position:finance minister

les sites d’actualités du 25/05/2013 :
–http://www.legalis.net
–►http://drones.pitchinteractive.com (Actualité du drone en data)
–http://breakingnews.sy/en.html
–http://www.newspusher.com/EN
–http://qatar.blog.lemonde.fr
–http://www.oodaloop.com
–http://blouinnews.com (en)
–http://www.youtube.com/user/RuptlyTV/videos (Actualité RuptlyTV )
–http://www.aaj.tv
–http://www.early.com/channel/NEWS/int
–http://www.airforcemag.com/Pages/HomePage.aspx
–http://www.francsjeux.com (sport)
–http://www.iraqsun.com
–http://www.politics.co.uk/news
–http://www.thelocal.fr
–http://www.boeing.com/chinooknews/2011/issue_01
–http://www.thesleuthjournal.com
–http://www.marianne.net/blogsecretdefense

Luxembourg affirme qu’il posera son véto à toute règlementation européenne destinée à s’opposer à l’évasion fiscale.

Et maintenant, que faire d’autre que sortir de l’Europe ?

http://euobserver.com/economic/120115

Egyptian authorities will distribute in October smart cards as part of its new system for rationing government-subsidised fuel, Finance Minister Fayad Abdel-Moneim told the state-run Al-Ahram Arabic website Sunday.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/71297.aspx

Under the new system, consumers will be provided with limited amounts of subsidised fuel, beyond which they will have to pay at market prices.

Egypt, which spent LE120 billion in fuel subsidies this fiscal year, according to former Petroleum Minister Osama Kamal, is obliged to implement drastic cuts to rein in a galloping budget deficit and secure a $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan.

Kamal, who spoke to Ahram Online last month, expected the smart card system to save some LE30 billion out of Egypt’s fuel subsidy bill, which the government expects to reach LE99.6 billion, in the coming 2013/14 fiscal year — some 15 percent of total forecast public expenditures.

#economy

Marche contre l’austérité en Israël
10 000 personnes à Tel Aviv selon Charles Enderlin
1/2 million d’après TV5 monde

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/05/2013511201215743489.html

About 2,000 Israelis have marched in central Tel Aviv to protest against an expected austerity budget, police have said.

The protesters rallied on Saturday against proposed income tax and VAT rises and government spending cuts due for cabinet debate on Monday.

They directed their ire at Yair Lapid, who became finance minister after January’s election where his Yesh Atid party became the second-largest party in parliament and a partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government.

Egypte, remaniement : 9 ministères sont concernés, le PM Qandil garde comme prévu son poste (l’opposition demandait son départ pour lancer les négociations)

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/70853.aspx

Liste complète des ministres : http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/70864.aspx

Profils : http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/70884.aspx

Increased tensions at G-20, IMF meetings - World Socialist Web Site

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/22/econ-a22.html

Increased tensions at G-20, IMF meetings
By Nick Beams
22 April 2013

Last weekend’s meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the G-20 saw further calls for policies to stimulate global economic growth. There were no concrete measures advanced to implement such a program, however, amid deepening divisions among the major powers.

While the discussions were not characterised by the air of crisis that accompanied some recent meetings, they were nonetheless dominated by the realisation that there is no economic recovery in sight and, instead, a deepening trend of stagnation and slump.

Lire ausi l’article de l’ancien ministre des affaires norvégien, Jonas Gahr Støre, paru dans le Monde diplomatique en 2012 :

►http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2012/09/STORE/48103

#gouvernance-mondiale #imf #G20

C’est en toute connaissance du caractère parfaitement insoutenable des pratiques prédatrices des banques chypriotes que l’Europe a invité Chypre dans la zone Euro, et donc, en toute connaissance du caractère spéculatif de son économie et du bail-out à venir :

In a so-called convergence report dated 2007, one year before Cyprus joined the eurozone, the ECB mentioned the large influx of capital.

“Much of the financing of the deficits in the combined current and capital account over the past two years has also come from capital inflows in the form of ’other investment,’ comprising non-resident deposits and loans,” the report says.

“Other investment inflows amounted to a sizeable 11.3 percent of GDP in 2006. Since capital inflows exceeded the current and capital account deficit between 2004 and 2006, Cyprus experienced an accumulation of official reserve assets in this period,” it adds.

http://euobserver.com/institutional/119531

The Austrian finance minister, Maria Fekter, described Britain as “the island of the blessed for tax evasion and money laundering” in an interview with her country’s Kurier newspaper on Thursday (11 April).

Comparing the UK and its “protectorates” - micro-states subject to British law - to Cyprus in terms of hosting secretive foundations and trusts, she noted: “Just as we urged the abolition of sealed foundations in the Cyprus rescue to drain the money laundering swamp, we must demand the same of the United Kingdom.”

She added: “We want a trust registry for the Channel Islands, but also for countries where British law applies, such as the Cayman Islands, the [British] Virgin Islands or Gibraltar … These are all areas that are havens for tax evaders.”

http://euobserver.com/economic/119781

Bennett to Norwegian FM: Yair Lapid is ’not too crazy’ about the two-state solution - Diplomacy & Defense - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/bennett-to-norwegian-fm-yair-lapid-is-not-too-crazy-about-the-two-state-sol

Bennett said Israel should look to improve Palestinian economy, remove checkpoints on West Bank roads, reintegrate the Palestinians into Israeli workforce and, ’if conditions allow, even to remove the separation wall.’
By Barak Ravid and Jonathan Lis

In a meeting Wednesday with the Norwegian foreign minister, Habayit Hayehudi chairman Naftali Bennett said his political ally, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, was, like himself, “not too crazy about the two-state solution” and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

The industry, trade and labor minister told Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Espen Barth Eide, that he supported the removal of the West Bank separation barrier.

Before meeting with Bennett, Eide met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who affirmed his commitment to his own “Bar-Ilan speech” of 2009 and the two-state principle, and said he wanted to renew the negotiations with the Palestinians soon.

However, when he met with Bennett, Eide heard messages that were 180 degrees apart from the official Israeli stance on the peace process, as reiterated by Netanyahu. According to a senior Israeli official knowledgeable about the discussion between Bennett and Eide, Bennett spoke out harshly against the idea of a Palestinian state being established between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

ISRAEL. Le nouveau ministre des Finances israélien, ex présentateur de télé Yair Lapid dans le collimateur des Israéliens : quand les riches (comme lui) essaient de se mettre à la place des pauvres (ceux qu’il prétend défendre), ils se prennent les pieds dans le tapis !

’Riki Cohen’ is still making trouble for Israel’s Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Facebook Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper

After a passionate post in which the new finance minister used ’Riki Cohen’ of Hadera to illustrate the plight of the average middle class family, a member of the public informed Lapid that the average wage per couple is NIS 12,000, not NIS 20,000 as he had written.
By Jonathan Lis | Apr.05, 2013 | 2:12 PM

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/riki-cohen-is-still-making-trouble-for-yair-lapid-on-facebook.premium-1.513

Finance Minister Yair Lapid has had another embarrassing confrontation on Facebook.

After he published a post on the social-networking site using “the Cohen family” as an example of a middle-class couple struggling to make ends meet on a combined average wage of NIS 20,000 a month, users have criticized him for citing figures higher than the actual national average.

On Thursday, Lapid tried to explain why he had stipulated a relatively high salary for a couple meant to represent the middle class.

“You’re a disgrace! You try living on NIS 4,500 a month,” wrote an angry Facebook user, Ella Voloshin in a comment to the original post. “Go back to where you came from, because there you did less damage to the country.”

In response, Lapid wrote, “The average salary is NIS 9,509. The average gross salary for a couple is around NIS 20,000. That leaves Rikki [Cohen] and her husband around NIS 14,000 [after taxes], and if they’re paying off a mortgage and raising three children it’s not going to be easy for them. I agree that there are people who are much worse off, but without a strong middle class that pays taxes, how will we help the weak? With what money?”

Another user, Oriel Borer, used the same online conversation thread to explain to Lapid that his calculation was far from realistic.

“The anger comes down to the fact that you still don’t understand,” he wrote. “The average salary for a man and the average salary for a woman are different. A woman earns 30 percent less than a man (on average). The Central Bureau of Statistics, which should be as accessible to you as it is to me, checked the average wage of a couple: NIS 12,345, not ’around NIS 20,000.’ If I managed to find this out on Google then so should you. Add to this the fact, which you know as well, that 70 percent earn *less* than the average wage.”

Borer added, with a mix of amusement and frustration that a citizen should have to give basic advice to the finance minister, “If you want any more explanations like these, feel free to contact me or anyone else here on your wall.”

Cyprus to face savage cuts and economic dictatorship - World Socialist Web Site

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/23/cypr-m23.html

Cyprus to face savage cuts and economic dictatorship
By Jordan Shilton and Chris Marsden
23 March 2013

Cyprus’ fate illustrates how the European Union imposes the dictatorship of the global speculators, banks and corporations on the working class. The EU yesterday continued to demand massive austerity in Cyprus to raise €6 billion ($7.8 billion) in return for a €10 billion bank bailout.

#chypre #crise-bancaire #europe #bce

Egypt parliament approves Islamic bond law

http://www.alarabiya.net/en/business/2013/03/19/Egypt-parliament-approves-Islamic-bond-law.html

Egypt’s parliament approved on Tuesday a law allowing the issuance of Islamic bonds which could provide the heavily-indebted government with a new form of finance.
(...)
Finance Minister Al-Mursi Al-Sayed Hegazy said last month that Egypt could raise around $10 billion a year from the sukuk market - much more than some analysts expect - but added that it would take at least three months to push through the necessary regulations.

Egypt has never issued a sovereign sukuk. An international issue would help the government replenish its dangerously low foreign currency reserves which dropped to the critical level$13.5 billion in February.

The upper house voted against a demand from the Nour Party, Egypt’s main hardline Islamist group, that the law should be approved by scholars at Al-Azhar, a religious institution which should be consulted on matters related to Islamic law according to a new constitution.
(...)
Food supply is a politically-sensitive issue in Egypt, where rising prices are being passed on to struggling consumers and shortages have provoked unrest in the past. Curbs on bread subsidies triggered bread riots in 1977.

#Egypt #economy #sukuk

The Egypt Bomb Goes Tick Tick Tick | Via Meadia
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/02/28/the-egypt-bomb-goes-tick-tick-tick

Egypt is set to explode, according to former Finance Minister Samir Radwan. Joblessness stands at 74 percent for people under 30, according to government figures. This figure is unlikely to improve, the FT reports:

President Mursi, IMF prepare austerity policies in Egypt - World Socialist Web Site

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/09/egyp-j09.html

President Mursi, IMF prepare austerity policies in Egypt

By Johannes Stern
9 January 2013

On Monday Egypt’s Islamist government greeted International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials in Cairo to discuss terms of a $4.8 billion loan. President Mohamed Mursi, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil and new Egyptian finance minister Al-Mursi El-Sayed Hegazy met with IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department Director Masood Ahmed.

Both sides announced their commitment to conclude the deal in the coming weeks, and a technical team of the IMF will arrive in Cairo in the coming days. Hegazy, a US-trained economist appointed as finance minister by Mursi in a cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, announced that he was “completely ready to complete discussions” with the IMF.

Euro zone finance ministers demand deeper cuts in Greece, Europe

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/euro-n13.shtml

By Robert Stevens and Jordan Shilton

13 November 2012

A meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Monday refused to make a decision on providing the bankrupt Greek state with a further instalment of 31.5 billion euros from the previously agreed bailout.

Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker announced that “no definitive decision” would be made at the meeting, despite the passage in the Greek parliament Sunday of a new 13.5 billion euro austerity package.

Jordanie : la transition énergétique masquée : les schistes bitumineux plutôt que le solaire
Jordan to finalise deal for region’s first oil shale plant by ‘year’s end’ | The Jordan Times
http://jordantimes.com/jordan-to-finalise-deal-for-regions-first-oil-shale-plant-by-years-end

Jordan is set to finalise a deal by the end of year with an Estonian-Malaysian firm to build the region’s first oil shale plant, officials revealed on Saturday, in what is being billed as a critical step towards the country’s energy independence.

According to Minister of Finance Suleiman Hafez, Amman is set to seal the agreement with Enerfit Energy by December to construct a 450-megawatt (MW) oil shale-fired thermal station in central Jordan — the first power station fuelled by the alternative energy resource in the region.

The power station, which is set to meet 16 per cent of the country’s 3,000MW electricity demand, is expected to come on-line by 2016.

“This agreement will be one of the biggest steps towards the country’s energy independence,” Hafez said during a press round-table hosted by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour in Amman on Saturday.

Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources officials say the plant is set to shave some of the country’s national energy bill, which due to rising oil prices and ongoing cuts in Egyptian gas supplies is expected to surpass JD4 billion by the end of the year.

Under the landmark deal, which has been over two years in the making, Enerfit is set to construct the plant in the central region of Al Attarat in order to take advantage of a parallel project where the firm hopes to produce up to 38,000 barrels of shale oil per day.

Les Jordaniens continuent toutefois à essayer de se procurer du gaz, sachant que les Egyptiens ne veulent plus en fournir en raison de leurs propres besoins :
http://jordantimes.com/jordan-to-import-liquid-gas-by-2014
#électricité
#schistes_bitumineux
#transition_énergétique
#gaz_naturel

Nigeria’s oil: A desperate need for reform | The Economist

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21564906-goodluck-jonathan-says-he-wants-reform-oil-industry-really?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/pe/desperateneedofreform

Oct 20th 2012 | LAGOS | from the print edition

❝But the wealth still isn’t gurgling down

IN AUGUST Nigeria announced that oil production had reached a record 2.7m barrels a day but few experts believed it. Oil is also being stolen at a record rate and traders’ figures show output at well below the government’s figures. Information about Africa’s biggest oil industry is an opaque myriad of numbers. No one knows which ones are accurate; no one knows how much oil Nigeria actually produces. If there were an authoritative figure, the truly horrifying scope of corruption would be exposed.

The finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a genuine reformer, has estimated that 400,000 barrels of oil a day were stolen in April. But different government ministries give conflicting figures on how much oil Nigeria is producing, suggesting that they cannot agree or they just do not know. Nigeria could measure how much it produces, say experts: it has some of the most advanced technology in the world to do so, but chooses not to.
In this section

#nigeria #pétrole #énergie #gouvernance #corruption

Solidere : une suite sans fin d’empiétement sur le domaine public maritime
Public Property ... For the Rich Only | Al Akhbar English
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/public-property-rich-only
Un article de Mohammad Zbeeb

These measures have effectively rendered the entire area private when both the law and the original master plan designate this area as public land.

The Zaytouna Bay project has been one long exercise in corruption, from start to finish. It has proceeded in violation of the constitution and the law, which were amended or bent in order to allow construction to go forward. This has been carried out at the expense of citizens’ rights and has resulted in the waste of public money and the theft of public land.

#Beyrouth
#Solidere
#littoral
#domaine_public

Nouvelles fuites libanaises : cette fois, le Akhbar s’est procuré la retranscription partielle d’une rencontre du 3 mai 2012 à Beyrouth entre Jeffrey Feltman, Fouad Sanioura et quelques autres du mouvement du Futur :
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/jeffrey-feltman-leaks-again

Jeffrey Feltman: Would it help if this government is brought down before the elections?

[…]

Jeffrey Feltman: You can bring down the government if Walid is with you in the parliament or if Najib resigns right? There are the two option?

[Beirut Future MP] Bassem el Shabb: Or through civil disobedience.

Siniora: I think ultimately. But by convincing, convincing, or convincing Walid. This is something that can be achieved. As long as this government stays, the level of tension is going to rise and not go down. One way to [...]

Dans la continuation du #cablegate libanais.

Greek Debt Crisis | Liveblog live blogging | Reuters.com
http://live.reuters.com/Event/Greek_Debt_Crisis

http://images.scribblelive.com/2012/2/10/69c0ac7d-9f8c-4846-a158-523da4c707c5_500.jpg

A riot policeman kicks an anti-austerity protester who fell during clashes in Athens’ Syntagma (Constitution) square February 10, 2012. REUTERS/PHASMA/Michalis Karagiannis

Georges Corm : Arabs Stuck in a Guantanamo of Thought (Al Akhbar English)
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/georges-corm-arabs-stuck-guantanamo-thought

Antoine Fleyfel (AF): Geopolitics is present in most of your work, can you define it for us? Georges Corm (GC): Geopolitics is a compound word meaning: an approach to situations that are often conflictual in nature having to do with the geographical location of a nation-state and with the essence of its body politic. It combines, therefore, a geographical approach with a political approach. (...) Source: Al Akhbar English

Entretien avec Georges Corm :
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/georges-corm-arabs-stuck-guantanamo-thought

Security firms hustle in lawless Libya - #mercenaires
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2011/12/09/Security-firms-hustle-in-lawless-Libya/UPI-75871323450621

As rival militias in postwar Libya wage turf wars in Tripoli and the interim government struggles to form a national army, Western mercenaries are moving in to fill the security vacuum in the oil-rich North African state.

Under the circumstances, it’s not surprising that the executive bureau of the National Transitional Council, striving to govern a country wracked by gunfire and political feuding, is giving these companies the time of day.

[…]

Heavily armed militias, which formed the ragtag rebel alliance that defeated Gadhafi’s forces, with a major assist from NATO, are spread across the country, determined to control their home areas and defy the NTC.

The right context - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-right-context-1.397580

In the past, we human-rights litigators tended to cite progressive rulings by Western countries’ national courts when we argued before Israel’s Supreme Court. Lately, we have been finding that the most effective comparisons are to Western nations during their darker days. Even during segregation and apartheid, these countries’ national courts sometimes succeeded in defending human rights. For example, to challenge the new anti-boycott law, which prohibits publicly promoting boycotts of Israeli institutions and settlements, a good comparison would be to the U.S. during segregation, when the Supreme Court defended the freedom of expression of black institutions such as the NAACP when they boycotted racist white companies and state services. In making the case against the Israeli citizenship law, which banned family unification in Israel between Palestinian-Israeli citizens and their Palestinian spouses from the West Bank and Gaza, the best comparison is a landmark decision by a South African court that struck down the apartheid-era policy, which banned family unification between blacks in urban cities. During the Supreme Court hearing on the Nakba law last month, the state argued that no country would allow some of its citizens to mark its Independence Day as a day of mourning. We responded that not only do many natives in settler countries such as the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand still perceive the national Independence Day as a tragedy, but those states have in many cases apologized and recognized their historical injustice, and even fund some of the native populations’ commemorative days.

The Political Economy of the Egyptian Uprising | Stephen Maher (Monthly Review)
►http://monthlyreview.org/2011/11/01/the-political-economy-of-the-egyptian-uprising

Not long after Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Hosni Mubarak would resign his post as President, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to Egypt to congratulate the Egyptian people on a job well done. The revolutionaries had accomplished their goal, she said. Everyone could go home and feel proud of their historic achievement and leave the cleaning up to the responsible adults—the United States and the closely allied Egyptian military, which has ruled Egypt since 1952. To prove that there were no hard feelings against the Egyptians for overthrowing one of the closest and most important U.S. allies in the Arab world, the IMF, World Bank, the G8, and the United States itself—the very entities responsible for supporting Mubarak’s thirty-year rule and imposing draconian neoliberal programs on Egypt—have extended as much as $15 billion in aid and credit to Egypt and Tunisia to assist in their transitions to democracy. This generosity begs the question: why are Western governments, and the international financial institutions (IFIs) that are closely linked to them, falling over one another to show their generosity to the revolutionaries and to display their support for progress in the Middle East? Source: Monthly (...)