Latest Trends in Financing by Export Credit Agencies (ECAs)

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
  Balraj ◽  
Raghuveer Singh Rajpurohit

Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) play a very important role in world trade especially when the new markets are risky; political risks are involved; the amount involved is very high and also the payment would take a long time to come, e.g. in project exports. These are some of the factors which inhibit the private insurers to insure or provide credit to the exporters. With the financial crisis in 2008, there was a liquidity crunch and that led to a greater void on part of private insurers. Before the financial crisis, it was thought that ECAs have no future and are slowly moving towards its demise. But it was not to be so! The main objective of this paper is to find out the latest developments related to ECAs. This paper also talks about - what constitutes an ECA? How do we define an ECA? What are the rationales behind establishing an ECA? What are the objectives of ECAs? Paper further talks about the institutional forms and the various kinds of ECAs The findings can be summed up as that there is increased demand for its products after the financial crisis. ECAs have also responded well to this increased demand not only by catering to this increased demand but also by bringing more innovative products. Asian ECAs are financing the projects in a big way. Some countries are planning to establish Export Import Banks. There is greater bilateral and regional cooperation between ECAs, Export Import Banks and Development Financial Institutions. There is also greater cooperation between ECAs and the Multilateral Banks, Private Institutions. ECAs are also looking at Islamic Business growth as this is going to be big business in near future. With increased business between South-South, there is greater cooperation between the ECAs in these countries. As this is a secondary research, it is not possible to check the veracity of the points mentioned by other researchers or mentioned in various studies. The study is also limited by the little data available about the ECAs.

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (16) ◽  
pp. 1630022
Author(s):  
Gerard ’t Hooft

After the last missing piece, the Higgs particle, has probably been identified, the Standard Model of the subatomic particles appears to be a quite robust structure, that can survive on its own for a long time to come. Most researchers expect considerable modifications and improvements to come in the near future, but it could also be that the Model will stay essentially as it is. This, however, would also require a change in our thinking, and the question remains whether and how it can be reconciled with our desire for our theories to be “natural”.


Author(s):  
Sarah Paterson

This book is concerned with the way in which forces of change, from the fields of finance and non-financial corporates, cause participants in the corporate reorganization process to adapt the ways in which they mobilize corporate reorganization law. It argues that scholars, practitioners, judges, and the legislature must all take care to connect their conceptual frameworks to the specific adaptations which emerge from this process of change. It further argues that this need to connect theoretical and policy concepts with practical adaptations has posed particular challenges when US corporate reorganization law has been under examination in the decade since the financial crisis. At the same time, the book suggests that English scholars, practitioners, judges, and the legislature have been more successful, over the course of the past ten years, in choosing concepts to frame their analysis which are sensitive to the ways in which corporate reorganization law is currently used. Nonetheless, it suggests that new problems may be on the horizon for English corporate reorganization lawyers in adapting their conceptual framework in the decades to come.


2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 003685042110294
Author(s):  
Emile Andari ◽  
Paola Atallah ◽  
Sami Azar ◽  
Akram Echtay ◽  
Selim Jambart ◽  
...  

Given that the complications of type 2 diabetes can start at an early stage, early detection and appropriate management of prediabetes are essential. We aimed to develop an expert opinion on prediabetes in Lebanon to pave the way for national guidelines tailored for the Lebanese population in the near future. A panel of seven diabetes experts conducted a thorough literature review and discussed their opinions and experiences before coming up with a set of preliminary recommendations for the detection and management of prediabetes in Lebanon. Lebanese physicians employ multiple tests for the diagnosis of prediabetes and no national cut-off values exist. The panel agreed that prediabetes screening should be focused on patients exceeding 45 years of age with otherwise no risk factors and on adults with risk factors. The panel reached that fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and HbA1c should be used for prediabetes diagnosis in Lebanon. FPG values of 100–125 mg/dL or HbA1c values of 5.7%–6.4% were agreed upon as indicative of prediabetes. For the management of prediabetes, a three-step approach constituting lifestyle modifications, pharmacological treatment and bariatric surgery is recommended. There should be more focus on research on prediabetes in Lebanon. This preliminary report will be further discussed with the Lebanese Society of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Lipids in 2021 in order to come up with the first Lebanese national guidelines for the detection and management of prediabetes in Lebanon.


2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (No. 11) ◽  
pp. 497-502
Author(s):  
O. Rejnuš

The paper discusses the importance of commodity exchange trading while placing a special emphasis on the increasingly close interconnection between commodity markets and financial instruments markets. The aim of the paper is to prove that at present, commodity markets cannot be seen as strictly separate from markets trading in financial instruments, as there are increasingly close links between the two, which effectively lead to the transfer of financial resources invested in the financial market into the real economy. The paper analyses the most significant ties that already exist between the commodities and financial investment instruments in the financial and capital market, as well as the links that are very likely to come into existence in the near future. In the concluding part, there is a summary of the reasons that will necessarily lead to a further world-wide development of commodity exchange trading and a prediction of the lines along which this development is likely to take place.


2021 ◽  
pp. 102452942110032
Author(s):  
David Karas

Whereas the active role of the state in steering financialization is consensual in advanced economies, the financialization of emerging market economies is usually examined through the prism of dependency: this downplays the domestic political functions of financialization and the agency of the state. With the consolidation of state capitalist regimes in the semi-periphery after the Global Financial Crisis, different interpretations emerged – some linking state capitalism with de-financialization, others with coercive projects deepening it. Preferring a more granular and multi-dimensional approach, I analyse how different facets of financialization might represent political risks or opportunities for state capitalist projects: Based on the Hungarian example, I first explain how the constitution of a ‘financial vertical’ after 2010 inaugurated a new mode of statecraft. Second, I show how the financial vertical enabled rentier bargains between state and society after 2015 by deepening the financialization of social policy and housing in response to a looming crisis of competitiveness.


Africa ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. C. Evans

Opening ParagraphFor many years British administrators and others concerned with the developing countries of tropical Africa have criticized Western-type schooling introduced there for what they believe to have been its bad effects on the life of rural peoples. They have complained that such schooling is prejudicial to rural life, since it produces a distaste for agriculture and leads to a drift from the land. They say it promotes in schoolchildren a desire to be clerks or white-collar workers and, because of their schooling, they develop a strong dislike for manual work and a reluctance to soil their hands with physical labour. They assert that these values inculcated by Western schooling lead finally to an almost complete rejection of rural life, a contempt for agriculture, and therefore to a decrease in rural productivity. Finally, they maintain that this is particularly serious in view of the fact that, as far as we can see at present, many African countries will have to depend on agriculture and the land for a long time to come, for it is only through such dependence that it seems likely that they will achieve economic viability which will be an important factor in making a success of political independence.


1990 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 327-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Bravman

In September 1987, early in my research at the Kenya National Archives, I came across a collection of photographs taken by a British missionary during the 1920s and early 1930s. The collection contained nearly 250 photos of the terrain and people of Kenya's Taita Hills, where I would soon be going for my fieldwork. I pored over the photo collection for a long time, and had reproductions made of twenty-five shots. The names of those pictured had been recorded in the photo album's captions. Many of the names were new to me, though a few WaTaita of the day who had figured prominently in the archival records were also captured on film. When I moved on to Taita in early 1988,1 took the photographs with me. Since I would be interviewing men and women old enough either to remember or be contemporaries of the people in the pictures, I planned to show the photos during the interviews. At first I was simply curious about who some of the people pictured were, but my curiosity quickly evolved into a more ambitious plan. I decided to try using the photographs as visual prompts to get people to speak more expansively than they otherwise might about their lives and their experiences.In the event, I learned that using the photographs in interviews involved many more complexities than I had envisaged in my initial enthusiasm. I found that I had to alter the expectations and techniques I took to Taita, and feel out some of the limitations of working with the photographic medium. I had to recognize the power relations embedded in my presence as a researcher in Taita, in my position as bearer of images from peoples' pasts, and in the photos themselves. I found, too, that I needed to come to grips with a number of issues about the politics of image production, and the historical product of those politics: the bounded, selected images that are photographs. Finally, I had to address some of my own cultural assumptions about photography and how people respond to pictures, assumptions that my informants did not necessarily share.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1396
Author(s):  
Z. N. Diyana ◽  
R. Jumaidin ◽  
Mohd Zulkefli Selamat ◽  
Ihwan Ghazali ◽  
Norliza Julmohammad ◽  
...  

Thermoplastic starch composites have attracted significant attention due to the rise of environmental pollutions induced by the use of synthetic petroleum-based polymer materials. The degradation of traditional plastics requires an unusually long time, which may lead to high cost and secondary pollution. To solve these difficulties, more petroleum-based plastics should be substituted with sustainable bio-based plastics. Renewable and natural materials that are abundant in nature are potential candidates for a wide range of polymers, which can be used to replace their synthetic counterparts. This paper focuses on some aspects of biopolymers and their classes, providing a description of starch as a main component of biopolymers, composites, and potential applications of thermoplastics starch-based in packaging application. Currently, biopolymer composites blended with other components have exhibited several enhanced qualities. The same behavior is also observed when natural fibre is incorporated with biopolymers. However, it should be noted that the degree of compatibility between starch and other biopolymers extensively varies depending on the specific biopolymer. Although their efficacy is yet to reach the level of their fossil fuel counterparts, biopolymers have made a distinguishing mark, which will continue to inspire the creation of novel substances for many years to come.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-560
Author(s):  
ERIC PULLIN

Secrecy has unintended consequences. The release on 9 December 2014 of the US Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the torture of terrorism detainees focused public attention on the secret activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Regrettably, lost amidst debate over justifying or condemning state-sponsored torture is a more basic concern, the issue of state secrecy, which underlies the discussion of how governments promote national ends. Only two days after the issuance of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report, the US House of Representatives adjourned without taking action on the Freedom of Information Act reform bill – despite receiving unanimous approval in both houses. This bill would not have required complete openness, but it would have eliminated many of the arbitrary mechanisms that enable the CIA and other governmental agencies to suppress requests for information. Although the House Republican leadership failed to put the act on the legislative calendar, the Obama administration's Department of Justice also deserves opprobrium for surreptitiously opposing the act behind the scenes. The US government's disregard for establishing reasonable rules of transparency virtually guarantees that the CIA will continue to suppress its records, and thus public scrutiny of its unchecked activities, for a very long time to come.


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