Ndebele reveals extent of World Cup spending
Transport Miniser Sbu Ndebele says his department spent about R150 000 on promotional material during the World Cup. |||
The Department of Transport spent just short of R150 000 on promotional material, including hats, during the World Cup but the biggest spender was a transport agency, Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), which spent nearly R2 million on T-shirts for 2 500 of its staff members.
This emerged in reply this week by Transport Minister S’bu Ndebele to a parliamentary question by DA transport spokesman Stuart Farrow.
Transport entities spent nearly R20m on tickets and a total of R2.8m on promotional material – a combined total of more than R22m.
“Some of the department’s promotional materials were distributed to members of the staff during the World Cup countdown events and others were distributed as promotional gifts to external stakeholders during events,” the minister said.
Farrow said although relatively limited amounts were spent by the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and the Road Accident Fund (RAF), one had to ask whether these entities – characterised by insolvency in the cases of the RTMC and the RAF and financial difficulties at Prasa – should have spent anything at all.
However, Farrow said it was questionable whether R2.1m should have been spent on Acsa staff, including R150 000 on vuvuzelas, R63 000 on tournament booklets and R1.9m on Bafana Bafana replica shirts when only R56 400 was spent on “stakeholder” relations – including R19 800 on vuvuzelas, R28 600 on scarves and beanies.
“One would have thought the stakeholders were more important.”
Altogether R195 was spent per head on 170 “stakeholders”, who were not named, while R856 was spent on each Acsa staff member.
Farrow said although Acsa was responsible for the completion of the airports around the country in time for the World Cup and its staff were in the front line at airports for incoming visitors, the spending seemed disproportionate.
In Ndebele’s reply, he said through this strategic priority, the company “is ensuring that every Acsa employee” lived the company values “of pride”, which meant passion, integrity diversity and excellence, “by continually informing, motivating and exciting its employees”. Altogether Acsa spent R2.2m on staff and stakeholders.
Ndebele, responding to a question earlier this year, said the Transport Department itself did not purchase any tickets for the World Cup. However, certain transport entities had collectively spent R19m on match tickets.
Prasa spent R10.8m, Acsa spent R4.6m – taking its total on World Cup promotion to R6.8m – the SA Maritime Safety Authority spent R2.2m and the Air Traffic and Navigation Services spent R1.4m.
While the RTMC spent only R727 in total and the RAF just R53 700, Prasa spent a more considerable R244 000, including R111 000 on vuvuzelas and fleece blankets and R40 000 on luggage tags and keyrings.
The minister said Prasa was a national supporter of the soccer tournament and had provided “integrated passenger transport services including commuter rail, long distance passenger rail and bus services to the Fifa family and the local organising committee”.
Flag brochures costing R19 000 were issued to the 15 000 employees, but the rest of the goods were provided to “stakeholders”, media and other dignitaries, Ndebele said.
The SA Maritime Safety Authority spent R220 000 on jerseys, vuvuzelas, flags and soccer balls.
The bulk of these were used to dress up its participants for the Morning Live broadcast on SABC2 on board the vessel Sarah Baartman.
The SA National Roads Agency – which administers toll roads – spent R109 000 on World Cup T-shirts for staff and board members.
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FXDD Muda-se para Amplos Escritórios no 7 World Trade Center
NOVA IORQUE, 6 de dezembro de 2010 /PRNewswire/ — FXDD, uma corretora online de operações em Forex, anunciou que a empresa completou a mudança para os novos escritórios, com mais 3.7161 m2 (40.000 pés quadrados) no 7 World Trade Center, localizado na 250 Greenwich Street, n
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Muscatine High tops 8 competitors for JA scholarships
Eight high schools in Iowa and Illinois got a taste of how competitive the real business world is Wednesday at the fifth annual Drs. David and Agnes Palmer Junior Achievement Titan Competition.
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Will China raise rates? Will US data guide QE talks? – Next week’s forex questions
The dust of G-20 has settled. World leaders sat around a large table set this time in South Korea, searched for that magic wand in their suit pockets, and then looked at each other’s face with disappointment. They didn’t get one to ‘calm down’ the emerging fears of a ‘world war’ on trade and currencies. They did not ‘direct’ China and/or US as some hoped.
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Germany, China Lead International Criticism Of Decision By U.S. Federal Reserve To Buy $600 Billion In Bonds
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The decision by the United States Federal Reserve to pump $600 billion into the nation’s economy by buying U.S. Treasury Bonds has sparked international criticism led by Germany and China.
China and Germany represent the world’s second- and fourth-largest economies respectively. In addition, they were joined by Brazil and South Africa in criticizing the “quantitative easing.” Quantitative easing is the economic term for buying assets to attempt to boost the economy and lower unemployment.
However, Germany, China, Brazil and South Africa allege that the scheme will not help the U.S. economy and will instead create more problems in the rest of the world. Quantitative easing is expected to lower the value of the dollar, which will make U.S. exports cheaper in world markets.
That means that U.S. exports would be more competitive against German and Chinese exports.
Indeed, the dollar did plunge in value against several of the world’s currencies on Thursday.
Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Friday said the U.S. Federal Reserve’s move would undermine efforts to create a level playing field in the currency markets.
China Central Bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said the U.S. should focus on reforming the international currency system. He argued that if the U.S. central banking policy is good for the U.S., but not good for the rest of the world that it might have a negative impact on the rest of the world.
The U.S. has criticized China for artificially keeping its currency devalued for many years to make its exports cheaper. But China made that move when its country had full employment and a budget surplus. The U.S. central bank is not buying U.S. Treasury bonds to deflate the value of the dollar abroad but rather to try to pour money into the American economy – which currently has a budget deficit – and to stimulate the weak economy to encourage American businesses to hire unemployed American workers at a time of continued high unemployment.
Germany also criticized the move because they said it would add to America’s deficit.
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The Significance of Forex Funds For The Average Investor
The notion of many when it comes to the foreign exchange market is that it is a realm exclusive for big time investors. Developments in recent years, particularly with the rise of forex funds, have brought the high yield investment characteristics of the forex market closer to the average citizen.
As knowledge and competence about forex trading and the global foreign exchange market in general becomes easily accessible through the advancement of Internet technologies, it begs the question – should the average investor get into foreign exchange investment opportunities?
Undoubtedly, forex funds are high yield investment instruments. Compared to traditional investments, foreign exchange trading tends to provide considerably greater returns. This holds true for all forms of forex market instruments including Spot Forex, Currency Futures, FX Option, Forex Swaps and currency-based Exchange-Traded Funds.
The average citizen however are less exposed to high return investment products and are largely able to access only common conservative investments such as bank deposits and bonds. For most people high yield investments like mutual funds and hedge funds are by and large too strange, too costly in terms of required capital and much too risky. Indeed high yield equates to high risks in the world of investments.
Nevertheless, more often than not, high yield investment opportunities create the wealth for investors rather than the average bank deposits and bond instruments. Commercial low yield investment products usually return anywhere from 1% up to 8% only. In contrast, it is not uncommon for high return investment instruments to yield double digit percentages of returns. High performing forex funds for example may average at 15% and may reach up to more than 30%.
This greater rate of return is enough to motivate novice and small-time investors all over the world to include foreign exchange funds as part of their investment portfolio. Apart from its global accessibility, these funds present a unique advantage over other high return financial instruments. Usually, these forex investments require minimal capital investment.
There are forex funds that can get an investor started at US$200. There are even a few funds that welcome amounts as small as US$50 for beginning accounts. Of course the high yields are more obvious with higher account levels which may require capital of about US$2,000 or more.
While the performance of these foreign exchange investments can be truly encouraging even during these tough economic times, still the risks associated with big investments remain. As such, only surplus or risk capital should be placed into high yield investments.
That said, forex funds are ideal stepping stones for the average investor to diversify and include high yield investments to their financial portfolios. Many people around the world are doing just that. Whereas twenty years ago the global forex market volume was only about US$500 billion, in recent years the daily turnover volume has been estimated to be over US$3 trillion.
One factor that can be attributed to this enormous growth in the foreign exchange market is the increased participation of a huge number of new and small investors as well as seasoned investors through forex funds and other similar forex investments powered by technologies on the World Wide Web. This also shows that getting into foreign exchange investments, while carrying high risks, are also highly profitable and should be considered with care by long time and aspiring investors.
Fox and Cablevision Deal Returns Signal
Fox comes back to life in three million homes served by Cablevision just before Game 3 of the World Series.
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Legendary Bartels’ Harley-Davidson Unveils Artist Jack Armstrong’s…
Glenn Alan Bartels (AKA The Los Angeles Scooter Guru) teams up with Artist Jack Armstrong (called the “LAST WIZARD” by Andy Warhol) to unveil the world’s first million dollar Harley-Davidson…
(PRWeb October 27, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/10/prweb4698404.htm
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Technical Analysis for Daytrading of Forex & Futures
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This book serves as a basic beginner’s guide to the Forex and Futures financial world. It is intended for readers with very limited knowledge of both markets. Language of this book is intentionally simple and easy to understand even for people who are being intimidated by complicated financial terms. The author based contents on her own experience dealing with clients while working as a series 3 broker. This 140-page book is a well-crafted attempt to answer many com… More >>
Technical Analysis for Daytrading of Forex & Futures
W.D. GANN INTERVIEW by Richard D. Wyckoff: The Law of Vibration Governs Stocks, Forex and Commodities Movements
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It appears to be a fact that Mr. W. D. Gann has developed an entirely new idea as to the principles governing market movements. He bases his operations upon certain natural laws which, though existing since the world began, have only in recent years been subjected to the will of man and added to the list of so-called modern discoveries. We have asked Mr. Gann for an outline of his work, and have secured some remarkable evidence as to the results obtained there from… More >>
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