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What's New! Vol.
5, No. 6
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June 2006
"What's New!" is a periodic update to keep you informed of the latest on the ECA Watch website. What's New! features a wide range of materials related to the reform of Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) including NGO publications and releases, news articles, commentaries and announcements about the policies and practices of ECAs and ECA-financed projects world-wide. If you would like to receive "What's New!" simply add your e-mail to the ECA-Action list at www.eca-watch.org today! Questions? Email info-at-eca-watch.org
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1) |
European Commission hosts ECA conference |
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2) |
G8 Warns Against Luring Poor States Into Debt Trap |
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3) |
Shanghai Cooperation Organization |
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4) |
ECAs and the Arms Trade |
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Indonesia buys Polish Skytrucks with export credit |
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China's controversial ECA backed Three Gorges dam comes onstream |
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Kanaks & environmentalists call for end to support for Goro Nickel in New Caledonia |
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8) |
Australia: Big brother, deputy sheriff or responsible neighbour? |
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9) |
ECA supported Bulgarian 670MW power plant project kicks off after 7-yr delay |
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10) |
US tapping export credit "war chest" |
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11) |
At 50, Is the Paris Club a Colonial Relic? |
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View Back Issues of What's New |
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| 1. |
European Commission hosts ECA conference |
| (ECA Watch Europe, Brussels, 24 June 2006) On 20 June DGs Trade, Development and Environment jointly hosted a one day conference on Finance and Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities for Export Credit Agencies’. The purpose of the conference was to discuss how export credit agencies (ECAs) can contribute to internationally agreed sustainable development objectives and programmes. |
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| 2. |
G8 Warns Against Luring Poor States Into Debt Trap |
| (Moldova.org, 10 June 2006) Finance ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) nations on Saturday warned fast-growing economies against tempting poor countries into new debt traps and told them to coordinate with other lenders.
China, South Korea, India and Brazil are the big emerging lenders through their official export-credit services. |
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Shanghai Cooperation Organization |
| (China Daily, Shanghai, 16 June 2006) The leaders of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO) yesterday reiterated their commitment to lasting peace and common prosperity. China has been smoothly implementing its plans to provide US$900 million in loans in the form of preferential buyer's export credit to the other SCO members |
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Kanaks & environmentalists call for end to support for Goro Nickel in New Caledonia |
| .(Rheebu Nuu, Point Zero, Paris, 23 June 2006) An admnistrative tribunal in New Caledonia on 14 June 2006 annuled Canadian mining giant Inco's mine operating permit, noting that environmental impact studies were inadequate. A delegation of Kanak leaders and environmentalists have been in Paris this week to lobby French government officials to reverse US$500 million in tax benefits to Inco, citing contradictions between Inco's SEC 10K reports and promises to respect European environmental norms despite serious damage already occuring to bioreserves and marine coral and fisheries resources. |
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| 8. |
Australia: Big brother, deputy sheriff or responsible neighbour? |
| (FoE Australia, 19 June 2006) In terms of directly funding global warming through its aid program, Australia is playing an especially poor game: we have greatly reduced our funding for renewable energy programs in our aid program in recent years, while EFIC - the Australia Export Credit Agency - has backed fossil fuels over renewables at a rate of 100:1 over the past decade. Clean coal exports continue to be a high profile element of our stated support for helping nations build their energy production capacity yet lock developing nations into high greenhouse emissions scenarios. |
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| 9. |
ECA supported Bulgarian 670MW power plant project kicks off after 7-yr delay |
| The AES Corporation of the U.S. officially started the construction Tuesday of a $1.4 bln 670MW lignite-fired power plant in Bulgaria. Financing for the project is through a consortium comprising the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development, Calyon, BNP Paribas and ING Bank. German and
French export credit agencies and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
of the World Bank are providing debt insurance cover to the lenders for a
portion of the debt. |
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| 10. |
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| (Reuters, Washington, 20 June 2006)
The United States is ready
to tap its export credit "war chest" for the first time in years to protect GE from what it considers unfair South Korean competition for a sale of 50 locomotives, a U.S. Treasury official said on Tuesday. |
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| 11. |
At 50, Is the Paris Club a Colonial Relic? |
| Made up of 19 of the world's richest nations, the Paris Club was formed in 1956 as an informal group of creditor governments to manage their collective debt portfolio. Since 1983, the Club has covered some 504 billion dollars of debt originally given through bilateral, and wrongly labeled, "aid" agencies or through export credit agencies, to dozens of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. |
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