Covering an area of approximately 48,445 square kilometres, the Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean nation by area and is home to an estimated ten million people. Today it also represents the second largest economy in the Caribbean and Central American region and has the ninth largest economy in all of Latin America, one that was long known for agriculture and mining, but is now dominated by services.

In my experience the NED is still seen as an outsider and NED’s also view themselves as outsiders. Whilst their degree of detachment from the day to day life of a business can be a healthy thing, the detachment caused by episodic intervention can be very unhealthy and greatly restricts the ability of the NED to deliver value and exercise their governance duties.

EU and American officials will spend this week in Brussels trying to make progress negotiating the controversial trade deal. TTIP aims to stimulate commerce by reducing barriers such as tariffs and differences in regulation, but critics say the agenda is driven by international business and will be bad for European and American citizens.

On July 7, in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is on a state visit to China, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Prof. Dr. Jochem Heizmann, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG and President and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, signed a joint declaration for two new vehicle plants in China together with Xu Jianyi, Chairman of its Chinese joint venture partner FAW.

On July 14th, European Fisheries Ministers will be meeting at the Council in Brussels. A reform of the EU deep-sea fisheries management regulation, including the ban of deep-sea bottom trawling, was proposed by Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki in July 2012. As trawlers continue to drag their nets, the Fisheries Council drags its feet mainly due to the pressure that countries such as France and Spain have put up to hinder the reform. These industrial fishing nations are now jeopardising the adoption of the ban in Council.

Praxis Earth Works (Praxis), based in Grande Prairie in northern Alberta, is a new company, led by its General Manager Ryan Martin since October 2010 – yet in terms of experience it lacks nothing when it comes to rock crushing, its core competency. The company started out operating a single crusher, making aggregate for a mixture of private clients, government departments and municipalities within a reachable radius of Grande Prairie.

Sometimes referred to by its species name, Withania somnifera, or in some circles as Indian ginseng, poison gooseberry or winter cherry, ashwagandha is a plant of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family. Typically identified as a short shrub sporting small green flowers and orange-red ripe fruit, ashwagandha tends to be cultivated in many of the drier regions of India and is commonly used as a herb in Ayurvedic medicine.

The palm oil industry is nothing if not controversial, and on the whole gets a bad press. Apart from its traditional use in cooking, palm oil is today found in a huge range of food and other products from cosmetics to biodiesel, for which it has been found particularly suitable. World consumption of palm oil is rocketing: compared to levels in 2000, demand is predicted to more than double by 2030 and to triple by 2050. Over 70 per cent ends up in food, but the biofuels industry is expanding rapidly.