CDPRO

UK’s online tax plan risks killing retail patient

by Aimee Donnellan via REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS Rishi Sunak should remember that bad cures sometimes worsen diseases. The UK chancellor is eyeing a 2 billion pound tax on internet sales.…

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Ad problem shifts from newspapers to Facebook

by Jennifer Saba via REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS Facebook is a new media company staring down a very old advertising problem. For a long time newspapers grew fat and happy on the…

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Comuniq.EU – Banking

by Keith Zahra The European Central Bank has told banks not to pay any dividend payments until at least January and urged them to be “extremely moderate” when setting…

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Comuniq.EU – SME Financing

by Keith Zahra The EIF and the European Commission have launched new COVID-19 support measures under the EaSI Guarantee Instrument (EaSI) to enhance access to finance for micro-borrowers, micro-…

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Comniq.EU – Health

by Keith Zahra European regulators could be in a position to approve the first vaccine against Covid-19 this year, after a flurry of trials by pharma companies leading the…

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CiNext – Malta Insights

JUNE RECORDS DROP IN INDUSTRIAL PRICES A decrease in intermediate goods pushed down the Industrial Producer Price Index for June by 0.27 percent from the same month last year. Data…

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US-Sino relations take a break

by Tonio Galea Relations between the United States and Chine are at their lowest point in decades, arguably at their most fragile since Nixon’s attempts to bridge the rift…

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CiNext – Five days of Europe

There was courtship and accusations of betrayal, there were confessions to the camera and off-mic dealings. It may sound like the latest episode of a reality show, but the dramatic…

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CiNext – The false economy of simple solutions

by Peter Thal Larsen via REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS What went wrong? Many books have attempted to tackle that question since 2016, when the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential victory…

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Garmin’s cyber-attack lesson: sprint don’t jog

by Anna Szymanski Athletes have little patience for slowness, especially when syncing their smartwatches. Garmin, the $19 billion wearables and GPS device maker, fell prey to a cyberattack just days…

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EU Budget: what’s in it for Europe and Malta

by Keith Zahra European Union leaders reached a deal on a package of measures to boost their economies after the coronavirus pandemic, agreeing to borrow and spend hundreds of…

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CorporateDispatchPRO – Edition 8

Now that the dust has settled, we take a look at what the historic EU Budget negotiations mean for European citizens. Also, in this edition: things are heating up between…

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Comuniq.EU – Brexit / Financial Services

by Keith Zahra Regulators in Britain and the European Union reach an agreement to avoid disruption in cross-border asset management even in case of a No-deal Brexit. Britain left…

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Comuniq.EU – German Presidency

by Keith Zahra German Chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted Germany’s priorities as it assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, putting on top of the agenda a swift…

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Comuniq.EU – Financial Services

by Keith Zahra The EU continued with its efforts to reform the Capital Markets Union with a new report presented by its Chair, Thomas Wieser. This report sets out 17…

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China can turn the other cheek, for now

by Gina Chon via Reuters Breakingviews Turning the other cheek takes fortitude, but that’s what China could do in response to the U.S. government’s latest actions. It slapped sanctions…

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Twitter hack is a nightmare not just for Twitter

by Gina Chon via Reuters Breakingviews A hack of prominent Twitter accounts is a nightmare for more than just the social network itself. Fake tweets soliciting digital currency on…

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CiNext – Hacking at the global order

by Tonio Galea A fire that broke out recently at an important Iran nuclear plant is risking spreading into a major hacking conflict. Some Iranian foreign officials were quick to…

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Apple tax win flags EU problem of enemies within

by Aimee Donnellan via Reuters Breakingviews The victor of a battle can still end up losing the war. But Apple’s win in a legal case over $15 billion of…

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CiNext – OPEC maintains illusion of control over oil price

by George Hay via Reuters Breakingviews OPEC is sticking to its word, even if that word is worth less than it was. The oil producer group and allies like Russia,…

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Comuniq.EU – Health

by Keith Zahra Health As part of the EU’s efforts to hasten the availability of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, the European Parliament has adopted a regulation allowing such…

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Comuniq.EU – Anti-Money Laundering

by Keith Zahra Interconnected registers of beneficial owners, a preventive blacklisting policy and effective sanctions are among tools proposed by MEPs to stop money laundering. MEPs want the Commission to…

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CiNext – Technology – a silver lining of the Covid era

by Isabelle Micallef Bonello The Covid-19 shock accelerated the adoption of technology across business sectors. The need to reach customers online necessitated company-wide adoption of new automated technology-enabled solutions. The…

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CorporateDispatchPro – UK tests financial limits of green transition

by George Hay via Reuters Breakingviews Britain’s transition to a zero-carbon future is experiencing growing pains. National energy regulator Ofgem said on Thursday it was halving the returns it…

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CiNext – Malta Insights

Fitch Ratings expects unemployment in Malta to double in 2020 Fitch Ratings is forecasting unemployment in Malta to double throughout 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In its…

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CiNext – Digital Transformation The future is now!

by Silvan Mifsud Digital transformation. The mother of all buzzwords. However, as Simeon Preston once said, “The biggest part of digital transformation is changing the way to think.” You mention…

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CiNext – The impact of digitalisation on activism

by Laura Emma Grima Digitalisation has altered our world in a multitude of ways, impacting various issues such as employment, communication, health, resources, and security. It is continuously changing the…

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CiNext – Digital answers to non-digital questions

by Jesmond Saliba Companies today are born digital. The digitisation of processes not only opens up exciting new business opportunities but makes entrepreneurship itself more widely accessible and more democratic.…

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CorporateDispatchPro – Digitisation: Beyond Digital

Companies today are born digital. The digitisation of processes not only opens up exciting new business opportunities but makes entrepreneurship itself more widely accessible and more democratic. Technological change…

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E-commerce boost is about more than Amazon

by JENNIFER SABA via REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS Amazon.com still dominates the fast-growing e-commerce pie, but it’s getting some company. Lockdowns have trained people to shop online including in formerly laggard…

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CiNext – Gilead gives glimpse into feverish drug market

by ROBERT CYRAN via REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS Medicine may be a science, but drug pricing is definitely an art. That’s especially true of Gilead Sciences’ treatment for Covid-19, given the…

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Communiq.EU – Foreign affairs

by Keith Zahra The European Council extended the mandates until 30 June 2021 of three of its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) civilian missions: the European Border Assistance…

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CiNext – MaltaInsights

by Ci Consulta UNEMPLOYMENT RISES BY A TENTH IN MAY The number of registered unemployed rose by 430 from April to May, an increase of 10.8 percent to reach…

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Communiq.EU – Agriculture

by Keith Zahra The European Council and Parliament agreed to extend support European farmers under the current legal framework until the end of 2022 when the new Common Agricultural…

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Communiq.EU – Financial services

by Keith Zahra The European Banking Authority has launched a discussion paper exploring ways on how to enhance the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) framework on early intervention…

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CiNext – The climate after the pandemic

By Tonio Galea Kofi Annan, the former U.N. Secretary General, once referred to certain global issues like climate change, terrorism and disease as ‘problems without passports’ that ignore man-made…

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Communiq.EU – Competition

by Keith Zahra The European Commission has launched a process to ensure that the EU competition rules do not stand in the way of collective bargaining for those who…

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CiNext – The EU’s green renaissance

by Ci Consulta At the end of June, the European Commission took a bold step towards its ambitious climate neutrality objectives by launching the Just Transition Mechanism. The platform…

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CiNext – Corporate boycotts expose an inconvenient truth

by JOHN FOLEY via REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS Boycotts can really work. Think of what happened to the Montgomery city transit system in Alabama in 1955, when Black passengers stopped taking…

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CiNext – Economic recovery compatibility with the re-launch of the European Green Deal

by Claire Hollier COVID-19 pandemic has revived our reliance on single-use plastics notably polystyrene. The way people and industries have faced the pandemic was to prioritize hygiene over environmental concerns…

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Summer might slow coronavirus but is unlikely to stop it

by Kate Kelland, Manas Mishra and Christine Soares Editing by Peter Henderson, Matthew Lewis and Peter Cooney The arrival of warmer weather in the Northern Hemisphere raises the question…

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CiNext – Sustainability in practice

by Jesmond Saliba Every event now is a global event, as 2020 has made amply clear: from the Wirecard bust to the Libyan conflict, from the Black Lives Matter movement…

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CiNext- People, planet and profit sustainability today

by Claire Bonello The original definition of sustainable development was coined at the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992. In essence it was a focus on “meeting the needs of…

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CorporateDispatchPRO – Sustainability is everybody’s business

The latest issue of Corporate Dispatch Pro is out, pitching multiple perspectives on the relationship between business and sustainability side by side. Traditionally, mainstream business models have been accused of…

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The nexus between business, policy & society

Social wellbeing cannot be reduced to GDP; quality of life, ethical standards, safety systems, and personal achievements are not accounted for by the size of an economy. And in reflection…

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World health-check halfway through 2020

by Tonio Galea A quick glance at the current situation in the world gives a rather grim picture of the global civilization. The coronavirus is still claiming lives, young…

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Investing in Purpose

by Jesmond Saliba Countries around the world seem to have reached an unspoken consensus to move on from the coronavirus. Calls for caution by health authorities notwithstanding, governments have decided…

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European airlines face longer haul to recovery

by Laurence Frost Editing by Mark Potter A patchwork of national restrictions and a reluctance among travellers to cross borders mean European airlines face a bumpier return to the…

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Reinventing business on purpose

by Nathanael Muscat A demarcation lines between industries and offerings become ever more blurred, purpose is fast emerging as a key strategic driver for sustainable growth. Traditionally, high-growth strategies involve…

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What is so good with the ‘new normal’?

by Prof. Andrew Azzopardi, Dean, faculty for Social Wellbeing We are all cognisant that social life is construed of building blocks that when combined form a social structure. That people…

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Grazie Italia – “Italy’s sacrifice probably indirectly saved lives in the rest of Europe.”

European Council President Charles Michel praised Italy for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Saturday, declaring in an address to Italian leaders that the country is "leading the way"…

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CorporateDispatchPro eJournal Edition 4

CorporateDispatchPro Edition 4 - CiGroup's fortnightly eJournal giving you Insights, Views and News is out. Geopolitics analysis, ComuniqEU #European news and views, #Insights on #Malta, International News views and news…

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Libya – A ‘Syria’ in the making in the Mediterranean

A Russian drive to recruit Syrians to fight in Libya for militia leader Khalifa Haftar accelerated in May when hundreds of mercenaries were signed up, five Syrian opposition sources and…

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How brands try to answer kids’ question ‘Am I going to get shot?’ to explain racism and violence to children

For 8 minutes and 46 seconds - the time it took George Floyd, an unarmed black man, to die at the hands of Minneapolis police - cable TV kids channel…

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Children in the times of the COVID-19 crisis

by European Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica and Commissioner Didier Reynders The COVID-19 pandemic is a human tragedy of massive proportions. We often hear that this is a disease that does…

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Only losing users will get Zuckerberg’s attention

By Gina Chon Mark Zuckerberg says he’s listening to criticism of the way he handled President Donald Trump’s inflammatory posts on Facebook . Some employees, and civil rights groups, aren’t…

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It’s a long jump back onto the travel bandwagon

by Sharon Lam Reuters Breakingviews It has never been truer that the journey is the destination. Travelling has proven resilient after previous crises, which suggests that once a Covid-19…

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