Diamond-rich Botswana woos jewellery makers

AFP, GABORONE, April 5: Botswana, the world's largest producer of diamonds, told international jewellery makers Monday it was ready to create conditions to entice them to set up shop in the country.

Botswana is committed to slashing red tape for cutting, polishing and manufacturing jewellery, acting minerals minister Ponatshego Kedikilwe told a meeting of the International Diamond Manufacturing Association.

'Our aspirations are to see as much beneficiation as possible done locally and on a sustainable basis,' he said. 'We are willing to do what it takes to ensure that an environment that enables beneficiation is created.'

'Beneficiation' has long been part of government efforts to diversify the economy by encouraging the growth of businesses that add value to diamonds, rather than simply exporting uncut stones.

Investors have complained about landlocked Botswana's infrastructure, including weak Internet access, and a shortage of skilled labour for the jewellery trade.

Kedikilwe said government was working to simplify the visa process for foreigners seeking to open jewellery businesses.

A new factory is expected to open in December, once final government clearance is received, operated by Shrenuj, an Indian company that is one of the 16 polishing and cutting firms already working in Botswana.

The firm says it will employ 70 people to start, with plans to grow to 300 employees, mainly making jewellery for the United States. Botswana has preferential access to the US market under an African trade deal.

Botswana's downstream diamond industry currently employs nearly 3,000 people.

The country's economy was hard-hit by the global recession as diamond demand plunged. The economy shrank by 4.9 per cent in 2009, but turned around with 7.6 per cent growth last year.

Eurozone economic activity survey gives mixed signals

AFP, BRUSSELS, April 5: A closely-watched survey indicating the pace of growth across the eurozone logged a 43-month high for the services sector in March, upwardly-revised EU data showed on Tuesday.

The composite eurozone index for manufacturing and services output compiled by the London-based Markit research firm fell 0.6 points from February to 57.6 points in March, a slight improvement from a previous estimate of 57.5 points.

Any reading above 50 indicates activity is expanding.

Markit said the latest reading signalled an expansion in economic activity for the 20^th consecutive month and emphasised that the acceleration in services sector activity was the strongest since August 2007.

Manufacturing output growth, however, eased to a three-month low and once again sharp divergences in economic performance could be seen between France and Germany, and the rest.

'Signs of weakness remained very much in evidence' outside the big two, with Spain falling back into a 'services-led contraction and the downturn in Greek manufacturing continued,' the survey said.

'Although the debt crisis in the periphery was affecting confidence, there was no evidence that the crisis in Japan had affected business materially,' said Markit chief economist Chris Williamson.

'The unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, on the other hand, continued to have an impact via higher oil prices,' he warned, highlighting rising input costs 'at a rate approaching the near eight-year highs seen in 2008.'

According to London-based IHS Global Insight analyst Howard Archer 'the key question is can the Eurozone sustain this apparent improved growth in the early months of 2011 as fiscal tightening increasingly kicks in across the region?'

He added: 'There can be little doubt that the European Central Bank will deliver a 25 basis point interest rate hike from 1.00 per cent to 1.25 per cent on Thursday—even though higher interest rates threaten to add to the problems of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and, even Spain.'

China’s central bank raises interest rates

AFP, Beijing, April 5: China's central bank said Tuesday it would raise one-year deposit and lending rates by 25 basis points in its latest effort to curb rampant lending and bring inflation under control.

The People's Bank of China said the interest rate hikes—the fourth since late last year—would take effect Wednesday.

The latest move takes the one-year deposit and lending rates to 3.25 per cent and 6.31 per cent respectively.

Authorities have been pulling on a variety of policy levers to rein in consumer prices and housing costs but inflation remains stubbornly high.

The country's consumer price index rose 4.9 per cent in February, well above the government's full-year target of four per cent, despite persistent efforts to reduce household costs and ease growing consumer anxiety.

Premier Wen Jiabao told the country's legislature last month that reining in prices was the government's 'top priority' in 2011, as China strives for a more balanced eight per cent growth rate.

Two guilty pleas in $880 mln US Ponzi scheme

AFP, Washington, April 4: A father and son who created fake earnings documents to dupe clients in an $880 million Ponzi scheme both pleaded guilty Monday to one count of securities fraud, US prosecutors said.

Roberto Torres, 76, and his son, Alejandro Torres, 39, both face up to 20 years in prison for helping Nevin Shapiro, the former chief executive of Capitol Investments USA, who pleaded guilty last September to one count of securities fraud and one count of money laundering.

Roberto Torres was Capitol's chief financial officer and his son was an accountant with the company—their sentencing is scheduled for July 12.

Shapiro ran a fake wholesale grocery distribution business in Florida, taking in $880 million between 2005 and 2009, using new investor funds to make principal and interest payments to existing investors, authorities said.

The father and son admitted to creating false documents including profit and loss reports, invoices for Capitol transactions and tax returns for Shapiro, who spent millions of dollars on a 'lavish lifestyle,' prosecutors said.

They admitted that more than 50 investors lost a total of between $50 million to $100 million, prosecutors said.

The Torres father and son pleaded guilty in a federal court in Newark, in the eastern state of New Jersey.

Japan seen heading into recession: survey

AFP, Tokyo, April 5: The economic fallout from Japan's biggest ever recorded earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear crisis will push the nation into recession in the coming months, a survey of economists said Tuesday.

The triple disaster has lanced business confidence, reduced exports and discouraged consumer spending, the Nikkei business newspaper said after reviewing analysis from 11 major private economic institutions.

Recovery is not expected until the July-September quarter, the Nikkei said.

On average, the world's number three economy was seen shrinking 0.6 per cent in the January-March quarter from the previous three months, it said.

For the following three months to June, the economy was seen contracting 2.6 per cent on average, with the most pessimistic economist expecting a 7.1 per cent drop, the daily said.

'Most believe that personal consumption and exports will fall (in April-June) from the previous quarter,' the Nikkei said.

The Japanese economy shrank 0.3 per cent in October-December 2010, according to the Cabinet Office. A recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

Exports of automobiles and IT products are seen falling especially sharply due to decreased production, according to SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., the Nikkei said. Power shortages and supply chain disruptions have hit production.

Before the March natural disaster, economists believed the Japanese economy was going to enjoy a moderate upswing in the January-March quarter, as exports were likely to be lifted by a gradual rebound of the global economy.

Almost all of the economists said the economy will start to grow again in the July-September quarter on public works spending in response to reconstruction demand and a recovery in exports.

They project that the economy will expand 1.2 per cent in the July-September quarter and 5.6 per cent the following quarter, the Nikkei said.

Japan has said the cost of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami could hit 25 trillion yen ($297 billion).

The total cost from collapsed or damaged houses, factories and infrastructure such as roads and bridges is estimated at 16-25 trillion yen over the next three fiscal years, according to the Cabinet Office.

The estimate does not account for wider issues such as how radiation from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant will affect food and water supply, amid an ongoing food scare.

The upper estimate would put the disaster's financial impact at more than double the 9.6 trillion yen of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, which killed more than 6,400 people.

Australia posts first trade deficit in a year

AFP, Sydney, April 5: Australia posted its first monthly trade deficit in almost a year in February as exports fell after floods hurt coal production and imports rose steeply, figures showed Tuesday.

Seasonally adjusted figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed a deficit of Aus$205 million from a downwardly revised surplus of $1.433 billion in January.

Exports fell two per cent while imports jumped five per cent as the country posted its first deficit since March 2010.

Key factors influencing the change between January and February were a fall of $543 million in exports of metal ores and minerals and a bounce of $561 million in imports of fuels and lubricants, economists said.

Analysts had expected a drop off in exports due to the wild weather in coal-producing Queensland state in January, but were caught out by the spike in imports.

'It's a bit of surprise with the first deficit in nearly one year,' St George Bank chief economist Besa Deda said.

'We've been recording very large trade surpluses for some time and we did think that surpluses would narrow in coming months, but we weren't predicting the deficit.'

The floods that hit Queensland caused significant damage, halting mining and cutting key transport infrastructure, with business forecasting the disaster could cost the economy up to $8.3 billion in lost coal production.

Economists, though, said the trade balance should quickly swing back into surplus once coal exports are restored.

'The impact of the disasters in Queensland will be temporary, and temporary on the impact on the trade balance and the impact on the (economic) growth numbers of first quarter GDP,' said JP Morgan's Helen Kevans.

Father provides clue to Yuvraj Singh’s mystery inspiration

Reuters, New Delhi, Mar 27: Yuvraj Singh has plunged an entire cricket-crazy nation into a stifling suspense with his reference to a mystery person he attributes his red hot form to.

His father reckons it could well be Sachin Tendulkar.

The southpaw collected his fourth man-of-the-match award in the World Cup after scripting India's quarter-final victory against four-time champions Australia on Thursday.

In the post-match press conference, Yuvraj said he was playing the tournament for a 'special person', whose identity he would only reveal if India reached next Saturday's final.

The speculation has not stopped since and his father Yograj, a former India player, hinted it could be Tendulkar.

'I would not be surprised if he meant Sachin,' Yograj told Reuters by phone from Chandigargh on Sunday as India counted down the hours for the highly-anticipated semi-final against Pakistan on Wednesday.

'Sachin has been a huge influence in his life over the last 11 years or so. He has always been there when Yuvraj was going through a difficult phase in his career.

'Sachin is not just a great cricketer but also a great human being. He has been Yuvraj's guiding angel. My son is very close to him and shares things he would not share with anyone else.'

Poor form and injuries blighted the career of one of India's most exciting cricket talents but Yuvraj, architect of India's 2007 Twenty20 World Cup victory, once again showed his impeccable sense of occasion in the tournament.

Yograj said his son owes the turnaround to Tendulkar.

'Sachin must have been my son in previous life or some other close relation. He has been the best thing to happen to Indian cricket and also to Yuvraj,' said Yograj, a former medium pacer who played his only test against New Zealand in 1981 at Wellington.

'He advised Yuvraj to keep working hard and maintain focus. There was lot of scepticism in the air but only his mother and Sachin had an unflinching trust in my son.

'Frankly speaking, any cricketer who has listened to Sachin has benefitted.

'When he eventually retires, the cricket board should appoint Sachin the mentor of the Indian cricket team. He can turn any ordinary player into a phenomenal cricketer.'

‘Brain waste’ thwarts immigrants’ career dreams

AP, New York, March 27: After finishing medical school in Bogota, Colombia, Maria Anjelica Montenegro did it all — obstetrics, pediatrics, emergency medicine, even surgery. By her estimate, she worked with thousands of patients.

None of that prepared her for the jobs she's had since she moved to the United States: Sales clerk. Babysitter. Medical assistant.

That last one definitely rubbed raw at times.

'I know I was working in my field,' the 34-year-old New York resident said. 'But that is medical assistant. I'm a doctor.'

Montenegro is hardly unique, given the high US unemployment rate these days. Her situation reflects a trend that some researchers call 'brain waste' — a term applied to immigrants who were skilled professionals in their home countries, yet are stymied in their efforts to find work in the US that makes full use of their education or training.

Most of these immigrants wind up underemployed because of barriers like language, lack of access to job networks, or credentialing requirements that are different from those in other countries. Some are held back even further because they're also in the US illegally.

An analysis by researchers at the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration think tank, estimated that 1.2 million college-educated immigrants in the United States were underemployed, out of a population of 6.7 million. About another 350,000 were unemployed. The analysis, based on data from the Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey, did not differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants.

Brain waste has consequences for immigrants as well as American employers and the larger economy, said Jeanne Batalova, policy analyst at the institute and co-author of a study on the issue.

For immigrants, it means bringing home less money than they have the potential to earn. For employers, it means fewer skilled applicants in their hiring pools. For the country overall, it means a missed opportunity to leverage already trained professionals in areas where there may be a desperate need for them.

There's a 'loss when human talent and potential is not maximized in the fullest,' Batalova said.

Mohan Singh, 55, thought moving to the United States would be a smooth transition. Born and raised in India, he left his home country for Kuwait, where he worked in air conditioning and elevator maintenance. He lived in Kuwait for 25 years, started his own company and was successful enough to send his daughter and son to college in the United States.

At their urging, Singh came to the US in 2000. He said he thought 'that I'll be getting the same job, I'll be getting into a good field, make a good life.'

It took seven years to complete the paperwork that allowed Singh to work here legally. When he applied for jobs, would-be employers focused on the fact that Singh had not worked in his field in the United States.

'They cancel all my experience,' he said.

He now spends 12 hours a day, seven days a week, behind the wheel of a taxicab. It's a far cry from the work he's done for much of his life, Singh said, and the wages are much lower than those he once brought home. The whole experience has soured him on the idea of staying in America. He plans to move back to India in a couple of years, when his son is done with his post-graduate work.

'I used to have money, I used to have good life,' Singh said. 'Over here, I'm hand to mouth.'

Nikki Cicerani, executive director of Upwardly Global, a nonprofit organization that helps legal immigrants find work in their chosen professions, said typically, immigrants come from environments where job-seeking is done differently. They may not know how to navigate the system, whether it's building a network to learn about job openings or having a resume formatted in a way that is familiar to American employers.

Interviewing can be especially tricky. 'In many other countries, the resume and the educational experience is the clincher,' Cicerani said, 'whereas in the United States, the interview is make it or break it.'

American employers can also have difficulty figuring out if an immigrant would be the kind of employee they are seeking, absent a ready way of understanding how foreign educational or professional expertise translates in the US job market, Cicerani said.

'They're not really clear how to evaluate a foreign degree against a US-educated candidate,' she said.

Montenegro came to the United States in 2004 to care for her mother, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She stayed after marrying a man she met here, and became an American citizen. She now lives in the New York borough of Queens with her husband and two children.

Language was the first barrier that Montenegro encountered. She needed to improve her English, but she also needed to work. She took a job as a sales clerk in a local mall, and even though it felt strange to be a medical professional working in retail, she said, the position at least helped her polish her language skills.

Then came larger hurdles that no amount of perfect English could surmount. There's a series of exams, the first of which cost $1,000 alone, Montenegro said. She also has to complete a residency, a requirement for all graduates of American medical schools. There are a limited number of residency slots overall which makes it a very competitive process for everyone, but even more so for foreign medical school graduates.

Montenegro has one more exam to pass before she can apply for a residency, a process that will take at least a year or two. There's no guarantee that she'll be accepted for a residency; At times, she fears she may never work as a doctor here.

'So many times I want to get my things and my passport and go back to my country,' Montenegro said. Over the years, she heard stories about the lifestyles her doctor friends in Colombia were able to afford as she worked at various low-wage jobs.

While Montenegro agrees that her credentials and her ability to provide good health care should be vetted before she's allowed to work in this country, she thinks having to train as a general practitioner all over again when she already has experience is a waste — especially for the US, she said, because she speaks fluent Spanish and could be an asset in any Spanish-speaking community in need of a doctor.

'I'm ready to do that and help people,' she said.

ECB close to liquidity deal for troubled banks

Reuters, Frankfurt, March 27: The European Central Bank is putting the finishing touches on a new facility that will give troubled euro zone banks liquidity over a longer time frame, throwing a lifeline to Ireland's ailing banks.

A euro zone central banking source told Reuters on Saturday that the plan will initially be 'tailor made for Irish banks' and was likely to be announced next week to dovetail with the results of fresh stress tests on the country's lenders.

'This will replace the ELA (Emergency Liquidity Assistance) that is currently being provided by the Irish central bank,' the source said speaking on the condition of anonymity.

'It will probably be similar to the SMP (ECB bond buy programme) in the sense there will be no fixed time frame on it; if you had put a 5- or 10-year deadline on it these people may have been tempted to ignore the problem until the end date was approaching.'

He added that although it would initially be tailored for Irish banks, it would subsequently be available euro zone wide.

It would be under the control of the ECB's Governing Council which would set the conditions attached to the loans on a case by case basis.

An EU-IMF bailout last year has failed to resolve Ireland's banking crisis and after an outflow of deposits and with other banks unwilling to lend to them, Irish lenders remain dependent on the central bank for their day-to-day operations.

The six domestic banks are estimated to have outstanding loans of around 150 billion euros ($210 billion) from the ECB and Ireland's own central bank at the end of February. Around 70 billion euros was made available under the Irish central bank's ELA.

Ireland's new government, elected on a mandate to renegotiate the bailout, has been in talks with the ECB for weeks to try and secure medium-term funding for its banks and this facility should provide some comfort to the markets when the results of the stress tests are published on March 31.

The tests, agreed as part of the EU-IMF bailout, are expected to show that Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks, Irish Life & Permanent and EBS Building Society will need around 25 billion euros, a Reuters survey of analysts showed.

The EU-IMF bailout set aside 35 billion euros for Ireland's banks.

The Irish Independent newspaper reported on Saturday that the stress tests would reveal a capital hole smaller than the 35 billion euros earmarked.

Without citing any sources, the newspaper said that Allied Irish Banks, which has been effectively nationalized by the state, may need more than 10 billion euros, Bank of Ireland would need under 5 billion euros while Irish Life & Permanent and EBS Building Society would need single billion sums.

Truckers scarce as India aims for top gear growth

AFP, Mumbai, March 27: After three years of driving on some of the world's most dangerous roads, 20-year-old Indian truck driver Moin Sheikh wants out of the gruelling job.

He complains he is underpaid, overworked, harassed by police and frightened by the reckless driving on India's traffic-choked roads, which have the world's highest rate of fatalities.

'I want to leave. The police treat us like dirt and driving at night is dangerous,' Moin, who gets just 3,000 rupees a month ($65) from his private trucking company employer, told AFP at a Mumbai suburban truck halt.

He is not alone in disliking the job: India faces the worst shortage of truckers in the industry's history as drivers are put off by demanding work hours, low pay, high risks and lengthy stretches away from home and families, companies say.

'We face a 40 per cent shortfall, which means we need three million more drivers,' said R.K. Gulati, spokesman for the All India Motor Transport Congress, a transporters' lobby group.

'This is the worst manpower crisis the industry has faced,' said Bal Malkit Singh, a city transporter and former head of the Bombay Goods Transport Association.

Singh, who operates over 300 trucks across the country, says the shortage of drivers is so acute that 10 per cent of his Bal Roadlines transport fleet stands idle at any point in time due to a lack of drivers.

Other transport operators report that as much as 15 per cent of their fleet is out of service for the same reason.

One of the main problems is that the government has raised the educational bar for truck drivers, requiring a minimum grade 10 education—or high school to the age of 15 -- to carry hazardous goods.

Even for regular freight, a driver needs to have completed middle school to age 13, and young people with these qualifications are more keen to work in offices than spend long hours behind the wheel.

Truck drivers in India are also reluctant to stay in the job long, as the lack of a co-ordinated patrol network means they face a high risk of being mugged on highways by gangs.

Moin says he has been robbed twice, losing his wallet and mobile phone.

All this comes as bad news for the Asian giant's rapidly expanding economy, which already faces transport bottlenecks because of dilapidated road networks and other hurdles.

India's two-million-mile (4.2 million kilometre) road network, the world's second largest after the United States, accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the country's freight movement. The remaining 30 per cent goes by rail.

'The driver shortage is having a wider impact on the economy' as goods pile up for transport, said Vishwas Udgirkar, senior India transport director at global consultancy Deloitte.

'It is making efficient logistics tough,' Udgirkar said.

The trucker shortage is so bad that many fleet owners break the law requiring commercial vehicles to operate with two drivers so that one can take rest breaks from driving.

One solution for the company bosses would be to raise wages, but they say they are unable to because of cost pressures amid rising fuel and other commodity prices.

Charanjeet Singh, 22, another driver, earns just $60 a month for travelling between commercial capital Mumbai in the west and Jammu in the north, transporting apples and spices.

'I'm worried about my future on such low wages,' Charanjeet says.