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Philippines eyes expansion of halal food footprint in Gulf countries

Philippines eyes expansion of halal food footprint in Gulf countries
The Philippine Department of Trade and Industry hosts a business-to-business matching session with representatives of the Bahraini food and personal care sector in Manama, Bahrain, on Feb. 12, 2023. (DTI)
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Updated 16 February 2023
Ellie Aben
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Philippines eyes expansion of halal food footprint in Gulf countries

Philippines eyes expansion of halal food footprint in Gulf countries
  • Special Philippine trade tour started last week, covering four Gulf states
  • GCC countries host the largest number of overseas Filipinos
Updated 16 February 2023
Ellie Aben
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MANILA: A special trade mission to Gulf Cooperation Council countries is looking to expand the market presence for Philippine halal-certified food, Manila’s envoy to Abu Dhabi said, as delegates started the last leg of the tour in the UAE on Thursday.
The Outbound Business Matching Mission by the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry started in Bahrain on Feb. 11 and will also cover Kuwait and Qatar.
It will end in Dubai during next week’s Gulfood 2023 — the world’s largest annual food and beverage expo.
A total of 26 Philippine exporters of halal-certified food, personal care and cosmetic products joined the mission to the Gulf states to tap into the $3 trillion global industry.
“Organizing these business matching sessions is a way for us to open the door to the Philippine private sector,” Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Alfonso A. Ver told Arab News.
“While governments open the door, it is the private sector that ultimately needs to enter that door to reap the benefits of this cooperation.”
This year’s mission includes exporters from five Philippine regions offering a variety of products to the GCC’s population, including overseas Filipino workers.
GCC countries host the largest number of Philippine expats, among whom 800,000 live in Saudi Arabia and 650,000 in the UAE — the country’s two largest trading partners in the Gulf region.
“Based on the products of participating exporters in the OBMM and the export potential assessment conducted by the International Trade Center, the mission aims to maximize the Philippines’ additional export potential to the GCC estimated at $100 million,” Ver said.
The additional trade volume would mean an increase of over 50 percent, as in 2022, Philippine exports of food products and personal care products to the GCC amounted to $223 million and $11 million, respectively.
The trade mission will conclude at Gulfood, where the Philippines will be represented by 18 manufacturers and exporters of fruits and vegetables, seafood, and ethnic and gourmet products, highlighting small and medium enterprises with halal certification under the banner of the country’s food promotion program FOODPhilippines.
“The Philippines is continuously strengthening its halal ecosystem to be able to better serve the growing global halal market. The mission aims to contribute to increased understanding of Philippine exporters on the halal market in the GCC,” the Department of Trade and Industry said as it started the GCC tour last week.
“Our sustained initiatives to strengthen partnerships in the Middle East is a testament to our desire to work with other countries in attaining food security through cooperation and innovation.”
 

Topics: Philippines halal food GCC

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Putin discusses Ukraine war with top Wagner commander Troshev

Putin discusses Ukraine war with top Wagner commander Troshev
Updated 4 sec ago
Reuters
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Putin discusses Ukraine war with top Wagner commander Troshev

Putin discusses Ukraine war with top Wagner commander Troshev
  • Putin meets former top Wagner commander
  • The meeting underscored the Kremlin’s attempt to show that the state had now gained control over the mercenary group
Updated 4 sec ago
Reuters
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin was on Friday shown meeting one of the most senior former commanders of the Wagner mercenary group and discussing how best to use “volunteer units” in the Ukraine war.
The meeting underscored the Kremlin’s attempt to show that the state had now gained control over the mercenary group after a failed June mutiny by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed with other senior commanders in a plane crash in August.
Just days after the Wagner’s mutiny, Putin offered the mercenaries the opportunity to keep fighting but suggested that commander Andrei Troshev take over from Prigozhin, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper has reported.
The Kremlin said that Putin had met with Troshev, who is known by his nom de guerre “Sedoi” — or “grey hair” — and Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who sat closest to Putin, on Thursday night.
Addressing Troshev, Putin said that they had spoken about how “volunteer units that can perform various combat tasks, above all, of course, in the zone of the special military operation.”
“You yourself have been fighting in such a unit for more than a year,” Putin said. “You know what it is, how it is done, you know about the issues that need to be resolved in advance so that the combat work goes in the best and most successful way.”
Putin also said that he wanted to speak about social support for those involved in the fighting. The meeting took place in the Kremlin and was shown on state television.
Troshev was shown listening to Putin, leaning forward and nodding, pencil in hand. His remarks were not shown.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the RIA news agency that Troshev now worked at the defense ministry.
The fate of Wagner, one of the world’s most battle-hardened mercenary forces, has been unclear since Prigozhin’s failed June 23 mutiny and his death on Aug. 23.
The aborted mutiny is widely regarded to have posed the most serious internal challenge to Putin — and to the Russian state — for decades. Prigozhin said the mutiny was not aimed at toppling Putin but at settling scores with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
After Prigozhin’s death, Putin ordered Wagner fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the Russian state — a step Prigozhin had opposed.
The Putin meeting appears to indicate that what remains of Wagner will now be overseen by Troshev and Yevkurov, who has traveled over recent months to several countries where the mercenaries work.
A decorated veteran of Russia’s wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya and a former commander in the SOBR interior ministry rapid reaction force,
Troshev
is from St. Petersburg, Putin’s home town, and has been pictured with the president.
He was awarded Russia’s highest medal, Hero of Russia, in 2016 for the storming of Palmyra in Syria against Daesh militants.

M.S. Swaminathan, ‘father’ of India’s green revolution, dies at 98

M.S. Swaminathan, ‘father’ of India’s green revolution, dies at 98
Updated 41 min 22 sec ago
Reuters
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M.S. Swaminathan, ‘father’ of India’s green revolution, dies at 98

M.S. Swaminathan, ‘father’ of India’s green revolution, dies at 98
  • Scientist revolutionized farming in 1960s when China was engulfed in deadly famine, India barely got by on hand-to-mouth imports
  • Swaminathan won many awards for his work in agriculture, including the first World Food Prize in 1987
Updated 41 min 22 sec ago
Reuters

NEW DELHI: Indian agricultural scientist Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, who ushered a “Green Revolution” in India nearly six decades ago that helped end famine and transformed the country as a top producer of wheat, died on Thursday aged 98.

Swaminathan died at his home in southern India’s Chennai city following age-related illness, local media reported.

He revolutionized farming in the 1960s when China was engulfed in a deadly famine and India barely got by on hand-to-mouth imports.

Back then, Swaminathan was a young scientist who turned down plum positions in academia and the government to work in agricultural research. He helped to cross-breed wheat seeds that allowed India to more than treble its annual crop in just 15 years.

“His end came very peacefully this morning... Till the end, he was committed to the farmers’ welfare and to the upliftment of the poorest in society,” his daughter Soumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist at the World Health Organization, told ANI news agency.

President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined lawmakers, scientists and people from across the country in expressing condolences.

Swaminathan won many awards for his work in agriculture, including the first World Food Prize in 1987 and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award, in 1989.

Back in 2008, when Swaminathan was 82, he told Reuters in an interview that conservation farming and green technology were crucial for a sustainable “Evergreen Revolution” of the 21st century that could push India to become an even bigger supplier of food to the world.

The push for a new revolution came as hybrid seeds that helped India in the 1960s made farmers overlook the potential ecological damage of heavy fertilizer use, drop in water tables due to heavier irrigation and the impact of repeated crop cycles on soil quality.

“The Green Revolution created a sense of euphoria that we have solved our production problem. Now we have a plateau in production and productivity. We have a problem of under investment in rural infrastructure,” he said afterwards.

Swaminathan is survived by three daughters.

“He leaves behind a rich legacy of Indian agriculture science which may serve as a guiding light to steer the world toward a safer and hunger-free future for humanity,” President Murmu said in a social media post.

Topics: Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan MS Swaminathan green revolution India

Blinken raises Sikh separatist murder with India’s Jaishankar — US official

Blinken raises Sikh separatist murder with India’s Jaishankar — US official
Updated 45 min 29 sec ago
Reuters
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Blinken raises Sikh separatist murder with India’s Jaishankar — US official

Blinken raises Sikh separatist murder with India’s Jaishankar — US official
  • Canada says Indian government agents linked to murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June
  • India has dismissed Canada’s allegations, ties have become strained as both governments expelled diplomats
Updated 45 min 29 sec ago
Reuters

WASHINGTON/OTTAWA: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged India to cooperate with a Canadian investigation into the murder of a Sikh separatist during a meeting with Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday, a US official said.

Speaking in Quebec earlier on Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has alleged an Indian role in the killing, said he was certain that Blinken would broach the issue with Jaishankar.

India has dismissed Canada’s allegations as absurd, and ties have become strained with both governments expelling a diplomat in a tit-for-tat move.

“Blinken raised the Canadian matter in his meeting, (and) urged the Indian government to cooperate with Canada’s investigation,” the US official said, though a State Department statement made no mention of the issue.

Trudeau told parliament earlier this month that Canada suspected Indian government agents were linked to the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the province of British Columbia in June.

Nijjar was a Canadian citizen but India had declared him a “terrorist.” He supported the cause of Khalistan, or an independent homeland for Sikhs to be carved out of India.

Traditional Canadian allies, including the United States, have appeared to take a cautious approach to the matter. Political analysts have said this is partly because Washington and other major players see India as a counterweight to the growing influence of China.

Blinken met Jaishankar on Thursday afternoon in Washington. Asked directly whether Blinken would bring up the case, Trudeau replied: “The Americans will certainly discuss this matter with the Indian government.”

The US State Department’s formal statement on its website after Blinken met his Indian counterpart made no mention of Nijjar’s murder or of Canada as a whole.

A short State Department summary of the issues discussed in the meeting between Blinken and Jaishankar, formally called a readout, listed points like India’s G20 presidency, the creation of an India-Middle East-Europe corridor and topics like defense, space and clean energy.

Jaishankar said on Tuesday that New Delhi has told Canada it was open to looking into any “specific” or “relevant” information it provides on the killing.

Trudeau, who is yet to publicly share any evidence, said last week he has shared the “credible allegations” with India “many weeks ago.”

Blinken and US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week the United States was “deeply concerned” about the allegations raised by Trudeau.

The US ambassador to Canada told Canadian television that some information on the case had been gathered by the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which includes the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK.

Topics: India Canada Hardeep Singh Nijjar Sikh

ADB unveils capital moves to boost lending by $100 bln over a decade for Asia-Pacific

ADB unveils capital moves to boost lending by $100 bln over a decade for Asia-Pacific
Updated 29 September 2023
Reuters
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ADB unveils capital moves to boost lending by $100 bln over a decade for Asia-Pacific

ADB unveils capital moves to boost lending by $100 bln over a decade for Asia-Pacific
  • World Bank said on Thursday it was proposing new capital measures to add over $100 billion in new lending
  • This is on top of $50 billion yielded by previous measures including use of debt-like hybrid capital
Updated 29 September 2023
Reuters

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) unveiled new capital reforms on Friday that will unlock $100 billion in new financing capacity over 10 years as the lender expands its development and anti-poverty mission to tackle climate change and other global crises.

The Manila-based lender said it was adjusting its risk appetite and reducing its minimum-level of capitalization in a way that preserves its top tier AAA credit rating while allowing it to expand its lending commitments by nearly 40 percent to about $36 billion annually.

ADB’s move to stretch its balance sheet follows similar measures announced by the World Bank earlier this year that will yield a $50 billion increase in lending over a decade. But the ADB’s effort will yield twice the new lending on an “apples to apples” comparison, ADB Managing Director General Woochong Um told Reuters in an interview.

ADB has traditionally taken a more conservative approach, maintaining a higher risk-adjusted capital ratio than the World Bank and other multilateral development banks, said Roberta Casali, vice president for finance and risk management.

So as ADB took a more “granular” approach to analyzing risks, and adjusting downward estimates of unexpected losses, the lender had more room to squeeze new lending from its capital structure than some other banks had, Casali said.

Aiding the effort — and providing some comfort to credit ratings agencies — is the creation of a new, $12 billion Countercyclical Lending Buffer fund that can be used to aid ADB member countries in times of unexpected crises, helping to stabilize them and help avoid loan losses.

The World Bank said on Thursday it was proposing new capital measures that would add more than $100 billion in new lending over a decade on top of the $50 billion yielded by previous measures. These include use of debt-like hybrid capital and increased use of loan portfolio guarantees.

Discussions on expanding lending to fight climate change, pandemics, food insecurity and fragility will be a dominant topic at World Bank-IMF annual meetings in Marrakech, Morocco Oct. 9-15.

But with an estimated $3 trillion in annual climate transition financing needs in developing countries, far more capital, private sector participation and innovation will be needed, ADB officials said.

“At the end of the day, developing Asia needs trillions of dollars, so we need to go from billions to trillions,” Um said. “All of us — the World Bank, ADB — need to do everything we can to squeeze as much money as possible from our balance sheets.”

Shutdown looms as US Senate, House advance separate spending plans

Shutdown looms as US Senate, House advance separate spending plans
Updated 29 September 2023
Reuters
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Shutdown looms as US Senate, House advance separate spending plans

Shutdown looms as US Senate, House advance separate spending plans
  • House Republicans are demanding a $120 billion cuts in an earlier agreed $1.59 trillion in discretionary spending in fiscal 2024
  • They also want tougher legislation that would stop the flow of immigrants at the US southern border with Mexico
Updated 29 September 2023
Reuters

WASHINGTON: The Democratic-led US Senate forged ahead on Thursday with a bipartisan stopgap funding bill aimed at averting a fourth partial government shutdown in a decade, while the House began voting on partisan Republican spending bills with no chance of becoming law.

The divergent paths of the two chambers appeared to increase the odds that federal agencies will run out of money on Sunday, furloughing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and halting a wide range of services from economic data releases to nutrition benefits.
The House of Representatives voted 216-212 on a bill funding the State Department and other aspects of foreign affairs, the first in a series of four partisan appropriations bills that would not alone prevent a shutdown, even if they could overcome strong opposition from Senate Democrats and become law.
The Senate earlier in the day had voted 76-22 to open debate on a stopgap bill known as a continuing resolution, or CR, which would extend federal spending until Nov. 17, and authorize roughly $6 billion each for domestic disaster response funding and aid to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia.
The Senate measure has already been rejected by Republicans, who control the House.
House Republicans, led by a small faction of hard-line conservatives in the chamber they control by a 221-212 margin, have rejected spending levels for fiscal year 2024 set in a deal Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated with Biden in May.
The agreement included $1.59 trillion in discretionary spending in fiscal 2024. House Republicans are demanding another $120 billion in cuts, plus tougher legislation that would stop the flow of immigrants at the US southern border with Mexico.
The funding fight focuses on a relatively small slice of the $6.4 trillion US budget for this fiscal year. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
McCarthy is facing intense pressure from his caucus to achieve their goals. Several hard-liners have threatened to oust him from his leadership role if he passes a spending bill that requires any Democratic votes to pass.
Former President Donald Trump has taken to social media to push his congressional allies toward a shutdown.
McCarthy, for his part, suggested on Thursday that a shutdown could be avoided if Senate Democrats agreed to address border issues in their stopgap measure.
“I talked this morning to some Democratic senators over there that are more aligned with what we want to do. They want to do something about the border,” McCarthy told reporters in the US Capitol.
“We’re trying to work to see, could we put some border provisions in that current Senate bill that would actually make things a lot better,” he said.
The House Freedom Caucus, home to the hard-liners forcing McCarthy’s hand, in an open letter to him on Thursday demanded a timeline for passing the seven remaining appropriations bills and a plan to further reduce the top-line discretionary spending figure, among other questions.

The Senate measure has passed two procedural hurdles this week with strong bipartisan support.
“Congress has only one option — one option — to avoid a shutdown: bipartisanship,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday. “With bipartisanship, we can responsibly fund the government and avoid the sharp and unnecessary pain for the American people and the economy that a shutdown will bring.”
Credit agencies have warned that brinkmanship and political polarization are harming the US financial outlook. Moody’s, the last major ratings agency to rate the US government “Aaa” with a stable outlook, said on Monday that a shutdown would harm the country’s credit rating.
Fitch, another major ratings agency, already downgraded the US government to “AA+” after Congress flirted with defaulting on the nation’s debt earlier this year.
 

Topics: US Shutdown

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