Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 09 December 2022
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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 09 December 2022
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ü Activision Blizzard: US seeks to block Microsoft's $69bn acquisition
ü UK banking rules face biggest shake-up in more than 30 years
ü Wirecard trial of executives opens in German fraud scandal
ü TikTok sued by Indiana over security and safety concerns
ü Elon Musk turns Twitter into 'hotel' for staff
ü Second-hand tech booms as shoppers look for bargains
ü New York Times faces first major walkout since 1970s
ü UK aims to double US gas imports under new deal
ü Taiwanese chip giant invests $40bn in US plant
ü Royal Mail workers begin wave of festive strikes
ü East Africa: TotalEnergies in Court Over Massive Oil Projects in Uganda, Tanzania
ü South Africa: Understanding Eskom's High Failure Rate
ü Uganda: Parliament Calls for Countrywide Power Coverage
ü Africa: AfDB Mobilises U.S.$8.9bn for Africa's Low-Income Countries, Highest in 50 Years
ü Nigeria: China Accounts for 66% Debt-Service Payments By Nigeria, Other IDA Countries in 2022 - World Bank
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Activision Blizzard: US seeks to block Microsoft's $69bn acquisition
The US is entering a legal battle with Xbox-maker Microsoft to block its plan to purchase the gaming firm behind hit titles such as Call of Duty.
Regulators cited competition concerns, saying they feared that if the deal went through, Activision Blizzard's games would stop being offered on non-Microsoft gaming consoles.
The Activision purchase was set to be the biggest in Microsoft history.
The company said it would fight to complete the $69bn (£56bn) deal.
Microsoft president Brad Smith said the company had "complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court".
The complaint against Microsoft is among the most-high profile legal fights to emerge from US President Joe Biden's pledge to take a harder line against monopolies.
The planned deal had already raised concerns in other countries, including the UK.
Activision Blizzard owns some of the most popular games in the world, including the Call of Duty series, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Candy Crush.
The Federal Trade Commission, the US consumer watchdog that filed the complaint, said that Activision was one of a small number of top video game developers that made high-quality games for multiple devices.
The deal would give Microsoft "both the means and motive to harm competition" by manipulating pricing, making games worse on its competitors' video game consoles, "or withholding content from competitors entirely, resulting in harm to consumers," the agency said in a press release.
The FTC pointed to Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax, which owns video game studio Bethesda Softworks. Microsoft has said several of the studio's future games will be exclusive to Microsoft consoles.
Microsoft earlier this week said it had agreed to make Call of Duty available on Nintendo for 10 years if the purchase went through.
"This sounds alarming, so I want to reinforce my confidence that this deal will close," Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick wrote in a letter to staff that was shared on the company's website. "The allegation that this deal is anti-competitive doesn't align with the facts, and we believe we'll win this challenge."
When it announced the deal, Microsoft said it was aiming to expand the games available on GamePass, its Netflix-style subscription gaming service and for the increasing number of people using phones to play games.
The takeover was set to make the company the third largest gaming firm in the world by revenue, behind China's Tencent and Japan's Sony, which owns Playstation and has criticised the deal.-BBC
UK banking rules face biggest shake-up in more than 30 years
The government is set to announce what it describes as one of the biggest overhauls of financial regulation for more than three decades.
It is expected to loosen rules on banks introduced after the financial crisis in 2008 when some banks faced collapse.
The changes will be presented as an example of post-Brexit freedom to tailor regulation specifically to the needs and strengths of the UK economy.
Critics will say it risks forgetting the lessons of the financial crisis.
The plans to ease regulations on financial services are being described as a second "Big Bang" - a reference to the deregulation of financial services by Margaret Thatcher's government in 1986.
Rules that forced banks to legally separate their retail lending arms from their riskier investment operations will be reviewed, as will rules governing the hiring, monitoring and sanctioning of senior finance executives.
The government has already announced it will scrap a cap on bankers' bonuses and allow insurance companies to invest in long-term assets like housing and windfarms to boost investment and help its levelling up agenda.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who will announce a package of more than 30 regulatory reforms, said the changes would "unlock investment across our economy to deliver jobs and opportunity for the British people".
"Leaving the EU gives us a golden opportunity to reshape our regulatory regime and unleash the full potential of our formidable financial services sector," he added.
Mr Hunt is set to meet with bosses of the UK's largest financial services in Edinburgh on Friday to discuss the reforms.
Rules review
After the financial crisis of 2008, when the government had to spend billions supporting the UK banking system, a new regime was brought in to increase the personal accountability of senior risk-taking staff.
It allows for fines, bans and even custodial sentences, although there have been very few examples of enforcement.
But City insiders say a major disadvantage it imposes is the lengthy process of getting the movement of senior staff to the UK approved by the regulator - making London less attractive to foreign firms.
Complex rules on how commissions and services, such as research, are paid for will also be reviewed.
After the financial crisis, large banks were forced to separate or "ring fence" their domestic banking operations (mortgages, loans etc) from their investment banking operations (exposing their own cash to market volatility), that were deemed riskier.
The cost of having two separate shock-absorbing cushions of spare money (capital) was deemed by some as placing extra costs on the sector. This may be mentioned in the overhaul, but most of the big banks have spent billions on this ring fencing and are not calling for its reversal.
Reforms of ring fencing are aimed at mid-size banks such as Virgin Money and TSB.
Cap on bankers' bonuses will still be lifted
There may also be new rules around bundling investments together into tradeable units - a process called securitisation. This process was instrumental in exacerbating the 2008 financial crisis as no one really knew where the bad debts were located so everyone stopped lending to everyone.
The government will also re-announce more freedom for the pensions and insurance industry to invest in longer term, illiquid (hard to sell quickly) assets - e.g. social housing, windfarms, nuclear - which the government will say helps their levelling up ambitions.
It is worth noting that although this will be billed as a Brexit freedom, the EU is undertaking similar reforms.
There will be some nod to developing the UK as a centre for crypto assets, but with some caveats given the recent bloodbath after the demise of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Most financial industry leaders say they are crypto curious but don't feel the need to be first on this. "Let the shipwrecks of others be your seamarks," said one.
'Jurassic Park of companies'
London's position as the pre-eminent European financial centre has been dented in recent years. London briefly lost its long-time crown of most valuable European stock market to Paris before gains in the pound pushed it narrowly back ahead, while Amsterdam took the title of busiest European share dealing centre.
Leading hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace recently described the London financial markets as a "Jurassic Park" of old-fashioned companies and investors, and it has struggled to attract the world's fastest growing companies to list on UK exchanges, often losing out to New York, Shanghai or even Amsterdam.
Labour politicians have criticised the scrapping of the bonus cap and said the UK should not engage in a regulatory race to the bottom, but the government will insist the reforms strike the right balance between stability and innovation.
Others will say that in loosening regulation we risk forgetting the lessons of the financial crisis when excessive risk taking ended in billions in bailouts and a decade of stagnating productivity.-BBC
Wirecard trial of executives opens in German fraud scandal
The former head of disgraced German payment company Wirecard has gone on trial accused of involvement in the biggest fraud case in German history.
Markus Braun, 53, presided over its meteoric rise from modest beginnings to one of Germany's big banking beasts.
Financiers and politicians were dazzled by Wirecard's success until its equally spectacular collapse into ignominy.
The setting for Thursday's trial is a high-security courtroom at Stadelheim prison in Munich.
Mr Braun, who was Wirecard's chief executive, is being held at the jail in pre-trial custody and denies any wrongdoing.
Two other ex-managers are also on trial. Oliver Bellenhaus was head of Wirecard's Dubai subsidiary while Stephan von Erffa was in charge of accounting. They face several years in prison if convicted.
Designed for the trials of suspected terrorists or mafia members, the courtroom lies 5m (16ft) underground, with a bomb-proof ceiling. A dramatic setting that is arguably fitting for a case that shook Germany's financial and political establishment to its core.
One man who is not in the dock is Wirecard's former chief operating officer. When the extent of the scandal surrounding the payments giant emerged in June 2020, Jan Marsalek had gone.
Considered Markus Braun's number two, he soon became Germany's wanted man and is on Europol's most wanted list too, suspected of having committed commercial gang fraud.
He is believed to have fled to an airport south of Vienna before flying to Belarus by private jet. Latest reports place him in Russia although the government in Moscow has rejected allegations that he formed close ties with its security services.
Rise and fall of Wirecard
Wirecard was launched in 1999 in a suburb of Munich.
The company processed online credit card payments, mainly for pornography and gambling sites, before it expanded into banking, issuing credit and pre-payment cards. In a world where cashless payments were becoming king, Wirecard was perfectly placed to dominate.
By 2005 it was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and in 2018 it joined the Dax 30 index of Germany's leading blue-chip companies, edging out Commerzbank in the process. Its shares soared to €140 (£120) and its value reached €24bn.
It was regarded as a German success story and Angela Merkel, who was chancellor at the time, even lobbied on behalf of Wirecard during a 2019 visit to China, where the company wanted to buy a firm.
Behind the scenes all was not well. There had already been reports in the Financial Times questioning Wirecard's figures. Then in 2016, an unknown research firm made allegations linking Wirecard to money-laundering and fraud.
Wirecard deflected accusations by investors and journalists, and the German financial authorities backed them up. FT journalist Dan McCrum was targeted by the company for writing pieces about it.
In early 2019 the company rejected as defamatory an FT report that bosses had forged and backdated contracts. Leaked documents soon revealed accounting problems in Wirecard's Asian operations, but the company blamed speculators.
Instead of investigating Wirecard, Germany's BaFin financial regulator chose to investigate the journalists and barred investors from short-selling - betting on the share price falling as it dropped more than 40%.
Then it all fell apart in 2020.
Wirecard declared insolvency after it was forced to admit that €1.9bn missing from its accounts probably never existed.
Two banks in the Philippines thought to hold the money said they had not been Wirecard clients and the company then filed for insolvency protection from creditors.
The situation surrounding Germany's tech sector darling had become a disaster and a disgrace, in the words of the regulator.
Prosecutors accused Markus Braun of signing off financial reports he knew were inaccurate. They said Wirecard had faked documents to show it had money that in reality, it never did.
A nine-month inquiry by German lawmakers last year found a succession of failings, including by auditors Ernst and Young for signing off Wirecard's accounts.
The trial is expected to last well into 2024. Among those closely watching it will be the many who lost big sums investing in the Munich-based company.-BBC
TikTok sued by Indiana over security and safety concerns
The popular social media app TikTok has been sued by the US state of Indiana.
Its attorney general Todd Rokita has accused TikTok's parent company ByteDance of violating the state's consumer protections laws.
The state alleges that the app fails to safeguard young people and privacy.
However, TikTok said it considers youth well-being in its policies and that it was confident it could satisfy US national security concerns.
Indiana filed two lawsuits on Wednesday. The first one claims the app exposes young users to inappropriate content.
In the other complaint, Mr Rokita also alleges TikTok does not disclose the Chinese government's potential to access sensitive consumer information.
"TikTok is a wolf in sheep's clothing," according to court documents.
"As long as TikTok is permitted to deceive and mislead Indiana consumers about the risks to their data, those consumers and their privacy are easy prey."
The complaint says the app's algorithm promotes a variety of inappropriate content, "depicting alcohol, tobacco, and drugs; sexual content, nudity, and suggestive themes; and intense profanity."
It also claims that deceives young users with age ratings of 12 and above on Apple and Google app stores.
Indiana is seeking an injunction against its practices and civil penalties against the company for its "unfair and deceptive conduct."
Mr Rokita said the lawsuits are the first launched by a US state against ByteDance.
A TikTok spokesperson said "the safety, privacy and security of our community is our top priority".
The app has age-limiting and parental control features, the firm said, and the company is investing in further content controls.
In addition, they said TikTok was confident it could address "all reasonable US national security concerns".
The announcement of the lawsuits come after other US states have drafted legislation to ban TikTok. Texas, South Dakota and South Carolina have prohibited the use of TikTok being used on state government devices.
Last month, the head of the FBI has said that TikTok poses a national security concern.
Its director Chris Wray told a the US House Homeland Security Committee said Chinese law essentially requires companies to "do whatever the government wants them to in terms of sharing information or serving as a tool of the Chinese government."
The Biden administration have been in talks with TikTok officials for months as they try to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of its hundreds of millions of users in the US.
TikTok is also facing legal challenges elsewhere. In the UK, the social media company could face a £27m ($29m) fine for failing to protect children's privacy when they are using the platform.-BBC
Elon Musk turns Twitter into 'hotel' for staff
The BBC has been given photos of Twitter office space that has been converted into bedrooms, which San Francisco authorities are probing as a possible building code violation.
One image shows a room with a double bed, including a wardrobe and slippers.
An ex-worker said new Twitter boss Elon Musk has been staying at the headquarters since he bought the firm.
He last month emailed all Twitter staff saying they "will need to be extremely hardcore" to succeed.
San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection has confirmed it is investigating potential violations following a complaint.
Mr Musk said the city was attacking companies for providing beds to "tired employees".
In a now-deleted tweet, Mr Musk posted that he would work and sleep in the office "until the org is fixed".
The BBC has also been given pictures of sofas at Twitter being used as beds.
Another conference room has an alarm clock, and a picture placed over a made-up bed.
"It looks like a hotel room," said one former worker. They went on to say that Mr Musk regularly sleeps at the Twitter HQ in San Francisco.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.
Last month Mr Musk - who completed his Twitter takeover in October - emailed all staff at the company saying they would need to work "long hours at high intensity".
"Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade," he wrote.
How to nap successfully at work
California state senator Scott Wiener told the BBC on Wednesday: "He's now making them [workers] sleep at Twitter.
"It's clear that he doesn't really care about people. He doesn't care about the people who work for him."
A Department of Building Inspection official told the BBC's US partner CBS News: 'We need to make sure the building is being used as intended."
In a reply to a journalist on Twitter, Mr Musk posted that the city should prioritise protecting children from the consequences of opioid drug misuse.
'Office armchairs'
Forbes broke the story of "sad little conference-room sleeping quarters at the company's recently depopulated headquarters", noting it was an apparent improvement on the improvised sleeping-bag-on-the-floor arrangement posted on Twitter by one employee.
The bedrooms, Bloomberg reported, are also said to accommodate staff from Tesla and other Musk-owned businesses brought in to work at Twitter, "some of whom travel to Twitter for work meetings", sources told the publication.
Department of Building Inspection official Patrick Hannan told the San Francisco Chronicle it investigated all complaints and there were different rules for residential buildings, even those used for short-term stays.
In May 2020, before Mr Musk's takeover, Twitter told employees they could work from home "forever" if they so wished because its remote-working measures during Covid lockdowns had been a success.
Last month Mr Musk said remote working would end.-BBC
Second-hand tech booms as shoppers look for bargains
"We're lucky, to be a family with two full-time working adults. Still, we're turning the thermostat down and putting extra jumpers on. We've switched to budget supermarkets to save money."
Anna Cargan, 35, lives with her husband and three young children in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. She started saving for Christmas in January.
"We've really noticed how expensive things have got this year. We're having to think about what we're spending more than ever before."
The Cargans are not alone.
According to research by consultancy firm PWC, 86% of UK adults are concerned about affording the necessities of day-to-day life.
Meanwhile, 70% of UK adults are planning to spend less this festive period, with almost half planning to cut back on Christmas presents, according to a survey by Accenture.
One tactic Ms Cargan will use to save money this Christmas, is to buy second-hand tech.
"I've saved about £600 buying second-hand phones," she says. "I don't want the latest model - as long as it's functional, I'm happy."
She bought the phones from Music Magpie, which was founded in a garage in Stockport in 2007. Back then it sold second-hand CDs and DVDs.
Five years later, it expanded into electronics. Now Music Magpie has two workshops in the UK and one in the US, where it refurbishes all sorts of unwanted electronics.
Sam Vesey, Music Magpie's chief sustainability officer, suggests not only buying second-hand to save money, but also selling old tech too, to fund this year's present buying.
"There are estimates that people have about £600 of unused tech," says Ms Vesey. "That's about £16bn sitting in drawers nationwide."
Now, with a growing number of companies offering pre-owned tech, buying second-hand, says Ms Vesey, no longer has the stigma it once had.
"We've seen an increase in demand for refurbished tech," she says. "In the same way that we've always been happy to have a second-hand house or a second-hand car, that's now passing through to our technology. People are quite happy to say 'mine's refurbed'."
According to the UN, e-waste, that's anything with a plug or a battery, is the world's fastest-growing domestic waste stream - fuelled by soaring consumption rates, short life cycles and limited options for repair.
Its report says that in 2019 only about 17% of e-waste was collected and recycled.
Meanwhile, the International Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum estimates that in 2022, more than 5.3 billion mobile phones alone will be discarded.
Gold, silver, copper, platinum and other high-value, recoverable materials, valued at about £47bn, are dumped or burned year after year, rather than being collected for treatment and reuse.
However, Ms Vesey believes it's a problem with a simple solution.
"The circular economy is at the heart of what we do - reducing e-waste while saving consumers money."
Music Magpie refurbishes about 400,000 tech items every year.
"If you want to get tech as a Christmas present, think about refurbished. It's a good thing. It's sustainable - and you will save money."
And from ice cream makers to headphones, there is a huge range of second-hand tech looking for a new home.
In 2014, Matt Gale established UK Gym Equipment with the sole aim of refurbishing commercial exercise machines.
"At the time, most of the large gym chains and council facilities would order brand new equipment, keeping it for just four to five years before upgrading. A huge amount was scrapped."
UK Gym Equipment refurbishes and sells anything that you can find in a gym - treadmills, cross trainers, bikes, rowers and strength machines.
Ultimately, says Mr Gale, refurbished means you're getting more for your money.
"One of the biggest selling points is longevity," he says. "Refurbished commercial machines are often still in the market 15 to 20 years after manufacture. There's a consistent level of parts and service support that rarely exists with some of the cheaper high street machines."
Many electronic devices are not designed with the intention of keeping them in use for a long time.
"The linear economy has been the dominant way since the industrial revolution," says Joe Isles, circle of design programme lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
"Take phones, we have them on a contract for 18 months or two years. Then we're encouraged to move on to the next one."
Unbelievable efforts, he says, are made to source materials, to put those materials together, to design the products and turn them into a device - but often very little thought is put into what happens next.
"Most of the materials we use we lose - after just one relatively short usage period. The economic loss of relinquishing all that, letting it end up in landfill, is eye-watering."
And, it seems, the big tech companies are starting to realise this.
Vodafone has recently launched a refurbished phone range, offering a two-year warranty on every pay-monthly refurbished phone.
Research carried out for Vodafone by OnePoll found, of the 2,000 people surveyed, 73% would consider buying a refurbished phone to save money.
However, the research also highlighted peoples' concerns about buying second-hand tech, including worries about limited battery life, device longevity and data security - as well as a reluctance to use "someone else's" device.
To give customers peace of mind, Vodafone only offers handsets in "great" or "pristine" condition.
Every phone has a 32-point visual and diagnostic check to ensure components, such as the screen, battery and camera, are fully functional. Each device is deep cleaned and securely data wiped.
So, this year, while money is tight for so many families, perhaps buying and selling old tech is a way to help fund Christmas.
Back in Barrow-in-Furness, Anna Cargan says: "It's more important than ever in a cost-of-living and climate crisis to reuse things as much as we can.
"I'd love to see a world where we all see second-hand as first choice."-BBC
New York Times faces first major walkout since 1970s
The New York Times is facing its first major work stoppage since the 1970s, after staff demanding better pay and benefits declared a 24-hour walkout.
The firm said it was disappointed by the decision but was prepared to serve readers "without disruption".
The stand-off comes at a time of heightened labour unrest in the US, as the cost of living continues to rise.
Union members say the company can afford their demands, despite challenges in the wider news business.
"We're incredibly fortunate to work for one of the few places in media, or print media, that is profitable, healthily profitable," said sports reporter Kevin Draper. "And yet the proposals that management have made are barely better than what we got last time."
More than 1,100 union members are planning to participate in the 8 December walkout, including big names such as film critic AO Scott.
At the end of 2021, the New York Times employed about 5,000 people, including more than 2,000 in journalism operations.
The union said it would leave some departments with nearly no one at work - though some units will be less affected.
International staff, for example, are not part of the union, which means the World Cup coverage that has been dominating sports news is unaffected, Mr Draper said.
The last contract was negotiated in 2017, when the New York Times was still finding its way through the disruption triggered by the rise of tech giants such as Google, which have drawn advertising dollars away from traditional news.
Since then the company has successfully shifted away from advertising to rely primarily on paid subscriptions. In a recent update to investors, it said that revenue was expected to rise further, forecasting a strong year.
Union members, who are represented by the NewsGuild of New York, said the the firm's performance - and its ability to spend millions on executive compensation, share buybacks and dividends - had informed their demands.
Since the prior contract expired in March 2021, the two sides have been at odds over issues such as starting pay, wage increases, retirement and health care policies and remote work.
In recent negotiations including a 12-hour session on Tuesday, the company agreed to higher pay increases than it had offered previously - including 3% guaranteed raises in 2023 and 2024 - and dropped a proposal to scrap pensions, among other changes.
"Our proposals today show our good-faith effort to get things going at the bargaining table," Cliff Levy, a deputy managing editor, wrote in an email to staff on Tuesday. "We are eager for the NewsGuild to join us in seeking common ground and making significant progress."
The proposal did not satisfy the union, which represents roughly 1,400 people, including comment moderators, security guards and reporters.
It said it was pushing to secure a $65,000 (£53,000) starting salary and pay raises of 5.5% in 2023 and 2024, noting that the company's proposals have not made up for the rising cost of living.
"My rent went up 8% last year," senior staff editor Andrea Zagata said. "So I guess my question is: what is a 2.8% raise doing for me, especially when the company is spending so much on executive salary, stock buybacks and dividends?"
The action at the New York Times comes after a wave of labour organising in the wider media industry, which has been grappling with years of job losses, erosion in benefits and meagre pay.
About 6,500 workers in media have become union members in the last five years, said Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild-CWA. Staff at two smaller newspapers, the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, are currently in the midst of multi-week strikes.
Meanwhile many companies still reliant on advertising are grappling with declines that are expected to worsen as the economy slows.
Firms such as newspaper owner Gannett, broadcaster CNN and online outlet Buzzfeed have all announced plans to cut hundreds of jobs in recent weeks.
Mr Schleuss said he was hopeful that the relatively strong financial position of the New York Times would give its workers a good chance of winning concessions.
"The New York Times in particular can pay everything that the workers are asking for at the bargaining table," he said.-BBC
UK aims to double US gas imports under new deal
The UK has agreed to double imports of US gas over the next year as it tries to stabilise soaring energy prices.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the plan would "bring down prices for British consumers and help end Europe's dependence on Russian energy".
Russia has cut off the majority of its gas supplies to Europe over the past year after its invasion of Ukraine.
The UK does not import gas from Russia directly, but has been hit by rising wholesale prices on the Continent.
Under the agreement, the UK aims to double imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US to 9-10 billion cubic metres over the next year.
That is equivalent to about an eighth of the gas the UK uses every year.
The two countries will also boost collaboration over the development of new nuclear and green energy technologies.
The partnership will be steered by a new UK-US joint action group, led by senior officials from the British government and the White House, with the first meeting held virtually on Thursday.
Citing the war in Ukraine, Mr Sunak and Mr Biden said in a joint statement that it is "more important than ever" for allies to work together to build "resilient international systems".
"Our immediate shared goal to stabilise energy markets, reduce demand, and ensure short-term security of supply is underpinned by the longer-term objective of supporting a stable energy transition to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, which in itself will strengthen our energy security," they said.
Nathan Piper, an oil and gas analyst at Investec, said the deal would help to secure gas supplies across Europe, where Russian gas imports are down by more than 80% compared to last year.
The UK has limited gas storage capacity, so any excess gas is likely to be exported through interconnecting pipes to Holland and Belgium, he said.
However, he said the plan is unlikely to bring down wholesale prices significantly this winter as demand soars. He also said the deal was more or a statement of intent, adding "it's an ambition and not certain".
Overall, US exports of LNG have been restricted since a fire damaged the country's second largest LNG facility in June. The Freeport LNG facility in Texas is not expected to be fully operational again until March next year.
There are concerns that Europe's increasing reliance on LNG could hamper efforts to tackle global warming.
Recent research showed that the production and transport of LNG causes up to ten times the carbon emissions compared to pipeline gas.
In addition, most of the increases in US gas production since 2005 have come from fracking, which has proven controversial in the UK.-BBC
Taiwanese chip giant invests $40bn in US plant
Computer chip giant TSMC says it will more than triple its investment in a giant US plant to $40bn (£33bn).
It is one of the largest foreign investments in American history.
The announcement came as President Joe Biden and the Taiwan-based firm's boss opened the factory in Arizona.
The Biden administration is pushing ahead with plans to bring onshore production of key components in everything from phones to military jets.
TSMC is the world's largest maker of micro chips for other companies, with clients including Apple.
Its Arizona plants will produce 3-nm and 4-nm chips used for iPhone processors. Semiconductors are sometimes referred to as the "brains" of electronics like smartphones, car components and AI technology.
Mark Liu, TSMC's chairman, said the firm would build two semiconductor fabrication plants with the first one expected to be online by 2024. The overall investment will be approximately $40bn. It is the largest investment the company has made outside of Taiwan.
The investment is a boost for Mr Biden following supply chain disruption that has led to chip shortages and amid growing tensions between the US and China.
The original deal for TSMC to build a plant in the US came in 2020 when President Donald Trump was in office. The latest announcement vastly increases the size of that investment.
"Today, we're down to producing only around 10 percent of the world's chips, despite leading the world in research and design in new chip technologies," said Mr Biden during a speech in Phoenix on Tuesday.
The US once made more than 30% of the world's computer chips before the jobs moved overseas, he said.
"The United States is better positioned than any other nation to lead the world economy in the years ahead if we keep our focus," he added.
The opening ceremony was attended by several heads of technology companies that rely on TSMC production, such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.
Apple's Chief Executive Tim Cook said it was a significant moment.
"We look forward to expanding this work in the years to come as TSMC forms new and deeper roots in America," he said.
Analysts see TSMC's investment as a potential game changer in the industry.
"The TSMC investment is a significant step for US chip investment over the next decade," according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. "This kicks off a legitimate battle between the US and China on chip production with this being a monumental strategic move by TSMC".
In August, President Biden signed a law committing $280bn (£232bn) to high tech manufacturing and scientific research amid fears that the US was losing its technological edge to China. The investments include tax breaks for companies that build computer chip manufacturing plants in the US.
The move came at a time when relations between the two countries have soured.
This has been fuelled by Beijing's claims over self-ruled Taiwan and its increasing assertiveness in Asia. Beijing sees Taiwan as a part of its territory that must be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary. Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the mainland.
The US has responded by restricting access to advanced computer chip technology.
That has hit China's export-driven economy which uses the technology to make and sell everything from phones to electric cars.-BBC
Royal Mail workers begin wave of festive strikes
Postal workers at Royal Mail have begun a wave of strikes in the run-up to Christmas in a row over pay and conditions.
The walkouts involving 115,000 workers will hit deliveries across the UK, Royal Mail said.
Millions of pieces of mail have been piling up ahead of the action, the CWU union says.
Negotiations between the union and Royal Mail have broken down.
Members of the CWU union are due to strike on 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24 December.
Last week customers were advised to post Christmas mail earlier than usual due to the strikes.
The union has said its members want a pay rise that matches the soaring cost of living, and that members feel their management wants to turn Royal Mail in to a gig economy firm, similar to Uber.
It warned of a "Christmas meltdown" in parcel and letter deliveries, and said millions of items of mail had been stacking up before the strikes.
The union said its members were facing "massive real-terms pay cuts" and that management wanted to "force through thousands of compulsory redundancies".
Dave Ward, CWU general secretary, said: "Royal Mail bosses are risking a Christmas meltdown because of their stubborn refusal to treat their employees with respect.
"Postal workers want to get on with serving the communities they belong to, delivering Christmas gifts and tackling the backlog from recent weeks.
"But they know their value, and they will not meekly accept the casualisation of their jobs, the destruction of their conditions and the impoverishment of their families."
Talks have broken down between the union and Royal Mail, a spokesman said, adding that Royal Mail managers are "refusing to budge with their 'best and final' offer".
December strikes: Who is striking and what are their pay claims?
Currys drops Royal Mail due to strike action
That offer includes a 9% pay deal over 18 months and "a number of other concessions to terms and agreements", Royal Mail said.
A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We spent three more days at [conciliation service] Acas this week to discuss what needs to happen for the strikes to be lifted.
"In the end, all we received was another request for more pay, without the changes needed to fund the pay offer," the spokesman said, adding that the union "knows full well" that the business is losing more than £1m a day.
He added that the strike action had cost staff £1,200 each. "The money allocated to the pay deal risks being eaten away by the costs of further strike action," he said.
The spokesman added that CWU was "deliberately holding Christmas to ransom for our customers, businesses and families across the country".
He said Royal Mail was "doing everything we can to deliver Christmas for our customers and settle this dispute" by continuing deliveries, but "the task becomes more challenging as Christmas nears".
The dispute began this summer after Royal Mail rejected union demands for a pay rise that matched inflation - the rate at which prices rises - which is currently 11.1%.
Royal Mail has been struggling as it moves from its traditional business of delivering letters - which is no longer profitable - to the fast-growing world of parcel deliveries.
The company has announced plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs.-BBC
East Africa: TotalEnergies in Court Over Massive Oil Projects in Uganda, Tanzania
The French energy giant TotalEnergies appeared in a Paris court after years of delay in a case in which six NGOs accuse it of "failing in its duty of vigilance" on two massive oil drilling and pipeline projects in Uganda and Tanzania.
The French organisation Survie, along with Friends of the Earth and four Ugandan NGOs, accuse TotalEnergies disregarding human rights and the environment as it moves forward with the massive infrastructure deals.
The "Tilenga" 419-well drilling project in Uganda, which is partly located in a natural park, and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project are intended to transport hydrocarbons to the Indian Ocean by crossing 1,400 kilometres of Tanzania.
Once built, EACOP will be the longest oil pipeline in the world.
The NGOs are calling on the company to comply with a 2017 French law passed that compels multinationals to respect "duty of care" regarding their activities.
The legislation obliges TotalEnergies to "prevent serious violations of human rights, health and safety of people and the environment" when dealing with foreign subcontractors and suppliers through a "vigilance plan" that must map risks and establish measures to prevent them.
The core elements of the case will finally be examined three years after filing this first-ever lawsuit based on the pioneering French law on the duty of vigilance of transnational corporations, adopted in 2017. #StopEACOP! https://t.co/Kgb7Hp8i9w via @amisdelaterre-- StopEACOP (@stopEACOP) December 7, 2022
Court case hindered by technicalities
The case has been delayed for three years due to a procedural battle that TotalEnergies eventually.
The active phase of the project began in February, and oil production in Uganda is due to start in 2025, despite condemnation of the project by the European Parliament, four United Nations special rapporteurs and numerous political leaders and associations.
Wednesday's hearing in Paris - which was attended by several associations and politicians, including the MPs who instigated the law - is the first to be held on the merits of the case before the courts since the legislation was passed by the French parliament five years ago.
The NGOs' lawyer, Louis Cofflard told the court he regretted that TotalEnergies had not taken advantage of the past three years of proceedings to "commit itself and comply with its obligations", adding that there was a "certain form of cynicism" on the part of the oil and gas group.
Outlining the alleged shortcomings of TotalEnergies' vigilance plan, he expressed his regret that it did not include "the environmental risks and climate impacts associated with the project".
Land seizures
Lawyer Céline Gagey, on behalf of Survie, listed the reasons for opposition to the projects and the damaging statistics that lie at the heart of the case.
Some "118,000 partial expropriations [of land] are necessary" she said, but the people who need to be compensated - often small farmers - are "deprived of the right to work their land before receiving any compensation."
The court heard that some 28,000 people are still waiting for compensation and TotalEnergies is not taking any measures to prevent thousands of farmers from being deprived of the right to use their land.
Gagey called on the court to order the group to pay them immediately.
TotalEnergies: NGOs are 'obstinate'
TotalEnergies' lawyer, Antonin Lévy, said he could have "spent five hours denouncing the failings" and untruths of the NGOs, but preferred to focus on "the inadmissibility of their claim."
He noted that the summons issued in 2019 was aimed at the 2018 vigilance plan - which has since evolved.
Plus, he argued that that the Paris court cannot take extra-territorial action, maintaining that the project is led by TotalEnergies Uganda, a subsidiary of the French group.
The NGOs want to put "TotalEnergies, Tilenga and EACOP, Tanzania, Uganda and their leaders on trial", he said, denouncing the "obstinacy in trying to be the emblematic case, the one that will perhaps set a precedent, to the detriment of the populations concerned."
The case will be deliberated by the court until 28 February 2023.
=RFI website.
South Africa: Understanding Eskom's High Failure Rate
For the time being at least, coal-fired boilers remain the backbone of Eskom's electricity generation fleet. Coal-fired boilers work by boiling water to produce high-pressure steam which is then used to spin a turbine. To do this, water is pumped at high pressure through boiler tubes which are heated by a coal-fired furnace to produce high pressure steam.
This combination of extreme pressure and temperature places severe stress on these tubes and over time, they corrode and fail, sometimes accelerated by the presence of corrosive chemicals in the hot furnace gases. This corrosion inevitably results in a rupture and requiring that the whole unit be shut down for maintenance. These occasional failures are a normal part of a power station's operation, and are factored into power generation planning. When they happen more often than expected, however, they result in under-delivery of power and, in South Africa's case, load-shedding.
Eskom has stated that boiler-tube failures are the leading cause of unavailability of power generation or, in simpler terms, they are the main culprits for load-shedding. The rate at which these failures occur has been rising. Eskom set themselves a target of one tube failure per year per unit but, as of 2021, were averaging 2.3 failures a year. One can only assume that this number has been rising since then, with 2022 by far our worst year of load-shedding ever.
On 8 December it was reported that Eskom's coal fleet was operating with just 40% of its installed capacity available, woefully short of its stated target, a more normal 75% availability. Part of the problem lies in maintenance. Eskom has reported that funding delays, among other issues, often force it to delay planned maintenance on units, heightening the risk of failure, particularly unexpected failure. Perhaps more alarming, when maintenance is carried out, it doesn't always meet standards and the units fail anyway.
Researchers at Wits, however, have identified underlying causes that are more fundamental to the coal fleet's chronic boiler-tube failures.
Professor Josias Van Der Merwe, the Head of School at the Wits School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, and K.G. Moloko, a postgraduate researcher in that school, have conducted a range of chemical analyses on boiler tubes from Eskom power stations to determine the mechanisms and causes behind their corrosion.
They found that the main culprit is sulphidation, a chemical process that degrades steel through the formation of brittle compounds of iron and sulphur. Two chemical conditions must be in place for this to occur - the presence of sulphur, and a low concentration of oxygen, which allows the sulphur to react with iron rather than being oxidised.
The Wits analyses indicate that these conditions are both present in the Eskom boilers that they examined, creating chemical pre-conditions that lead to heightened rates of corrosion and frequent failures.
There is no doubt that Eskom is beset by a multitude of crises ranging from shortages in funding and personnel, along with an aging fleet that has been overworked to keep the lights on, and even sabotage and threats of violence.
Nevertheless, as long as the chemical pre-conditions for high failure rates are present, energy availability will remain low even if these issues were resolved and, perhaps more concerning, availability could deteriorate further still as more units fail.
Eliminating or mitigating the chemical pre-conditions for high failure rates, therefore is a crucial first step that must be taken for Eskom to start working its way back toward a functioning coal fleet. Unfortunately, it is more easily said than done.
The first root cause of these chemical conditions is high sulphur content in the coal fed to the burners. Coal reserves vary considerably in their sulphur content and, generally speaking, lower sulphur content coal comes with a higher price-tag, because the presence of sulphur is problematic for most coal uses.
Sulphur also results in emissions that are damaging to the environment and to human health.
As with most mining activities, the most appealing reserves tend to be mined first and therefore, the standards of remaining reserves decline over time. This trend is one factor in the declining performance of Eskom's coal fleet, but several scientific articles have found that South Africa's coal reserves are generally low in sulphur and so, in principle, they should be able to avoid sulphur-driven corrosion if motivated to do so.
The issue, then, is not what coal South Africa has, but what coal Eskom chooses to buy and use. This has long been a politicised matter and Eskom has a proven history of purchasing sub-standard coal, having spent hundreds of millions purchasing coal containing 2% sulphur from the Gupta-owned Tegeta mining, well above the specified limit of 1.3%.
Investigators also found evidence that coal inspection processes had been with samples from one mine allegedly swapped out to obscure their sulphur content.
Other aspects of coal quality have come to light previously, with reports that some of the coal supplied to Eskom is even mixed with sand and rocks as a means of increasing the weight of what is sold. The fact that such obviously sub-standard product manages to make it into Eskom's boilers reveals shocking deficiencies in inspection and quality control, leaving South Africa entirely at the mercy of unscrupulous coal producers.
The second chemical pre-condition identified by the Wits researchers, low oxygen levels inside the boiler tubes, is itself a complex operational issue.
I asked Professor Van Der Merwe whether feeding higher ratios of air to coal could reduce the rate at which this type of corrosion occurs and he indicated that while it may help, it would result in increased emissions of NOx compounds which have extremely high global warming potential (many times that of CO2), as well as a range of detrimental health effects. The main reason that boilers are operated in conditions of restricted oxygen is to prevent the formation of these compounds, which form when oxygen and nitrogen (the main constituents of air) react together at high temperatures.
That may be a trade-off that South Africa simply has to accept as a stopgap to slow the fleet's deterioration, while Eskom hopefully finds a way to switch to coal of an adequate standard - a task which should be treated as a key national priority.
Neil Thomas Stacey lectures in Biomedical Engineering and on waste-water management at Wits University.
-GroundUp.
Uganda: Parliament Calls for Countrywide Power Coverage
Kampala, Uganda — Legislators have called on government to ensure that electricity access across the country is improved for the benefit of Ugandans in different sectors of the economy.
This follows a report tabled by the House Committee on Environment and Natural relating to the erratic electricity supply in West Nile.
The report was presented following an earlier a motion by Ora County MP, Lawrence Biyika Songa that highlighted electricity supply challenges in the region.
In the report presented by Committee Chairperson, Emmanuel Otaala, it was recommended that the connection of West Nile region to the national grid be expedited.
This is in a bid to curb the effects of load shedding in the region which has retarded economic activities like welding, education and health systems.
The committee report observed that the unreliable electricity supply is attributed to the region not being connected to the national grid.
Otaala said government constructed and commissioned a medium voltage line connecting Olwiyo to a substation in Pakwach district, as a short term solution.
"The long term solution is the completion of the Kole-Gulu-Nebbi-Arua transmission project which will connect West Nile to high voltage electricity backbone transmission infrastructure by 2023," Otaala said.
In the motion by Biyika Songa, government in 2003 granted the West Nile Rural Electrification Company (WENRECO) a concession to generate and distribute electricity in the region for 20 years.
The motion added that WENRECO failed to fulfil its obligations, and Electro-Maxx was contracted to supplement power generation in 2019, however, the region's power supply remains unreliable.
The report recommended that the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development should not enter new agreements for generation, transmission and distribution until the Energy Policy and Energy Bill are tabled and approved by Parliament.
"In future, Parliament should ensure that approval for funding for development of generation projects should be done simultaneously with their transmission components," Otaala noted.
The State Minister for Energy, Sidronius Opolot said that power in West Nile has relatively stabilised with the 33kv line.
"We have successfully connected the power generated from Nyagak 1 and it is being complimented by the 33kv line which we have successfully delivered to Arua," said the Minister.
He added that the delivery of power in the national grid through a 132kv line is also making good progress, with works expected to be completed by March 2023.
"I thank Members of Parliament for passing the Electricity Access Scale-up loan that will help us to increase and distribute power within West Nile. We shall connect the various institutions of government through solar power," Opolot said.
Godfrey Onzima, Aringa North County MP commended government for its plans to supplement electricity through solar power, but called for reliable and stable connections to help residents realize industrial and trade opportunities.
Siraji Ezama, Aringa County MP appealed to government to ensure districts without power are connected to the national grid, to enable the Parish Development Model succeed in rural areas.
Koboko North County MP, Noah Musa said there is need for an audit into the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), Electro-Maxx and WENRECO, to establish whether there was value for money on services provided.
Kyegegwa District Woman MP, Flavia Kabahenda proposed that the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development presents to Parliament, a profile of electricity coverage per district.
The Leader of the Opposition, Matthias Mpuuga asked government to come alive to the challenge dimmed energy in the country.
He said dimmed energy is a nugatory cost to the tax payer, adding that it could be made an available resource for connecting communities.
"If you consider how much the country loses in paying for dimmed energy, this cost could power 10 districts in this country. The Committee can consider doing away with this cost in the next budget," said Mpuuga.
The Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa directed the Minister for Energy and Mineral development to deliver an updated implementation status report for the Last Mile Connection project for all sub-counties in the country.
Tayebwa also tasked the minister to table a report containing beneficiary areas for the Electricity Access Scale-up Loan passed by the House two weeks ago.
"We expect a report on power outages by Thursday this week. I also expect you to table an action taken report on the issues raised by Members within one month," said Tayebwa.
-Independent (Kampala).
Africa: AfDB Mobilises U.S.$8.9bn for Africa's Low-Income Countries, Highest in 50 Years
After a year of intense negotiations and a difficult global economic outlook, development partners of the African Development Fund (ADF) have agreed to commit a total package of $8.9 billion to its 2023 to 2025 financing cycle.
This, according to a statement yesterday, was the largest replenishment in the history of the Fund.
The ADF is the concessional window of the AfDB, providing grants and soft loans to the continent's low-income countries.
"The $8.9 billion replenishment package includes $8.5 billion in core ADF funding and $429 million for the newly created Climate Action Window.
"ADF-16 core funding represents a 14.24 per cent increase over ADF-15 of $7.4 billion. It is a strong endorsement of the African Development Fund and its impact in tackling the continent's multiple development needs, including recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the effects of climate change, fragility, debt, and economic vulnerabilities.
"Algeria and Morocco contributed to the Fund for the first time. They join Angola, Egypt, and South Africa on the list of contributing African countries. The Kingdom of Morocco hosted the fourth and final meetings of the new replenishment (ADF16)," the statement added.
An elated President of the AfDB Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina applauded the impressive funding package.
He said: "I am impressed by the huge commitment and efforts of the ADF donor countries in stepping up support for Africa's low-income countries, especially at this time of great economic, climate and fiscal challenges.
"This is the power of global partnerships and effective multilateralism in support of Africa."
This replenishment came as the African Development Fund celebrates its 50th year anniversary since its establishment in 1972.
"The Fund is achieving significant impact and in the past five years alone, it has helped to connect 15.5 million people to electricity, has given 74 million people to access improved agriculture, and 42 million people access to water and sanitation.
"In addition, 50 million people have gained access to improved transport. The Fund's resources are also helping to build and rehabilitate 8,700 kilometers of roads.
"ADF-16 will support two strategic framework and operational priorities: developing sustainable, climate-resilient and quality infrastructure; and governance, capacity building and sustainable debt management in recipient countries. It will also focus on empowering women and girls as a condition for achieving inclusive and sustainable development.
"The ADF-16 replenishment will deliver even more impacts over the next three years. It will help to connect 20 million people to electricity, 24 million people will benefit from improvements in agriculture, access to water and sanitation for 32 million people, and improved access to transport for 15 million people," the statement added.
Commenting further, Adesina said: "These are impressive development impacts. These expected impacts of the
ADF will advance the Sustainable Development Goals and the Agenda 2063 of the African Union. They will allow the African Development Fund to build on its reputation as being ranked the second-best concessional financing institution in the world.
"We will deliver more, better, efficiently and in partnerships with bilateral and multilateral partners. We will foster a climate-smart, resilient, inclusive, and integrated Africa
"African low-income countries are the most vulnerable and least prepared to tackle climate change. The Climate Action Window and the commitment to provide 40 per cent of the core financing of the ADF 16 replenishment towards climate finance will help to build climate resilience in Africa," he added.
-This Day.
Nigeria: China Accounts for 66% Debt-Service Payments By Nigeria, Other IDA Countries in 2022 - World Bank
Nigeria's debt owed to China accounts for 83.57 percent of its total bilateral debt as of June 30, 2022, totalling $3.9 billion.
China is expected to account for 66 percent of the debt-service payments International Development Association (IDA) countries will be making on their official bilateral debt in 2022, the World Bank has said.
The World Bank Group President, David Malpass, made this known in his opening remarks during the launch of the International Debt Report 2022 on Tuesday,
According to details of the transcript of his speech posted on the World Bank website, while China's debt stock is roughly half of bilateral debt, its debt service payments are around 2/3 of bilateral debt service payments.
"At the end of 2021, China was the largest bilateral creditor to IDA countries, accounting for $100 billion of their bilateral debt stock, that is up from $15 billion in 2010," he noted.
The International Development Association (IDA) is the part of the World Bank that helps the world's poorest countries. Established in 1960, IDA aims to reduce poverty by providing zero to low-interest loans (called "credits") and grants for programs that boost economic growth, reduce inequalities, and improve people's living conditions.
Several countries of the world are eligible to receive IDA resources. Some countries, such as Nigeria and Pakistan, are IDA-eligible based on per capita income levels and are also creditworthy for some IBRD borrowing. They are referred to as "blend" countries.
Nigeria's Debt Reality
According to data from the Debt Management Office, Nigeria's debt owed to China accounts for 83.57 percent of its total bilateral debt as of June 30, 2022, totalling $3.9 billion, a 12.7 percent increase from $3.5 billion in the same period last year.
Similarly, Nigeria's 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) revealed earlier in the year that the federal government will spend N6.31 trillion on debt servicing in 2023, which amounts to about 74.6% of the government's projected revenue of 8.46 trillion for the year.s
Last December, Nigeria and 73 other countries benefitted from an IDA package.
Mr Malpass added that the total external debt of low- and middle-income countries doubled over the last decade, reaching $9 trillion at the end of 2021.
For the IDA-eligible countries, the poorest, debt reached $1 trillion, nearly tripling since 2010, he explained, noting that their debt service payments on external public and publicly guaranteed debt are expected to surge 35 percent in 2022, to $62B up from $46 billion in 2021.
"This will exhaust scarce fiscal resources needed for electricity, water, nutrition, health, education, and climate action," he warned.
"Over 40 IDA-eligible low-income countries are at high risk of debt distress or already in it. Debt crises are also spreading to middle-income countries. The composition of debt has changed dramatically too, making much-needed debt restructurings harder.
"More of the debt is to private creditors. Debt owed by low- and middle-income countries on their public and publicly guaranteed debt to private creditors at the end of 2021 was 61%, that's up from 46% in 2010. Much of that increase came from increased bond issuance, with bondholders now accounting for nearly 80 percent of privately held debt.
"For IDA countries, this was $76 billion owed to bondholders, making restructurings difficult. And more of the debt is owed to non-Paris Club creditors. That's another change in the composition. Debt owed to government creditors that don't belong to the Paris Club has soared."
Policy Direction
To address the increase in debt and the new composition, the World Bank chief focused on improvements in three areas -- debt sustainability, transparency, and restructuring. Progress in each area is important to achieve satisfactory outcomes for development, he added.
"Debt sustainability is deteriorating not only in IDA countries, but also in many middle-income countries and the outlook is very challenging from sustainability standpoint," he explained.
"More transparent debt data improves debt management, and makes debt restructurings less difficult to implement. Even the simple reconciliation of debt is ditfficult under current practices.
"It is not in any creditor's long-term interest to keep public debt hidden or artificially protected through non-disclosure clauses, complex debt-like instruments, collateralization, and escrow accounts."
As part of its commitment to debt transparency, the World Bank's International Debt Statistics database provides the world's most comprehensive source of comparable cross-country information on the external debt of low- and middle-income countries. Over the past five years, this database has identified and added $631 billion of previously unreported loan commitments. In just 2021, an additional $44 billion was identified, he explained.
Speaking on debt restructuring, he noted that new mechanisms are needed to reflect the new creditor landscape.
"With the debt situation deteriorating rapidly I've regularly proposed a series of reforms to the debt restructuring process to make it faster, more inclusive, and more effective at helping countries return to sustainability," he said.
-Premium Times.
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