Tuesday January 24, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shannon de Ryhove

Making headlines:

Rapidly growing Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) emerging economies are vulnerable to external shocks as they lack adequate risk management and must synchronise fiscal and monetary policies, a survey of finance ministry officials showed. The survey, released by consultancy Booz & Company, said that the role of finance ministries have expanded far beyond their traditional fiscal mandate and they must reform so that they are not overly driven by interventions, near-term fiscal targets and benchmarking against local peers. Booz polled more than 60 policymakers in finance ministries in the Group of 20 and other key economies, along with officials from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Union, academic institutions and think tanks.

More than 100% of people registered in seven of the 76 counties in south Sudan voted in a referendum on whether to secede from the north, according to provisional results and documents seen by Reuters. The discrepancies are small and unlikely to change the overall result, which looks to be a landslide vote for secession. But if unresolved it could cast doubts on the process and leave it vulnerable to legal appeals. The week long vote, which ended on January 15, was promised under a 2005 north–south peace deal which ended decades of civil war. International observers had said that the process was credible with provisional results on the vote organising commission website showing almost 99% of voters opting for secession.

Labour Minister Nelisiwe Oliphant has added her voice to the debate on "decent work" at the annual labour policy conference in Pretoria. She told delegates from organised labour that: "Decent employment can only be successful when all stakeholders constantly keep in mind the context of the South African and global economies, social realities such as poverty, inequality and education levels, and the long-terms goals for South Africa which must be weighed against short-term costs.  "Our aim is to create a policy framework to promote decent work," she added. However, the "meaning of decent work" should include the health and safety conditions of employees. Oliphant said that the recession had led to the loss of another million jobs, leaving about 6,4-million South Africans unemployed.

Also making headlines:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a $178-million loan disbursement to Angola under a fourth review of the country's IMF programme.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka will meet his Gauteng counterpart before the end of the week in an effort to help sort out Johannesburg's, and the country's, billing mess.
And, as global food prices once again increased sharply, World Trade Organisation director-general Pascal Lamy reiterated that trade could play an important role in addressing the rise in food prices and tackling food insecurity.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.