Business Briefs Zim bourse has best returns in Africa

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s stock market offered investors the highest returns in Africa in 2005 and for most of 2006, despite a deep economic recession, according to the Africa Stock Exchanges Association (ASEA).

The struggling southern African nation’s stock market has remained one of the few investment destinations where returns have remained above inflation, which at 1 070,2 per cent is the world’s highest. The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) recorded a 1 545 per cent rise in 2005 and shot up by more than 2 000 per cent between January and the first week of November, 2006, the official Herald newspaper reported yesterday, quoting ASEA statistics.Morocco’s bourse recorded the second highest growth at 146 per cent during the same period this year.The ZSE had a market capitalisation of US$20 billion, with 9,6 million shares valued at US$760 million changing hands in 2005.Drug prices for world’s needy grow GENEVA – Drug prices have increased in the past five years despite a commitment by the World Trade Organisation’s 149 members to make them more accessible to the world’s poor, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said yesterday.MSF said in a statement that newer HIV medicines recommended by the World Health Organisation can cost up to 50 times more than the cheapest first-line treatments, even when they are available in poor countries.The group called for a boost to the production and availability of generic drugs – which are cheaper because they are no longer covered by patent protection – to treat major diseases.Countries should make more use of the options available under part of the WTO deal agreed at Doha, Qatar in 2001, known as the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), MSF said.KFC unveils new logo KENTUCKY – Colonel Harland Sanders is shedding his white suit jacket for a red cook’s apron as the company he founded unveils a worldwide redesign of its KFC restaurants and one of the world’s most recognisable icons.The company unveiled a new brand logo yesterday that includes bolder colours and a more well-defined visage of the late Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, who will keep his classic black bow tie, glasses and goatee.The logo is changing for only the fourth time in 50 years, and for the first time in nearly a decade.The smiling Colonel is featured against a red background that matches his red apron, with the KFC brand name in black thick lettering under his chin.The store designs will include new graphics with the Kentucky Fried Chicken name and signs that read, ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’, and ’11 Secret Herbs and Spices’, references to the Colonel’s famously secret recipe.Oil giant opens office in Shanghai SHANGHAI – Saudi Aramco, the world’s single largest producer of crude oil, said it opened an office in Shanghai yesterday as part of its plans to expand operations in China.Saudi Aramco’s vice president of materials supply, Esam Mousli, described the new operations in China as “another step along the path of good relations between China and Saudi Arabia.”The office opening came after Saudi Aramco established a contracting and purchasing operations in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on November 11.Similar to its Kuala Lumpur operation, the Shanghai office will focus on product purchasing, manufacturing and contracting, it said.Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest exporter of crude oil and the biggest supplier to China, which imports about 15 per cent of its oil from the Arab nation.Nampa-Reuters-AFP-APThe Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) recorded a 1 545 per cent rise in 2005 and shot up by more than 2 000 per cent between January and the first week of November, 2006, the official Herald newspaper reported yesterday, quoting ASEA statistics.Morocco’s bourse recorded the second highest growth at 146 per cent during the same period this year.The ZSE had a market capitalisation of US$20 billion, with 9,6 million shares valued at US$760 million changing hands in 2005.Drug prices for world’s needy grow GENEVA – Drug prices have increased in the past five years despite a commitment by the World Trade Organisation’s 149 members to make them more accessible to the world’s poor, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said yesterday.MSF said in a statement that newer HIV medicines recommended by the World Health Organisation can cost up to 50 times more than the cheapest first-line treatments, even when they are available in poor countries.The group called for a boost to the production and availability of generic drugs – which are cheaper because they are no longer covered by patent protection – to treat major diseases.Countries should make more use of the options available under part of the WTO deal agreed at Doha, Qatar in 2001, known as the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), MSF said.KFC unveils new logo KENTUCKY – Colonel Harland Sanders is shedding his white suit jacket for a red cook’s apron as the company he founded unveils a worldwide redesign of its KFC restaurants and one of the world’s most recognisable icons.The company unveiled a new brand logo yesterday that includes bolder colours and a more well-defined visage of the late Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, who will keep his classic black bow tie, glasses and goatee.The logo is changing for only the fourth time in 50 years, and for the first time in nearly a decade.The smiling Colonel is featured against a red background that matches his red apron, with the KFC brand name in black thick lettering under his chin.The store designs will include new graphics with the Kentucky Fried Chicken name and signs that read, ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’, and ’11 Secret Herbs and Spices’, references to the Colonel’s famously secret recipe.Oil giant opens office in Shanghai SHANGHAI – Saudi Aramco, the world’s single largest producer of crude oil, said it opened an office in Shanghai yesterday as part of its plans to expand operations in China.Saudi Aramco’s vice president of materials supply, Esam Mousli, described the new operations in China as “another step along the path of good relations between China and Saudi Arabia.”The office opening came after Saudi Aramco established a contracting and purchasing operations in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on November 11.Similar to its Kuala Lumpur operation, the Shanghai office will focus on product purchasing, manufacturing and contracting, it said.Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest exporter of crude oil and the biggest supplier to China, which imports about 15 per cent of its oil from the Arab nation.Nampa-Reuters-AFP-AP