30 June 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: The Asian Banker Interactive

The banking sector will grow significantly faster than GDP in the ‘E7’ emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey, according to new projections in a PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report ‘Banking in 2050: How big will the emerging markets get?’ Total profits from domestic banking in the E7 could be around half those in the G7 (US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada) by 2025 and larger than in the G7 before 2050. (more…)

Filed by Maria Robson under Financial Supervision, Corporate and Public Governance

30 June 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: BBC Monitoring Americas

Mexico has distanced itself from the positions of the leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20), Brazil and India, because it considers their proposals on the opening of industrial goods to be radical. Because of that, Mexico, along with seven other economies, presented a new proposal to reduce tariffs on non-agricultural products. (more…)

Filed by Maria Robson under Multilateral Trade

30 June 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Matt Crenson
• Source: Associated Press Newswires

NEW YORK (AP) - Last month, energy analysts announced that China’s booming economy has propelled it past the United States as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the atmospheric pollutant that is primarily responsible for global warming.

China emitted 8 percent more carbon dioxide than the United States in 2006, according to a report released in June by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. (more…)

Filed by Maria Robson under Development, The Environment, Climate Change

29 June 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Author: Paolo Hooke
• Source: Asia Pulse

SYDNEY - Climate change will be at the top of the agenda at the 15th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Sydney in September, a forum heard Tuesday.

David Spencer, Deputy Secretary and Ambassador to APEC, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said climate change was “clearly an issue on almost every APEC leader’s mind,” with member economies such as China, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand releasing major statements on climate change during recent months. (more…)

Filed by Maria Robson under Multilateral Trade, The Environment, Climate Change

28 June 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

New Delhi, 28 June: Allaying China’s apprehensions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the alliance of India, United States, Japan and Australia was not a security bloc and not against anybody’s interest.

Singh said he had conveyed this to Chinese President Hu Jintao when they met in Germany earlier this month on the sidelines of the G-8 summit and he had accepted the contention. (more…)

Filed by Maria Robson under Other

28 June 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: BuaNews/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX

African countries have been urged to develop national plans on climate change in order to alleviate the impacts of global warming on the continent.

Speaking at a tree-planting programme event organised under the auspices of the “Food and Trees for Zambia” organisation on Wednesday, George Edgar, Britain’s Special Envoy on Climate Change in Africa said: “There is a need for African countries to take account of the impact of climate change in their planning in a bid to forestall the negative impacts of global warming.” (more…)

Filed by Maria Robson under The Environment, Climate Change

2 June 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Automotive World

Serbia has opened its first biodiesel plant. The new facility is claimed to be capable of producing 100,000 tonnes of the fuel per annum, about 2% of the country’s annual consumption of fossil fuels. The Victoria Oil refinery in Sid, 100km west of Belgrade and near the Croatian border, will produce biodiesel from locally-sourced rape-seed, sunflower oil and soybean oil. (more…)

Filed by Maria Robson under Other