Nearly 80 percent of US companies surveyed by two human rights groups failed to meet a US rule requiring that they monitor whether their products contain minerals from war-torn Africa.
The joint report by Amnesty International and Global Witness is the first by outside groups to analyze so-called “conflict mineral” disclosures by US public companies complying with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule.
“The conflict minerals law is an opportunity to clean up global mineral supply chains, but our analysis shows that most companies seem to prefer business-as-usual,” Global Witness’ Carly Oboth said in a statement.
The survey of 100 companies found that 79 percent of them failed to meet all the minimum requirements, and 41 percent to show they had policies to identify risks in their supply chain.
The report did not cite which companies fell short of all the requirements, but it gave credit to those that met the standards such as 3M Co, Tiffany & Co, General Electric Co, Tesla Motors Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co, among others.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act required manufacturers to determine whether any tin, tungsten, tantalum or gold in their products came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The region is known for using the proceeds from mining to fund rebel groups who kill civilians.
The SEC rule took effect last year after a US appeals court upheld most of its provisions following a legal challenge by the US Chamber of Commerce and other trade groups.
To comply, companies must conduct a country of origin inquiry, file a public report for investors and carry out due diligence on their supply chains.
The human rights groups looked at how well the companies complied with 12 core requirements.
None of the companies disclosed any examples of supply chain risks, although some of them reported possibly having some gold from North Korea.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained