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Tuesday, November 18, 2008.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel says the impact of the global financial crisis will not disappear soon. He says it may be felt by world economies for years to come.

He added that the problems highlighted the need for stronger financial regulation and supervision to protect consumers and depositors.

He said that the issues were going to be in every economy as a feature, probably for the next five years.

Manuel took part in a meeting of leaders and finance ministers from the 20 leading industrial and developing nations in Washington aimed at finding solutions to end a world banking crisis and to boost growth.

South African mobile operator Vodacom's CEO Pieter Uys said the group would invest more in finding new broadband data and connectivity services and continue its expansion into Africa.

Uys said that the group's data segment had grown rapidly in the past year, leading to a 43,3% increase in revenue to 3-billion rand during the six months ended September 30.

This segment now accounted for 13,1% of the group's service revenue.

With these high growth rates, Vodacom aimed to expand the range of broadband data and connectivity services it offered.

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Also making headlines:

A Saudi supertanker hijacked by pirates has reached the coast of north Somalia.
Tiger Brands considers a 786-million dollar bid for AVI.
South Africa's Science Minister sees opportunities in the global economic crisis.
And, Mozambique is to build a new 680 MW power station.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.