#Export Incentives

[alwayssecretfest]

Snapshots of Bangladesh’s major export challenges

Bangladesh's economy is significantly dependent on its export earnings. The export sector has faced several challenges under the interim government. Business insiders opine that the recent political upheaval has created an uncertain environment for businesses. The interim government's efforts to restore stability are becoming visible, but the situation has led many international buyers in the garment sector to reconsider placing orders in Bangladesh, anticipating potential disruptions.

The garment sector accounts for over 80 percent of Bangladesh's export earnings and has experienced significant obstacles due to worker protests demanding higher wages and better working conditions. These protests have led to the closure of many medium-scale factories as well as production delays, causing concerns among international buyers about the continuity of Bangladeshi suppliers.

Rising temperatures due to climate change have increased heat stress among garment factory workers, potentially affecting productivity, lead times, and timely shipments. Global brands are legally required to address these conditions in their suppliers' factories under new EU regulations, exerting pressure on Bangladeshi exporters to improve working conditions.

In July 2024, discrepancies were identified between export figures reported by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and the National Board of Revenue (NBR). The EPB acknowledged a $3.16 billion mismatch in export data for the July-September period of the previous fiscal year, causing a temporary suspension of regular export data publication. This has confused stakeholders and may affect trade decisions in the future.

The government reduced export incentives across various sectors in July 2024, aiming to encourage exporters to raise competitiveness ahead of the country's graduation from the least developed country (LDC) status in 2026. Business leaders have expressed concerns that curtailing incentives could adversely impact industries already struggling with increased production costs and global competition.

The snowball effect of political turmoil, labour unrest, and reduced incentives has strained the economy. The interim government is seeking international assistance to rebuild the economy, but challenges persist in restoring investors' confidence and ensuring sustainable growth.

To address the major export challenges, the interim government has adopted the following strategies:

* Restoring law and order, which is crucial to regain the confidence of international buyers. The interim government has been working on industrial security and anti-corruption reforms to achieve this.

[creativemedianews]

New manufacturing facts suggest Apple's iPhone 16 may be cheaper than projected

[reasonsforhope]

"Norway is on the cusp of bidding farewell to internal combustion vehicles forever now that the automotive transition in the country has reached highway speeds.

Tax incentives and other perks like free parking, a diverse market of foreign and EU-made vehicles, and a vast charging network have steered almost all of the country’s national consumption towards electric vehicles.

Setting a non-legislative and vague goal of phasing out fossil fuel cars back in 2017, the recent market data suggests that the goal is now well within reach for the Arctic country of 5.5 million.

Despite the cold temperatures regularly draining batteries, consumers speaking with the BBC said range and charging weren’t major struggles given a simple change of mindset: from charging when you need it to charging when you can.

They also said there’s no reason why the Norwegian model couldn’t be adopted by other countries, as there’s not really an overly ‘green’ mindset in the purchasing decisions: it’s more about ensuring EVs are available, affordable, and sensible.

The best-selling EVs in the country are Teslas, followed by models from VW and Toyota. Unlike the US and EU countries, Norway hasn’t imposed tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, and a variety of Chinese makes enjoy a 10% share of Norway’s market which saw EVs account for 88.9% of new cars sold in the country last year, up from 82.4% in 2023.

A third of all registered cars on the road in the country today are electric if one includes diesel. Compared to just gasoline-powered cars, the split is closer to 50-50.

Norway has more proven gas and petroleum reserves than any other European nation. Like many of the world’s largest oil and natural gas exporters, they enjoy a massive sovereign wealth fund totaling over $1.7 trillion which allows them, the BBC reports, to shrug off the loss of tax revenue from EVs most of which are exempt from import and property taxes."

-via Good News Network, January 14, 2025

[queeranarchism]

What is stopping Ireland from doing all it can for Palestine? Could it be that Ireland, getting some 60 percent of its corporate tax from 10 US multinationals, is finding itself unable to take a firm position against Israel because all its actions, including its war on Gaza, are supported wholeheartedly by the US? Most importantly, what is the true cost of US investment in Ireland? A lot, it seems. And perhaps more than many people in Ireland realise, are comfortable with, or want to face. Ireland’s tacit support for Israel and by extension its current assault on Palestine go even beyond what was mentioned by left-wing opposition parties at the November 18 debate. Research by Uplift, an Ireland-based independent campaigning organisation, revealed that Ireland increased its dual-use exports to Israel by a factor of almost seven and also doubled its military contracts for drone servicing by an Israeli military-owned agency since the latest war on Gaza began following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. To the attentive observer, it is clear that Ireland is playing both sides on an issue that doesn’t have two sides.

Ireland hears the call of Palestine, but is it free to answer? https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/12/12/ireland-hears-the-call-of-palestine-but-is-it-free-to-answer

I'm honestly not at all sad to see Trump's plans to destroy and isolate the US economy with his tariffs and other bullshit. Maybe that'll give countries some incentive to re-structure their economic ties and loosen the financial noose the US has around half of the worlds neck.

[metamatar]

One of the world’s top arms exporters, Israel exports annually as much as $7 billion worth of military technology, or 2.2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product. An additional 1.35 percent of GDP is dedicated to military research and development, and 6.7 percent is spent on its defense budget— the world’s second largest military budget as a percentage of GDP after Saudi Arabia. All told, 10.25 percent of the Israeli economy is involved directly in arms. Comparatively, for the United States, the world’s top weapons exporter, arms account for around 3.7 percent of its economy. Israel is actually the world’s largest arms supplier per capita, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the World Bank, at ninety-eight dollars; it is followed by a distant Russia at fifty-eight dollars, and Sweden at fifty-three dollars.

These figures do not include the contribution from natural resources exploited under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.50 They do not factor in the service sector’s revenue or general industry and construction taking place in the West Bank. Such figures are difficult to quantify, since many companies operate in the West Bank but have offices in Tel Aviv to obscure where operations take place. Nor does this account for Israeli exports into the Occupied Territories, which are 72 percent of Palestinian imports and 0.16 percent of Israeli GDP. All told, the Israeli economy is deeply involved in a web of expenditure and profit around the ongoing occupation and expansion of settlements.

American military aid supplanting open-ended government grants has had the effect of increasing arms production and diminishing the overall economic reach of the state. No longer is foreign aid and imperialist incentive directly invested in the working class. Israeli workers are now rewarded through the arms economy. This is why, despite the lack of social mobility and the economic degradation of neoliberalism, the working class remains committed as ever to Zionism.

The working class has become dependent on the education, housing, and career opportunities that their participation in the IDF affords them. They have found routes for advancement in the military-fueled high-tech industry, with over 9 percent of workers concentrated in high-tech. And as pensions and real wages are eroded, the cheaper cost of settlement living in the Occupied Territories has become essential.

[cognitivejustice]

Indigenous rainforestation

Indigenous communities in the Philippines’ Mt. Kalatungan protected area have since 2021 carried out a tree-planting campaign to restore native vegetation lost to decades of commercial logging and agriculture.

Known as rainforestation, it aims to rejuvenate vital ecosystem services like flood mitigation, which benefits urban areas downstream, while also providing incentives for the communities driving the restoration.

The rainforestation program is led by community groups, making use of their knowledge of native plants, and marks a shift from the government’s decades-long, centrally managed reforestation efforts that relied on planting nonnative species.

Communities are already benefiting from exports of the coffee that they grow in the shade of larger trees, but proponents of the scheme say there needs to be more interest and funding from outside to ensure long-term success.

[deconreconstruction]

13TH ANNIVERSARY NEWSPOST IS UP

...But, in case you need your news here, allow me to repost the text: "On this fine Monday, I'd like to proudly announce the plans for Vast Error's 13th anniversary! God, this project is as old as me and Heather were when we started making it. Isn't that terrifying?

This year we'll be hosting a 24 HOUR LIVESTREAM on the DCRC Twitch channel, not only to celebrate the occasion, but also to receive active donations in support of two Palestinian relief efforts: E-SIMS FOR GAZA and CARE FOR GAZA.

All proceeds earned during the event will go to the charities mentioned above. Our base goal is to fundraise at least $6,000 USD in aid, which sounds like a lot for a webcomic hosting site whose main export is, for all intents and purposes, a fan project. But there's one thing we've learned after doing this gig for so long: ambition and effort can go a long way if you know where to direct them.

And we don't intend to just stream. No, that's too easy. We also have several guests who will be joining us throughout the day, along with special events and incentives that will either happen on stream or coordinated afterwards as a direct result of your donations, with stretch goals that go up to $10,000 USD. This includes PREVIEWS, RAFFLES, MERCH REVEALS, PANEL REDRAWS, MUSIC PREVIEWS, MESSAGES FROM BEYOND, and MORE!

We'll be posting more about the event in the coming days leading up to its start. It would be great if you all did the same!

Let's make this the best birthday we've had yet by shattering those numbers and fighting for a better world."

[historia-vitae-magistras]

I enjoyed your food and eating habits thoughts for Matt and Alfred as it's a nice little insight into their everyday lifestyle and mannerisms <3 Any thoughts on Arthur "forgets to eat until his stomach growls and his hands shake" Kirkland and Jack and Zee? Or for the UK bros or Francis if that more takes your fancy? <3 Thank you!

Rhys is a really good cook. Bara brith, Welsh rarebit, cawl, laverbread. The man knows what he's about. He's the second youngest in my set up but still a good deal older than Arthur so he grows up in a world where his mother is literally worshipped as a goddess. I put her right smack on the middle of a giant pile of tin which was famously the best and highest quality stuff in a world where it was desperately needed to create bronze. He grows up in stone wheelhouses with defensive towers set inside a ring fort and with that came a correspondingly decent diet. High protein, wealth being often valued less in cash than in cattle. Maman is importing gold from Ireland and wine from southern France and Greek trade goods are found. He suffers a lot of misery and violence as a young adult and that does affect his tastes in food but he never loses sight of the fact it should actually taste good. He's definitely a bit heavy on the pies and stews and he hasn't been able to entirely reconcile himself to the fact that it no longer a bit suspect of people who are wealthy enough to afford meat to not eat meat. The man has opinions on food. Lamb, mutton, leeks, cheese. He can have a conversation about it, okay. And he's very particular about how he enjoys said food. and not to dip too deep into the stereotypes but god fucking bless the Welsh for exporting the leek. The Anglo-Celtic diaspora owe a debt we will never be able to repay for the one goddamn allium that Brits seemed to actually like pre-war. He's definitely someone who's moods will be affected by when he last ate and how the food was and food is a pretty big love language for him. When he's trying to shack up with the neighbors in Brittany or Jersey or Manx the food is definitely an incentive to stay for breakfast.

Arthur for me is really interesting because he knows how to make decent food. He knows what makes food taste decent. He's had a feasting culture his entire fricken existence before 1800. Where you lose him is when trying to convince him food should taste good most if not all of the time. The Roman or perhaps slightly post roman world he's born to and raised in is one where luxury goods are coming in with spices and new vegetables and fruits are being introduced so he's had flavour from the very fucking beginning but still entirely regards it as optional. Food as a pleasure is almost alien in his brain for some reason. Late antiquity wasn't a great time for him but the slingshot extremism between everything has to be flavored with all the spices and um actually, food that tastes good is illegal is just so variable with this one. England is lush and fertile and there's no shortage of food at any point in history worse than the neighbors but you wouldn't fucken know it the way Arthur eats and hates joy. I think his outsized amount of power as an adult contributes to this habit of 'oh I'll just ride the extra battery pack that is being the weird patron saint of a rainy third of Great Britain. Wait, what do you mean I have to season my fucken food? And when that's behind him after WW2, he's increasingly irritated by the fact calories are indeed mandatory to survive. Man's taste buds never recovered from rationing in too many ways. Last 30 years he's kind of slipped towards enjoying food. The man has discovered garlic powder exists at least. Only trouble there is that now he experiments and god have mercy on his loved ones bowels. Plum sauce does not go in the spagbol please and thank you.

Zee is... More like her father than she'd like to admit. She really can be perfectly content with a cheese and marmite toastie and a cup of tea. Or one of her best inventions, instant coffee. She's got higher standards in that she generally prefers her food to be edible which is not something the medieval fucks listed above will always care about. She really really likes the act of eating as a social thing. Hangi made together in a large group, women gathered in the kitchen to make things like whitebait fritters and roasted muttonbird. She almost never ever, even when she is entitled to by one status or another took her food in her room and was always at breakfast in the morning. She always eats with people when she can. Food is almost more of an action or event to her than just personal pleasure. She's got a real weakness for fresh fruit. Just consumes batshit amounts of berries. Looking at her grocery bill is probably very funny because it's like, six items she'll rotate out for a fortnight at a time and then a fucken pile of expensive produce. Extremely fond of fish in general as well. She can cook but if anyone else present wants to take point, fine by her. She's very happy to perch on Jack's kitchen counter/bench and drink his good wine while he cooks. She might be described as slightly picky in some specific aspects especially when seafood is involved but she's really not going to have her entire life derailed because whatever her last meal wasn't great. When she was little, she didn't mind a boiled pudding or porridge for breakfast as long as it wasn't completely god awful. She's fonder of like the classic tea room sweet pastries than she'd like to admit and she's got a serious weakness for weird flavors of chocolate like a buttered toast chocolate bar and pineapple lumps. Food can be a tool of survival to her no problem, even if it's not great as well. Generally, she remembers to eat.

Jack cares a lot about food. In the immortal words of @paperbarks he's got the accent of a gold coast Hoon but the taste buds and pickiness of a Barossa sommelier. He's got that golden Mediterranean-esque climate. Sugar grows, mangos grow, finger limes are everywhere, stone fruit is plentiful. Jack wants food to taste excellent all of the time. That's not to say he's picky as in he's not going to absolutely demolish a meat pie or a chiko roll or douse his fries in chicken salt because he absolutely is but he'll genuinely ponder what wine goes best with that and how to keep Zee from drinking it all before he's even plated up dinner. His moods get absolutely fucking foul when he doesn't eat too. He's the second youngest and generally pretty chill and doesn't take all that much seriously but when he's hungry or something is genuinely shit, no one's having a good time. It was a struggle keeping his ass completely fed when he was young and food was seasonal and gonna suck a good part of the year. By far, he's the person most likely to complain about food in any given time. Also my god he can make a good cup of coffee. Chronic snacker too. All of them have some pretty serious appetites but he's probably up there tied with anyone else.

[argumate]

China's manufacturing development does not harm other countries; it is US protectionism that is doing so. Free trade, built on the foundation of specialized divisions of labor, allows countries to fully leverage their comparative advantages, maximizing the welfare of all trading partners. Protectionism, on the other hand, often leads to high inflation, reduced production efficiency, and increased costs of production and living. Companies shielded by trade barriers lose the incentive for technological innovation and cost optimization. Without better products and services, market demand cannot be stimulated, which in turn further drags down businesses.

Global Times is correct that free trade allows countries to benefit from comparative advantage, but only if countries import as much as they export, which China does not!

and the idea that "market demand cannot be stimulated without better products and services" is the same supply side obsession, the mistaken belief that consumers don't spend because products and services are insufficiently tempting, when consumers don't spend because they don't have any fucking money, thanks to all that "cost optimization".

[glitteringcrab]

Hey what do you think is normally the price for a replacement Morty?

...

Is it some amount of flurbos...? (although I doubt it'd be a large amount of flurbos, otherwise Ricks would prefer to clone their own Mortys. Whatever the "price" is, it must be something small and convenient)

Is it to spend a certain amount of time working for the Citadel? (again, not a lot. Mortys should be cheap and easy to get, a commodity, something that's easily replaced, that's the whole point.)

Could be, could be...

Maybe there's another option for Ricks unwilling to put in the work. Maybe you don't have to do any of the above if you just return your previous Morty, and just pick a different one instead, so the total amount of available & taken Mortys remains constant. (This way, if a Morty gets too clingy, he can get replaced. "No drama. Keep it episodic. Ricks never look back." Being a commodity in excess instead of rare & valuable ensures Mortys stay on their toes and are compliant with Ricks' abuse)

...Maybe that option is valid even if the Morty you return to the Citadel is a corpse.

...After all, if the Citadel is putting Morty corpses into good use, using their frozen brainwaves for strengthening the Central Finite Curve wall, Ricks would need to be given some incentive into putting in the effort to return them, wouldn't they...? Otherwise why not just abandon the corpse where it lies or portal it to a garbage dimension?

Wouldn't this arrangement be more convenient for the Citadel than Citadel Ricks going around e.g. Morty Town to gather the corpses of Mortys who didn't make it through the night?

(This would explain why the Dead Morty Vat is not just in the same facility, but in the same room as the one new Mortys are stored and exported from: Citadel Ricks are cataloguing the amount of Mortys needing to get replaced. One going in, one going out kind of deal.)

...Is this one of the reasons why Rick C-137 always stays with Morty Prime? To keep him safe not only from the universe in general, but from other Ricks who could teleport into his home not just to live there, but to abduct him and use him?

[mzyk-tmblr]

Slave Labour and Wage Labour—How Much of a Difference is There?

I will start by taking about the civil war. In the south, the primary mode of labour was known as slavery. In this mode you are the property of a slaveholder. You are provided with just enough to not die in exchange that you work on and to the extent you are told, at the threat of physical violence in the case of disobedience.

In the north, where slavery was less common, but still very present, the primary method was that of wage labour. This is the primary mode of work located in the US today. You work on typically a factory of some kind in exchange for a pittance. Nowadays, this is at least guaranteed to be a real currency. If you were disobedient, you would be fired. If you were not able to secure another employer as they are known, you would be unable to continue living.

Let us now compare these two modes:

- Your labour is not yours; you do not reap what you so

- Malcompliance will result in physical suffering following an action taken by the one who owns your work.

- In exchange for your work, you are given just enough to live.

- You are a resource to be extracted.

So what are the differences?

- An employed person can take their labour anywhere (this is often not an option for other reasons)

- An employed person costs nothing to replace. (The slaver has the bare minimum incentive to keep their human property alive.)

- Employable people are made to fight eachother for work.

When the slaves were freed by the end of the civil war, their material standing did not fundamentally change. What changed, at least at this point, was still nominal. However, with these freed people now in the same labour pool as the rest, charletons could now claim there was a plot to take white jobs, and thus divide the working class.

In addition to the fact that this societal arrangement of work is not unsimilar to that of slave labour if not in legal semantics, is that the old approach to slavery is still ongoing. A close examination reveals that the law still allows enslavement for those deemed criminals. Not suppose the legal system were used against a particular race, one historically enslaved, and now you are getting the picture.

Additionally, we should not ignore all the slaves and pittance labour that goes on in countries that export to the US. Where do you suppose your clothes come from?

What is ultimately pointed out here is that

Slavery never went away, it simply changed form.

[robotpussy]

"Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law"

so now they admit it, after this has been said for months. it wasn't until blood stained passports owned by white westerners were seen that brought any incentive for them to say something

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

President Trump’s repudiation of renewable-energy technologies stands to make the United States an outlier in the world.

Many of its large-economy peers are choosing a different path. Even as coal, oil and gas still power the global economy, and more fossil fuels are burned year after year, the movement globally is toward heavy investment in solar, wind and batteries, the prices of which have fallen sharply in recent years.

The European Union has aggressively moved away from coal. Its use of natural gas is declining, and last year solar alone made up 11 percent of power generation across the 27-country bloc, inching above coal, according to a new analysis by Ember, a research group.

Britain closed its last coal-burning power plant last year, and its government has said it would issue no new drilling licenses in the North Sea. Norway, a petrostate that has enriched itself with oil exports, offers such attractive incentives for clean transport that 90 percent of new cars sold in 2024 were electric.

Even Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, has set a goal to generate half of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030.

China is in a league of its own. It burns more coal than any country by far, making it the world’s biggest emitter of planet-heating greenhouse gases. But at the same time, it is home to nearly two-thirds of all the world’s utility-scale solar and wind projects under construction. China’s dominance of the manufacturing of inexpensive solar panels has driven down the price of solar energy globally. And its companies are setting up electric vehicle factories as far afield as Thailand and Brazil.

Worldwide, investors poured nearly twice as much money into renewable energy in 2024 as they did into fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency. “The world is undergoing an energy transition that is unstoppable,” Simon Stiell, the head of the United Nations’ climate agency, said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

Mr. Trump’s energy-related executive orders, many issued on his first day in office, seek to make it easier for companies to produce oil and gas, and empower the government to stop clean-energy projects that have already been approved. (Coal use has sharply declined in the United States, mainly because of the availability of cheap fracked gas.)

[collapsedsquid]

So Israel and — tacitly — its allies may view the widening of the war as an opportunity to deal the nettlesome Iran a decisive blow that damages or destroys its nuclear weapons program, targets elements of its leadership, or goes after major military infrastructure. Israel could also attack Iranian oil facilities, which would imperil the country’s most important source of hard currency and kneecap its economy. But it probably won’t. Here are three reasons why. First, Israel’s most important ally, the United States, is assuredly pressuring Israel’s leadership to leave Iran’s oil facilities alone. Israel obviously doesn’t always listen to its No. 1 patron, but it will on this. In a direct confrontation with Iran, Israel will need US assistance more than ever, including intelligence, defensive military assistance, war materiel, and diplomatic solidarity. Israel, at a minimum, can keep Iranian oil facilities off the target list in exchange. Iran supplies about 1.5% of the world’s oil, which may not sound like a lot. But oil prices can move sharply on marginal changes in supply, and if Iran’s oil disappeared from the market, prices would jump way more than that puny 2.5% bump, which is based on fears of disruption, not actual disruption. If Iran could no longer export oil, it would have a much more powerful incentive to strike at other producers by trying to close the Strait of Hormuz, which its navy could probably do for a period of time. About 21% of the world’s oil flows through the strait, and anything that threatened that supply would send oil prices well above $100 per barrel, and maybe above $150. US gasoline prices would hit $5 per gallon, and maybe $6 or $7. It should go without saying that the Biden administration would do just about anything to prevent that from happening in the home stretch of a tight presidential election in which Harris is basically running on the incumbent party’s record.

Don't worry Biden's not going to let it happen.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Bioinputs Regulatory Frameworks enters into force in Brazil

The Regulatory Framework for Bioinputs ( Law No. 15.070/24, or “Bioinputs Law”) was published on December 24, 2024. It regulates the production, import, export, registration, trade, use, inspection, audit, research, testing, packaging, labeling, advertising, transport, storage, rates, service provision, waste and packaging disposal, and production incentives within the scope of bioinputs for agricultural, livestock, aquaculture, and forestry activities. 

The President of Brazil did not veto any provisions of Bill No. 658/21 proposed by representative Zé Vitor (Regional Liberal Party of Minas Gerais), which originated the new law and was approved by the Brazilian House of Representatives and the Federal Senate.

Bioinputs are natural products (such as microorganisms and plant extracts) used in agriculture and livestock to replace other types of chemicals. The Bioinputs Law seeks to increase legal certainty so that farmers and companies can produce in a secure and regulated manner. It applies to all cultivation systems, including conventional, organic, and agroecological systems.

These are the highlights of the new law.

Continue reading.

[beardedmrbean]

Australia will introduce a cap on the number of new international students it accepts, as it tries to reduce overall migration to pre-pandemic levels.

The nation has one of the biggest international student markets in the world, but the number of new enrolments will be limited to 270,000 for 2025.

Each higher education institution will be given an individual restriction, the government announced on Tuesday, with the biggest cuts to be borne by vocational education and training providers.

The change has angered the tertiary education industry, with some universities calling it "economic vandalism", but Canberra says it will improve the quality and longevity of the sector.

Australia is host to about 717,500 international students, according to the latest government figures from early 2024.

Education Minister Jason Clare acknowledged that higher education was hard-hit during the pandemic, when Australia sent foreign students home and introduced strict border controls.

He also noted, however, that the number of international students at universities is now 10% higher than before Covid-19, while the number at private vocational and training providers is up 50%.

"Students are back but so are the shonks - people are seeking to exploit this industry to make a quick buck," Mr Clare said.

The government has previously accused some providers of "unethical" behaviour - including accepting students who don't have the language skills to succeed, offering a poor standard of education or training, and enrolling people who intend to work instead of study.

"These reforms are designed to make it better and fairer, and set it up on a more sustainable footing going forward," Mr Clare said.

The restrictions will also help address Australia's record migration levels, he said, which have added pressure to existing housing and infrastructure woes.

The government has already announced tougher minimum English-language requirements for international students and more scrutiny of those applying for a second study visa, while punishing hundreds of "dodgy" providers.

Australia to halve immigration, toughen English test

Enrolments at public universities will be pared back to 145,000 in 2025, which is around their 2023 levels, Mr Clare said.

Private universities and non-university higher education providers will be able to enrol 30,000 new international students, while vocational education and training institutions will be limited to 95,000.

The policy would also include incentives for universities to build more housing for international students, Mr Clare added.

But higher education providers say the industry is being made a "fall guy" for housing and migration issues, and that a cap would decimate the sector.

International education was worth A$36.4bn (£18.7bn, $24.7) to the Australian economy in 2022-23, making it the country's fourth largest export that year.

According to economic modelling commissioned earlier this year by Sydney University – where foreign students make up about half of enrolments – the proposed cuts could cost the Australian economy $4.1bn and result in about 22,000 job losses in 2025.

Vicki Thomson, chief executive of a body which represents some of Australia’s most prestigious universities, described the proposed laws as “draconian" and "interventionist", saying they amounted to "economic vandalism" in comments made earlier this year.

Mr Clare accepted that some service providers may have to make difficult budget decisions, but denied the cap would cripple the industry.

"To create the impression that this is somehow tearing down international education is absolutely and fundamentally wrong," he said.