The Pirate Party Knows Where the Money Is

May 16, 2012 by

Republished on Global Geopolitics & Political Economy

Al Jazeera English, May 14, 2012

See the article on the original website

By Dean Baker

One of the oddities of recent election results in Germany and elsewhere in northern Europe is the rise of the Pirate Party. This party received 7.8 percent of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia yesterday, making it the 4th state government in Germany in which it has enough support to get into the state parliament. It also won enough votes to get seats in the European Parliament. The Pirate Party is widely expected to cross the 5 percent threshold in the German national elections next year, allowing it to get into the national parliament.

Like many new and rapidly growing parties, the Pirate Party has only a partially formed agenda and undoubtedly means many different things to different supporters. However a general theme is clearly a support for freedom of the Internet. This means a rebellion against governmental efforts to track users and to limit the flow of material over the web.

Near the top of the list of the Pirate Party’s demons is copyright protection, and rightly so. Copyright protection is an antiquated relic of the late Middle Ages that has no place in the digital era. It is debatable whether such government-granted monopolies were ever the best way to finance the production of creative and artistic work, but now that the Internet will allow this material to be instantly transferred at zero cost anywhere in the world, copyrights are clearly a counter-productive restraint on technology.

As every graduate of an introductory economics class knows, the market works best when items sell at their marginal cost. That means we maximize efficiency when recorded music, movies, video games and software are available to users at zero cost. The fees that the government allows copyright holders to impose create economic distortions in the same way that tariffs on imported cars or clothes lead to economic distortions.

The major difference is that the distortions from copyright protection are much larger. While tariffs on cars or clothes would rarely exceed 20-30 percent, the additional cost imposed by copyright protection is the price of the product. Movies that would be free in a world without copyright protection can cost $20-$30. The same is true of video games, and the price of copyrighted software can run into the thousands of dollars.

In total, hundreds of billions of dollars a year flow from the rest of us to those with government-granted copyright monopolies, like Disney, Time-Warner, and Microsoft. This government-directed flow of money dwarfs the size of the items that gets Washington politicians hot, like the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy.

Of course we need to pay creative workers, but we should find more efficient mechanisms, where a higher percentage of the cost borne by the public ends up in the workers’ pockets. Some alternatives already exist. There is much creative work in the United States and around the world that is supported directly by governments or private non-profits. For this work, writers, musicians, and other creative workers are paid for their work at the time they do it. There is no need for copyright protection.

However, we would clearly need much more funding if the flow of money from copyright protection were to be lost. One possibility is an artistic freedom voucher. This is a refundable tax credit of around $100 that each person could use to support the creative worker(s) of their choice. It would be similar to the charitable tax deduction, except it would be a credit. The condition of getting the money is that a worker would not be allowed to get copyright protection for a period of time (e.g. five years).

A program like this should generate a vast amount of material that would be freely available to the whole world. The powers of the government would no longer be used to bottle up the Internet, and we would see the end of legislative disasters, like the Stop Online Piracy Act, which sought to make everyone into a copyright cop.

We would also need new mechanisms to support the development of software. Here also there is a vast amount of software developed each year that does not depend on copyright protection. Much of it is custom software for specific companies. Other software is explicitly developed to be freely available to the public.

Developing the best mechanisms for supporting creative work will take much thought and debate. But it is long past time that this process got started and that we move beyond a hopelessly antiquated copyright system.

The Pirate Party has made an enormously important contribution to this process. While it is unlikely that it will ever become a dominant party in Germany or elsewhere in Europe, it may help to reshape the political agenda in the same way that the German Green Party did more than three decades ago.

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This work by Dean Baker, also published by CEPR, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive. He also has a blog, "Beat the Press," where he discusses the media’s coverage of economic issues.


Filed Under: Economic Policy, Economy, Media, Politics, Report Tagged With: , , ,

Top 5 Figures Influencing Renewable Energy in the U.S.

May 3, 2012 by

Republished on Global Geopolitics & Political Economy

By Jen Alic of Oilprice.com

As Oilprice.com embarks on its Top 5 series, we thought it expedient to begin with our take on the key figures shaping and influencing U.S. renewable energy efforts, not least because the issue of energy security is being prioritized in campaigning ahead of U.S. presidential elections.

In considering from the numerous choices for these top five slots, we take into account a number of variables, including investment in renewable energy, the ability to influence policy and shape public opinion, and advocacy efforts. This goes well beyond simply counting coin – it is about innovation, imagination, vision, risk and patience. Arguably, these people will play an important role in your life and leisure, for better or worse.

These are our picks:

Steven Chu – The China Link


Co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997, US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu is one of the most distinguished faces of renewable energy in the world, tasked with helping the Obama Administration invest in clean energy, reduce dependence on foreign oil, address climate change concerns and create millions of jobs while doing it. Chu has devoted a large part of his scientific career to alternative energy solutions and climate change research, in part as former director of the DoE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. While the last century saw him win the Nobel Prize, this century earned him R&D Magazine’s Scientist of the Year award for 2011. In announcing his appointment as Secretary of Energy, President Obama said that the "future of our economy and national security is inextricably linked to one challenge: energy [and] Steven has blazed new trails …". Chu’s most tangible successes have been the government’s investment in geothermal and offshore wind projects.
Indeed, Chu is one of the world’s leading authorities on renewable energy; and on a geopolitical level, his influence reaches to China. Chu is a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has trained prominent scientists in China and helped to establish the Bio-X Center at Jiaotong University in Shanghai – all of this gives him valuable access to Chinese politicians.

Dan Reicher – Energy Guru


Until November 2011, Dan Reicher served as Google’s director of climate change and green energy initiatives, during which time he convinced the company to invest in a number of energy projects, some of them rather eccentric and risky, others more pragmatic. He was also behind Google’s policy proposals for Washington. Prior to 2007, Reicher served in the Clinton Administration as the assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy. He was also considered for the post of energy secretary in the Obama Administration, but lost out to our first pick, Steven Chu.
Today, he’s practicing his innovation at Stanford University, which chose him to lead its new $7 million center to study and advance the development and deployment of clean energy technologies through innovative policy and finance. Stanford alumni Thomas Steyer and Kat Thomas donated the $7 million and trust in Reicher to lead the university’s efforts, which they said "is uniquely positioned to change our nation’s attitudes and capabilities regarding how we make and use energy. What our university did for the information revolution, it must now do for the energy revolution." Broadly, the Stanford center will conduct research on energy policy and finance, with a particular focus on legislative, regulatory and business tools – all intended to boost public support for funding clean energy technologies. It also hopes to produce world-class research for policymakers, the business community, and technology leaders. Reicher is influential in the renewable energy world on a number of levels, from finance to policy to advocacy. Not only does he have the ear of the government on policy, he also has the $7 million Stanford research effort at his disposal.

Elon Musk – Iron Man


Elon Musk is probably the most colorful of the figures on our Top 5 list. He has Hollywood’s eyes and ears, as well, which only adds to his public influence. Musk is the co-founder of and head of product design at Tesla Motors, the producer of electric cars, which is almost a singular focus of Musk’s current green energy efforts. Musk entrepreneurial innovation had already been demonstrated pre-Tesla, when he co-founded PayPal and SpaceX. He also chairs the board of SolarCity, a start-up focused on photovoltaics products and services aimed at climate change solutions. Most recently, Musk created the first viable electric car of the modern era, the high-end Tesla Roadster sports.
The Tesla Roadster will be followed by the four-door Model S sedan, scheduled to release in July, and the ModelX (a sort of SUV/minivan hybrid), slated for production in 2013. Musk’s vision: making electric cars affordable to mass-market consumers thereby making a huge footprint in American and global energy efficiency and security. The Roadster is a high-end vehicle that will only attract the wealthy, but that is the point: Roadster revenues can fund research and development for lower-priced electric cars.
Countless awards and honors have come Musk’s way, from the Heinlein Price for Advances in Space Commercialization in 2011 to inclusion on Forbes’ list of "America’s 20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 and Under" that same year. Incidentally, Mush designed the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit and served as the inspiration for the genius billionaire Tony Stark in the Iron Man movie series. He also made it onto TIME Magazine’s (often dubious) list of 100 most influential people in 2010.
Eddie O’Connor – Supergrid Superhero


Eddie O’Connor, the CEO and co-founder of Mainstream Renewable Energy and the original founder of Airtrcity, is one of the world’s most interesting, energetic and innovative clean energy figures. O’Connor sold Airtricity to E.on and Scottish and Southern Energy for €2.2 billion in 2008, when he launched Mainstream along with Airtricity’s former finance chief, Fintan Whelan, investing €32 million in the start-up. O’Conner, who got his start in Ireland’s electricity company, has earned energy leadership awards across Europe, and in 2003 was named World Energy Policy Leader by Scientific American Magazine. O’Connor is behind the creation of some amazing onshore and offshore wind farm projects in Europe, North America, South America and South Africa, and is perhaps best known for his promotion of the European Offshore Supergrid, which envisions electricity interconnectivity on a scale that would entirely transform the European energy scene. O’Connor’s work has been extremely influential on global policy and he has certainly earned his place among the world’s most innovative public figures. He combines ideas with advocacy and action.

Paul Woods – The Algae King

Paul Woods would like no less than to revolutionize the energy sector, and his charisma is hard to match. Woods is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Algenol, the Bonita Springs-based alternative energy company, and his trademark is turning algae into ethanol (with the help of salt, carbon dioxide and sunlight). Algenol has not yet made its definitive mark on the energy industry, but Woods is certain it will. It has not been easy but Woods has proven a very patient warrior. There have been stops and starts. Most recently Algenol was forced to shelve expansion plans after concerns were raised about potential environmental consequences, but in April expansion plans were back on track and in full force. We like Woods because he’s a risk-taker and not one who will give up easily. We’re hedging our bets that algae will play a major role in America’s future energy security.

Source: http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Oilprice.coms-5-Most-Influential-Figures-in-U.S.-Clean-Energy.html

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Filed Under: Energy, Report, United States Tagged With: ,

Business20 Makes Its Weight Felt at G20 Meeting

April 20, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Emilio Godoy

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico, Apr 19, 2012 (IPS) – The concerns of the business community basically monopolised the first day of the meeting of trade and economy ministers of the G20 group of industrialised and emerging countries in this Mexican resort city Thursday.

The meeting of global chief executives and chairmen held on the occasion of G20 summits, known as Business 20 (B20), handed the ministers a series of recommendations on issues like trade liberalisation, green growth, food sovereignty and energy, at the meeting in Puerto Vallarta, in the western state of Jalisco, 900 km from Mexico City.

And not only that: The corporate delegates were present at the minister’s deliberations on questions such as protectionism, fostering trade, and generating jobs.

"I have been at previous meetings, and this is the first time that I have seen the business representatives playing such an active role," Alejandro Ramírez, a Mexican executive who owns the Cinépolis chain of movie theatres and who presided over the B20, said during the opening ceremony Thursday.

The G20 is made up of the members of the G8 leading industrialised countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States – along with Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the European Union.

But the meeting in Puerto Vallarta, a city on Mexico’s Pacific coast that depends mainly on foreign tourism, also included representatives of Colombia and Peru, which are asking to join the group.

Lima will host the Latin American chapter of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2013.

The two-day ministerial meeting, which is taking place behind closed doors and without the presence of civil society, was preceded Monday through Wednesday by the Latin American chapter of the WEF, where business leaders and experts once again discussed the survival of capitalism, in the face of the global economic crisis that has hit rich countries particularly hard.

The business community’s participation was more marked at this year’s meeting than it was during the bloc’s summits in Seoul, South Korea in 2010 and Cannes, France in 2011.

The business sector has taken over the G20 agenda, as it demands solutions in the face of the crisis.

"Trade and investment have played a critical role in the last decade" to stimulate the economy, Martin Senn, CEO of Zürich Financial Services, said Thursday.

At the meeting, Mexico proposed analysing global value chains and the links between trade, economic growth, and employment. But the hot issue was undoubtedly Argentina’s recent decision to regain state control over the YPF oil company by seizing a 51 percent stake from Spain’s Repsol.

"Non-tariff barriers are more complex to identify," Senn said. "The G20 must stand against protectionism. They have to revise the impact of measures like barriers to exports, sanitary and fito-sanitary and technical barriers."

Trade in goods and services has already felt the blows of the economic crisis that broke out in the United States, which have been aggravated by Europe’s debt problems.

The World Trade Organisation forecasts a low level of growth in global trade this year, and a sluggish recovery.

The growing influence of corporations in meetings like this week’s G20 gathering has fuelled criticism by civil society organisations with respect to the legitimacy of these international forums.

The International Coalition Facing the G20, made up of organisations from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greece, Mexico and Peru, said in March that the bloc’s approach to tackling the crisis is based on the same paradigms and mind-set that gave rise to it in the first place.

The G20 obsessively promotes unlimited growth – now ironically called "green" – which not only undermines a healthy environment and the resources shared by the people, but also the rights of nature and the earth’s sustainability, the group’s declaration states.

In the Pacific resort town of Los Cabos in northwest Mexico, the presidents of the G20 countries will discuss issues like policies against the financial crisis; food security; green growth; and the fight against climate change at their Jun. 18-19 summit.

Presenting the B20’s recommendations, Guillermo Ortiz, a former governor of the state-owned Banco de México, suggested the denomination of trade in currencies other than the dollar.

"We are moving towards a multi-currency world, and this must also be reflected in the denomination of trade," said the banker, who is now chairman of the Grupo Financiero Banorte.

"It’s important for economies like China to represent the weight of their countries in international trade," he argued.

The business leaders also proposed the creation of an oversight panel to monitor which countries have lived up to the proposals and later debate the results.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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ECONOMY-LATIN AMERICA: ‘Multilatinas’ in a Globalised World

March 24, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 23, 2011 (IPS) – Economic growth in Latin America is driving the expansion of corporations from this region throughout the world – even in countries of the industrialised North that formerly seemed out-of-reach.

But does this expansion, which was spearheaded in the past by the United States, Japan, and European countries like Germany, contribute to the overall development of the countries where the multinationals are based, or does it merely fuel inequality and line the pockets of the corporate elites?

"This is a central concern," economist Bernardo Kosacoff, director of the centre for Entrepreneurship, Competitiveness and Development at the private University of San Andrés in Argentina, told IPS.

He immediately clarified, however, that "it would be wrong to suggest producing less wealth in order to avoid widening the gap. What are needed are policies and regulations to ensure that the benefits don’t only go to companies but contribute to the country’s development."

Kosacoff, former director of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Argentina, stressed that in order to grow, generate jobs and foreign exchange, and pay taxes, companies cannot limit their reach to the domestic market.

"Internationalisation definitely boosts development, not only in the initial phase, when companies are exporting goods, but also when they start to innovate and generate networks of suppliers and jobs, which has an impact on the country," he said.

Argentina was a pioneer in this respect. But now Brazil, which accounts for most of Latin America’s over 500 multinational corporations, or "multilatinas", has taken the lead, followed by Mexico, he said.

Brazilian firms like mining giant Vale or the Petrobrás state oil company and Mexican firms like Cementos Mexicanos (Cemex) or the Bimbo bread maker are no longer only playing a dominant role in Latin America, but have begun to make headway in the U.S. market and other regions and have become drivers of economic globalisation.

And the phenomenon is not only based on the exploitation of raw materials like minerals or grains. There are corporations in the fields of cosmetics, gastronomy, telecommunications and the aviation industry.

Nor is the wave of Latin American companies that have become global actors limited to the largest economies in the region. There are also multilatinas based in Colombia, Chile, Guatemala or Peru.

"The emergence of Global Latinas, it cannot be doubted, has been facilitated by a general context in Latin America of surging economic growth driven by high commodity prices," writes Lourdes Casanova in the book ‘From Multilatinas to Global Latinas; The New Latin American Multinationals’.

After many companies had already begun internationalising in search of new markets that would justify an increase in scale of production, the phenomenon really started to take off in 2003, when the region’s economy began to grow at five percent a year on average.

The study by Casanova, a Spanish professor in the strategy department at international graduate business school and research institution INSEAD in France, was financed by the Inter-American Development Bank.

In a telephone interview with IPS, the expert reflected on the challenges faced by the multilatinas. She remarked that the founders of these companies "had a vision of their own country that was lost in time and must be recuperated.

"Because of the volatility that characterised the region for years, large companies of Latin America had to take a short-term focus, but for the long term it is necessary to think about the development of the middle class," she said.

Casanova pointed out that the growth of emerging powers like China or India has been based on the development of middle class sectors seeking access to mortgages, cars, computers or mobile phones.

In other words, the expansion is no longer based solely on cheap labour power, she stressed.

"Leaving aside the ethical question of the extremely serious problems of poverty and inequality, what is more profitable: exporting soy to China or stimulating the growth of the middle class?" she asked.

The multilatinas also globalised after learning to overcome all kinds of difficulties in their home markets. Some now have branches in as many as 30 countries, purchase companies abroad, invest and generate employment at home and overseas.

They differ from corporations based in developed countries in that they tend to have centralised management and are family-run and have strong leadership that facilitates swift decision-making and innovation.

The multilatinas learned to survive in economic environments that were not always favourable, and they know better than anyone how to navigate in turbulent waters, Casanova said.

In her book, she makes an in-depth case study of 11 Latin American firms, including Mexican corporations like Bimbo, which has 100,000 employees in 17 countries; Cemex, with 57,000 workers in 33 countries; and telecom giant América Móvil, with more than 200 million customers in 18 countries.

Since the publication of the book, Bimbo, Latin America’s largest bread maker, has expanded to the United States, where it acquired the Sara Lee Corporation’s North American bakery business.

Casanova also takes a look at cases in Brazil, like aircraft maker Embraer or cosmetics firm Natura, as well as Petrobrás and Vale, the last two of which are active on every continent.

Other large Brazilian corporations were not included in the study, like Gerdau, the 11th biggest steelmaker in the world, 55 percent of whose output is produced outside of Brazil; Friboi, Latin America’s biggest beef producer; and processed foods company Marfrig.

Friboi is in first place in a ranking of the 60 biggest multilatinas by América Economía, a magazine published in Chile, and Marfrig recently took over U.S. processor Keystone Foods, making it a leading supplier of beef to McDonald’s.

The book also looks at "emerging" companies like Chile’s Concha y Toro, Latin America’s main wine exporter with sales in 115 countries, which recently sealed a deal to purchase a California vineyard for 200 million dollars; and the Brazilian-based global IT services firm Politec.

In addition, Casanova analyses the cases of two restaurant chains: Pollo Campero of Guatemala, with branches in the United States, Spain, China and Indonesia; and Astrid & Gastón of Peru, which has locales in eight countries in the region as well as Spain.

The boom enjoyed by the owners of the multilatinas is reflected in Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s richest people. Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim – who owns América Móvil – was the wealthiest person for a second year in a row in 2011, with a net worth of 74 billion dollars.

This year, the Forbes list includes 51 Latin American billionaires, up from 34 in 2010.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

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Filed Under: Development, Economy, Featured, Latin America Tagged With: ,

Saving Family Business with Employees’ Support

March 9, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By Taro Ichikawa

IDN-InDepth NewsFeature  
 
TOKYO (IDN) – Now an eminent CEO in Tokyo’s Mitaka City, Masashi Takeuchi vividly recalls his days in Brazil’s sprawling Sao Paulo, where he worked as a reporter for a newspaper that was rather popular with the Japanese community.

"My life was exciting because whatever I wrote was published the following day in the newspaper and I experienced a sense of accomplishment. At the same time, I learned a lot about the huge continent and what poverty means," says Masashi, the third generation president of the Takeuchi Unyu Kogyo (Takeuchi Transportation Industry) and Vice Chairperson, the Tokyo Trucking Association.

When Masashi returned home from Brazil, he presumed that father would entrust him with important management tasks. That turned out to be wishful thinking. He was assigned a series of menial jobs in different departments where he made boxes, packed at a distribution warehouse, transported cargos, cleaned toilets, and repaired work places.

"Life ordained at the bottom of the ladder was hard for me to understand those days," recalls Masashi. Recollecting his feelings some six months later, when he travelled to Brazil again, he says: "Although I was visiting familiar places, I felt a sense of estrangement as a tourist and realised that I belonged to Takeuchi Unyu Kogyo. So I made up my mind to live with the company," he adds.

He has no regrets. In fact, he is convinced that father did the right thing in putting him in all departments of the company because "it is important for a CEO to know all job sites".

Masashi Takeuchi was appointed as company president by father Kiyoshi Takeuchi at the age of 45 in the year 2000, who had succeeded his father Seitaro Takeuchi, the company’s founder, when he died in 1984.

Masashi’s appointment came close on the heels of a watershed in Takeuchi Unyu Kogyo’s relations with Nissan whose new CEO Carlos Ghosn convened a meeting of suppliers and service providers in 1999 to announce a ‘Nissan revival plan’ for leading the automaker out of the red, which made snapping business ties with half of them necessary.

As a result, Mitaka factory for which the Takeuchi Company provided transport services and installed automatic reeling machines, was demolished after the textile division’s transfer of the from Nissan to Toyota Industry Corporation, affiliated with the Toyota Motor company.

Also, the Ogikubo factory which housed the Aerospace Department for which the Takeuchi’s provided maintenance and repairing facilities was closed as the department was transferred to another location. Further, steps were initiated for the closure of the Murayama Factory in 2001 with which the Takeuchi Company had business transactions since 1961. A miniature model of Nissan Skyline (the last model assembled at Murayama factory) is now displayed at the reception room of Takeuchi Unyu Kogyo.

A NEW ERA DAWNS

As the Nissan revival plan started unfolding, father Kiyoshi Takeuchi realised that the era in which the Tekeuchi Company and the Nissan were close business partners had come to an end. "My time is over now. A new era has dawned," he told his son and handed him over the presidency in 2000.

Masashi Takeuchi says that he learned a lot from the experience of the Nissan revival plan. "I thought that even a small company like ours needs to accept new values and new frameworks under the garb of globalization and reorganize itself so as to survive under the new circumstances."

This experience made him reflect not only management but also philosophical themes such as the way of life and how a human being lives life. "I thought that I would not be able to adjust myself to the new circumstances as long as I stick to conventional values. I was made acutely aware of the importance of surviving now. It made me realize anew — what is otherwise a platitude — that time is always changing."

It was only after April 2000 that the impact of the Nissan revival plan began to be felt by Takeuchi’s. Although Masashi was conscious that it would be increasingly difficult to do business with Nissan in the future, he did his best to maintain some business ties with the company by actively participating in bids. (No bid was required before the Nissan revival plan.) He succeeded in some cases. The Takeuchi Company was contracted to transport auto parts from Nissan auto parts warehouse in Sagamihara city, Kanagawa prefecture, to Saitama prefecture.

Masashi also succeeded in making a contract for maintenance and repair works at the facility with IHI Aerospace Co. Ltd., which replaced Nissan’s aerospace department that used to be Takeuchi’s business partner, and opened a new business office near this client company.

The IHI Aerspace Co. Lt. had also got involved in the Hayabusa project, named after the Japanese fighter during World War II. Literally meaning ‘peregrine falcon’, Hayabusa is also the name of an unmanned spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis.

NEW CLIENTS

Masashi also found new clients in distribution business such as drug companies, which encouraged the Takeuchi Company to undertake a major investment to inigurate its first logistics centre in 1998 and its second logistics centre in 2001 in Tokorozawa City in Tokyo.

The client drug company launched multiple chain stores in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures and requested the Takeuchi’s to coordinate their logistics. It was the first time that the Takeuchi Company undertook an overall coordination of logistics — carrying goods, stock control, inspection, classification, delivery — commonly called third party logistics or 3PL, which was not yet common in Japan at that time.

Takeuchi Unyu Kogyo was convinced that its future survival lies in cultivating new clients other than those from the auto industry, and subsequently focused on distribution business. This paved the way for the Company to start liberating itself from a conventional management style of dependence on Nissan alone.

On top of that, the new CEO strengthened the company’s financial standing by attaching importance to cash flow and management by business computing. He was convinced that if there is a way for the Takeuchi’s to survive in an era of globalization, he must go back to the basic principles of management and take a fresh look at all company assets, reassess their efficiency, and carry out drastic reduction of interest-baring debts. Based on this conviction, he decided to scale down the company.

EMPLOYEES’ SIGNIFICANT ROLE

"Management is a new way of thinking about the importance of employees. I think that I could attract more support from labour union members by coming up with a policy of making every effort not to lay off employees during the difficult period resulting from the Nissan reform plan. Our new business of running logistical centres grew and I came to feel that it was time to nurture workforces in our company under the new changing environment," says Masashi Takeuchi.

Consequently, he applied for ISO9001 and obtained the prestigious certifications. ISO enables employees to understand what others are doing and thinking about their works. Local business offices conduct internal auditing with each other and in this process employees working for different business offices can understand business operations of other offices and what their colleagues are doing. The idea was to adopt a management style where all employees can join in one body.

He also made monthly statement of accounts transparent to all employees and applied the same format for monthly reports with check sheets so that employees working for different divisions/business offices can grasp what and how others are doing. Through these exercises, employees developed a sense of ownership.

"The most important thing as a transportation company is to avoid a traffic accident. Through consultation with the company’s safety and health committee, we equipped all 30 trucks with a back monitor and a drive recorder. The aim of this is to prevent human error with support by that machine equipment and above all to protect lives of our truck drivers. Without safety, a company cannot continue to exist," says Masashi Takeuchi.

He adds: "As CEO, I feel that I have been able to do what I have wanted to do. I have been allowed to do so maybe because I like my colleagues and employees. I always feel that an employee comes to work for my company not just as a matter of coincidence; there must be some sort of providence involved. And I have my respect for that."

When a driver has an accident, the Takeuchi’s tell him that if he is absolutely sure that he is not at fault, the Company would stand 100 percent behind him. In this regard, the drive recorder will protects him with evidences that would validate his account.

Masashi Takeuchi’s advice to the younger generation is: "We should be pleased and thankful to be able to live a normal life. We should not fear change. Fear exists in one’s own mind. I admit that I have gone through a state of mind where I was driven to the edge by pressures and stress but I learned that one cannot survive unless one changes. It is important to keep moving forward without fear of change."

*This is the sixth in a series of special IDN-InDepthNews features and articles on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. (IDN-InDepthNews/09.03.2011)

Copyright © 2011 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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Filed Under: Economy, Featured Tagged With: , , ,

Harmonizing Business with Employees and Society

January 5, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN

By Taro Ichikawa

IDN-InDepth NewsFeature* 

TOKYO (IDN) – "Everyone but me is my mentor." True to that maxim, constant communication with employees is his tenet. "I feel a sense of gratitude for all those who are working in my company. I want my employees to share with me not only a sense of commitment and responsibility but also a sense of pride and happiness as colleagues," says Masaki Ishihara.

Ishihara is the president of ‘Hinomaru Kyuso’ — the Sun Flag Express — headquartered in Takamatsu City in Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture, which deals with transportation of ordinary cargo, logistics of packaging as well as transportation, storage and administration, haulage of foodstuffs, and development of transportation systems.

The company was set up in July 1957 and today employs 45 persons in managerial positions, 170 workers and 136 part-time workers. In 2006, it obtained the prestigiousG-mark. (As of 2009, 17.9 percent of 63,122 truck companies in Japan had been awarded G-mark)

Ishihara expands upon his tenet in a New Year message: "No company can survive unless it co-exits and shares its prosperity with the society and continues to provide advanced training and education to its staff. We have to look at ourselves from the perspective of a socially accepted idea and common sense."

Ishihara sees his corporate social responsibility also towards environment. ‘Hinomaru Kyuso’ owns ten large trucks, 60 ordinary trucks, 17 small cars, 14 other vehicles and five forklifts.

"All our trucks are equipped with digital tacograph. As in the case of other trucking companies which introduced drive recorder, the introduction of digital tacograph had a positive impact on drivers who are making concerted efforts towards eco-friendly and safer driving," Ishihara tells IDN.

"As a result, the number of road accidents has decreased, and fuel consumption has diminished. Digital tacographs are equipped with GPS system so that we can track down entire route of each vehicle and record all aspects of each truck on the road. This makes driving smarter, safer and fuel efficient," he adds.

AFTER THE WAR

Ishihara was a salaried worker, and when he started working in the trucking business at the behest of his father, he felt that the overall social status of trucking was rather low. "Meanwhile, I believe that the transportation industry sustains a vital part of modern day life. Time is fast changing and we must adapt ourselves to new challenges both as trucking industry on the whole and individual trucking companies in particular."

Ishihara fondly recalls his father, and the founder of Hinomaru Kyuso, Shogo, who was born in 1916. He graduated from Japan’s Takushoku University located in Tokyo and worked for Mitsubishi Mining Company before being drafted and dispatched to China during World War II. While serving in the army, he was on temporary leave from the company.

At the time of Japan’s defeat in August 1945, he was an army lieutenant stationed in north China close to the then Soviet border, and asked the Japanese troops to cross the border hoping that they would have a safe haven there. But he was not aware that the Soviet Union had abandoned its neutrality as agreed in the Soviet-Japan treaty. He was taken prisoner and put in a concentration camp in Siberia.

Returning home after being released, he resumed his work at the company but soon quit the job. He did not like the new working environment where his former subordinates had become his superiors during his absence from the company.

While he was having a drink at a bar, he met a friend of his, an official working for the Ministry of Transportation who recommended that he should start up a new transportation company. In those days, one had to obtain a truck license to start up a new transportation company and the official assured his support. So Ishihara’s father started a transportation company with four tricycle motor bikes dealing with construction materials.

After graduating from a university in Kyoto, the son Ishihara — the eldest of three brothers and sisters – took to a job at a credit union bank. He explains the reason: "I had watched the transportation industry in the post-war reconstruction phase, when many drivers used to be rather coarse and drank a lot of alcohol), since my childhood. I had, therefore, no intention to join my father’s company in those days."

But some 20 years ago, Ishihara was asked to return home as his father got laryngeal cancer and started receiving cobalt-beam therapy. Fortunately, he recovered from cancer but the son ended up working for him.

CONSTRUCTION BOOM

That was still during a period of construction boom. So the company dealt mainly with construction materials. But after the completion of The Great Seto Bridge that connected main lands of Honshu and Shikoku — one of the four main islands and the smallest one in Japan. The Hinomaru Kyoso Company is located in Kagawa prefecture one the Shikoku side of the bridge – the construction boom subsided.

"I developed a sense of crisis about continuing to deal with construction materials but my father did not want me to change his policy. He was then vice president of Kagawa Trucking Association and no longer actively involved in business operations. I respected his wish and the company continued to handle construction materials as long as he was alive. After his death, some ten years ago, I changed the company’s policy," says Ishihara.

He explains: "While continuing to mainly deal with construction materials, I introduced three vehicles to deal with foodstuffs. But in those days, we were simply transporting goods, let us say, from point A to point B. But one day I attended a seminar in Tokyo about 3PL (third party Logistics) which had become popular in the United States.

"As price competition became severe and we needed to distinguish ourselves from other competitors, I was convinced that 3PL would secure our company’s future. Initially it was difficult to make our staff understand the need of introducing a new system of operations but fortunately, we soon found out a client, a food company which commissioned us for a job."

Another change he made was to abolish long-range transportation and concentrate on operations on the Shikoku Island. The problem of transporting cargo long distance such as Tokyo and Osaka was that we were having hard time finding cargo on our way back. On top of that, transportation companies based in Tokyo and Osaka often carried cargo with dumping prices on their way back from local destination to Tokyo and Osaka.

This made local transportation company more difficult to compete with prices. On Shikoku Island, which comprises of four prefectures, we have strong networks including logistics centres with refrigerators so that we can provide efficient transportation service with competitive prices for example by loading different client cargo in one truck instead of running three trucks.

But the Hinomaru Kyuso Company continues to handle transportation of newspapers, father Ishihara had started. In fact, transporting newspapers such as Seikyo Shimbun, Komei Shimbun, Shikoku Shimbun, and Ehime Shimbun have become our main operation along with dealing with foodstuffs as well as Third Party Logistics operation.

*This is the fifth in a series of special IDN-InDepthNews features and articles on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. (IDN-InDepthNews/02.01.2011)

Copyright © 2011 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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Filed Under: Economy, Featured, Justice, Social Justice Tagged With: ,

SOUTH AFRICA: Female Entrepreneurs Forge Their Own Path

October 1, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Chris Stein

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 1, 2010 (IPS) – At dawn, Fatima Jardine-Millard straps a massive, German-engineered tank to her back and a tray of pastries to her waist, and prepares to cater to groggy motorists immobilised at a traffic light in Johannesburg’s chaotic daily commute.

For about $1.50, a commuter waiting at this intersection in the working-class neighborhood of Parktown North, can get a cup of coffee dispensed hot from Jardine-Millard’s pre-filled tank. Another $1.50 gets a muffin or croissant from her tray.

South Africans are accustomed to being offered newspapers at traffic lights, but Jardine-Millard says she is the only person she knows of who sells coffee in morning traffic.

Remembering a vendor with a similar backpack selling wine at a concert, Jardine-Millard started selling coffee as a way to make money in between jobs. She opened Amamus Café and Bakery, which she uses as a station to brew the coffee and bake pastries, in addition to serving breakfast and lunch for the rest of the day.

Jardine-Millard belongs to a growing breed of South African women who are willing to take risks to start and succeed in their own businesses.

Traditionally, women have been held back from starting their own enterprises by factors including lack of education, child care responsibilities and limited assets, according to a country study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) released last year. Men still dominate the industry and are about one and a half times more likely to start a business in South Africa than women, the report says.

This is beginning to change. "It’s expected now for women to do some sort of business," said Charlotte Kemp, owner of Niche Training, a Durban-based consulting company. "There’s hardly a woman who isn’t doing something besides being a mom."

Collaborate or debt

But despite the GEM report’s findings that businesswomen are less of a financial risk than men and their businesses have a lower rate of failure, banks continue to discriminate against women entrepreneurs when it comes to financing.

Jardine-Millard said she reached out to banks to seek funding for her restaurant, only to be rebuffed. She ended up taking out a home improvement loan and used the money for the restaurant.

"Banks and institutions make a big hoo-ha over support for female entrepreneurs," Jardine-Millard said. "They were willing to give me a loan for alterations for my flat, but not for my restaurant."

Others have resorted to forming some sort of business partnership with their husbands.

For Hilda Tod, owner of The Bedroom, an adult-oriented boutique in Durban’s upscale Umlanga Rocks suburb, working with her husband was key to her store’s opening.

"Opening with [my husband’s] support was one of the best decisions I made," said Tod, who opened The Bedroom in November 2007.

Tod’s husband, an investor in a scrap yard, was also key to providing funding to open the shop. Like other entrepreneurs, Tod said she decided to forgo funding through banks to pay for her business’ opening expenses, mainly because she wanted to build a business free of bank debt.

Nobuntu Webster built her marketing consultancy firm, Ayano Communications, on both savings from her previous job in marketing and funding from her husband. She avoided taking out loans because she felt they were unnecessary burdens on her nascent business.

"You can’t put pressure on a new business. It’s like trying to piggyback on a three-year-old child, " said Webster, who is also based in Durban. "If you have a capital-intensive business, then go ahead. If you’re in services, it’s not necessary."

"Women-owned" niche

Being in an industry dominated by men, has allowed Tod to use gender to her advantage, she said. By marketing The Bedroom as a store for women and owned by women, Tod said her business stood apart from other comparable stores.

"The woman-owned niche is an advantage," Tod said. "The fact that normal girls are running a shop is getting me a lot of interest and curiosity."

For Webster, the challenges to running a business have centered around her age rather than being female. "I’ve had more issues being young and being taken seriously by my clients than being a woman," the 28-year old Webster said.

According to Kemp, female entrepreneurs generally fall into two categories: those who pretend to be in business, and those who are a serious about it. "Some are just playing at being a businesswoman, but it’s really just a hobby. Others are working all day and night on their businesses," she said. The biggest challenge for a new entrepreneur, Kemp emphasised, is to decide which category they want to fall in.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Development, Gender, Report Tagged With: , ,

DEVELOPMENT: China Wants Business with Latin America

August 18, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Mitch Moxley

BEIJING, Aug 18, 2010 (IPS) – China, now the world’s second largest economy with a ferocious appetite for resources, is aggressively strengthening relations with Latin American countries, but this has not been without roadblocks.

According to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), released in May, China will displace the European Union as the region’s second largest trading partner by the middle of 2011. Latin American countries are actively exploring cooperative arrangements with China in the fields of mining, energy, agriculture, infrastructure and science and technology, the report said.

China has in recent years diversified its investment in Latin America, from natural resources to manufacturing and the services industry, according to a July report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Latin American Studies.

China’s interest in Latin America ranges from oil from Venezuela to timber from Guyana and soybeans from Brazil.

Zhang Sengen, executive director of the Institute of Chinese International Economic Relations, said Latin America has dual appeal for China: It has abundant resources, which are needed to fuel China’s future growth, and it is a huge market for Chinese products – with 560 million consumers and a combined Gross Domestic Product of 4 trillion U.S. dollars.

"Latin America is a very attractive spot for Chinese investment," Zhang said.

China’s foreign direct investment in Latin America reached 24.8 billion dollars in 2008, making up 14.6 percent of China’s total foreign direct investment, according to figures from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. Meanwhile, Latin American investment in China hit 112.6 billion dollars, roughly 14 percent of the total foreign capital China absorbed.

Exports from Latin American countries to China are expected to reach 19.3 percent of the total by 2020, up from 7.6 percent in 2009, according to the ECLAC report.

China has prided itself on what it calls a "win-win" relationship with Latin America, in which the region sells China raw materials, such as copper, iron and oil, while Latin American countries receive goods from China, including mobile phones and cars.

But relations have not been altogether smooth. Across the region, a growing wariness about trade with China has also been emerging.

In Brazil and Argentina, manufacturers have accused China of dumping products in their markets, prompting new tariffs on some Chinese importers. Other countries worry about China’s aggressive efforts to win access to energy reserves.

In Peru, a state-owned Chinese company has faced a nearly two-decade long revolt from mine workers, featuring repeated strikes, clashes with police and arson attacks, ‘The New York Times’ reported earlier in August. Disputes at the mine, founded in 1992 by steelmaker Shougang Corp, focus on wages, environmental damage and the company’s treatment of local residents.

Wang Peng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Latin American Studies, said Chinese companies in Latin America need to do proper risk assessment and better protect the local environment. "There are more NGOs in other countries than in China, and many of them focus on environmental protection," Wang told IPS. "If our companies violate local environmental laws, no wonder tension happens."

Despite the problems, relations continue to develop. In April, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Brazil, Venezuela and Chile, a moved that was heralded in China’s state media as a significant step in cementing relations with Latin America.

"China and Latin American countries, all as developing countries, share extensive common interest. China has always attached great importance to its relations with these countries," Vice Foreign Minister Li Jinzhang said at a press conference in April, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.

During the meetings, Brazil and China inked a joint action plan for 2010 to 2014 and reached agreements in the fields of culture, energy, finance, science and technology and product quality inspection, according to Xinhua.

China is Brazil’s largest trading partner and biggest export market. Trade with Chile, China’s second largest trading partner in the region, reached a record 17.7 billion dollars in 2009.

Oil-rich Venezuela is China’s fifth largest trading partner in Latin America with a trade volume of 7.15 billion dollars in 2009. In March that year, Su Zhenxing, director of the CAAS’s Institute of Latin American Studies, told ‘Beijing Business Today’ that Latin America will become a leading strategic provider of crude oil.

Jiang Shixue, vice president of the Chinese Association of Latin American Studies and deputy director-general of the Chinese Centre for the Third World Studies, said China’s interest in Latin America is not just economic, but also political.

Of the 23 countries in the world that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, 12 are in Latin America. China can gain leverage over these countries though investment incentives, Jiang said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Development, Latin America, Trade Tagged With: ,

RWANDA: Women Win by Formalising Businesses

June 9, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Aimable Twahirwa

KIGALI, Jun 8  (IPS)  – The vast majority of businesses in Rwanda – like elsewhere in Africa – are informal. Government expects that a drive to register an estimated 900,000 informal enterprises will both strengthen these businesses and improve tax revenues.

Thirty-two year old Françoise Muhorakeye is an early example of success. Muhorakeye previously worked alone, selling fruit and vegetables at Kamuhanda market, a half-hour drive from the capital, Kigali.

She earned enough to sustain her family, but she was inspired to form a cooperative after attending a training programme aimed at empowering entrepreneurs.

Now as part of a ten-woman cooperative, she says her earnings have dramatically improved. Registering the cooperative as a formal business helped the women apply for a loan of one million Rwandan francs (about $1,700) with which they plan to expand their business further.

Suzan Nyirangwije who sells products imported from Dubai, has also seen positive returns since registering her business and receiving a loan.

”When I was running an informal business by myself, my daily turnover was very low but with my colleagues the shop now does over 300,000 Rwf ($500) worth of business every day,” she said.

Eraste Kabera, senior registrar at the agency tasked with the registration process, the Rwanda Development Board, told IPS the business registration system will benefit those who wish to access bank loans and micro-finance and those who wish to protect their intellectual property.

”We have seen that once they have experienced successful business performance, people in the informal sector almost always want to extend their activities,” Kabera explained.

Women comprise 54 percent of Rwanda’s population of nine million. Although there are no statistics available for women-owned businesses, the Rwandan government acknowledges that the majority of employees in both the formal and informal sectors are women.

The registration effort focuses on enterprises earning a minimum daily income equivalent to $20 and makes the process of registering as short and simple as possible. The costs have also been drastically reduced, from the equivalent of about $600 to just $43.

One of the key objectives of the Rwanda Development Board, the agency tasked with the registration process, is the sensitisation and mobilisation of women to invest in doing business.

But registration does not automatically guarantee loans for women-owned businesses. Many women in rural areas complain they still face difficulties in accessing loans under the Women’s Guarantee Fund, established last year.

Officials have dismissed the women’s concerns. ”The government has established the necessary mechanism on micro loans for all financial institutions that lend to female entrepreneurs,” François Kanimba, the governor of the Central Bank told IPS in a 2009 interview.

At the time, the Central Bank reported that 6,568 women had benefitted from the credit scheme, drawing loans from $900,000 provided by government, international donors and NGOs.

Government also plans to use the business registration scheme to develop a database of business activities that will contribute to economic planning. A key Rwanda government target under its economic roadmap, Vision 2020, is to reduce the country’s dependency on aid by increasing tax revenue.

When the Foreign Investment Advisory Service, a joint service of the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank, assessed Rwanda in 2005, the country’s 400 large firms and 3,000 registered small enterprises were hugely outnumbered by the estimated 900,000 firms in the informal sector. Registering these firms is one of the avenues government is using to boost the tax base.

But many informal sector workers find the prospect of paying taxes intimidating and it remains to be seen to what extent the business registration scheme will convince women in the informal sector to formalise their businesses.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Development, Gender, Report Tagged With: , ,

INDIA: One Woman’s Entrepreneurial Venture Now Employs Thousands

May 13, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Athar Parvaiz

SRINAGAR, May 13, 2010 (IPS) – Shameema Wani, 40, never imagined a simple venture, begun from scratch, would grow into the 2,000-strong business enterprise, employing mainly women, that it is today in this capital city of India’s disputed Jammu and Kashmir state.

When her husband met an accident in1990, leaving him incapacitated for gainful work, Wani figured it was time to put her college education to good use by setting up a small business.

Misery pushed her, says the mother of two, aged 18 and 15, to go into a male-dominated commercial arena if only to support her family.

Using what little was left of her family’s resources after her husband’s costly treatment, she bought a sack of ‘pashmina’ from Leh – capital of the Himalayan kingdom in Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir – to make shawls.

Pashmina – an indigenous word for ‘cashmere’ – is a type of fine cashmere wool used to make the world-famous shawls known by the same name. The wool specifically comes from ‘changthangi’ or ‘pashmina’ goat, which is indigenous to the Himalayas in Ladakh region in the disputed state.

Almost two decades on, the college dropout’s initial foray into business has grown into a major enterprise that provides livelihood for thousands of women in her village and elsewhere in the Indian state.

Rafiqa Akhtar, 27, who has been hired by Wani, prides herself on being able to earn without neglecting her duties at home as a mother of two. "It is a good economic opportunity. We do our household chores and still manage to earn," she says of her job.

Nazir Ahmad Wani is only too proud of what his wife has achieved. "If not for her courage and entrepreneurial spirit, our only option would have been to beg," he says. He is just as proud of the opportunities that her wife’s business venture has afforded to other women.

Wani says making pashminas is a backbreaking job. Still, she relishes all the hard work it entails and feels grateful to her father, who made sure she went to college.

Unlike most women in her village in Chursu, Wani says her father sent her to college even if it meant she had to endure the taunts of her neighbours and kin, who considered female education un-Islamic. According to them, says Wani, women should either study at home or avoid co-educational institutions, assuming they must go into college at all.

She regrets, though, not being able to finish college because she married when she was only 19 years old. Yet, she says she learned enough to be able to have the confidence to pursue the path to entrepreneurship.

When her business had grown big enough, she thought it was time she started hiring other women in her village to work for her. "I felt this job was quite suited to women, who could still do their chores at home while earning part-time," she reasons.

Soon even women from outside her village started coming to her, because they needed work. Now they are earning 2,500 to 4,000 Indian rupees (around 55 to 89 U.S. dollars) a month from making shawls.

Demonstrations and mass rallies, staged by the unemployed, most of them youth, to protest the dire lack of job opportunities, are not uncommon in the Indian-administered Kashmir.

"As of December 2009, we have had over 5.7 lac (or well over half a million) unemployed educated youth in Jammu and Kashmir," says Kashmir’s labour and employment minister Abdul Gani Malik.

Wani has never looked back even on the most difficult days of her life after her husband’s accident. "I make good money out of this business and I am happy that I can also give other women an opportunity to earn on their own," she says.

Not that trying times are over. Seeing how pashmina manufacturers and traders are exploiting the laborers, she wants to put up her own shawl factory. This would be in addition to the Wani Pashmina Katayee Centre that she set up in 1993. Here her workers bring their processed pashminas.

Traders, she says, pay her only one Indian rupee (less than 1 U.S. cent) per pashmina knot instead of the more realistic price of 20 Indian rupees (about half a U.S. dollar). "That is too miniscule," she says. "This prompted me to think of putting up my own shawl-manufacturing unit."

Not everyone was pleased with her daring ventures. "They said that it was not a woman’s job to set up a shop in the market," But I remained unfazed and didn’t listen to what they said," Shameema told IPS. Today, the Wani Pashmina Katayee Centre is flourishing.

Not one to sit on her laurels, Wani has also begun to trade in other commodities, namely, Kashmiri almonds and cosmetic products. Women find it more convenient to buy items for their special needs at Wani’s outlet than elsewhere in the male-dominated market, she says.

By dint of hard work and firm determination, Wani has achieved her dream. She sees no reason why other women cannot do the same and turn into successful entrepreneurs.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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