Gulf states look to harvest food from foreign investment

Gulf states look to harvest food from foreign investment
AFP
By Ali Khalil AFP - Sunday, July 20 08:28 am

DUBAI (AFP) - Faced with a scarcity of fertile land, water shortages and surging world food prices, wealthy Arab states in the Gulf are seeking to secure their food supplies by investing in agriculture abroad.
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Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the top food importers among Arab countries in the Gulf, are now looking to Asia and Africa as opportunities for agricultural investments.

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan said in Kazakhstan on Monday that his country, which imports around 85 percent of its food, is interested in the central Asian nation "to diversify its sources of food supplies."

Investing in agriculture abroad "is part of our strategic investment in general," UAE Economy Minister Sultan bin Said al-Mansuri said earlier this month.

Rapid growth fuelled by record oil revenues has triggered a huge influx of expatriates in the Gulf, steadily boosting populations and stretching the ability to meet demand for mostly imported foodstuffs.

The total population of the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE -- rose from around 30 million in 2000 to more than 35 million in 2006, according to GCC statistics.

This figure is expected to reach nearly 39 million by 2010 and 58 million by 2030, according to a Dubai-based Gulf Reseach Centre (GRC) report.

Although these nations have huge oil reserves they are among the world's poorest in natural water resources and arable land -- just two percent of the vast Saudi desert kingdom and one percent of the UAE.

GCC food imports cost 10 billion dollars in 2007, said the GRC study, although some press reports put the figure much higher. Saudi Arabia, with a population of about 24 million, remains the largest food importer.

Amid surging food prices and a fear of shortages caused by export bans from major crop-producing countries, GCC states now want food lifelines.

For Saudi Arabia investing in agriculture abroad marks a shift from its own costly crop self-sufficiency scheme.

"In the 1970s and 1980s Saudi Arabia developed its own agricultural sector for food security," said Monica Malik, economist at the Dubai-based EFG-Hermes investment bank.

"However the sector had to be highly subsidised by the government for it to be economically viable given the climatic conditions," she told AFP.

In a kingdom with scarce water reserves a tonne of barley requires roughly 1,212 cubic metres (42,801 cubic feet) of practically exhausted ground-water reserves, the GRC said.

Malik said the issue of food security has worsened globally given the sharp rise in food prices and demand.

"A number of GCC countries are looking at establishing agricultural ventures in nearby countries such as Sudan for this food security and as a cheaper alternative to domestic production," she said.

"Proximity is important, as is a good relationship with the other country to secure food supplies," Malik added. Close ties with partner countries could protect the GCC against export bans in times of crop shortages in exporting countries, she said.

One reported UAE project to develop more than 70,000 acres (28,328 hectares) of arable land in Sudan is in line with this strategy. Riyadh has also held talks with Khartoum on agricultural projects, the Financial Times reported last month.

Africa's largest country has abundant water resources including the Nile River, the world's longest.

But Sudanese agriculture remains massively underdeveloped, although it employs 80 percent of the workforce, with much of the population reliant on subsistence agriculture.

Egypt and Pakistan have also been targeted by Saudi Arabia and the UAE for food projects. Both Muslim countries have large expatriate communities in the Gulf that send home huge amounts of money annually.

"There are some projects we are negotiating with the UAE related to food security for the UAE," Egypt's foreign trade and industry minister, Rashid Mohammed Rashid, was quoted by the Emirati daily The National as saying this month.

In Pakistan, the UAE is considering buying more than 100,000 acres (40,470 hectares) of farmland worth 500 million dollars, press reports said. Private UAE firms such as the Dubai-based Abraaj Capital have also reportedly been buying agricultural land in Pakistan.

According to the reports, when Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited Saudi Arabia in June he offered hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land to the Saudis in return for oil.

But agricultural exporters including Egypt and Pakistan recently imposed export bans on certain crops after riots triggered by food shortages at home.

Host countries for agricultural investment may therefore be unable to allow exports because they have to feed their own people.

One issue reportedly delaying UAE investment in Pakistan is the Gulf state appearing to want "blanket exemption" from Islamabad's agricultural export policies, according to a Pakistani official cited by The National.

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Darling in U-turn on foreign profits tax

By Jean Eaglesham, Chief Political Correspondent

Published: July 20 2008 23:33 | Last updated: July 20 2008 23:33

Alistair Darling will this week bow to pressure from business by scrapping contentious reforms to the taxation of foreign profits that threatened to provoke an exodus of companies from the UK.

The concessions mark the latest in a string of climbdowns by the chancellor, who has been forced to rewrite large sections of his Budget and pre-Budget report, including proposals on income tax, capital gains tax and fuel duty.

The latest retreat follows a furore over proposals set out by the Treasury last year to crack down on tax avoidance, as a quid pro quo for exempting foreign profits from UK tax.

Proposals in the discussion document to impose a worldwide tax on “passive” income, such as royalties from intellectual property, provoked a backlash from leading UK multinationals.

Shire, the UK’s third-biggest pharmaceuticals company, and United Business Media, the publisher, this year decided to relocate their headquarters to Ireland for tax purposes.

The head of Shire told the Financial Times that his company had made significant savings from its spring relocation. Angus Russell, the chief executive and former finance director who masterminded its move to Dublin, said he had been approached by other companies for advice on relocating.

The Treasury will this week announce that these anti-avoidance proposals have been axed. Ministers are expected to recommit to the principle of exempting foreign profits from tax, subject to protecting the UK’s tax base from erosion.

However, the means of achieving that protection – the catalyst for the outcry – will be the subject of talks with business, rather than a Treasury diktat. Any proposals will not be agreed before the autumn, at the earliest.

The Treasury decision will be set out in a reply to a letter from the CBI employers’ organisation, being sent on Monday or Tuesday.

The Tories are likely to attack the move as a sign of government incompetence, but one official said the decision showed that the consultative process was ­working.

“Some people will see this as a climbdown, but it’s a sensible, positive reaction to the feedback we’ve got, which we think will be welcomed by business,” he added.

Ministers accept the multinationals’ argument that the proposed regime would have had a disproportionate effect on certain sectors, hitting companies with relatively high levels of global intangible assets.

“Business felt the changes [to the anti-avoidance] rules were not acceptable or workable and we’re talking with them to resolve those concerns,” a Whitehall official said.

“The proposals in the discussion document are all being rethought – we’re not taking them forward.”

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Stirrings in the suburbs

By Geoff Dyer

Published: July 20 2008 18:43 | Last updated: July 20 2008 18:43

Friendship mall in Xinzhuang, Shanghai

Lu Guanfeng moved his family to the Shanghai suburbs five years ago for the peace and quiet. He bought an apartment in a gated community called Green Garden New World, which features a gazebo on the private lawns.

Since the start of the year, however, his little patch of suburbia has been anything but quiet. Instead, the residents have been developing a new taste – for political activism. In January, they organised large protests against plans to build a high-speed magnetic levitation train line near their flats. Four months later, when an earthquake devastated part of Sichuan province, the area was again energised with private charity campaigns and volunteer work.

China Beyond the Games

Audio slideshow: Suburban rebellion
This is the first part of an FT series on China in the lead up to the Olympics in August. For other parts of the series click here

Mr Lu, an internet entrepreneur in his 40s, was involved in the anti-maglev protests and later went to Sichuan to help after the earthquake. “We are trying to get the government to listen more to public opinion,” he says.

Welcome to suburban China, the new fault line in the country’s one-party rule. Places such as Green Garden New World will play an important role in determining which political direction China takes over the next couple of decades. The Communist party shows no sign of retreating from its dominant position in politics but it faces challenges on a series of fronts from a society that is becoming more complex, educated and assertive.

The biggest potential threat to the party comes from the educated urban middle class. Although there are daily protests by poor farmers who claim their land has been stolen or poisoned by a nearby factory, rural protests tend to be isolated and local police are often not afraid to crack heads, far away from probing eyes. A restive middle class in the country’s international cities is a different matter. If company executives, lawyers and university professors start challenging the political status quo, the party’s hold will become much less secure.

China’s leaders are well aware that during the transition to democracy in South Korea and Taiwan – or indeed more than a century earlier in western Europe and the US – the urban middle class played a pivotal role. There is a vigorous debate in elite circles in Beijing about transparency in government, media freedom and legal due process: just how quickly the party embraces such changes will depend to a large degree on how much pressure it faces from the new suburbs.

“The government is starting to be challenged by new social groups, which are growing rapidly and want to be heard,” says Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a China expert at the University of California, Irvine. “Even people who support a lot of things the government is doing can change their view if they do not feel they are being listened to.”

The one thing China throws up quicker than factories is new suburbs. Mr Lu lives in an unusually prosperous one called Xinzhuang at the end of the first metro line in Shanghai. In the decade or so since the metro opened, the area has experienced rapid social and economic change. With the metro line came some of the first apartment buildings constructed for private ownership.

Professional families from the inner city who had just bought their first car were attracted to the gated communities. Rising incomes also brought many of the other trappings of middle-class life. At the new Friendship Shopping, the first high-end mall in a Chinese suburb, residents of Xinzhuang can choose a shirt at Brooks Brothers, purchase a Rolex watch or sip lattes at Costa Coffee.

Xinzhuang’s political awakening began in January when the local government released plans on an obscure website to extend the city’s maglev train line through part of the neighbourhood. Shanghai has the world’s only commercial maglev line. Planners want to bring the line, which runs from the international airport to a distant suburb at a speed of 430km/h, across the city to the domestic airport. The scheme caused outrage among residents near the planned route, who feared noise and potential pollution. Internet petitions were circulated and large posters appeared on the side of buildings with slogans such as “No to Maglev Cancer Rail”.

On a Saturday afternoon in January, thousands thronged Shanghai’s People’s Square in front of city hall to protest against the plans. Given that demonstrations are in effect barred, the residents described it as a sanbu or “walk” – they had all just happened to turn up in the square at the same time. Another group went for a spontaneous “shop” on the city’s main retail streets, shouting anti-maglev slogans.

This polite but firm suburban rebellion – which was one of the largest urban protests in recent years and was caught on camera by international media – had the intended impact. A few weeks later, the mayor of Shanghai announced that the project had been delayed by at least a year while more discussions were held with locals.

It was not the first time that residents of suburban Shanghai had opposed the maglev plans: the original route was changed after a series of protests in spring last year outside government buildings. But this time their protests were more audacious, using text messaging and YouTube to spread word about new events. The sanbu strategy appeared to have been copied from a similar protest last year in the southern city of Xiamen, which halted construction of a chemicals plant.

Both the Shanghai maglev and Xiamen protests have come to be considered milestones in Chinese politics – powerful examples of pressure from the suburban middle class for a more transparent and accountable system of government. “The Communist party has guaranteed that citizens have the right to express ideas through legal means,” says Mr Lu, sitting in a living room that displays his daughters’ pictures of Minnie Mouse as well as a statue of Confucius. “We are not opponents of the government but we are exposing some problems of government behaviour.”

Anti-maglev activist Lu GuanfengIf the maglev protests showed a nascent political assertiveness among the Xinzhuang middle class, then the massive Sichuan earthquake in May brought out a different form of political participation. Mistrustful of official charities, Mr Lu raised money on the internet to buy water filters, which he took to Sichuan. Joe Liang, who works for a private equity company, jumped on a flight two days after the earthquake to go to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. “I have a happy family and a good job with a decent salary,” he explains. “But I also had this feeling that I would like to do something for others in our society. So when a friend in Chengdu asked me to help out after the earthquake, I did not hesitate.”

Without medical training or other skills to offer the relief effort, he remained in the city doing administrative work. “It was actually really tedious, but when I got back lots of friends and colleagues were very interested and wanted me to put them in touch with contacts in Sichuan for volunteer work,” he says.

According to the government, more than 200,000 people travelled to Sichuan to lend a hand with the relief effort. At Friendship Shopping, there were long lines of people queuing to give blood for injured people in Sichuan.

The response to the earthquake has prompted a vigorous debate both at home and abroad about whether it has opened new room for civil society in China. In the days immediately afterwards, there appeared to be unusual openness for journalists and charities to operate. In the weeks since, however, the government has clamped down and imposed its control on activities.

Yet whatever the impact, the tens of thousands of people who dropped everything to lend a hand were demonstrating a desire to be more involved in the life of the country. Along with the maglev protests, they indicate a growing desire among middle-class citizens to be heard in new ways. “Chinese society is becoming more robust, diverse, interested and capable,” wrote George Gilboy, a senior fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a recent paper.

The notion that the Chinese middle class is becoming more politically active is a deeply seductive one for western observers. It plays into one of the most powerful ideas of the age: that capitalism will inevitably bring democracy. It underscores a lot of western diplomatic and commercial engagement with China – why harp on about human rights, some diplomats ask, if the country is moving in that direction anyway? It also implies that, in an important way, China is becoming like the west.

Yet there are plenty of reasons to be wary. Even among China-watchers who think a confident middle class will eventually push for a more liberal political system, many argue that it will be only a slow and gradual process.

One important reason for this is that the middle class is still relatively small. Around 800m Chinese live in rural areas, where most struggle to make ends meet through farming. In the cities, a large percentage of people now own their homes but this is a deceptive indicator of wealth because many bought property at cut-rate prices during government privatisations. Car ownership, another indicator of middle-class status, is growing rapidly but from a very low base: the proportion of Chinese who own a vehicle is still only around 3 per cent.

The small size of the middle class also begets a political conservatism. To live in the wealthy suburbs of a city such as Shanghai is to enjoy social privileges in terms of education and healthcare; many middle-class Chinese lean towards the political status quo because they suspect that a democracy would have to spread those resources more thinly across the country.

According to David Goodman, a China expert at the University of Technology in Sydney, China’s middle class has much stronger ties to the state than was the case in most of western Europe or in most Asian countries that have become democracies. As a result, it is less likely to challenge the party-state.

Chinese GDP per capitaThis is particularly true, he argues, of the new generation of private entrepreneurs. Many private companies began as offshoots of local government departments or state-owned enterprises. Even today, business people who wish to build national operations need to cultivate strong political connections around the country. In one recent list of China’s richest people, one-third were members of the Communist party.

“A lot of the new wealth has come out of the party-state through semi-privatisations or it has been absorbed by the party-state,” says Prof Goodman. “Given a free hand, some of these people might go off and form political parties, but they will not do so while the party-state is in place.”

The party has gone to great lengths to win the loyalty of professionals. At the time of the Tiananmen protests in 1989, many members of the educated middle class were outraged at their low salaries. In the intervening years, people such as university teachers have been given regular and in some cases large pay increases.

Among ambitious students, party membership is an attractive asset because of the connections it brings. One professor at a leading Beijing university says that although his very best students turn up their nose at the idea, many others are eager to join the party because they believe it will boost their job prospects.

Such favourable attitudes to the Chinese party-state were present in the other episode of political activism that stirred Xinzhuang this year – when this time the protesters were defending the good name of the government. In the aftermath of the March unrest in Tibet and chaos surrounding the Olympics torch relay in London and Paris, many were outraged at what they saw as attempts to humiliate China in its Olympics year.

After internet users began to call for a boycott of French goods, large demonstrations were held at several Carrefour supermarkets. At the Carrefour next to Friendship Shopping in Xinzhuang, teenagers milled outside with T-shirts saying “Tibet WAS, IS and ALWAYS will be part of China”. A middle class insecure about its own status identified closely with the overseas prestige of China.

Protesting against the government also brings huge risks. Several of the anti-maglev campaigners say they were threatened with arrest or other punishments if they caused too much trouble. A suspicious Mr Lu has a camera in the corner of his living room to record all meetings, either with journalists or officials. He cites a Chinese saying to explain the reluctance of people to become campaign leaders: “The shot hits the bird that pokes its head out first.”

For all the symbolism of the anti-maglev campaign, therefore, some observers believe middle-class China is prepared to challenge the authorities only when its immediate interests are threatened – and that recent events fall short of a challenge to the system.

“The outpouring of human compassion after the earthquake is real but the Chinese middle class needs fires in its own backyard to get politically agitated – witness the protests in Shanghai and Xiamen,” says Chen Jie, an academic at the University of Western Australia. “Overall, the Chinese middle class is not very mature.”

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Arab world doubts US approach will change

By Andrew England in Abu Dhabi

Published: July 20 2008 22:27 | Last updated: July 20 2008 22:27

As Barack Obama’s profile rose with each victory during the US Democratic primary race, many in the Arab world watched with a mixture of curiosity and a degree of anticipation.

Here was an African-American who had opposed the Iraq war, whose father was raised a Muslim and who represented a new, youthful and relatively unknown face to US politics. Many hoped that if his campaign were successful he might initiate a fresh stance for US policy in the Middle East and be more sympathetic towards the Arab cause. After two terms of George W. Bush’s presidency – deemed a disaster throughout much of the Arab world – the buzz among many in the region was that anybody would be better. And Mr Obama, perhaps more than other candidates, inspired thoughts of a genuine shift.

Yet as he makes his first trip to the Middle East as the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, he will find that just as questions have been mounting in the US about his credentials to be commander-in-chief, so too is he coming under greater scrutiny among Arabs, with queries about his ability to deal with the crises in their region.

“Basically mistrust,” says Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre, when asked of the Arab view towards Mr Obama.

Mr Alani’s concern is that the 46-year-old, first-term senator lacks experience and will be so intent to prove wrong critics who have questioned his background and tried to portray him as too pro-Muslim and soft on extremists, that it will push him to be too close to Israel.

One of the loudest complaints about US policy is the belief that Washington is strongly biased towards the Jewish state.

Yet expectations that Mr Obama might follow a different path were damped when he told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference in June that Jerusalem must remain the capital of Israel. The future status of the city is one of the critical elements of any Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

Mr Obama’s team did seek to clarify the comments, but his words were “a wake-up call for all Arabs who are cheering for Obama to think again”, said Abdullah Alsharyji, a politics professor at Kuwait University.

Mr Alsharyji describes the Arab perception of Mr Obama as a “mixed bag”, with the ordinary Arab citizen still clinging to the hope that he would be “more lenient, understanding and compassionate after all the battles Bush launched”.

One Arab official says his view is that decision makers in the region would be more inclined towards an Obama presidency because they feel John McCain, the Republican contender, would represent a continuation of Washington’s current policy.

Added to the mix is the belief that little will change in terms of US policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict whoever is in the White House, and the acknowledgment that Israel does a much better job making its case to Washington than the oft-divided Arab world.

“When [Bill] Clinton was running, the Arab world thought he would not be a good president for the Middle East but it turned out they were wrong . . . When President [George W.] Bush was running for president, they thought he would be the best thing for the Middle East, and they were wrong again,” the Arab official says. “Those who are experienced in this area and have been following the issue for some time would be rather reluctant on making bets.”

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New naval outfit taps Mideast market

By Sylvia Pfeifer, Defence Industries Correspondent

Published: July 21 2008 02:51 | Last updated: July 21 2008 02:51

Britain’s new naval shipbuilding champion is tapping into the prosperous Middle East market, teaming up with a company in the United Arab Emirates to provide support services.

BVT Surface Fleet, which was created last month from the combination of the shipbuilding operations of BAE Systems and VT Group, announced on Sunday that it would team up with Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) to provide naval support services in the Gulf region.

ADSB is a publicly listed company in the UAE, with a 40 per cent stake held by Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi government’s investment fund, and 10 per cent by the government.

On Sunday, Alan Johnston, chief executive of BVT, described the deal as “a significant strategic move” for the company.

BVT, which has a turnover of more than £1bn ($1.99bn) and more than 7,000 employees, was formed in June. Under a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Defence, the company has been granted an unprecedented guarantee to maintain jobs and technical capabilities for the next 15 years.

The agreement seeks cost savings of £700m over that period.

BVT is part of an industry alliance building two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy. The contract will provide work for BVT for the next five or six years but, after that, the workload is expected to decline.

BVT’s expertise in providing support and through-life capabilities to the Royal Navy at Portsmouth naval base was one of the things that attracted ADSB.

ADSB has been looking for an international partner for the past year.

The new company will be the first joint venture of its kind in the Gulf and will offer a range of naval support services to the fleets of navies, coast guards, marine police and other forces in the region.

It is expected to be in operation by the second quarter of next year.

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British economic 'horror movie' to continue: think-tank
AFP
AFP - Monday, July 21 12:16 am

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's economic "horror movie" will continue in the months to come, with growth slowing considerably, while unemployment will rise and inflation will remain above government targets, an influential economic forecasting group said Monday.
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The ITEM Club, which is backed by accounting giant Ernst and Young, predicts Britain's economy will grow by one percent in 2009, much slower than finance minister Alistair Darling's own forecasts of 2.25-2.75 percent, made when he delivered the annual budget in March.

Its report comes after Darling himself said in a newspaper interview published Saturday that the economic downturn here would be more "profound" than he expected, adding that the economic picture was "at the bottom end" of his range.

The forecasting group said that while the picture was not as bleak as the struggles that preceded a recession in the early 1990s, it was imperative that wages be kept in check so as not to let inflation, already at a 16-year high of 3.8 percent annually, get out of control.

"As with any horror movie, there is an escape route but it is not an easy one," the report read.

"It is imperative that wage increases remain restrained, despite the tremendous pressure from food and energy cost inflation... A general outbreak of wage inflation would spell disaster, requiring much higher interest rates and a recession in output to get inflation back under control."

According to the ITEM Club, house prices will drop on average by about 10 percent through this year, and a further six percent through 2009, and year-on-year inflation will remain above the government's two percent target for the coming 12 months.

Unemployment, meanwhile, will rise to two million by 2010, compared to 1.6 million at the end of last year.

"Both on the high street and in the housing market, it is going to get a great deal worse before it gets better," ITEM Club Chief Economist Peter Spencer said.

He added: "Consumers will inevitably cut back on non-essential spending in the face of the impact of rising food and energy prices on their discretionary incomes."

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厚労省、「下請けたたき」の賃金不払いを通報　公取委などに

　厚生労働省は労働基準監督署が賃金不払いなどの問題を把握した際に、いわゆる「下請けたたき」が原因である場合には公正取引委員会や経済産業省に通報する制度をつくる。中小企業の賃金を確保するためには下請け取引の適正化が必要だと判断した。厚労省は近く全国の労働局に通達を出し、運用を始める。

　現在の下請法は大企業が下請け企業に対して不当な買いたたきをしたり、発注の取り消しや代金支払日を遅らせたりすることを禁止している。厚労省はこうした不当な「下請けたたき」が中小企業の収益を圧迫し、従業員の賃金にも影響を及ぼしていると判断した。

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企業の海外収益5.5兆円、「新興国で稼ぐ」鮮明　07年度利回り9％

　日本企業が海外事業の収益力を高めている。海外現地法人からの配当や利子など対外直接投資であげた収益額は2007年度に初めて5兆円を突破。利回りにあたる収益率も9％強と5年で倍増し、債券などの対外証券投資利回りを大きく上回る。景気低迷の米国で伸び悩むが、自動車の増産や資源投資が膨らむアジアなどの新興国・資源国で収益率向上が目立つ。

　財務省・日銀の国際収支統計によると、07年度の対外直接投資収益の受取額は前年度比32.9％増の5兆5525億円と大幅に伸びた。5年前の02年度と比べると、3倍強に膨らんだ。財務省の法人企業統計でみた07年度の全産業の経常利益（四半期ベースの合算）、約57兆円の1割近い。直接投資収益は海外現法からの配当・利子と現法の内部留保額を合わせた額で、海外事業の投資リターンを示す。

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対日投資のヘッジファンド、運用資産減少続く

　株式を中心に日本の資産に投資するヘッジファンドの運用資産減少が続いている。6月末の運用資産残高は約220億ドル（約2兆3000億円）と2007年末から約1割減少。半期ベースでは3年半ぶりの低水準となった。株安による運用成績悪化と顧客の解約が重なっている。

　調査会社のユーリカヘッジ（シンガポール）が日本の資産だけを組み込んだ約270本のヘッジファンドを対象に集計した。集計対象の約9割が株式で運用し、多くは割安な株を買って割高な株を売る「ロング・ショート」という運用戦略をとる。

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日本、守勢の中で攻め探る　21日からＷＴＯ閣僚会合

　【ジュネーブ＝馬場燃】世界貿易機関（ＷＴＯ）は21日から、ジュネーブで日米欧や途上国を集めた閣僚会合を開く。鉱工業、農業分野での貿易自由化ルールの年内合意を左右する重要な議論の場となる。焦点の関税削減幅を巡り、日本はコメなど農産品の輸入増圧力を受けて守勢に立つ。鉱工業品では自動車や家電の輸出増もにらみ、難しい交渉を迫られる。

　ＷＴＯ閣僚会合は年内の最終決着をめざす多角的通商交渉（ドーハ・ラウンド）の大筋合意を探る正念場。40カ国近い主要国の閣僚が政治決着に向けて交渉を進める。日程は1週間が目安だが延長の可能性もある。

　会合に先立ち、若林正俊農林水産相と甘利明経済産業相は20日、米国のシュワブ通商代表部（ＵＳＴＲ）代表と会談。農相は会談後、記者団に対して「主要論点を率直に意見交換した」と語ったものの、協議内容への言及を避けた。経産相も「年内妥結に向けギリギリの政治決断を迫られている」と一般論を述べるにとどめた。

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中小型有機ＥＬ、東芝・松下連合が量産　韓国勢を追撃

　東芝と松下電器産業は共同で、携帯電話などに使う高画質な中小型有機ＥＬ（エレクトロ・ルミネッセンス）パネルの本格的な量産に踏み切る。2009年秋に石川県に新たな生産ラインを作り、月間100万枚（2.5型換算）生産する。同規模で量産するのは国内で初。すでに量産体制に入っている韓国のサムスンＳＤＩなどを追う。東芝・松下は中小型でコスト低減や品質安定化の技術を磨き、テレビ用の大型パネルの量産につなげる。

　東芝が6割、松下が4割を出資するパネルメーカー、東芝松下ディスプレイテクノロジー（ＴＭＤ、東京・港）の石川工場（石川県川北町）に、150億円を投じて量産ラインを作る。当初は２―３型前後の小型画面の製品を生産する。

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ＮＴＴ東、設備用地をオフィスに　遊休不動産を活用

　ＮＴＴ東日本は遊休不動産の活用を拡大する。ＩＰ（インターネットプロトコル）通信への移行で巨大な交換機を置く局舎用地が不要になったためだ。設備更新のために確保していた用地にオフィスビルを建て、グループ企業を入居させる。外部に支払っていた賃貸料の圧縮などにより、今後5年間で累計200億円の支出を削減する。固定電話の加入者減で厳しい経営環境が続くなか、資産の有効活用で財務基盤を安定させる。

　対象は東京都内や埼玉県、神奈川県で電話交換機を収容している施設。従来、電話交換機は20―30年ごとに大規模な更新があり、通信を途切らせずに更新工事を実施するために、隣接の土地や空室を確保していた。

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山九、サウジに進出　石化プラント保守で

　物流・機械工事大手の山九はサウジアラビアで石油化学プラントの保守事業を開始する。住友化学などが建設中の大型プラントの一部保守業務を受注した。サウジでは大型プラントの稼働計画が相次いでいるため、保守事業を目的とする現地法人を設立した。東南アジアで実績を持つ自社の技術者をサウジに送り込み、急増する保守需要を取り込む。

　サウジの首都リヤドに、プラント保守の事業会社を設立した。インドネシアやフィリピンから技術者など約60人を送り込み、10月末から活動を始める。まず住化とサウジ国営石油会社サウジアラムコが近く完工させる合弁石化プラント向けの業務を手掛ける。売上高は2009年に10億円を見込み、11年には 30億円に引き上げる。

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外国人受け入れ、単純労働含め全業種で　自民ＰＴ方針

　自民党の国家戦略本部の外国人労働者問題プロジェクトチーム（ＰＴ、長勢甚遠座長）は20日、原則としてすべての業種で外国人労働者を受け入れる「外国人労働者短期就労制度」の創設を提言する方針を固めた。将来の労働力不足に対応する目的で、専門分野に限られている現行制度を廃止し、単純労働の就労も認める。ただ外国人の滞在期間は最長3年間として、定住は認めない。今月下旬までに決定し、政府に申し入れる。

　新制度では、政府が認定する受け入れ団体が国内の企業に労働者をあっせんする仕組み。団体の認定には賃金の支払いや福利厚生について政府が設定する条件を満たす必要がある。港湾運送などの職種を除き、受け入れ団体と企業が自由に交渉できるようにする。企業の受け入れ枠は現制度と同様、常用労働者の20分の1以内とする。

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対ＡＳＥＡＮ、存在感維持に腐心　一連の会合に外相が出席

　高村正彦外相は21日からシンガポールを訪問し、東南アジア諸国連合（ＡＳＥＡＮ）を中心とした一連の閣僚会合に出席する。外相はインフラ整備や感染症対策などの支援を通じてＡＳＥＡＮとの連携を強めたい考えだ。だが政府開発援助（ＯＤＡ）予算の削減が続く中で、影響力を増す中国の勢いに対抗できるかは未知数だ。

　一連の会議で、日本はこれまで表明してきた支援策の着実な実施を約束する見通し。新型インフルエンザ対策支援では、日本の資金で50万人分の抗ウイルス剤「タミフル」を追加購入しＡＳＥＡＮ各国に配布する。インフラ面では2000万ドルを投じ、メコン川流域の道路網整備などを支援する。

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大分教員採用汚職：富松審議監、執拗に水増し指示

　大分県の小学校教員採用汚職事件で、県教委の富松哲博・教育審議監（６０）が、０８年度の試験で最下位グループにいた受験者４人を合格させるよう、採点の集計担当だった元県教委参事、江藤勝由容疑者（５２）＝収賄容疑で再逮捕＝に執拗（しつよう）に指示していたことが分かった。江藤容疑者はうち２人を、１００点以上水増しして合格させていた。県警は富松審議監が教員の不正採用にも深くかかわっていたなどとみて、２０日までに任意で事情聴取した。

　富松審議監は、部下の元県教委義務教育課参事、矢野哲郎容疑者（５２）が大分県佐伯市の離島の校長から抜てきされた際、矢野容疑者から２０万円分の商品券を受け取った収賄容疑が浮上している。県警は４人を合格させようとした経緯についても詳しく聴いたとみられる。

　これまでの調べでは、富松審議監は０８年度の試験で、江藤容疑者に対し、約２０人を合格させるよう指示。うち５人は合格圏にいたが、残る約１５人は不合格ゾーンにおり、富松審議監が合格させるよう強く求めた４人は最下位グループだった。

　江藤容疑者は、点数の改ざんを繰り返す“合否調整役”をしていたが、本来合格すべき受験者が不合格となるケースをあまり増やしたくないと考えていた。このため「試験の順位が２５０番以下の受験生は不正合格させない」という“独自ルール”を作っており、４人について「試験の成績が悪すぎるので、合格させるのはどうか」と富松審議監に進言したという。

　しかし、富松審議監は「何とかならないか」などと語り、不合格にすることを認めなかった。江藤容疑者との折衝で、最終的に１次と２次で１０００点満点の試験で計１００点以上水増しして２人を合格させ、残る２人は不合格にした。この合否調整のために、ボーダーライン上にいた受験生２人が不合格になったという。

　０８年度の小学校教員試験は４７２人が受験し、１次合格者は１１７人だった。２次で、元小学校長の浅利幾美被告（５２）＝贈賄罪で起訴、懲戒免職＝の長男、長女を含む４１人が合格し、採用された。倍率は１１．５倍だった。不正合格したとみられる２人は長男、長女とは別人という。

　県警は１７日、前任審議監だった二宮政人容疑者（６１）の０７年度試験を巡る収賄容疑の関連先として、富松審議監の自宅を家宅捜索している。

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海洋研究開発機構：海底下の泥に大量微生物…英誌に発表

　酸素や栄養分に乏しい海底下３５０メートル前後までの泥（堆積＝たいせき＝物）の中に、大量の微生物が生息していることを、海洋研究開発機構などが突き止めた。地球全体でみると、地上の全植物の６分の１に相当する量と推計される。陸上や海中に匹敵する「第３の生命圏」を明らかにし、生命の進化や環境適応の解明につながる成果で、２０日付の英科学誌ネイチャー（電子版）に発表した。

　海底下については、約１０００メートルの深さまでの堆積物から、１立方センチ当たり１０万～１０億個の生物細胞が、遺伝子の形で見つかっていた。しかし、生きているのか死んでいるのかは分からなかった。

　海洋機構高知コア研究所の諸野祐樹研究員（微生物生態学）らは独ブレーメン大と共同で、世界１６カ所から採掘された海底堆積物を分析。生きた細胞の指標となる細胞膜の脂質を抽出し、１０センチ～３６５メートルの深さまでに、アーキアと呼ばれる微生物が大量に生息していることを発見した。海底下のアーキアの総量は地球全体では、炭素換算で９００億トンに上ると推定され、地上の全土壌中に住む微生物の３倍以上に相当するという。

　アーキアは通常の細菌（バクテリア）より細胞膜が硬く、物質を透過しにくい特徴がある。諸野さんは「厳しい環境に適応し、独自に進化したのではないか」と話している。

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Russia opens network of automatic weather stations in Antarctica.

21.07.2008, 02.33

ST. PETERSBURG, July 21 (Itar-Tass) -- Representatives of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the Federal Hydro-Meteorological Service have opened a network of stations, which monitor weather and transmit data to St. Petersburg round-the-clock.

“This is a commitment taken by Russia in the International Polar Year of 2007/2008,” deputy head of the Russian Antarctic expedition Vyacheslav Martyanov told Itar-Tass.

“We installed automatic weather and geophysical stations in Antarctic areas difficult of access, where the former Soviet Union had Molodyozhnaya, Russkaya and Leningradskaya stations in 1984-1989,” he said.

That was a Russian-Finnish project, and the stations were manufactured in Finland, Martyanov said. The stations are measuring wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity. The information is transmitted daily by satellite to the institute, he said.

“The first station of the kind was installed near Molodyozhnaya, on a rock of 74 meters above the sea level,” Maryanov said. The Academician Fydorov vessel supplied similar stations to Russkaya and Leningradskaya in the Pacific areas of Antarctica. The stations are powered with a nickel-cadmium storage battery, which recharges from solar batteries.

“The stations are operational even when air temperatures drop under minus 45 degrees, Centigrade,” the researcher said.

In his words, the network will further develop.

There are about 45 round-the-year research stations in Antarctica. Russia has five active stations and one field base: Mirny, Vostok, Novolazarevskaya, Progress, Bellingshauzen and Druzhnaya 4. Three stations – Molodyozhnaya, Russkaya and Leningradskaya – are mothballed. All other former Soviet stations have been closed down permanently, he said.

Russia resumed comprehensive research in the Pacific sector of Antarctica after a 16-year pause. The crew of the research vessel installed automatic meteorological and geophysical equipment at the previously mothballed stations Leningradskaya and Russkaya. The institute’ s forecast center is regularly receiving reports from the Antarctic Pacific coast.

The Molodyozhnaya coastal seasonal base, which is located between the all-year bases Novolazarevskaya and Progress, has been mothballed again until the arrival of the 54th Russian Arctic Expedition.

The Molodyozhnaya coastal station opened in 1963 as a regional hydro-meteorological center of the former Soviet Union in Antarctica,” the press secretary said. It housed a large radio center, which was the main sender and receiver of radio information for Soviet explorers in Antarctica. Besides, the station had an atmospheric monitoring center and a set of research facilities. It became a seasonal base in the late 1990s.

The Novolazarevskaya station has mothballed the runway, which services heavy cargo plane making transcontinental flights between Africa and Antarctica.

The Russkaya station, which closed down in the end of the 20th century for the lack of funds, received automatic weather and geophysical gadgets this winter.

“The station is located at 74.46 South Latitude, 136.50 West Longitude on the coast of the Mary Byrd Land in Western Antarctica. The name of this station reminds us of the Russian people, who discovered the icy continent, and the huge contribution made by Russian explorers to Antarctic studies,” Lukin said.

The 3,000-kilometer area of the Antarctic coast from the Ross Sea to western areas was a blank spot for long, Lukin said. “The Russkaya station that opened in 1980 somewhat filled in that gap,” he said. Now monitoring equipment will be installed at the station again.

The station’s runway will be repaired and a reserve of aviation fuel will be made for possible flights to other Russian stations in Antarctica, he said.

Another mothballed station is Leningradskaya. It is located on the Oates Land in Eastern Antarctica, adjacent to the Somov Sea. That sea is covered with drifting ice all the year round. Leningradskaya was opened in 1971 in the Antarctic sea climate characterized with swift changes of weather, which made it valuable from the scientific point of view.

“The Progress station is being modernized as an outpost of Russian polar explorers on the sixth continent,” institute press secretary Sergei Balyasnikov said. “The new vehicles will be supplying diesel fuel and equipment to the Vostok station from the Mirny coastal laboratory.”

“The Vostok station is the only one of the five permanently opened Antarctic stations of Russia, which is located away from the sea, on an ice plateau of 3,488 kilometers above the sea level,” Balyasnikov said. A sub-glacial lake, Vostok, is located near the station.

Director of the Geography Institute Academician Vladimir Kotlyakov said earlier in the month they were preparing to pierce through the four-kilometer ice to the sub-glacial Lake Vostok. It is planned to take samples of lake water during the 54th Russian Antarctic expedition in 2009, he said.

“We will have to drill about 80 meters to the lake surface,” he said. “The well has been mothballed at the depth of 3,668 meters. The borer stuck in mono-crystal ice and the cable ruptured. The new gadgets will be delivered onboard the Academician Fyodorov research vessel this fall,” the academician said.

Soviet researchers found Vostok in the 20th century. It is the largest of more than 140 sub-glacial lakes found under the surface of Earth's southern-most continent - Antarctica. It is located at 77° S 105° E, beneath Russia's Vostok Station, 4,000 meters under the surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet. It is 250 kilometers long by 50 kilometers wide at its widest point, thus similar in size to Lake Ontario, and is divided into two deep basins by a ridge. The water over the ridge is about 200 meters deep, compared to roughly 400 meters deep in the northern basin and 800 meters deep in the southern. Vostok is larger than the Onega Lake and has the shape similar to Baikal. It stretches out for 280 kilometers, has the width from 50 kilometers and the depth of one kilometer.

Lake Vostok covers an area of 15,690 square kilometers. It has an estimated volume of 5,400 cubic kilometers and consists of fresh water. The average depth is 344 meters. In May 2005 an island was found in the center of the lake.

“The fresh water pond is 450,000 years old,” Antarctic expedition head and Deputy Director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the Federal Hydro-Meteorological Service Valery Lukin said. “The world scientific community regards the lake as a major geographic discovery of the previous century.”

Vostok is larger than the Onega Lake and has the shape similar to Baikal. It stretches out for 280 kilometers, has the width from 50 kilometers and the depth of one kilometer. Russian scientists discovered the lake in the 1990s.

“In my opinion, the lake was covered with ice 500,000 or 1,000,000 years ago,” geographer and glaciologist from the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Kotlyakov told Itar-Tass. The lake water is moving and has oxygen and other conditions necessary for living forms. “As soon as we drill through the ice, we will find bacteria dating back to 500 million years,” he said. “Naturally, researchers do not know what kind of bacteria that could be. We must be very careful: this is very interesting and very dangerous.”

Researchers have found anabiotic thermophilic bacteria (thermophilic DNA) in an ice sample retrieved from the depth of nearly four kilometers in the freshwater lake, a institute source told Itar-Tass earlier.

This species of microorganisms form exclusively in temperatures exceeding 55 degrees, Centigrade, polar biologists said. Meanwhile, air temperatures above the sub-glacial Vostok Lake may drop as low as minus 88.8 degrees.

“Warm streams from the earth entrails might have penetrated through cracks and formed the largest freshwater pond under the ice shield of Antarctica,” the source said. This theory will be either confirmed or dispelled by the upcoming taking of water samples from Vostok in the 2008/2009 expedition season as part of the International Polar Year.

“The water of the relic pond is twice cleaner than the double-distilled water,” the source said. Researchers have developed a unique method of penetration into the pond for keeping it clean.

NASA has taken a big interest in the experiment. American researchers think that results of the bacteriological tests of the Vostok water will give invaluable information about life forms in the solar system. They think that life may be found in sub-glacial oceans of the Europe moon of Jupiter.

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Russia's ILO unemployment down 2.1% on month in June

MOSCOW, Jul 21 (Prime-Tass) -- Unemployment in Russia fell 2.1% on the month to 4.7 million people by the end of June, as calculated under International Labor Organization (ILO) standards, the Federal State Statistics Service said in a report obtained by Prime-Tass Monday.

The number of officially registered unemployed decreased 4.7% on the month and was at 1.3 million people as of June 30.

The total number of unemployed persons increased 7% on the year as of the end of June, while the number of officially registered unemployed persons fell 10.7% on the year.

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Gold factory launched in Russia's Far East

18:34 | 19/ 07/ 2008

VLADIVOSTOK, July 19 (RIA Novosti) - A gold factory with a design capacity of around 10 metric tons of gold was launched in the Russian Far East on Saturday, a local natural resources ministry official said.

The large facility located in northern areas of the Amur Region is a subsidiary of British-Russian Petropavlovsk Group, a holding company established by two London-listed companies, Aricom and Peter Hambro Mining, in late June 2008.

The factory will use up-to-date technology for processing annually about six million metric tons of gold ore at the Pioner field.

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BP blocks $1.8bln dividend payment to Russian partners - paper
12:40 | 20/ 07/ 2008

LONDON, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - BP has blocked the payment of $1.8 billion in dividends due from its Russian joint venture in a bitter dispute with its billionaire partners, the U.K.'s Sunday Telegraph reported on Sunday.

The ongoing row between the Russian AAR consortium of shareholders in TNK-BP and the British oil major, each owning 50% in Russia's third largest oil producer, has been over company strategy, with the Russian investors also demanding cuts in the number of foreign staff working in Russia.

The Russians have also demanded the dismissal of TNK-BP's chief executive, Robert Dudley, saying he has acted only in the interests of BP.

According to the paper, the decision was taken at a secret board meeting of TNK-BP, which was held in Cyprus ten days ago.

The move is intended to put pressure on BP's four Russian billionaire partners and secure a new visa for Dudley who may face expulsion from Russia by the end of the month, The Sunday Telegraph said.

On Friday, Russia's migration authorities extended Dudley's visa only until July 29. The Federal Migration Service of Russia demanded on Wednesday a copy of Dudley's new contract with TNK-BP before issuing him a new visa. The migration authorities said his labor contract had expired, and that a new visa could not be issued without a valid contract.