In The News

India Fears Impact of Bid to Curb Jobs Exports

Edward Alden June 4, 2003
Following the lead of many other American and British firms, the British insurance company, Prudential, is planning to export jobs from the UK to India. Outsourcing to low-cost offshore centers is saving companies billions of dollars a year, since it allows them to set up shop where labor is plentiful and cheap. Though company executives maintain that outsourcing merely follows economic law and...

Getting to the Core

Geof Wheelwright June 4, 2003
As private companies find themselves growing bigger and bigger, they also find that they now have to account for many extra functions – such as maintaining parking lots, managing cafeterias, etc. – that are not considered their "core" business. Outsourcing, according to this article, can allow personnel to focus on their core functions by letting outside firms take care of the non-...

Policing the Sea Is a Job for Everyone

Tony Tan June 3, 2003
In a speech at the Asia Security Conference, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Tony Tan tried to raise an alarm about the threat of terrorism on the high seas. "Individual state action is not enough," he says. "The oceans are indivisible and maritime security threats do not respect boundaries. The very nature of commercial shipping is multinational."...

In Search of the Iraqi Pie

Charubala Annuncio June 3, 2003
Preliminary work on the reconstruction of Iraq has begun, and firms from a variety of countries are already lined up for possible contracts. This article from Outlook India Magazine discusses the prospects for Indian companies hoping to get some of the lucrative sub-contracts in the reconstruction. Since the contract assignment process is mostly run by the Americans, the authors point out that...

Steel Striking for a 35-Hour Week

Heidi Sylvester May 30, 2003
The biggest German union, IG Metall, is pushing hard for shortened weekly work hours in eastern Germany's steel factories. The strikes, supported by 83 percent of the steel workers polled, are likely to start on June 2. A 35-hour work week would put eastern Germany's steelworkers on a par with their counterparts in western Germany. Many economists and politicians, however, are...

Solutions for Coffee Crisis

May 22, 2003
As a world glut cut down the price of coffee, some coffee-growing countries have decided to convert some of their coffee areas to other crops, increasing the diversity of their agricultural production and raising world coffee prices. At a recent round-table discussion, the World Bank and the International Coffee Organization urged rich countries to lower their agricultural tariffs and reduce...

Fewer People Are Crossing Border Bridges

Jeorge Zarazua May 19, 2003
The war on Iraq has negatively affected the traffic on the international bridges between Southern Texas and Mexico, with substantially fewer travelers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in the past two months. Making the situation worse, say some Texas-side business owners, are Mexico's decision to lower its gas prices along the border - which gives Mexican drivers one less reason to visit the...