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  • MIL-OSI Africa: Nigeria’s Brics partnership: economist outlines potential benefits

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Stephen Onyeiwu, Professor of Economics & Business, Allegheny College

    During its 16th annual summit in Kazan, Russia, Brics – a group of emerging economies determined to act as a counterweight to the west and to whittle down the influence of global institutions – invited Nigeria and eight other countries to join it as “partner” countries. Nigeria formally accepted the invitation in January 2025. That invitation has generated questions about how Nigeria stands to benefit, especially when US president Donald Trump is threatening to sanction members of the group if they replace the US dollar as reserve currency. It was established in 2006 and initially composed of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. South Africa joined in 2010 and the bloc added four new members (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates) in 2023. In this interview, development economist Stephen Onyeiwu argues that Nigeria stands to gain from a Brics partnership, but would have to carefully balance its domestic interests with those of its western allies and Brics.

    What does it mean to be a Brics ‘partner’ country?

    The introduction of Brics partnership is an expansion mechanism designed to bring in more participants without giving them full membership. It is akin to “observer” status.

    Brics partners can participate in special sessions of summits and foreign ministers’ meetings, as well as other high-level events. Partners can also contribute to the organisation’s official documents and policy statements.

    But partners cannot host annual Brics summits or determine the venue. Neither can they select new members and partners.

    How beneficial is Brics partnership to Nigeria?

    The main benefit would be access to finance offered by Brics’ New Development Bank.

    The New Development Bank was established as an alternative to western-dominated international financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. These institutions are sometimes used by the leading western countries to keep developing countries in line on global issues.

    Some developing countries are reluctant to criticise western countries for fear of losing access to funding by western-backed international financial institutions.

    Nigeria has been running a budget deficit of about 5% of GDP since 2019, and it needs funding to pay for the deficits. The New Development Bank could be an important source of funding for investment in Nigeria’s infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, and so on.

    New Development Bank loans are also available in member countries’ local currencies. They don’t have to earn foreign exchange to repay the loans. This fosters exchange rate stability and promotes economic growth. The New Development Bank raises funds in member countries’ local currencies, and lends them to member countries.

    Nigeria could use its Brics partnership to garner the group’s support in matters that affect Nigeria globally. For instance, there have been requests for African countries to be included as permanent members (without veto power) of the UN security council. South Africa and Nigeria have been touted as potential candidates. Should this issue be raised at the UN, Nigeria can count on the support of its Brics allies, which includes two permanent members (China and Russia) of the security council.

    Mutual understanding and cooperation with other Brics members and partners might spill over into economic, trade and investment agreements. Friendly countries are more likely to trade with each other and invest in each other’s economy.

    How can Nigeria maximise its status as a Brics partner?

    Nigeria should use it to attract foreign direct investment in strategic sectors of the economy, such as infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture and technology.

    Some Brics members, like China, India, and the UAE, have investors that are seeking investment outlets abroad. Nigeria could use the bloc’s annual summits to showcase investment opportunities.

    The global economy is transitioning into “frontier industries and technologies”, such as big data, artificial intelligence, solar, drones, gene editing, 3D printing, blockchains, Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, robotics and nanotechnology. China, India and Brazil are already well advanced in these technologies.

    Nigeria should use its partnership with these countries to build capabilities in frontier industries and technologies. It could get favourable terms in the transfer of these technologies.

    Nigeria seeks to diversify its economy from reliance on the export of hydrocarbons. But Nigerian producers have had a hard time accessing global markets. The country should negotiate trade deals that provide access to Brics markets, especially agricultural and agro-processed products, arts and crafts.

    But Nigeria has to promote economic growth and structural transformation at home. If the Nigerian economy falters, it is unlikely the country will be invited to become a full member of Brics.

    Would adding new members and partners reduce western dominance?

    Brics has so far not been able to significantly change the dynamics of the international political economy. Adding new members and partners, while symbolic, will not act as an effective counterweight to the influence of the G7 and G20 groups of nations.

    Most of the countries and partners in Brics are either allies of western countries or neutral on global issues. They are unlikely to support decisions or actions that are grossly inimical to western interests.

    Egypt and the UAE, for instance, receive military aid from the United States. Ethiopia and Nigeria are top recipients of foreign aid in Africa, much of it from western-backed financial institutions.

    The only outlier in the mix is Iran, whose membership was promoted by Russia. But Iran has no leverage to influence others in the bloc.

    On balance, therefore, Brics will not be a threat to western countries.

    Brics aspires to weaken the dominance of the US dollar for international transactions. Close to 90% of international trade transactions are conducted with the US dollar.

    Brics countries plan to reduce dollar dominance by encouraging member countries to settle their trade and financial transactions using their domestic currencies. For instance, South African businesses could purchase Chinese goods using the South African rand, while the Chinese could do the same for South African goods using the Chinese yuan. The more members you have in Brics swapping their currencies, the less important the US dollar will be.

    It is unlikely, however, that an increase in the number of Brics members and partners will weaken the dollar. Most will continue to have significant economic relationships with the west, including trade and foreign aid.

    They will also continue to conduct business with many non-Brics countries, which also have economic relationships with the west. They will need the US dollar to transact with many other countries.

    So increasing the number of Brics members and partners does not pose a threat to dollar dominance.

    – Nigeria’s Brics partnership: economist outlines potential benefits
    – https://theconversation.com/nigerias-brics-partnership-economist-outlines-potential-benefits-248943

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Preston City Council re-sign The Armed Forces Covenant

    Source: City of Preston

    Reinforcing the Council’s commitment to supporting Armed Forces serving members and veterans.

    Yesterday, Tuesday 4 February, Major Steve Tickle, Lord Lieutenant Amanda Parker, Preston City Council Chief Executive Adrian Phillips and members of the Armed Forces and Preston City Council gathered to re-sign The Armed Forces Covenant. 

    Preston City Council first signed the Armed Forces Community Covenant in 2012, and yesterday’s event reinforced the Council’s commitment to supporting Armed Forces serving members and veterans. 

    The Armed Forces Covenant is a promise by local authorities that ‘together we acknowledge and understand that those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces, and their families, including the bereaved, should be treated with fairness and respect in the communities, economy, and society.’ 

    The Covenant focuses on helping members of the Armed Forces community have the same access to Government and commercial services and products as any other citizen. This support is provided in a number of areas including healthcare, education and childcare, housing and accommodation, employment, and financial services. 

    Preston City Council’s Armed Forces Champion, Councillor Melanie Close said: 

    “I am delighted that Preston City Council is committing to signing the Armed Forces Covenant. We are proud to reinforce our commitment to supporting our existing service personnel and their families, reservists and veterans who have all made a significant contribution to our communities.” 

    Preston City Council is an Armed Forces Friendly Employer and is proud to hold the Armed Forces Silver Award for those who proudly protect our nation, with honour, courage, and commitment and is now working towards achieving the Armed Forces Gold Award.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Council Leader welcomes + History LGBT Month

    Source: Scotland – City of Edinburgh

    The rainbow flag flying above the City Chambers

    This February marks the 20th anniversary of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender plus (LGBT+) History Month, with Council Leader, Jane Meagher, showing her support.

    Following the repeal of Section 28, LGBT+ History Month was created to recognise and honour the contributions of the LGBT+ community.

    The Council will mark the annual celebration by flying the rainbow flag above the City Chambers for the entire month of February.

    Council Leader Jane Meagher said:

    LGBT+ History Month is an opportunity to reflect on the history of the LGBT+ rights movement and campaign for equal rights. On the twentieth anniversary of this vital awareness month, we must recognise those individuals who have pushed the boundaries and advocated for social progress, creating a more inclusive world for all of us.

    We are proud of Edinburgh’s diversity and that anyone is welcome to make the city their home, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. It’s important that we demonstrate our support by proudly flying the rainbow flag above the City Chambers for the month of February. The flag is an international symbol of LGBT+ pride, showing all who live in and visit our city that we not only value but champion respect, tolerance, and inclusivity for all.

    Published: February 5th 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/INDIA – Food and “certain hope” for the poor, in the spirit of the Jubilee: the Capuchin mission in Tamil Nadu

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Dindigul (Agenzia Fides) – The “Assisi Free Food Support” initiative aims to offer food to the neediest students in rural areas, those who cannot afford even one meal a day, as well as to those who share this situation of deprivation. This initiative is launched today, February 5, at Anugraha College (whose name means “Providence of God”), a center run by the Capuchin Fathers in the diocese of Dindigul, in Tamil Nadu, and is presented as a prophetic gesture for the Jubilee Year. “We intend to demonstrate in a concrete way our closeness to the poorest, in the spirit of the Jubilee that announces hope to those in need,” says Father George Bernardshaw Jesudass OFM. Cap, director of the school, which houses 900 young people between 18 and 23 years old. The centre, dedicated to guiding students from rural families in their formation and higher education, is affiliated with the Kamaraj University of Madurai. “We are happy and receive support from both the friars of the Mary Queen of Peace Province and others, since any kind of help is prescious in order to generate a positive impact in the lives of our students and ensure the basis of food security necessary for study,” adds the friar, who is also Provincial Vicar. The initiative reflects the inclusive approach of the Indian Capuchins, especially in favour of the most disadvantaged in rural areas, without ethnic, cultural or caste distinctions. “When we are in heaven, the doors will be open to all, regardless of culture, language, social status or caste,” recalls Father Bernardshaw. “The caste mentality persists in society and even in some hierarchical structures of the Church, which represents a danger for the Catholic community. We, as Capuchin friars, do not impose barriers or hierarchies in our relationship with our neighbours; we are close to everyone and our doors remain open,” he says. The director reports that the province, made up of 150 Franciscan religious, is committed to various areas of the apostolate: “from aid and solidarity towards the needy, psychological and social counselling, the management of homes for abandoned elderly people and the mentally ill, to assistance to victims of addictions, especially among young people addicted to drugs or alcohol, without forgetting the important field of education, through schools that accompany the growth of students from rural families. This apostolate allows the friars to stay close to the people and to be widely appreciated.”“In the name of Francis of Assisi, we also try to give people that ‘certain hope’ that he preached,” explains the provincial father, Fr Arockiadoss Savarimuthu. The Capuchin friars have been present in India for almost 400 years. Their journey in the country is divided into four phases: at first, they were directly linked to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide (1632-1887); later, their missionary activities were promoted through provinces of other nations (1887-1982); then, with the birth of the “Commissariat of India”, Capuchin provinces were developed throughout the country (1922-1963); and, finally, the Indian Capuchins were consolidated and spread in their own land, also carrying out missions ad gentes (1963-today). During almost 400 years of mission, the friars have baptized thousands of people, founded various dioceses, contributed to the formation of the local clergy and erected 13 cathedrals, which remain a clear testimony of their dedication to the mission and to the Church in India. It is common for Capuchin convents to have annexes as charity centres, centres for social development and apostolic activities, also in the cultural field, through the publication of works of Franciscan theology and spirituality in the local language. Among the significant dates of this long history, the beginning of the Capuchin mission in India in 1632 stands out, marked by the landing of Brother Ephrem de Nevers, from France, in Madras, in the south of the country; and, later, in 1703, the missionary landing in Tibet and Nepal by Italian Capuchins from Le Marche area. In 2021, the friars celebrated the centenary of the opening of the first novitiate in India. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 5/2/2025)
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    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Deal for Council to take over D&E Coaches completed

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    Pictured are L to R – General Manager Gayle McEwan, former owner and Managing Director Donald Mathieson, Council Leader Cllr Raymond Bremner and Chair of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Cllr Ken Gowans.

    Yesterday (Tuesday 4 February) the Leader of The Highland Council Cllr Raymond Bremner along with the Chair of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee Cllr Ken Gowans visited the depot of D&E Coaches following the completion of the deal for the council to acquire the business.

    There to meet them was the former owner Donald Mathieson, who started the business nearly 30 years ago with one minibus. Speaking to the media who were invited along to the depot yesterday afternoon he said:

    “We’ve taken the company as far as we can and I’m now ready to retire from the business. Moving forward, we feel that the Council taking on ownership is the best move for the company, and everyone concerned, including our staff and customers.”

    There will however still be a family connection to the business as Donald’s daughter Gayle McEwan is taking on the role of General Manager.

    The Council spends around £25m on school and public transport throughout the region, with well over 300 separate contracts.  The last tendering round saw an increase of £8m in one financial year, which led to the Council setting up an in-house bus team. 

    Council Leader Raymond Bremner said: “I see this deal very much as a positive move forward. D&E operate a significant number of school contracts for the Council, so we now can take ownership and look for opportunities in future tendering rounds to compete more effectively. However, I want to stress that we intend to operate D&E very much as a going concern so it’s business as usual. I wish Gayle all the very best in her role and we look forward to maintaining the legacy and service standards set by Donald and the whole team over the course of many years.”   

    Chair of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Councillor Ken Gowans said: “Purchasing D&E Coaches on behalf of Highland Council is a fantastic opportunity and offers us more flexibility moving forward. D&E is a well-established company, and we’re delighted to have reached a deal. We’re looking forward to working with the same team who have a wealth of experience which will be of great benefit to Highland Council.”

    Earlier in the day the Council launched its new shopper service – the “108 Shopper Bus”, which will run every Tuesday and Thursday starting at Torvean Park and Ride. The route will be going through all the housing areas along Sir Walter Scott Drive (Distributor Road) to include Holm Dell, Culduthel Mains, Slackbuie, Miller Street, Boswell Road. It will then pass through the back of Inshes Retail Park and then go through the UHI Campus to the Inverness Shopping Park.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Over 3,300 Entries Received for WAVES 2025 “Reel Making” Challenge with participation from 20 Countries and across India

    Source: Government of India

    Over 3,300 Entries Received for WAVES 2025 “Reel Making” Challenge with participation from 20 Countries and across India

    From Digital Reels to Global Deals: Winners to gain unprecedented access & recognition; Finalists to compete globally with Ministry’s endorsement

    Themes of Viksit Bharat”, highlighting India’s existing technological & infrastructure advancements, and “India @ 2047” reflected in the reels

    Present India’s innovation journey by showcasing creativity and vision for the country’s progress; 15th March, 2025 to be the last date of registration

    Posted On: 05 FEB 2025 3:25PM by PIB Delhi

    The “Reel Making” challenge at the World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025 has received an overwhelming response, with 3,379 registrations from across India and 20 countries.

    Create in India

     The competition, launched as a key initiative under WAVES 2025, highlights India’s growing influence as a global hub for media and entertainment while also reflecting the country’s rapidly expanding digital creator economy. It aligns with the Government of India’s “Create in India” vision, empowering talent from across the nation and beyond.

    The competition has seen notable international participation from Afghanistan, Albania,  the United States, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, UAE, Australia, and Germany, among others. This global reach highlights the increasing influence of India’s creative sector and the appeal of WAVES as a premier platform for content creators worldwide.

    Tawang to Port Blair: Soaring nationwide storytelling surge

    Domestically, the challenge has drawn entries from diverse and remote locations across India, including Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), Dimapur (Nagaland), Kargil (Ladakh), Leh, Shopian (Kashmir), Port Blair (Andaman & Nicobar Islands), Teliamora (Tripura), Kasaragod (Kerala) and Gangtok (Sikkim). The strong response to WAVES’ “Reel Making” challenge from smaller towns and emerging creative hubs reflects India’s rich storytelling traditions and growing digital creator ecosystem.

    As part of the challenge, participants above the age of 20 are required to create reels on themes such as “Viksit Bharat”, highlighting India’s existing technological and infrastructure advancements, and “India @ 2047”, envisioning the nation’s future growth in these sectors. These themes provide a platform for storytellers to present India’s innovation journey through concise 30-60 second films, showcasing their creativity and vision for the country’s progress.

    The winners of the Reel Making challenge will receive exclusive opportunities, including:

    • An invitation to a Meta-hosted event and a reels masterclass in 2025.

    • All-expenses-paid access to WAVES 2025, where they will be honored.

    • Ministry support for finalists to participate in international-level content creator competitions.

    • Winner reels will be showcased in the prestigious WAVES Hall of Fame, on the official WAVES website, and social media platforms.

    ‘Make in India, Make for the World’

    WAVES 2025 takes its inspiration from Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi’s vision and mission to provide a new global identity to India’s creative prowess and establish India as a premier destination for media, entertainment, and content creation. This Summit will bring together industry leaders, stakeholders, and innovators to discuss emerging trends, foster collaborations, showcase India’s rich creative ecosystem and to implement PM’s vision of ‘Make in India, Make for the World’

    With participation covering almost the entire length and breadth of India and 20 other countries so far, the Reel Making challenge stands as a testament to India’s diverse and dynamic storytelling landscape, reinforcing its standing as a powerhouse in the global Media & Entertainment industry.

    For more details, visit: https://wavesindia.org/challenges-2025

    *****

    Dharmendra Tewari/Kshitij Singha

    (Release ID: 2099990) Visitor Counter : 48

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: New York ETO welcomes Year of Snake (with photos)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    New York ETO welcomes Year of Snake (with photos)
    New York ETO welcomes Year of Snake (with photos)
    *************************************************

         The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, New York (HKETONY) hosted its annual Hong Kong Spring Reception on February 4 (New York time), welcoming close to 400 guests (tbc) from government agencies, businesses, think tanks, non-profits, academic institutions, cultural organisations and the media to usher in the Year of the Snake.      The Director of the HKETONY, Ms Maisie Ho, extended a warm welcome to attendees and highlighted Hong Kong’s resilience and recent accomplishments amid global challenges.     “This year, we welcome the Year of the Snake in the Chinese zodiac – a symbol of wisdom, adaptability, and transformation. The snake sheds its skin to embrace new beginnings, reminding us that change, though sometimes challenging, is essential for growth. In many ways, this symbolism resonates deeply with Hong Kong’s journey. We have always been a city that adapts, innovates, and thrives in the face of change.”     “In 2024, Hong Kong maintained its position as one of the world’s top four IPO venues, raising a total of US$10.6 billion. Invest Hong Kong also had a record-breaking year, assisting 539 overseas and Mainland companies – including 24 from the United States – to set up operations in Hong Kong. We also saw an all-time high of 15 126 non-Hong Kong companies registering in the city,” she shared.     Ms Ho further emphasised the strength of Hong Kong’s economic ties with the US, noting that Hong Kong is home to 1 390 US firms, the highest in recent history. “The US is one of Hong Kong’s leading trading partners and consistently enjoys trade surplus with Hong Kong over the years. Over the past decade, there has been a trade surplus amounting to US$270 billion,” she said.     During her address, Ms Ho expressed gratitude to the “Hong Kong Family” – the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Invest Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), and the Hong Kong Association of New York – for their on-going support.      The evening was further enriched by a special performance featuring three talented Hong Kong musicians: violinist Ding Yijie, erhu player Yang Enhua (both from the Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong), and professional pianist Laurina Hong. Sponsored by the HKETONY and Cathay Pacific, the trio presented a captivating selection of music blending Eastern and Western traditions, showcasing Hong Kong’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity.      Hong Kong’s creativity was also celebrated with two striking inflatable art installations by local creative brand Chocolate Rain. These pieces were part of the “Hong Kong Meets America – Pop Art Exhibition” at the American Dream Mall last October, adding a unique touch to the evening’s festive atmosphere.     Additionally, the HKTB featured renowned wine and spirits expert Anthony Giglio, who shared his insights into Hong Kong’s bar scene and introduced the evening’s signature cocktail, “The Cloud Nine”, which added a distinctive and flavourful touch to the celebration.

     
    Ends/Wednesday, February 5, 2025Issued at HKT 16:45

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Hong Kong Customs detects two seaborne smuggling cases with seizure of tobacco products worth about $65 million (with photo)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         Hong Kong Customs detected two cases of tobacco products smuggling activities involving containers in Kwai Chung and Tuen Mun on January 27. A total of about 5 800 kilograms of suspected duty-not-paid manufactured tobacco and about 5.9 million of suspected illicit cigarettes with a total estimated market value of about $65 million and a duty potential of about $43 million in total were seized.

         In the first case, through risk assessment and intelligence analysis, Customs on January 27 selected and inspected a 40-foot container, arriving from Singapore to Hong Kong and declared as carrying cosmetics, at the Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound. Upon inspection, Customs officers seized about 3.4 million suspected illicit cigarettes inside the container.

         In the second case, Customs at the Tuen Mun River Trade Terminal Customs Cargo Examination Compound on the same day examined a 40-foot container, arriving in Hong Kong from Guangdong and declared as carrying household goods. A total of about 5 800kg of suspected duty-not-paid manufactured tobacco and about 2.5 million suspected illicit cigarettes were seized therein.

         Investigations into the two cases are ongoing, and Customs will continue to trace the source and the flow of the illicit cigarettes.

         Customs will continue its risk assessment and intelligence analysis, and step up enforcement actions to combat the smuggling of illicit cigarettes. Smuggling is a serious offence. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.
          
         Under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance, anyone involved in dealing with, possession of, selling or buying illicit cigarettes commits an offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $1 million and imprisonment for two years.
          
         Members of the public may report any suspected illicit cigarette activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002/).   

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: APEDA’s financial assistance schemes boost 47.3% surge in India’s fruit and vegetable exports

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 04 FEB 2025 7:58PM by PIB Delhi

    • APEDA strengthens exporter growth with new schemes for infrastructure, quality, and market development
    • India’s fruit and vegetable exports reach 123 countries, with 17 new market added in 3 years

    The Department of Commerce through Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) provides financial assistance to its member exporters of APEDA from across the country, for export promotion of its Scheduled products, including for Fruits & vegetables, under Agriculture and Processed Foods Export Promotion Scheme of APEDA for the 15th Finance Commission Cycle (2021-22 to 2025-26) in following three broad areas:

    Scheme for infrastructure Development – Financial assistance for setting up of packhouse facilities with packing / grading lines, pre-cooling unit with cold storage and refrigerated transportation etc., cable system for handling of crops like banana, pre-shipment treatment facilities such as irradiation, vapor heat treatment, hot water dip treatment and common infrastructure facilities, reefer vans and missing gap in the existing infrastructure of individual exporters.

    Scheme for Quality Development – Financial assistance for purchase of laboratory testing equipment, installation of quality management system, handheld devices for capturing farm level coordinates for traceability and testing of water, soil, residues and pesticides etc.

    Scheme for Market Promotion – The assistance covers participation of exporters in international trade fairs, organizing buyer seller meets and developing packaging standards for new products and upgrading the existing packaging standards.

    The details of financial assistance guidelines are available at APEDA Website www.apeda.gov.in under the “Scheme” tab.

    As a result of these initiatives, there has been a growth of 47.3%, in the volume of exports of fruits and vegetables between the period 2019-20 to 2023-24.

    Export data of fruits and vegetables in last five years

    Country: All

    Product: Fresh Fruits & Vegetables

     

    Value In USD Million

    Qty In Thousand MT

    Products

    2019-20

    2020-21

    2021-22

    2022-23

    2023-24

    2019-20

    2020-21

    2021-22

    2022-23

    2023-24

    Fresh Fruits & Vegetables

    1,282.43

    1,342.13

    1,527.63

    1,635.95

    1,814.58

    2,659.48

    3,148.08

    3,376.25

    4,335.68

    3,911.95

    Source: DGCIS

     

    Growth in terms of Volume in the last five years =47.30%

    Growth in terms of Value in the last five years= 41.50 %

    The Government maintains the record of total exports of fruits and vegetables from India. The export figures of States are compiled on the basis of the State-of-Origin code reported by the exporters in the shipping bills. Thus, the state wise data of exports of Fruits and vegetables is not available as the same is not validated by DGCI&S. However, the major states producing Fruits and vegetables are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Karnataka.

    India’s Export of Mango and Onion to World (By Variety)

    Product

    Variety

    USD Million

    Qty in MT

    2019-20

    2020-21

    2021-22

    2022-23

    2023-24

    2019-20

    2020-21

    2021-22

    2022-23

    2023-24

    Mango

    Other Mangoes

    0.00

    25.42

    23.48

    33.26

    36.18

    0.00

    15795.09

    17448.90

    17257.28

    23786.16

    Kesar

    0.00

    2.92

    6.91

    4.97

    11.25

    0.00

    983.73

    2319.08

    1749.97

    3787.01

    Alphonso (Hapus)

    0.00

    6.08

    10.09

    7.84

    8.68

    0.00

    3195.86

    5994.86

    2829.76

    2673.39

    Banganapalli

    0.00

    1.46

    3.01

    2.00

    3.20

    0.00

    830.55

    1674.04

    856.91

    1081.68

    Chausa

    0.00

    0.05

    0.05

    0.03

    0.24

    0.00

    40.98

    25.64

    19.72

    488.26

    Langda

    0.00

    0.08

    0.16

    0.12

    0.19

    0.00

    48.99

    122.16

    70.02

    81.94

    Dasheri

    0.00

    0.09

    0.11

    0.06

    0.17

    0.00

    49.50

    75.92

    34.70

    75.54

    Totapuri

    0.00

    0.07

    0.17

    0.20

    0.16

    0.00

    47.47

    151.01

    116.60

    91.95

    Mallika

    0.00

    0.03

    0.09

    0.06

    0.07

    0.00

    41.40

    61.16

    28.81

    38.17

    Mangoes , Fresh/Dried,

    56.11

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    49658.68

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    Total Mangoes

    56.11

    36.20

    44.07

    48.54

    60.14

    49658.68

    21033.57

    27872.77

    22963.77

    32104.10

    Onion

    Other Onions Fresh of Chilled

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    434.78

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    1606683.97

    Rose Onions Fresh of Chilled

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    38.94

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    0.00

    110755.38

    Onions, Fresh/Chilled

    324.20

    378.49

    460.56

    561.38

    0.00

    1149896.84

    1578016.57

    1537496.85

    2525258.35

    0.00

    Total Onions

    324.20

    378.49

    460.56

    561.38

    473.72

    1149896.84

    1578016.57

    1537496.85

    2525258.35

    1717439.35

     

    Source: DGCIS

     

    Note :- ITC HS Code with (*) mark of the Commodity is either dropped or re-allocated

     

    In FY 2023-24, India’s exports of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables reached 123 countries. In the last 3 years, Indian fresh produce entered 17 new markets, some of which are Brazil, Georgia, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Czech Republic, Uganda, Ghana etc. This has been achieved through a host of measures such as participation in international trade fairs, actively pursuing market access negotiations, organizing buyer seller meets etc.

    Department of Commerce is working in close coordination with the MoA&FW in prioritizing agriculture products for market access negotiations to reach new markets. As a result, India has achieved new market access in following commodities in the last three years:

    • Indian Potatoes and Onions in Serbia
    • Baby corn and fresh banana in Canada
    • Pomegranate arils in Australia, USA, Serbia, and New Zealand
    • Whole pomegranates in Australia via Irradiation treatment

     

    The barriers in accessing new markets differ from product to product and are dynamic in nature. Some of the major barriers in accessing new markets for fruits & vegetables are:

    • Long geographic distance from India raising the costs of logistics.
    • Delay in grant of market access by importing countries for certain products.
    • Stringent Phyto-sanitary requirements imposed by some importing countries.
    • Delay in registration of enterprises in certain countries.

    To address the above issues, various steps are being taken by the Department of Commerce:

    • For expand market access to our products, MoA&FW & APEDA have identified key products and key countries for intensifying market access negotiations.
    • Development of Sea protocols for horticulture products to reduce logistic expenses and to enable larger volume of exports.
    • Regular follow up with the counterpart authorities of importing countries with support of our Missions abroad for registration of facilities and market access negotiations.
    • For meeting stringent Phyto-sanitary requirements, setting up of traceability system and a system of farmer and facility registration.

     

    This information has been provided by the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

    ***

    Abhishek Dayal/Abhijith Narayanan/Asmitabha Manna

    (Release ID: 2099814) Visitor Counter : 374

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: A SON OF SAVAII EARNS A PRESTIGIOUS AUSTRALIA AWARDS PACIFIC SCHOLARSHIP

    Source: Government of Western Samoa

    Share this:

    (PRESS RELEASE- 31st January 2025) – A son of Savaii has earned a highly competitive scholarship and is looking forward to furthering his studies overseas.

    Mr Alesana Alesana Ulusele, from the village of Faga, won a highly sought-after Australia Awards Pacific Scholarship following the successful conclusion of his Foundation year at the National University of Samoa.

    Mr Ulusele, who graduated from Tuasivi College, says moving to Apia to study at the National University of Samoa was challenging.

    “Meeting new people, being in a new environment, but also getting used to new ways of doing things were some of what I struggled with,” says Mr Ulusele.

    Yet Mr Ulusele says that he knew he had to adapt to be able to thrive in his studies.

    “I knew that in order to survive and do well, I had to come out of my shell and adjust myself to meet these new challenges,” he says.

    It is this ability to adapt and meet new challenges that he now embraces as he heads to Fiji to complete his undergraduate degree in Commerce.

    Throughout his journey – from Savaii to his studies at NUS, and now to Fiji – Mr Ulusele credits love for his success.

    “Love opens many doors for success. Love your parents and those around you, and never forget to love God the Almighty,” he says.

    Mr Ulusele is one of nine Australia Awards Pacific Scholars heading to the University of the South Pacific in Fiji for studies.

    The Australia Awards is funded by the Australian Government and supports Samoa and the region’s aspirations for a highly skilled workforce.

    As a condition of the scholarships, students will return home at the conclusion of their studies to serve in their countries.

    The 2026 intake of Australia Awards are now open for applications and close 30 April 2025:

    Share this:

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCSD to present “Multi-arts of making-do” lecture series in March

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    LCSD to present “Multi-arts of making-do” lecture series in March
    LCSD to present “Multi-arts of making-do” lecture series in March
    ***************************************************************************

    　　The Leisure and Cultural Services Department will present a lecture series, the “Multi-arts of making-do”, in March. By covering topics of art, design, performances, culture, literature and more, this series of four lectures hosted by cultural researcher Dr Ian Fong investigates how multi-arts embody the spirit of making-do that opens up flexibility and possibilities in the art creative process to give new life to artifacts and everyday objects, and enriches the meanings of aesthetics. This lecture series also presents how everyday wisdom of making-do inspires multi-arts, and every ordinary person can be an artist.　　Details of each lecture are as follows: Lecture 1: Poetry, Prose, Short Stories, and Novels——————————————————————Date: March 3 (Monday)Content: Through an intertextual reading of a selection of local and French literary works by renowned authors, links and connections of texts are portrayed across time and space, thus demonstrating the flexibility and imagination of the art of making-do, as well as the importance of creativity in reading a text, turning a reader into a writer. Lecture 2: Visual Art, Film, and Musical Performances——————————————————————Date: March 10 (Monday)Content: Drawing on visual art, film and musical performances to discuss the artistic reflection of making-do that make art more possible, this lecture thereby challenges the boundary of art and the identity of an artist.  Lecture 3: Performance Art, “Wing Chun”, and “Jeet Kune Do”—————————————————————————–Date: March 24 (Monday)Content: The bodies of artists are very important to performance art. By appreciating the dexterity of artists’ body movements through works of performance art, and through the enactment of Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do, the speaker presents how the art of making-do stresses the importance of the body, and explores how bodies show the artistic possibility of making-do and its vitality. Lecture 4: Street and Home as Gallery, Museum, Cinema, Theatre, and Concert Hall——————————————————————————————————Date: March 31 (Monday)Content: Any place that gives life to an artwork could be a place for art. By citing various art pieces to appreciate the art of “poverty” and of “going with the flow”, the speaker illustrates how the wisdom of living nurtures the art of making-do, and thereby illustrates the importance of everyday streets and homes to create and exhibit multi-arts. 　　Dr Fong received his PhD degree in comparative literature at the University of Hong Kong. He is currently teaching literary and cultural studies in various tertiary institutions. His research interests lie in urban studies, film and literary studies, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, as well as Nietzsche studies.　　All lectures will be conducted in Cantonese and will start at 7.30pm at AC2, Level 4, Administration Building, Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Free-seating tickets priced at $70 for each lecture and $224 for all four lectures are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk). For telephone bookings, please call 3166 1288. For programme enquiries and concessionary schemes, please call 2268 7323 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/multi_arts/programs_1820.html.

     
    Ends/Wednesday, February 5, 2025Issued at HKT 11:00

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Assistance Available for Self-Employed Wildfire Survivors

    Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency

    Headline: Assistance Available for Self-Employed Wildfire Survivors

    Assistance Available for Self-Employed Wildfire Survivors

    LOS ANGELES – Self-employed individuals in Los Angeles who became unemployed as a direct result of the wildfires, may apply for FEMA Individual Assistance, Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) and/or U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Disaster Loans.  FEMA Individual AssistanceFEMA may be able to provide funds to repair or replace disaster-damaged tools and equipment required for your job. This help is available to a wide variety of applicants, including artists, musicians, mechanics, and many other occupations.Eligible Occupational ToolsOccupational tools are tools and equipment required for self-employment or not provided by an employer but required for employment. Examples of essential tools include:Computers required by an employer or for self-employment when you are responsible for the replacement of the computer. Technology and equipment involved in the creation of art, music, photography, etc.Tools and equipment such as power tools, tractors, plows, seeders, planters, harvesters, sprayers, hay balers, utility vehicles, lawnmowers, etc.Art materials, paint, brushes, canvas, clay, musical instruments, theatrical tools such as movable flooring, drapery, makeup, costumes as well as sound and lighting equipment.Uniforms required for work when you are responsible for replacement of the uniforms.This assistance may be available if the items were damaged by the disaster, you do not have another working item that can meet this need, and the loss of the item was not covered by insurance.Required DocumentationTo be eligible for self-employment assistance, you must provide documentation that proves you are self-employed, such as federal tax return documents, and meet the general eligibility criteria for FEMA assistance. Self-employed survivors should provide FEMA with:Insurance documents for all potential coverages and benefits.Itemized receipts or estimates for repairing or replacing the requested items. A written statement that explains the items are needed for self-employment.To find out if you are eligible, apply to FEMA:Go online to disasterassistance.gov/.Download the FEMA App for mobile devices.Call the FEMA helpline at 800-621-3362 every day from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.Help is available in most languages. If you use a relay service, such as video relay (VRS), captioned telephone or other service, give FEMA your number for that service.Visit a Disaster Recovery Center.UCLA Research Park West10850 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064Open Daily: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.Altadena Disaster Recovery Center540 W. Woodbury Rd., Altadena, CA 91001Open Daily: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.The deadline to apply for FEMA Individual Assistance is March 10, 2025.Disaster Unemployment Assistance Los Angeles County workers impacted by the severe wildfires and winds can now apply for Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) or regular unemployment benefits. The Employment Development Department (EDD) administers these benefits. DUA is for workers – such as self-employed people – who are not eligible for regular unemployment benefits and lost their jobs or had hours reduced because of the disaster. The deadline to submit a DUA application is March 10, 2025. Visit the State of California’s Employment Development Department for more information on how to apply. U.S. Small Business Administration Disaster LoansThe U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), FEMA’s federal partner in disaster recovery, offers low-interest disaster loans to help homeowners, renters, private non-profit organizations, and business of all sizes recover from declared disasters, Applicants may apply online and receive additional disaster assistance information at SBA gov/disaster. Disaster loan information and application forms can be obtained by scheduling an in-person appointment at a SBA Disaster Recovery Center or by calling the SBA’s Customer Service Center at 800-659-2955.
    sasha.kirsch
    Wed, 02/05/2025 – 02:10

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: [EXTERNAL] Office of the Governor — News Release — Governor Green Travels to Florida; Leads Discussions on Crisis Resolution, Recovery

    Source: US State of Hawaii

    [EXTERNAL] Office of the Governor — News Release — Governor Green Travels to Florida; Leads Discussions on Crisis Resolution, Recovery

    Posted on Feb 4, 2025 in Latest Department News, Newsroom, Office of the Governor Press Releases

    STATE OF HAWAIʻI 
    KA MOKU ʻĀINA O HAWAIʻI 
     
    JOSH GREEN, M.D. 
    GOVERNOR
    KE KIAʻĀINA 
     

    GOVERNOR GREEN TO TRAVEL TO FLORIDA TO LEAD DISCUSSIONS ON CRISIS RESOLUTION AND RECOVERY AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
     

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    February 4, 2025

    HONOLULU — Governor Josh Green, M.D., will travel to lead discussions on Alternative Dispute Resolution at the International Institute for Crisis Prevention and Resolution’s annual meeting in Florida. As part of the panel, Governor Green will share valuable insights and best practices drawn from the state’s response to the August 2023 Maui wildfires, offering a perspective on how Hawai‘i is navigating its recovery. Additionally, Governor Green will meet with experts in mental health and the justice system who have developed national best practice approaches to crisis response, deflection from arrest, and diversion into services and housing for individuals with complex health and mental needs, many of whom are experiencing homelessness.

    Even while traveling, Governor Green’s first obligation is to Hawai‘i, ensuring he remains fully engaged in his duties including meetings, calls and administrative responsibilities with the executive Cabinet.

    The Governor will depart Hawai‘i on Tuesday evening, February 4, 2025, and return on Friday afternoon, February 7, 2025. During his absence, Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke will serve as Acting Governor.

    # # # 

    Media Contacts:   
    Erika Engle
    Press Secretary
    Office of the Governor, State of Hawai‘i
    Phone: 808-586-0120
    Email: [email protected]

    Makana McClellan
    Director of Communications
    Office of the Governor, State of Hawaiʻi
    Cell: 808-265-0083
    Email: [email protected]

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: YieldMax™ ETFs Announces Distributions on NFLY ($1.0705), CONY ($1.0468), PYPY ($0.6665), YMAX ($0.1944), YMAG ($0.1862) and Others

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE and NEW YORK, Feb. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — YieldMax™ today announced distributions for the YieldMax™ Weekly Payers and Group C ETFs listed in the table below.

    ETF Ticker1 ETF Name Reference Asset Distribution per Share Distribution Frequency Ex-Date & Record Date Payment Date
    GPTY* YieldMax™ AI & Tech Portfolio Option Income ETF Multiple $0.3353 Weekly 2/7/2025 2/10/2025
    LFGY YieldMax™ Crypto Industry & Tech Portfolio Option Income ETF Multiple $0.6280 Weekly 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    YMAX YieldMax™ Universe Fund of Option Income ETFs Multiple $0.1944 Weekly 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    YMAG YieldMax™ Magnificent 7 Fund of Option Income ETFs Multiple $0.1862 Weekly 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    CONY YieldMax™ COIN Option Income Strategy ETF COIN $1.0468 Every 4 Weeks 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    FIAT YieldMax™ Short COIN Option Income Strategy ETF COIN $0.5498 Every 4 Weeks 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    MSFO YieldMax™ MSFT Option Income Strategy ETF MSFT $0.3615 Every 4 Weeks 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    AMDY YieldMax™ AMD Option Income Strategy ETF AMD $0.3812 Every 4 Weeks 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    NFLY YieldMax™ NFLX Option Income Strategy ETF NFLX $1.0705 Every 4 Weeks 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    ABNY YieldMax™ ABNB Option Income Strategy ETF ABNB $0.4033 Every 4 Weeks 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    PYPY YieldMax™ PYPL Option Income Strategy ETF PYPL $0.6665 Every 4 Weeks 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    ULTY YieldMax™ Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF Multiple $0.5369 Every 4 Weeks 2/6/2025 2/7/2025
    CVNY** YieldMax™ CVNA Option Income Strategy ETF CVNA   – Every 4 Weeks – –
    Weekly Payers & Group D ETFs scheduled for next week: GPTY LFGY YMAX YMAG MSTY YQQQ AMZY APLY AIYY DISO SQY SMCY

    Note: DIPS, FIAT, CRSH and YQQQ are hereinafter referred to as the “Short ETFs”.

    You are not guaranteed a distribution under the ETFs. Distributions for the ETFs (if any) are variable and may vary significantly from period to period and may be zero.

    Investors in the Funds will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions with respect to the underlying reference asset(s).

    *GPTY’s nonstandard dates are for this distribution only. The dates for GPTY’s future distributions will be those set forth in the YieldMax Distribution Schedule.

    **The inception date for CVNY is January 29, 2025.

    1Each ETF’s strategy (except those of the Short ETFs) will cap potential gains if its reference asset’s shares increase in value, yet subjects an investor to all potential losses if the reference asset’s shares decrease in value. Such potential losses may not be offset by income received by the ETF. Each Short ETF’s strategy will cap potential gains if its reference asset decreases in value, yet subjects an investor to all potential losses if the reference asset increases in value. Such potential losses may not be offset by income received by the ETF.

    Each Fund has a limited operating history and while each Fund’s objective is to provide current income, there is no guarantee the Fund will make a distribution. Distributions are likely to vary greatly in amount.

    Important Information

    Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. For a prospectus or summary prospectus with this and other information about each Fund, visit our website at www.YieldMaxETFs.com. Read the prospectus or summary prospectus carefully before investing.

    There is no guarantee that any Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment in any such Fund.

    Tidal Financial Group is the adviser for all YieldMax™ ETFs.

    THE FUND, TRUST, AND ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY UNDERLYING REFERENCE ASSET.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable to all YieldMax ETFs referenced above, except the Short ETFs)

    YMAX, YMAG, FEAT and FIVY generally invest in other YieldMax™ ETFs. As such, these two Funds are subject to the risks listed in this section, which apply to all the YieldMax™ ETFs they may hold from time to time.

    Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.

    Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of the underlying reference asset and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer periods.

    Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members.

    Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions.

    Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events.

    Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given period. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next.

    High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses.

    Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil.

    Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is “non-diversified,” it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund.

    New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.

    Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by the underlying reference asset over the Call Period.

    Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (ARKK, TSLA, AAPL, NVDA, AMZN, META, GOOGL, NFLX, COIN, MSFT, DIS, XOM, JPM, AMD, PYPL, SQ, MRNA, AI, MSTR, Bitcoin ETP, GDX®, SNOW, ABNB, BABA, TSM, SMCI, PLTR, MARA, CVNA), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.

    Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to GPTY)

    Artificial Intelligence Risk. Issuers engaged in artificial intelligence typically have high research and capital expenditures and, as a result, their profitability can vary widely, if they are profitable at all. The space in which they are engaged is highly competitive and issuers’ products and services may become obsolete very quickly. These companies are heavily dependent on intellectual property rights and may be adversely affected by loss or impairment of those rights. The issuers are also subject to legal, regulatory and political changes that may have a large impact on their profitability. A failure in an issuer’s product or even questions about the safety of the product could be devastating to the issuer, especially if it is the marquee product of the issuer. It can be difficult to accurately capture what qualifies as an artificial intelligence company.

    Technology Sector Risk. The Fund will invest substantially in companies in the information technology sector, and therefore the performance of the Fund could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. Market or economic factors impacting technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technological advances could have a significant effect on the value of the Fund’s investments. The value of stocks of information technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology is particularly vulnerable to rapid changes in technology product cycles, rapid product obsolescence, government regulation and competition, both domestically and internationally, including competition from foreign competitors with lower production costs. Stocks of information technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology, especially those of smaller, less-seasoned companies, tend to be more volatile than the overall market. Information technology companies are heavily dependent on patent and intellectual property rights, the loss or impairment of which may adversely affect profitability.

    Risk Disclosure (applicable only to MARO)

    Digital Assets Risk: The Fund does not invest directly in Bitcoin or any other digital assets. The Fund does not invest directly in derivatives that track the performance of Bitcoin or any other digital assets. The Fund does not invest in or seek direct exposure to the current “spot” or cash price of Bitcoin. Investors seeking direct exposure to the price of Bitcoin should consider an investment other than the Fund. Digital assets like Bitcoin, designed as mediums of exchange, are still an emerging asset class. They operate independently of any central authority or government backing and are subject to regulatory changes and extreme price volatility.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to BABO and TSMY)

    Currency Risk: Indirect exposure to foreign currencies subjects the Fund to the risk that currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar. Currency rates in foreign countries may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time for a number of reasons, including changes in interest rates and the imposition of currency controls or other political developments in the U.S. or abroad.

    Depositary Receipts Risk: The securities underlying BABO and TSMY are American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”). Investment in ADRs may be less liquid than the underlying shares in their primary trading market.

    Foreign Market and Trading Risk: The trading markets for many foreign securities are not as active as U.S. markets and may have less governmental regulation and oversight.

    Foreign Securities Risk: Investments in securities of non-U.S. issuers involve certain risks that may not be present with investments in securities of U.S. issuers, such as risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations or to political or economic instability, as well as varying regulatory requirements applicable to investments in non-U.S. issuers. There may be less information publicly available about a non-U.S. issuer than a U.S. issuer. Non-U.S. issuers may also be subject to different regulatory, accounting, auditing, financial reporting and investor protection standards than U.S. issuers.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to GDXY)

    Risk of Investing in Foreign Securities. The Fund is exposed indirectly to the securities of foreign issuers selected by GDX®’s investment adviser, which subjects the Fund to the risks associated with such companies. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers involve risks beyond those associated with investments in U.S. securities.

    Risk of Investing in Gold and Silver Mining Companies. The Fund is exposed indirectly to gold and silver mining companies selected by GDX®’s investment adviser, which subjects the Fund to the risks associated with such companies.

    The Fund invests in options contracts based on the value of the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX®), which subjects the Fund to some of the same risks as if it owned GDX®, as well as the risks associated with Canadian, Australian and Emerging Market Issuers, and Small-and Medium-Capitalization companies.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to YBIT)

    YBIT does not invest directly in Bitcoin or any other digital assets. YBIT does not invest directly in derivatives that track the performance of Bitcoin or any other digital assets. YBIT does not invest in or seek direct exposure to the current “spot” or cash price of Bitcoin. Investors seeking direct exposure to the price of Bitcoin should consider an investment other than YBIT.

    Bitcoin Investment Risk: The Fund’s indirect investment in Bitcoin, through holdings in one or more Underlying ETPs, exposes it to the unique risks of this emerging innovation. Bitcoin’s price is highly volatile, and its market is influenced by the changing Bitcoin network, fluctuating acceptance levels, and unpredictable usage trends.

    Digital Assets Risk: Digital assets like Bitcoin, designed as mediums of exchange, are still an emerging asset class. They operate independently of any central authority or government backing and are subject to regulatory changes and extreme price volatility. Potentially No 1940 Act Protections. As of the date of this Prospectus, there is only a single eligible Underlying ETP, and it is an investment company subject to the 1940 Act.

    Bitcoin ETP Risk: The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of the Bitcoin ETP. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of the Bitcoin ETP, even though it does not. Bitcoin ETPs are subject, but not limited, to significant risk and heightened volatility. An investor in a Bitcoin ETP may lose their entire investment. Bitcoin ETPs are not suitable for all investors. In addition, not all Bitcoin ETPs are registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Those Bitcoin ETPs that are not registered under such statute are therefore not subject to the same regulations as exchange traded products that are so registered.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to the Short ETFs)

    Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.

    Price Appreciation Risk. As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered put strategy, the Fund purchases and sells call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the underlying reference asset. This strategy subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it shorted the underlying reference asset, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s indirect inverse exposure to changes in the value of the underlying reference asset, the Fund is subject to the risk that the value of the underlying reference asset increases. If the value of the underlying reference asset increases, the Fund will likely lose value and, as a result, the Fund may suffer significant losses.

    Put Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s put writing (selling) strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in decreases in the value of the underlying reference asset and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold put options and over longer periods.

    Purchased OTM Call Options Risk. The Fund’s strategy is subject to potential losses if the underlying reference asset increases in value, which may not be offset by the purchase of out-of-the-money (OTM) call options. The Fund purchases OTM calls to seek to manage (cap) the Fund’s potential losses from the Fund’s short exposure to the underlying reference asset if it appreciates significantly in value. However, the OTM call options will cap the Fund’s losses only to the extent that the value of the underlying reference asset increases to a level that is at or above the strike level of the purchased OTM call options. Any increase in the value of the underlying reference asset to a level that is below the strike level of the purchased OTM call options will result in a corresponding loss for the Fund. For example, if the OTM call options have a strike level that is approximately 100% above the then-current value of the underlying reference asset at the time of the call option purchase, and the value of the underlying reference asset increases by at least 100% during the term of the purchased OTM call options, the Fund will lose all its value. Since the Fund bears the costs of purchasing the OTM calls, such costs will decrease the Fund’s value and/or any income otherwise generated by the Fund’s investment strategy.

    Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members.

    Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions.

    Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying reference asset, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events.

    Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given period. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next.

    High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings.

    Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil.

    Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is “non-diversified,” it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund.

    New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.

    Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of put option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in decreases in value experienced by the underlying reference asset over the Put Period.

    Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, for any Fund that focuses on an individual security (e.g., TSLA, COIN, NVDA), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.

    Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to YQQQ)

    Index Overview. The Nasdaq 100 Index is a benchmark index that includes 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, based on market capitalization.

    Index Level Appreciation Risk. As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered put strategy, the Fund purchases and sells call and put option contracts that are based on the Index level. This strategy subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it shorted the Index, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s indirect inverse exposure to changes in the Index level, the Fund is subject to the risk that the Index level increases. If the Index level increases, the Fund will likely lose value and, as a result, the Fund may suffer significant losses. The Fund may also be subject to the following risks: innovation and technological advancement; strong market presence of Index constituent companies; adaptability to global market trends; and resilience and recovery potential.

    Index Level Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of put option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will benefit from decreases in the Index level experienced over the Put Period. This means that if the Index level experiences a decrease in value below the strike level of the sold put options during a Put Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and any Fund gains may significantly differ from the level of the Index losses over the Put Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in decreases in value experienced by the Index level over each Put Period, but has significant negative exposure to any increases in value experienced by the Index level over the Put Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the inverse of the performance of the Index level. The Fund’s ability to benefit from the Index level decreases will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold put option contracts and will vary from Put Period to Put Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of component companies that comprise the Index, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of the Index and the remaining time to the options’ expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the Index level changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Put Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly inversely correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of the Index level. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact that the value of the options contracts has on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the Index level will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than the inverse of the changes experienced by the Index level.

    YieldMax™ ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC. Foreside is not affiliated with Tidal Financial Group, YieldMax™ ETFs.

    © 2025 YieldMax™ ETFs

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Luis de Guindos: Interview with Hospodárske Noviny

    Source: European Central Bank

    Interview with Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, conducted by Mário Blaščák

    5 February 2025

    The ECB lowered its interest rates by 25 basis points last week. How low can rates go given the current inflation and growth outlook?

    We have been very clear that we are not following any predetermined path and will decide meeting by meeting, based on the incoming economic data. This is because the level of uncertainty is huge. Now that we see inflation approaching our 2% target, we have been reducing the restriction of our monetary policy. How much lower rates will go depends on the data confirming that inflation is converging towards our target in a sustainable manner. We are confident that this will happen this year, but there are still a number of uncertainties, particularly surrounding the geopolitical situation, that we need to take into account. So, even if our current trajectory under the current circumstances is clear, nobody knows the level at which interest rates will end up.

    At the press conference, ECB President Christine Lagarde described the current level of interest rates as being in restrictive territory. Národná banka Slovenska Governor Peter Kažimír recently suggested that rates would decline to a neutral level close to 2%. Do you agree?

    I usually agree with my friend Peter Kažimír on a lot of things [laughs]. The neutral rate is an interesting concept from an academic standpoint. However, using it as a reference for monetary policy decisions is not the right approach, in my view. The range of the neutral rate, based on different models, can be very ample. Our bank lending surveys provide a much better indicator of the restrictiveness of our monetary policy, by showing how banks are easing or tightening financing conditions. For policy decisions we need to consider all relevant incoming data and a vast range of indicators to form our assessment of the inflation outlook, underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission. So while the neutral rate makes for an interesting academic concept, it is not very useful from a policymaking standpoint.

    Why don’t academic concepts hold up? Are we living through unusual times?

    Academic research is crucial for the conceptual framework of the things we do. But the high level of uncertainty we are now dealing with potentially calls for a more pragmatic approach, placing less weight on unobservable variables or model-based estimates with shortcomings and results expressed in wide ranges.

    Services inflation is double the target level and wage growth is near 5%. How confident are you that the projected moderation in inflation will actually materialise?

    As we can clearly see at the moment, not all the components of inflation evolve in parallel. You are right that while goods inflation stands at 0.5%, services inflation is at 4%. It is important that services inflation starts to decelerate. We believe this will happen because services are very wage-sensitive, and we expect wage growth to start to decelerate. We also see our corporate surveys confirming our belief that wage dynamics will start to slow down, so we expect this to help bring down services inflation.

    How is inflation expected to evolve over the next few months?

    On average, we may see an increase in headline inflation over the next couple of months because of base effects, mostly due to energy prices. Nevertheless, we are convinced that headline inflation will start to decelerate later on in the spring and converge towards our 2% target on a sustainable basis.

    Is there any time lag between the projected moderation in wage growth and services inflation?

    There is always a certain delay in that respect. But looking only at wage growth data is like looking into a rear-view mirror. Looking ahead, we pay attention to expectations about inflation, which are firmly anchored. At the same time, there is the crucial “catch-up” process, which is almost complete. While the purchasing power of workers’ wages in the euro area fell during the period of high inflation, it has now recovered. These two elements lead us to believe that wage increases will start to decelerate.

    Eurostat released data on GDP growth in the euro area, which has been stagnating. Forward-looking indicators point to an economic slowdown, affecting wages and, in turn, consumer demand. Is that the reason why you are expecting weak growth in household consumption?

    You raised a very important issue. In order to understand what will happen to the economy, consumer behaviour is key. Right now, we don’t see consumption picking up even though the moderation in inflation has restored households’ purchasing power. It is likely that this is related to consumer confidence. The impact of past shocks like the pandemic, the post-pandemic period and the energy shock, as well as the current geopolitical situation and the general level of uncertainty worldwide, is moderating consumption. But we believe that confidence will be restored over time, as real wages recover.

    A recovery in consumption will be key for a rebound of euro area economic growth. The lack of consumer confidence is one of the reasons why this has not been the case yet.

    What would happen if the war in Ukraine were to end tomorrow? Would it change everything we think about the economy and the course of monetary policy?

    From a human standpoint, a peace agreement would obviously be very positive. And generally speaking, an end to the war would also benefit the economy. But this would depend on how the war is resolved and whether the terms of the settlement are good for Ukraine and for the rest of Europe.

    In its pursuit of price stability, the ECB targets inflation, but what role did weak economic growth play in your decision to lower interest rates?

    Even though we target inflation, our decision-making of course involves a broader perspective. We consider a wide range of indicators, such as consumer demand, investment, energy prices and exchange rate developments, as well as actual and potential economic growth. We calibrate all of these components on an ongoing basis to produce the most accurate projection of inflation over time in order to support our decisions.

    Slovakia is an automotive power. However, the car sector has been struggling in the wake of the green transition. After your dinner with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week, how do you see the green transition evolving?

    This question would be better put to the European Commission. Ms von der Leyen explained the main features of the Competitiveness Compass, with simplification and flexibility being major drivers. This means looking at decarbonisation targets also through the lens of the competitiveness of European industries.

    Slovakia is one of Europe’s fiscal sinners, but it has implemented consolidation measures, including income tax and VAT hikes and the introduction of a transaction tax. Do you think it will be enough if small euro area countries take action while large countries do not?

    Every country needs to do their part to comply with the new fiscal framework. The new rules need to be implemented fully, faithfully and by all countries, because the credibility of fiscal policy is crucial. This does not apply to Europe alone, but to other countries in the world too. Markets are monitoring each country’s fiscal position very closely, and any doubts about the sustainability of public finances are quickly reflected in increased government bond yields, as we have seen in the United States and the United Kingdom. An increase in government bond yields is detrimental to growth and financial stability. That is why we must maintain the credibility of the new fiscal framework, as this a prerequsite for keeping long-term yields at a low level, which is vital for the economic recovery. The new fiscal rules are flexible to allow sustainable deficit cuts and they will not jeopardise efforts to invest in areas such as climate change or defence.

    Global debt is on track to hit 100% of world GDP this year. Is this alarming? And who is the biggest debt sinner?

    I won’t name any countries, because the figures are already out there. In general, the policy response to the pandemic played a big part in increasing sovereign debt, as there was a combination of very loose fiscal and monetary policy. But this was an exceptional situation – extraordinary times require extraordinary measures.

    That being said, many countries have seen their fiscal positions deteriorate. Public debt ratios are now high, and a number of countries have increased their structural deficits. This is why it is so important to implement the new fiscal governance framework in its entirety. This means not only reducing the fiscal deficit and the public debt-to-GDP ratio, but also implementing structural reforms.

    Do you view the consolidation measures adopted by the Slovak Government as positive?

    It is not for us to assess the fiscal measures of individual countries. Looking at Slovakia’s fiscal profile, we see that its debt is below the euro area average, at around 60% of GDP. The budget deficit is higher, which means that Slovakia is subject to an excessive deficit procedure. In general, it’s important to reduce the deficit in a way that ensures the sustainability of public finances. This can be done through a combination of cutting expenditure and increasing tax revenue. But how to do that, and by how much, is for each country to decide.

    12 years ago, Italy’s fiscal sustainability triggered a crisis. Today, France is under the spotlight of the markets and its government bond yields are on the rise. Does this pose a threat to the stability of the euro area?

    We have seen an increase in yields in several countries. In the case of France, this may have been somewhat stronger, mainly because of the political situation. But the plans submitted to the European Commission are fully compliant with the new fiscal framework. So what I hope for France, and for other euro area countries, is political stability, and for them to be able to implement the plans approved by the European Commission.

    Mortgages are very important for people in Slovakia, as Slovaks prefer to live in their own homes. But interest rates went from levels below 1% all the way up to 5.3% in November 2023. In view of the monetary policy easing cycle, is the ECB a messenger of good news for Slovaks?

    We are trying to do our job. When inflation was high, we increased interest rates, and now that it is falling, we are reducing them. On average, inflation peaked at above 10% in October 2022 and it now stands at 2.5%, which is why we have cut interest rates by 125 basis points since June last year. This has an impact on financing conditions and on mortgage rates, but the structure of the mortgage market is also important in determining how quickly our monetary policy is transmitted. In countries where most of the mortgage market is at variable rates, interest rate cuts are rapidly reflected in household mortgage payments. In countries where there are more fixed-rate mortgages, this process is slower. But the transmission of monetary policy easing will eventually be reflected in mortgages across the board, and people will feel that they are less costly than before we started to reduce rates.

    So monetary policy is a bit of a bittersweet symphony? Bitter in bad times and sweet in good times?

    Yes, bitter when inflation is high and we need to tighten financing conditions, and sweet when it is low. Now that inflation is declining, and if it continues to do so, we will adjust our monetary policy accordingly. If inflation had not declined, we would not have cut rates.

    How big a threat are Donald Trump’s economic policies to the ECB’s inflation target?

    With regard to tariffs, our analyses suggest that the main impact will be on growth. If the world embarks on the path towards a trade war, this will have an extremely negative impact on the growth prospects of the global economy. Increases in tariffs and quotas are a negative supply shock, especially if accompanied by retaliation. This vicious circle should be avoided. Estimating the impact on inflation is more difficult owing to the dampening effect of tariffs on demand and growth, as well as the fact that selective tariffs can lead to trade being redirected and diverted.

    Are you concerned about stagflation, i.e. a stagnation in growth accompanied by rising prices, which the ECB’s monetary policy cannot reach? Could it lead to a reversal of the monetary policy stance?

    If inflation moves according to our projections, the path of our monetary policy is clear. Although there are always some external factors affecting the economy, and potentially shocks, our baseline scenario sees inflation on track to converge towards our target this year, with a slight recovery in economic growth. We expect euro area GDP growth to reach 1.1% this year, following 0.7% last year.

    To support the economic recovery, we will need a growth-oriented fiscal policy that also guarantees the fiscal sustainability of public finances, as well as structural reforms. This is where the European Commission’s Competitiveness Compass will play a key role. To achieve real unity, we need to simplify processes and integrate markets in Europe. That means the Single Market, the capital markets union and the banking union. These will be key elements in improving the growth prospects and growth potential of the euro area.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Belgium: Staff Concluding Statement of the 2025 Article IV Mission

    Source: International Monetary Fund

    February 5, 2025

    A Concluding Statement describes the preliminary findings of IMF staff at the end of an official staff visit (or ‘mission’), in most cases to a member country. Missions are undertaken as part of regular (usually annual) consultations under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, in the context of a request to use IMF resources (borrow from the IMF), as part of discussions of staff monitored programs, or as part of other staff monitoring of economic developments.

    The authorities have consented to the publication of this statement. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. Based on the preliminary findings of this mission, staff will prepare a report that, subject to management approval, will be presented to the IMF Executive Board for discussion and decision.

    An IMF team led by Jean-François Dauphin visited Brussels to conduct the 2025 Article IV consultation with Belgium. The mission’s discussions (January 22-February 3) took place before the formation of the new government and the present statement, which summarizes the mission’s findings and recommendations, does not reflect the new government’s policy intentions.

    The IMF team thanks the Belgium authorities andother counterpartsfor the constructive dialogue and productive collaboration. It congratulates the new government on its nomination and looks forward to future engagement.

    ******

    The Belgian economy has been resilient to a series of shocks, but growth has slowed, and disinflation has faced headwinds. The labor market has been strong but shows signs of cooling. Labor-cost competitiveness has declined with wage growth outpacing sluggish productivity growth. Absent policy change, pressures from an aging population will weigh on Belgium’s social model and further increase the fiscal deficit and public debt, heightening vulnerability to changes in market sentiment. The outlook is subject to high uncertainty, amid risks that could push growth down and inflation up, including deepening geoeconomic and trade fragmentation, and adverse energy price developments.

    • Sustained fiscal consolidation is needed to support disinflation, rebuild buffers, lower market vulnerabilities, and address spending pressures from aging and the green transition. All federal and federated entities need to contribute to the adjustment. Rationalizing current spending while preserving (or increasing) public investment in infrastructure, healthcare, and education and enhancing its efficiency is a priority.
    • To preserve macrofinancial stability, current capital buffer requirements and prudential limits on mortgage loans should be maintained. Recent progress in strengthening systemic risk assessment, supervision, the macroprudential framework, and crisis management and resolution preparedness is welcome and should be sustained.
    • Reforms are needed to enhance growth potential through higher labor force participation, increased productivity, and a more efficient resource allocation. Priorities include increasing the income gap between work and nonwork through tax and social benefits reforms, reforming the wage-setting mechanism, and upgrading labor skills. Together with efforts with EU partners to deepen the single market, further product market reforms to reduce barriers to entry, foster greater competition, and improve the insolvency regime will improve firm dynamics and the diffusion of innovation. Sustaining the green transition requires strong commitment and enhanced coordination among the federal and regional governments.

    Economic outlook and risks

    Growth is expected to be stable in 2025 and inflation to slowly return to target. Output is expected to grow by 1.1 percent in 2025 and slightly increase by 2027 supported by monetary policy easing and a higher contribution from net exports. Inflation is projected to gradually decline as wage growth moderates and the projected drop in international energy prices passes through to retail prices. The external current account is expected to return to small surpluses over the medium term as energy prices ease and external demand increases. Under unchanged policies, pressures from the aging population would further increase the fiscal deficit to about 7 percent and public debt about 125 percent of GDP in 2030, heightening vulnerabilities.

    The baseline outlook is subject to sizeable risks, tilted down for growth and up for inflation. Growth could be weaker if the expected recovery in external demand falters amid escalating geoeconomic tensions and trade fragmentation. Inflation could be higher than projected due to adverse energy price developments, or if persistently-high core inflation affects expectations. Fiscal sustainability concerns could arise and lead to a sharp increase in borrowing costs—especially if global risk aversion increases—, necessitating abrupt fiscal consolidation with negative consequences for growth and potentially financial stability.

    Rebuilding Fiscal Buffers Despite Pressures

    Significant fiscal consolidation is needed to address large structural deficits and rising public debt that were exacerbated by the pandemic and energy crisis. In the short term, consolidation will help further reduce inflation, notwithstanding still-high wage growth and looser monetary policy. This would also help address significant upside risks to inflation. Critically, a sustained reduction in fiscal deficits is needed to reduce vulnerability to changes in market sentiment, rebuild space to address potential future shocks, address long-term spending pressures, and ultimately, preserve the core of Belgium’s social model, which places a high premium on solidarity and equity.

    Consolidation under the new EU economic governance framework (EGF) would significantly improve fiscal sustainability. Given the magnitude of the needed adjustment, the medium-term fiscal structural plan (MTFSP) under the EGF would benefit from a seven-year rather than a four-year adjustment path, accompanied by credible and front-loaded growth-enhancing reforms. Under such an adjustment, an annual reduction in the structural primary balance of about 0.5 percentage points of GDP until 2031 will be necessary to reach an overall deficit below 3 percent of GDP by 2031 and maintain it until 2041, per the EGF.

    Fiscal adjustment should center on rationalizing current spending, while making room for public investment. Rationalizing social benefits and the public wage bill is crucial for achieving budgetary savings. Public investment should be preserved, or ideally, increased to mitigate the growth impact of fiscal consolidation, support green transition, and bolster the economy’s productive capacity.

    Improving the efficiency of public investment is critical amid competing demands for resources. This includes laying out clear infrastructure investment strategies, strengthening project appraisal, selection, and governance, and improving coordination within and among the federal and federated entities. In healthcare, increasing the focus on preventive care and reforming the organization and role of hospitals would help absorb part of the projected increase in spending due to aging and better prepare the system to the evolving need of an older population. Education reforms can help achieve the same education outcomes at lower costs or improve outcomes without increasing spending.

    Pension reforms are essential to address cost pressures from aging. The focus should be on raising the effective retirement age in line with healthy-life expectancy and facilitating longer employment through life-long learning and upskilling. Additionally, reviewing eligibility criteria for specific pension regimes (e.g., disability pensions) and limiting increases in pension benefits by reviewing automatic indexation are necessary steps. A review of special provisions (e.g., arduous jobs) could inform reforms to balance fairness and costs.

    Tax reforms should aim to shift part of the tax burden from labor to capital, without revenue loss, and to reduce tax exemptions. Belgium has the highest labor-tax wedge in the OECD. Reducing labor taxation will help increase the employment rate. All revenue from capital (e.g., interests, dividends, and capital gains) should be taxed in the same way to ensure neutrality in investment decisions, ideally by incorporating these revenues into the overall taxable income subject to personal income tax. Reducing preferential regimes and treatments in the tax system, a significant source of foregone revenue, also needs to be part of the reform package. Tax reforms should be coordinated among the federal and federated entities for their revenue and distributional impacts.

    The new EGF provides an opportunity to strengthen Belgian’s fiscal framework through a revitalized fiscal council and greater accountability among federated entities. The implementation of the 2013 federal-regional coordination agreement has proved challenging, given the complexities of Belgium’s fiscal federalism. The new EGF provides a renewed opportunity to introduce binding rules for burden sharing the fiscal adjustment, with clear accountability for the federal and all federated entities. A strengthened fiscal council (e.g., with enhanced staffing and direct reporting to parliaments) would help ensure that the federal and each federated entity’s fiscal behavior is consistent with Belgium’s European commitments.

    Preserving Macrofinancial Stability

    Overall systemic risks in the financial sector remain moderate but are evolving due to changing macroeconomic and market conditions. While the economy is slowing and real estate markets cooling, interest rates are now decreasing. Household indebtedness has stabilized, and corporate indebtedness has declined due to substantial investments being largely cash financed. Corporate bankruptcies have been increasing but remain aligned with pre-pandemic trends. Risks from residential real estate have moderated, but commercial real estate market activity has dropped sharply, and vacancies have risen, reflecting low demand for office space. Overall, exposures to real estate remain broadly stable.

    With the level of financial stability risks expected to remain unchanged, capital buffers and prudential limits on residential mortgages should be maintained . Since last year, macroprudential policies have tightened, with capital buffers significantly raised. The NBB also appropriately encouraged banks to lengthen new mortgage maturities to ease the debt servicing burden of households and pre-empt borrower distress. Progress has been made in implementing the 2023 Financial Stability Assessment Program (FSAP) recommendations and this effort should be accelerated now that a new government is in place and the required legislative changes can be pushed forward.

    Strengthening Labor Markets

    Labor market fragmentation and rigidity in Belgium are impeding growth potential. The coexistence of local or sectoral pockets of high vacancies and pockets of high unemployment highlights inefficiencies in labor allocation that hinder potential growth. Employment gaps for low-skilled workers, older workers, women, and individuals with an immigration background or disabilities remain high. Fostering a more inclusive labor market will enhance overall economic performance and mitigate fiscal pressures.

    Enhancing labor market incentives is essential. Labor market, tax, and social benefit reforms should consistently aim to increase the income gap between work and nonwork and reduce the cost of hiring and dismissal. Reducing the duration of unemployment benefits and linking social benefits to income levels would incentivize re-entry into the labor force. Policy efforts should also focus on facilitating re-integration of workers from long-term sick leave.

    Reforming the wage-setting mechanism will help increase labor market efficiency, improve competitiveness, and reduce fiscal costs. Automatic wage and social benefit indexation protected household purchasing power during the inflation shock. However, it also increased structural fiscal deficits and led to labor-cost increases exceeding those of major trading partners when accounting for productivity differential, weighing on competitiveness. Consideration should be given to abolishing the automatic indexation and the 1996 wage law which, together, define a floor and a ceiling for wage growth, that do not allow for an optimal allocation of labor and increased employment. At a minimum, the labor market would already benefit from reforms including adjusting the basis for indexation to exclude volatile prices, broadening the group of comparator countries in the wage law, using productivity-adjusted wage growth as the basis for comparison, and allowing firms to partially index wages considering specific local and sectoral labor market conditions.

    Reforms in education and life-long training are necessary to upskill the labor force, enhance employment rates, and promote growth. While educational outcomes in Belgium are comparable to peers, they are achieved at a higher cost. Addressing teacher shortages, reducing grade repetition rates, and achieving greater equality of educational outcomes irrespective of backgrounds will require a comprehensive reform of the educational system. Actions should seek to align education with the needs of Belgian companies, better leverage teachers’ time, and strengthen support provided to students who face difficulties. These reforms would help increase employment, productivity, and the creation and diffusion of innovation.

    Boosting Productivity

    Boosting productivity will require further product market reforms to improve firm dynamics and the diffusion of innovation. Despite significant investment in innovation, Belgium’s long-term productivity slowdown is worse than peers, suggesting room to improve the transmission of innovation to productivity gains. Lagging productivity is linked to insufficient firm dynamics—the entry, growth, and exit of firms—, with Belgium experiencing some of the lowest firm entry and exit rates in the EU. To enhance productivity and dynamics, further product market reforms are necessary to reduce regulatory and administrative barriers and improve the insolvency regime.

    Deepening the European single market and advancing the capital market union would benefit firms in Belgium. Removing remaining barriers to trade within the EU and harmonizing regulations and bankruptcy frameworks would enhance Belgian firms’ access to a much larger customer base, improve competition and firm dynamics, and provide buffers against risks from geo-fragmentation. Moreover, developing venture capital within an EU-wide push toward capital market union would help widen Belgian firms’ options to finance growth.

    Sustaining the Green Transition

    Despite progress, much effort remains needed to achieve climate objectives. The expansion of the EU emissions trading system should be complemented by timely implementation of carbon taxation and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, while ensuring support for vulnerable population. The consolidation of federal and regional climate efforts into a coherent and cohesive national strategy is essential. Improved coordination and accountability among the federal and regional governments will facilitate the design, execution, and evaluation of climate policies. Adequate investments in the green transition are necessary to ensure Belgium meets its climate goals and contributes to the European Green Deal.

    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER: Camila Perez

    Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Investors, Trump and the Illuminati: What the “Nigerian prince” scams became in 2024

    Source: Securelist – Kaspersky

    Headline: Investors, Trump and the Illuminati: What the “Nigerian prince” scams became in 2024

    “Nigerian” spam is a collective term for messages designed to entice victims with alluring offers and draw them into an email exchange with scammers, who will try to defraud them of their money. The original “Nigerian” spam emails were sent in the name of influential and wealthy individuals from Nigeria, hence the name of the scam.

    The themes of these phishing emails evolved over time, with cybercriminals leveraging contemporary events and popular trends to pique the interest of their targets. However, the distinctive characteristics of the messages that placed them in the “Nigerian” scam category remained unchanged:

    • The user is encouraged to reply to an email. It is usually enough for the attackers to receive a reply in any format, but sometimes they ask the victim to provide additional information, such as contact details or an address.
    • Typically, scammers mention a large amount of money that they claim the recipient is entitled to, either due to sheer luck or because of their special status. However, some emails use other types of bait: investment opportunities, generous gifts, invitations to an exclusive community, and so on.
    • The body of most “Nigerian” scam emails includes the email address – often registered with a free email service – of the alleged benefactor or an agent, which may be different from the sender’s address. Sometimes the return address is given in the Reply-To field rather than the message itself, and the address also differs from the one in the From field. Alternatively, the message body might contain a phone number in place of an email address.
    • The messages are often poorly written, with a large number of mistakes and typos. The text may well be the product of low-quality machine translation or generated by a large language model poorly trained on that language.

    Types of “Nigerian” email messages

    Email from wealthy benefactors

    A fairly common tactic that has superseded the original “Nigerian” scam involves messages purportedly from wealthy individuals suffering from a terminal illness and facing imminent death. They claim to have no heirs, and therefore wish to bequeath their vast fortune to the recipient, whom they deem worthy.

    The narrative may change slightly from one email to the next. For example, a “wealthy benefactor” might ask the recipient to act as a go-between for a monetary transfer to a third party in exchange for a reward, as described in the email above, or simply offer a valuable gift. The message can claim to be written by either a dying millionaire or, as in the example below, a legal representative of the deceased.

    Alternatively, the “millionaires” may be in good health and supposedly donating their money purely out of the goodness of their hearts. To enhance credibility, attackers can embed links to publicly available data about the individual they’re posing as.

    Compensation scams

    Beyond the “millionaire giveaway” scam, fraudsters frequently use the lure of compensations from governments, banks and other trusted entities. By doing so, they exploit the victim’s vulnerability rather than their greed. Scammers sometimes take their victims on an emotional rollercoaster ride. They start by frightening people with bad news, then calm them down by saying the problem has been fixed, and finally surprise them with a generous offer of compensation.

    For example, in the email screenshot below, the attackers, posing as high-ranking officials at a major bank, claim that “corrupt employees” were attempting to steal the recipient’s money. The bank claims to have taken action and is offering an exorbitant amount as damage compensation. To get it, the recipient is urged to contact a correspondent bank as soon as possible at an email address, which is, unsurprisingly, registered with a free email service.

    Scammers have another trick up their sleeve when it comes to compensations: they pretend to be from the police or some international organization and promise to give victims of “Nigerian” scams or other rip-offs their money back. In the example below, scammers, posing as the Financial Stability Council and the United Bank for Africa (UBA), promise the victim a payout from a so-called “fraud victims compensation fund”.

    Sometimes scammers pretend to be “victims of fraud” themselves. The screenshot below shows a common example: scammers masquerade as victims of cryptocurrency fraud, offering help from “noble hackers” who they claim helped them recover their losses.

    Lottery scams

    Lottery win notification scams share many similarities with “Nigerian” scams. Fraudsters promise recipients large sums of money and provide their contact details for further communication. It’s likely that the victim has never heard of the lottery they’ve supposedly won.

    In some cases, scammers employ unusual tactics. For example, in a message claiming to be from a European lottery director, the email body is all but empty. All the “win” details and next steps are in a PDF attachment. The file includes a free email address, which is typical of “Nigerian” scams, and asks you to send fairly detailed personal information, such as your full name, address, and both your mobile and landline phone numbers. They even ask for your job position.

    In other similar emails, we noticed image attachments that included all the details about the supposed “win” and contact information.

    Another lottery scam tactic combines two types of bait: a lottery win (fraudsters pretend to be someone else who has won and is now offering you money) and offering a donation from a wealthy elderly person.

    In some cases, to make their scams more convincing, scammers attach photos of documents to their emails that supposedly confirm the sender’s identity or their winnings.

    Online dating scams

    Some “Nigerian” scams are so sophisticated that they can be hard to spot right away. These include offers of friendship that often develop into romantic conversations, which can be almost indistinguishable from real-life interactions. We’ve seen examples of really long email exchanges where a whole drama played out. A man and a woman met online and hit it off, chatting for hours about everything under the sun. Now, one of them is finally ready to meet the other in person. However, they can’t afford the ticket or visa, and they’re pleading with their partner for financial help so they can meet.

    In a different scenario, the scammer pretends to send an expensive gift to their partner. Eventually, they claim they can’t afford the postage and ask the victim to cover the costs. If the victim agrees, they’ll be hit with a series of additional fees, and the package will never materialize.

    “Nigerian” spam for businesses

    While “Nigerian” scams are often targeted at individual users, similar spam can also be found in the B2B sector. Cybercriminals claim to be seeking businesses to invest in, and the recipient’s company may be their target. To arrange a “partnership”, they ask the recipient to reply to the email.

    Current “Nigerian” spam themes

    Some of the spam samples above reference recent or current real-world events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or Saudi Arabia’s possible BRICS membership. This is typical of “Nigerian” scams. There are countless ways scammers exploit various global or local, significant or ordinary, positive or negative events, news, incidents, and activities to pursue their selfish goals.

    The most talked-about event of 2024, the US presidential election, significantly influenced the types of scams we saw. Emails that took advantage of this topic were sent to users around the globe. For instance, in the following message, the scammers claimed that the recipient, who uses a German email address, was lucky enough to win millions of dollars from the Donald J. Trump Foundation.

    Creativity unbound

    While most spam fits into well-known categories, scammers can come up with some very surprising offers. We’ve seen quite a few messages from people claiming they’re giving away a piano because they’re moving or because the previous owner has passed away, as is often the case.

    Sometimes you find some really unusual specimens. For example, in the screenshot below, there’s an email allegedly sent from a secret society of Illuminati who claim to be ready to share their wealth and power, as well as make the lucky recipient famous if they agree to become part of their grand brotherhood.

    Conclusion

    “Nigerian” spam has existed for a long time and is characterized by its diversity. Fraudsters can pose as both real and fictitious individuals: bank employees, lawyers, businesspeople, magnates, bankers, ambassadors, company executives, law enforcement officers, presidents or even members of secret societies. They use a variety of stories to hook the user: compensations and reimbursements, donations and charity, winnings, inheritances, investments, and much more. Messages can be anything from short and captivating to long and persuasive, filled with numerous convincing claims designed to lull the victim into a false sense of security. The main danger of such emails lies in the fact that at first glance, there is nothing harmful in them: no links to phishing sites and no suspicious attachments. Scammers exclusively rely on social engineering and are willing to correspond with the victim for an extended period, increasing the credibility of their fabricated story.

    To avoid falling victim to such scams, it’s important to understand the dangers of tempting offers and to be critical of emails allegedly sent from influential individuals. If possible, it’s best to avoid responding to messages from unverified senders altogether. If for some reason you can’t avoid corresponding with a stranger, before responding to even an innocent message about finding a new owner for a piano, it’s worth double-checking the information in it, paying attention to inconsistencies, grammatical errors, etc. If the reply-to address is different from the sender’s address, or if you see a different address in the email body, this may be a sign of fraud.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Marat Khusnullin: In 2024, 53 long-term construction projects for 10.7 thousand equity holders were completed in Russia

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    In 2024, thanks to federal mechanisms for restoring the rights of defrauded equity holders after completion of construction, 53 apartment buildings that were previously considered problematic were put into operation. The Supervisory Board of the Territorial Development Fund made decisions on them in 2019–2022.

    “Not so long ago, the issue of equity holders who suffered in Russia was acute. The government has done a lot of work to reduce the severity of this social problem. At present, we continue to implement the decisions that were previously made by the FRT Supervisory Board. Last year, 53 buildings were completed with the help of federal mechanisms. About 10.7 thousand people will receive the keys to new apartments in them. In total, since 2019, the rights of about 254 thousand citizens who suffered from the actions of unscrupulous developers have been restored,” said Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the FRT Supervisory Board Marat Khusnullin.

    Completed long-term construction projects are located in 14 regions: Krasnodar, Perm, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk Krais, Leningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Tambov and Ulyanovsk Oblasts, the Republics of Khakassia and North Ossetia, as well as in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

    “The largest volume of work over the past year was completed in the Leningrad Region, where 10 houses were delivered for 3 thousand defrauded equity holders, in the Krasnoyarsk Region, where the construction of 9 houses for 1880 equity holders was completed, and in the Krasnodar Region, where 5 houses are ready, the keys to which will be received by 1254 people. In addition, 6 houses were erected in the Perm Region, in which 1167 equity holders will move in, and in the Novosibirsk Region 3 houses for 741 people were completed,” noted the General Director of the Territorial Development Fund Ilshat Shagiakhmetov.

    Federal and regional mechanisms are used to help affected equity holders. Federal mechanisms include completing the construction of the problematic facility and paying compensation based on the decision of the FRT supervisory board.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Belgium: Staff Concluding Statement of the 2025 Article IV Mission

    Source: IMF – News in Russian

    February 5, 2025

    A Concluding Statement describes the preliminary findings of IMF staff at the end of an official staff visit (or ‘mission’), in most cases to a member country. Missions are undertaken as part of regular (usually annual) consultations under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, in the context of a request to use IMF resources (borrow from the IMF), as part of discussions of staff monitored programs, or as part of other staff monitoring of economic developments.

    The authorities have consented to the publication of this statement. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. Based on the preliminary findings of this mission, staff will prepare a report that, subject to management approval, will be presented to the IMF Executive Board for discussion and decision.

    An IMF team led by Jean-François Dauphin visited Brussels to conduct the 2025 Article IV consultation with Belgium. The mission’s discussions (January 22-February 3) took place before the formation of the new government and the present statement, which summarizes the mission’s findings and recommendations, does not reflect the new government’s policy intentions.

    The IMF team thanks the Belgium authorities andother counterpartsfor the constructive dialogue and productive collaboration. It congratulates the new government on its nomination and looks forward to future engagement.

    ******

    The Belgian economy has been resilient to a series of shocks, but growth has slowed, and disinflation has faced headwinds. The labor market has been strong but shows signs of cooling. Labor-cost competitiveness has declined with wage growth outpacing sluggish productivity growth. Absent policy change, pressures from an aging population will weigh on Belgium’s social model and further increase the fiscal deficit and public debt, heightening vulnerability to changes in market sentiment. The outlook is subject to high uncertainty, amid risks that could push growth down and inflation up, including deepening geoeconomic and trade fragmentation, and adverse energy price developments.

    • Sustained fiscal consolidation is needed to support disinflation, rebuild buffers, lower market vulnerabilities, and address spending pressures from aging and the green transition. All federal and federated entities need to contribute to the adjustment. Rationalizing current spending while preserving (or increasing) public investment in infrastructure, healthcare, and education and enhancing its efficiency is a priority.
    • To preserve macrofinancial stability, current capital buffer requirements and prudential limits on mortgage loans should be maintained. Recent progress in strengthening systemic risk assessment, supervision, the macroprudential framework, and crisis management and resolution preparedness is welcome and should be sustained.
    • Reforms are needed to enhance growth potential through higher labor force participation, increased productivity, and a more efficient resource allocation. Priorities include increasing the income gap between work and nonwork through tax and social benefits reforms, reforming the wage-setting mechanism, and upgrading labor skills. Together with efforts with EU partners to deepen the single market, further product market reforms to reduce barriers to entry, foster greater competition, and improve the insolvency regime will improve firm dynamics and the diffusion of innovation. Sustaining the green transition requires strong commitment and enhanced coordination among the federal and regional governments.

    Economic outlook and risks

    Growth is expected to be stable in 2025 and inflation to slowly return to target. Output is expected to grow by 1.1 percent in 2025 and slightly increase by 2027 supported by monetary policy easing and a higher contribution from net exports. Inflation is projected to gradually decline as wage growth moderates and the projected drop in international energy prices passes through to retail prices. The external current account is expected to return to small surpluses over the medium term as energy prices ease and external demand increases. Under unchanged policies, pressures from the aging population would further increase the fiscal deficit to about 7 percent and public debt about 125 percent of GDP in 2030, heightening vulnerabilities.

    The baseline outlook is subject to sizeable risks, tilted down for growth and up for inflation. Growth could be weaker if the expected recovery in external demand falters amid escalating geoeconomic tensions and trade fragmentation. Inflation could be higher than projected due to adverse energy price developments, or if persistently-high core inflation affects expectations. Fiscal sustainability concerns could arise and lead to a sharp increase in borrowing costs—especially if global risk aversion increases—, necessitating abrupt fiscal consolidation with negative consequences for growth and potentially financial stability.

    Rebuilding Fiscal Buffers Despite Pressures

    Significant fiscal consolidation is needed to address large structural deficits and rising public debt that were exacerbated by the pandemic and energy crisis. In the short term, consolidation will help further reduce inflation, notwithstanding still-high wage growth and looser monetary policy. This would also help address significant upside risks to inflation. Critically, a sustained reduction in fiscal deficits is needed to reduce vulnerability to changes in market sentiment, rebuild space to address potential future shocks, address long-term spending pressures, and ultimately, preserve the core of Belgium’s social model, which places a high premium on solidarity and equity.

    Consolidation under the new EU economic governance framework (EGF) would significantly improve fiscal sustainability. Given the magnitude of the needed adjustment, the medium-term fiscal structural plan (MTFSP) under the EGF would benefit from a seven-year rather than a four-year adjustment path, accompanied by credible and front-loaded growth-enhancing reforms. Under such an adjustment, an annual reduction in the structural primary balance of about 0.5 percentage points of GDP until 2031 will be necessary to reach an overall deficit below 3 percent of GDP by 2031 and maintain it until 2041, per the EGF.

    Fiscal adjustment should center on rationalizing current spending, while making room for public investment. Rationalizing social benefits and the public wage bill is crucial for achieving budgetary savings. Public investment should be preserved, or ideally, increased to mitigate the growth impact of fiscal consolidation, support green transition, and bolster the economy’s productive capacity.

    Improving the efficiency of public investment is critical amid competing demands for resources. This includes laying out clear infrastructure investment strategies, strengthening project appraisal, selection, and governance, and improving coordination within and among the federal and federated entities. In healthcare, increasing the focus on preventive care and reforming the organization and role of hospitals would help absorb part of the projected increase in spending due to aging and better prepare the system to the evolving need of an older population. Education reforms can help achieve the same education outcomes at lower costs or improve outcomes without increasing spending.

    Pension reforms are essential to address cost pressures from aging. The focus should be on raising the effective retirement age in line with healthy-life expectancy and facilitating longer employment through life-long learning and upskilling. Additionally, reviewing eligibility criteria for specific pension regimes (e.g., disability pensions) and limiting increases in pension benefits by reviewing automatic indexation are necessary steps. A review of special provisions (e.g., arduous jobs) could inform reforms to balance fairness and costs.

    Tax reforms should aim to shift part of the tax burden from labor to capital, without revenue loss, and to reduce tax exemptions. Belgium has the highest labor-tax wedge in the OECD. Reducing labor taxation will help increase the employment rate. All revenue from capital (e.g., interests, dividends, and capital gains) should be taxed in the same way to ensure neutrality in investment decisions, ideally by incorporating these revenues into the overall taxable income subject to personal income tax. Reducing preferential regimes and treatments in the tax system, a significant source of foregone revenue, also needs to be part of the reform package. Tax reforms should be coordinated among the federal and federated entities for their revenue and distributional impacts.

    The new EGF provides an opportunity to strengthen Belgian’s fiscal framework through a revitalized fiscal council and greater accountability among federated entities. The implementation of the 2013 federal-regional coordination agreement has proved challenging, given the complexities of Belgium’s fiscal federalism. The new EGF provides a renewed opportunity to introduce binding rules for burden sharing the fiscal adjustment, with clear accountability for the federal and all federated entities. A strengthened fiscal council (e.g., with enhanced staffing and direct reporting to parliaments) would help ensure that the federal and each federated entity’s fiscal behavior is consistent with Belgium’s European commitments.

    Preserving Macrofinancial Stability

    Overall systemic risks in the financial sector remain moderate but are evolving due to changing macroeconomic and market conditions. While the economy is slowing and real estate markets cooling, interest rates are now decreasing. Household indebtedness has stabilized, and corporate indebtedness has declined due to substantial investments being largely cash financed. Corporate bankruptcies have been increasing but remain aligned with pre-pandemic trends. Risks from residential real estate have moderated, but commercial real estate market activity has dropped sharply, and vacancies have risen, reflecting low demand for office space. Overall, exposures to real estate remain broadly stable.

    With the level of financial stability risks expected to remain unchanged, capital buffers and prudential limits on residential mortgages should be maintained . Since last year, macroprudential policies have tightened, with capital buffers significantly raised. The NBB also appropriately encouraged banks to lengthen new mortgage maturities to ease the debt servicing burden of households and pre-empt borrower distress. Progress has been made in implementing the 2023 Financial Stability Assessment Program (FSAP) recommendations and this effort should be accelerated now that a new government is in place and the required legislative changes can be pushed forward.

    Strengthening Labor Markets

    Labor market fragmentation and rigidity in Belgium are impeding growth potential. The coexistence of local or sectoral pockets of high vacancies and pockets of high unemployment highlights inefficiencies in labor allocation that hinder potential growth. Employment gaps for low-skilled workers, older workers, women, and individuals with an immigration background or disabilities remain high. Fostering a more inclusive labor market will enhance overall economic performance and mitigate fiscal pressures.

    Enhancing labor market incentives is essential. Labor market, tax, and social benefit reforms should consistently aim to increase the income gap between work and nonwork and reduce the cost of hiring and dismissal. Reducing the duration of unemployment benefits and linking social benefits to income levels would incentivize re-entry into the labor force. Policy efforts should also focus on facilitating re-integration of workers from long-term sick leave.

    Reforming the wage-setting mechanism will help increase labor market efficiency, improve competitiveness, and reduce fiscal costs. Automatic wage and social benefit indexation protected household purchasing power during the inflation shock. However, it also increased structural fiscal deficits and led to labor-cost increases exceeding those of major trading partners when accounting for productivity differential, weighing on competitiveness. Consideration should be given to abolishing the automatic indexation and the 1996 wage law which, together, define a floor and a ceiling for wage growth, that do not allow for an optimal allocation of labor and increased employment. At a minimum, the labor market would already benefit from reforms including adjusting the basis for indexation to exclude volatile prices, broadening the group of comparator countries in the wage law, using productivity-adjusted wage growth as the basis for comparison, and allowing firms to partially index wages considering specific local and sectoral labor market conditions.

    Reforms in education and life-long training are necessary to upskill the labor force, enhance employment rates, and promote growth. While educational outcomes in Belgium are comparable to peers, they are achieved at a higher cost. Addressing teacher shortages, reducing grade repetition rates, and achieving greater equality of educational outcomes irrespective of backgrounds will require a comprehensive reform of the educational system. Actions should seek to align education with the needs of Belgian companies, better leverage teachers’ time, and strengthen support provided to students who face difficulties. These reforms would help increase employment, productivity, and the creation and diffusion of innovation.

    Boosting Productivity

    Boosting productivity will require further product market reforms to improve firm dynamics and the diffusion of innovation. Despite significant investment in innovation, Belgium’s long-term productivity slowdown is worse than peers, suggesting room to improve the transmission of innovation to productivity gains. Lagging productivity is linked to insufficient firm dynamics—the entry, growth, and exit of firms—, with Belgium experiencing some of the lowest firm entry and exit rates in the EU. To enhance productivity and dynamics, further product market reforms are necessary to reduce regulatory and administrative barriers and improve the insolvency regime.

    Deepening the European single market and advancing the capital market union would benefit firms in Belgium. Removing remaining barriers to trade within the EU and harmonizing regulations and bankruptcy frameworks would enhance Belgian firms’ access to a much larger customer base, improve competition and firm dynamics, and provide buffers against risks from geo-fragmentation. Moreover, developing venture capital within an EU-wide push toward capital market union would help widen Belgian firms’ options to finance growth.

    Sustaining the Green Transition

    Despite progress, much effort remains needed to achieve climate objectives. The expansion of the EU emissions trading system should be complemented by timely implementation of carbon taxation and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, while ensuring support for vulnerable population. The consolidation of federal and regional climate efforts into a coherent and cohesive national strategy is essential. Improved coordination and accountability among the federal and regional governments will facilitate the design, execution, and evaluation of climate policies. Adequate investments in the green transition are necessary to ensure Belgium meets its climate goals and contributes to the European Green Deal.

    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER: Camila Perez

    Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org

    https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2025/02/05/CS-Belgium-2025

    MIL OSI

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI: CampDoc and CouncilWare Announce Strategic Integration for Scouting America Councils

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CampDoc, the leading electronic health record system for camps, and CouncilWare, a premier software provider for scouting organizations, are excited to announce a strategic integration designed specifically for Scouting America councils. This collaboration will streamline operations and enhance the experience for scouts, families, and council administrators nationwide.

    The integration between CampDoc and CouncilWare aims to simplify administrative tasks through automatic account provisioning, data syncing, and single sign on (SSO), ensuring that critical health information is readily available to improve communication and response times when it matters most.

    “We are thrilled to partner with CouncilWare to bring this innovative solution to Scouting America councils,” said Dr. Michael Ambrose, Founder and CEO of CampDoc. “This integration will empower councils to provide top-notch care and reassure families, while helping to streamline efficiency on check-in day and throughout the duration of the program.”

    CampDoc is the only approved Electronic Health Record (EHR) by Scouting America. Individual councils and high adventure bases have utilized the CampDoc tool to collect the Annual Health and Medical Record (AHMR), document medication administration, and record incident reports.

    “Collaborating with CampDoc allows us to provide a unified system that addresses the unique needs of scouting organizations,” said Russ Votava, CEO of CouncilWare. “We are proud to support Scouting America councils in their commitment to developing the next generation of leaders.”

    CampDoc and CouncilWare recently piloted their integration at the National Order of the Arrow Conference (NOAC) this past summer, and they are excited to expand their work with Scouting America at the 2026 National Jamboree.

    The integration reflects a shared commitment to leveraging technology to improve the scouting experience. By uniting their platforms, CampDoc and CouncilWare are addressing the growing need for efficient, secure, and user-friendly solutions in the scouting community.

    Scouting America Councils interested in exploring the integration between CampDoc and CouncilWare should visit www.campdoc.com or www.councilware.com for more information.

    About DocNetwork
    CampDoc and SchoolDoc offer the most comprehensive Electronic Health Record (EHR) solution to help ensure the health and safety of children while they are away from home. DocNetwork is trusted by over 1,250 programs across all 50 states and internationally, including traditional day and residential camps, YMCAs, JCCs, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, parks and recreation facilities, colleges and universities, and K-12 public, private, and charter schools. For more information about DocNetwork and web-based health management, please visit www.campdoc.com, www.schooldoc.com, or call 734-619-8300.

    About CouncilWare
    CouncilWare is a modern, web-based, fully-responsive, software service that provides Scouting America councils with the functionality needed to support their operations. The software was developed in response to a growing demand for a council website solution that was custom tailored to the Scouting program and met the specific requirements that councils have in supporting their participants and volunteers. Core functions include Event Registration, Product Sales and Facility Reservations. For more information about CouncilWare please visit councilware.com or call 402-477-0809.

    Contact:
    Michael Ambrose, M.D.
    DocNetwork
    734-619-8300
    michael@docnetwork.org

    Russ Votava
    CouncilWare
    402-477-0809
    russ.votava@councilware.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – The rising cost of gas-fired power generation: a threat to affordability in the EU – E-000301/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-000301/2025
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Dan-Ştefan Motreanu (PPE)

    Data from the think tank Ember reveals that in the first 10 days of 2025, the average cost of producing electricity from gas in the EU exceeded EUR 125/MWh, marking a 35 % increase compared to the same period in 2024.

    This sharp rise in electricity generation costs is driven by escalating gas prices, which have been on an upward trend since February 2024. The situation poses a significant challenge to maintaining affordable wholesale electricity prices across the EU, particularly for countries heavily reliant on gas in their electricity generation mix. These nations are expected to be the most severely affected by the rising costs.

    The reliance on gas not only threatens energy affordability but also undermines efforts to stabilise energy markets and protect consumers from price volatility. With energy costs playing a pivotal role in economic competitiveness and household expenses, this issue demands urgent attention.

    What immediate and medium-term measures does the Commission plan to implement to mitigate the impact of rising gas prices on electricity production costs?

    Submitted: 23.1.2025

    Last updated: 5 February 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Highlights – AFCO ad hoc delegation to Washington DC – November 2024 – Committee on Constitutional Affairs

    Source: European Parliament

    Washington DC – © European Union © European Union

    The AFCO Committee considered pertinent to visit Washington DC shortly after the presidential elections, held on 5 November 2024, to learn more about the transition between administrations and the electoral procedure. The AFCO delegation was composed of 7 Members and took place from 19 to 22 November 2024.For more information see the Report

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Latest news – AFCO ad hoc delegation to Washington DC – November 2023 – Committee on Constitutional Affairs

    Source: European Parliament

    Washington DC – © European Union

    The AFCO Committee considered pertinent to visit Washington DC shortly after the presidential elections, held on 5 November 2024, to learn more about the transition between administrations and the electoral procedure. The AFCO delegation was composed of 7 Members and took place from 19 to 22 November 2024.For more information see the Report

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Luis de Guindos: Interview with Hospodárske Noviny

    Source: European Central Bank

    Interview with Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, conducted by Mário Blaščák

    5 February 2025

    The ECB lowered its interest rates by 25 basis points last week. How low can rates go given the current inflation and growth outlook?

    We have been very clear that we are not following any predetermined path and will decide meeting by meeting, based on the incoming economic data. This is because the level of uncertainty is huge. Now that we see inflation approaching our 2% target, we have been reducing the restriction of our monetary policy. How much lower rates will go depends on the data confirming that inflation is converging towards our target in a sustainable manner. We are confident that this will happen this year, but there are still a number of uncertainties, particularly surrounding the geopolitical situation, that we need to take into account. So, even if our current trajectory under the current circumstances is clear, nobody knows the level at which interest rates will end up.

    At the press conference, ECB President Christine Lagarde described the current level of interest rates as being in restrictive territory. Národná banka Slovenska Governor Peter Kažimír recently suggested that rates would decline to a neutral level close to 2%. Do you agree?

    I usually agree with my friend Peter Kažimír on a lot of things [laughs]. The neutral rate is an interesting concept from an academic standpoint. However, using it as a reference for monetary policy decisions is not the right approach, in my view. The range of the neutral rate, based on different models, can be very ample. Our bank lending surveys provide a much better indicator of the restrictiveness of our monetary policy, by showing how banks are easing or tightening financing conditions. For policy decisions we need to consider all relevant incoming data and a vast range of indicators to form our assessment of the inflation outlook, underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission. So while the neutral rate makes for an interesting academic concept, it is not very useful from a policymaking standpoint.

    Why don’t academic concepts hold up? Are we living through unusual times?

    Academic research is crucial for the conceptual framework of the things we do. But the high level of uncertainty we are now dealing with potentially calls for a more pragmatic approach, placing less weight on unobservable variables or model-based estimates with shortcomings and results expressed in wide ranges.

    Services inflation is double the target level and wage growth is near 5%. How confident are you that the projected moderation in inflation will actually materialise?

    As we can clearly see at the moment, not all the components of inflation evolve in parallel. You are right that while goods inflation stands at 0.5%, services inflation is at 4%. It is important that services inflation starts to decelerate. We believe this will happen because services are very wage-sensitive, and we expect wage growth to start to decelerate. We also see our corporate surveys confirming our belief that wage dynamics will start to slow down, so we expect this to help bring down services inflation.

    How is inflation expected to evolve over the next few months?

    On average, we may see an increase in headline inflation over the next couple of months because of base effects, mostly due to energy prices. Nevertheless, we are convinced that headline inflation will start to decelerate later on in the spring and converge towards our 2% target on a sustainable basis.

    Is there any time lag between the projected moderation in wage growth and services inflation?

    There is always a certain delay in that respect. But looking only at wage growth data is like looking into a rear-view mirror. Looking ahead, we pay attention to expectations about inflation, which are firmly anchored. At the same time, there is the crucial “catch-up” process, which is almost complete. While the purchasing power of workers’ wages in the euro area fell during the period of high inflation, it has now recovered. These two elements lead us to believe that wage increases will start to decelerate.

    Eurostat released data on GDP growth in the euro area, which has been stagnating. Forward-looking indicators point to an economic slowdown, affecting wages and, in turn, consumer demand. Is that the reason why you are expecting weak growth in household consumption?

    You raised a very important issue. In order to understand what will happen to the economy, consumer behaviour is key. Right now, we don’t see consumption picking up even though the moderation in inflation has restored households’ purchasing power. It is likely that this is related to consumer confidence. The impact of past shocks like the pandemic, the post-pandemic period and the energy shock, as well as the current geopolitical situation and the general level of uncertainty worldwide, is moderating consumption. But we believe that confidence will be restored over time, as real wages recover.

    A recovery in consumption will be key for a rebound of euro area economic growth. The lack of consumer confidence is one of the reasons why this has not been the case yet.

    What would happen if the war in Ukraine were to end tomorrow? Would it change everything we think about the economy and the course of monetary policy?

    From a human standpoint, a peace agreement would obviously be very positive. And generally speaking, an end to the war would also benefit the economy. But this would depend on how the war is resolved and whether the terms of the settlement are good for Ukraine and for the rest of Europe.

    In its pursuit of price stability, the ECB targets inflation, but what role did weak economic growth play in your decision to lower interest rates?

    Even though we target inflation, our decision-making of course involves a broader perspective. We consider a wide range of indicators, such as consumer demand, investment, energy prices and exchange rate developments, as well as actual and potential economic growth. We calibrate all of these components on an ongoing basis to produce the most accurate projection of inflation over time in order to support our decisions.

    Slovakia is an automotive power. However, the car sector has been struggling in the wake of the green transition. After your dinner with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week, how do you see the green transition evolving?

    This question would be better put to the European Commission. Ms von der Leyen explained the main features of the Competitiveness Compass, with simplification and flexibility being major drivers. This means looking at decarbonisation targets also through the lens of the competitiveness of European industries.

    Slovakia is one of Europe’s fiscal sinners, but it has implemented consolidation measures, including income tax and VAT hikes and the introduction of a transaction tax. Do you think it will be enough if small euro area countries take action while large countries do not?

    Every country needs to do their part to comply with the new fiscal framework. The new rules need to be implemented fully, faithfully and by all countries, because the credibility of fiscal policy is crucial. This does not apply to Europe alone, but to other countries in the world too. Markets are monitoring each country’s fiscal position very closely, and any doubts about the sustainability of public finances are quickly reflected in increased government bond yields, as we have seen in the United States and the United Kingdom. An increase in government bond yields is detrimental to growth and financial stability. That is why we must maintain the credibility of the new fiscal framework, as this a prerequsite for keeping long-term yields at a low level, which is vital for the economic recovery. The new fiscal rules are flexible to allow sustainable deficit cuts and they will not jeopardise efforts to invest in areas such as climate change or defence.

    Global debt is on track to hit 100% of world GDP this year. Is this alarming? And who is the biggest debt sinner?

    I won’t name any countries, because the figures are already out there. In general, the policy response to the pandemic played a big part in increasing sovereign debt, as there was a combination of very loose fiscal and monetary policy. But this was an exceptional situation – extraordinary times require extraordinary measures.

    That being said, many countries have seen their fiscal positions deteriorate. Public debt ratios are now high, and a number of countries have increased their structural deficits. This is why it is so important to implement the new fiscal governance framework in its entirety. This means not only reducing the fiscal deficit and the public debt-to-GDP ratio, but also implementing structural reforms.

    Do you view the consolidation measures adopted by the Slovak Government as positive?

    It is not for us to assess the fiscal measures of individual countries. Looking at Slovakia’s fiscal profile, we see that its debt is below the euro area average, at around 60% of GDP. The budget deficit is higher, which means that Slovakia is subject to an excessive deficit procedure. In general, it’s important to reduce the deficit in a way that ensures the sustainability of public finances. This can be done through a combination of cutting expenditure and increasing tax revenue. But how to do that, and by how much, is for each country to decide.

    12 years ago, Italy’s fiscal sustainability triggered a crisis. Today, France is under the spotlight of the markets and its government bond yields are on the rise. Does this pose a threat to the stability of the euro area?

    We have seen an increase in yields in several countries. In the case of France, this may have been somewhat stronger, mainly because of the political situation. But the plans submitted to the European Commission are fully compliant with the new fiscal framework. So what I hope for France, and for other euro area countries, is political stability, and for them to be able to implement the plans approved by the European Commission.

    Mortgages are very important for people in Slovakia, as Slovaks prefer to live in their own homes. But interest rates went from levels below 1% all the way up to 5.3% in November 2023. In view of the monetary policy easing cycle, is the ECB a messenger of good news for Slovaks?

    We are trying to do our job. When inflation was high, we increased interest rates, and now that it is falling, we are reducing them. On average, inflation peaked at above 10% in October 2022 and it now stands at 2.5%, which is why we have cut interest rates by 125 basis points since June last year. This has an impact on financing conditions and on mortgage rates, but the structure of the mortgage market is also important in determining how quickly our monetary policy is transmitted. In countries where most of the mortgage market is at variable rates, interest rate cuts are rapidly reflected in household mortgage payments. In countries where there are more fixed-rate mortgages, this process is slower. But the transmission of monetary policy easing will eventually be reflected in mortgages across the board, and people will feel that they are less costly than before we started to reduce rates.

    So monetary policy is a bit of a bittersweet symphony? Bitter in bad times and sweet in good times?

    Yes, bitter when inflation is high and we need to tighten financing conditions, and sweet when it is low. Now that inflation is declining, and if it continues to do so, we will adjust our monetary policy accordingly. If inflation had not declined, we would not have cut rates.

    How big a threat are Donald Trump’s economic policies to the ECB’s inflation target?

    With regard to tariffs, our analyses suggest that the main impact will be on growth. If the world embarks on the path towards a trade war, this will have an extremely negative impact on the growth prospects of the global economy. Increases in tariffs and quotas are a negative supply shock, especially if accompanied by retaliation. This vicious circle should be avoided. Estimating the impact on inflation is more difficult owing to the dampening effect of tariffs on demand and growth, as well as the fact that selective tariffs can lead to trade being redirected and diverted.

    Are you concerned about stagflation, i.e. a stagnation in growth accompanied by rising prices, which the ECB’s monetary policy cannot reach? Could it lead to a reversal of the monetary policy stance?

    If inflation moves according to our projections, the path of our monetary policy is clear. Although there are always some external factors affecting the economy, and potentially shocks, our baseline scenario sees inflation on track to converge towards our target this year, with a slight recovery in economic growth. We expect euro area GDP growth to reach 1.1% this year, following 0.7% last year.

    To support the economic recovery, we will need a growth-oriented fiscal policy that also guarantees the fiscal sustainability of public finances, as well as structural reforms. This is where the European Commission’s Competitiveness Compass will play a key role. To achieve real unity, we need to simplify processes and integrate markets in Europe. That means the Single Market, the capital markets union and the banking union. These will be key elements in improving the growth prospects and growth potential of the euro area.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Tributes to footballing legend Denis Law at Full Council

    Source: Scotland – City of Aberdeen

    Tributes to footballing giant Denis Law CBE – Scotland’s only winner of Ballon d’Or – were made today (Wednesday 5 February 2025) at Aberdeen City Council’s Full Council meeting.

    The Lord Provost of Aberdeen, Dr David Cameron, who chairs the meeting, made special mention at the start of the session to the city’s greatest footballing son who died aged 84, on 17 January 2025.

    The Lord Provost said: ““Denis Law was truly an iconic footballer, hero, and inspiration to many people, here in Aberdeen, and further afield in Manchester, Huddersfield and Italy.

    “Denis was and continues to be an inspiring role model to so many people and he  never forgot his roots. “He especially demonstrated his strong and caring commitment to younger generations through his legacy trust. The positive support and opportunities that Denis Law has given through the trust is an enduring way to celebrate our much-loved and much-respected local football hero.”

    “It is fitting he is recognised in Council today for all his achievements, not just those on the football pitch.”

    The Lord Provost’s comments and sentiments were shared by councillors across the chamber including the Co-leaders Councillors Christian Allard and Martin Greig, deputising for Councillor Ian Yuill.

    Denis was born and raised in the Printfield area of Aberdeen went to the former Powis Academy before moving to England to play for Huddersfield when he was 16. He went on to play for Manchester United, Torino, and Manchester City. Known as The Lawman, he scored 30 goals for Scotland.

    He was European footballer of the year and Scotland’s only winner of Ballon d’Or, football’s most prestigious award for individuals.

    Denis frequently returned home to Aberdeen to his roots with several accolades in his honour. These include the Freedom of the City, featuring in the Sporting Champions section of Provost Skene’s House, and a 4.7m high bronze statue was unveiled in his honour in 2021.

    When Denis received the Freedom of the City in November 2017, more than 15,000 people lined the streets of Aberdeen as he led the annual Christmas lights switch-on parade, following an earlier conferral ceremony at the Beach Ballroom. He said at the time that receiving the Freedom of the City as one of his life’s highlights.

    Denis and his friend Sir Alex Ferguson feature in Provost Skene’s House, which showcases people with links to Aberdeen and the North-east who have transformed the wider world.

    As well as having a presence in the Hall of Heroes on the ground floor, Denis is celebrated in the Sporting Champions section, where memorabilia from his career is on display. In the View of Aberdeen exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery you can see one of the #Yes Ball Games signs made famous by Denis’ involvement in Cruyff Courts.

    The bronze statue of Denis was unveiled by The King himself in the heart of his home city in Marischal Square, beside Provost Skene’s House. Sir Alex Ferguson was at the ceremony to watch the unveiling.

    Denis was known as ‘The King’ for his achievements in football and the statue was sited to be in close proximity to the statue of King Robert the Bruce outside Marischal College – two kings of the city facing each other.

    Many floral tributes have been laid at the foot of the statue since Denis’s passing.

    The legacy of Denis Law continues to be represented within Aberdeen through Denis Law Legacy Trust and its successful Streetsport initiative with Robert Gordon University, as well as the Trust’s thriving Cruyff Courts in partnership with Aberdeen City Council.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Video: DRC, Guest Tomorrow, Occupied Palestinian Territory & other topics – Daily Press Briefing

    Source: United Nations (Video News)

    Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

    – Democratic Republic of the Congo
    – Guest Tomorrow
    – Occupied Palestinian Territory
    – Syria
    – Sudan
    – Libya
    – Haiti
    – Horst Köhler
    – Ukraine
    – Human Fraternity
    – Honour Roll

    DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
    The Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the DRC, Bruno Lemarquis, called today for the urgent reopening of the airport in Goma.
    Mr. Lemarquis stressed that the airport is a lifeline and that the survival of thousands of people depends on its reopening to facilitate evacuation of injured people, delivery of medical supplies and arrival of humanitarian reinforcements.
    The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that thousands of civilians are still on the move in and around Goma.
    Figures remain difficult to verify, but reports indicate significant numbers of people have left displacement sites along the Kanyaruncinya road and moved towards the area of Rutshuru. Other displaced people are also moving towards the Minova area.
    Hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced, living in displacement sites or with host communities in North Kivu, including on the Goma-Sake axis, where large numbers of displaced people remain in displacement sites.
    OCHA and its partners have been visiting displacement sites outside Goma over the last several days to assess conditions. These efforts are ongoing.

    GUEST TOMORROW
    Tomorrow, the guest at the Noon briefing will be Vivian van de Perre, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Protection and Operations.
    She will brief reporters live virtually from Goma.

    OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
    Turning to the Middle East. Tom Fletcher, our Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, is continuing his visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. Today, he was in Nir Oz in southern Israel, where one-quarter of all residents were killed or taken hostage in the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023.
    In a social media post, Mr. Fletcher stressed that the ceasefire must hold, that all civilians must be protected, and that all hostages must be freed.
    He also held several meetings with Israeli officials last night and again today.
    They discussed ways to sustain the surge of humanitarian support to Gaza, as well as the ongoing challenges in the West Bank that we have been reporting.
    As of earlier today, we and our our humanitarian partners estimate that more than 565,000 people have crossed from the south of Gaza to the north since 27 January. More than 45,000 people have been observed moving from the north to the south.
    Meanwhile, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that we and our partners are working to mitigate the impact of the widespread destruction of critical water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure that is taking place throughout the Gaza Strip.
    Some 40 new water points have already been established over the past week, and partners are now trucking water to 272 water points throughout North Gaza governorate alone. Through that, they were able to deliver more than 1,000 cubic metres of safe drinking water and nearly 900 cubic metres of domestic water to about 177,000 people each day.
    To address the water shortages, our colleagues at UNOPS, the UN Office for Project Services delivered 40,000 litres of fuel to Gaza City yesterday to power water pumps and facilitate trucking – and we hope to have the Executive Director of UNOPS brief you on the situation in Gaza next week. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme is also expanding fuel storage capacity in the Strip.
    Efforts are also ongoing to dispatch water pipes purchased by UNICEF to northern Gaza to prevent key facilities from overflowing before it rains.
    We also have an update for you on the winter response in Gaza. Between Thursday and Sunday, our partners distributed tarpaulins and winter clothing to more than 2,000 households in northern Gaza.  In southern Gaza, 10,000 tarpaulins were distributed between 25 January and 2 February, with an additional 200 tarpaulins distributed in the Gaza governorate.
    Over the past two days, one of our humanitarian partners also distributed 600 tarpaulins to 300 households in the Khan Younis area.

    Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=04%20February%202025

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwI2OXgmKj4

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Council to seek approval for tax premiums on empty, unoccupied and second homes

    Source: City of Derby

    Following a nine-week public consultation, Cabinet members will be asked to approve plans to introduce Council Tax for empty, unoccupied and second homes at the next Cabinet meeting.

    The consultation, which took place between 11 October – 13 December 2024, found that members of the public were in favour of the move, with 47% of respondents strongly agreeing and 18% agreeing to the changes. 

    If approved by Cabinet, the proposed changes will include a 100% Council Tax premium (twice the normal rate) on properties that have been unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for at least one year, effective from April 2025. The changes will also include the introduction of a 100% Council Tax premium on second homes, effective from April 2026. 

    These changes are in line with the new guidance rules introduced by the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 where councils can now apply the Council Tax premium for long-term empty homes after one year instead of the previous two-year requirement. The Act also allows councils to introduce a Council Tax premium of up to 100% on second homes.  

    The measures aim to bring empty properties back into use, encouraging property owners to live in or sell their empty homes. This will help to add more homes into the local housing market and reduce the number of underused properties, ensuring that housing is available for residents who need them. The measures will also generate significant revenue with an estimated £1.6m of additional Council Tax. 

    Councillor Shiraz Khan, Cabinet Member for Housing, Strategic Planning and Regulatory Services said: 

    I am delighted to see that the public have supported this move. By introducing Council Tax charges on empty, unoccupied and second homes, we are aiming to encourage property owners to live in or sell their empty homes. In doing so, we will see significant benefits and more housing on the market for those who need homes.

    These proposals will bring great benefit to residents in Derby by maximising the potential of vacant housing stock within the city. It will also bring significant benefits to the city by generating an estimated £1.6m of additional Council Tax which will help us towards delivering and improving our services.

    The Cabinet meeting will take place on Wednesday 12 February and can be viewed on Derby City Council’s YouTube channel. 

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Ancient seas of Moscow and masterpieces of Rastrelli. What to see in museums in February

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    The Marina Tsvetaeva House Museum invites you to an exhibition dedicated to the poet’s son, the A.S. Pushkin State Museum will introduce you to the work of architects Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli and Carlo Rossi, and the K.A. Timiryazev State Biological Museum will help you imagine what the Moscow region looked like hundreds of millions of years ago. More details about these and other exhibitions that open in February are in the mos.ru article.

    “Your Mur”. On the 100th Anniversary of Georgy Efron’s Birth” at the Marina Tsvetaeva House-Museum

    Dates: February 5 – August 3

    Address: Borisoglebsky lane, house 6, building 1

    Age limit: 12

    The new exhibition at the Marina Tsvetaeva House Museum will be dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Georgy Efron, the poet’s son. He was born in the Czech Republic, grew up in France, spoke Russian and French brilliantly, studied well and showed great promise: he had a fine artistic taste and a critical mind, was full of creative ideas and research plans.

    He came to his mother’s homeland when he was 14 years old. After the start of the Great Patriotic War and the death of Marina Tsvetaeva, Georgy’s life became especially difficult. In the autumn of 1941, he was forced to evacuate to Tashkent. Returning to Moscow, he entered the Literary Institute, but did not study for long – he was called up to the army. Georgy Efron went missing in July 1944, he was only 19 years old.

    The exhibition will tell about the short but eventful life of Georgy Efron; among the exhibits are his personal belongings, drawings and manuscripts, including a diary in which he talks about the time he witnessed, about his relationship with his mother and much more.

    Entrance – by ticket to the Marina Tsvetaeva House-Museum.

    Visiting Pushkin, Bulgakov and Tsvetaeva. Literary museums that will be interesting for schoolchildren

    “…The Architect’s Compass, Palette and Chisel” in the State A.S. Pushkin Museum

    Dates: February 6 – April 27

    Address: Prechistenka street, house 12/2, building 4

    Age limit: 6

    The State A.S. Pushkin Museum will tell about the architects Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli and Carlo Rossi – this year marks the 325th and 250th anniversaries of the famous architects’ births.

    Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli began his career in Russia under Peter I. It was thanks to him that the Grand Palace of Peterhof, Smolny Cathedral, the Grand Catherine Palace, the Winter Palace and other buildings appeared in St. Petersburg and its environs. In Moscow, you can also see one of his completed projects – the country palace of Elizabeth Petrovna, which is located in Sokolniki. The second section of the exhibition will introduce the work of Carlo Rossi, who, one might say, created the appearance of St. Petersburg familiar to its residents and guests today.

    Visitors will be presented with measuring instruments and rare books from the 18th–19th centuries on mathematics, geometry and drawing, engravings and lithographs from the century before last, which depict the Northern capital, and will be shown what a typical architect’s office looked like.

    You can get to the exhibition with a museum ticket.

    “Ancient Seas of Moscow” at the K.A. Timiryazev State Biological Museum

    Dates: February 8 – August 30

    Address: Malaya Gruzinskaya street, house 15

    Age limit: 12

    Guests of the K.A. Timiryazev State Biological Museum are invited to travel back hundreds of millions of years to the times when the territory of Central Russia was covered with water.

    Scientists have proven that the Moscow region was twice at the bottom of an ancient sea: in the Carboniferous period of the Paleozoic era (320 million years ago) and the Jurassic period of the Mesozoic era (160 million years ago). Visitors to the exhibition will see fossils of extinct marine animals and scientific reconstructions of their appearance, learn about their way of life and the role they played in the ecosystems of the past.

    Entrance – with a museum ticket.

    “Alexander Fedorovich Kots. Family Album” in the State Darwin Museum

    Dates: February 12 – May 4

    Address: Vavilov street, house 57

    Age limit: 6

    An exhibition dedicated to the 145th anniversary of his birth will tell about the family life of the founder and first director of the Darwin Museum, Alexander Kots.

    Here they will present rare photographs and negatives that he took with a German SLR camera from the mid-1910s. Alexander Fedorovich had a unique opportunity to photographically document the life of his family. For example, guests will learn where he and his wife Nadezhda Nikolaevna Ladygina-Kots went after their wedding, how they celebrated the New Year and what exquisite costumes they dressed their son Rudolf in.

    Tickets – on mos.ru.

    “The Life of Nature Has Become Understandable.” Reading the Books of Reviews of the Darwin Museum

    “This is the best we have. The Art Newspapper Russia’s choice” at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art

    Dates: February 18 – May 18

    Address: Gogolevsky Boulevard, Building 10, Building 1

    Age limit: 12

    The Moscow Museum of Modern Art will introduce viewers to the Russian art scene and its most prominent representatives of different generations. The halls will present works by Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov, Alina Glazun and many other artists, and analyze their styles, views and creative tendencies.

    And the text messages that will accompany the exhibits can be considered references to various aspects of world history. In addition, the exhibition will include fragments of interviews that reveal the meaning of the works.

    Tickets are available for purchase on mos.ru.

    “This is our jumble” in the Panorama Museum “Battle of Borodino”

    Dates: February 18 – April 20

    Address: Kutuzovsky Prospect, Building 38, Building 1

    Age limit: 12

    The exhibits of the new exhibition in the panorama museum “The Battle of Borodino” will give viewers an idea of how the appearance and themes changed, how new artistic trends and folklore influenced the genre. And the title of the exhibition “This is Our Yeralash” is a language game that was often used in popular comic pictures.

    Entrance to the exhibition – by ticket for permanent exhibition.

    “Love Me As I Love You” at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art

    Dates: February 26 – April 20

    Address: Ermolaevsky lane, house 17, building 1

    Age limit: 12

    The Moscow Museum of Modern Art has another new exhibition. Its curators discuss the theme of love, family, and fidelity using works by 20th-century artists as an example. This project will be part of the long-term exhibition program “Collection. Viewpoint,” developed specifically for the museum’s educational center.

    You can buy tickets on mos.ru.

    “Forward to Zlotnikov!” in the gallery-workshop “GROUND Solyanka”

    Dates: February 26 – April 22

    Address: Solyanka street, house 1/2, building 2

    Age limit: 6

    The gallery-workshop “GROUND Solyanka” will introduce the work of the abstract artist Yuri Zlotnikov. On the first floor, his paintings will be shown together with works by contemporary artists, selected from the point of view of the analysis of the abstract works of Yuri Savelyevich. On the second floor, the exposition will be built in reverse – through the practices of other authors, Zlotnikov’s legacy will be deconstructed.

    Particular attention will be paid to the theory of the “Signal System” – the artist’s main discovery, which took an important place in the history of Russian art of the second half of the 20th century. The system is inspired by scientific achievements in the field of mathematics, cybernetics, psychology and allows us to trace the evolution in the work of Yuri Zlotnikov in such series as “Biblical Cycle”, “Abstraction”, “People, Space, Rhythms”.

    You can buy tickets on mos.ru.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect

    https: //vv.mos.ru/nevs/ite/149694073/

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: New Discoveries Shed Light on the Ancient Wonders of Pompei

    Source: United Nations

    Recent archaeological breakthroughs in Pompeii, home to the UNESCO World Heritage property ‘Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata’ continue to unveil astonishing new insights into Roman civilization. This World Heritage property, inscribed in 1997, includes the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, along with notable villas such as the Villa of the Mysteries, the Villa of the Papyri, and the Villas of Torre Annunziata. These archaeological sites, preserved under layers of volcanic ash following the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, provide an unparalleled window into the past.

    The World Heritage Centre welcomes the recent announcement by the Ministry of Culture of Italy that archaeological research of the past months in Pompeii uncovered an opulent private villa, complete with a grand bath complex and banqueting hall. This villa, adorned with intricately decorated rooms, was undergoing renovations at the time of the eruption. The bath complex stands out as one of the largest private bathing facilities ever found in Pompeii. It includes a sophisticated plumbing system, separate warm and cold bathing areas, and a cold-water pool large enough to accommodate 30 people. Researchers believe the villa belonged to Aulus Rustius Verus, a prominent Pompeian politician, who likely used the space to host lavish banquets, solidifying his social and political status.

    Recognized as an exceptional archaeological treasure, the property continues to benefit from dedicated efforts to ensure its long-term conservation and management. The World Heritage Centre, in collaboration with ICOMOS International as an Advisory Body to the World Heritage Committee, has been actively engaged in monitoring its preservation and supporting initiatives to enhance its protection.

    The recent discovery provides deeper insight into the daily life and social structures of ancient Pompeii, shedding light on the ways in which architecture, politics, and culture intertwined in the city. It underscores the continuous potential for archaeological exploration to reveal new dimensions of history.

    More than just a glimpse into the past, this discovery stands as a testament to the richness and complexity of humanity’s shared heritage. It serves as a powerful reminder that history is still unfolding, with untold stories waiting to be revealed. Protecting and exploring these treasures remains essential to passing them on to future generations.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Selective licensing scheme proves to be a life-saver

    Source: City of Birmingham

    Two officers ready to undertake a inspection of a home in the private rented sector.

    Published: Wednesday, 5th February 2025

    A routine inspection saved the lives of a family of four who were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.

    Birmingham City Council is reminding landlords of the importance of carbon monoxide detectors following an inspection that found a family of four in a life-threatening situation.

    An officer was conducting a routine compliance inspection of a privately rented property when they found a family who believed they had food poisoning.

    An alarm had been going off for weeks, but the tenants didn’t realise it was the carbon monoxide detector.

    The officer quickly called emergency services. Three ambulances arrived, and the family was taken to the hospital and kept overnight.

    Had the family stayed in the property for much longer, they would have almost certainly died.

    Initial investigations revealed that a newly installed gas boiler was not vented properly, allowing carbon monoxide to enter the home.

    Jayne Francis, Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness, said:

    “This property was inspected as part of the council’s selective licensing scheme, which requires private landlords to have a licence.

    “This shows how the scheme can be life-saving as well as improve standards in the rented sector.

    “Currently, around 25% of compliance inspections require landlords to take action.

    “We also want to remind private landlords of the importance of carbon monoxide detectors and their gas safety responsibilities.

    “I urge landlords to make sure their tenants understand what the carbon monoxide detector does and what to do if it sounds.

    “Landlords should also ensure their gas boilers are installed by qualified professionals registered with ‘Gas Safe.’

    “I want also to thank the officer who conducted the visit for their quick thinking that saved this family.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –