Dec 15, 2017  -  The 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) concluded today in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  “Going into this meeting we were apprehensive about what the membership could deliver. There’s a lot of concern in the world about where some of the big countries are heading on trade and whether the framework of rules we have for international trade is fit for purpose, now and for the future” said Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker.

“We’re pretty disappointed that on agriculture, the Conference wasn’t ready to agree to cap the subsidies that major countries give their agriculture sectors, which distort world markets and disadvantage not just our farmers but subsistence farmers in developing countries.

“Nor was there a willingness to implement rules to make the regulation of services more transparent, predictable and accessible. But I’m heartened that on both issues, members are keen to keep working, so the huge effort made to advance these negotiations since the last conference hasn’t been wasted. “

Minister Parker considered that some progress has been made on two environmental issues. “I believe that trade policy can contribute to global environmental solutions and sustainable development. New Zealand has a leadership role here. So I’m really pleased that yesterday, we started a dialogue to encourage the WTO to address the global harm being caused by fossil fuel subsidies.

Mr Parker led the effort to deliver a Ministerial statement to the WTO on Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform (FFSR). Endorsed by twelve other WTO Members, the statement confirms the benefits for development, trade and the environment of fossil fuel subsidy reform. It includes a commitment by New Zealand and its supporters to bring the issue into the WTO.

“We were also able to take a step toward prohibiting harmful fisheries subsidies in time to meet the 2020 deadline set by Leaders’ in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.6. “Fisheries subsidies are a major driver of the crisis in global fisheries. Two thirds of global stocks are overfished or fully fished. Harmful subsidies have increased and fish stocks have deteriorated.

“While this week we fell short of locking down what is needed to implement SDG 14.6, members agreed that they will conclude negotiations to prohibit these kinds of subsidies before 2020. To achieve this we will need to continue negotiations toward an agreement in 2018.

Interested Members including New Zealand also agreed to continue their discussions on e-commerce and how to make trade rules deliver more for micro and small exporters.

“You never get everything you want in trade negotiations” said Mr Parker. “But overall, I’m optimistic about where we’ve ended up. At a time of considerable global uncertainty, the WTO’s members have re-confirmed how important the organisation and its rules are for their economies and their citizens.”

| A Release from the Beehive  ||  December 14, 2017   |||

Dec 13, 2017  - : Rocket Lab has completed analysis of the Electron test flight abort that occurred during the company’s ‘Still Testing’ launch attempt yesterday. The analysis determined the launch was aborted due to rising liquid oxygen (LOx) temperatures feeding into one of the Electron’s nine Rutherford engines on the vehicle’s first stage. Rocket Lab has implemented corrective actions ahead of the next launch attempt, which is currently targeted for no earlier than 2.30 pm, Thursday 14 December NZDT.

The slight LOx temperature increase was a result of a LOx chilldown bleed schedule that was not compatible with the warm conditions of the day at Launch Complex-1. Rocket Lab has modified the bleed schedule to ensure components are sufficiently chilled ahead of a new launch attempt tomorrow.

While the temperatures were within safe parameters for launch, Rocket Lab had set conservative parameters for the test flight campaign that led to the vehicle performing a safe auto-sequence abort at T-2 seconds prior to a lift-off. The abort caused no damage to the vehicle or launch pad infrastructure, with the vehicle performing exactly as expected in accordance with the launch criteria.

Rocket Lab CEO and founder Peter Beck said the rapid and safe abort was yet another advantage of Rocket Lab’s advanced electric-turbopump engine technology, which can shutdown significantly faster than traditional turbopump engines.

“Electron performed as it should if it detects anything off-nominal during the auto-sequence and the electric turbopumps shut down in milliseconds. Our team developed very advanced systems to prevent launch if any one of thousands of factors isn’t perfectly aligned, and yesterday we proved those systems are performing well,” he said.

“We quickly identified the cause, put corrective actions in place and are looking forward to another launch attempt soon.”

For real-time updates from Rocket Lab, follow us on Twitter @RocketLab

| A RocketLab release  ||  December 13, 2017   |||

Dec 12, 2017  -  Considering we pump millions of tons of plastic into the oceans every year, there is a hell of a lot we don't know about its whereabouts and its impact on the marine environment. A study examining how the material is torn apart by ocean life has uncovered some eye-popping evidence, finding that a single plastic bag is literally broken into millions of microscopic pieces before being spread throughout the seas.

It's hard to overstate the gravity of our plastic problem. Recent research tell us there is somewhere between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of the material washing into the oceans each year. But what makes all that trash so hard to track is that it is broken down into microplastic fragments that are smaller than the fingernail on your pinky.

Scientists say they have been able to account for roughly one percent of all plastic waste in the ocean, but there is still so much to learn about where it all goes after being swept away from open dumps and improperly secured landfills.

Looking into such matters is a team of marine scientists at the University of Plymouth, who conducted a study to learn more about how quickly different types of plastic are broken down by marine organisms, and whether the rate of degradation was impacted by biofilm (a layer of organic material that builds up on the plastic over time).

The team observed how the amphipod Orchestia gammarellus, which lives in coastal areas of northern and western Europe, broke down plastic bags. Through monitoring in the lab and along the shoreline, the scientists found the crustacean could tear a single plastic bag into 1.75 million separate pieces of microplastic, with the debris then found in and around their excrement.

The type of plastic, whether conventional, degradable or biodegradable, was found to have no impact on how quickly it were consumed, but interestingly, the presence of biofilm speed things up by four times. This throws further weight behind a growing body of research that suggests marine life can be enticed by ocean debris at mealtime, particularly when there is natural matter building up on its surface.

For example, a study last year found that seabirds were mistaking plastic debris for food because organic compounds were giving off a familiar stench. Within just three weeks, plastic samples placed in a contained environment had become coated in a sulfur compound called dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which happens to be the same compound (and smell) that the birds usually relied on to find krill for dinner.

"An estimated 120 million tonnes of single-use plastic items – such as carrier bags – are produced each year and they are one of the main sources of plastic pollution," said Professor of Marine Biology at Plymouth University Richard Thompson. "They already represent a potential hazard to marine life, but this research shows species might also be contributing to the spread of such debris. It further demonstrates that marine litter is not only an aesthetic problem but has the potential to cause more serious and persistent environmental damage."

The research was published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

Source: Plymouth University   || December 12, 2017   |||

Dec 12, 2017  - The New Zealand citrus industry’s ongoing commitment to working with Delytics Ltd to increase fruit quality has resulted in the majority of their navel oranges being liked by consumers in 2017, despite a challenging growing season. 

Supermarket monitoring showed approximately 85% (6 out of 7) of all New Zealand navel oranges met the New Zealand Citrus Growers’ Inc (NZCGI) minimum maturity standard in 2017, compared to 67% in 2015 before new processes were implemented. This year’s average weekly acceptability ranged from 78% to 95%, and stayed above 90% for three out of nine sampling weeks.

New Zealand’s navel orange growers actively contributed to this positive result by taking part in the voluntary clearance programme that was adopted by NZCGI at the start of 2016. Delytics Ltd developed the clearance process and has carried out NZCGI’s orchard monitoring programme for the past two seasons.

This season, Navel orange orchards in Northland and Gisborne were monitored from early February until late September to measure changes in fruit quality and predict when fruit would meet NZCGI’s minimum maturity standard.

Up until May 2017, BrimA measurement data and maturity models produced by Delytics suggested an earlier start to the season than in 2016. However, the BrimA data showed a significant maturity slowdown in May and alerted the industry to a later harvest date, which ended up being almost 4.5 weeks later than 2016. This sudden maturity slowdown is thought to have been caused by unseasonal weather, which saw drought conditions in the summer followed by more than twice the average rainfall from February through to May.

Delytics Managing Director Mark Loeffen says, “The monitoring was critical to understanding how internal fruit maturity changed during a season of challenging weather conditions. One of the keys to the ongoing success of this monitoring programme and predicting maturity dates is the industry regularly watching this information to inform harvest decisions in combination with their own on-orchard maturity testing.”

“The results show that growers of New Zealand navels have now become suppliers of consistently great tasting fruit and that’s great news for the New Zealand citrus industry.”

| A FreshPlaza release  ||  December 12, 2017   |||

Dec 12, 2017  -  Tourists to New Zealand have, in the past, not heard of Kiwi icons such as jandals, creamota, Chesdale cheese, eskimo pies, buzzy bees and pineapple lumps. But over time, symbols and icons representing a culture like New Zealand have changed and merged with the global environment, leading Auckland artist Rewa Walia says. She is staging a major symbolic art exhibition - Abducted – at the Depot Artspace, in, Devonport, Auckland from December 28 to January 17. With the rapid onslaught of digital technology and social media symbols which are not restricted to a land or physical territory, Kiwi icons are becoming more well known around the globe, Walia says. “New Zealand is just the same as any other place with internet connection in the world, where YouTube, Facebook, twitter and google are accessible at the click of a button. My symbolic series explores the possibilities of the blurring of cultural identities and a new formed universal one which everyone can relate to. “I've adapted the old New Zealand icons, brand logos and brand ambassadors from communication and advertising messages and fused them with the global icons of the digital world. “The finished work delves into the medium of communication from the past and present in New Zealand, with an emphasis on social media and the need of repetition in communication of messages mass produced. “Christmas in New Zealand is a special time when people get the opportunity to unwind and soak in the beauty of nature and beautiful relationships as they meet and greet family and friends. We are exposed to thousands of messages every day and I've created artwork using social media and popular symbols used in the digital and real world. “We live in a world driven by choices, some forced upon us and others we make to fit in, creating an alter identity far removed from nature. “A virtual world does not engage all the senses and life spent mostly in front of a digital device especially during Christmas time, when we need to engage with family and friends instead of connect with people in cyber space is a life less lived. Imagine getting the full benefit of human connections and nature at its best this summer. Do it differently this holiday season and say no to the digital world and yes to the real. “Social media is another result of consumerism, taking up time we would have otherwise spent on human relationships, creation and small acts of daily life that we used to take for granted. The more time we spend on digital technology and social media, the less time we will have for these intimate moments and physical expressions of creativity. “It is very easy to be consumed by cyber space so much so that you start to question, what is reality? In the moment that I create art, that is my reality and then it changes at the flick of a button.” Walia’s works are featuring in one of the world’s biggest digital online art exhibition on the Wrong Pavilion website, with a page dedicated to her work. The online exhibition will remain open until January 31.

| | A MakeLemonade release for Rewa Walia  ||  December 12, 2017   |||

Dec 8, 2017  -  Over its long history, Canada’s banking industry has absorbed a range of adjacent players in the sprawling world of financial services: trust companies, investment dealers, property and casualty insurers, and wealth advisors. Many of these structural mergers involved both extensive regulatory reform as well as significant cultural shifts within the industry. Yet as Canada’s banks consolidated and expanded into these other verticals, they tended to impose their cautious ways rather than adopt the more free-wheeling ethic of the smaller players they had raced to acquire.

The fintech revolution, however, will demand a complete reboot of this well-established dynamic. As these ambitious startups evolve from giant-killing disrupters into innovation-minded partners for the banking sector, both sides are struggling to figure out how to live with one another.

Fintech firms offer entrepreneurial energy, innovative technologies and highly flexible consumer engagement techniques. But they also bring a healthy dose of impatience to a famously staid industry that was widely congratulated, almost a decade ago, for the corporate caution and regulatory prudence that allowed Canada’s banks to ride out the 2008 credit crisis.

Banks, for their part, are awakening to the realization that younger consumers want to do most of their banking on their mobile devices, which is also how they shop and consume news. The American Banking Association even published a tip sheet for its members on how to “make friends” with fintech.

It’s a tall order. The sluggish pace of in-branch or web-based banking and lending, hard-wired into the banking industry’s culture, is anathema to the fintech industry’s sense of urgency and opportunity, and reveals, to many of these startups, a reluctance to take chances on new mobile and data technologies.

Fintech firms offer entrepreneurial energy, innovative technologies and highly flexible consumer engagement techniques. But they also bring a healthy dose of impatience to a famously staid industry

As a former banking consultant who now helps raise capital for fintech startups, I can see both sides.

If it hopes to survive, the banking industry needs to find new ways of partnering with these nimble newcomers. Yet the learning has to happen in the other direction as well: if they want to succeed and grow, impatient fintech entrepreneurs must find ways to work with these large, closely regulated institutions.

Let’s start with the source of the chafing. Various fintech players with serious ambitions have told me they often feel worn down by bank clients’ insistence on historical performance data for innovations with no past, the dearth of seasoned innovation champions within these huge organizations, the lasting effects of legacy technologies, and frustratingly diffuse decision-making processes.

Risk aversion runs deep in the banking sector, and, in many cases, it seems to be a point of pride. As some fintech founders report, they’re often told by bank partners that every feature of a new service must work perfectly, while potential downsides are scrutinized to the point of exhaustion. And though fintech founders are acutely aware of the fast pace of their own industry, many come away from these encounters sensing that their banking partners have little sense of urgency.

Today, some banks are starting to see that there may be risks associated with their institutional inertia. Most have established innovation labs or are backing proof-of-concept projects with fintech partners. While some fintech startups express skepticism about these ventures, others offer up useful advice for their bank partners on how to make such forays succeed:

— resist the analysis-paralysis instinct and give your innovation teams sufficient scope to dive into proof-of-concept partnerships, knowing that some will fail

— ensure that there’s a business sponsor behind such pilot projects, as well as a path that leads to a possible deal, and

— be prepared to pay fintech partners for the value they create through successful initiatives that generate new service offerings and improved customer engagement.

But it’s a two-way street. Fintechs need the support of banks to help overcome one of their main challenges: getting to scale and ultimately putting products in front of customers. This can entail something of a Catch-22, however, because banks often seem to be more receptive to partnerships with fintech firms that have already created a compelling brand promise, have a consumer track record and bring their own investors or sponsors to the table.

Fintech options ease the pain points of financing for entrepreneurs ‘There’s no silver bullet here’: Global financial firms still grappling with fintech challenge, report finds

So, what does a successful partnership look like? These pairings, fintech firms say, will increase addressable market segments; demonstrate how an improved user experience leads to increased adoption; expand the lifetime value of a customer relationship; and focus on service offerings that minimize competitive tensions.

To work with fintech firms, banks also need to reconcile themselves to some unfamiliar practices, such as associating their brands with products and services they don’t necessarily own. And both parties have to find common ground on technical issues such as customer data sharing, anti-money-laundering/know-your-client compliance and which key performance indicators will be employed to measure success, given that at least initially, the new fintech partnerships are unlikely to make a dent in the top line.

As this difficult pairing game proceeds, it may be useful to look beyond the banking industry for learnings. My own suggestion: IBM in the early 1990s, when then-CEO Lou Gerstner, a former consumer packaged goods executive, radically shook up the sleepy culture of a massive tech manufacturer. Recognizing the mortal threats facing his company from both the hardware and software sides of the computer industry, Gerstner forced IBM’s tens of thousands of employees to begin thinking about creating business solutions that actually responded to its customers’ needs. The end result? During Gerstner’s tenure, among many other changes, he shut down unprofitable businesses and added valuable service offerings to the commoditized hardware business, increasing the market cap of IBM to US$168 billion from US$29 billion.

Simply put, fintechs are to the banking sector as Gerstner was to IBM: crucial change agents, pushing these giants to confront the uncertain future taking shape outside the walls of a fortified industry that’s far more exposed than Canada’s bankers may realize.

Change, as we know, is hard. Not changing, however, would be worse.

Roy Kao is senior advisor, Finance & Commerce, MaRS Discovery District. This article first appeared in the Ivey Business Journal.

| A Financial Post release  ||  December 8,  2017   |||

Dec 8, 2017  -  Photos of one of Air New Zealand's Boeing 787 Dreamliner engines which failed this week in-flight show damage to multiple turbine blades, at the rear, suggesting a part broke off and travelled through the engine.  That engine, on Tuesday morning's flight NZ99 bound for Tokyo with 282 people on board had to be shut down when it caused the aircraft to shake violently.

Passengers heard clunking sounds and electrical power went out temporarily after takeoff from Auckland airport. The plane concerned, which was the first of the airline's nine Dreamliners to go into service, has since been grounded.

On Wednesday another Dreamliner bound for Buenos Aires also had to turn back to Auckland when problems arose with an engine. That engine did not have to be shut down in flight.

Air New Zealand told Newsroom last night it was "extremely surprised by the two issues experienced this week".

Provided with the photos taken of the NZ99 engine after it landed back in Auckland, a spokeswoman said: "The cause of these incidents is yet to be determined and this is the role of the Transport Accident Investigation Commission. But the damage sustained on Tuesday suggests an engine part has travelled through the engine."

Continue here to read Tim Murphy's full article with images on NewsRoom  ||  December 7, 2017   |||

Dec 7, 2017  -  Emirates’ new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft fitted with the airline’s game changing fully enclosed private suites in First Class, as well as refreshed Business and Economy Class cabins, has now entered service, to the delight of customers.  The new Emirates cabins were unveiled for the first time at the Dubai Airshow last month, to positive acclaim from visitors at the show who had the opportunity to view the product. It also generated international excitement as consumers around the world viewed the first images, videos, and reviews of Emirates’ latest inflight offering.

Following its Dubai Airshow debut, Emirates’ first 777-300ER with the new cabin products has now begun operating on the Dubai to Brussels route.

While on the ground at Brussels airport, Emirates organised special guided tours to provide its trade and airport partners, VIP guests, and members of the media with a first-hand look at the innovative amenities that the airline provides in all three cabins for its customers.

Watch a cabin tour of key product features