The Italian city of Trieste is hosting the G8 Foreign Ministers from June 25 to June 27. Over 40 national delegations plan to be at the Trieste Foreign Minister’s Meeting, which is the major occasion for political talks among the foreign services prior to the L’Aquila Summit. Trieste is along the northeast Italian coastline and lies near the border with Slovenia and, beyond that, Croatia. It has...
US President Barack Obama plans to head to Italy for the next G8 summit in July, which will take place in L’Aquila from July 6 - 8. The summit has been moved from the original host city of La Maddalena to L’Aquila in support of the area after an earthquake struck on April 6th. L’Aquila is in the mountainous Abruzzo region that is east of Rome. Mr. Obama will have a busy trip abroad when he heads...
Investors may not be flooding the market at the moment, but the long term forecast for Asia’s property market is solid. The Asian Real Estate Association (AREA) has just released its latest research showing that investors still like the Asian real estate market for the medium and long term. The report, entitled Investment Intentions Asia 2009, indicates that nearly twice as many investors plan to...
German business confidence rose for the third straight month, providing hope that the recession in Europe’s largest economy may be easing. The IFO Institute in Munich released its business climate survey, which increased from 84.3 in May to 85.9 in June. The index is based on a survey of 7,000 executives, and it had reached a 26 year low in March when it hit 82.2. Manufacturing orders were steady in...
BOM SUCESSO - Design Resort, Leisure & Golf Portugal, in conjunction with the Vale de Galamares Golf Club, organised a charity golf tournament which was held on 26 April 2009. The event and raised thousands of Euros for a This tournament, which BOM SUCESSO hopes to repeat every year to support other causes, attracted more than 100 players who contributed to the cause by paying an entry fee of 50...
Portugal’s capital city is becoming a more popular destination for visitors to the country than the famed Algarve region, according to the most recent statistics. For all of 2008, the economic value of tourist stays in Lisbon and the surrounding area was €569 million, just 11 million behind the Algarve. For the first quarter of 2009, the Lisbon and Greater Tagus Valley area has seen €92.8 million...
China has relaxed a key financial requirement for commercial property developers to proceed on new products, according to a recent report in the China Daily. The policy changes, which lowers the ratio of capital to costs, is hoped to ease developers’ capital strain and lead to a more stable market. The State Council announced that the minimum capital requirements for starting a new commercial...
The World Bank issued its latest forecast for the global economy and predicted that the worldwide recession will be deeper than many expected. The bank said that unemployment and poverty will continue to rise in developing nations and predicted a 2.9 percent contraction in the global economy for all of 2009. That is a greater drop than the bank’s prior estimate of a 1.7 percent decline. For next year,...
Record low interest rates in the UK mean that homeowners are actually better off than before - in one sense. The average homeowner with a mortgage now has more left over after paying the bills due to the low interest rates and some lower costs for other household expenses, according to the consulting firm Ernst and Young. The firm noted that average mortgage repayments had fell by 20pc during the last...
Real estate investors in Spain are hoping for wide-scale amnesty in the face of crackdowns on illegal planning in the recent housing boom. Many new homes in Spain, particularly along the coastal areas, or costas, were constructed with permission of corrupt officials and planners. With so many new homes, it would be difficult to demolish them all according to advisors. For example, in Malaga it has been...