The Leaders of the G20 recently had their fifth meeting since the start of the world recession in 2008. Many commentators view the outcome as neither surprising nor particularly disappointing. The Leaders build on their original commitments to support and stabilise the global economy and to lay the foundation for reform. They adopted an Action Plan which focuses on five policy areas namely: monetary and exchange rate polices, trade and development policies, fiscal policies, financial reforms, and structural reforms. However, given the complex world that we live in, these countries will have to rely on a number of international organisations such as the WTO, World Bank and IMF to pursue these reforms.
In the area of monetary and exchange rate policies, they agreed to follow “more market-determined exchange rate systems” to reflect underlying economic fundamentals. This came in response to China’s unwillingness to allow the Yuan to appreciate and America’s push for more liquidity into its banking system. However, in reference to concerns of emerging markets with overvalued flexible exchange rates such as South Africa, countries may respond with “carefully designed macro-prudential measures”. This could be interpreted as giving these countries the go-ahead to take the necessary steps to deal with the vast capital inflows into their economies, which have driven the currency gains.
On the issue of trade and development they reaffirmed their previous commitment to refrain from protectionist trade actions and to conclude the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. They also agreed to formulate medium-term fiscal consolidation plans for advanced economies in line with the Toronto commitment. This commitment must ultimately bring about the stabilisation or reduction of government debt to GDP ratios by 2016 and to at least halve deficits by 2013.
The Leaders agreed to raise international financial regulation standards and to ensure that national authorities fully implement current global standards. They endorsed the policy framework by the Financial Stability Board to address problems related to systemically important financial institutions and banks that are purported to be too-big-to-fail. This latest undertaking comes in response to the financial crisis that was caused by reckless and irresponsible risk taking by banks and other financial institutions, combined with major regulatory and supervisory failures.
These decisions came amid a related debate on the reform of international financial institutions. These organisations, originally responsible for the regulation of the international economy after the Second World War, were created for a different time and purpose. Urgent reforms were necessitated by the realities of a multi-polar global economy where developing countries are now key global players. In response to better reflect these realities, the voting powers of developing and transition countries at the World Bank were increased earlier this year. The 3.13 percentage point increase in the voting power of these countries brought their share to 47.19 percent.
Similarly, the IMF’s Executive Board also announced governance reforms earlier this month. This will bring about a 6 percent shift in the voting power of developing countries. Accordingly, the top ten shareholders of the Fund; the United States, Japan, the four largest European economies (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom), and the BRICs (Brazil, China, India and the Russian Federation) will better reflect their ranking in the global economy.
One thing is clear; the balance of power is shifting from developed to emerging economies.
By: JB Cronje - Tralac South Africa
http://www.tralac.org/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&cause_id=1694&news_id=95688&cat_id=1059
US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
South Africa - A Very Sick Society - Vavi
Keynote address to the Civil Society Conference by Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of COSATU, 27 October 2010, Boksburg, South Africa
How can we build on the World Cup success and mobilise our society to build a more egalitarian nation
Comrade COSATU President, Sidumo Dlamini
Comrade TAC Chairperson, Nonkosi Khumalo
Representatives of COSATU, NACTU, FEDUSA and CONSAWU
Representatives of civil society formations
Comrades and friends
Inspired by the African proverb that says ‘If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together', we gather here - as the progressive trade unions, social movements, NGOs, progressive academics, small business and street vendor associations, taxi associations, religious bodies, youth organisations, environmental groups, indigenous peoples' groups and other progressive formations - to say to ourselves that we have the capacity to make a decisive contribution in changing our current situation for the better.
Internationally, globalisation and neoliberal have launched assaults on the working class, which include, but are not limited to: informalisation, flexibilisation, regionalisation of states, deregulation, marketisation, financialisation, and securitisation. The global governance, commercial and trade system is supported by political and ideological institutions, rules and enforcement mechanisms that only broad civil society coalitions have historically been able to challenge successfully.
In South Africa, the GEAR strategy epitomised the dominance of the neoliberal ideology within the leading sections of the government. The neoliberal logic still continues to be dominant, in spite of some talk about a developmental state. Increasingly though it has taken a more crude political expression and there are some emerging elements that tend to perceive the working class and active elements of civil society as merely being a nuisance that must be crushed with the might of the state apparatus.
Today, as we gather here, there is panic in the ranks of the predatory elite, which is a new coalition of the tenderpreneurs. Paranoia elsewhere is deepening with the political elite, convincing itself that any gathering of independent civil society formations to confront our challenges is a threat to them.
Let us right from onset state that we are not an anti-ANC and anti-government coalition. We are not here to begin a process to form any political party, nor to advance the interest of any individual. We have only one enemy - neoliberalism, that has condemned our people to poverty and unemployment. We want to roll back neoliberal advances and struggle for the adoption and implementation of alternatives. Our struggles have to be both defensive and offensive.
We are friends to all genuinely anti-neoliberal and pro-poor and working class political parties that have an undisputable record of struggle to advance our interests as the marginalised societies.
We gather here to say another South Africa is possible! Another world is possible!
On 11 July, just four months ago, all South Africans were basking in the reflected glory of our successful hosting of the best-ever FIFA world Cup. The whole world saw our country at its best - united, efficient, friendly and enthusiastic.
The question we were all asking was - if we can organise such a brilliant event so well, how can we use the qualities that contributed to that World Cup triumph to create jobs, build houses, provide education for our children, launch a free national health service and solve all the other major problems we face.
So we urged the government and every union, civil society formation, political party, business and faith organisation to sign a new declaration in support of a programme to rebuild our country and build a lasting legacy of the 2010 World Cup.
Today's historic conference takes this decision forward. It brings together the people who are best able to meet this challenge - South African civil society and trade unions. The forces we represent here today can - and indeed must - have a decisive say in the future of our country. Our goal must be to forge a strong, united movement for change.
A similar united social movement - of COSATU, the UDF, civic movements and progressive NGOs - played a critical role - alongside the unbanned ANC and SACP - in bringing the racist dictatorship to its knees in those decisive years leading up to our democratic breakthrough in 1994.
The challenges we face today are different but nevertheless very major and require a similar mobilisation of the democratic forces as we saw in those years.
Comrades and friends
In our 16 years of democracy we have achieved major advances. We have a democratic Constitution and many laws, which have given South Africans basic rights, on paper at least, to freedom, dignity and equality.
There have been significant important improvements in the lives of millions of our people. As examples: In 1996, only 3 million people had access to social grants; today the figure is 14 million. In 1996, 58% of the population had access to electricity; today the figure is 80%. In 1996, 62% of the population had access to running water; today the figure is 88%. We have built 3.1 million subsidised houses, giving shelter to over 15 million people.
Despite our historic victories on the political battlefield, however, in the economic arena, many of the problems we faced in 1994 are still very much with us in 2010.
The central challenge is that our economic structure, in particular the distribution of wealth and income, remains largely unchanged, and in one crucial respect - inequality - has worsened, to become the widest in the world, and it also still reflects the racial and gender features of apartheid, with wealth and financial power still predominantly in the hands of white males.
The top 20 paid directors in JSE listed companies earned on average 1 728 times the average income of a South African worker while state-owned enterprises paid CEOs 194 times an average worker's income.
Typical of everything that is wrong with our society today, is this week's announcement that Standard Bank, whose CEO Jacko Maree received a massive R18, 2m in 2009 alone, intends to retrench over 2000 staff, making workers pay the price for their bosses' extravagance and incompetence.
In the 21 months from January 2009 to September 2010, we have lost 1 145 000 jobs, which, as we keep saying means that because each wage earner supports on average five dependents, more than 5.7 million people were thrown into poverty. The latest figures released yesterday reveal that the official rate of unemployment is still rising, even if more slowly, to 25.3%; a further 45 000 jobs were lost in the third
quarter of 2010.
In education - although we have made progress in many areas, such as the improved access to education, in particular for girl children, reduction of the teacher to pupil ratio, the introduction of more no-fee schools, etc. - black working class students are still at the receiving end of an unequal system. We have not transformed the education system in either quality or quantity.
The drop-out rate for children who started school in 1998 was 64%. Our matric pass rate last year was 60.6%. A staggering 70% of (matric) exam passes are accounted for by just 11% of schools, where the mainly white rich can buy their children top-quality education. The culture of learning and teaching has collapsed and many of our schools, in particular in the former blacks only residential areas are dysfunctional. Many of our schools have no libraries and no laboratories.
It is the same story in our healthcare service. The apartheid fault lines persist. While the mainly white wealthy can buy world-class healthcare in the private sector, 86% of mainly black poor have to struggle to get any service at all in an under-funded, understaffed public sector where in some parts patients are told to bring their own bedding and with only Panado available, in filthy hospitals where rights of patients are hung on the wall but not their living reality.
Although we rank 79th globally in terms of GDP per capita, we rank 178th in terms of life expectancy, 130th in terms of infant mortality, and 119th in terms of doctors per 1000 people.
The HIV and AIDS epidemic has worsened our situation, with life expectancy dropping from 62 years in 1992, to 50 years in 2006. Yet we know that in terms of South African Institute of Race Relations survey in 2009, the life expectancy of a white South African now stands at 71 years and that of a black South African at 48.
Comrades and friends
The high levels of poverty and inequality aggravate many other anti-social phenomena which we see increasingly - violent community protests, xenophobia crime, corruption and the collapse of social and moral values. We face not just personal and family disasters but a national catastrophe, a ticking bomb, which has already begun to explode in our poorest communities.
This was our reasoning behind calling this summit. We can't stand there making speeches without developing a programme that will mobilise our society to stop this ticking bomb from exploding. "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King, Jr.
Corruption in particular is a matter of life and death for our democracy. Day after day we see allegations of trusted public representatives being accused of using their position to enrich themselves and their families. Some allegations may be groundless; most public officials are honest servants of the people. But only full investigations into every allegation will clear the innocent and lead to the conviction and punishment of those who steal from the poor who put them in power. We should give our full support to the government's efforts to bring offenders to justice.
The source of the problem has always been the capitalist system, which is run on the principle of ‘me-first'. Whilst workers' universal slogan is "an injury to one is an injury to all" the capitalist mentality daily practises: "an injury to one is an opportunity to another".
For every official who receives a bribe there is a businessperson who gives the bribe to ‘persuade' the official to use his or her political power to advance private commercial interests. This is the biggest threat to our efforts to establish a transparent and corruption-free government.
It is even worse when the public representatives themselves, or family members, are getting rich from government tenders. The mere fact that they are in business to make money creates an inevitable conflict of interest when they are legislating in parliament, a provincial legislature or municipal council.
The danger always exists that in formulating policy, they will be guided by the impact this will have on their businesses rather than the broader public interest. We have called on our public representatives and union leaders to choose between being people's representatives or being in business.
It is greed that is inspired by the conspicuous consumption of the new elite - the BEE types who blow up to R700 000 on one-night in parties that makes the public representatives not want to live within the means provided by their salaries and rather hefty perks.
The corrupting morality our public representatives is seen in these parties. where I am told in one party sushi was served from bodies of half naked ladies. It is the sight of these parties where the elite display their wealth often secured in questionable methods that turn my stomach. It is this spitting on the face of the poor and insulting their integrity that makes me sick. Next year this elite will not go out door-to-door to get our people to vote. But soon thereafter they will host victory parties to scavenge on the carcass of our people like the typical hyenas that they are.
Our belief is that if we were to confiscate all the medical aids, that most of us here have; if our cabinet Ministers and MPs were forced to take their children to the public hospitals and be subjected to the same conditions as the poor; if we were to burn their private clinics and hospitals and private schools; if the children of the bosses were to be loaded into unsafe open bakkies to the dysfunctional township schools; if the high walls and electronic wired fences were to be removed; if all were forced to live on R322 a month, as 48% of the population has to do, and if their kids were to die without access to antiretrovirals, we would have long ago seen more decisive action on many of these fronts.
Our society in many ways is a very sick society. In addition to allowing these massive inequalities and for apartheid to continue in the economy, we are now sitting indifferent when the new elite is on rampage, humiliating the very motive force of our liberation struggle.
A few kilometres from where we are today hundreds of workers have not been paid for 10 months by their black empowerment bosses in the company called Aurora. Young people in their 20s and 30s have become overnight multimillionaires. A message is being sent out to our students that says:
‘Why work so hard when few correct political-sounding speeches and demagoguery can make you a multimillionaire'.
It says to the genuine entrepreneurs:
‘Why sweat when political connections and greasing the hand of those in political office can make you an instant billionaire?'
We are rewarding laziness, greed and corruption and discouraging hard work, honesty and integrity.
In the process we making our political organisations new battlegrounds where we have replaced the apartheid regime in killing and poisoning those identified as a threat to the march to gain these not-worked-for riches. Look at what is happening in COPE, IFP? Now even Lucas Mangophe is not safe. Look at what is happening in the ANC in some provinces. Look at the number of splits in every political party.Genuineness is fast becoming a rare commodity!
But as the poor and the black people in general, we can't afford to sit on our laurels and do nothing about these conditions. Our dream is that of a mobilised poor that takes its destiny into its own hands.
Why must we allow our schools not to function when we have numbers to flood the school governing bodies, and insist that teachers must be at school all the time, must prepare for classes and must teach for 7 and half hours for five days a week?
Why are we not mobilising to deal with the ill-discipline of our own kids? Why are we not mobilising to change the culture of mainly working class parents and taking an active interest in the education our children? Why have we not mobilised to change the work ethics of our members in the public sector so that they give the first-class treatment to the poor who have no money to go and get better services in the private sector?
Why have we allowed criminals to take our freedom away and return to our townships after 1994, only to rape and murder us daily, one by one, when we have the power of the numbers to drive them out? Why are today allowing a new class of tenderpreneurs to threaten our freedom and impose stinking morality of greed?
Yes we are angry! Yes COSATU is angry! Yes our tolerance levels are running thin! We can no longer just fold our arms and do nothing. Today we are here to say we want our freedom back from the elite and all these rogue elements of our society. Their party must come to an end. We demand a more egalitarian society today and moving forward!
Comrades and friends
The roots of nearly all these problems lie in the failed economic policies adopted in 1996, centred around the misnamed Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy. It led to growth at a snail's pace, higher unemployment and only redistributed wealth from the poor to the rich! It was a policy based on the misguided free-market, neoliberal policies of the ‘Washington consensus', which led directly to the devastating worldwide economic crisis of 2008 and 2009.
The government yesterday announced its new growth path, which aims to create 5 million jobs by 2020, bringing the unemployment rate down to 15%. While we obviously welcome and support such a target, we shall have to study in detail how the government's new growth plan will achieve this.
COSATU has accepted the challenge to produce its alternative strategy. In "A Growth path Towards Full Employment", we set out a path which will transform our economy into one based on the expansion of manufacturing industry and the creation of decent and sustainable jobs. Let us hope we have persuaded government to base their new growth path strategy on the same principles.
But most important is that the strategy must be turned from words into deeds. It will be a tragedy if we miss this historic opportunity to build a developmental state and turn the economy around.
It would be a disaster if the government were to believe that we can continue with the status quo. It would mean condemning another generation of living with no jobs, no money and no hope.
So I appeal to every organisation represented here today to sign the post-World Cup Declaration, which will commit us all to:
1. Remain united behind Bafana Bafana and do everything possible to promote soccer, which remains the biggest and most popular sport, yet is seriously under-developed. We need to develop academies to hone the skills of unknown South African Peles, Drogbas and Ronaldos, who have no opportunity for their skills to be recognised.
2. Bring down the astronomical levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality, which blight our land. Even as we prepare to host the World Cup, jobs continued to disappear, inequalities continued to grow and poverty remain widespread after the World Cup. We need a new economic growth path that will help address these challenges with necessary urgency and speed.
3. Address the challenges of our education system. The 1-Goal Campaign and the Nelson Mandela Day celebrations offer an opportunity to take our international icon's dream to new heights. We call on government to prioritise building and refurbishing schools and to ensure that all schools receive adequate support from the education departments at all levels. We must move beyond the call for all to donate books and build school libraries on Nelson Mandela Day and run for 12 months until every school functions and is a centre of empowerment to build a new generation that can take our dreams to a new height.
4. Unite behind a goal of transforming our health system and implementing the National Health Insurance Scheme. We have to fix our public hospitals and defeat the scourge of HIV/AIDS to build a healthy nation and improve our country's life expectancy.
5. Address underdevelopment and poverty in rural areas. This campaign should address food insecurity and empower our people to use land that currently lies unused, so that people can produce the food they need and escape from their deep levels of unemployment and poverty.
6. Lead a campaign against crime and corruption. We can build on the successes of the World Cup by sending out an unequivocal message that crime does not pay. Corruption is stealing from the poor to feed into narrow elites' selfish accumulation interests. Corruption kills the spirits of the majority, black and white, who want to work hard to build their country.
7. Mobilise to fix the energy challenge the country is facing. We need more action and not empty words to ensure that South Africa moves out of the current crisis. Imagine a day when thousands of activists move door-to-door handing over pamphlets to our people educating them about the benefits of saving electricity.
8. Mobilise to address the looming water shortage crises so that we do not wait for 2025 when the problem will be much more intense. Let us through our people hold the mine bosses who have been allowed after making billions to abandon their now empty mines and pollute our water. Let us defend our environment and keep our country beautiful and natural whilst also developing.
9. Mobilise the working class and educate them to appreciate that no matter how bad living conditions are, there can be no excuse for blaming fellow-Africans and other foreign nationals for the country's and continent's economic failures. Let us do everything possible to prevent a new outbreak of xenophobic attacks in some of our poorest communities. They are not the cause but the fellow victims of our unjust and unequal economic system. Workers and the poor must stand united against the common enemies of capitalist greed and corruption.
10. Lastly and most importantly, address the massive challenges of underdevelopment in the continent. Africa cannot succeed in developing its economies and transforming the lives of our people while it is still ravaged by poverty. Let us defeat the tyrants in Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Sudan and elsewhere whose refusal to vacate their positions and allow democracy means that can be no hope of Africa ever rising to ensure a coordinated effort to defeat under development. Let us mobilise to free our people in Western Sahara from their colonial masters!
These are just some of the many challenges we face. I look forward to hearing the outcome of the commissions and hope that we shall emerge from this conference tomorrow united and determined to build a South Africa run by and for the working class and the poor. I wish you a very successful conference.
Issued by COSATU, October 27 2010
US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/
How can we build on the World Cup success and mobilise our society to build a more egalitarian nation
Comrade COSATU President, Sidumo Dlamini
Comrade TAC Chairperson, Nonkosi Khumalo
Representatives of COSATU, NACTU, FEDUSA and CONSAWU
Representatives of civil society formations
Comrades and friends
Inspired by the African proverb that says ‘If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together', we gather here - as the progressive trade unions, social movements, NGOs, progressive academics, small business and street vendor associations, taxi associations, religious bodies, youth organisations, environmental groups, indigenous peoples' groups and other progressive formations - to say to ourselves that we have the capacity to make a decisive contribution in changing our current situation for the better.
Internationally, globalisation and neoliberal have launched assaults on the working class, which include, but are not limited to: informalisation, flexibilisation, regionalisation of states, deregulation, marketisation, financialisation, and securitisation. The global governance, commercial and trade system is supported by political and ideological institutions, rules and enforcement mechanisms that only broad civil society coalitions have historically been able to challenge successfully.
In South Africa, the GEAR strategy epitomised the dominance of the neoliberal ideology within the leading sections of the government. The neoliberal logic still continues to be dominant, in spite of some talk about a developmental state. Increasingly though it has taken a more crude political expression and there are some emerging elements that tend to perceive the working class and active elements of civil society as merely being a nuisance that must be crushed with the might of the state apparatus.
Today, as we gather here, there is panic in the ranks of the predatory elite, which is a new coalition of the tenderpreneurs. Paranoia elsewhere is deepening with the political elite, convincing itself that any gathering of independent civil society formations to confront our challenges is a threat to them.
Let us right from onset state that we are not an anti-ANC and anti-government coalition. We are not here to begin a process to form any political party, nor to advance the interest of any individual. We have only one enemy - neoliberalism, that has condemned our people to poverty and unemployment. We want to roll back neoliberal advances and struggle for the adoption and implementation of alternatives. Our struggles have to be both defensive and offensive.
We are friends to all genuinely anti-neoliberal and pro-poor and working class political parties that have an undisputable record of struggle to advance our interests as the marginalised societies.
We gather here to say another South Africa is possible! Another world is possible!
On 11 July, just four months ago, all South Africans were basking in the reflected glory of our successful hosting of the best-ever FIFA world Cup. The whole world saw our country at its best - united, efficient, friendly and enthusiastic.
The question we were all asking was - if we can organise such a brilliant event so well, how can we use the qualities that contributed to that World Cup triumph to create jobs, build houses, provide education for our children, launch a free national health service and solve all the other major problems we face.
So we urged the government and every union, civil society formation, political party, business and faith organisation to sign a new declaration in support of a programme to rebuild our country and build a lasting legacy of the 2010 World Cup.
Today's historic conference takes this decision forward. It brings together the people who are best able to meet this challenge - South African civil society and trade unions. The forces we represent here today can - and indeed must - have a decisive say in the future of our country. Our goal must be to forge a strong, united movement for change.
A similar united social movement - of COSATU, the UDF, civic movements and progressive NGOs - played a critical role - alongside the unbanned ANC and SACP - in bringing the racist dictatorship to its knees in those decisive years leading up to our democratic breakthrough in 1994.
The challenges we face today are different but nevertheless very major and require a similar mobilisation of the democratic forces as we saw in those years.
Comrades and friends
In our 16 years of democracy we have achieved major advances. We have a democratic Constitution and many laws, which have given South Africans basic rights, on paper at least, to freedom, dignity and equality.
There have been significant important improvements in the lives of millions of our people. As examples: In 1996, only 3 million people had access to social grants; today the figure is 14 million. In 1996, 58% of the population had access to electricity; today the figure is 80%. In 1996, 62% of the population had access to running water; today the figure is 88%. We have built 3.1 million subsidised houses, giving shelter to over 15 million people.
Despite our historic victories on the political battlefield, however, in the economic arena, many of the problems we faced in 1994 are still very much with us in 2010.
The central challenge is that our economic structure, in particular the distribution of wealth and income, remains largely unchanged, and in one crucial respect - inequality - has worsened, to become the widest in the world, and it also still reflects the racial and gender features of apartheid, with wealth and financial power still predominantly in the hands of white males.
The top 20 paid directors in JSE listed companies earned on average 1 728 times the average income of a South African worker while state-owned enterprises paid CEOs 194 times an average worker's income.
Typical of everything that is wrong with our society today, is this week's announcement that Standard Bank, whose CEO Jacko Maree received a massive R18, 2m in 2009 alone, intends to retrench over 2000 staff, making workers pay the price for their bosses' extravagance and incompetence.
In the 21 months from January 2009 to September 2010, we have lost 1 145 000 jobs, which, as we keep saying means that because each wage earner supports on average five dependents, more than 5.7 million people were thrown into poverty. The latest figures released yesterday reveal that the official rate of unemployment is still rising, even if more slowly, to 25.3%; a further 45 000 jobs were lost in the third
quarter of 2010.
In education - although we have made progress in many areas, such as the improved access to education, in particular for girl children, reduction of the teacher to pupil ratio, the introduction of more no-fee schools, etc. - black working class students are still at the receiving end of an unequal system. We have not transformed the education system in either quality or quantity.
The drop-out rate for children who started school in 1998 was 64%. Our matric pass rate last year was 60.6%. A staggering 70% of (matric) exam passes are accounted for by just 11% of schools, where the mainly white rich can buy their children top-quality education. The culture of learning and teaching has collapsed and many of our schools, in particular in the former blacks only residential areas are dysfunctional. Many of our schools have no libraries and no laboratories.
It is the same story in our healthcare service. The apartheid fault lines persist. While the mainly white wealthy can buy world-class healthcare in the private sector, 86% of mainly black poor have to struggle to get any service at all in an under-funded, understaffed public sector where in some parts patients are told to bring their own bedding and with only Panado available, in filthy hospitals where rights of patients are hung on the wall but not their living reality.
Although we rank 79th globally in terms of GDP per capita, we rank 178th in terms of life expectancy, 130th in terms of infant mortality, and 119th in terms of doctors per 1000 people.
The HIV and AIDS epidemic has worsened our situation, with life expectancy dropping from 62 years in 1992, to 50 years in 2006. Yet we know that in terms of South African Institute of Race Relations survey in 2009, the life expectancy of a white South African now stands at 71 years and that of a black South African at 48.
Comrades and friends
The high levels of poverty and inequality aggravate many other anti-social phenomena which we see increasingly - violent community protests, xenophobia crime, corruption and the collapse of social and moral values. We face not just personal and family disasters but a national catastrophe, a ticking bomb, which has already begun to explode in our poorest communities.
This was our reasoning behind calling this summit. We can't stand there making speeches without developing a programme that will mobilise our society to stop this ticking bomb from exploding. "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King, Jr.
Corruption in particular is a matter of life and death for our democracy. Day after day we see allegations of trusted public representatives being accused of using their position to enrich themselves and their families. Some allegations may be groundless; most public officials are honest servants of the people. But only full investigations into every allegation will clear the innocent and lead to the conviction and punishment of those who steal from the poor who put them in power. We should give our full support to the government's efforts to bring offenders to justice.
The source of the problem has always been the capitalist system, which is run on the principle of ‘me-first'. Whilst workers' universal slogan is "an injury to one is an injury to all" the capitalist mentality daily practises: "an injury to one is an opportunity to another".
For every official who receives a bribe there is a businessperson who gives the bribe to ‘persuade' the official to use his or her political power to advance private commercial interests. This is the biggest threat to our efforts to establish a transparent and corruption-free government.
It is even worse when the public representatives themselves, or family members, are getting rich from government tenders. The mere fact that they are in business to make money creates an inevitable conflict of interest when they are legislating in parliament, a provincial legislature or municipal council.
The danger always exists that in formulating policy, they will be guided by the impact this will have on their businesses rather than the broader public interest. We have called on our public representatives and union leaders to choose between being people's representatives or being in business.
It is greed that is inspired by the conspicuous consumption of the new elite - the BEE types who blow up to R700 000 on one-night in parties that makes the public representatives not want to live within the means provided by their salaries and rather hefty perks.
The corrupting morality our public representatives is seen in these parties. where I am told in one party sushi was served from bodies of half naked ladies. It is the sight of these parties where the elite display their wealth often secured in questionable methods that turn my stomach. It is this spitting on the face of the poor and insulting their integrity that makes me sick. Next year this elite will not go out door-to-door to get our people to vote. But soon thereafter they will host victory parties to scavenge on the carcass of our people like the typical hyenas that they are.
Our belief is that if we were to confiscate all the medical aids, that most of us here have; if our cabinet Ministers and MPs were forced to take their children to the public hospitals and be subjected to the same conditions as the poor; if we were to burn their private clinics and hospitals and private schools; if the children of the bosses were to be loaded into unsafe open bakkies to the dysfunctional township schools; if the high walls and electronic wired fences were to be removed; if all were forced to live on R322 a month, as 48% of the population has to do, and if their kids were to die without access to antiretrovirals, we would have long ago seen more decisive action on many of these fronts.
Our society in many ways is a very sick society. In addition to allowing these massive inequalities and for apartheid to continue in the economy, we are now sitting indifferent when the new elite is on rampage, humiliating the very motive force of our liberation struggle.
A few kilometres from where we are today hundreds of workers have not been paid for 10 months by their black empowerment bosses in the company called Aurora. Young people in their 20s and 30s have become overnight multimillionaires. A message is being sent out to our students that says:
‘Why work so hard when few correct political-sounding speeches and demagoguery can make you a multimillionaire'.
It says to the genuine entrepreneurs:
‘Why sweat when political connections and greasing the hand of those in political office can make you an instant billionaire?'
We are rewarding laziness, greed and corruption and discouraging hard work, honesty and integrity.
In the process we making our political organisations new battlegrounds where we have replaced the apartheid regime in killing and poisoning those identified as a threat to the march to gain these not-worked-for riches. Look at what is happening in COPE, IFP? Now even Lucas Mangophe is not safe. Look at what is happening in the ANC in some provinces. Look at the number of splits in every political party.Genuineness is fast becoming a rare commodity!
But as the poor and the black people in general, we can't afford to sit on our laurels and do nothing about these conditions. Our dream is that of a mobilised poor that takes its destiny into its own hands.
Why must we allow our schools not to function when we have numbers to flood the school governing bodies, and insist that teachers must be at school all the time, must prepare for classes and must teach for 7 and half hours for five days a week?
Why are we not mobilising to deal with the ill-discipline of our own kids? Why are we not mobilising to change the culture of mainly working class parents and taking an active interest in the education our children? Why have we not mobilised to change the work ethics of our members in the public sector so that they give the first-class treatment to the poor who have no money to go and get better services in the private sector?
Why have we allowed criminals to take our freedom away and return to our townships after 1994, only to rape and murder us daily, one by one, when we have the power of the numbers to drive them out? Why are today allowing a new class of tenderpreneurs to threaten our freedom and impose stinking morality of greed?
Yes we are angry! Yes COSATU is angry! Yes our tolerance levels are running thin! We can no longer just fold our arms and do nothing. Today we are here to say we want our freedom back from the elite and all these rogue elements of our society. Their party must come to an end. We demand a more egalitarian society today and moving forward!
Comrades and friends
The roots of nearly all these problems lie in the failed economic policies adopted in 1996, centred around the misnamed Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy. It led to growth at a snail's pace, higher unemployment and only redistributed wealth from the poor to the rich! It was a policy based on the misguided free-market, neoliberal policies of the ‘Washington consensus', which led directly to the devastating worldwide economic crisis of 2008 and 2009.
The government yesterday announced its new growth path, which aims to create 5 million jobs by 2020, bringing the unemployment rate down to 15%. While we obviously welcome and support such a target, we shall have to study in detail how the government's new growth plan will achieve this.
COSATU has accepted the challenge to produce its alternative strategy. In "A Growth path Towards Full Employment", we set out a path which will transform our economy into one based on the expansion of manufacturing industry and the creation of decent and sustainable jobs. Let us hope we have persuaded government to base their new growth path strategy on the same principles.
But most important is that the strategy must be turned from words into deeds. It will be a tragedy if we miss this historic opportunity to build a developmental state and turn the economy around.
It would be a disaster if the government were to believe that we can continue with the status quo. It would mean condemning another generation of living with no jobs, no money and no hope.
So I appeal to every organisation represented here today to sign the post-World Cup Declaration, which will commit us all to:
1. Remain united behind Bafana Bafana and do everything possible to promote soccer, which remains the biggest and most popular sport, yet is seriously under-developed. We need to develop academies to hone the skills of unknown South African Peles, Drogbas and Ronaldos, who have no opportunity for their skills to be recognised.
2. Bring down the astronomical levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality, which blight our land. Even as we prepare to host the World Cup, jobs continued to disappear, inequalities continued to grow and poverty remain widespread after the World Cup. We need a new economic growth path that will help address these challenges with necessary urgency and speed.
3. Address the challenges of our education system. The 1-Goal Campaign and the Nelson Mandela Day celebrations offer an opportunity to take our international icon's dream to new heights. We call on government to prioritise building and refurbishing schools and to ensure that all schools receive adequate support from the education departments at all levels. We must move beyond the call for all to donate books and build school libraries on Nelson Mandela Day and run for 12 months until every school functions and is a centre of empowerment to build a new generation that can take our dreams to a new height.
4. Unite behind a goal of transforming our health system and implementing the National Health Insurance Scheme. We have to fix our public hospitals and defeat the scourge of HIV/AIDS to build a healthy nation and improve our country's life expectancy.
5. Address underdevelopment and poverty in rural areas. This campaign should address food insecurity and empower our people to use land that currently lies unused, so that people can produce the food they need and escape from their deep levels of unemployment and poverty.
6. Lead a campaign against crime and corruption. We can build on the successes of the World Cup by sending out an unequivocal message that crime does not pay. Corruption is stealing from the poor to feed into narrow elites' selfish accumulation interests. Corruption kills the spirits of the majority, black and white, who want to work hard to build their country.
7. Mobilise to fix the energy challenge the country is facing. We need more action and not empty words to ensure that South Africa moves out of the current crisis. Imagine a day when thousands of activists move door-to-door handing over pamphlets to our people educating them about the benefits of saving electricity.
8. Mobilise to address the looming water shortage crises so that we do not wait for 2025 when the problem will be much more intense. Let us through our people hold the mine bosses who have been allowed after making billions to abandon their now empty mines and pollute our water. Let us defend our environment and keep our country beautiful and natural whilst also developing.
9. Mobilise the working class and educate them to appreciate that no matter how bad living conditions are, there can be no excuse for blaming fellow-Africans and other foreign nationals for the country's and continent's economic failures. Let us do everything possible to prevent a new outbreak of xenophobic attacks in some of our poorest communities. They are not the cause but the fellow victims of our unjust and unequal economic system. Workers and the poor must stand united against the common enemies of capitalist greed and corruption.
10. Lastly and most importantly, address the massive challenges of underdevelopment in the continent. Africa cannot succeed in developing its economies and transforming the lives of our people while it is still ravaged by poverty. Let us defeat the tyrants in Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Sudan and elsewhere whose refusal to vacate their positions and allow democracy means that can be no hope of Africa ever rising to ensure a coordinated effort to defeat under development. Let us mobilise to free our people in Western Sahara from their colonial masters!
These are just some of the many challenges we face. I look forward to hearing the outcome of the commissions and hope that we shall emerge from this conference tomorrow united and determined to build a South Africa run by and for the working class and the poor. I wish you a very successful conference.
Issued by COSATU, October 27 2010
US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/
Sunday, November 7, 2010
US - India Transactions
As part of the National Export Initiative, President Obama noted that India-with its tremendous economic growth and its large and growing middle class -is a key market for U.S. exports.
Those exports are generating jobs in every corner of the United States and across every major sector. These involve some of our country's largest companies, but also an increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises.
On the margins of the President's trip, trade transactions were announced or showcased, exceeding $14.9 billion in total value with $9.5 billion in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 53,670 U.S. jobs.
These cross-border collaborations, both public and private, underpin the expanding U.S.-India strategic partnership, contributing to economic growth and development in both countries.
The following list of deals and details has been quoted verbatim from the official White House statement:
Heavy Transport Aircraft: The Boeing Company and the Indian Air Force have reached preliminary agreement on the purchase of 10 C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft, and are now in the process of finalizing the details of the sale. Once all have been delivered, the Indian Air Force will be the owner and operator of the largest fleet of C-17s outside of the United States. Boeing, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is the aircraft manufacturer. Boeing reports that each C-17 supports 650 suppliers across 44 U.S. states and that this order will support Boeing’s C-17 production facility in Long Beach, California, for an entire year. This transaction is valued at approximately $4.1 billion, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 22,160 jobs.
Engine Sale for the Light Combat Aircraft: On October 1, the General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, was declared the lowest bidder and selected to negotiate a contract to provide the Indian Aeronautical Development Agency with 107 F414 engines to be installed on the Tejas light combat aircraft. Upon finalizing the contract, General Electric’s facility in Lynn, Massachusetts, and other sites across the United States will be positioned to export almost one billion dollars in high technology aerospace products. This transaction is tentatively valued at approximately $822 million, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 4,440 jobs.
Commercial Aircraft Sale: Boeing Company, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and SpiceJet, a leading private airline in India, concluded a definitive agreement for the sale of 30 B737-800 commercial aircraft. SpiceJet currently operates 22 Boeing aircraft and has several 737 deliveries remaining from previous agreements. This new agreement will enable SpiceJet to offer more domestic routes and to begin offering international flights to neighboring countries. This transaction is valued at approximately $2.7 billion, based on catalogue prices, with an estimated $2.4 billion in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 12,970 jobs.
Gas and Steam Turbine Sale: The General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, was selected to supply six advanced class 9FA gas turbines and three steam turbines for the 2,500-megawatt Samalkot power plant expansion to be constructed by Reliance Power Ltd., a division of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one of the largest conglomerates in India. General Electric purchases equipment from 240 suppliers across the United States—an estimated 14 percent of which are small- and medium-sized enterprises—for every 9FA gas-fired turbine, which are assembled in Greenville, South Carolina. The combined equipment and maintenance contracts are valued at approximately $750 million, with an estimated $491 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 2,650 jobs.
Reliance Power and U.S. Ex-Im Bank Agreement: Reliance Power Ltd., the flagship company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and the Export – Import Bank of the United States announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This MOU will indicate Ex-Im Bank’s willingness to provide up to $5 billion in financial support to Reliance Power for the purchase of U.S. goods and services to be used in the development of up to 8,000 megawatts of gas-fired electricity generating units and up to 900 megawatts of renewable (solar and wind) energy facilities.
Diesel Locomotive Manufacturing Venture: The United States has worldwide leaders in diesel locomotive manufacturing, and the Indian Ministry of Railways announced the prequalification of the sole two bidders—GE Transportation (Erie, Pennsylvania) and Electro-Motive Diesel (LaGrange, Illinois)—for a venture to manufacture and supply of 1,000 diesel locomotives over 10 years. The estimated U.S. content of this contract is expected to exceed $1B.
Motorcycle Assembly Plant: Harley-Davidson Motor Company, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, announced that preparations are underway to open a new plant in India for the assembly of Harley-Davidson motorcycles from U.S.-built “complete knock-down” kits. This investment by the company entails job creation in both the United States and India, and it will allow the company to reduce the tariff burden on its motorcycles for sale in the Indian market, driving sales growth by making its motorcycles more accessible to Indian consumers.
Sale of U.S. Mining Equipment and Related Support Equipment: On October 21, the Export – Import Bank of the United States announced the approval of more than $900 million in export finance guarantees to Sasan Power Ltd., a subsidiary of Reliance Power Ltd., supporting the sale of U.S. mining equipment and services from Bucyrus International of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and other U.S. vendors, in association with the 3,960-megawatt coal-fired Sasan power plant in Madhya Pradesh, India. This financial commitment supports $641 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 3,460 jobs.
Tunneling Equipment for Underground Water Channel: On July 22, Robbins Company, headquartered in Solon, Ohio, announced an agreement with UNITY-IVRCL, a large infrastructure engineering and construction conglomerate, to provide tunnel-boring machines, conveyer equipment, and associated technical services for the construction of tunnels to convey water for the city of Mumbai. Separately, through a contract signed in 2008 with Jaiprakash Associates, a large infrastructure conglomerate, the Robbins Company is already supplying high technology tunnel-boring machines and technical assistance to bore some of the longest underground tunnels in the world underneath a protected tiger sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh, which will increase irrigation for the production of cotton and other agricultural products. The Mumbai contract alone is valued at $10 million, with $7 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 35 jobs.
Maharashtra Homeland Security Pilot Projects: Palantir Technologies, a small Silicon Valley software development firm, announced a strategic partnership agreement with the Maharashtra State Police, a law enforcement agency in India, to conduct a pilot program, whereby Palantir’s end-to-end analytical software platform will be used on a trial basis to identify and alert authorities to security threats in order to help keep the citizens of Mumbai and Maharashtra safe.
Medanta Duke Research Institute (MDRI): Duke Medicine, located in Durham, North Carolina, one of the leading academic health systems in the United States, and Medanta Medicity, located in Gurgaon, Haryana, a hospital and medical research complex, are announcing a joint venture agreement to launch the MDRI, a proof-of-concept clinical research facility within Medanta’s hospital. Duke Medicine will provide scientific and operational leadership, while Medanta will contribute financial resources and clinical and operational services. Duke Medicine also will be partnering with Jubilant Life Sciences, headquartered in Uttar Pradesh, to conduct research studies and co-develop promising discoveries, with significant funding and in-kind support provided by Jubilant. Subsequent commercialization is expected to result in licensing revenue for Duke Medicine.
Long-range Antenna System for Rural Telecommunications: SPX Communication Technology, a division of SPX Corporation operating out of Raymond, Maine, is in the final phase of the pilot deployment of its long-range antenna system with two leading Indian mobile operators. This innovative technology has been shown to offer a significantly greater coverage area. Once implemented, it is expected to create significant economies of scale, thereby improving the economic viability of rural wireless networks and making wireless communications available for people who either could not afford service or who live in areas that lack coverage. The value of the initial trial equipment is expected to generate approximately $1 million, with 100 percent U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 5 jobs.
Production Equipment for the Manufacture of Pre-fabricated Housing: Spancrete Machinery Corporation, a family-owned business in Waukesha, Wisconsin, announced the sale of six sets of its hollow core, precast production equipment, including installation, training, and after-sales support, to Hindustan Prefab Limited, a state-owned company within the Indian Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation. The production equipment will be used to manufacture inexpensive, prefabricated housing on a mass scale in India. Spancrete also is working with Somat Engineering, Inc., from Detroit, Michigan, and their affiliate, SP Infrastructure India Ltd., in New Delhi. This transaction is valued at approximately $35 million, all of which is U.S. export content. Based on the company’s estimates, the transaction will support 30 jobs.
Cell Phone Rollout for Small Indian Businesses: Intuit, a company headquartered in Mountain View, California, which serves millions of small businesses worldwide, will launch a new mobile and web-based marketing service in partnership with Nokia, called “Intuit GoConnect”. This innovative technology will help Indian micro and small businesses grow and thrive by bringing customer management tools to the entrepreneur, improving the way they communicate with their customers in an increasingly mobile world.
The Unique Identification Project: L-1 Identity Solutions, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and another U.S.-headquartered company, lead two of the three vendor consortia, which have been prequalified by the Unique Identity Authority of India for the first phase of an effort to register Indian residents with a 12-digit unique number using biometric identifiers. Unprecedented in scale, seeking to register 1.2 billion Indian residents, the Unique Identification program aims to enhance delivery of government services in India.
Sale of Precision Measurement Instruments for Fuel Cell Research: Advanced Materials Corporation (AMC), a small, six-person firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received an order to supply a specially-designed Pressure-Composition Isotherm Measurement Instrument to the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India. BHU will utilize AMC’s instrument to test fuel cell applications, as part of an Indian central government research program.
Trace Explosive Detection Equipment: Implant Sciences, a small company based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence in January to supply its Quantum Sniffer H-150, trace detection devices to be used by the Indian Army to detect the presence of explosive, bomb-making materials that could be used in a terrorist attack. The company announced that the equipment will be ready for pre-dispatch inspection and delivery in November. The transaction is valued at approximately $6 million, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 30 jobs.
VIP Helicopter Sale: On August 25, Bell Helicopter, based in Hurst, Texas, signed a purchase agreement with Span Air, a private air charter company, for the sale of its first Bell Model 429 corporate VIP helicopter in India. Span Air has a second order slated for delivery in mid-2011. Bell Helicopter recently sold its 100th helicopter in India.
Sales of Pre-owned Refurbished Healthcare Equipment: Skelley Medical, a rural New Hampshire-based company, sells refurbished medical equipment to Indian hospitals in second and third tier cities through partnerships with various distributors in India. Skelley announced plans to open an after-sales service facility in Mumbai as part of a new venture with Triage Systems, a Mumbai-based Indian medical equipment distributor. This facility will service medical equipment purchased by their Indian hospital customers.
Monitoring Equipment for Greening Buildings: Noveda Technologies, a small start-up company in Branchburg, New Jersey, is finalizing a new venture with Chennai-based Wysine Technology to jointly develop and market a new solution for web-based, real-time energy monitoring for “greening” buildings.
Dredges for Maharashtra Maritime Board: Ellicott Dredges, a small company based in Baltimore, Maryland, announced the sale of two cutter suction dredges to the Maharashtra Maritime Board, a Maharashtra government entity. The equipment will be utilized to dredge a fisherman’s port and various tributaries in the state of Maharashtra
US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/
Those exports are generating jobs in every corner of the United States and across every major sector. These involve some of our country's largest companies, but also an increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises.
On the margins of the President's trip, trade transactions were announced or showcased, exceeding $14.9 billion in total value with $9.5 billion in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 53,670 U.S. jobs.
These cross-border collaborations, both public and private, underpin the expanding U.S.-India strategic partnership, contributing to economic growth and development in both countries.
The following list of deals and details has been quoted verbatim from the official White House statement:
Heavy Transport Aircraft: The Boeing Company and the Indian Air Force have reached preliminary agreement on the purchase of 10 C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft, and are now in the process of finalizing the details of the sale. Once all have been delivered, the Indian Air Force will be the owner and operator of the largest fleet of C-17s outside of the United States. Boeing, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is the aircraft manufacturer. Boeing reports that each C-17 supports 650 suppliers across 44 U.S. states and that this order will support Boeing’s C-17 production facility in Long Beach, California, for an entire year. This transaction is valued at approximately $4.1 billion, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 22,160 jobs.
Engine Sale for the Light Combat Aircraft: On October 1, the General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, was declared the lowest bidder and selected to negotiate a contract to provide the Indian Aeronautical Development Agency with 107 F414 engines to be installed on the Tejas light combat aircraft. Upon finalizing the contract, General Electric’s facility in Lynn, Massachusetts, and other sites across the United States will be positioned to export almost one billion dollars in high technology aerospace products. This transaction is tentatively valued at approximately $822 million, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 4,440 jobs.
Commercial Aircraft Sale: Boeing Company, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and SpiceJet, a leading private airline in India, concluded a definitive agreement for the sale of 30 B737-800 commercial aircraft. SpiceJet currently operates 22 Boeing aircraft and has several 737 deliveries remaining from previous agreements. This new agreement will enable SpiceJet to offer more domestic routes and to begin offering international flights to neighboring countries. This transaction is valued at approximately $2.7 billion, based on catalogue prices, with an estimated $2.4 billion in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 12,970 jobs.
Gas and Steam Turbine Sale: The General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, was selected to supply six advanced class 9FA gas turbines and three steam turbines for the 2,500-megawatt Samalkot power plant expansion to be constructed by Reliance Power Ltd., a division of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one of the largest conglomerates in India. General Electric purchases equipment from 240 suppliers across the United States—an estimated 14 percent of which are small- and medium-sized enterprises—for every 9FA gas-fired turbine, which are assembled in Greenville, South Carolina. The combined equipment and maintenance contracts are valued at approximately $750 million, with an estimated $491 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 2,650 jobs.
Reliance Power and U.S. Ex-Im Bank Agreement: Reliance Power Ltd., the flagship company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and the Export – Import Bank of the United States announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This MOU will indicate Ex-Im Bank’s willingness to provide up to $5 billion in financial support to Reliance Power for the purchase of U.S. goods and services to be used in the development of up to 8,000 megawatts of gas-fired electricity generating units and up to 900 megawatts of renewable (solar and wind) energy facilities.
Diesel Locomotive Manufacturing Venture: The United States has worldwide leaders in diesel locomotive manufacturing, and the Indian Ministry of Railways announced the prequalification of the sole two bidders—GE Transportation (Erie, Pennsylvania) and Electro-Motive Diesel (LaGrange, Illinois)—for a venture to manufacture and supply of 1,000 diesel locomotives over 10 years. The estimated U.S. content of this contract is expected to exceed $1B.
Motorcycle Assembly Plant: Harley-Davidson Motor Company, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, announced that preparations are underway to open a new plant in India for the assembly of Harley-Davidson motorcycles from U.S.-built “complete knock-down” kits. This investment by the company entails job creation in both the United States and India, and it will allow the company to reduce the tariff burden on its motorcycles for sale in the Indian market, driving sales growth by making its motorcycles more accessible to Indian consumers.
Sale of U.S. Mining Equipment and Related Support Equipment: On October 21, the Export – Import Bank of the United States announced the approval of more than $900 million in export finance guarantees to Sasan Power Ltd., a subsidiary of Reliance Power Ltd., supporting the sale of U.S. mining equipment and services from Bucyrus International of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and other U.S. vendors, in association with the 3,960-megawatt coal-fired Sasan power plant in Madhya Pradesh, India. This financial commitment supports $641 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 3,460 jobs.
Tunneling Equipment for Underground Water Channel: On July 22, Robbins Company, headquartered in Solon, Ohio, announced an agreement with UNITY-IVRCL, a large infrastructure engineering and construction conglomerate, to provide tunnel-boring machines, conveyer equipment, and associated technical services for the construction of tunnels to convey water for the city of Mumbai. Separately, through a contract signed in 2008 with Jaiprakash Associates, a large infrastructure conglomerate, the Robbins Company is already supplying high technology tunnel-boring machines and technical assistance to bore some of the longest underground tunnels in the world underneath a protected tiger sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh, which will increase irrigation for the production of cotton and other agricultural products. The Mumbai contract alone is valued at $10 million, with $7 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 35 jobs.
Maharashtra Homeland Security Pilot Projects: Palantir Technologies, a small Silicon Valley software development firm, announced a strategic partnership agreement with the Maharashtra State Police, a law enforcement agency in India, to conduct a pilot program, whereby Palantir’s end-to-end analytical software platform will be used on a trial basis to identify and alert authorities to security threats in order to help keep the citizens of Mumbai and Maharashtra safe.
Medanta Duke Research Institute (MDRI): Duke Medicine, located in Durham, North Carolina, one of the leading academic health systems in the United States, and Medanta Medicity, located in Gurgaon, Haryana, a hospital and medical research complex, are announcing a joint venture agreement to launch the MDRI, a proof-of-concept clinical research facility within Medanta’s hospital. Duke Medicine will provide scientific and operational leadership, while Medanta will contribute financial resources and clinical and operational services. Duke Medicine also will be partnering with Jubilant Life Sciences, headquartered in Uttar Pradesh, to conduct research studies and co-develop promising discoveries, with significant funding and in-kind support provided by Jubilant. Subsequent commercialization is expected to result in licensing revenue for Duke Medicine.
Long-range Antenna System for Rural Telecommunications: SPX Communication Technology, a division of SPX Corporation operating out of Raymond, Maine, is in the final phase of the pilot deployment of its long-range antenna system with two leading Indian mobile operators. This innovative technology has been shown to offer a significantly greater coverage area. Once implemented, it is expected to create significant economies of scale, thereby improving the economic viability of rural wireless networks and making wireless communications available for people who either could not afford service or who live in areas that lack coverage. The value of the initial trial equipment is expected to generate approximately $1 million, with 100 percent U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 5 jobs.
Production Equipment for the Manufacture of Pre-fabricated Housing: Spancrete Machinery Corporation, a family-owned business in Waukesha, Wisconsin, announced the sale of six sets of its hollow core, precast production equipment, including installation, training, and after-sales support, to Hindustan Prefab Limited, a state-owned company within the Indian Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation. The production equipment will be used to manufacture inexpensive, prefabricated housing on a mass scale in India. Spancrete also is working with Somat Engineering, Inc., from Detroit, Michigan, and their affiliate, SP Infrastructure India Ltd., in New Delhi. This transaction is valued at approximately $35 million, all of which is U.S. export content. Based on the company’s estimates, the transaction will support 30 jobs.
Cell Phone Rollout for Small Indian Businesses: Intuit, a company headquartered in Mountain View, California, which serves millions of small businesses worldwide, will launch a new mobile and web-based marketing service in partnership with Nokia, called “Intuit GoConnect”. This innovative technology will help Indian micro and small businesses grow and thrive by bringing customer management tools to the entrepreneur, improving the way they communicate with their customers in an increasingly mobile world.
The Unique Identification Project: L-1 Identity Solutions, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and another U.S.-headquartered company, lead two of the three vendor consortia, which have been prequalified by the Unique Identity Authority of India for the first phase of an effort to register Indian residents with a 12-digit unique number using biometric identifiers. Unprecedented in scale, seeking to register 1.2 billion Indian residents, the Unique Identification program aims to enhance delivery of government services in India.
Sale of Precision Measurement Instruments for Fuel Cell Research: Advanced Materials Corporation (AMC), a small, six-person firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received an order to supply a specially-designed Pressure-Composition Isotherm Measurement Instrument to the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India. BHU will utilize AMC’s instrument to test fuel cell applications, as part of an Indian central government research program.
Trace Explosive Detection Equipment: Implant Sciences, a small company based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence in January to supply its Quantum Sniffer H-150, trace detection devices to be used by the Indian Army to detect the presence of explosive, bomb-making materials that could be used in a terrorist attack. The company announced that the equipment will be ready for pre-dispatch inspection and delivery in November. The transaction is valued at approximately $6 million, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 30 jobs.
VIP Helicopter Sale: On August 25, Bell Helicopter, based in Hurst, Texas, signed a purchase agreement with Span Air, a private air charter company, for the sale of its first Bell Model 429 corporate VIP helicopter in India. Span Air has a second order slated for delivery in mid-2011. Bell Helicopter recently sold its 100th helicopter in India.
Sales of Pre-owned Refurbished Healthcare Equipment: Skelley Medical, a rural New Hampshire-based company, sells refurbished medical equipment to Indian hospitals in second and third tier cities through partnerships with various distributors in India. Skelley announced plans to open an after-sales service facility in Mumbai as part of a new venture with Triage Systems, a Mumbai-based Indian medical equipment distributor. This facility will service medical equipment purchased by their Indian hospital customers.
Monitoring Equipment for Greening Buildings: Noveda Technologies, a small start-up company in Branchburg, New Jersey, is finalizing a new venture with Chennai-based Wysine Technology to jointly develop and market a new solution for web-based, real-time energy monitoring for “greening” buildings.
Dredges for Maharashtra Maritime Board: Ellicott Dredges, a small company based in Baltimore, Maryland, announced the sale of two cutter suction dredges to the Maharashtra Maritime Board, a Maharashtra government entity. The equipment will be utilized to dredge a fisherman’s port and various tributaries in the state of Maharashtra
US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
President Obama will underscore the importance of India as a growing market for US exports
President Obama will underscore the importance of India as a growing market for US exports - and announce some big commercial deals - when he travels to Mumbai and New Delhi next month, White House officials said yesterday.
Trade will be at the top of the agenda on the first day of the President's trip, when he meets with US and Indian business officials. Mr. Obama will deliver a major address on the commercial relationship that same day - November 6 - before the US-India Business Council.
Growing trade with India is crucial to the President's goal of doubling US exports in five years, the officials told reporters yesterday. “We believe that India has a hugely dynamic and growing market and we want to discuss opportunities for how we can deepen our economic relationship,” Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes said.
The officials declined to discuss details of the commercial agreements the President hopes to announce.
Although President Obama has lately spoken out against the “outsourcing” of US jobs overseas to countries like India, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs Mike Froman said the President sees tremendous potential in India for US exports.
Indian Investment
US exports have quadrupled over the last seven years to about $17 billion, while service exports have tripled to about $10 billion a year. Mr. Froman noted that Indian companies are the second-fastest-growing investors in the United States, currently supporting about 57,000 US jobs.
India would like to see a restart of negotiations on a Bilateral Investment Treaty, which remain on hold while the Administration crafts a new model BIT.
New Delhi is hoping that President Obama will use his first state visit to announce that Washington will ease export controls restricting some sales of high-technology dual-use products. The Administration officials declined to say whether an announcement is likely, saying that talks are still ongoing. But Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns noted that the Administration is in the process of updating its export controls and wants to make sure “India is treated as a partner and not as a target.”
The White House officials praised India for signing yesterday the Convention on Supplemental Compensation, which will pave the way for US companies to participate in Indian civil nuclear development under the bilateral agreement. The convention will help ensure that international standards apply and that US companies have a level playing field on which to compete, Mr. Burns said.
Washington Trade Daily
October 28, 2010
US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/
Trade will be at the top of the agenda on the first day of the President's trip, when he meets with US and Indian business officials. Mr. Obama will deliver a major address on the commercial relationship that same day - November 6 - before the US-India Business Council.
Growing trade with India is crucial to the President's goal of doubling US exports in five years, the officials told reporters yesterday. “We believe that India has a hugely dynamic and growing market and we want to discuss opportunities for how we can deepen our economic relationship,” Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes said.
The officials declined to discuss details of the commercial agreements the President hopes to announce.
Although President Obama has lately spoken out against the “outsourcing” of US jobs overseas to countries like India, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs Mike Froman said the President sees tremendous potential in India for US exports.
Indian Investment
US exports have quadrupled over the last seven years to about $17 billion, while service exports have tripled to about $10 billion a year. Mr. Froman noted that Indian companies are the second-fastest-growing investors in the United States, currently supporting about 57,000 US jobs.
India would like to see a restart of negotiations on a Bilateral Investment Treaty, which remain on hold while the Administration crafts a new model BIT.
New Delhi is hoping that President Obama will use his first state visit to announce that Washington will ease export controls restricting some sales of high-technology dual-use products. The Administration officials declined to say whether an announcement is likely, saying that talks are still ongoing. But Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns noted that the Administration is in the process of updating its export controls and wants to make sure “India is treated as a partner and not as a target.”
The White House officials praised India for signing yesterday the Convention on Supplemental Compensation, which will pave the way for US companies to participate in Indian civil nuclear development under the bilateral agreement. The convention will help ensure that international standards apply and that US companies have a level playing field on which to compete, Mr. Burns said.
Washington Trade Daily
October 28, 2010
US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/
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