Conflict looms between Congo and mining companies

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Business Environment ◽  
Mining Sector ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mining Companies ◽  
The Government ◽  
Investor Protections ◽  
Major Project

Subject Congo's new mining code. Significance After five years of deliberation, Congo’s parliament on January 27 adopted new legislation regulating the all-important mining sector. If signed by President Joseph Kabila, the sweeping overhaul will raise royalties, introduce new taxes and remove existing investor protections. International mining companies are planning to fight back, but the government appears unwilling to yield, betting on Congo’s position as the world’s largest source of cobalt. Impacts The authorities could threaten or execute expropriation of a major project to demonstrate their seriousness. New projects might be suspended or shelved. Investors might increase contacts with Kabila’s political opponents to raise pressure on the embattled president. The removal of investor protections will damage already-fragile confidence in Congo’s wider business environment.

Egypt gold mining boom comes with risks for investors

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Gold Mining ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Mining Sector ◽  
Specialist Service ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mining Companies ◽  
The Government ◽  
Petroleum Sector ◽  
The Military

Significance The government is prioritising expansion of the mining sector, including attracting foreign investment, after many years of neglect. However, the military's increasing dominance of parts of the economy, including the mining sector, creates risks, especially for foreign investors. Impacts The Egyptian bureaucracy and lack of specialist service providers will create obstacles for private sector investors. There is no immediate prospect of a legal framework to govern business relations between the military and international mining companies. Investors will not face the same credit risk in the mining sector as operators in the petroleum sector face.

Mining promotion will spark local conflicts in Peru

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Water Shortages ◽  
Mining Sector ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Southern Peru ◽  
Mining Companies ◽  
The Government

Subject Outlook for the mining sector. Significance With tensions building up over mining concessions once again across southern Peru, President Martin Vizcarra's government is under growing pressure to produce formulae that attract investment without provoking the sort of social and environmental protests that have flourished over the last two decades. Some mining companies themselves have made strides in accommodating themselves to adverse local conditions. Impacts With minerals prices subject to volatile demand in China, investors may prefer to hedge their bets. The government lacks capacity to mediate conflict once it has arisen. Water shortages will become more acute with time.

Tanzanian export ban unlikely to drive investors away

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Mining Sector ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mining Companies ◽  
The Government ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
Smelting Capacity

Subject Tanzania metal ore export ban. Significance On March 2, the Tanzanian government announced it had banned export of metal ores by international mining companies, in what firms see as part of a continuing attack on the extractive industries sector. The government has attempted to negotiate increased tax bills, or settlement of unpaid ones, and has repeatedly threatened to take a greater slice of revenues. Impacts Donor criticisms of the ban will be muted but further restrictive measures would cause concern. Mining sector employment could be damaged in the short term as investment shifts to developing smelting capacity over expanding production. Magufuli’s popularity is likely to persist and he will be projected as a champion against exploitative foreign interests.

Guatemala’s economy on the way to recovery

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Violent Crime ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Containment Measures ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Way

Significance National GDP nevertheless contracted by just 1.5% in 2020 -- less than almost any other country in Latin America. Resilient remittances and exports, coupled with unprecedented policy support, have mitigated the effects of the pandemic and subsequent containment measures, leaving the country better placed for recovery than its neighbours. Impacts Enduring poverty, inequality and violent crime, and the impacts of accelerating climate change, will drive further migration from Guatemala. The government will pursue banking law reforms, to reduce risks to financial activities in the post-pandemic business environment. Infighting and corruption scandals will hinder the opposition's ability to benefit from the decline of the president's popularity.

Is bribing a good strategy? Imbalanced interdependence and hazard of opportunism in bribery

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho Wook Shin ◽  
Jinsil Kim ◽  
Seung-hyun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Relational Contract ◽  
Current Resource ◽  
The Government ◽  
A Current

PurposeIn fragile institutional environments, firms often have no choice but bribery as the means to access the services monopolized by the government. Corrupt government officials whose resources are valuable to many different firms can easily find other firms willing to offer bribes. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how this imbalanced interdependence exposes the bribing firm to the hazard of opportunism from the bribed officials.Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on World Business Environment Survey (WBES) data and the instrumental variable (IV) Probit estimator with Heckman correction for the potential selection bias.FindingsThe authors find that the more firms depend on bribery to acquire governmental resources, the severer the level of opportunism they encounter from the government officials. In addition, the authors find that although the presence of a legal alternative to bribery reduces the level of a corrupt government official's opportunism that a bribing firm experiences, the more firms depend on bribery despite the presence of a legal alternative, the higher the level of the corrupt official's opportunism that the firm will experience. Finally, the authors find that establishing a relational contract with government officials reduces the hazard of opportunism.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the resource dependence literature by finding that a greater imbalance in the interdependence between two parties in bribery exposes the more dependent party to a larger hazard of opportunism. The finding that an ineffective alternative to a current resource provider would not strengthen but weaken a resource seeker's bargaining power expands the literature. The authors also contribute to the corruption research by showing the significant strategic, not legal, risk to bribing firms of engaging in bribery, which to date has not been sufficiently discussed.

The supply-side of corruption: a review of scenario, causes and prevention measure

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurfarizan Mazhani Mahmud ◽  
Intan Salwani Mohamed ◽  
Roshayani Arshad
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Preventative Measures ◽  
Prior Literature ◽  
The Government ◽  
High Level

Purpose This paper aims to provide a proper understanding of corruption in the private sector, also known as the supply-side of corruption. It also presents the causes of corrupt practices and points out the corporations’ actions to mitigate corrupt behaviour in the business environment. Design/methodology/approach This study reviews the prior literature on the phenomenon of corruption in the private sector, its causes and the preventive measures that should be implemented. Findings Corruption in the private sector was associated with a firm’s interaction with the public sector, and the most common corruption in the private sector is grand corruption, which is improper contribution made to high-level public officials and politicians. The causes of corruption in the private sector can be explained from several dimensions: economy, psychosocial and legal and regulation. Preventative measures encompass both internal strategies, which are endogenous to business and external strategies like exogenous legislation and restrictions enforced by the government or outside organizations. Originality/value The efficient strategies in combating corruption need active cooperation and participation from the supply-side of corruption. Thus, this study contributes to the literature on the theoretical understanding of the corruption problem from the supply-side and responsibility play by the private sector in global anti-corruption initiatives.

scholarly journals Policy Enabling Environment of Mining Sector in Tanzania: A Review of Opportunities and Challenges

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Willy Maliganya ◽  
Kenneth Bengesi
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
Mining Sector ◽  
Investment Environment ◽  
Mining Companies ◽  
Enabling Environment ◽  
Mineral Wealth ◽  
Expected Benefits ◽  
The Government

Mining has increasingly become an important contributor to the economy of developing countries including Tanzania. Since independence, Tanzania has made several efforts in response to address the challenges in the mining sector to enhance its contribution to the national economy. However, such efforts have not been successful in addressing the persisting challenges, which includes lack of expected benefits, failure to develop policy options for making the investment environment supportive for all actors in the sector; hence failure to use mineral wealth sustainably. The reasons for the persistence of these challenges are not well documented especially in relation to the policy framework. While some scholars attribute these challenges to bad deals with mining companies, others blame the government for its failure to effectively implement, monitor and enforce the existing regulatory framework. This paper reviews the policy enabling environment of the mining sector in Tanzania. The results indicate that Tanzania has taken measures to create some opportunities through policy enabling environment. However, the measures have not been able to achieve the expected results due to the persistence of targeted challenges in the sector. In view of this, improvement of the policy framework is particularly needed where policy gaps have accelerated for poor practices.

Societal institutions and control system characteristics: empirical evidence from the UAE

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayada Abd El-Aziz Youssef ◽  
Essam Moustafa
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
Business Entities ◽  
And Performance ◽  
And Control

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the existence of two sets of factors societal institutions and management control systems’ (MCS) characteristics in the UAE business entities. Subsequently, this paper empirically examines the bilateral and the multivariate associations between the two sets. The societal institutions include six factors categorised in three main groups: cultural conventions, state structures and policies and skill development and control. The MCS characteristics consist of four factors which are: reliance on formal rules, control over the behaviour of employees, involvement of subordinates in target setting and performance evaluation and scope of information used in performance evaluation. Design/methodology/approach – Whitley’s model (1999) is adopted in the UAE business environment and the analyses are performed at the organisational level. Qualified accounting officials and managers are surveyed. The Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman’s partial correlation and multiple regression are used for data analyses. Findings – Findings reveal the characteristics of the UAE societal institutions and the MCS in UAE organisations. They also reveal significant associations among four of the societal institution factors and most of the MCS characteristics. The results highlight the role played by the government structures and policies group in influencing the MCS characteristics in the UAE organisations. However, these results do not entirely agree with Whitley’s model. Research limitations/implications – The results of this study are restricted by the typical constraints associated with the survey method. The obtained results have implications for researchers and managers in facilitating the understanding of the relations among the various societal institutions and the MCS characteristics. Originality/value – This research, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, provides significant new empirical evidence into the relation between societal institutions and MCS characteristics in a non-Western economy.

Myanmar regulation reform will spur investment

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Direct Investment ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Regulatory Environment ◽  
Business Climate ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Effective Administration ◽  
Regulation Reform ◽  
The Government

Subject Myanmar's business environment. Significance The government is instituting measures to improve the business climate and attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into the economy. As part of this effort, on February 24, it instituted the Competition Act. However, while there has been an influx of new FDI, foreign investors remain wary -- largely because of the challenges of navigating Myanmar's old and complex regulatory environment. Impacts Economic reforms could slow in the event of an opposition electoral victory, as the new government gains experience. Improvements to the business environment could be constrained by a faltering or failed ethnic peace process. Regulatory reforms backed up by effective administration could contribute to equitable economic growth.

Port expansion will aid Morocco's trade hub ambitions

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Index ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
Policy Priority ◽  
Logistics Performance Index ◽  
Port Expansion ◽  
The Imf

Subject Logistics performance. Significance Morocco's aspiration to become a trade and industrial hub for the Atlantic and Mediterranean basins has received a setback with the publication of the World Bank's 2016 Logistics Performance Index on June 28. Morocco's ranking fell to 86th place, from 50th in 2012. Impacts Morocco's fall in logistics performance and corruption rankings could be used to attack the government in the election campaign. It could also provide an incentive to reform the business environment, which the IMF has highlighted as a policy priority. Morocco's advantages compared to its regional peers will outweigh investor concerns over the rankings.

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