Doug Green

China has just announced that last year, for the first time since it began opening up its economy to the world at the end of the 1970s, exports declined on an annual basis. And that is not all; in value terms, global trade declined in 2015. The obvious question is why. While global trade also fell in 2009, the explanation was obvious: The world was experiencing a sharp contraction in GDP at the time. Last year, however, the world economy grew by a respectable 3%. Moreover, trade barriers have not risen significantly anywhere, and transport costs are falling, owing to the sharp decline in oil prices. Tellingly, the so-called Baltic Dry Index, which measures the cost of chartering the large ships that carry most long-distance trade, has fallen to an all-time low. This indicates that markets do not expect a recovery, meaning that the data from 2015 could herald a new age of slowing trade. The obvious conclusion is that the once-irresistible forces of globalisation are losing steam. The situation in China is telling. In recent decades, as it became the world’s leading trading economy, China transformed the global trading system. Now the value of both imports and exports have fallen, though the former have declined more, owing to the collapse of global commodity prices. In fact, commodity prices are the key to understanding trade trends over the last few decades. When they were high, they drove increased trade – to the point that the share of trade to GDP rose – fuelling hype about the inevitable progress of globalization. But in 2012, commodity prices began to fall, soon bringing trade down with them. Assume that one ton of steel and ten barrels of oil are needed to produce one car. In 2002-2003, that bundle of raw materials was worth around […]

HONG KONG – Celebrating its 11th edition this year, Eco Expo Asia, the preeminent trading platform for green businesses in Asia, will gather industry experts and leading-edge products and solutions at AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong from 26 to 29 October 2016. The annual show is organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd, and co-organised with the Environment Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government. A networking luncheon for the show was held on 17 March at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, which welcomed representatives from the international government and business sectors. These guests shared insights into the emerging green market in different countries. Four key focuses for Hong Kong environmental protection policies Wong Kam-sing, Secretary for the Environment of the HKSAR Government, delivered the keynote luncheon speech. Mr Wong praised Eco Expo Asia as an exceptional platform for promoting environment protection in Hong Kong as well as for representatives from different countries to exchange their views and set common objectives. Mr Wong highlighted the achievements Hong Kong had made in environmental protection in recent years. For example, in July 2015, the government introduced a new regulation which requires all ocean-going vessels to switch to low-sulphur marine fuel for berthing in the port of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the first Asian city to implement such a measure, and it has improved the air quality around the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals and surrounding berths significantly. He added that the government will also set up an inter-departmental committee on climate change to formulate more progressive policies towards meeting emission reduction targets. Mr Wong elaborated: “Hong Kong has identified four key focuses for its environmental protection policies, including cleaner air supply, building energy efficiency, green transportation and waste-to-energy conversion. Related measures […]

TOKYO – NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) will introduce its Public Safety solutions at the International Exhibition for National Security & Resilience (ISNR) 2016, which will be held at ADNEC, Abu Dhabi, UAE from 15 to 17 March 2016. At its stand (Booth #3410, Hall 3), NEC will introduce its initiatives in delivering “Solutions for Society,” which are aimed at realizing values such as safety, security, efficiency, and equality, all of which are essential to create a more sustainable and secure society. At the event, NEC will showcase its leading-edge solutions for Public Safety and Cyber Security. Exhibits will include NEC’s Crowd Detection System. This new digital security solution can help grasp realtime crowd density levels and the estimated number of people using video surveillance systems. The system will assist to clarify crowd density levels and crowd behavior, and provide precise information with quantified data, including the number of people and the percentage of crowd density. During the show, NEC will also demonstrate its NeoFace Watch facial recognition system, specifically designed to integrate with existing surveillance systems by extracting faces in real time from existing video surveillance systems and matching against a watch list of individuals. When the system identifies an individual of interest from the watch list, it raises an alert, so appropriate actions can be taken rapidly to reduce the risk of public safety threats. NEC’s exhibits at ISNR 2016 include: – Latent Finger/Palm Law Enforcement workstation – Face Recognition Solution (Forensic Application and Realtime Surveillance) – Specific Scene Analysis System – High-Sensitivity Camera – Crowd Detection System – Access Control Solution – Cyber Security Training Platform – Display Solutions For more detail on NEC’s please visit http://www.nec.com/en/global/solutions/safety/Event/2015/isnr.html