articles:
July 27, 2006, 3:58PM
Oil Hopes at Center of Sao Tome Election
© 2006 The Associated Press
SAO TOME, Sao Tome and Principe — Incumbent candidate Fradique de Menezes is aiming to consolidate his grip on power in Sunday's presidential election in Sao Tome, a tiny island nation off West Africa that hopes to benefit soon from a fledgling oil industry.
Parties close to Menezes won a general election four months ago, and a second five-year term would ensure him a central role in developing offshore oil reserves in one of the world's poorest countries.
U.S.-based Chevron Corp. and its local partners recently announced that offshore drilling had found oil and natural gas deposits, though production is not expected to begin for several years.
Menezes's main rival is one-time foreign minister Patrice Trovoada, the 44-year-old son of former two-term president Miguel Trovoada. Nilo Guimaraes has little campaign money and no party support.
Political instability and corruption allegations have contributed to the collapse of four governments over the past five years.
About 80,000 people _ roughly half the population _ were registered to vote. Results were not expected until Monday.
Sao Tome's public health, energy and transport infrastructures are decrepit.
However, the country lies in the Gulf of Guinea, one of Africa's most active oil exploration areas, and voters hope future oil revenue will raise the standard of living.
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INTERNATIONAL
Russian taxmen still haunt foreign investors
Posted online: Friday, July 28, 2006 at 0000 hours IST
MOSCOW, JULY 27: Foreign investors in Russia still fear heavy-handed treatment by the tax authorities even after President Vladimir Putin’s call to eradicate ‘tax terror’, the coordinator of a business lobby group said in an interview.
But, with Russia enjoying a consumer boom on the back of record oil prices, most investors who have gained a foothold in the country are bullish about their prospects despite pervasive red tape and corruption.
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Alexander Ivlyev, a partner at accounting firm Ernst & Young, said the tax issue would come up at the annual meeting of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council (FIAC), a forum set up in 1994 to create dialogue between government and business. “This question has not been properly settled and is becoming acute. Something must be done,” said Ivlyev, organiser of the FIAC meeting in October.
According FIAC research, tax demands served against large companies rank in the top three factors influencing foreign investors’ views of the Russian business climate, after economic growth and high oil prices.
In the most dramatic case, Russian oil major YUKOS was brought to its knees by $33 billion in punitive back tax claims. Creditors this week voted to bankrupt YUKOS, and the company now faces liquidation.
In the wake of the YUKOS affair, widely seen as a Kremlin operation to destroy the company’s politically-ambitious owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, companies with foreign ownership were hit by a series of smaller back-tax claims.
—Reuters
