Russia on July 1 will lift a grain export ban it imposed in August last year in the middle of an unprecedented drought that wiped out harvests, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said yesterday.
“We are lifting the grain export ban on July 1,” Putin said in televised remarks.
The ban by the world’s third-largest wheat exporting country had originally been due to expire at the end of December, but was renewed amid fears of another grain shortfall this year.
A top minister had earlier suggested that the ban may be extended through the summer.
Analysts said Russia’s export ban helped contribute to a sharp rise in food prices last year that was one of the factors behind the wave of north African revolts that became known as the Arab Spring.
Russia’s decision comes three days after Ukraine — often referred to as the breadbasket of Europe — said it was lifting all export limits after seeing a rise in stockpiles.
Putin instructed his first deputy in charge of agriculture to make sure that Russian farmers had access to the loans required to seed and harvest enough land this year.
“We are closely following the progress of this vital part of the economy and using all mechanisms at our disposal to support it,” he said.
Russia’s decision to extend the loan was caused in part by complaints from farmers that the after-effects of the global economic crisis were tightening their access to the necessary bank loans.
However, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said Russia had some of the world’s cheapest grain and that lifting their export restrictions could only be beneficial to farmers.
“Our current grain prices ... are almost half those on the world market,” Zubkov told Putin. “So, considering that we really do have grain now and the state of winter grain crops is good ... I think that we can lift the export restrictions on July 1.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day