International Economic Growth
Taking your business globalThe Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicts that economic growth for Europe and Japan will surpass the United States for the first time in six years, due in large part to the declining real estate market in the U.S.
Economic growth for the 13 countries that comprise the Eurozone is likely to grow 2.7 percent, higher than the previous forecast of 2.2 percent, and slightly below 2.8 percent growth last year.
A healthy German economy and increased value of the Euro, which recently reached record highs against the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen, are contributing factors to the economic growth, according to the OECD.
Source: International Herald Tribune www.iht.com
Community Involvement
Your company’s key to successUK-based ASDA, one of the largest food retailers in Britain, sponsors a variety of charities such as:
Tickled Pink - a campaign launched by ASDA to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer charities. Fundraising activity takes place in all ASDA stores across the UK.
The Big Recycle – ASDA’s pledge to send zero waste to landfill by 2010, by promoting recycling of glass bottles, tin cans, mobile phones, printer cartridges and other recyclables. The campaign’s reaches out to students as well, engaging local schools in the Environmental School Challenge.
Everyman - Everyman is a campaign run by the Institute of Cancer Research to raise awareness and funds for male cancers
Source: ASDA website http://www.asda.co.uk/corp/home.html
Innovation
Concept of exploration – Innovations and Inventions around the worldStairway to Heaven – Well, sort of
German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin developed the rigid airship, or dirigible balloon; he completed his first one in 1900, later named the zeppelin in his honor. In 1910, a zeppelin provided the first commercial air service for passengers. By his death in 1917, he had built a zeppelin fleet, some of which were used to bomb London during World War I.
Source: About.com http://inventors.about.com
International Advocacy
Facts of doing international businessThe Motherland of the Spanish language, in actuality, 4 different dialects are spoken throughout the country: Castilian Spanish is the official dialect (74% of the population speaks it); the other three dialects are Catalan (17%), Galician (7%) and Basque (2%).
The country’s long-standing reputation as being “easy-going”, due in large part to the traditional two to three hour lunch breaks for taking afternoon siestas (naps), is now being challenged by a law passed by the Spanish government at the beginning of the year, enforcing a standard workday of 9 am to 5pm. Traditionally, because of the long lunch breaks, typical workdays for Spanish citizens end late at night. The new law only applies to government jobs; for the most part, the private sector has not embraced it and continues with the siesta tradition.
Source: Women’s E-News www.womenenews.org
Europe Live
Europe Daily http://www.europedaily.com
World Newspapers.com http://www.world-newspapers.comComCast http://www.comcast.net/news/international/europe/
Bloomberg.com http://www.bloomberg.com/news/index_eu.html
Online Newspapers.com http://www.onlinenewspapers.com
World Net Daily http://www.worldnetdaily.com/resources/foreign_newspapers.asp
Big News Network.com http://www.bignewsnetwork.com
BBC.com http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/default.stm
RSS http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/europe/rss.xmlYahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/i/732
RSS: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/europe
CNN International.com http://edition.cnn.com/EUROPE/
RSS: http://rss.cnn.com/rss/edition_europe.rss
