Day: November 1, 2022

Posted on

EMGA obtient un financement par emprunt de 20 millions de dollars US pour Banco Improsa du Costa Rica

LONDRES, 01 nov. 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Emerging Markets Global Advisory LLP (EMGA), qui travaille pour la deuxième fois avec Banco Improsa, obtient cette facilité de 20 millions de dollars US auprès de l’Agence espagnole de coopération internationale pour le développement (AECID)- AECID (conseillée par la COFIDES).

Commentant cette transaction, Felix Alpizar, directeur général de BANCO IMPROSA, a déclaré : « Banco Improsa est très honoré d’être reconnu par l’AECID et la COFIDES pour ses antécédents et pour ses programmes visant à financer et à soutenir les micro, petites et moyennes entreprises (MPME) costariciennes. Grâce à cette facilité de crédit, nous poursuivrons notre contribution au développement économique et social du pays. »

Sajeev Chakkalakal, directeur de la banque d’investissement d’EMGA, a déclaré : « Nous sommes de nouveau ravis de contribuer à la vision continue de Banco Improsa de soutenir les PME au Costa Rica et de compléter cette solution de financement avec l’AECID (conseillée par la COFIDES). »

José Luis Curbelo, président-directeur général de COFIDES, a déclaré : « Nous sommes très heureux de soutenir l’AECID dans son premier projet d’impact avec EMGA et BANCO IMPROSA dans la région d’Amérique centrale. La transaction servira à financer les petites et moyennes entreprises au Costa Rica, ce qui contribuera à la création et au maintien d’emplois de qualité et à la réduction des inégalités. Nous sommes impatients de poursuivre ces partenariats stratégiques qui améliorent la croissance économique dans les pays en développement en renforçant le secteur privé grâce à un soutien financier solide. »

Carlos Jiménez Aguirre, directeur général du FONPRODE et chef du département de coopération financière de l’AECID, a déclaré que « la formalisation de cette transaction reflète les objectifs de la coopération espagnole de contribuer à élargir le soutien financier aux micro, petites et moyennes entreprises (MPME) costariciennes, car les MPME jouent un rôle clé dans la création et le maintien d’emplois décents et la réduction des inégalités. Notre intention est d’étendre ce type de soutien à d’autres pays d’Amérique centrale en leur donnant accès au financement des MPME, avec un accent particulier mis sur l’intégration des stratégies relatives à l’égalité des sexes et aux changements climatiques dans les activités du secteur privé. »

Emerging Markets Global Advisory LLP, basée à Londres, aide les institutions financières et les entreprises basées sur les marchés émergents, qui recherchent de nouveaux capitaux d’emprunt ou capitaux propres.

Banco Improsa a été fondée en 1995. C’est une banque de niche spécialisée dans la fourniture de solutions et de services financiers aux MPME, qui représentent la majeure partie de son portefeuille. Elle dispose d’une vaste expérience dans la fourniture de services de soutien et de conseils aux MPME. Le facteur clé de réussite de Banco Improsa réside dans son engagement envers des normes élevées de service personnalisé, agile et flexible, qui, avec des solutions financières personnalisées, lui ont permis d’atteindre une position solide dans ces segments. Banco Improsa fait partie de Grupo Financiero Improsa (GFI).

Le Fonds pour la promotion du développement (FONPRODE) est géré par l’Agence espagnole pour la Coopération internationale au développement (AECID) avec l’appui de la COFIDES (Institution espagnole de financement du développement). L’AECID est le principal organe de gestion de la coopération espagnole et est axée sur la lutte contre la pauvreté et la promotion du développement durable. La COFIDES fournit un soutien à la gestion du FONPRODE avec des opérations de financement remboursables qui favorisent le développement économique et social des pays partenaires par le biais d’investissements ou de transferts de ressources économiques à caractère remboursable. Le FONPRODE peut financer des dettes et des capitaux propres non remboursables et remboursables. Parmi les exemples de financement remboursable proposés par le FONPRODE, on peut citer les prêts aux prestataires de services financiers visant à l’inclusion financière.

La COFIDES, société publique qui se consacre à la gestion de l’État et de tiers, ainsi que de ses propres fonds, poursuit plusieurs objectifs : l’internationalisation de l’économie espagnole, la promotion du développement économique et la fortification de la solvabilité des sociétés touchées par la COVID-19. Outre l’État espagnol, ses actionnaires comprennent Banco Santander, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Banco Sabadell et la Banque de développement d’Amérique latine (CAF).

Dobson Jeremy

info@emergingmarketsglobaladvisory.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 1000754205

Posted on

EMGA garante financiamento de 20M USD para Banco Improsa da Costa Rica

LONDRES, Nov. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A Emerging Markets Global Advisory LLP (EMGA), pela segunda vez a trabalhar com o Banco Improsa, assegura uma linha de crédito de 20 milhões de dólares da Agência Espanhola de Cooperação Internacional para o Desenvolvimento – AECID (assessorada pela COFIDES).

Comentando a transação, Felix Alpizar, Diretor-geral do Banco Improsa, afirmou: “O Banco Improsa sente-se honrado por ser reconhecido pela AECID e COFIDES pelo seu historial e programas de financiamento e apoio às micro, pequenas e médias empresas costa-riquenhas (MPME). Com esta linha de crédito, continuaremos a contribuir para o desenvolvimento económico e social do país.”

Sajeev Chakkalakal, Diretor de Banca de Investimentos da EMGA, disse: “É um prazer, mais uma vez, poder apoiar a visão continuada do Banco Improsa, de apoiar as PME na Costa Rica, e fechar este acordo de financiamento com a AECID (assessorada pela COFIDES).”

José Luis Curbelo, Presidente e Diretor-executivo da COFIDES, declarou que “temos o prazer de apoiar a AECID no seu primeiro projeto de grande impacto com a EMGA e o Improsa na região da América Central. Esta transação servirá para financiar pequenas e médias empresas na Costa Rica, o que contribuirá para a criação e manutenção de empregos de qualidade e para a redução das desigualdades. Esperamos poder continuar com estas parcerias estratégicas, que aumentam o crescimento económico nos países em desenvolvimento através do reforço do setor privado com um apoio financeiro sólido.”

Carlos Jiménez Aguirre, Diretor-geral da FONPRODE e Diretor do Departamento de Cooperação Financeira da AECID indicou que “a formalização desta transação reflete os objetivos da Cooperação Espanhola de contribuir para expandir o apoio financeiro às micro, pequenas e médias empresas (MPME) da Costa Rica, uma vez que as MPME desempenham um papel fundamental na criação e manutenção de empregos decentes e na redução de desigualdades. A nossa intenção é expandir este tipo de apoio a outros países da América Central, facilitando o acesso das MPME ao financiamento, com especial atenção à integração das estratégias de género e das alterações climáticas nas atividades do setor privado.”

A Emerging Markets Global Advisory LLP, com sede em Londres, ajuda empresas e instituições financeiras de mercados emergentes a obterem novas linhas de crédito ou a reforçar os seus capitais próprios.

O Banco Improsa foi fundado em 1995 e é um banco de nicho de mercado especializado na prestação de serviços financeiros e fornecimento de soluções financeiras às MPME, as quais representam a maior parte da sua carteira de clientes. O banco tem um vasto historial na prestação de serviços de apoio e aconselhamento às MPME. A chave para o sucesso do Banco Improsa reside no seu compromisso com elevados padrões de serviço personalizado, ágil e flexível, que, juntamente com soluções financeiras personalizadas, lhe tem permitido alcançar uma posição sólida nestes segmentos. O Banco Improsa faz parte do Grupo Financiero Improsa (GFI).

O Fundo para a Promoção do Desenvolvimento (FONPRODE) é gerido pela Agência Espanhola de Cooperação Internacional para o Desenvolvimento (AECID) com o apoio da COFIDES (Instituição Financeira Espanhola para o Desenvolvimento). A AECID é o principal organismo de gestão da Cooperação Espanhola e está orientada para a luta contra a pobreza e a promoção do desenvolvimento sustentável. A COFIDES fornece assessoria à gestão do FONPRODE com operações de financiamento reembolsáveis que promovem o desenvolvimento social e económico dos países parceiros através de investimentos ou transferências de recursos económicos com carácter reembolsável. O FONPRODE pode assegurar o financiamento não-reembolsável ou reembolsável de dívida e capitais próprios. Exemplos de financiamentos reembolsáveis no âmbito do FONPRODE são os empréstimos a prestadores de serviços financeiros destinados à inclusão financeira.

A COFIDES, uma empresa pública que se dedica à gestão de fundos públicos e de terceiros, bem como dos seus fundos próprios, persegue vários objetivos: internacionalização da economia espanhola, promoção do desenvolvimento económico e reforço da solvência das empresas afetadas pela COVID-19. Entre os seus acionistas contam-se, para além do Estado espanhol, o Banco Santander, o Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), o Banco Sabadell e o Banco de Desenvolvimento da América Latina (CAF).

Jeremy Dobson

info@emergingmarketsglobaladvisory.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 1000754205

Posted on

Hisense Launches New Soundbars and Party Speaker in South Africa, Bring Listening Experience to a New Level

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Hisense, a leading electronics manufacturer, announced that the company is bringing a new suite of offerings dedicated to elevating the listening experience to South Africa. The three products – HP100 Speaker for party music, Dolby Atmos® AX5100G and AX3100G Soundbar for theatre-level entertainment, are crafted with the purpose to deliver size-defying performance, packing sound-enhancing features that complement users’ home cinematic setups to create an immersive audio-visual experience

“Whether it is for a home movie night or an outdoor friend gathering, we hope to offer our customers a range of products with easy-to-use and powerful features that allow them to create immersive cinematic or musical experiences,” said Patrick, marketing director of Hisense South Africa.

The Hisense Party Rock Speaker HP100 has a trendy and eye-catching appearance with a sleek black finish and coloured light panels around its four speakers. With its powerful sound system and great versatility, HP100 is designed to level up the party experience with various cool features, including the Karaoke Mode, five lighting effects, and five DJ effects.

The HP100’s compact yet mighty sound powerhouse is fitted with two 6.5″ woofers and two 2.5″ tweeters, supercharged by its 300-watt power output, capable of delivering loud crisp sound and deep, pumping bass. Thanks to its 15 hours of battery life and an IPX4 splashproof design, HP100 allows the users to enjoy all-night fun with the dazzling light rims adding an electrifying effect to the music scene.

Users can take advantage of AX5100G’s 340-watt maximum power output to enjoy the room-filling immersion, along with the support for Dolby Atmos® and DTS: X® that can transform music, film or gaming content into a breathtakingly realistic surround auditory feast.

Both the AX5100G 5.1-channel and AX3100G 3.1-channel Soundbars feature seven speakers that transport the listener to the centre of the music or movie scene, as well as a powerful 6.5′′ wireless subwoofer that delivers rich and beefy bass, allowing users to enjoy exceptional detail and depth of their favourite tracks and shows. The two models are designed for greater simplicity and versatility, with a wall-mountable design and a wide choice of connectivity options that allow users to easily set up the device with simple installation steps.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1934888/image_5020023_32572150.jpg

Posted on

Battling Cholera, Lebanon Gets First Vaccines, Sharp Words, From France

Lebanon received a first batch of vaccines Monday to combat a worsening cholera outbreak – together with sharply worded criticism of its crumbling public health infrastructure from France, which facilitated the donation of the doses.

By Sunday, cases of cholera – a disease typically spread through contaminated water, food or sewage – stood at 1,447, with 17 deaths, since the first were recorded in the country a month ago, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Lebanon had been cholera-free since 1993, but its public services are suffering under a brutal economic crisis now in its fourth year, while infighting among the country’s faction-riven elite has paralyzed its political institutions.

The outbreak has reached Beirut, but authorities say most cases remain concentrated where it started in the northern town of Bebnine, where health authorities have set up an emergency field hospital.

The vaccines would play “an essential role” in limiting the disease’s spread, Health Minister Firass Abiad told reporters in the capital as he announced the first batch.

Standing next to Abiad, French ambassador Anne Grillo said the delivery comprised more than 13,000 doses. They had been donated by the philanthropic arm of French health care company Sanofi and the French government had facilitated their arrival to Lebanon.

“The origins of this epidemic, in which public health is at stake, must also be treated,” Grillo told reporters. The outbreak was “a new and worrying illustration of the critical decline in public provision of access to water and sanitary services in Lebanon.”

In the Bebnine field hospital, two young boys sat next to each other on one hospital bed, while a mother waited anxiously to confirm if her son, lying limp on another bed and being treated by a doctor and a nurse, had also caught the disease.

Nearby, Syrian children in a makeshift refugee camp played in dirty water chocked with rubbish and medical waste and fed by an outflow from an open pipe.
The World Health Organization has linked cholera’s comeback in Lebanon to an outbreak in neighboring Syria, to where it had spread from Afghanistan via Iran and Iraq.


Source: Voice of America

Posted on

Strong RSV Vaccine Data Lifts Hopes After Years of Futility

New research shows vaccinating pregnant women helped protect their newborns from the common but scary respiratory virus called RSV that fills hospitals with wheezing babies each fall.

The preliminary results buoy hope that after decades of failure and frustration, vaccines against RSV may finally be getting close.

Pfizer announced Tuesday that a large international study found that vaccinating moms-to-be was nearly 82% effective at preventing severe cases of RSV in their babies’ most vulnerable first 90 days of life. At age 6 months, the vaccine still was proving 69% effective against serious illness — and there were no signs of safety problems in mothers or babies.

“Moms are always giving their antibodies to their baby,” said virologist Kena Swanson, Pfizer’s vice president of viral vaccines. “The vaccine just puts them in that much better position” to form and pass on RSV-fighting antibodies.

The vaccine quest isn’t just to protect infants. RSV is dangerous for older adults, too, and both Pfizer and rival GSK recently announced that their competing shots also proved protective for seniors.

None of the findings will help this year when an early RSV surge already is crowding children’s hospitals. But they raise the prospect that one or more vaccines might become available before next fall’s RSV season.

“My fingers are crossed,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University. “We’re making inroads.”

Tuesday’s data was reported in a press release and hasn’t been vetted by independent experts.

Here’s a look at the long quest for RSV vaccines.

What is RSV?

For most healthy people, RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is a cold-like nuisance. But for the very young, the elderly and people with certain health problems, it can be serious, even life-threatening. The virus can infect deep in the lungs, causing pneumonia, and in babies, it can impede breathing by inflaming tiny airways.

In the U.S., about 58,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized for RSV each year, and several hundred die. Among adults 65 and older, about 177,000 are hospitalized with RSV and 14,000 die annually.

Worldwide, RSV kills about 100,000 children a year, mostly in poor countries.

Why is there no vaccine?

A tragedy in the 1960s set back the whole field. Using the approach that led to the first polio vaccine, scientists made an experimental RSV vaccine by growing the virus in a lab and killing it. But testing in children found not only was the vaccine not protective, youngsters who caught RSV after vaccination fared worse. Two died.

“For a period of 20 years, even though science was advancing, nobody wanted to go near development of an RSV vaccine,” Schaffner said.

Even today’s modern RSV vaccine candidates were tested first in older adults, not children, he noted.

How did development get back on track?

Modern vaccines tend to target the outer surface of a virus — what the immune system sees when a germ invades. For RSV, that target is the so-called F protein that helps the virus latch onto human cells. Again, there was a hurdle: That protein is a shape-shifter, rearranging its form before and after it “fuses” to cells.

It turns out that the immune system only forms effective RSV-fighting antibodies when it spots what’s called the pre-fusion version of that protein, explained structural biologist Jason McLellan of the University of Texas at Austin.

In 2013, McLellan and virologist Barney Graham were working at the National Institutes of Health when they homed in on the correct shape and figured out how to freeze it in that form. That finding opened the way to today’s development of a variety of experimental RSV vaccine candidates.

(That same discovery was key to the hugely successful COVID-19 vaccines, as the coronavirus also is cloaked in a shape-shifting surface protein.)

What’s in the pipeline?

Several companies are creating RSV vaccines, but Pfizer and GSK are furthest along. Both companies recently reported final-stage testing in older adults. The competing vaccines are made somewhat differently but each proved strongly effective, especially against serious disease. Both companies plan to seek regulatory approval in the U.S. by the end of the year, as well as in other countries.

The older-adult data “looks fantastic,” said McLellan, who has closely followed the vaccine development. “I think we’re on the right track.”

And if vaccinating pregnant women pans out, it could be “a win for two individuals instead of just one,” by offering protection to both mom-to-be and baby, said Dr. Wilbur Chen of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.


Pfizer’s maternal vaccine is the same recipe that it tested successfully in older adults — and it also plans to seek Food and Drug Administration approval for those vaccinations by year’s end.

The new study included 7,400 pregnant women in 18 countries, including the U.S., and spanned multiple RSV seasons. Preliminary results reported Tuesday show the vaccine was most effective against severe disease. For milder illness, effectiveness was 51% to 57% — short of the study’s statistical requirements but a result that Pfizer still called clinically meaningful because it could mean fewer trips to the doctor’s office.

Source: Voice of America

Posted on

INDONESIA EFFORTS TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEM THROUGH MAKMUR PROGRAM

  • Makmur Program initiated to help farmers to increase their income and productivity through comprehensive and sustainable technical assistance and agriculture cultivation.
  • An ecosystem made up of a collaboration between state-owned companies to create full-service opportunities for farmers and agricultural stakeholders
  • A planting area of 250 thousand hectares targeted, with several priority commodities such as rice, corn, sugar cane, oil palm, and coffee

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Nov. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ —  The Minister of State Owned Enterprises (SOE) of the Republic of Indonesia, Erick Thohir, initiated the Makmur Program since 2021 to help farmers to increase their income and productivity in Indonesia through comprehensive and sustainable technical assistance and agriculture cultivation.

Makmur Program is a collaboration of Indonesian state-owned companies in the Food and Fertilizers, Plantation and Forestry, Financial Services, and Insurance clusters which provides on-farm and off-farm technical assistance.

Makmur is an agriculture ecosystem which connects farmers and agriculture stakeholders from upstream to downstream which aligns with the G20 agenda, specifically continuation of economic growth from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The progression of the Makmur program is something we should keep our eyes on. As directed by the President, I will ensure that SOEs will play a role in supporting farmers and providing solutions, to level up their productivity and prosperity,” said Minister Thohir.

The ecosystem is a collaboration of state-owned companies in the Food and Fertilizers, Plantation and Forestry, Financial Services, and Insurance clusters. The Minister of SOEs supported Makmur by establishing a Project Management Office (PMO) led by Indonesia Food Holding Company (ID FOOD).

In addition to establish this ecosystem, Minister Thohir explained that Makmur also provides on-farm and off-farm technical assistance. On farm control consists of agro inputs such as fertilizers, seeds, pesticides. There is also support for soil analysis, fertilizer recommendations, agronomic and cultivation assistance, to the application of agricultural technology.

Off-farm assistance includes farmers receiving access to capital (banking loans to distributor financing), agricultural risk protection (insurance), licensing support and guidance from local governments, guarantees for buyers of crops from partners (off takers) with competitive prices, provision of training and capacity building.

This program is a comprehensive solution for the agricultural sector in Indonesia as previously, Indonesian farmers faced many problems, such as limited access to information, capital, markets, and technology required. In addition, some farmers have not implemented agricultural cultivation practices leading to low agricultural productivity and income.

The President Director of ID FOOD, Frans Marganda Tambunan, said that based on the combined data of state-owned companies until Semester I 2022, Makmur’s progress had been realized up to 60%. It has been implemented on areas of 184,305 hectares with a total of 84,431 farmers. This includes the realization of land expansion, supply of fertilizers, technical assistance, off-taking activity including the involvement of the private sector, and funding for People’s Business Credit from state-owned banks. Farmers experienced productivity and income improvement in all commodities.

This effort is intended to support the government in anticipating any potential food crisis. The program, a collaboration between ID FOOD as project leader with Pupuk Indonesia Holding Company (fertilizer sector), PTPN Holding Company (plantation sector), Perhutani (forestry sector), Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Bank Negara Indonesia (banking sector), Jasindo and Askrindo (insurance sector), Telkom Indonesia (telecommunication and media sector), and others stakeholders, provides access on-farm and off-farm assistances which will create a supportive ecosystem for agriculture stakeholders. “This synergy across SOEs is expected to mitigate a potential food crisis,” said Tambunan.

Meanwhile, President Director of Pupuk Indonesia Holding Company, Bakir Pasaman, revealed that the Makmur Program targets a number of agricultural crops, including rice, corn, sugar cane, oil palm, and coffee. This program has been implemented in many places across Indonesia, such as West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Sulawesi, Lampung, North Sumatra and West Nusa Tenggara. “We are targeting this program to cover 250,000 hectares in 2022,” said Pasaman.

Not only bringing benefits to farmers, Makmur also provides benefits to all stakeholders and partners involved. The government can also guarantee the availability of food commodities nationally.

Twitter : @pupuk_indonesia

YouTube : PT Pupuk Indonesia Official

Instagram : @pt.pupukindonesia

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1934684/JAR02233.jpg