U.S. Trade Priorities in Sync with USGC Strategic Plan

Strategic thinking will be a major theme at the U.S. Grains Council’s upcoming meeting (Feb. 13-15) in Panama, a hub for international trade and commerce. As a featured speaker at the Council’s general session, Christian Foster, deputy administrator for the Office of Trade Programs at USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), will offer new insight with his presentation on “Strategic Priorities for U.S. Trade Leadership.”“Christian Foster’s comments will provide an important additional dimension for our discussions, especially as Council members begin the process of applying our updated strategic plan to the challenges facing U.S. exports,” said Tom Sleight, USGC vice president of operations and membership. Foster will draw on an exceptionally rich background in trade, having served early in his career as Bell Atlantic Corporation’s director of business development in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He served later as an economist for the Defense Intelligence Agency before transferring to USDA’s Economic Research Service.
In 1999, he became chief of the FAS Trade and Investment Program Branch. From 2002 until he assumed his present position, Foster was assistant deputy administrator for the Office of Capacity Building, where he focused on helping fragile and transitional economies transform into viable two-way trading markets for food and agricultural products.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for UK

London Glazier Hall: On a autumn day, behind the shadow of London Bridge, the most important Italian entrepreneurs and  bankers together with illustrious international economists sat down to assist at the thirty-second annual conference of The Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the UK. The subject under discussion was about the path to recovery through structural changes and investments in infrastructure.  After the greeting of the Italian ambassador Alain Giorgio Maria Economides, the president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the UK Leonardo Simonelli Santi opened the work session underlining that “recovery” became the magic word in the economic debate. Last year the conference was focusing on the global problem especially about the great discrepancy between the industrial countries and the emerging countries. This year the situation requires to  fix attention on the effective measures necessary to promote the growth of the economy.
In a picture of Italian industry could not miss a report of manufacturing sector. An interesting projections of the situation was explained by Lee Hopley, Chief Economist of the EEF. The analysis registered a fall of the production all around Europe between 2008 and 2010 due to  the crisis and the risk to recovery remains in some strategic decisions about public spending cuts, volatile exchange rates,  difficult credit conditions, skill shortages and supply chain condition. During the second session the main subject under discussion was infrastructure and regulation after Basilee Agreement. The session was opened by the speech of Vincent Boland, Lex Writer of the Financial Times, advising the responsibility of the country in a better understanding of affordable plans for recovery.
The strategic function played by the banks for the recovery of the economy  was underlined by Sir Win Bischoff Chairman of the Lloyds Banking Group. The reasons of stagnation are recognised in a low productivity, a low supply, in a problematic working age population and in a unclear credit problem. The state of works of the energy sector was explained by Simone Urbani Grecchi, the Chief Manager of BIIS (. The suggestions indicated for the path of recovering involve a reliable long term regulatory framework for the investors, the right combination of private and public funds in both PPP and PFI schemes and addressing the “real” economy needs and expectation.
The stimulating meeting was closed by the analysis of Paolo Romiti, Director of Impregilo SpA. “We need to do something useful for the people”. In this sense the reference point remains in the infrastructure because many countries need energy and environment development and alternative energies. Adequate infrastructure mean a very important social measure that eliminate the disomogeneity in the growth of the different countries. (Cinzia Cerbino italo europeo, abstract) (images)

Report finanziario di Delticom

Delticom AG (German Securities Code (WKN) 514680, ISIN DE0005146807, stock exchange ticker DEX), leader europeo nell’e-commerce di pneumatici, ha pubblicato il rapporto relativo al primo semestre 2009.  Il CEO di Delticom, Rainer Binder, è molto soddisfatto dell’andamento economico dell’azienda: “Nonostante una congiuntura economica difficile, Delticom registra una forte crescita nelle entrate e nei profitti”. La società ha riportato entrate per 139,2 milioni di Euro nella prima metà del 2009, il 14,5% in più rispetto allo stesso periodo 2008 (primo semestre: 121,5 milioni). Le entrate derivanti dalle attività di e-commerce si sono attestate a 130,8 milioni di Euro con una crescita del 15,8% (2008: 112,9 milioni). Le entrate della divisione wholesale sono invece leggermente scese da 8,6 milioni a 8,4 milioni di Euro.Nel periodo preso in considerazione, il risultato operativo (EBIT) è cresciuto dell’82,9% portandosi a 10,2 milioni di Euro (primo semestre 2008: 5,6 milioni), con un margine EBIT del 7,3% (2008: 4,6%). Il profitto netto consolidato è stato di 7,0 milioni di Euro, ovvero 0,59 Euro per azione. Il profitto per azione è quindi cresciuto del 70,9% rispetto agli 0,35 Euro della prima metà del 2008. La crescita nel settore e-commerce è fortemente connessa al significativo incremento nella base clienti, passata da 2,3 a più di 3 milioni di clienti negli ultimi dodici mesi. Dall’inizio del 2009 Delticom ha acquisito 377mila nuovi clienti, mentre sono stati 173mila gli utenti che hanno ripetuto i propri acquisti attraverso uno degli oltre 100 negozi online in 35 Paesi (in Italia il portale principale è http://www.gommadiretto.it).  Sempre più automobilisti e motociclisti sono attratti dai vantaggi dell’acquisto online. L’importanza dell’e-commerce come canale di vendita per gli pneumatici sta quindi crescendo rapidamente. Frank Schuhardt, CFO di Delticom, è comunque prudente: “I consumatori europei subiranno gli effetti della crisi soprattutto nel corso dei prossimi mesi e naturalmente ne sarà colpito anche il mercato degli pneumatici. Non abbiamo quindi la sicurezza che Delticom riesca a mantenere gli stessi margini di profitto anche nella seconda metà dell’anno”. Nonostante questo, il Management Board prevede una crescita annua nell’EBIT del 10% e del margine EBIT del 7%. Philip von Grolman, responsabile della logistica e membro del Management Board, aggiunge: “Lo sviluppo della nostra capacità di stoccaggio e immagazzinamento avviata nella prima metà dell’anno ci danno ulteriori margini di crescita nel medio e nel lungo termine”.  http://www.delti.com

TREE Project from the Renewables Academy

Berlin The TREE Project  (Transfer Renewable Energy & Efficiency) of the Renewables Academy has won acclaim by being recognized as an official Decade Project by the jury of the National Committee of the “UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development”. The jury commended the project’s innovative approach combined with its international reach. As a provider of international education for renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate protection, through the TREE project the Berlin-based RENAC has initiated  sustainable knowledge transfer out of Germany to a total of 14 countries across 3 continents. In the project, funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, engineers and decision makers from politics, economics and commerce are being educated on various renewable energy technologies together with the economic, financial, market development and policy-framework issues. To achieve this, between December 2008 and February 2009 over 500 participants from energy ministries, research institutions, companies and NGOs from South America, Africa and Asia were guested by RENAC. In September an on-line teaching platform will be launched and additional in-depth courses will be offered. This transfer of knowledge is already starting to bear fruit. Thus, for example, following his participation in the TREE course, an engineer from an Indian solar-energy company has held several workshops on photovoltaics himself at an engineering institute in his home town of Chennai. A professor at the ‘Universidad de Concepción’ in Chile is currently organizing the installation of several PV modules and solar-thermal collectors on the roof of his university. In the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, exemplary projects for innovative and effective implementation of sustainable education are being commended. The award is conferred by a jury consisting of 12 members of the National Committee, which is convened by the German UNESCO Commission. The UN Decade, instigated in 2002 by the United Nations (UN), has the aim of anchoring the principles of sustainable development in national education systems worldwide. http://www.renac.de, http://www.tree-project.de

La vie du monde a venir

La Vie du Monde à Venir est une œuvre majeure du grand kabbaliste du XIIIe siècle Abraham Aboulafia. Ce traité de Kabbale comporte des explications sur les 72 Noms obtenus à partir de combinaisons des lettres de trois versets de l’Exode. Il est illustré de roues combinatoires, avec des instructions précises pour la méditation mystique. Abraham Aboulafia le rédigea en 1280, époque à laquelle Abraham Aboulafia résidait aux environs de Rome, il est, toutefois, fort probable qu’il en ait commencé la rédaction en Grèce, à Patras. Nous connaissons, une quarantaine de copies manuscrites de ce traité, dont les différences résident principalement dans les schémas de roues de lettres. Dans ce livre Abraham Aboulafia dévoile la base de sa technique de méditation, basée sur le son, le souffle et le mouvement. Elle consiste à combiner les Noms divins dans des roues de lettres, d’abord intellectuellement pour les construire, puis en contemplation accompagnée de vocalisations et de mouvements de la tête. Abraham Aboulafia ouvre les portes pour une relation intime avec les lettres sacrées de l’hébreu. (aboulafia a. € 19,00) (fonte Libreria Ibis Via Castiglione 31 Bologna)

Nominations sent to the senate

The White House. Peter H. Appel, of Virginia, to be Administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Department of Transportation, vice Paul R. Brubaker, resigned.  Helen R. Kanovsky, of Maryland, to be General Counsel of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, vice Robert M. Couch.  Cameron F. Kerry, of Massachusetts, to be General Counsel of the Department of Commerce, vice Lily Fu Claffee, resigned. Robert S. Rivkin, of Illinois, to be General Counsel of the Department of Transportation, vice David James Gribbin, IV, resigned.  William K. Sessions III, of Vermont, to be Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission, vice Ricardo H. Hinojosa.  John D. Trasviña, of California, to be an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, vice Kim Kendrick, resigned.