate from smoking as much as 20 percent!

SEATCA is a partnership network of state agencies that merged into the ASEAN which undertakes research, advocacy and capacity building in each of its members. SEATCA work and build advocacy mission to its members who have made ratification of the WHO convention, tobacco control over the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - including Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam. While Indonesia is the only country in Asia which until this moment has not ratified these conventions.

WHO convention on tobacco control is essential to apply in the cigarette industry in Indonesia. This Convention will regulate and control the tobacco industry. There are about 38 articles in the convention and aims to improve the quality of global health.

Business development to move the tobacco industry is not in the form of a single strategic one. Business strategy will follow the situation in each area of development. He worked to organize and determine the target groups, facilitate the political policies that support good business that comes from the government or the people's representatives, to work with anyone to make promotional efforts and form a fully market.

Tobacco industry to build its image through a variety of ways. From the ad creates a direct communication with consumers by placing cigarette products through billboards, print ads and electronic media, posters, accessories, colors and logo outlets that causes the image of tobacco products.

Promotional activities by distributing free cigarette samples, offers coupons, contests, lotteries, tickets to watch sports games and racing, music concerts, fund a film, talk shows, street party to its activities in the form of corporate social responsibility or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR ) which supports scholarships, environmental aid projects and other activities under the company name or the name of the tobacco industry products. Including providing scholarships to journalists and school children are achievers.

SEATCA survey research on the control status of the rules about promotion, advertising, CSR and sponsorship in seven ASEAN countries in 2007. Including in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Five countries have quite strict rules to regulate the issue ads, prmosi, sponsorship and CSR.

These five countries include Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. Of these five countries, Thailand has very strict rules against tobacco industry and conduct strict limits. Two of the most free, no rules, no control and no restrictions are Cambodia and Indonesia!

Cambodia and Indonesia is a paradise for the tobacco industry. The two countries are relatively poor country is not it? Indonesia is estimated to have poverty rates of 49 percent with the cost of living average of two dollars per day for America. Both do not have rules and restrictions governing tobacco control issues closely.

For the tobacco industry is the most profitable opportunities. Cigarette industry has any power and capital to boost its business and profit maximization. The industry offers a dream potion and promotional advertising to the public to climb out of poverty.

And offer words suggestive ads and interesting success. This is a dream and the dream for all people. Tobacco industry's success by offering a cigarette. Giving up tobacco are one of the main way for each person to climb out of poverty and live success quickly.

Poverty became the land for profit. And the industry was well aware of this condition. Poverty, lack of regional representation and the role of government, lack of political consciousness, and the role of the media who are helpless in cigarette advertising.

AC Nielsen figures show the year 2006 tobacco sector advertising expenditure of Rp 1.6 trillion. Which moron media would lose and the offer of money for it? One media in Indonesia may be conscious and choose not to accept tobacco ads. But the question is the extent to which the power of this medium will survive? And refrain from the onslaught of cigarette advertising.

Cigarettes became the main consumption for the poor. Cigarette consumption throughout the year reached 225 billion sticks. Cigarettes have a 4000 toxic chemicals. And cigarettes are the leading cause of cancer-causing disease, heart and other diseases that cause death in the long run. Every year people die as indicated by the cigarette causes as many as 400 thousand in Indonesia!

The number of smokers Indonesia increased sharply. Based on the national economic survey Statistic The Central Bureau in the period 2001-2004, there has been surge in novice smokers and under the age of 10 years rose 0.4 percent to 2.8 percent. National Commission on Child Protection also get a number that 90 percent of teenagers smoke because of advertising Indonesia. Teenagers became the main target for the tobacco industry.

This figure is worrying, and then in February 2007 several members of the legislature moved to make some rules to restrict smoking. These rules are expected to restrict, control and restrict tobacco issues involving the activities of young children. This rule also requires an increase in cigarette excise tax by 60 percent to minimize people buy cigarettes. And encouraged to expand research on the impact of smoking on health.

In 1999, Indonesia has issued Government Regulation 81 / 1999 concerning Security Cigarettes For Health, Government Regulation 38/1999 on Procedures for the Tobacco Product Advertising Media and Government Regulation 19/2003 regarding the obligations of cigarette manufacturers to include warnings on product packaging.

Indonesia also benefited from this condition. From the cigarette industry sector contribution in the form of tax revenue amounting to Rp 38.5 trillion last year. And this year is expected to increase to Rp 42 trillion.

Cigarette business in Indonesia is very sweet. Two Indonesian families who do business in the ranks of cigarettes in the world's richest list of Forbes Magazine. Rachman Halim family including Gudang Garam owners with assets of U.S. $ 1.9 billion and occupies 538 warning. Budi Hartono and family of the order of Djarum 664 with assets of U.S. $ 1.5 billion.

Indonesia's cigarette tax mostly cheap compared with other countries. Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore set the cigarette tax by 70 percent. While in Indonesia, just set the highest cigarette tax by 40 percent. With this tax rate retail price of cigarettes in Indonesia is the fifth of the price compared to the price of cigarettes in Malaysia.

The price of cheap cigarettes is boosting consumer smokers in Indonesia. Access to cigarettes is very easy. Based on the last survey the WHO and the American Cancer Society, about 70 percent of Indonesian smokers are male. And 3 percent of women smokers Indonesia.

Indonesia plays a dual role misleading. One side of the income he earned from cigarette but on the other hand many of Indonesia will lose its human resources because of damage caused by cigarettes. But health insurance companies in Indonesia which would warranty his client about the consequences of smoking?

Anti-smoking campaign world continues to strengthen. Rich countries and educated aware of the dangers from smoking. Anti-smoking movement harder and try to campaign on this issue at the level of the global movement. Federation of Football Association (FIFA) and even signed an agreement with WHO to regulate and prohibit tobacco sponsorship in the football field.

MTV supports anti-smoking campaign and urged teenagers not to smoke. Countries in Europe and other Asian and ratify the convention followed tobacco control (FCTC).

But resistance to the cigarette industry in Indonesia is still very weak. Anti-smoking movement both from citizens, communities, doctors, including from the media yet strong. WHO Indonesia chose a few names of artists and athletes for the national sports anti-smoking campaign. Among tennis champion Angelique Widjaja, bodybuilder Ade Rai, and model Tracy Trinita.

But not enough to represent all three and move the people of Indonesia to establish anti-smoking movement. Indonesia needs a great figure and steady for anti-smoking movement. Not just a slogan anti-smoking course. But the anti-smoking movement is broad and strategic.

In short, the anti-smoking movement in Indonesia is still classified as impotent. He needs power and a strong force to stem the solid and aggressive opposition from the tobacco industry. And the journalist is to write the movement and continue to oversee the expansion of logging from the cigarette industry.

Advertising and propaganda war going on in the struggle of black smoke world. And Indonesia is a powerful combat areas to map the world of today's global cigarette. This is also related to the local cigarette industry in Indonesia. As the local industry in the Spirit, Malang, Jember and Kediri. Local cigarette industry in Indonesia has also played an important role in influencing the smoking community.

In Indonesia, known as clove cigarettes while smoking outside the product known as white smoke. Local cigarette industry is small kings tobacco and many are in Java. Expansion of the world tobacco industry bosses squirm with aggressive and strong and try to master the current market share. White cigarettes clove cigarettes fight.

Who is most powerful? The smoking industry to build myths, facts and misleading research about smoking. And we know that the victims of the battle is the health of everyday citizens will decline. Indonesia and countries allow their citizens health downfall.

The facts of the dangers of cigarettes and dark tobacco industry's propaganda is clear. Cigarettes are not for compromise but should be controlled and regulated by the government and the legislature. Indonesian society should be aware that cigarettes are now become an alarming epidemic.

The event will end in 2007 Indonesia was elected to conduct a global discussion about global warming. Took place in December in Bali. Global discussions is very important to discuss and take strategic steps related to the issue of global warming and the environment. Indonesia is also classified as bad in the environmental area.

Indonesia, including the red-prone areas in environmental issues such as illegal logging, mining, industrial pollution and waste emissions from motor vehicles. This global discussion will produce decisions and policies are very important. The result will encourage each state leaders and citizens to support and implement strategic measures to curb global warming today.

I was shocked when he read a daily newspaper, the National Journal. At the bottom of the column main page newspaper ads plastered on the implementation of a global warming in Bali later. With a dominant ads with light green color close to the color icon environmental issues.

This print ad includes a statement or countdown days in December 2007. These ads also put the name of a cigarette company, Sampoerna and have the word "Green" which could also be interpreted to refer to one of the main products of the Sampoerna cigarette.

I am sad to see the discussion of global warming will have to obtain sponsorship from the tobacco industry. The business and its profits are the majority coming from Indonesia's poor. Perhaps the sadness I continue to dissolve and be a voice lost and forgotten in the noisy turmoil of global warming event later.

This should be an important note, the mirror itself and becomes a question of us all. Environmental issues are common issues. He departed from his conscience and our common sense. What is worthy of global warming event comes from a tobacco company? Cigarettes, however, the toxin and one of the main causes of death. Is not nothing wrong that the global warming program would come from the tobacco industry?

A pile of tobacco industry internal documents they provided a clear answer. Problem tactics, plans, strategies, political lobbying and build awareness about the error and dirty cigarettes.

I am very sorry critical discussion of global warming there are stains and thorns. This becomes a wedge and a slap on the cliches of the world. As if life and life is going on and started from a cigarette.

Cigarette slogan is not lip service. And strength in the cigarette industry in Indonesia indicate that fact. And this is not true. Tobacco industry is seen to make traps and myths. Cigarettes are an important issue of humanity. Life of the cigarette world full of compromise power, deceit and dark strategy.

And it is probably true in the world struggle of cigarettes, as he had been written by Ben Jonson long ago in The Alchemist (The Alchemist) that "Alchemy was a kind of game, Like a card trick, to deceive man, with great charm".

Conrad really loves his home and family and lives life to the full and has been writing about his knowledge and experience. Feel free to see some of his material at Lawn Tractor Attachments and juice Dispenser [http://juicedispenser.net].

Indian Economy - Going Global

INTRODUCTION

Globalization in India started in the early 1990's. Industrialization is the reason behind globalization. Business is the key. When a company operating in a home nation establishes its subsidiary in other nations (host nations), it becomes an MNC and there starts the process of globalization wherein a local company serves the entire world with its products and services. The advent of Internet and the ensuing "new economy" has opened up a plethora of new business opportunities - and an "inevitable" number of business casualties. Shapiro and Varian (1999) argue that while technology changes - economic laws do not. This is globalization in company's perspective. Globalization in India has transformed the country's system. Presently India is regarded as an economy dominated country rather than politics driven, as it was earlier. Political dominance has fallen significantly these days. Adoption of Globalization in India and liberalization principles has widened the horizon of country's Consumers worldwide. Consumers in India have become more conscious. Market information in India has become clear.

Liberalized policies have led the industrial sector to grow at a faster pace. BPO, IT, ITES, Retail and Insurance sector have performed well. Both male and female have got equal opportunity in that sector. The success for India is the reduction in gender inequality in India. More over, development in education and awareness is largely marked in the country in the era of Globalization in India.

INDIAN ECONOMY - HIGHLIGHTS

India is among the five countries sharing 50 per cent of the world production (or GDP).
FDI inflows have jumped by almost three times to US$ 15.7 billion in 2006-07 as against US$ 5.5 billion in 2005-06.
The aggregate income of the top 500 companies rose by 28.4 per cent in 2006-07 to total US$ 469.51 billion.
India's National Stock Exchange (NSE) ranks first in the stock futures and second in index futures trade in the world.
Twenty Indian firms have made it to the list of Boston Consulting Group's 100 New Global Challenger Giants list.
According to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), India's consumer market will be the world's fifth largest (from twelfth) in the world by 2025.
The number of companies incorporated has increased at an annual average of 55,000 companies in the last two years to 865,000, from 712,000 companies at the end of 2005.
Four Indians and seven Indian microfinance companies make it to the Forbes list of Top10 world's wealthiest CEOs World's Top 50 Microfinance Institutions, respectively.
India has the most number of private equity (PE) funds operating amongst the BRIC markets.
Mumbai has been ranked tenth among the world's biggest centres of commerce in terms of the financial flow volumes by a survey compiled by MasterCard Worldwide.

Another significant aspect has been the broad-based nature of the growth process. While new economy industries like Information Technology and biotechnology have been growing around 30 per cent, significantly old economy sectors like steel have also been major contributors in the Indian growth process. For example, India has moved up two places to become the fifth largest steel producer in the world. And with its manufacturing and service sectors on a searing growth path, Lehman Brothers Asia estimates India to grow by as much as 10 per cent every year in the next decade.

CONTRIBUTION OF INDUSTRIES TO INDIAN ECONOMY

Industrial revolution is the stepping stone for globalization. In India, the contribution of different sectors is immense and all contributing to the fast growth of the Indian economy.

The IIP data show that during April-November 2007, cotton textiles grew by 5.5 percent. During 2006-07, textile exports recorded an increase of 6.9 per cent over 2005-06. During April-October 2007, textile exports increased marginally by 1.49 per cent on year-on-year basis. Indian Government has given a lot of subsidies to the textile industry through various fund schemes and textile parks. The rate of growth in the paper industry picked up to 8.7 per cent during 2006-07, but dropped to 1.6 per cent during April-November 2007.

Leather products, which contribute significantly to employment generation and export earnings, registered an impressive 12.2 per cent growth during April-November 2007. The chemical industry is growing steadily at 10%. The value of pharmaceutical output grew more than tenfold from Rs. 5,000 crore in 1990 to over 65,000 crore in 2006-07. India is now recognized as one of the leading global players in pharmaceuticals. While the production of rubber footwear grew by 4.7 per cent, sheets (PVC/rubber) grew by 18.8 per cent. PVC pipes and tubes, which have the highest weight in the product group, grew at 27 per cent during April-November 2007. Crude oil production during April-November 2007 was 22.69 million tonnes (MT) as against 22.56 MT during the corresponding period in the previous year, showing a marginal increase of 0.60 percent. In this sector, the demand will be always greater than the supply and India has to divest and encourage private players like Reliance to enter into the petroleum industry.

The cement industry recorded a growth of 7.72 per cent (provisional) during April-November 2007. The production increased from 99.99 MT during April-November 2006 to 107.71 MT during April-November 2007. Indian steel companies have marked their diversified presence in the global market, effected mainly through the establishment of the state-of the-art plants, continuous modernization, and improved energy efficiency of plants. Mittal Steel has created a buzz all over the world with its recent merger with arcelor. While overall industrial production grew by 9 per cent during April-December 2007, importantly capital goods production rose by 20.2 per cent compared to 18.6 per cent during same period in 2006. Services grew by 10.5 per cent in April-September 2007, on the back of 11.6 per cent during the corresponding period in 2006-07. Manufacturing grew by 9.6 per cent during April-December 2007, on the back of 12.2 per cent growth during same period in 2006-07. Core infrastructure sector continued its growth rate recording 6 per cent growth in April-November 2007. While exports grew by 21.76 per cent during April-December 2007, imports increased by 25.97 per cent in the same period.

ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The IT/ITES industry's contribution to the country's GDP has been steadily increasing from a share of 1.2% in FY98 to 5.2% in FY07; it has contributed to foreign exchange reserves of the country by increasing exports by almost 36% and its direct employment as grown at a CAGR of 26% in the last decade, making it the largest employer in the organized private sector in the country.

In the last two decades, the Indian IT/ITES industry has contributed significantly to Indian economic growth in terms of GDP, foreign exchange earnings and employment generation. The industry has been the trigger for many "firsts" and has contributed not only to unleashing the hitherto untapped entrepreneurial potential of the middle class Indian but also taking Indian excellence to the global market.

The current and evolving role of IT/ITES industry in India's economy is well established. The sector is proving to be the major growth pole within the services sector, which in turn drives several economic indicators of growth in the country.Export earnings in FY08 stood at approximately USD 40.0 billion with a growth of 36%.Direct employment in the sector is expected to be 2.0 million by end of FY08 growing at a CAGR of 26% in the last decade, making it the largest employer in the organized private sector of the country. IT Industry is spearheading India global.

CONCLUSION

According to some experts, the share of the US in world GDP is expected to fall (from 21 per cent to 18 per cent) and that of India GDP to rise (from 6 per cent to 11 per cent in 2025), and hence the latter will emerge as the third pole in the global economy after the US and China.

Indian Economy experienced a GDP growth of 9.0 percent during 2005-06 to 9.4 percent during 2006-07. By 2025 the India's economy is projected to be about 60 per cent the size of the US economy. The transformation into a tri-polar economy will be complete by 2035, with the Indian economy only a little smaller than the US economy but larger than that of Western Europe. By 2035, India is likely to be a larger growth driver than the six largest countries in the EU, though its impact will be a little over half that of the US.

India, which is now the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, will overtake Japan and become third major economic power within 10 years.

A large number of global multinational brands such as Coca-Cola, Google, Micro-soft and Mercedes-Benz have successfully operating in India. Indian Brands which were operating locally in India earlier have started competing internationally. From New Delhi to New York brands have become global. Pattern of consumption in India has also changed. Level of spending on the private consumption has been growing significantly. Spending by young consumers in India is regarded as the most powerful consumers. In an era of globalized environment, the country has become a major player in the socio-economic fields from merely a third world country. BRIC and other reports have forecasted India to be the third largest economy by 2020. Everything looks ominous for India.

Carl.E. Case, Ray. C. Fair, "Principles of Economics", Eastern Economy Edition, 2006.

Nasscomm Report 2008.

Indiabudget report 2008.

Economy Watch

The Economist

Are You Interested in Global Export?

Some products and solutions are in these demand that global export might be appealing for your producer. An instance of this may be mobile phones manufactured in China, which show up on the market in many other nations. The various specifications of every region may well present some difficulties when shipping throughout the world, whatever the item may very well be.

Why Export Controls are a Problem for world wide Exports

Export controls are imposed by all countries to restrict specified elements or tools from exportation. Within the United states of America, most controls problem military defense and national protection. Global Export controls may additionally be attached to anything that's scarce or items which are to be sent to limited locations. Controls can also be positioned on foods or fuel to guarantee that enough remains within the country for that utilization of its citizens.

Nations Blacklisted from Global Export

Even when an item is considered for global export, there are several places where it cannot be sent. Many countries are embargoed simply because of blacklisting by the worldwide neighborhood. People have limited trade, which only lets particular goods to reach their borders. Even though the united states might limit or withhold shipments to a few nations, other nations may not. This can be the scenario with Cuba.

Advantages of Working with an Export Trading Organization

If an organization is always to commence global export of products, an export trading firm (And so forth) could be a precious asset during this venture. The And many others performs with other organizations concerned with exporting merchandise, and may possibly take care of such things as billing, shipping, warehousing, and also other items. The Etc will usually take care of other organization for that entity it is actually representing, which can include managing legal needs for shipments, insuring the products, and gathering marketing and advertising details.

Managing Global Export Shipments by way of Several ETCs

A global export normally requires more than a single export buying and selling provider to take care of interpreting and negotiating laws. Dependent around the geographic places concerned and also the dimension from the corporation carrying out the exports, a distinctive And so forth may very well be made use of for each country. Most ETCs are separate from your corporations they symbolize, but there can be a crossover when a mother or father provider is concerned.

Formation of ETCs like a Branch of the Company

An And so on may be compensated depending on a flat charge or by means of a commission. Typically, an And so on is formed by an organization inside exporting enterprise to manage one particular product or service, and often numerous providers inside the same business will kind an And so on to lessen expenditures while in the exporting small business. Even if the firms are in levels of competition with one another, the cost financial savings can make this kind of a joint venture do the job for all of the events involved.

Employing an And many others for many elements from the export course of action is additional economical than trying everything in home, especially when there are numerous nations to offer with. A proper arrangement allows for significantly superior communication and saves time for the reason that with the familiarity of your Etc with consumers and nationwide export policies.

In case you are looking around for extra info in regard to Exporting Businesses, here is your possibility to obtain your Cost-free Report that shall describe everything. Simply go to http://www.ImportExportHomeStudy.com.

The Environment - A Global Overview

It is not difficult to become a believer in global warming. According to the U.S. National Climatic Data Center 2001 was the second warmest year on record and it was the 23rd consecutive year of above normal temperatures. Perhaps most troubling is the fact that the rate of temperature increase is accelerating. Add to this the data just released from insurer Munich Re stating that deaths from natural disasters were more than double in 2001 versus 2000 and insured losses were up more than 50%.UNEP estimates that the extra economic costs of disasters attributable to global warming are running at more than $300 billion annually.

Some 180 countries are proceeding toward an expected ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the end of this year. Of the six gases it will control CO2 is by far the largest contributing nearly 90% of the global warming impact. The primary source of CO2 is the burning of fossil fuels. Therefore the focus on energy will continue to increase.

Throughout the world different methods are being used to encourage reduced energy use. Japan has enacted the Energy Conservation Law in 1999 mandating huge efficiency improvements by 2004 for nearly all air conditioning products. The U.S. has revised ASHRAE Standard 90.1 for buildings to raise the minimum COP level for centrifugal chillers from the current value of 5.2 to 6.1 effective in October 2001. DOE and Green Seal have revised their recommended efficiency levels to an even higher level of 6.27.

Some countries use laws. Others use codes and standards. An increasing number of countries are using environmental costing which increases the price of energy thereby increasing the financial attractiveness of high efficiency products. European countries have been using such "carbon taxes" for more than a decade. However a rapidly growing trend in developing countries is the reduction of subsidies to energy industries "so prices more accurately reflect environmental impacts" according to OECD's Environmental Strategy for the First Decade of the 21st Century.

China has shown leadership by reducing subsidies to the coal industry from $24.5 billion in 1990 to $10 billion in 1996 resulting in 7% emissions reduction while seeing a solid economic growth of 36%! China is now moving aggressively into environmental costing with the just announced (1/13/2002) 5-year environmental plan that commits 700 billion yuan ($84 billion) to help protect the environment. The government will provide the fist 65 billion yuan to initiate the project but will apply the "polluter pays" principle for the rest. The "environmental protection authorities will collect funds from the pollution-producing companies". The impact on the price of energy is not known at this time. However it is clear that the addition of environmental costing will increase energy prices. According to a European Research Commission Report of July 2001 "The cost of producing electricity from coal or oil would double if costs such as damage to the environment and health were taken into account".

The global movement to high efficiency is accelerating just like the rate of temperature increase. But this is not all that is changing. This second environmental threat of global warming is making it clear that we need to give combined consideration to ozone depletion and global warming. But more important is the need to focus on the real issue which is the total environmental impact not address each individual environmental threat in isolation. This includes the concept of environmental risk exposure, which recognizes that there are other environmental threats that are less well understood today. However, there are "no regrets" decisions we can make today (such as minimum refrigerant charge, minimum atmospheric life refrigerants, etc.) to minimize these risks.

Combined consideration would place more emphasis on reducing the use of CFCs, which are still being produced in developing countries until 2010 in accordance with the Montreal Protocol. Little attention is being given the large contribution to global warming from CFCs. Actions which cause confusion and delay the phaseout of CFCs cause increased environmental damage rather than lessening the environmental impact.

The other rapidly changing factor in the HVAC industry is the shift to becoming a hermetic industry, where refrigerant is contained throughout the life of a chiller and recycled for further use when the chiller is replaced. This simple understanding that "if it doesn't get into the environment it does no harm" is a powerful argument, which will lead to the continued use of the most efficient refrigerants in such closed hermetic applications as chillers. In just 15 years annual refrigerants emissions from chillers have been reduced from 25% to well below 1% today. This defines a whole different world than that which existed when the Montreal Protocol was crafted some 15 years ago.

But perhaps the most important change coming to our industry is the realization that there are no new or "perfect" refrigerants waiting to be discovered. There are eight elements that can be combined for use in a vapor compression cycle. All feasible combinations of these eight have been evaluated. The reality is "what we have now is all there is".

This recognition is why we are now seeing a shift from the search for a perfect refrigerant to a search for the right refrigerant(s) for the right application. Said another way, the highest efficiency refrigerants for the lowest emissions applications. Many in our industry call this "Responsible Use".

Larry Butz is a business globalization and energy efficiency expert for GEA Consulting. GEA Consulting is a global resource dedicated to developing practical solutions that drive client revenue, efficiency, and operational productivity. GEA Consulting can be found online at www.gea-consulting.com

Global Warming - Everything You (Don't) Want to Know About it!

A wise, cynical, political maxim "Follow the money" - is global warming for real? Global warming and human causation - are they two sequential scientific truths - or do they represent political ideology running amok? Is global-Earth really warming from carbon emissions and a greenhouse effect - and is it a true threat to the planet: oceans on the rise to inundate urban centers? Is it caused by mankind's flagrant disregard of pollution from fossil fuels - spewed wantonly for almost a century: fireplaces, factories, automobiles, airplanes? Or (per rightist-extremism fears) is it only a "propaganda tsunami" from radical left-wing ideologists, using politicized pseudo-science to "level-the international-industrial-playing-field" by penalizing capitalism and the US?

The shocking reality (to those of casual interest) is the unprecedented recent gathering at Copenhagen of all world leaders in December, 2009 - 193 countries, with entire staffs and entourages: democracies, kingdoms, dictatorships; from first-world industrial nations to third-world consortiums of famine-fighting villages - all of-a-common purpose: to impose severe civilization-disrupting constraints and financial penalties upon efficient industrial activity! What could be the forcing function to organize such a gathering with such an agenda?

Two considerations should give a reasonable person pause - in view of the drastic changes and penalties contemplated - shouldn't there have been a science-session preamble, establishing unquestionable proof of the premise before such extreme decisions were sought? On the disclosures of leaked emails from Great Britain just prior to the conference - admissions of falsified temperature data - where was a stunned reaction by the scientific-community to this challenge to trust-worthiness; where was a scurrying to reestablish faith in their global temperature-rise conclusion? Instead, what the world saw was "cooked" temperature disclosures swept "under the rug", a media effort to "shoot the messenger" (email hackers). How can that not be disturbing to objective minds? Absent any preliminary scientific presentation to prove the global-warming scenario, then the media cover-up - is a conclusion of powerful political machinations and agenda not unreasonable?

Consider also, the US House of Representatives has already passed a Cap-and-Trade bill, as if - again -man-caused global warming is proven fact - with hundreds of billions-of-dollar-consequences to American industrial life ($1700 to $2000 per family per year estimated; worth billions to GE, etc.); it awaits only comparable Senate action to be signed into law by President Obama! Or even worse - with the authority of presidential decree, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has now assumed the executive power to establish costly pollution standards for US industry (not even awaiting a US Senate bill)!

On the other hand - if one does accept the scenario of global warming - man-made pollution from industrial nations being a major cause, emerging countries (e.g. India and China), do then have a compelling argument: since everyone shares planet Earth, where heretofore industrialized countries have had a gigantic head-start advantage - using cheap energy and causing emission/carbon pollutants - should not ascending countries be given their right to "catch up"; shouldn't the US and other industrialized countries pay heavy compensation (perhaps a trillion dollars per year - most by the US)?

The international unanimity of purpose and size of the Copenhagen conference has never before been seen: not world rebellion against military powers; nor against dominant religions; nor political ideologies - only one single objective, to reduce carbon and impose penalties. Right-wingers see an unleashed political ideology in this unprecedented international undertaking: a combination of left-wing governments and media joining with openly communist dictators in every hemisphere. Even thoughtful commentators upon the world scene, like Charles Krauthammer, see something amiss!

So what do true scientist-experts in the specific technical field of Earth's atmosphere say? Dr. Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D., is a Professor of Atmospheric Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has written extensively on the subject. His analysis is summarized below in an effort to separate "wheat from chaff" for lay-man understanding - whether global warming is, in fact, really occurring; whether man-made industrial emissions are the proximate cause; and whether the threat to planet Earth is truly imminent. Below are Prof. Lindzen's talking points:

Despite exaggerated emotion-evoking statements, surface temperatures have shown cycles of global cooling as well as warming for over a century: cooling from 1875 to 1910, warming from 1911 to 1943, cooling from 1944 to 1976, warming from 1977 to 1998, but no warming since - we are now experiencing an 8th year of cooling. While all these changes were happening, carbon dioxide levels has continually risen.
There are five major world centers which collect global temperature data: the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (where recent email leaks of doctored data occurred); Remote Sensing Systems; the University of Alabama at Huntsville; the Goddard Institute for Space Studies; and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. All of these temperature data centers show no warming since 1998, and all show cooling by varying degrees since.
Significant problems (for honest scientific projections) arise when using surface temperature records to track global changes: the number of worldwide climate-measuring sites has dropped from 6,000 in 1970 to under 2,000 today; two-thirds of the closed weather stations were in country areas (colder night-time temperatures); whereas those remaining include a high percentage of urban stations (warmer night-time readings due to concrete pavements, buildings and urban sprawl). This fact alone biases the overall temperature record, as urban areas around the world have grown exponentially in the last 50 years - studies indicate that perhaps half of indicated "warming" in the data base during the last fifty years is due to land-use changes - not increases in energy emission. Urban growth is thus the major cause of man-made temperature-increase data.
NASA is quoted as stating that the oceans were warmer in the summer of 2009 than ever before - arrived at by subtracting satellite-measured ocean temperatures from ocean temperature base data - however, NASA does not use the (over 3300) ARGO buoys deployed in world oceans - which, contrarily, show ocean heat-content falling ever since the buoys were deployed in 2003.
No statistical relationship exists between carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and temperatures during the last 150 years - however, a strong statistical relationship does exist between the cyclic Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and global temperature. The PDO shows a 60 year cycle of warming and cooling of the Pacific Ocean - in every instance over the last 150 years: when the PDO was cooling, the global temperature cooled; when the PDO was warming, the global temperature rose. The PDO has now shifted back to a cooling phase - as has air temperature.
The total carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is only 4 hundredth of one percent (0.0004 of total atmosphere). The total increase by volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the last 150 years is only one hundredth of one percent (0.0001). This has actually benefited agriculture and plant life, which grow faster with more carbon dioxide (the well-known animal-plant symbiosis - oxygen and carbon dioxide exchanges), and are more resistant to drought.
Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant - everything that grows on earth needs it, the source being irrelevant. If all carbon dioxide were removed from air (which animals breathe), earth would die.
Ice cores show that increases in carbon dioxide in the past were the result of warmer temperature, not the cause of it. The laws of nature have not changed. Most of the increases in carbon dioxide in the air are the result of nature, the human component being small, perhaps 3 percent. Also, half the carbon dioxide emitted into the air by human activity each year, is immediately absorbed into the biosphere. Carbon dioxide is 3.5 percent of the greenhouse effect - water vapor is 95 percent. Since human activity only adds 3 percent a year, with half of that absorbed into the biosphere, the total human contribution to the greenhouse effect each year is about one-tenth-of-one-percent. Reducing this amount by some fraction will have no significant effect on global temperatures.
There is a strong relationship (ignored by pro-warming advocates) between the strength of the solar wind and global temperature. Strong solar wind equals a warmer earth, weak solar wind equals a cooler earth. Variations in cosmogenic isotopes of carbon 14 and beryllium 10 in ice cores prove this. Right now the solar wind is weaker than anytime that NASA has been able to measure it (nearly 50 years) and the earth is cooling. The solar magnetic index is the lowest since measurements began in 1932, and continues to lessen. The Pacific Ocean is in a cool phase and will be so for another 25 years. The Atlantic is showing signs of cooling. The heat source of the sun is weak and will likely be so for the next two solar cycles. We are heading for colder temperatures, not warmer.
The downward cyclic trend in the amount of ice remaining in the Arctic at the end of summer has ended. Polar-orbiting satellites clearly show the extent of arctic ice, which is increasing - there is 25 percent more ice today than two years ago (dramatic Arctic photos of drastic ice reductions over very many decades are misleading - probably intentionally).
Satellite measurements show there is more ice in the Antarctic than 30 years ago - news media report only shrinking ice in the Arctic, never about ice growth in Antarctica.
The melting of glaciers is not new. The "Little Ice Age" was from 1400 to 1850. The coldest temperatures were in the 1600s. Global temperature has been rising unevenly for 300 years. Glaciers have been retreating unevenly for at least 250 years.
Data from the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite show outgoing longwave radiation (heat) increased by 4 watts per square meter in the 1980s and 1990s, while the oceans were undergoing a cyclic warming. Computer models predicted outgoing longwave radiation would decrease as oceans warmed. All the models used by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were wrong. (Note, more on IPCC later.)
Indicating a clear intent to present a political viewpoint on environmentalism rather than honest fact, an April 2009 Time magazine article, with major input from environmental groups, reported there were "only" 25,000 polar bears remaining in the arctic today - omitting the fact that in the 1960s, the number was but 5,000,

Some significant comments by Dr. Lindzen get to the heart of his concerns about the scientific accuracy of the global warming "sellathon" and its possible motivation - with "follow the money" considerations; his specific quoted words are;

CO2 - what is it? Not a pollutant, CO2 is a product of every living creature's breathing; it's the product of all plant respiration; it is essential for plant life and photosynthesis; it is a product of all industrial burning; it is a product of [automobile] driving - I mean, if you ever wanted a leverage point to control everything from human exhalation to travel, this would be a dream. So it has a kind of fundamental attractiveness to bureaucratic mentality.
Large environmental groups, political "leaders" and eco-activists believe: just reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and we can regulate the world temperature. People who think this way are far more dangerous than global warming itself (if it were true), because some of these people wield great power.
Computer models say that there should be a rapid warming of the upper troposphere - between 30 degrees north and south of the equator - if global warming is proceeding. However, measurements with weather balloons over the last 50 years show no such warming. This proves the computer models do not predict how the climate system works - [predicting] the climate 50 to 100 years in the future. Computer model forecasts of warming are not evidence of climate change. They are marketing tools for research institutions and universities to continue their funding from our government. Despite concerns re motivation, this means the models make wrong assumptions about how climate-complexity works, and are scientifically useless in making any climate policy.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was formed in the late 1980s to "prove" human burning of fossil fuels causes global warming - from its beginning it was never a scientific organization - it was formed with a biased political agenda. The true goal is to capture political power from dominant countries through climate treaties (Kyoto)- partly to insure the institutions own survival. These treaties give the UN the legal power to redistribute the wealth of developed nation. The concept of "climate debt" owed to third world countries is justification. The debt would be retribution for the industrialized nation's sin of "polluting" the climate with carbon dioxide - using all the available carbon space in the air. It is the UN's goal to use global warming to extract money from developed nations without having to work for it. Recently the chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, announced "We're at a stage where the warming is happening at a much faster rate." Apparently, he does not look at real world data.
As for Al Gore, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 - his message of fearing global warming has the third world now demanding "climate reparations" for damage that the western world has inflicted on climate over the last 150 years. They now say we owe 'Climate Debt' because we have used up all the carbon space in the air. This is not promoting peace, it is causing tension and anger in the developing countries towards the west - Gore's "peace prize" is having the opposite effect. As for Gore's financial investments in green companies, "beware of prophets seeking profits". The urge to save the world is always a cover for the need to rule it."
The "climategate" emails prove that there is at best, blind ambition among some of the worlds leading climate scientists - and at worst, criminal activity. The reaction of much of the mainstream media in the United States is proving to be very revealing. They either don't report the story or they defend the actions of the climate scientists. Some of these leading scientists were caught intimidating scientific journals to keep skeptics prom publishing, and altering data to make the case for man-made global warming. The emails also reveal that these scientists have deleted data or refused freedom-of-information requests; and have deleted emails relevant to those requests, a criminal offence. NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies has also been stonewalling freedom-of-information efforts. It is clear from the emails that a small but powerful group of leading climate scientists have used their lofty positions to pervert the science of climate change.

Beyond the realm of of hard scientific data points such as temperature, velocity and direction; air and sea; locations and dates, Dr. Lindzen extrapolates his knowledge of the limitations of atmospheric mathematical modeling into conjecture as to motivation for weather-scientists proclamations of man-caused global warming. The phrase "Follow the money" has often proved reliable as a roadmap to explain otherwise puzzling activities. Many powerful groups and organizations have strong financial interests in American belief that carbon dioxide is pollution: domestically this includes influential environmental groups, brokerage houses, corporations, universities, media outlets and political parties, as well as third world governments. The evidence is widespread - cash-strapped states and cities, with hundreds of millions of federal monies earmarked for "green energy" development, decades away from practicality - while essential infrastructure programs, such as water mains, highways and bridges, are unfunded. On the UN scene, conscience and liberal guilt have become the means to international spreading of the wealth.

Some of Dr. Lindzen's observations warrant notice:

On the day the Copenhagen conference opened, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claimed jurisdiction over the regulation of carbon emissions in the US - flatly declaring them an "endangerment" to human health.
Since the US has an overwhelmingly carbon-based economy, the EPA is thus claiming authority to regulate practically everything. No institution that emits more than 250 tons of C02 a year will be beyond EPA control - over a million building complexes, hospitals, plants, schools, businesses and similar enterprises.
This naked assertion of vast executive (presidential) power in the name of the environment becomes the perfect fulfillment of the prediction of Czech President Vaclav Klaus that environmentalism is becoming the new socialism. Going into the possibility of even darker motivation, Dr. Lindzen points out a world socialistic scenario - the conceding of US sovereihnity to the UN, with the domination of the UN by ultra-liberal groups and (numerically controlling) Islamic-Arab oil controlling countries.

Similar grave concerns are expressed by other scientists, including charges of U.N. "fraud"on climate change - Dr. Philip Lloyd, an honorary research fellow at the Energy Research Center at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, has been a coordinating lead author for the United Nations IPCC. According to Dr. Lloyd, the IPCC should be dismissed as an authority on global warming - in an article that appeared on South Africa's BusinessDay Web site. Dr. Lloyd writes about the "flaws behind the whole process" of the IPCC:

The IPCC "claims that it has thousands of scientists and almost as many reviewers producing their reports." However, Lloyd says there was no review "in the accepted sense of the word - there was no independence of review, and the reviewers were anything but anonymous. The result is not scientific."
Another problem cited by Lloyd is that the IPCC issues a Summary (for Policy Makers) four months or more before the scientific report (on which it is supposedly based) is published.
Lloyd concludes: "It isn't necessary to list all the changes I have identified between what the scientists actually said and what the policymakers who wrote the Summary for Policy Makers said they said. The process is so flawed, that the result is tantamount to fraud. As an authority, the IPCC should be consigned to the scrapheap without delay."
Lloyd's article was before the so-called climategate scandal, which has called into question the validity of some of IPCC's science that supports the conclusion of man-made global warming.

In a related note, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, following the eruption of the climategate controversy, acknowledged that the science supporting man-made global warming may not be "as certain as its proponents allege." Even common-sense commentators on the world scene, like Charles Krauthammer, trying to find explanation for the global warming phenomenon, describe it as "Environmentalism - the new religion of the liberal left".

Aaron Kolom qualifies as a "rocket scientist" with over 50 years aerospace engineering: Stress Analyst to Chief of Structural Sciences on numerous military aircraft, to Corp. Director Structures and Materials, Asst. Chief Engineer Space Shuttle Program through first three flights (awarded NASA Public Service Medal), Rockwell International Corp.; Program Manager Concorde SST, VP Engineering TRE Corp.; Aerospace Consultant.

Aaron L. Kolom: "The Passover Saga, Myth or History?" (PublishAmerica); "Brainwashed* and Miracles**" (* The Perceived Mind-Set of the Secular Elite re Darwin Evolutionism!, ** To Believe in Them - Have Faith - In Science and Logic! - AuthorHouse)

Emergency Managers Deal With Global Warming

For Seattle residents, rain - and lots of it - is a fact of life. But they'd never seen a month quite like November 2006. With 15.59 inches of rain - including snowfall and hail - it set the record for wettest month, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center. It was the most rain the Emerald City had ever seen in a one-month span, in 115 years of record keeping.

If that weren't enough, mid-December brought supercharged winds of 60 to 90 mph that cut power to about 1 million people, some of whom lived in the dark for prolonged periods.

"It wasn't just for a couple of hours, a couple of days," said Eric Holdeman, former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management. "There were folks without power for 10 days in isolated areas, or even longer than that."

That same month, drought plagued parts of Minnesota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Texas and Oklahoma; thunderstorms and tornadoes whipped through the South; a cyclone lashed the Eastern coastline from South Carolina to Virginia; and the earliest snowfall on record fell on Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga., according to the National Climatic Data Center.

Worldwide patterns show an increase in heavy precipitation and intense droughts caused by a warmer atmosphere, increases in water vapor and a rising sea-surface temperature - all results of global warming.

Holdeman, now principal at ICF International's Emergency Management and Homeland Security team, holds last winter's unusually hazardous weather events as anecdotal evidence that our weather reality is shifting.

"Whatever the cause is, the weather is changing," Holdeman said. "There's been any number of extreme weather events happening."

Scientists may not agree on some of the possible effects of global warming, but most do agree that it's happening, said Gabriel Vecchi, research scientist at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J.

According to a February report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the nation is already seeing warming effects in the Western mountains and melting of the snow pack; with increased winter flooding and summer warming; through pests and wildfires plaguing forest environments; with the intensifying of heat waves; and in hurricanes pounding coastal cities.

Unfortunately any changes related to the planet's increased temperature will be magnified in developing countries, where resources won't be available to delay or minimize effects. But in richer nations, like the United States, where the resources are forthcoming, it's time to adapt and plan for changes we might see, or are seeing now.

Lemming-Like March

The most egregious global warming effects will occur on global warming's frontlines - at the poles, where there's damage to ecosystems and thawing of glaciers and ice sheets, and on small islands, where beach erosion and storm surges are expected to further deteriorate coastlines, according to the IPCC.

Though most scientists agree that global warming is happening, the question of how exactly it will manifest remains. Many believe, however, that warming oceans may be contributing to more devastating hurricane seasons.

The 2004-2005 period was one of the most active 24 months ever witnessed in the Atlantic basin, setting records for number of hurricanes and tying the 1950-1951 record for most major hurricanes with 13.

But hurricanes don't just endanger lives; they also threaten people's livelihoods, businesses and homes, and cities' economies. And because tropical storms tend to hit the United States in its sweet spot - expensive and growing coastal stretches from Texas to Maine - they represent one of the country's gravest storm challenges.

Hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast region during the 2004 and 2005 storm seasons produced seven of the 13 costliest hurricanes to hit the United States since 1900 (after adjusting for inflation), according to an April 2007 report by the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

This year's hurricane season, from June 1 to Nov. 30, already looks grim. Experts at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center project a 75 percent chance the season will be above normal. They predict a strong La Niña - which favors more Atlantic hurricanes, while El Niño favors fewer hurricanes - will cause three to five major hurricanes.

Also a factor is a phenomenon called "the tropical multidecadal signal" - the notion that two or three decades of lessened storm activity are followed by two or three decades of increased activity. The period since 1995 has wreaked conditions for more hurricanes.

Yet despite signs of a rough hurricane season ahead, a surprising phenomenon is occurring: People are increasingly moving to the Atlantic coast. Census Bureau data shows that in 1950, 10.2 million people were threatened by Atlantic hurricanes; today more than 34.9 million are threatened, according to USA Today.

"The areas along the United States Gulf and Atlantic coasts where most of this country's hurricane-related fatalities have occurred are also experiencing the country's most significant growth in population," the National Hurricane Center report confirmed.

But since coastal communities won't stop corralling newcomers, the report concluded that communities themselves should take action.

Jim O'Brien, professor emeritus of meteorology and oceanography at Florida State University, said emergency managers and policymakers should address the hurricane issue by enforcing stricter building codes, readdressing evacuation strategies and educating people about the imminent problem.

However, more drastic action must be taken to stop people's risky behavior, according to Kerry Emanuel, an atmospheric scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

The coastal migration is made possible, he said, through an unwise mix of state and federal policies, like government regulation of property and flood insurance (which covers storm surges), and federal disaster relief given to flooded regions. While such policies help people in the short term, Emmanuel explained, they also enable the risky behavior to continue.

Scientists have long feared America's vulnerability to hurricanes because its shores are lined with some of the nation's wealthiest residents. Emanuel, in conjunction with nine scientists, released a July 2006 statement about the U.S. hurricane problem: "We are optimistic that continued research will eventually resolve much of the current debate over the effect of climate change on hurricanes. But the more urgent problem of our lemming-like march to the sea requires immediate and sustained attention."

Preparedness Challenge

Paul Milelli, director of public safety for Palm Beach County, Fla., contends that global warming's effects may inherently force people to change their ways.

"If we start having to build homes to meet a 200 mph wind, the cost would probably stifle some growth," he said, "and then [there's] the fear factor of people moving in."

Because the county uses an all-hazards approach, emergency planning won't change much with global warming in the equation, he said.

"The economy is just going to be affected tremendously, and that, to me, is going to be the biggest concern. Because we can prepare our people for a hurricane, whether it's a Category 1 or a Category 5, and how we prepare the people really doesn't change - except that as the categories get higher, we start asking people to make their plans earlier and earlier."

For a statewide evacuation, Floridians would have to begin leaving days before the hurricane hit - a logistic impracticality.

"It's bigger than me. It's bigger than what I can plan for as a planner of the county," said Milelli, whose 31-year emergency management career ends in January when he plans to retire in Wisconsin - far away from hurricanes.

To help combat storm destruction, the Gulf Regional Planning Commission in Mississippi focuses on hurricane preparation as well as planning and redevelopment.

"We're certainly well aware of the dramatic impacts of climate change and also the need for looking outside of our localized area when we're starting to talk about the impacts of climate change," said Elaine Wilkinson, the commission's executive director.

The commission is working to build bridges that withstand high winds (similar to the effects of an earthquake), and building up seawalls to match the roadbed.

After Hurricane Katrina, the commission took an extra year to engineer its long-range transportation to plan for major storms. Transportation planning is important to ensure safe evacuation, she said.

Wilkinson was also involved in a U.S. government study on how global warming could affect the nation's coastal transportation systems. The study, which just released its first phase for scientific review, concluded that with climate change, the sea level is rising and the land is sinking, according to a National Public Radio news report.

Listening to scientists provided a good opportunity for Wilkinson, who said scientists must share global warming findings with people who can effect change.

"We need to find a way to bring the scientific data into the planning process," Wilkinson said. "That's something that'll challenge us. But we're very much in need of information to make some good decisions."

Ask the Question

Working with science, King County integrated global warming policies into its government. In October 2005, the county sponsored a conference to understand Washington's climate changes in the coming 20, 50 and 100 years, and identify approaches to adapt to climate change predictions.

The Climate Impacts Group (CIG), along with King County, developed conference materials, including Pacific Northwest climate change scenarios. CIG, which is funded by Washington University's Center for Science in the Earth System in Seattle and by NOAA, explores climate science with an eye to the public interest in the region. The group is one of eight NOAA teams that assess regional climate change in the United States.

From the conference, the CIG and King County established a relationship and jointly wrote Adapting to Global Warming - a Guidebook, to be released this November following a peer review process.

As a resource for regional leaders, the guidebook outlines King County's global warming approach, addressing its water supply, wastewater and floodplain management, agriculture, forestry and biodiversity. The county approved an aggressive levee improvement plan and adopted a climate plan in February that includes a two-page outline for the King County Office of Emergency Management to revise its strategies given projected climate changes.

In the guidebook, the CIG tells how scientists can communicate climate change information to emergency managers and policy leaders. But government officials are also responsible for opening the dialog.

Elizabeth Willmott, global warming coordinator for King County, stepped into her position upon its creation in January 2007, and works to coordinate projects, ideas and information related to the county's climate change mitigation and preparedness plans.

"What we suggest simply," Willmott said, "is that regional leaders ask the climate question, 'How is climate change going to affect my region?'"

Just asking, she said, can plant the issue in people's minds.

Though weather seems to be telling us something about how climate change will impact our future, there's uncertainty in many circles about what to do to prepare and how to mitigate its consequences.

ICF's Holdeman said we must focus on finding global warming's regional effects and work to lessen them now.

"We end up being so reactive as a society, and certainly the United States is," he said. "We don't address issues - like Social Security or Medicaid. Everybody knows it's a problem, but we're not going to do anything about it until it's staring us in the face, and there's a trillion dollar deficit."

It's up to emergency managers, he said, to spread the word and ensure global warming consequences are known.

"For emergency managers themselves," Holdeman said, "if we're not talking about it generally and trying to educate elected officials about it and the hazards, then you're counting on them to stumble on it as an issue."

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RELATED STORY: The Scientific Community Has Yet to Agree on How Climate Change Really Impacts Tropical Storms [http://www.govtech.com/em/133367?utm_source=ezine&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=em]

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Emergency Management magazine is there to help. Designed to meet the unique information needs of the entire emergency management community, Emergency Management provides all the key leaders new insights and understandings about their critical role in joint operations and planning.

The IMF - A Global Protection Racket

In the seven years I have lived in New Zealand, I have often heard new immigrants from Europe, South Africa and North America refer to it as a second world country. As evidence of New Zealand's second world status, they cite the fact that Kiwis wear thermal underwear, down vests and mufflers to work in the winter (owing to ambient indoor temperatures of 60-63 degrees F - energy is already extremely expensive here); that most professional women feel guilty using a clothes dryer and still hang their washing on the line; and that Do It Yourself and jury-rigging with duct tape and Number 8 wire are a matter of national pride and summoning a repairman is seen as an unmanly extravagance.

The terminology first, second and third world was originally coined during the Cold War to designated capitalist countries aligned with the US (first world), communist countries aligned with the USSR (second world), and countries aligned with neither (third world). Recently, however, especially the terms first and third world are used to describe economic status, as opposed to political alignment.

The term "second world" has definitely taken on a new meaning in New Zealand - especially since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) came knocking at our door last week. I wonder if this might also be the case in Iceland, Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal - other countries facing unsustainable debt levels as they struggle to keep vital public programs going.

Three days ago Radio New Zealand National reported that the IMF was asking the New Zealand government to make further cuts in public spending. I had shivers up my spine, flashing back to the time my grandmother had a collision with a known Mafia figure and our family received one of those offers you can't refuse. My colleagues in the National Health Service (where I work as a child and adolescent psychiatrist) and I are very wary of the IMF's so-called "recommendations." In fact we can see little difference between the IMF knocking at your door and a mafia or gang member trying to sell you a protection racket.

New Zealand is the only industrialized country I know of that didn't implement economic bail-outs for banks, jobless workers or families losing their homes. Moreover, as a result of the recession, our government has already made major cuts to public spending, resulting in the layoff of 1500 public service workers. However the IMF expects us to go still further, with specific recommendations that we end free GP visits (for children, seniors and the disadvantaged) and student loan rebates (to address an extremely critical shortage of doctors and teachers). In other words they want us to "privatize" aspects of our health care system and tertiary education.

The Pressure to Privatize Our National Health Service

Given that New Zealand has a national health service, and that both National (the conservatives) and Labour (the liberals) support the belief that health care is a basic human right, I see a clear subtext here. It is well known the people who run the IMF (who for the most part represent financial institutions such as banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies) do not accept the notion of a right to health care. They view health care delivery as a commodity with immense profit potential - and see absolutely no reason why private health insurance companies should be denied the right to make a profit from illness and human misery in all industrialized countries, as they do in the US. I know this because the structural adjustment programs they impose on debtor nations always includes a demand that these countries abolish their publicly funded health systems and open their markets to private insurance companies.

What Happens if We Refuse an Offer We Can't Refuse?

If New Zealand were frittering away IMF money, I could accept that the IMF might be in a position to dictate how we spend it. However New Zealand hasn't borrowed any money from the IMF. At present New Zealand borrows approximately $250 millions per week from commercial lenders at 4 - 6.5% interest. We pay a low interest rate because we have an AA+ (countries receive credit ratings just like individuals).

The threat, of course, is that if New Zealand fails to cut public spending enough to satisfy its global lenders, our credit rating will be downgraded from AA+ to BBB- (like Iceland and Greece) and our government will be force to borrow from the IMF (like Iceland and Greece). We will then be forced to pay 18% interest and agree to draconian cuts in health and education. Fitch and other rating agencies are supposed to be independent from the financial institutions that control the IMF. However recent criminal prosecutions suggest that they aren't - and that banks and other financial institutions can "buy" favorable or unfavorable credit ratings to suit their commercial interests.

If New Zealand was inhospitable to foreign companies wanting to do business here or irresponsible in collecting taxes or managing government fraud and corruption, it would be a far different story. However New Zealand is consistently designated as the country with the least red tape and regulation for foreign businesses, as well as the most fraud free. We also have a well-earned reputation for frugality. Our government ran a surplus between 1999 and October 2008 - the month the world economy collapsed and we stopped selling exports and overseas travel to tourists - owing to circumstances which were totally beyond our control.

A Second World Perspective on the Sustainability Movement

All this got me thinking whether New Zealand, like Iceland, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, which all face massive debt problems through no fault of their own, might have something to offer the global sustainability movement. Although it rarely makes the nightly news, the sustainability movement is a growing influence in the lives of the educated middle class in most industrialized countries. Millions of people world wide accept that they face a less energy intensive future (whether due to a shrinking global economy, fossil fuel depletion or international treaties to reduce carbon emissions). Which means millions of people are already making conscious lifestyle choices to reduce their energy and carbon footprint.

It's a historical fact that New Zealand was a latecomer to globalization and the pressure this produced to become an export-driven economy. Prior to the disastrous "structural adjustment" New Zealand under went in 1984 (aka Rogernomics), Kiwis got along just fine without the billions of dollars of cheap Asian imports that dominate our retail shelves at present. In fact women of my own generation talk of growing their own fruit, veggies and chooks (chickens) in their backyard when their children were young, as well as canning surplus fruit and veggies for winter, sewing their children's clothes, knitting their jumpers (sweaters) and saving and recycling string, rags, scrap metal and any other household waste that could be used for some other purpose. It is intriguing to watch many of them fall back on these deeply engrained habits, as they make conscious choices to reduce their energy and carbon footprint.

New Zealand also has the advantage of having a mainly agricultural economy and a slower rate of urbanization than other industrialized countries. At present 55.6% percent of Kiwis live in New Zealand's 12 cities, as opposed to an average 75% urbanization rate for other industrialized countries. Thus making it relatively easy for at least half of New Zealanders to undertake concrete local energy conservation, alternative transport and waste reduction initiatives, as well as creating community gardens, farmers markets and community supported agriculture schemes.

New Zealand Transition Towns Movement

Most of New Zealand's sustainability related organizations are locally based and formal or informal members of Transition Towns New Zealand, a member of the global Transition Towns movement that started in Ireland and the UK. In perusing the TT New Zealand website, it is interesting to see how many local groups have taken up concepts that originated with the Y2K movement of the late nineties - which was advising people on preparing for the possible "End of Civilization as We Know It." The following are key examples:

Initiatives to improve local food (and water) security:

¨ De-paving - digging up private and public driveways and parking lots and replacing them with backyard veggie gardens and community orchards and gardens.

¨ Lawn liberation - replacing lawns and ornamental trees and shrubs with fruit and nut trees and productive gardens.

¨ Development of "bioregional" transportation security (that doesn't rely on imported oil) for food delivery (99.9 percent of human existence has relied on a bioregional economic model - which entails sourcing the majority of food and other essentials within a 100 mile radius)

¨ Development of strong community networks to provide neighbourhood patrols in the absence of police services.

¨ Neighborhood systems of rainwater collection and purification

¨ Strong local credit unions and locally owned businesses and cooperatives

¨ A local currency or trading system

¨ Building a solid tradition of neighbors sharing with one another and helping each other one other out.

¨ Increasing local expertise in permaculture and biointensive agriculture techniques, should industrial fertilizers and insecticides (which are manufactured from fossil fuels) become unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

Initiatives to improve energy security:

¨ Neighborhood and community solar and wind power energy systems

¨ A shift in urban planning to put essential services closer to residential areas, facilitating increased use of public transportation and an increase in active transport (walking, cycling, skateboarding, etc.).

¨ Ensuring that everyone in your neighborhood has dry firewood, candles and oil lamps and ensuring that schools, churches and other neighborhood gathering sites are similarly prepared.

Like the Y2K movement that proceeded it, the Transition Town movement emphasizes the over-riding importance of building strong social networks to cushion the impact of a sudden economic shock or infrastructure breakdown. This approach is supported by extensive medical and psychological studies showing that people with strong social networks recover more quickly from any illness, personal crisis or catastrophe.

Dr Bramhall is a 62 year old American who emigrated to New Zealand seven years ago for political reasons. She works as a child and adolescent psychiatrist for the New Zealand National Health Service. She is also a long time activist. At present she is active in her union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, and serves on the National Executive of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand. She blogs at http://stuartbramhall.aegauthorblogs.com

Investing In A Developing Economy - A Possible Solution To Global Financial Crisis

INTRODUCTION

If there were security problems in Nigeria, no businessman would go to the country to explore opportunities, companies like Celtel, MTN, Etisalat, would not have ventured into security risk country to do business. Those who spread rumour about security and corruption problems in Nigeria are saying so to stop others from making money in the country. Figures don't lie. They are the biggest testimonies for how conducive Nigeria's environment for business and opportunities are. If you want to do business in Africa and record good returns on your investment, I welcome you to come to Nigeria. The political environment in Africa, particularly in Nigeria is tremendous.

Dr. Hamadoun Toure,

Secretary General,

International Telecommunications Union,

Cited in the Punch Newspaper, May 13, 2008)

What is happening currently with the Nigerian financial system is far from being affected in any way by the global credit crisis. At global level currently, the banks are under-capitalised, but Nigerian banks are over-capitalised. And I do not think this is a problem at all. I believe that Nigerian banks are under pressure from other economies within Africa continent that are affected by the credit challenges.

- Gordon Smith,

Head of Research, Africa and the Middle East, International Consilium,

(Reported in the Punch Newspaper, June 30th, 2008).

The foregoing statements aptly connote two understandings of the state of Nigerian economy. These understandings show that, the economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa and in the world. Although Nigeria has had hash economic history, it has undergone and still undergoing economic reforms, which are aimed at making Nigeria the Africa's financial hub and one of the twenty largest economies in the world by the year 2020. Needless to say that the country has experienced political instability, corruption, and poor macroeconomic management in the past, this was responsible for unpleasant and harsh economic situation. The government relentless efforts to reposition the economy have translated into a remarkable economic growth and development. Several mechanisms have been put in place to sustain this growth and development, capable of balancing the interests of stakeholders. Perhaps, this view must have influenced Gordon Smith submission. He described Nigeria as the most dynamic market in Africa, which is under severe pressure from some countries in Africa to serve as a cushion against the effects of global turbulence. He also noted that some countries like Ghana, Malawi, Mauritius, among others were depending on her at the moment due to global risk exposure and that the country's economy, led by the consolidated banks, was far from being affected by the global credit crisis currently rocking the world's financial giants. He stressed further that foreign investors, who will be patient enough to weigh the Nigerian financial system on the credit risk perspective relative to global events, will find the nation's financial sector more interesting to invest and raise capital from.

Faced with numerous challenges, Nigerian government is determined to strengthen, diversify and make the economy attractive and investment-friendly to both local and foreign investors. The government has adopted total liberalization and globalization as the economic policy, instituted privatization and commercialization programmes of public enterprises, provided total security for business and people, extended invitation to domestic and foreign investors, abolished laws inhibiting competition, embraced and fine-tuned policies to ensure quick realization of growth and development of all sectors of the economy. The effort is already paying off as Nigeria is now the focus for foreign investment thereby increased exponentially Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Scores of economic missions and delegations from developed and developing countries have visited Nigeria, thus accelerating the growth of the economy at a very fast rate.

It becomes pertinent to direct the course of this discussion to embrace the second understanding of the above statements made by Hamadoun Toure and Gordon Smith. However, it becomes more pertinent to enumerate the inherent investment opportunities in Nigerian economy before discussing the issue of security as raised by Toure.

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND SECURITY ISSUE IN NIGERIA

No doubt, Nigeria is an investment haven with countless and lucrative investment opportunities including oil and gas, solid mineral, agriculture, tourism, telecommunication, power and steel, transport, trade processing zone, financial sector, real estate / property, manufacturing, sport and entertainment, and fashion industry. Investors have a wide range of opportunities to choose from. It is important to note that the rate of growth of investment is fantastic and exponential in any of these sectors. Investors are at advantage of presenting their products and services to already-made market taking advantage of the population of over 140 million.

In telecommunication, statistics reveals that mobile phone users in Africa were about 280 million, overtaking United States and Canada with their 277 million users in the opening quarter of 2008. With 70 million connections in 2007, the Continent became the fastest growing region in the world, representing a growth of 38 per cent, ahead of the Middle-East (33 per cent) and the Asia-Pacific (29 per cent).It was also revealed that the fastest growing markets are located in northern and western Africa, representing altogether 63 per cent of the total connections in the region. The record showed that Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana and South Africa are highly competitive markets in the Region. The record further contends that two-third of Africa's telephony are in their early phase of development, with penetration rates below 30 per cent at the end of 2007.In percentage terms, it was noted that Africa is the fastest growing market in the world, but also the second smallest in terms of connections after Middle-East.

As Nigeria accounts for 57 per cent of the West Africa mobile phones, the country is acknowledged as the leading and the fastest growing telecom market in Africa. With mobile phone users at 44,932,181 and 734,444 for GSM and mobile CDMA respectively, her contributions to West Africa and Africa's telecommunication growth can not be overemphasized. While the overall economic growth rate stands at 7% per annum, the mobile telephony is about 35-50%. Assuming that each of these connections was busy for a minute in a day, the country telecoms market has the capacity to generate over USD 16 million per day (USD16, 666,667) and close to USD 6 billion per year (USD 5,833,333,300). This is why telecom companies such as Visafone and Etisalat quickly joined the likes of MTN, Globacom, Celtel and other telecoms service providers in exploiting opportunities in the country.

Early this year, one of the main GSM service providers with a subscriber base of over 15 million announced a profit after taxation of USD650 million (78 billion naira) for the year 2007.Putting all these together, one can easily understand Toure's submission describing Nigerian telecoms market as the best investment destination in Africa.

Recognizing the fact that the Nigeria telecoms industry is enormous and there is need to further exploit the sector to its fullest, the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) and the Ministry of State for Information and Communications have made their positions clear by extending invitation to global investors for active participation in the sector as they are willing to grant pioneer status and license for prospective applicants for various undertaking such as Fixed telephony, Mobile telephony, Fixed satellite (VSAT),Paging, Payphone, Internet and other value added services.

With the above facts, one can safely conclude that Nigerian telecom sector offers fantastic and lucrative investment opportunities to global investors. And putting into consideration 40% GSM market growth rate in the first quarter of this year (2008), there is potential for high return on investment in this sector.

Agriculture, the dominant sector of Nigeria economy, engages about 70 per cent of the population directly and provides nearly 88 percent of non-oil foreign exchange earnings. It contributes about 41 per cent of the GDP of the country. The sector recorded an overall growth rate average of 7 per cent in the last three years, a major improvement from under 3 per cent in the 90's.

Statistically, 91 million hectares of the country's total land area of 92.4 million hectares is adjudged to be suitable for cultivation. Approximately half of this cultivable land is effectively under permanent and arable crops, while the rest is covered by forest wood land, permanent pasture and built up areas. Among the states, which have the most abundant land, areas are Niger (7.6 million hectares) and Borno (2.8 million hectares).

Agriculture crops in Nigeria are grouped into cereals, root and tuber crops, grains legumes and other legumes, oil seeds and nuts, tree crops, and vegetable and fruits. Governments and the Ministries of Agriculture have made land acquisition easy, encouraged agricultural practices, extended (still extending) invitation to foreign investors and have put in place several incentives to stimulate growth in the sector. Despite, the agricultural potential of Nigeria is barely being tapped and this explains the inability of the country to meet the ever-increasing demand for agricultural products and her rank as 55th in the world (although first in Africa) in farm output.

As the world experiences food crisis and persistent rise in fuel price, the country's agriculture offers unlimited opportunities for foreign investors and the world at large to provide solutions to these crises. Foreign investors will find investments in cultivation of sugar cane, sugar beet, sweet sorghum, starch (corn/maize), palm oil, soybeans, jatropha, and algae. These products are lucrative as they are potential for biofuels, a good substitute for fossil fuel. Presently, there is a very high demand for these crops from the developed economies.

Solid Mineral is another sector with great investment opportunities. Nigeria is endowed with numerous mineral resources. Recent policy reforms have brought the solid minerals sector to the fore. The emphasis is on encouraging massive foreign investors' participation in this sector as less than 0.5 per cent is contributed to the Gross Domestic Products from Solid mineral sector. However, the Ministry of Mines and Steel and the Ministry of state's focal attention in the last one year is to strategically place the country in a better position to explore and exploit just seven minerals in the plethora of minerals so as to increase Gross Domestic Product to 5 per cent within the next few years. The seven strategic minerals are coal, bitumen, limestone, iron-ore, barite, gold and lead / zinc.

Coal can be found in Enugu, Benue and Kogi. Within these three districts 396 million metric tones can be demonstrated using JORC classification criteria, while an additional 1,091 million tones of inferred and hypothetical coal resourced for the areas studied is 1481 million tones.

Knowing fully that development of coal will assist in the realization of energy, the Government and the Ministries are inviting foreign investors to participate actively in the exploration and exploitation of the mineral. Companies such as Denver Resources and Western Metals have already committed US$10 million and US$15 million respectively for two coal fields in the country. Another Chinese firm, Grid Xin Yuan International Investment Company that is providing more than half of China's electricity needs is also in the country, indicating their interest in the development of a coal field in Kogi State.

The Bitumen reserve in the country is estimated at more than 27 billion barrels of oil equivalent while iron-ore is estimated at over 5 billion inferred reserves with presence in Kogi, Enugu, Niger, Zamfara and Kaduna States. Gold in just 10 locations is estimated at 50,000 ounces, barites 10 million metric tones and limestone at 2.3 trillion reserves.

Talc with an estimated reserve of over 100 million tones can be found in Niger, Osun, Kogi, Kwara, Ogun, Taraba and Kaduna States.The colour of the Nigerian talc varies from white through milky-white to grey. The talc industry represents one of the most versatile sectors of the industrial minerals in the world. The exploitation of the vast talc deposits in Nigeria would therefore satisfy not only the local demands but also that of the international market as well.

The national demand for table salt, caustic soda, chlorine, sodium bicarbonate, sodium hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide exceeds one million tones. A colossal amount of money is expended annually to import these chemicals. There are salt springs at Awe (Platue State), Enugu, and Uburu ( Imo State), while rock salt is available in Benue State. A total reserve of 1.5 billion tones has been indicated. Government, to ascertain the quantum of reserves, is now carrying out further investigations.

In the same vain, large bentonite reserves of 700 million tones are available in many states of federation ready for massive development and exploitation, over 7.5 million tones of barite been identified in Taraba and Bauchi states, and an estimated reserve of 3 billion tones of good kaolinific clays has also been identified.

Gemstone mining has boomed in various parts of Plateau, Kaduna and Bauchi States for years. Some of these gemstones include Sapphire, Ruby, Aquamarine, Emerald, Tourmaline, Topaz, Gamet, Amethyst, Zircon, and Fluorspar, which are among the best in world. Good prospects exist in this area for viable investment. Understanding that this sector requires urgent investment, the Ministry has directed miners who are still in small artisan levels to form cooperatives so as to benefit from World Bank US$10 million assistance. Apart from this, three Nigerian Banks have also established solid minerals desk with fund of over US$ 8 million each for the development of the sector.

Foreign investors will find this sector worth-investing on as Nigerian governments have put in place various incentives and strategies for investment such as 3-5 years tax holiday, deferred royalty payments, possible capitalization of expenditure on exploration and surveys, extension of infrastructure and provision of 100% foreign ownership of mining concerns.

Recognizing that only a sustained macroeconomic environment and a sound and vibrant financial system can propel the economy to achieve the country's desire to become one of 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020, on the July 6, 2004 the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under the leadership of its Governor, Professor Charles Soludo launched a 13-point reform agenda to restructure, refocus and strengthen the Nigerian Financial System. To complement this agenda, another comprehensive long-term reform agenda for the Financial System (the Financial System Strategy 2020-FSS2020) was launched. The grand objectives of these agendas are substantially being achieved. The country financial system now comprises of strong, efficient and internationally competitive banks with an eye for global markets, a capital market with highest returns on investment, in dollar terms, a sound and rewarding insurance industry and other competitive financial participants.

Gordon was right in his submission to have described Nigeria as the most dynamic market in Africa. His view that "foreign investors, who will be patient enough to weigh the Nigerian Financial System on the credit risk perspective relative to the global event, will find the nation's financial sector more interesting to invest and raise funds from" x-rays the truth about the country's financial sector.

The country's banking system is the safest and the soundest it has ever produced in history. It is the fastest growing banking system in Africa and one of the fastest in the world. In fact, the most outstanding contribution towards realization of the country's dream came from this sub-sector. Economic analysts have observed that it has taken Nigeria less than 3 years to achieve what it took South Africa 20 years to achieve in the area of banking. In a short word, a world-class banking system has emerged in Nigeria.

Statistically, banking sector contributes 10 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and represents 60 per cent of the stock market capitalization, while there was a reduction in the number of banks from 89 to 25, the number of banks branches rose by 33 per cent from 3383 in 2004 to 4500 in 2007. The total asset base of banks rose by 104 per cent from $ 26.8 billions ( 3.21 trillion naira) in 2004 to $54.7 billion ( 6.56 trillion naira) by mid 2007; capital and reserves rose by 192 per cent from $2.72 billion (327 billion naira) to $7.98 billion ( 957 billion naira); capital adequacy ratio rose by 42.6 per cent, point from 15.18 per cent to 21.6 per cent and ratio of non-performing loans total loan improved massively by 51.3 per cent, point from 19.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent. The sector has also remained one of the most profitable in the country's capital market. It was noted that 13 out of 21 quoted banks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange recorded returns in excess of 100 per cent since January 2007.

According to the April 2008 edition of the African Business, (the best-selling Pan-African Business Magazine published in London) 18 out of 28 West African Companies with market capitalisation of more than $1 billion are Nigerian Banks. The magazine stated that First Bank Nigeria Plc with market capitalization of $7.4 billion remains the largest company in West Africa. Two other Nigerian banks namely Intercontinental Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa (UBA) remain the second and the third largest companies in the sub-region with market capitalization of $6.2 billion and $4.6 billion respectively.

Apparently, the rising tide of banks in the country from all indications has made the sub-sector very attractive, not only to local investors, but also to foreign investors, and in particular, foreign banks. For instance, the consolidation of Regent Bank, Chartered Bank and IBTC to form IBTC Chartered Bank attracted the interest of the Standard Bank Group, the largest financial institution in Africa with a market capitalization of $ 17.8 billion, whose subsidiary Stanbic Bank, also of South Africa has just sealed a Merger deal for the latest Merger in the country, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc. In this direction, other foreign banks have started making enquiries with CBN of a possible Merger or take-over.

To further substantiate the opportunities the banking sub-sector offers the global investors, a cursory look into Intercontinental Bank Plc will reveal the success of banking system in the country. Intercontinental Bank Plc is known to be the second largest companies in West Africa to have recorded a phenomenal growth in gross earnings, which stood at $1.45 billion ( 173.5 billion naira) in 2008. This is an increase of 99 per cent over the $728 million (87.4 billion naira) in 2007, profit after tax grew by 102 per cent to $380 million ( 45.6 billion naira) as against $188 million (22.6 billion) in 2007, while the capital base rose to $1.67 billion from $1.31 billion. The bank deposit base soared to $8.75 billion ( 1.05 trillion naira), an increase of 126 per cent from $3.9 billion (468 billion naira) in 2007, while the total assets also recorded a quantum leap to $14.2 billion (1.7 trillion naira), representing a growth of 108 per cent from $6.86 billion( 823 billion).

The bank is also in strategic partnership with BNP Paribas, the world leading energy financing bank, Afrexim Bank; Export Development Canada (EDC); Finance for Development (FMO); China Exim Bank; Export-Import of United States; International Finance Corporation in financing projects in different sectors of the economy. However, it is relevant to say that the success recorded by Intercontinental bank is a good example of the Nigerian banks' strength and prospects, and a testimony to opportunities available to global investors in the country' financial sector.

Apart from the above, Nigerian Capital Market offers viable opportunities as it is positioned to help companies to raise capital, and to generate high returns on investment. Its total market capitalization has grown by over 4000 per cent to $100 billion (12 trillion naira) in March, 2008, up from $2.39 billion (287 billion naira ) in August 1999.Among emerging markets, the Nigerian Capital market remains one of the most viable in terms of returns on equity. Historically, the market has delivered 28 per cent returns.

Insurance industry is not an exemption to this growth and development the country's financial sector is witnessing. Although there are few black spots on the regulatory handling, the industry has equally recorded success in their reforms and operations. With the inflow of robust capital, insurance companies are now faced with the challenges of delivering returns to shareholders, maximizing value and exploring overseas markets. Their presence can be felt in countries like Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome, South Africa among others.

Although Goldman Sachs' report titled "New Market Analyst" with issue number 08/09 released on March 13, 2008 (cited in the Thisday newspaper March 19,2008) posited that Nigeria is a better economy than South Africa, International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that Nigeria and South Africa got close to 50 per cent of the $53 billion private equity and debt flow to Sub-Saharan Africa in 2007. This underscores the growing confidence of International bodies and foreign investors in country's financial sector and economy at large.

Furthermore, Fitch Rating Agency and the Standard and Poor rated Nigeria BB-(minus) in the area of sovereign credit, high in development of local currency debt market, and low in the areas of debt to GDP ratio and inflation. The opportunities for growth in Nigeria financial sector are still strong as the underlying fundamentals driving the growth are still present. All these and more, position the financial sector and the country at large as a leading and most dynamic market in Africa and present viable investment opportunities to global investors.

Needless to say that the opportunities presented above are typical examples and an evidence of opportunities awaiting foreign investors in other sectors of the economy.

Nigeria is the largest producer and exporter of oil in Africa (although recently placed second behind Angola in the latest OPEC report as a result of Niger Delta Crisis) with a production of 2.5 million barrels and above a day. Besides, the Nigeria is the 7th world's gas reserve holder and the highest flaring nation in the world, with the potential to become a major player in LNG export. It has annual gas flares' capacity to generate over 12000 MW of electricity needed to catalyze the growth of any economy. Although it currently flares an average of 1.2 TCF of gas annually, the sector has the potential to generate great returns on investment.

One of the greatest opportunities awaiting foreign investors is Real Estate / Property. For instance, Lagos Metropolis with a population of about 18 million has attained mega city status. The State has one of the highest urbanization rates in the world according to the World Bank. Consequently, there is an insatiable demand for housing delivery, which has necessitated the introduction of the New Private Estate Developers Scheme. Under the programme, the government will make large parcels of land ranging from 1 to 25 hectares available to corporate organizations capable of undertaking development and delivery of housing units. Such organization must however demonstrate that they have the financial capacity and technical expertise to deliver quality and affordable housing units.

Among other sectors of the economy that foreign investors will find viable and worth-investing on are Transport, Sport and Entertainment, Tourism, Power and Steel, Export Processing Zones, Privatization. And available records reveal that the rate of returns in these sectors is as high as in the sectors discussed above.

Apart from the opportunities mentioned above which our office is strategically positioned to maximize opportunities for the benefit of prospective investors. We also offer consultancy services in the areas of general management, manufacturing, marketing, finance and accounting, personnel, research and development, packaging, administration, international operation, specialized services and other value-adding services. And our strategic partnership with national and international companies put us in position to deliver quality service and high returns on investment.

Nevertheless, there have been fears raised by international observers, agents and bodies that Nigeria is a high-risk nation for investment and other business transactions. This development is attributed to security, multiple taxation, epileptic power supply, bad roads and poor work environment.

It may appear that doing business in Nigeria is challenging because of the activities of a few untrustworthy Nigerians who are unscrupulous. But such are simply characterization of human nature; as it can be found anywhere else in the world. It must be said emphatically that the world has been biased in their judgment and treatment of Nigeria security issue. There have never been terrorist attacks, suicide bombings or kidnapping until recently when the issue of Niger Delta came on board.

Niger Delta region-the source of nation's oil wealth- has become an area of perennial tension, agitation, and recently, militancy. However, a confluence of factors such as environmental damage by oil exploitation, failure to develop the region, lack of job opportunities and sense of deep deprivation from the low share of derivation revenue accruing to the states in the region, has led to the present situation. Acknowledging their situation, the Federal Government has organised a Summit, to be chaired by Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nations Under Secretary General, to provide everlasting solution to the crisis. Frankly speaking, Nigeria is a safe and investment-friendly place and Nigerians are accommodating and industrious.

Cyber Crime is another fearsome crime, which often put-off prospective investors from involving or investing in the business opportunities in Nigeria. This crime was actually imported into the country by expatriates. It has never been part of Nigeria culture. It is perpetrated by a few section of the population. Their operations are carried out via Internet and their targets are people who transact business via the medium. They pose as government officials and sometimes as businessmen with United Kingdom identity who deal in digital products. However the list of their tricks and operations is not exhaustive. With the help of Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Commission (ICPC), and other Anti-Criminal Agencies, Cyber Crime and their perpetrators are under control and disappearing.

The grand objective of the present administration, as encapsulated in VISION 2020, is to make Nigeria a major industrial and economic power, and one of the 20 largest economies in the World by the year 2020 by providing enabling investment and business environment and maximum security for active participation of local and particularly, foreign investors. The realization of these aspirations had informed the radical and pragmatic reforms designed to increase the attractiveness of Nigeria's investment opportunities and foster the growing confidence in the economy. In this direction, the Federal Government has provided incentives and strategies for investment such as 3-5 years tax holiday, deferred royalty, possible capitalization of expenditure and provision of infrastructures such as road and electricity, just to mention a few.

African economy is witnessing the strongest growth in 30 years; no doubt, Nigeria is one of the major contributors to this development. Most commentators have observed that the opportunities for business and investment in the country look increasingly rosy with GDP growth of 7 per cent in 2007 and 13 per cent in the next 12 years. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast of 9 per cent growth rate for Nigeria in 2008 (which is second to India 10 per cent and ahead of China 8 per cent) lays credence to their observations.

Furthermore, the increase in Foreign Direct Investment, the entrance of multinational companies, the strong financial sector, the favourable and tremendous business environment, the government support, the abundant natural resources, and the population of over 140 million people, among others, put Nigeria in a comparative ( and possibly absolute) advantage over other African countries.

Just as it is difficult to ignore China as a market in the global arena, (one out of every five persons in the world is Chinese) so is it very difficult to ignore Nigeria as a market in Africa (one out of every three persons in Africa is Nigerian). With a population of over 140 million people and its economic potential, Nigeria still remains Africa most important market.

IMPACT OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS IN A DEVELOPING ECONOMY

Unlike China and India, African economy(developing economies) is yet to be integrated into the world economy. This is as a result of slow rate of integration and globalization at which the economy is being fixed into the global economic and financial system. Consequently, developing economies will only suffer a limited financial impact from the credit crunch. However, this is not to say that developing economies are in isolation and totally free from the crisis.

To grant a point, this paper will continue to use Nigerian economy for its analysis as it represents a paradigm of a developing economy with valid and considerable variables.

According to the report from a recently concluded Bankers Committee Meeting, which ended on October 20 th, 2008 , the Nigerian banks are safe as they operate at 22 per cent capital adequacy ratio( 14 per cent above the world 8 per cent requirement) and the financial sector is far from being affected by the current global financial crisis. The report also posits that any bail-out scheme is unnecessary as the situation that warranted bail-out schemes in developed economies- poor quality assets and heavy loan losses resulting from exposure to inadequately collateralised mortgage loans- is absent in Nigeria. To underscore its point, the report noted that, as the Direct Foreign Investment in Nigerian banks is comparatively low and the banks connection with their foreign counterparts is loosely fixed, the impact of the crisis will be limited and indirect.

Conclusion

The words of Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of International Monetary Fund, at a meeting in Washington D.C are the corner stones of the concluding thoughts of this paper. He stressed as follow:

We meet at an extra-ordinarily difficult time- a time of uncertainty and insecurity, with a danger that those fears push us away from- not towards- a more inclusive and sustainable globalization....At its best, multilateralism is a means for solving problems among countries, with the group at the table willing to take constructive action together. When multilateralism is dysfunctional, globalization can be a Babel of Tower, with competing national interests colliding to benefit none. The new multilateralism, suiting our times, is likely to be a flexible network, not fixed system. It needs to maximize the strengths of interconnecting actors, public and private, profit-making and civil society Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). The multilateralism must respect state sovereignties while solving interconnected problems that transcend borders...The private sector cannot restore confidence on its own. Macroeconomic policy measures by governments cannot restore confidence on their own. Piecemeal measures on financial markets will not restore confidence on their own. What will restore confidence is government intervention which is clear, comprehensive and cooperative among countries..The world must act quickly, forcefully and cooperatively to contain the ongoing financial and economic downturn.

Thus, the position of this paper is that the confidence will only be restored if "government intervention which is clear, comprehensive and cooperative" is complemented with investment in developing economies with less or no crisis impact as "flexible multilateralism" and cooperative and sustainable globalization is solution that suits our time, not" economic isolationism".

Azeez Olawale-Arish Yusuff,
Speaker, Human Right Advocate, Tutor, Entrepreneur, International consultant,Economic analyst, Founder/Manager, Cyber Crime Solution Providers Network.