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Business Briefs

Western Asia national Monetary Fund-World Bank De- each with a 1 million kilowatt capacity. velopment Committee meeting on April 17. Sources told Itar-Tass that the construction Chinese experts study The growing poverty and instability, said site is laid out for four reactors. “Russia Ibrahim, is caused by the failure to curb hopes to get an order for two more reactors bridge project in Iran short-term capital flows. The Malaysian and in the future for the fifth and sixth power minister’s analysis illustrated Muranivsky’s units,” one source said. “However, as spe- An eight-member Chinese team of experts main theme, that “ ‘zones of instability’ are cialists reckon, this will depend on the qual- on April 26 inspected the proposed construc- created by speculative games on the cur- ity of work of the first two units and China’s tion site of the Persian Gulf bridge in the rency markets, and other unscrupulous ma- plans of developing its nuclear energy Qeshm Island port of Loft, the Tehran Times nipulations,” while the “heavy artillery” of sector.” reported. The deputy director of Qeshm Free the IMF and World Bank is used to enforce For more on the Lianyungang project, Trade Zone Development and Expansion “all the rules of usury, parasitizing on the see the EIR Special Report, “The Eurasian Organization, Nikokar-Isfahani, said that economic and financial difficulties of coun- Land-Bridge.” the Chinese experts are in Qeshm for a feasi- tries in need.” This is also the case in Russia, bility study on the bridge. He added that it is Muranivsky said, where “around 30,000 for- the second time in the past month that this eign consultants are working, earning an av- group, which is affiliated with the city of erage [monthly] wage of $10,000; not know- Economic Policy Shanghai’s Municipality, has visited the ing the language, history, or economy of our area. country, they draft models and scenarios Nikokar-Isfahani said that the bridge for Russia.” Asian bishops in Rome will be 2,500 meters long, and has been de- While the Washington meetings failed to attack globalization signed in a way that water pipelines, electric- produce adequate results, Muranivsky con- ity, and telephone cables will pass through cluded, “the world financial crisis is about to Eleven working groups at the Special As- it. He further said that, once constructed, the take its next turns.” Persian Gulf bridge will connect the Central sembly of the Synod of Bishops for Asia, Asian states to other countries, and will have from nations including the Philippines, In- a favorable impact on transit of goods in dia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China, ad- the region. Nuclear Energy dressed in their documents the effects of globalization, and called on the church in the Russia helps China’s West to join the Asian church in the fight for debt cancellation and economic solidarity. Russia plant construction The reports were given on May 1 in Rome “in the presence of the Holy Father,” accord- Professor Muranivsky The construction of the Lianyungang nu- ing to Bulletin No. 20, posted on the Internet. clear power plant, in Jiangsu province, Discussion themes also included evangeli- attacks speculators China, was inauguratedwith a “powerful, di- zation efforts, and “the Church’s works in rected explosion,” the Russian news agency the domain of teaching and education, of Prof. Taras Muranivsky attacked financial Itar-Tass reported on April 25. Russia is to health care, and social services.” speculators for creating “zones of instabil- provide the first two reactors, and the plant “Globalization erodes the culture and ity,” in an article analyzing the results of the is being built with Russia’s assistance. economic values of the poor countries. mid-April world financial meetings in The managing director of the Beijing of- Money makers and multinational companies Washington, in the May 7 Russian weekly fice of the Russian firm Atomenergoeksport, destroy the values of family. As a pastoral Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta. Concerning the Valeriy Kurochkin, said that the project’s response, the Church should appeal that the Group of 22 session of April 16 in Washing- start is a “landmark event in the construction debts of the Third World countries be can- ton, convened to look at a “new architecture” of thenuclear power plant,”and thatthe proj- celled or lightened in the Jubilee Year,” re- for the world financial system, Muranivsky ect is now entering “the plane of practical ported Msgr. Peter Remigius, Bishop of wrote that the most useful outcome was the implementation.” Kumbakonam, India. acknowledgment of the global, systemic na- Chinese partners have started installa- “The group asks the Synod to call for a ture of the “Asian” financial crisis. At the tion of communications at the construction discernment in Asia of the phenomenon of same time, he added, the meeting came up site, and an additional road leading to the site globalization. It asks the Synod to call upon short of providing the “weighty recommen- is being built, as well as an 11 kilometer wa- sister churches in the First World to join the dations,” prescribed by economist Lyndon ter pipeline, which will pump 7,000 cubic churches in Asia to appeal to international LaRouche. meters of water daily to the project. bodies for justice and equity,” reported Muranivsky wrote about the growing at- The plant’s first reactor is to be launched Msgr. Leonardo Legaspi, Archibishop of tention to “social aspects of the Asia crisis,” in 2004 and the second in 2005. Under an Caceres, the Philippines. highlighted by Malaysian Finance Minister inter-governmental accord, Russia will ex- Monsignor Bastes, Bishop of Romblon, Anwar Ibrahim in his remarks after the Inter- port two light-water VVER-1000 reactors, the Philippines, attacked globalization,

14 Economics EIR May 22, 1998

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AVVENIRE, the Milan-based daily tied to the Italian Bishops con- ference, on May 5 carried an article “which certainly brought misery to many British work nine hours per week more than entitled “LaRouche: a New Bretton Asians because of its economic policies. As Germans, and five more than the French. On Woods.” It reported on Lyndon the church, we Asians should denounce the average, British productivity was found to LaRouche’s meetings with parlia- evils coming from globalization, and we are be 20-30% lower than that of workers in con- mentarians in Rome in April, which appealing to our sister churches of the First tinental Europe, and as much as 40% lower concerned the need for a New Bretton World tojoin us inour crusade forjustice and than in the United States. Woods system to deal with the global solidarity among nations. A concrete issue is British productivity is low because of financial crisis. the cancellation of the Third World’s stag- poor professional training levels, general ed- gering external debt, a suggestion of the ucation skills, and undersupply of compa- IRAN has announced that it will Holy Father himself in his [1994] letter, ‘As nies with modern machines. The CBI, Brit- build a 300 kilometer oil pipeline the Third Millennium Draws Near.’ ” ain’s industrial association, has calculated from Neka, its port on the Caspian that in order to earn as much as their col- Sea, to Tehran, the daily Jomhuri Es- leagues on the continent, British workers lami reported on May 4. The project would each have to be paid £3,000 more Agriculture would cost $400 million, take 30 per year. months to complete, and would trans- “ThecomparablygoodBritisheconomic port 380,000 barrels per day from the New food-control conjuncture can be traced back to more Caspian to Europe, via Iran. weapon is patented working hours, rather than more efficient work, predominantly,” said Trade and Min- GERMANY’S young Christian ister Margaret Beckett. A new genetic technique that prevents sec- Democrats in the state of North ond-generation tobacco seeds from germi- Rhine-Westphalia called for new nu- nating, has been patented by Delta & Pine clear power plants, in an energy pol- Land Co. and the Agricultural Research Ser- icy platform presented on May 7. The vice of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Health paper warned thatbecause of the take- This technique, nicknamed the “seed termi- down of nuclear technology, Ger- nator,” will make it impossible for farmers to Dengue fever epidemic manyis onthevergeof losingitshigh- harvest seed to replant from crops that have hits Southeast Asia tech nuclear engineering know-how. been genetically engineered. This means the farmer will have to buy seed every year from FASTSHIP Inc. has received pre- the cartels, at cartel-controlled prices. Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines are liminary approval from Den Norske There is ongoing research to see if the likely to be the nations hardest hit by an epi- Veritas (one of four organizations new technique will work for other crops, in- demic of dengue fever sweeping Southeast which certify oceangoing ships) for cluding wheat, rice, and sorghum, which are Asia. The epidemic is expected to be worse its water-jet-propelled design, which not easily hybridized. The cartels have been than in previous years, because of the impact will allow the company to seek fi- demanding intellectual-property-rights pro- of the ongoing financial crisis throughout nancing for an initial order of four tection of crop seeds from developing na- Asia. ships. The ships will carry 10,000 tions, which have so far refused to grant Current rates of infection are at least tons of cargo across the Atlantic in them. This new technique, if it becomes three times last year’s. Indonesia tops the less than four days, twice as fast as more widely applicable, will give the cartels list, with 32,665 people infected as of May conventional ships. another way of enforcing their control over 5, and 777 deaths. In 1997, total deaths for food production. the year were 707. Jakarta has been particu- U.S. LAYOFFS in April were up larly hard hit, with severe shortages of blood 220% over April 1997, according to supplies and medical equipment. Total den- a report by Challenger, Gray & gue cases in the capital are 8,702, with 72 Christmas, Inc. The April 1998 figure Labor reporteddeaths.Thetourist islandofBalihas is more than double the layoffs during 680 cases, and 8 dead. March 1998. Layoffs during the past ‘British model’ yields Thai health officials expect 300,000 six months are 36% higher than com- cases this year, and already in the first three parable figures for 1996-97. lower productivity months they have recorded 10,197 cases and 31 deaths. Last year’s total was 3,280 cases NATIONSBANK’S securities di- A survey compiled by the British Depart- and 8 deaths. Thai health officials also report vision agreed on May 4 to pay $6.75 ment of Trade and Industry has found that that 75% of the cases are children between 5 millioninfinesresultingfromcharges Britons are working more hours than their and 14 years of age. Younger children have that it misled customers on whether colleagues on the continent, simply because usually been the hardest hit age group; in ol- certain investments in derivatives most of them have to, the German weekly der children, the symptoms don’t show until were insured by the U.S. government. Wirtschaftswoche reported on May 7. The the patient is near critical condition.

EIR May 22, 1998 Economics 15