In its annual report to the Congress, the US Congress Commission on American-Chinese Relations in the Sphere of Economy and Security, warns that China intensifies its computer espionage against the US government and American companies, and gains a growing access to secret information through the American computer networks. The document also states that the Peoples’ Republic of China aggressively uses cyber methods in order to achieve superiority over the USA in any conflict.
The government of India has launched a new scheme of health services for the 60 million citizens living below the poverty line. Each such family will get a card, which provides a medical insurance within the limits of 800 US dollars a year.
On November 6, 2008, the Board of the National Association of Participants of Electronic Trade (NAPET) formed in the structure of the Association a committee on electronic tickets. The sphere of competence of the committee includes legislative, technological and practical questions of application of electronic ticket technologies in railway, automobile and air transport, and in cultural-entertainment establishments.
Huge sums of money allocated for stabilization of the financial system, do not reach the regions, and are misappropriated by big players of a federal scale. Thus thousands of Russian businessmen engaged in small and medium business have not received any federal aid.
A lot of unresolved problems, including problems of a criminal character, have accumulated in the sphere of consumer crediting, especially in several recent years, characterized by its very high development rates (over 100 % in certain years).
According to Sergey Ignatyev, Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, as of November 1, 2008, the volume of the gold and currency reserves of the Russian Federation was equal to 484.6 billion US dollars. He also said that in September-October of the current year the Bank of Russia allocated 57.5 billion dollars for support of the ruble exchange rate.
NVision Group announced that it had acquired the status of Qualified Security Assessors (QSA) and would begin to provide certified audit services for compliance of information systems with PCI DSS, international standard of information security in payment card industry.
In recent weeks PLUS has published a number of articles reflecting various experts’ views on the reasons and consequences of the world economic crisis. Today we present one of the most competent and interesting analytical publications on this theme by Maxim Pravdin, Doctor of Economics.
As PLUS-daily informed on November 12, 2008, the Federal Antimonopoly Service has elaborated a draft decision on the admissible terms of agreements between insurers and banks, and presented it to the government.
According to news agency Bloomberg, the world's four largest insurance companies can acquire small banks in order to improve their chances for getting money from the US federal program for rescuing of the banking system.
On November 18-19, 2008, Recon International Publishing House presented the printed version of its annual bilingual (Russian-English) PLUS-Eurasia Buyers Guide 2008–2009 in Hotel Kosmos Moscow at the 11th two-day Moscow international forum on payment cards in Russia and the 13th international conference and exhibition Smart Cards of Russia-2008 (SCR-2008).
The Fifth International CRM Congress focused on the strategy and technological development of client-oriented companies was held in Hotel Renaissance Moscow, October 21-22, 2008. The event was organized by Exposystems Company. The platinum sponsor of the congress was Microsoft. The status of the gold sponsors got companies Amdocs, Oracle and Jet Infosystems. The information partner of the event was PLUS Journal.
Doubtfulness, inopportuneness, and even a potential threat to the real prospects of the Russian economy’s withdrawal from the crisis of the bill «On amendments to the Federal Law «On banks and banking activity» find their reflection in a consolidated position of the Association of Russian Banks and Association «Russia».
Bank of Russia does not object to participation of the law enforcement bodies in control over the banks’ currency transactions. As Sergey Ignatyev, Chairman of the Bank of Russia, said at a briefing in the Government of the Russian Federation: «In this situation, characterized by a significant capital outflow, a more effective and rigid supervision is required».
According to Mikhail Sukhov, head of department of licensing and financial rehabilitation of the credit organizations of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, when adopted, the bill setting higher requirements to the size of the banks’ capital will not result in essential reduction of their number.
A single center for coordination of mobile commerce will be established in Russia with the functions of standardization and internal regulation of the Russian market of mobile commerce.
As Dmitry Medvedev, President of Russia, said at a meeting with the management of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation should see to it that the banks’ credit rates must not exceed the reasonable limits. He also acknowledged that the credit interests in Russia were considerably higher, than in other countries.
The results of the activity of the Russian insurance companies in the nine months of 2008, summed up by the Federal Service for Insurance Supervision (Rosstrakhnadzor), demonstrate that the financial crisis and the subsequent curtailment of real business retard the growth rates of the insurance premiums. Thus, already today a return to the schemes on minimization of taxes is noticeable.
