Tourism in Central Asia

I have been in Kyrgyzstan for little bit more than a couple of days. I still need to get out of the capital and see a bit of the country side. It will be done later in the week. But for now, I am getting the impression that the tourism potential is enormous. The country and the region have very specific cultural traits. They could attract visitors from the EU. And, as an example of its originality, Kyrgyzstan just organised the International Nomad Games. For those who attended it was a magnificent experience. However, the event is not known in the European countries. No paper writes about it.

Tourism could also be a major employment generation activity for the youth. The country is not creating enough jobs and that´s a reason for discontent among the young people. It is actually one of the major issues. 

The EC, Ireland and Apple: time to be reasonable

The European Commission´s decision regarding Apple is the new subject in the priority list of EU concerns. Two days ago, after a two-year probe, Brussels announced that the tax favours Ireland had offered Apple during many years had been judged illegal. It ordered the US multinational to pay tax arrears – just €13 billion plus interest, which adds another €1.4 billion to the bill.

Now, the government of Ireland says they do not approve of the EC ruling. They don’t want the money and consequently they have decided to seize the European Court of Justice for it to annul the decision taken by Brussels.

This matter raises a number of issues.

On the political front, there are several: it complicates the economic and trade relations with the US, taking into account that the US Administration itself has in the recent past imposed very heavy fines on EU companies; it questions the role of the EC on matters of national taxes, particularly when the country in question is at the periphery of the European economic space, has very limited resources and needs to attract investment to generate jobs; and there is the impact of all this on public opinion, at a time when the European citizens are drowning in deep tax waters, being taxed beyond the reasonable and seeing, at the same time, that the big corporations can do smart tax planning and pay amounts as low as 0,005% on gains, as Apple did in Ireland in 2014.

On the legal front, we can expect a long process. It will be a field day for lawyers and lovers intricate disputes.  It will particularly be interesting to study the arguments of each side. There will a new doctrine on multinationals, on national taxes, on investment advantages and benefits. It will be fascinating, if one is patient enough to follow the matter.

However, the best solution would be an arbitration. That´s what we have to recommend. There is a case, no doubt, but there is also an excellent opportunity to be realistic and even-handed.

On Africa´s future

I have worked in Africa and on African affairs since 1978. I have seen many positive changes and also many crises. 

Based on my experience and taking into account key trends such as the very high rate of population growth and the explosive urbanization that defines many country situations, I can see major challenges ahead. 

For Africa to be a land of opportunities it has first to address the basic needs of the Africans, from education to health, from jobs to energy. And therefore create the opportunities for its peoples. This would require much better governance, more democracy and greater respect for human rights as well as a new type of international cooperation with Africa, including a large number of economic investments to be made by the private sector. 

EU Leaders neglect job promotion issues

In my opinion column of yesterday in the Portuguese weekly magazine Visao , I concluded that the only way in the European Union to bring confidence back is through lower unemployment rates. 

The European citizens perceive the leaders as too concerned with the survival of the banks, the austerity measures and the usual power games. They do not see the same level of political energy being invested in promoting jobs, attracting investment and expanding exports. For the citizen on the street, the politicians seem to be disconnected from the ordinary person. This translates into a crisis of confidence in the political classes. In many countries, the credibility of the political leaders is rather comparable to a used car vendor’s image. 

If there is no improvement in the job market, the leaders’credibility will remain low. If I were in charge, I would spend most of my time looking for sustainable solutions to the unemployment issue. And I would certainly start by focussing my attention on the exchange value of the Euro. A strong Euro is an important contributing factor for continued job losses.