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Zimbabwe's contribution to African FDI less than 1 percent
1. News Update as @ 1530 hours, Thursday 19 June 2014
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By Rumbidzayi Zinyuke
Government today signed an Air Ser-
vices agreement with India, a develop-
ment which will promote the national
airliner and improve the country’s
tourist arrivals and the sector's gross
domestic product (GDP) contribution.
Speaking at the signing ceremony,
Transport and Infrastructural develop-
ment Minister Obert Mpofu said the
agreement would go a long way in
improving relations between the two
countries.
“Today’s signing ceremony marks yet
another milestone as we regularise
the operation of air transport services
between the two countries,” he said.
The agreement has been in discussion
since the two countries signed a mem-
orandum of understanding in 2010.
Minister Mpofu said terms of the agree-
ment stipulate that the designated air-
lines of the two countries can operate
seven passenger or combined services
per week in each direction while being
allowed to operate any number of all-
cargo services. The airlines can also
code-share. This could be a major
boost for Air Zimbabwe which is poised
to resume international flights after
being readmitted to the International
Air Transport Association International
(IATA) Operational Safety Audit pro-
gram (IOSA) following a successful
safety audit.
AirZim had been de-registered from
the IOSA certification in September
2012 after failing IOSA's assessment
subsequent to a brief halt of business
because of an industrial strike.
Minister Mpofu said the agreement will
promote an international aviation sys-
tem based on competition between air-
lines and ensuring the highest degree
of safety and security in international
air services. “As a ministry and Gov-
ernment, we are really excited by this
development…which shows the extent
of the good bilateral relations between
our countries,” he added. •
Zimbabwe signs Air services agreement with India
Minister Mpofu
2. By Lynn Murahwa
Zimbabwe is contributing less than one
percent of foreign direct investment
towards Africa as the level of invest-
ment remain low.
Speaking at a CEO Network Seminar
this morning, Invictus Investment
Management chief executive Ritesh
Anand said Zimbabwe can draw more
investment from its vast resources and
potential.
"Zimbabwe attracts less that one per-
cent of FDI towards Africa, but it is well
positioned to attract FDI because of its
highly educated population, good infra-
structure and vast natural resources"
he said. Anand said the country needs
to explore more investment channels
by creating a broader investment pol-
icy that does not discriminate between
regions.
"MostoftheFDIflowscomefromwest-
ern countries, Europe and the United
States.WhiletheChinesemayincrease
investments significantly they are still
way below the US which has 228 bil-
lion dollars in FDI versus China which
had 100 billion dollars," said Anand. He
added that it would be in the country's
best interest to establish a special eco-
nomic taskforce to participate in policy
overview and implementation.
"Zimbabwe needs a special economic
taskforce which can really bind Gov-
ernment on policies and that taskforce
will comprise of people in the private
sectors that have an understanding of
business and what investors are look-
ing for" he said.
Speaking at the same event, Dairibord
chief executive officer Anthony Mandi-
wanza said the country must begin to
take their economic liberation into their
own hands. "Zimbabwean people must
have confidence in themselves to know
that you are your own liberators.
To expect someone to bring foreign
capital into this country and liberate
you is daydreaming, it does not hap-
pen. The Zimbabwean people must
take centre stage and in doing that
create the platform for partnership for
FDI," he said.
He added that investors want to invest
in an environment where they can
spread the risk as well as a market that
offers the possibility of a risk-free profit
after transaction costs.
"Nobody brings foreign capital into
this country without spreading risk,
anybody who wants to come into this
country needs to find a partnership in
order to spread risk, it has happened in
financial service sector and many other
sectors. Foreign capital will come into a
market where there are opportunities
for arbitraging,” he said. •
2 NEWS
Zim contribution to African FDI less than 1 percent
Mr Mandiwanza
3. 3 NEWS
Benscore Investments is considering
selling a majority stake in Zimbabwe
Alloys Chrome Limited to one of three
investors in a bid to rescue the ferro-
chrome producer, according to a per-
son with knowledge of the matter.
Afro-Chine Smelting, a unit of Tsi-
ngshan Holding Group, is one of the
companies to conduct due diligence at
ZimAlloys and may submit an offer by
the end of this month, said the person
who asked not to be identified because
the matter is private.
ArcelorMittal (MT), the world’s largest
steelmaker, is another of the potential
bidders, The Herald reported, citing an
unidentified official. A London-based
spokeswoman for ArcelorMittal
declined to comment. Three calls
by Bloomberg News to Tsingshan’s
office in Shanghai went unanswered.
ZimAlloys, which controls almost 40
percent of the southern African coun-
try’s chrome reserves, was placed
under judicial management of audit
firm Grant Thornton Camelsa almost
two years ago after being hurt by a
Government ban on exporting unpro-
cessed chrome ore and falling prices of
ferrochrome.
For Benscore to sell control of the com-
panytoanoverseasinvestor, cuttingits
85 percent stake to a minority holding
would require special dispensation to
skirt a Zimbabwe law that caps foreign
ownership at 49 percent, the person
said. Benscore plans to retain control
of ZimAlloys’ mineral rights, according
to the person. Zimbabwe holds the big-
gestchromereservesafterneighboring
South Africa.
The chrome producer, which was con-
trolled by Anglo American Plc until
2005, has struggled to raise $40 mil-
lion to rebuild three obsolete chrome
smelting furnaces that were shut down
in 2008.
Ferrochrome, made by processing
chrome ore in a smelter, is used in
the production of stainless steel. ―
Bloomberg •
ZimAlloys investor said to consider offers for majority holding
5. 5 NEWS
Zim-Angola Bilateral agreement to encourage trade
BH24 Reporter
The finalisation of the bilateral trade
agreement between Zimbabwe and
Angola will open more opportunities for
local entities to trade in the emerging
African economy.
Zimtrade chief executive Sithembile
Pilime said this during a seminar held
to present to entrepreneurs the find-
ings of a market research done on the
availability of trade and investment
opportunities in Angola. She said the
Angolan market research had gener-
ated specific information on possible
business opportunities but exports to
Angola could be easier if the bilateral
agreement is finalised .
“We are encouraged by efforts being
made by authorities regarding the
finalization of the Zimbabwe-Angola
bilateral trade agreement and would
urge that everything be done to
quicken the pace of the discussions,”
she said.
The country already has five prefer-
ential bilateral trade agreements with
Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, South
Africa and Mozambique aimed at
encouraging and stimulating trade
between Zimbabwe and the co-operat-
ing partners through the elimination of
tariffs and other barriers to trade.
The agreements provides for Zim-
babwean importers to buy goods
from signatory countries without pay-
ing import duty or by paying a small
agreed duty as long as the goods in
question qualify under the terms of the
agreement and are registered as such.
“Angola is a fast emerging regional
economy that has been growing phe-
nomenally over the years. We are
aware that business in external mar-
kets carries business risks, hence deci-
sions should be premised on quality
data and information,” she said.
Zimtrade manager for SME export
development Allan Majuru said local
companies can find opportunities in
sectors including agriculture, textile,
pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, meat
and processed foods, transport and
construction.
He, however, said local businesses
needed to create partnerships with
Angolan locals to make operations eas-
ier and less costly. •
Ms Pilime
7. At least 45 people have died in acci-
dents at the workplace while 2 700
have been seriously injured since Jan-
uary this year, up from 35 deaths and
2 200 injuries recorded during the
same period in 2013, an official said on
Thursday.
National Social Security Authority
(NSSA) occupational safety and health
director Rodgers Dhliwayo told New
Ziana that the increase in workplace
accidentswasbecauseemployerswere
not prioritizing safety of workers as
they optimized on profits.
Dhliwayo was speaking on the sidelines
of the Zimbabwe Conference of safety,
health and environmental practitioners
“So far we have about 45 fatalities in
industries up to about end of May this
year only with over 2 700 seriously
injured. By this time last year we had
about 35 fatalities and with injuries of
about 2 200. So certainly the figures
have gone up,” he said.
Heattributedthehighnumberofoccu-
pational accidents to negligence by
employers who were paying lip service
to conditions of service for workers.
“What we find quite missing is a posi-
tive attitude from employers. They are
not investing in occupational safety.
Because of the liquidity crunch in the
country, employers are not investing in
occupational safety,” he said.
Dhliwayo said recruitment of untrained
contract workers who were easy to fire
and less costly to the employer was
also causing accidents.
“Right now the majority of people
working in industries are contract
workers. They are not trained yet they
deal with sophisticated equipment.
“A lot of these accidents actually
involve these contract workers, so it is
a response of employers to economic
challenges that we have,” he said.
Hesaidfewerpeoplewereemployedto
the extent that they were overworked
and lost concentration while working
with machinery.
“As NSSA we keep urging employers to
put workplace safe first before produc-
tion,” said Dhliwayo. New Ziana
MINING7
Workplace accidents on the increase
9. The equities market today went up
1,39 percent buoyed by gains in heav-
yweight counters.
The industrial index surged 2.36 points
to close at 184.86 points. There were
gains in BAT which added 15 cents to 1
225 cents and giant Old Mutual pushed
up 7 cents to close at 260 cents. Hippo
added 4.99 cents to settle at 75 cents
while Delta gained 2.90 cents to 121
cents.
Seed manufacturing giant Seedco
advanced 1.21 cents to settle at 71.21
cents and Meikles inched up a cent to
22 cents. Turnall and Innscor gained
0.70 cents and 0.50 cents to close at 3
cents and 78 cents respectively.
Losses were recorded by NMB which
lost 0.50 cents to settle at 3.50 cents
while OK Zimbabwe slipped 0.21 cents
to close at 18.30 cents. FBCH eased
0.20 cents to 11.30 cents.
The mining index added 3.20 points
(5.86%) to close at 57.78 points. Bind-
ura gained 0.40 cents to 4.61 cents
whilstFalgoldeased0.50centstotrade
at 1.50 cents.
Hwange and RioZim maintained previ-
ous trading levels.
— BH24 Reporter •
9 ZSE REVIEW
ZSE maintains gains
10. Today’s edition of The Herald carried
a story tittled ‘ZimSwitch connecting
local banks to the region’.
According to the story, ZimSwitch
is at an advanced stage of linking
banks to their regional counterparts
to facilitate the flow of cross-border
transactions between Zimbabwe and
other countries in the SADC region.
“The concept of the regional hub
is that messages will be sent to a
central point in each country and
then sent via a single pipeline to the
regional clearing house for clearing,”
said ZimSwitch general manager
Cyril Nyatsanza.
The hub is set to provide a shared
platform web based capture portal
to the banks for purposes of man-
aging their SADC cross border trans-
actions.
In addition all SADC member Banks
participating in the new credit pay-
ment service will need to develop the
necessary capacity to originate and
receive transactions according to the
rules defined by the SADC Banking
Association. We applaud this move.
It’s about time our banks caught up
with the rest of the world! Banks in
developed nations have been provid-
ing such a facility to their customers
for years, decades even, but Zim-
babweans have had to carry around
large sums of money when travelling
outside the country.
Besides the fact that the facility was
not available, whenever such a ser-
vice was offered to selected top pri-
ority clients by individual banks, it
was expensive so people preferred
to use cash.
This facility will facilitate regional
payments and also help to tap into
the informal sector that has so far
been difficult to capture. We under-
stand that approximately $7,5 billion
is circulating in the informal sector
and the majority of people in that
sector are cross border traders. So
far, the sector has remained largely
unbanked and not formally inte-
grated and it has been difficult to
get any form of revenue from this
channel.
The platform will simplify this. Some
of our readers agree with us and had
this to say: “Banks in most devel-
oped nations have facilities and
applications that allow any common
user to make online international
transactions in seconds from their
accounts armed only with a valid
IBAN and SWIFT bank code.
About time Zimbabwean banks and
a few other SADC nations caught up
with the rest of the world. Otherwise
many other circuits like Paypal can
also be used for their facilities to
transfer funds virtually anywhere in
the world,” said one reader.
“I salute you Zimswitch guys that's
the way to go our country need peo-
ple like you who think outside the
box and bring in right technology to
the right people at the right time as
Zim thats how far we can go and we
cant be compared with the west at
the moment. real innovation which is
feasible and less expensive than the
35million land audit,” said another
reader.
So there we have it, ZimSwitch has
taken a step in the right direction.
They could provide the breakthrough
needed in Zimbabwe’s financial
inclusion initiative. We just hope the
implementation of this idea does not
remain such- ‘an idea’. •
10 BH24 COMMENT
ZimSwitch connects banks to region: Its about time!
Programme and Duration Entry Requirements
The Senior Assistant Registrar (Admissions)
University of Zimbabwe
P.O. Box MP 167
Mount Pleasant, HARARE
Email: admissions@admin.uz.ac.zw
Tel: 04 303211 ext 11116/11181/11112
You can also download our application form from
www.uz.ac.zw and enclose the application fee.
Internationals. Only cash will be accepted.
Faculty of Commerce The closing date for receipt of application forms is 20th June,
2014. Late applications will be considered up to 27th June, 2014
Masters in Accountancy (MACC) (3yrs P/T) A first degree in Accounting or upon payment of a late application fee of US$70.related field with a 2.1 or
better. Applicants with 2.2 must
have two years relevant post- Application forms should be obtained from and forwarded to:
graduate work experience.
Masters in Strategic Marketing (MSM) (3yrs P/T) A first degree in Marketing or
related field with a 2.1 or better.
Applicants with 2.2 must have two
years relevant post-graduate
work experience.
Applications and further information
Application forms are available upon payment of a non-
refundable fee of US$50 for Zimbabweans and US$70 for
UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE
POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMMES: AUGUST 2014 INTAKE
AdM-DI155882-C7
Applications are invited for the following programmes commencing in August 2014:
12. The Board of Directors of the African
Development Bank (AfDB) approved
on 13 June 2014 a loan of US$ 300
million to Dangote Industries Limited
for the construction and operation of
a greenfield crude oil refinery and a
greenfield fertilizer manufacturing
plant.
Both projects will produce for con-
sumption in Nigeria and neighboring
African countries. The project will
allow Nigeria, which currently relies
on imported petroleum products and
fertilizer, to progressively become
self-sufficient and transformed into a
major exporter. Ultimately, the pro-
ject will act as a catalyst to support
job creation.
The oil industry in Nigeria contrib-
utes a large share to gross domestic
product and accounts for the bulk of
federal government revenue and for-
eign exchange earnings. The country
is the first crude oil producer in Africa,
with a production close to 2.2 million
barrels per day.
Paradoxically, the country is a big
importer of refined petroleum prod-
ucts for its economy as well as fer-
tilizer products. The Dangote Group
was established in the late 1970s and
started with importing sugar, milk,
flour, fish, rice, cement and iron rods.
The Group is now a diversified con-
glomerate with business interests in
cement, sugar, salt, port operations,
packaging material production and
real estate.
The projects will add value to local
natural resources, double the coun-
try’s refining capacity, reduce by
more than 80 percent current imports
of fuel in the country and eliminate
fertilizer imports.
The projects are expected to help
Nigeria on forex savings of $ 65 bil-
lion through import substitution and
provide revenues for FGN (taxes and
fees).
The projects will also create over
30,000 temporary jobs during con-
struction, and 2,900 direct jobs
during operations. The projects will
compliment Bank’s ongoing effort to
support FGN for the implementation
of the Agriculture Transformation
Agenda (ATA) ― AFDB •
12 REGIONAL News
AfDB approves $300 million loan to boost fuel supply and fertilizer production in Nigeria
enjoy the CAIO ride!
13. 13 DIARY OF EVENTS
The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.
POWER GENERATION STATS
Gen Station
19 June 2014
Energy
(Megawatts)
Hwange 415 MW
Kariba 750 MW
Harare 45 MW
Munyati 32 MW
Bulawayo -- MW
Imports 170 MW
Total 1412 MW
26 June - Pioneer 44th Annual
General Meeting of Sharehold-
ers, Venue: Pioneer Corporation
Africa Limited Boardroom, Corner
Hood/Hermes Roads, Southerton,
Harare, Time: 10:00 hrs
26 June - Masimba Holdings
Limited Thirty-Ninth Annual
General Meeting of Mem-
bers for the period ended 31
December 2013, Place: 44 Til-
bury Road, Willowvale, Harare,
Zimbabwe, Time: 12:00
30 June - TA Holdings 79th
Annual General Meeting of the
ordinary members Venue: Miti
Room, Sango Conference Centre,
Cresta Lodge, Harare, Time: 1400
hours
30 June - ZIMRE 16th Annual
General Meeting of members,
Venue: NICOZDIAMOND Audito-
rium, 7th Floor Insurance Centre,
30 Samora Machel Avenue, Time:
1230 hours
THE BH24 DIARY
17. Operator MTN has been rated among
the top 500 global companies on cor-
porate sustainability and environmen-
tal impact in the 2014 Newsweek
Green Rankings.
MTN, which operates in 22 countries in
Africa, Asia and the Middle East, came
in 276th, with a Green Score of 35.4
per cent.
Newsweek partnered with Corporate
Knights Capital and individuals from
non-governmental organisations and
the academic and accounting commu-
nities, to complete the rankings, using
eight performance indicators.
“The ranking is particularly significant
for MTN because we are in a small
select group of global companies
whose revenue is generated off a rela-
tively low environmental impact basis,”
said Paul Norman, MTN Group chief
human resources and corporate affairs
officer.
“The recognition ahead of some of
the major global brands is humbling,
particularly as we operate in mar-
kets where it’s not regulation driving
responsible environmental behaviour.
MTN is on this journey not only
because it makes commercial sense;
we operate in some of the most envi-
ronmentally vulnerable parts of the
world, where our customers often have
the fewest economic resources to cope
with the effects of climate change.
As a result, we are conscious of the
positive role we can play.”― Human
IPO •
Stocks approached a six-year high in
Europe and bonds from Australia to
ItalyroseaftertheFederalReservesaid
interest rates will remain low. India’s
rupee and the Philippine peso led gains
in emerging-market currencies.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced
0.8 percent at 10:10 a.m. in London.
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures
were little changed after the gauge
closed at a record yesterday.
Italian bonds rose for the first time in
four days and Australia’s 10-year yield
fell to the lowest this month.
Corporate bond risk slid for a third day
in Europe to within a basis point of a
six-year low. The rupee strengthened
the most in a month against the dollar.
U.K. natural gas retreated for a third
day.
U.S. policy makers said yesterday they
expect rates to stay low for a “consid-
erable time” after the end of bond pur-
chases as growth in the world’s larg-
est economy recovers. Jobless claims
probably fell last week in America,
economists said before a Labor Depart-
ment report today.
“The Fed has removed one more
potential obstacle for a continued
cyclical bull market,” said Thomas Thy-
gesen, head of cross-asset strategy at
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB in
Copenhagen.
“Having the Fed say that the long-term
rate could be lower even if long-term
growth isn’t is a bullish gesture for both
stocks (MXAP) and bonds. That’s a big
change from March and it means the
Fed is willing to try harder to achieve
its growth and inflation objectives.” ―
Bloomberg •
17 INTERNATIONAL NEWS
MTN rated in top 500 green firms globally
Stocks rise with bonds as rupee leads currencies higher
18. The world is a dangerous place. One
only has to look at the rise in extrem-
ism, rogue regimes, overthrown gov-
ernments attempting to regain power,
ethnic and religious factions fanatically
opposed to one another, and other vio-
lent conflicts to see this.
Indeed one could say that the populace
of Western democracies are perhaps
more in peril now than at the peak of
the Cold War when the threat of mutu-
ally assured nuclear destruction kept
most serious conflicts from ever start-
ing.
Back then there would have been a
state to target should conflict arise.
Nowadays the threat tends to come
from small disparate fanatical groups
which have no easily identifiable phys-
ical power base and with leadership by
individuals who may be located almost
anywhere.
But the weapons available to these
groups and rogue states are often the
most sophisticated money can buy,
and the illegal arms trade can supply,
and their awareness of the high tech
means by which their leaders might be
located makes them increasingly diffi-
cult to track down and sanction. Even
if the leadership is destroyed in say
a drone strike, it tends to be like the
Hydra’s head – cut them off and more
grow in its place and often these are
more extreme than the originals.
Should some of these more extreme
groups gain access to nuclear and bio-
logical weapons we could be closer to
at least partial Armageddon than at
any time in global history.
Thepastweekhasseenworryingactiv-
ity almost globally – with ISIS making
huge unexpected incursions into the
heart of Iraq, more terrorist activity
claiming lives and hostages in Africa
and the Ukraine insurgency continuing
to escalate – and, as a result, the gold
price has been picking up again as safe
haven investment starts to return. But
whether this is enough on its own to
kickstart a really significant gold price
rise remains to be seen.
In particular the American populace as
a whole will likely remain unconcerned
about activities on the other side of the
world, but it should be aware that Al
Qaeda and the even more extreme
ISIS could perhaps pose even more
of a major threat to people on the
American continent than Russia has in
the past or could in the future. And in
Europe, which is closer geographically
to most of the really serious global
flashpoints, people are beginning to
feel more vulnerable.
Consider the successful ISIS move on
Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city with a
population of around 1.8 million. There
some 500,000 are reported to have
fled the city – mostly to Kurdish terri-
tory to the east, while many more have
been killed by the insurgents.
Those who fled have had to leave their
houses and possessions behind, escap-
ingwithwhattheycancarrywiththem.
Those who own gold will at least have
a portion of their wealth with them
which may stand them in good stead
in the months, perhaps years, of trib-
ulation ahead and help them establish
a new life.
Such is the nature of conflict. And
when extremists like the ISIS groups
18 Analysis
Place of gold in a perilous world
19. 19 Analysis
– or Al Shahab in East Africa and Boko
Haram in West Africa – attack, people
would rather leave their homes and
major possessions than stay and face
a dangerous future – not only from the
insurgent groups, but from potential
city destroying conflict as the suppos-
edly ruling government tries to take
back the territory lost. Syria comes
to mind as well, with a huge flood of
refugees into neighbouring Turkey and
Lebanon.
Those who have put their trust in gold
at least have something with which
they can at least start a semblance of
a new life.
Those who survived such conflicts
in Bosnia and Croatia through flight
during the sectarian civil war which
engulfed those countries in the 1990s
will be well aware of this and one sus-
pects many will nowadays be retaining
an emergency reserve of easily trans-
portable wealth – of which gold is the
most easily tradeable in an emergency
– in case conflict should spring up
again, however unlikely.
In Eastern Ukraine, much of the popu-
lation in the apparently insurgent con-
trolled Donbass region will be fearful
of a heavy handed, and possibly indis-
criminate, response by the Ukrainian
army, particularly following the down-
ing of one of its transport planes with
heavy loss of life. People may choose
to join the flood of refugees into Rus-
sia which they see at least as a way of
preserving their lives, if not their prop-
erty and if they have gold they have
something they can trade to re-estab-
lish themselves in the event they are
unable to return for whatever reason.
Small wonder therefore that gold buy-
ing is making something of a come-
back in many parts of the world.
The Middle East, for example, is see-
ing major gold purchasing while in the
perhaps more politically stable, but
traditional gold buying areas like India,
where gold has stood the test of time
in terms of an inflation hedge, demand
remains strong despite the govern-
ment’s attempts to rein it in to protect
the nation’s balance of payments.
So too across virtually all of South-
east Asia, some areas of which have a
recent history of conflict, but virtually
all of which have seen periods of out of
control inflation.
Even China – now the biggest gold
buying nation of all - has seen citizens
flooding to protect their wealth largely
through inflation fears, but also for his-
torical reasons.
But it is the U.S. which seems cur-
rently to control the gold price, perhaps
through the machinations of the major
bullion banks who can make vast prof-
its through manipulating the price up
and down by utilising the futures mar-
kets, and these historic reasons for
owning gold are not really present.
Conflict is unlikely, bar some horren-
dous terrorist atrocity, which cannot be
ruled out given the fanatical nature of
some of the anti-U.S. political groups
elsewhere in the world.
Meantime inflation has been kept
under reasonable control for many
years. The Wall Street crash of 1929
is mostly outside living memory, but a
repeat cannot be dismissed and some
savvy investors will be holding gold just
in case.
A terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11
could well bring markets crashing
down. It may be as well at least to hold
some proportion of one’s wealth in gold
as insurance.
In Europe, the rise of far right and far
left leaning political parties is a cause
for concern in terms of political stability,
while Ukraine is close geographically to
the continent’s centre.
Russia under Putin seems to be seek-
ing to regain some of its past powers
and no-one knows how this may pan
out. It will leave those in some of the
former Soviet controlled Eastern Euro-
pean nations worried that the Bear
may be flexing its claws in order to
regain its influence – perhaps as much
by destabilisation as by actual conflict.
The global banking system too remains
stretched and bank collapses could
leavepeopleheavilyexposed–justask
Greek Cypriots!
It is indeed an uncertain and perilous
world we live in and holding gold as a
wealth protector seems as important
nowasiteverhasbeen–notnecessar-
ily for making huge gains as a result of
arisingprice,butasaprotectoragainst
heavylossesshouldbankscollapseand
markets crash. It is a prudent policy to
hedge one’s bets. ― Mineweb •