If you were in business around the turn of the millennium, you’ll no doubt have been spooked by talk of the Millennium Bug – you may even have taken steps to prevent the glitch from crippling your company’s IT systems.
Now someone is suggesting it was never really a problem – unsurprisingly, they’re using this theory to support their own about Brexit, and the doom-merchants are wrong on the impact of leaving the EU, just as the experts were wrong about the impact of the Millennium Bug.
So, did we really all overestimate the Millennium Bug?
Benin is a country in West Africa with a population of around 10 million – and although it’s neighbours with Nigeria it has nowhere the same trade links or business opportunities.
Porto Novo is the capital of Benin but most of the country’s trade is done via the bustling port of Cotonou where cargo includes cocoa, rice and cotton, which is the lifeblood of the economy.
There is also a growing trade in used vehicles from Europe and the US – imports have grown from 200,000 in 2010 to 314,000 in 2014.
On average, 25,000 cars pass through Cotonou every month – up to 90% of which end up in Nigeria – but it’s something of a murky market and in 2013 there was a diplomatic disagreement between the two countries when Nigerian customs officials directly accused the Beninese government of smuggling vehicles into Nigeria.
Screenshot Google Maps
So if you’re thinking of dabbling in the Beninese second-hand car market, approach it with caution.
And as Benin is something of an unknown quantity, it may be worth setting up an international conference call with potential business partners to get the lay of the land before you commit.
The third largest economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – a regional intergovernmental organization comprising ten Southeast Asian countries that promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and socio-cultural integration among its members – Thailand is home to over 50,000 British residents, and the export of UK goods is worth around £1.96 billion a year. Service exports from the UK are worth around £708 million annually.
Top exports from the UK to Thailand include:
iron and steel
road vehicles
electrical machinery
power generating machinery and equipment
medicinal and pharmaceutical
If you think the Thai market could be good for your business, here’s everything you need to know about exporting to Thailand.
Switzerland is a diverse and mature economy, and offers a great opportunity for UK-based businesses – bilateral trade between the two countries is worth £31.9 billion, and Switzerland is the UK’s tenth largest export market, with goods and services exports having grown by 130% in the last five years.
If this sounds like a good opportunity for your business, here’s everything you need to know about exporting to Switzerland.
The European Commission (EC) has fined Google a record €4.34 billion (£3.9 billion) for using its Android operating system to “cement its dominant position” in search. So, what’s Google been up to now?
I recently smashed my iPhone screen. I have a decent case that protects it, but when I dropped it, it landed at possibly the only angle that could have smashed the screen – flat on its front. Although I can still use the phone, the screen now has several cracks across the front, and it’s performance (and battery life, it seems) is no longer what it was.
When I finally get around to getting the screen replaced, I will definitely be fitting a screen protector, and I just saw there is a screen protector that claims to improve the phone’s signal strength (!), extend the battery life (!!), and even shield your brain from cellphone radiation (!!!).
Sound too good to be true? Let’s take a closer look…
After weeks of unbroken sunshine, the rain came back with a bang today – not the sort of thing anyone wants to wake up to on a Monday morning, particularly after a weekend of warm sunshine – so if you have to travel to work, and can’t avoid the morning commute, there are a few things you need to do to stay safe on the roads in wet weather and worse.
Global trade, and the UK’s ability to dictate its own terms to countries around the world, has become one of the potential positives of the Brexit campaign – once the UK leaves the EU it can, in theory, negotiate its own terms with every country it does business with.
The trouble is, if the UK doesn’t get a favourable deal with the EU, then this could affect trade with those countries right on its doorstep – but would that necessarily be such a bad thing? Or are we overplaying the importance of doing trade with our nearest neighbours?
Mobile phones have evolved well beyond simple communication devices, and smartphones are becoming more and more like personal assistants, where we can manage all of our diary dates and personal finance matters – banking app technology means we can all manage our money with the swipe of the screen.
How much do you trust your smartphone? It might sound like a daft question, but just take a minute or two to think about the sheer volume of sensitive information your phone holds – from banking app logins to business messages and emails – and think how much damage could be done if this information fell into the wrong hands.
So, to help make sure your data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, here’s how to keep your smartphone secure.
