Badara

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MONSOON COURIER BEACON


Chancellor Hamad al-Nasir

POST ELECTION AGENDA

Bier Qassem, January 15, 4853: Chancellor Hamad al-Nasir had some comments on the post election agenda of Hizb Muasisiun:

It was a very close election. We have made the decision that this is the time to give the various muhafazeh legislatures a chance realizing that most of our constituents really do not like some of the aberrations that are appearing. We know under Badaran Forces Alliance there was a lot of devolution. Much has been undone but whether there should be a bias against them we hope to determine by giving them a chance to perform.

With that said, we know the fairly intense legislative battles have left some wreckage and our single most important domestic initiative will be to review the safety net and be sure it has not been damaged.

Generally, our oft repeated agenda remains unchanged but in foreign affairs there are new specific challenges. We hope to be a positive influence on the survival of the Majatran Security Organization for which we have great hopes and on the Msajatran Economic Association from which we have derived benefit.

While the focus of expanding contacts is as always on our Majatran neighbors, we have found that friendly relations beyond Majatra may be possible.

Akim willing., it may be so.

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MONSOON COURIER BEACON



ISSUES IN MSO

Bier Qassem, July 23, 4854: Foreign Minister Salman Duqaq took questions after attending the Majlis to vote on some treaty adjustments deemed out of date by the government. Asked about having a citizen of Jumhuriat al-Badara as Secretary General of the Majatran Security Organization, he responded:

Jumhuriat al-Badara does feel proud that Professor Selim al-Malik is currently serving as MSO Secretary General. It appears from reporting that the Dovanian Liberation Organization is on its last legs. Our intelligence has only picked up speculation on its motivation. WE are remaining vigilant.

The other matter currently an issue has been raised buy Impero Istaliano; whether Cildania actually meets the requirements for membership. There has been very little discussion of this matter which has taken a new turn by Cildania being in the process of forming a new government. We are dealing with the question of being in a treaty of mutual defense; a serious question indeed.

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MONSOON COURIER BEACON


President (Rayiys) Mustapha al-Makhtoum

3M CONTROVERSY AT MEA

Bier Qassem, May 14, 4855: After a cabinet meeting today, President Mustapha al-Makhtoum indicated today that the main topic of discussion was yet another controversy over 3M, this time one being voiced in the Majatran Economic Association (MEA). His remarks included:

The proposal ostensibly against 3M by Federace Deltarska included four specific items. Two, to form a Majatran based pharmaceutical distributor and identifying health enhancing projects for advancement, are certainly things we can support and we would perhaps vainly hope that the other members of MEA would see the opportunity here and join the discussion and planning.

We have suggested instead of nations investing in the company, the 3M model, that the MEA itself be the initial owner maybe opening up to private investment when launched.

As far as health projects, obesity and lack of body tone in urban mobile device anchored children would be a timely project as would animal transmitted diseases since as land development occurs parasites, saprophytes, bacteria, viruses and such existing in harmony with animals in the wild will find new hosts as habitat disappears. Frankly, we would encourage this to be a joint venture of MEA, MEA pharmaceutical, MEA member health institutions and 3M. That would be our Plan A.

The other two proposals are restrictions on 3M. Let me say Jumhuriat al-Badara does support the concept of the MEA acting for Majatra to regulate trade with Majatra. No sooner did Badara decide to expand oil production than foreign powers and business interests started saying sell us your oil and gas reserves. Collective action can protect us from exploitation.

But how will a quota on sales by 3M affect us. Not much. Why? Our arrangement from the Free Radical days is that we pay a monthly fee for the right to buy any product at a discount. At the time the government wanted access to any drug useful in an epidemic we might not have independently developed. This was a safeguard. At that time the government paid for all prescription drugs and so bringing in 3M pharmacies to buy from seemed an unnecessary expense. Now the government only pays for drugs for those with low income but the system remains the same.

Accordingly we do not expect a quota would limit us with maybe three or four nations having the partnership arrangement with 3M which mean all those 3M pharmacies are buying much more quantitively than we are since our pharmacies are buying from our local producers and 3M through the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

The system works pretty good. Many common drugs are readily made locally. Quantitatively, there are four areas 3M does most of the business. There is so little profit in thyroid medicine that quality control has been a problem so everyone buys from 3M. The side effects for statins is so varied that having the huge array of known statins available from 3M to choose from limits ill side effects in practice. Advertising has created a market for psoriasis alleviation. We have not yet developed anything of any consequence so 3M is only reasonable source. Then there is antibiotics. Lots of side effects for lots of people. For those who need a much wider array to avoid nausea and debilitating drowsiness or liver damage, 3M is the choice.

We thus think more nations having our type of arrangement would likely be beneficial and would regret seeing limitations on it.

As to price setting; of course prices should be reasonable and we favor MEA asserting its authority in that regard. However, our impression is there is very little in the way of excessively priced pharmaceuticals that 3M is selling to us and we pretty much expect that is the case generally.

Jumhuriat al-Badara would really like to see the nations of Majatra take these proposals and work together to make a great leap forward in our continental health.

We are aware to get there we may have to get past deep resentments and many nations being otherwise engaged. So it goes.

[Rogue]

Economic crisis in Deltaria has global implications

[Drax]

MONSOON COURIER BEACON


Finance Minister Magdalena al-Jabbar

LIKELY ECONOMIC DOWENTURN
Bier Qassem, August 23, 4855: Finance Minister Magdalena al-Jabbar today responded to questions about the likely downturn in the economy which has been created:

Well, there will be repercussions to economic missteps made elsewhere. So we can expect less appetite for purchases both of goods and equities. Probably a dip in the stock market will be treated as doom coming upon us. And employment will be harder to maintain because of this.

What you are asking is what are we going to do. We are not going to adopt austerity; we do know when people experience economic difficulty it looks like tightening the belt of government looks like we are doing sommething. Not suggesting austerity may not be good for Deltaria or Kundrati.

First and foremost we are going to maintain the safety net. We subsidize prescription drugs for our poorer citizens. 3M appears to be suffering and so to the extent pharmacies buy 3M products we will expect the prices and shipping fees to rise and 3M may wish to charge the government more of a monthly rate for guaranteed access. And 3M may need loan funds we can provide. If private health care wobbles, we can set up public health care again.

We also have provision for the unemployed to see those among who do not have work through difficult times. We also have loan funds for all sectors of the economy. If loans can keep a business afloat and people employed the funds will be provided.

We have banked a surplus for many years and underspent appropriations so that the money is available. Forever? No but for quite a while. We also may well reduce taxes again so individuals and corporations have more to spend and live on.

We will certainly be looking to other ideas but these measures are in place.

[Rogue]

New government regulations and investment program takes effect, Deltarian economy slowly stabilizing

[Drax]

MONSOON COURIER BEACON


Finance Minister Magdalena al-Jabbar

MEA PHARMACEUTICAL PROPOSAL

Bier Qassem, June 23, 4857: Finance Minister Magdalena al-Jabbar today presented a plan for the Majatran Economic Association to establish its own pharmaceutical distribution system as follows:

Majatran Economic Association (MEA) Pharmaceutical Proposal
This proposal will address three areas – ownership model, business model and relation to More Medicaments Manufacturing (3M). Although the most recent economic collapse created seems to be abating, this proposal is one that may help cushion Majatra from prescription drug shortages in the future. The recent distress experienced by 3M certainly indicates it does not need to be only international drug company.

One ownership idea is for nations to put up cash for stock. This is the 3M model at least when we examined it much earlier. We would instead propose that the MEA itself own the operation and once we see it is viable sell shares to investors perhaps in stock markets but keep management in the MEA. This still means nations will have to put up funds; no getting around that. We have dues but that will not be enough to cover it. We could treat the funds put up by nations as secured by preferred shares. Ownership model will have to be decided. Jumhuriat al-Badara will join in regardless of model.

The business model of 3M is 3M manufactures most approaching all prescription drugs available on Terra, 3M arranges for distribution from its manufacturing plants to its Terra wide 3M owned pharmacies by means of mail, air freight, shipping, warehouses and distribution centers. In Jumhuriat al-Badara and at least one other country the Ministry of Heath and Social Services receives the product and sees to distribution to privately or publicly owned pharmacies. In any event this is an extremely expensive model to attempt to copy.

In Majatra there are likely three or four nations dealing with 3M. That means much of Majatra already has a great deal of pharmaceutical production as well as its own distribution centers and pharmacies. We would propose that instead of manufacturing, operating pharmacies and transporting drugs the MEA establish a cloud based coordination system supplemented by telephone access. To do what. Receive orders from all over Majatra. Coordinate that with pharmaceutical producers and arrange for delivery either through mail or shipping by air or sea as case may be. So we would need an office or computer center and some state of the art climate controlled warehouses with some refrigeration capacity.

The proposal is for that to be in Romula. That s a good choice because for this to work we will need it to be in relatively stable nation rather than one where governments tend to depart leaving chaos behind. We would anticipate at some point additional subcenters could be established either for certain customers (such as certain nations) or for certain specialty products such as blood pressure medicine.

If adopted we believe it would allow pharmacies in the long run to be able to deliver a wider variety of higher quality products at a lower price to participating nations in Majatra.

What of 3M? Well first, we need to know if it is still operating or whether it succumbed to the difficulties of an economic down turn. If not at least three nations will need to reform their drug delivery infrastructure rather quickly; this proposal could be an immense help.

Second, and we acting on presumption this is the case, it was asking for money and may still be short. Here are some things we could buy from them. We could simply contract that MEA Pharmaceutical will buy drugs as needed from 3M either on consignment or outright if we know there are customers. We can arrange for any stores that want to be independent to have right to buy out their franchise at a discount. A whole nation may wish that to happen to avoid discovering all its pharmacies were on the brink of bankruptcy at once. (Some things may be too big to succeed).

We may also want to consider buying a division outright. Such as statins or thyroid medicine together with guarantees we could move the manufacturing plants rather quickly from Endralon to Majatra and together with the accounts of customers who purchase those drugs.

A less attractive proposition would be to buy accounts outright such as all of a certain nation since we might have to buy the product to be supplied from 3M in order to meet the requirements. Even this properly discounted could be done if that is how 3M wishes to reestablish adequate cash flow.

In any event that is proposal. If MEA members are interested we can decide the issues set out above. We are aware this is only one of many problems we should address for the welfare of the people of Majatra.

[Rogue]

Deltarian economy on path of recovery, global economy follows trend

[Drax]

MONSOON COURIER BEACON


Chancellor Hamad al-Nasir

DEALING WITH 3M DEFAULT

Bier Qassem, December 15, 4857: After a cabinet meeting today, Chancellor Hamad al-Nasir made the following remarks:

3M is not making timely deliveries. Our best information is that the executives of 3M have not decided whether to right their ship or put it in mothballs and have not decided whether if it survives whether it will be an Endralon operation. Our best thinking is it will try to salvage its current business model in Endralon. We shall see. Jumhuriat al-Badara would be happy to broker purchases of some of its patents or product divisions should it need to raise cash.

In the meantime, all purchases from 3M are handled through the Ministry of Health and Social Services so we are locating other sources of prescribed drugs for pharmacies, drug chains and wholesalers.

We are hoping the Majatran Economic Association will actually form a pharmaceutical wholesaler so we can access prescription drug producers throughout Majatra rather than Jumhuriat al-Badara alone.

Let me say at the outset we were never dependent for distribution upon 3M. At the time of the contract with 3M we had publicly and privately owned manufacturers and pharmacies. Now they run heavily to privately owned.

The 3M contract insured access to their products. Orders for 3M drugs are made entirely through the Ministry of Health and Social Services so that many orders can be rerouted to an appropriate supplier.

What about prescriptions for popular drugs that are patented by 3M. The government is exercising its power of eminent domain under our law and taking the right to produce drugs despite a 3M patent. Just compensation will be paid should 3M present a claim. Such claims will be offset by the considerable damage done by 3M in its breach of contract. Considerable damage.

At the moment we think 3M may survive. Any future contract will include liquidated damages and waiver of claims for breach of patent rights in the event of breach. We have not ruled out a future contract.

We entered the contract with 3M many years ago so that in the event of an epidemic we would have available whatever this international giant had to combat it. The Ministries of Health and Social Services, Education and Culture and Science and Technology are working with the National Institute of Technology to insure that we are doing our best to pick up the burden of cutting edge research on combatting contagious diseases.

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MONSOON COURIER BEACON


Finance Minister Magdalena al-Jabbar

MEA PHARMACEUTICAL DECISIONS

Bier Qassem, August 23, 4858: Finance Minister Magdalena al-Jabbar today presented the list of decisions needed by the Majatran Economic Association to establish its own pharmaceutical distribution system as follows:

Majatran Economic Association (MEA) Pharmaceutical Proposal
It seems to Jumhuriat al-Badara that there are 7 areas where decisions must be made in order to launch a Majatran pharmaceutical wholesaler. At the outset let me say Jumhuriat al-Badara will support any decision made on these areas.

First, there is ownership. One idea which is the More Medicaments Manufacturing (3M) model is nations’ have shares in the organization. We propose instead that the MEA itself own the organization as an international corporation and that the MEA members name the board of directors. It would not be a non profit but rather shares of stock would be sold in stock markets.

Second, there will definitely be start up costs. Jumhuriat al-Badara intends to put up funds as previously indicated. If others want to put up funds but need them to be treated as loans, this can be handled as preferred stock. Do we want donations only or loans from MEA members as well.

Third, where will we physically locate this operation? Clearly it needs to be in one of our most stable members. The original proposal was Romula and that seems reasonable to Jjumhuriat al-Badara.

Fourth, what is the structure to be used. The 3M model is ownership of manufacturer, distributor and retailer. We propose rather it be the wholesaler connecting drug manufacturers, Ministries of Health, drug distribution businesses, drug store chains and pharmacies arranging distribution with the mails, air freight and sea transport as necessary. In all probability pricing would initially have to be purchase and sale but ideally eventually could simply be handling.

Fifth, we need a name. We suggest Majatran Pharmaceutical Network (MPN).

Sixth, who will actually arrange for management. This was Deltaria’s idea. Badara fleshed out the proposal. Istalia is where operation is physically located. Seleucia has successful experience with a huge project, the Gene and Seed Vault. Think any of us could arrange for proper management.

Seventh, what of arrangements if any with 3M. Think one thing we could do is treat it as one of many possible suppliers from which the wholesaler could purchase. In wake of the recent questions of its stability which seem from recent reporting to have been resolved, we would probably want waivers on any patent violations in which we might engage should it commence defaults again. Liquidated damages might be desirable also. We do realize there is opposition to any deal with 3M so believe we should proceed without them knowing that some states may wish to quite properly make separate arrangements with 3M.

Should we agree on these seven believe we can launch. It would then be incumbent on us to try and reach other members and encourage participation and reach other Majatran nations to have them join as well.

Quite frankly, we think we should expect a proposal from 3M. That is their way. We can certainly listen knowing they have some very valuable product divisions, very valuable patents, very valuable intellectual property and very valuable distribution accounts. Not like they do not have anything we want.

Do think we can reach decisions on these areas and can launch an operation that will benefit Majatra.