Category: Business

Western Union Responds to Turkey Earthquake

Western Union Responds to Turkey Earthquake

Company Offers “No Transfer Fee” to Turkey Earthquake Zone City of Van

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Oct 27, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — –Western Union Donates $50,000 and Sets Up Account Benefiting The Turkish Red Crescent

To help the victims of the most powerful earthquake to strike Turkey in more than a decade, The Western Union Company WU -0.03% , a leader in global payment services, in cooperation with its Agents, has activated a limited-time “No Transfer Fee”* program for money-transfers sent to Turkey Earthquake Zone city of Van, from participating Western Union(R) Agent locations around the world.

The “No Transfer Fee”* program to Turkey Earthquake Zone city of Van will be available Thursday, October 27, 2011 through Friday, November 25, 2011 and is subject to network, service and currency availability. Consumers sending money to Turkey may visit participating Western Union(R) Agent locations to send a money transfer to family and friends in Turkey or may do so over the phone or online at www.westernunion.com .

The Western Union Foundation today also donated $50,000 to the Turkish Red Crescent in support of disaster relief efforts. The Western Union Foundation will match registered employee donations to the Foundation designated for the Turkish Red Crescent, on a two-to-one match for U.S. employees and three-to-one match for employees outside the U.S., up to $100,000 per employee.

“Western Union stands together with the people of my home country Turkey at this time of need,” said Hikmet Ersek, President and CEO, Western Union. “The earthquake has generated a number of challenges for consumers and businesses operating in Turkey and Western Union is working with its Agents toward restoring full service as quickly as possible to people in affected regions. I express my deepest condolences to the families of the people who died and wish all the best to those who are injured.”

Additionally, for individuals and corporations wishing to donate to disaster relief efforts in Turkey, the Western Union Foundation has set-up an account where payments can be sent globally in locations equipped with the Western Union Quick Pay(SM), Quick Collect(R), or Payments service (Blue Form) — with Pay To identified as: WESTERN UNION FOUNDATION, Code City identified as: WUFOUNDATION, and Account # identified as: TURKEY — benefiting the Turkish Red Crescent. Western Union will provide consumers who wish to contribute with a fee-free* payment contribution service directed to Turkish Red Crescent, up to $5,000 through November 30, 2011.

*Western Union may make money on the exchange of currencies.

About Western Union

The Western Union Company WU -0.03% is a leader in global payment services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money orders. The Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services are offered through a combined network of approximately 485,000 Agent locations in 200 countries and territories. In 2010, The Western Union Company completed 214 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $76 billion of principal between consumers, and 405 million business payments. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com .

About the Western Union Foundation

Through Western Union’s Our World, Our Family(R) signature program, the Western Union Foundation supports initiatives to empower people through access to economic opportunity. Recognized by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy in 2009, the program is a five-year, $50 million commitment reflecting efforts made by Western Union employees, agents and partners around the world. Since its inception, the Western Union Foundation has awarded more than $73.8 million in grants to more than 2,030 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in 108 countries and territories. To learn more, visit westernunionfoundation.org

WU-G

SOURCE: Western Union

Western Union

Dan Diaz, +1-720-332-5564

daniel.diaz@westernunion.com

Copyright Business Wire 2011

via Western Union Responds to Turkey Earthquake – MarketWatch.

October 28, 2011
World Economic Forums not to take place in Davos any more

World Economic Forums not to take place in Davos any more

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is changing its format due to changes happening in the world.

The sources close to WEF report that World Economic Forum will no longer be held in Davos.

“The new place for holding these forums will become Istanbul. At that terms of the forums will also change- now they will be held in the 4th quarter of each year “, -the source said. The format of the forum will also change.

“Now they will be not economic but engineer-economic forums which is a recognition of new technologies’ decisive role for development of world economy”,- it was said.

The engineer part of the forum will focus on construction sector , both industrial and civil construction.

“That is connected with the fact that presently 63% of global capital expenditures falls on the share of infrastructural projects”,- the source noted.

via Azerbaijan Business Center – World Economic Forums not to take place in Davos any more.

October 27, 2011
Vatican Calls for ‘Central World Bank’ to Be Set Up

Jan Stromme | Riser | Getty Images

The Vatican calls for a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to resolve injustice

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises.

A major document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should be music to the ears of the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.

The 18-page document, “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions.

“The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said.

It condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems.

“In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviors like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale,” it said, adding that world economics needed an “ethic of solidarity” among rich and poor nations.

“If no solutions are found to the various forms of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence, and ultimately undermine the very foundations of democratic institutions, even the ones considered most solid,” it said.

It called for the establishment of “a supranational authority” with worldwide scope and “universal jurisdiction” to guide economic policies and decisions.

Such an authority should start with the United Nations as its reference point but later become independent and be endowed with the power to see to it that developed countries were not allowed to wield “excessive power over the weaker countries.”

Effective Structures

In a section explaining why the Vatican felt the reform of the global economy was necessary, the document said:

“In economic and financial matters, the most significant difficulties come from the lack of an effective set of structures that can guarantee, in addition to a system of governance, a system of government for the economy and international finance.”

It said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) no longer had the power or ability to stabilize world finance by regulating overall money supply and it was no longer able to watch “over the amount of credit risk taken on by the system.”

The world needed a “minimum shared body of rules to manage the global financial market” and “some form of global monetary management.”

“In fact, one can see an emerging requirement for a body that will carry out the functions of a kind of ‘central world bank’ that regulates the flow and system of monetary exchanges similar to the national central banks,” it said.

The document, which was being presented at a news conference later on Monday, acknowledged that such change would take years to put into place and was bound to encounter resistance.

“Of course, this transformation will be made at the cost of a gradual, balanced transfer of a part of each nation’s powers to a world authority and to regional authorities, but this is necessary at a time when the dynamism of human society and the economy and the progress of technology are transcending borders, which are in fact already very eroded in a globalizes world.”

www.cnbc.com, 24 Oct 2011

October 26, 2011
Turkey’s Struggles to Avoid Recession

By IAN CAMPBELL and QUENTIN WEBB

The human cost of this week’s earthquake comes as Turkey fights to keep its once-booming economy on track. Ankara is playing a high-risk game by intervening in markets to shore up its currency and lacks the reserves to do so. Turkey will struggle to avoid adopting higher interest rates to shore up its currency, the lira, even though that may push a previously overheating economy toward recession.

Until recently, Turkey sought to restrict hot money inflows by keeping interest rates down. But that allowed growth to roar and the trade deficit to soar. Now, its huge external deficit — coupled with rising inflation and a lira that has lost a quarter of its value this year — is making Turkey’s unorthodox response to hot money glut look a mistake.

According to the central bank, short-term external debt with a maturity of less than one year amounted to $135.5 billion in August. In addition, Turkey has to finance a deficit on the current account, the broadest measure of trade, that may approach $75 billion, or about 10 percent of its gross domestic product, this year. The central bank’s foreign exchange reserves stand at $85 billion, or enough to cover about five months of imports, which is unusually low. It can ill-afford to intervene in the currency market.

There are some signs it may adopt a more realistic stance. The central bank warned last week that inflation would rise significantly because of the “recent excessive depreciation” of the lira. Yet it only raised the overnight lending rate, to 12.5 percent from 9 percent. That makes it more expensive to speculate against the lira. The key policy interest rate was held at 5.75 percent, below inflation of 6.2 percent.

The central bank hopes for a soft landing as a weak euro zone weighs on exports and growth. And the economy has strengths: undoubted dynamism, low public debt of 40 percent of gross domestic product and a modest fiscal deficit close to 2 percent of G.D.P. But Turkey has let money inflows knock its economy off balance. Higher interest rates seem certain to be needed to shore up the lira and control inflation. Combined with the earthquake, that means Turkey’s landing could be painfully hard.

via Turkey’s Struggles to Avoid Recession – Reuters Breakingviews – NYTimes.com.

October 26, 2011
Armenian businessmen to meet Çalık chairman

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

Twenty-six Armenian businesspeople from the United States are scheduled to meet today with Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş and Ahmet Çalık, chairman of Turkey’s Çalık Holding, to discuss business opportunities.

Archbishop Viken Ayvazian and Archbishop Khadjak Barsamyan, two Armenian-American religious leaders, are to lead the group during the Istanbul visit. The businessmen were joining a larger group that attended the recent reopening ceremony of an Armenian church in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

“Most of these businessmen are visiting Turkey for the first time,” said Oscar Tatosian, who spoke to the Hürriyet Daily News on behalf of the group.

Commenting on the upcoming meeting with the Çalık Holding head, Tatosian said it was very important in terms of dialogue. “Our people should come together and enjoy a cup of tea,” he said. “The dialogue starts with arts, culture, academic cooperation and trade. The rest will follow.”

Tatosian owns the New York-based Oscar Isbenan Rug Company, a business started by Tatosian’s grandfather in the Central Anatolian province of Sivas that continues to produce rugs with Anatolian patterns.

“My grandmother used to tell me a lot about the importance of neighborhood,” he said. “Aren’t Armenia and Turkey two neighboring countries?”

The Armenian community abroad is wrongly considered a homogenous one by Turkish people, Tatosian said, adding that many wanted a good relationship with the Turks.

via Armenian businessmen to meet Çalık chairman – Hurriyet Daily News.

October 25, 2011
Disney Channel Set for Free TV in Turkey

By Kristin Brzoznowski

ISTANBUL: Disney Channel has secured carriage on Free Sat in Turkey, bringing the service to more than 11 million households in the country starting January 12, 2012.

The kid-focused, family-inclusive channel will be available on free-to-air television in Turkey, offering live-action series such as Shake It Up and Wizards of Waverly Place, alongside original movies such as High School Musical and Lemonade Mouth and animated programs such as Phineas and Ferb. Disney Channel Turkey will be launched as an advertising-supported unencrypted channel on Free Sat and will also be available unencrypted to all major direct-to-home, cable and IPTV platforms. The launch will create a wide range of exciting marketing opportunities for advertisers and promotional partners.

“Each and every market we operate in is unique, demanding a tailored solution to maximize the potential for Disney’s family entertainment. Turkey’s youthful population coupled with a high affinity for digital media create a perfect environment for this free to air approach,” said Giorgio Stock, the executive VP and managing director of Disney channels, music, publishing, gaming and online at The Walt Disney Company EMEA. “As the gateway to all things Disney, Disney Channel is the ideal vehicle to grow our presence in Turkey—our brand has universal appeal and this launch will give it nearly universal reach.”

“The launch of Disney Channel on Free Sat is a significant milestone as it will elevate the Disney brand and catalyze further growth across all parts of the company in Turkey,” stated Sinan Ceylan, the general manager of TWDC Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. “As Disney Channel Turkey grows it will also create opportunities for Disney Channel to be more localized through investment in local television programming and homegrown talent to complement Disney’s global series and movies that drive pop culture for kids around the world.”

via WorldScreen.com – TV Kids – Articles.

October 25, 2011