Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Brics Business hears call for unity
Closer ties sought
BRICS countries must stand together against trade protectionism, the Brics Business Council said yesterday.
The call for unity was made at the annual meeting of the Brics Business Council in Shanghai yesterday by the council’s chairperson Captain Xu Lirong.
Xu said Brics countries had maintained a sound momentum of economic development and called on Brics nations to continue working towards mutually beneficial co- operation featuring consultation, construction, and benefits-sharing, with a view to promoting the healthy develop- ment of economic globalisation.
More than 300 business representatives from China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, as well as representatives from co-operative organisations such as the New Development Bank and the UN Industrial Development Organisation ( Unido), were invited to the Business Council meeting.
The delegates discussed the opportunities and challenges facing emerging economies and agreed on the need for greater economic, trade and investment ties among Brics countries.
They deliberated on the council’s annual report and heard presentations on energy, the green economy, financial services, deregulation infrastructure, manufacturing, agribusiness and skills development.
A working group on regional aviation was set up. Discussions were also held on the partnership with the New Development Bank (NDB) and co-operation in global shipping and logistics, the digital economy and communications.
The council’s annual report is to be submitted to heads of state for review during the Brics Xiamen Summit which begins tomorrow.
The chairs of the council’s other chapters – Sergey Katyrin, Onkar Kanwar, Dr Iqbal Survé and Paulo Cesar De Souza e Silva (via Sherpa José Serrador Neto) – also addressed the council meeting.
The Business Council was established in 2013 during the 5th Brics summit in Durban. It includes five members from each of the Brics nations and seeks to strengthen economic, trade and investment ties.
Google faces fines
GOOGLE faces a Tuesday deadline to tell the EU how it plans to comply with an order to stop discriminating against rival shopping search services under threat of new fines that would add to a record 2.4 billion (R37bn) penalty.
The EU gave the Alphabet Inc unit 60 days to propose how it would “stop its illegal content” and 90 days to make changes to how the company displays shopping search results when users start seeking a product.
Those changes need to be put in place by September 28 to stave off a risk that the EU could fine the company 5% of daily revenue for each day it fails to comply.
Google declined to comment. – Bloomberg
Rapper sues Lloyd’s
KANYE West has got into a fight with a handful of Lloyd’s of London insurers. The rapper’s ability to generate massive publicity has exposed a weak spot in the insurers’ business model.
Very Good Touring Inc, the company behind the rapper’s 2016 Saint Pablo tour, is suing a group of Lloyd’s syndicates for at least $9.9 million, because they haven’t paid out for a handful of cancelled gigs. It wants interest at 10 percent and punitive damages, too.
The litigation is already pretty ugly. Very Good’s lawsuit claims the insurers have implied that Kanye’s use of marijuana provides them with grounds to refuse the claim. – Bloomberg
Driver-less pizza
DOMINO’S Pizza and Ford will team up to research reactions to robots bringing dinner to the driveway.
The goal of the partnership is to examine how customers react to fetching their pizza from a compartment, rather than having it carried to their doorstep.
Russell Weiner, president of Domino’s USA, said: “The majority of our questions are about the last 15m of the delivery experience.”
“For instance, how will customers react to coming outside to get their food?”
For Ford the experiment is a chance to look at ways to meet its promise to have self-driving cars on the road by 2021. – Bloomberg