Many multinationals have failed to properly fulfill their social responsibilities in China, with some overtly violating local laws and regulations, according to a survey by Southern Weekly.
Tracking 126 multinationals over a 12-month period, the newspaper observed four kinds of typical malpractice: refusing to set-up internal labor unions, poor environmental practice, failing to deliver quality services and providing substandard products.
A few were guilty of bribing government officials or the management of other companies, said the weekly, without identifying their names.
In a breakdown, it said that 58 companies, or 46 percent of the companies surveyed, had refused to comply with the law requiring the establishment of labor unions while another 20, or 15.9 percent, had seriously damaged the local environment.
Thirty-seven companies, or 29.4 percent of the polled, provided substandard services or commodities to Chinese consumers with 19 of them the objects of repeated complaints.
The newspaper said that all the 126 companies surveyed are "Fortune 500" companies who have posted "outstanding" financial results in sales revenue, export volume and pre-tax profits.
The newspaper said that the survey was based on public information provided by government authorities, consumer associations, labor unions and media reports.
The newspaper said it had verified the information with the companies.
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| Early 1960s | |
| 1974 | Russian ophthalmologist Svyatoslav Fyodorov establishes The Moscow Eye Microsurgery Centre. Dr. Fyodorov announces a surgical cure for myopia -- the radial keratotomy ("RK"). The procedure involves reshaping the eye through cuts around the periphery of the cornea, which results in its flattening. At its peak, Dr. Fyodorov's clinics turn out a surgically corrected eye every 19 seconds through a special assembly line process. |
| Late 1970s | IBM develops heatless laser etching with the excimer laser. |
| 1980 | The National Eye Institute issues a public warning about RK, calling it "experimental." |
| Early 1980's | The U.S. military conducts studies into improving the vision of military troops through RK. Ultimately, the Department of Defense bans RK as a procedure. |
| 1983 | Dr. Stephen Trokel, an ophthalmologist and physicist, publishes landmark article following years of experiments using the excimer laser on corneal tissue. Article marks the beginning of the laser refractive surgery era. |
| 1987 | Ophthalmologist Marguerite McDonald performs the first photorefractive keratectomy ("PRK") in a human patient. |
| 1989 | Lucio Buratto of Milan, Italy, uses the excimer laser to remove tissue from the underside of a cap cut from the cornea. American ophthalmologists Stephen Slade and Steve Brint travel to Italy to observe Buratto's technique. |
| 1991 | Drs. Brint and Slade perform the first laser assisted in-situ keratomileusis ("LASIK") in the U.S. |
| 2001 | 1.35 million LASIK procedures performed, a 40 percent increase over the previous year. |
| 2002 | U.S. Department of Defense actively promotes laser eye surgery for military combat personnel. |
| 2010 | Goal of refractive surgeons to have 90 percent of patients who need vision correction to achieve 20/10 vision, through newest laser techniques. |
Canada’s New Government announced in Budget 2006 that it would work with the provinces and territories to further lower the welfare wall by implementing a Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) to make work pay for low- and modest-income Canadians. The Government will implement the WITB in Budget 2007.
"The first thing we have to realize is that nothing has changed in this commitment vis-a-vis the federal government," TD Bank's chief economist Don Drummond told Canada AM.
"The commitment is still to pay down $3 billion a year -- so how do they get to zero by 2021? Well, they're adding in the provinces, which will also be in a net debt position," he said.
"But the kicker is that they're adding in the surpluses -- the net asset positions of the Canada and Quebec pension plans -- so this is not a concept that Canadians are really used to hearing about."
This means the federal government by 2021 will still carry a debt burden of 10 per cent of the economy, said Drummond, while the provinces will have a debt burden of 5 per cent.
"So there's 15 per cent -- but low and behold Canada and Quebec pension plans in that year will have a net asset position of 15 per cent."
If you do the math, Drummond said, paying down the debt by $3 billion a year means it will still be at $436 billion in 15 years.
"So it doesn't go down that much. But of course the economy is growing and they're always taking the debt as a proportion of the economy. So it's the economic growth that's really making the debt burden relative to the economy shrink."
After a quick crunching of the numbers, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says Flaherty's modest offerings in Thursday's fall fiscal update basically level out Liberal income-tax cuts he reversed last spring.
"It's a wash," said the group's federal director, John Williamson. "The rhetoric is they're cutting taxes, but the actual end result is either no significant change for taxpayers, or they're slightly worse off."
The Liberals announced reductions in the lowest income-tax rate last year -- shortly before Paul Martin's minority government fell.
Flaherty's budget last spring reversed those income-tax cuts, and brought in a one-point reduction to the GST.Government officials who manage the programs in various government departments were told this week that climate-change programs extended by one year in April will not be renewed.
The officials are being asked to compile information as to who would most likely be affected and what their public reaction would be.
The project is being described internally as “government-wide” and The Globe and Mail was able to confirm that at least two departments, Natural Resources Canada and Agriculture Canada, were submitting reports this week.
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