THE China-Africa Development Fund, which was founded by state-owned lender China Development Bank Corp, plans to raise $US2 billion ($2.45bn) by November to help expand business links between Africa and China, CDB vice-governor Li Jiping said in Beijing today.

Separately, China’s Communist Party leaders vowed yesterday to continue their focus on steady economic growth, carrying on with an active fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy in the second half.

The politburo plan to maintain Beijing’s expansionary policies is likely to damp growing calls by economists for the government to fine-tune policy to avoid future inflation or asset-price bubbles. Such calls have strengthened as economic growth in the second quarter quickened to 7.9 per cent from 6.1 per cent in Q1, amid a huge wave of government-driven lending and investment projects.

Justifying its expansionary stance, the politburo warned that the foundation of the economic recovery was not firm, and said many economic uncertainties remained.

Chinese exports continued to shrink in June, though there were signs of stability emerging. Still, the politburo noted positive economic factors, and suggested the government would increasingly focus on the quality of economic growth, rather than just the pace.

Wang Qing, an economist with Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, said: “On the one hand, they want to signal that they are keeping the overall policy stance. But on the other hand, they want to ensure the quality of investment.”

In an interview on the sidelines of the Australia-China Bilateral Investment Seminar, the CDB’s Mr Li said the China-Africa Development Fund would raise the money for expansion from Chinese financial institutions, including insurers.

The fund, established in 2007 with an initial $US1 billion investment by CDB, had said it aimed to eventually increase its total assets for investment to $US5 billion.

Australia was also a part of the CDB’s global strategy, Mr Li said.

With Victoria Ruan

(theaustralian.news.com.au)

Almaty. July 24. Kazakhstan Today - China will leave Germany behind this year and will become the largest exporter of the world. The representatives of World Trade Organization informed at the session of Commerce Ministers within the Forum of Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Singapore on Wednesday, the agency reports citing Russian.china. site.

WTO report forecasts that the volume of world trade this year will decrease by 10 %. This is the biggest drop for the last 60 years. WTO General Director, Paskal Lami, specified that decrease of trading volume has slowed down. “Our data show that the Asian countries can channel world economy into restoration direction,” P. Lami said .

WTO Chief Economist, Patrick Law, said that the European economy has been developing poorly, which can cause Germany lagging behind China export this year.

(www.kt.kz)

LUBUMBASHI, Congo — Here in one of the richest mineral belts in the world, where copper and cobalt almost seem to burst from the rugged earth, the people have grown accustomed to foreign opportunists. Anger is mounting, however, at some of the newest arrivals: businessmen from China.

At lunch hour outside the smelters near Lubumbashi, the gritty capital of southern Congo’s mining country, workers in fraying clothes and canvas sneakers rattle off complaints about their Chinese employers: wages of as little as $3 a day, backbreaking hours and a lack of safety equipment, which many said had led to severe on-the-job injuries and even deaths.

“We don’t have a choice but to keep working. Life is hard, and we have to survive,” said Andre, 26, whose younger brother died in an accident last year while toiling on the graveyard shift at a private, Chinese-owned smelter. While raking a slag pit early one morning, a sudden noise startled 21-year-old Akahika, who lost his balance, fell into the scorching slag and was burned to death almost instantly.

Like many workers who were interviewed for this story, Andre asked that his full name not be used, in order to shield him from retribution by his employers. His story and those of other workers offer a glimpse into a little-known — and little-regulated — slice of China’s dramatically expanding relationship with the world’s poorest continent.

As Beijing increasingly looks to Africa as a market for its inexpensive goods and a major source of raw materials, war-torn Congo, which boasts enormous natural wealth yet needs help with almost everything else, has emerged as a key trading partner. As the countries prepare to cement a record $9.5 billion trade deal, however, Congolese activists say that Beijing is turning a blind eye to substandard labor practices at the dozens of small, privately owned Chinese smelters that have cropped up across the southern mining province of Katanga.

A leading Congolese watchdog group, Action Against Impunity for Human Rights, says it’s documented dozens of cases of abuses. In one case from last year, a worker said he was punched repeatedly by three supervisors, including one Chinese man. In another, a worker suffered debilitating burns on his legs when he fell into an oven, and his employer refused to pay the medical bill.

Chinese companies can treat their employees pretty much as they please, the group wrote in a forthcoming report, because workers are desperate and local authorities either lack the capacity to enforce domestic labor laws or are easily bribed to ignore violations. In June, civil servants in Katanga went on strike after several weeks without receiving paychecks.

“The weakness of our government, for the Chinese, represents a business opportunity,” said Jean-Pierre Okemba, one of the rights group’s investigators. “We don’t want a relationship like that.”

Chinese officials say these are private businesses, unattached to the government in Beijing, and that they have no power to regulate them. China’s trade with Africa soared to a record $107 billion last year, surpassing the volume of trade between Africa and the United States for the first time. If the mammoth China-Congo trade deal is approved, Beijing would win lucrative mining concessions in exchange for building roads, railways and other infrastructure that Congo desperately needs.

“They keep their workers in really the bare minimum of conditions,” said Jean-Pierre Muteba, a Congolese trade union leader. “They operate right on the limits of what is legal.”

Isaac Sesemba, 24, worked last year at Huaxin Mining, a small smelter hidden behind a red gate a few miles outside Lubumbashi. He handled raw metals but was never given gloves, and though a noxious metal dust constantly swirled around the compound, few workers had masks.

Sesemba earned $3 a day, but despite working for nearly a year, he was never offered a contract, as Congolese labor laws require. When copper and cobalt prices plummeted last year during the worldwide economic crisis, the company shut down and Sesemba and dozens of other workers were laid off, some of them still owed days’ worth of pay.

A McClatchy reporter attempted last month to interview officials at Huaxin and four other Chinese smelters but was denied entry repeatedly. Wu Zexian, China’s ambassador to Congo, said he was aware of the allegations but that the Chinese government wasn’t responsible for the actions of private companies.

“The Chinese government’s position is very clear: Every Chinese company working overseas must strictly follow the laws of the country it works in,” he said.

He added: “I have confidence in the Congolese authorities to regulate their activities.”

Experts said, however, that Beijing did indeed have leverage over private entrepreneurs, most of whom are backed by financing from state-owned Chinese banks.

“Any Chinese operation in Congo has a fairly strong level of state ownership in it,” said one Western expert who works in Katanga. “The only way they can be operating is if they have liquidity and cash for investment.” She spoke only on the condition of anonymity in order to protect her organization’s impartiality.

To be sure, there are few saints in Congo’s mining industry, a rough-and-tumble sector populated by U.S. and European corporate giants and small-time speculators from places such as China, Lebanon and India. In recent years, however, the large Western companies — such as Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan — have raised salaries and instituted workplace reforms, often after pressure from domestic politicians and watchdog groups.

The small-scale sector, which has come to be dominated by Chinese entrepreneurs, is far less well-regulated. These individuals don’t own official mining concessions; instead, they purchase raw metals from individuals and process them for export — often to neighboring Zambia, along a Chinese-built road.

While Beijing likes to describe its investments as a “win-win” for African nations, a case of developing nations helping each other, many Congolese have grown deeply resentful of Chinese business practices. When metals prices plunged late last year, dozens of Chinese firms closed down without warning, leaving hundreds of workers unemployed. Labor activists said that in some cases, workers showed up one morning to find gates padlocked and their employers’ cars missing.

At the time, the governor of Katanga angrily vowed not to allow the firms to return. Several companies have resumed operating in recent months, however, and tired-looking men who muttered that they hated working for the Chinese nonetheless lined up outside the gates of smelters at daybreak, hoping for a day’s pay.

“There’s a sense of racism between the Congolese and the Chinese, and the dynamic has become very antagonistic on the ground,” said Lizzie Parsons, a Congo expert with Global Witness, a British-based watchdog group, “but people are desperate for jobs, so they do it.”

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

(mcclatchydc.com)

BEIJING — Family planning officials in Shanghai are making home visits and slipping leaflets under doorways to encourage certain residents to have a second child in a bid to lessen the burden of the city’s growing senior population.

A statement about the new campaign posted Thursday on the Web site of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission was quick to emphasize that it didn’t signal any change in China’s one-child rule and was only an attempt to let people know about the policy’s many exceptions.

About 3 million, or 21 percent, of Shanghai’s nearly 13.7 million registered residents are now aged 60 or older, the statement said, and providing for them poses a huge challenge for the city.

Future labor shortages and social security funding problems could be helped by boosting the young population of Shanghai, it said.

Xie Lingli, the commission’s director, was quoted as saying authorities are going door to door to try to encourage couples to have a second child — if both grew up as only children.

China’s family planning policy was designed to control the country’s exploding population and ensure better education and health care. Though commonly known as the one-child policy because it limits most couples to having just one, there are numerous exceptions and loopholes, some of them put into practice because of widespread opposition to the limits.

Two or more children are allowed for many ethnic minorities, rural families and couples in which both parents were only children. In some cases, divorced parents may also have a second child with a new spouse and people with physical handicaps who have trouble earning an income can also have more than one child.

Critics say the policy has led to forced abortions and sterilizations as local authorities pursue birth quotas set by Beijing, plus a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio as families abort girls out of a traditional preference for male heirs.

The government says the controls have prevented an additional 400 million births in the world’s most populous country of 1.3 billion.

A report issued this year by a U.S.-based group said China’s current ratio of 16 elderly people per 100 workers is set to double by 2025, then double again to 61 by 2050, due partly to family planning limits.

Without a universal pension system to cover all the elderly, millions of older Chinese could fall into poverty, triggering social and political unrest, the Global Aging Initiative at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said in the April report.

Gu Baochang, professor of demographics at People’s University in Beijing, said the next step for Shanghai and other cities with low fertility rates will likely be a new rule that allows couples in which just one partner is an only child to have two children, he said.

Gu said ideally China should scrap the one-child limit altogether, but that he doesn’t expect that to happen soon.

“Because China has never been an aging society, we don’t know what it looks like and the burdens it will bring,” Gu said. “It may take a while for society and the government to understand the change that is coming.”

China’s top family planning official, Zhang Weiqing, said last year that the country would not consider changing the policy for at least a decade for fear of a destabilizing population surge.

(blog.taragana.com)

By Rahul Bedi

More than 80 Indian companies now own land in Africa. Photo / AP

Once the jewel in Britain’s colonial crown, India is fast becoming a coloniser as it acquires vast tracts of land across Africa to farm a range of food crops for local consumption, import back home and export.

Backed by federal government loans, cheap credit and preferential import tariffs, some 80 private Indian companies have, over the past two years, acquired or leased thousands of hectares in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique’s Zambezi Valley.

They are growing rice, sugar cane, maize, pulses, oilseeds, tea and even flowers, vegetables and fruit. Many Indian investors are also cultivating jatropha, the bio-fuel crop in West African states as part of the country’s overall strategy of crop outsourcing.

Indian agricultural experts said that, unlike in the past when governments and conglomerates colonised and acquired land for profit, the 21st century drive was prompted by escalating shortages in emerging economies like India and neighbouring China where rising incomes were generating higher demands for food.

India’s annual food grain production of 230 million tonnes is barely enough to meet a growing local demand.

However, environmental changes triggered by global warming, shrinking land holdings and urbanisation of agricultural land are affecting output.

Over half the US$4.15 billion ($6.23 billion) invested by the New Delhi Government in Ethiopia last year was via long-term loans which have enabled Indian conglomerates to develop in agriculture and floriculture.

In early June, the Bangalore-based Karuturi Global signed an agreement with Ethiopia to grow palm trees (for oil), rice and sugar cane on some 300,000ha of land. Flowers such as roses and gladioli grown here would be exported to European Union countries, significantly boosting company profits.

And in January another Indian company Varun Agriculture SARL inked an agreement with 13 landlords in Madagascar’s Sofia region for 170,914ha to grow rice, corn, maize, wheat, pulses, fruits, vegetables and other local produce for both domestic use, import to India and for export.

But such activity has been criticised by food policy experts who accuse the Indian Government with practicing “neo colonialism” and of sponsoring “exploitative” agreements with poor African states. They reason this would further exacerbate their food insecurity, triggering civil strife.

“I call them food pirates on a land grab spree,” Devinder Sharma of the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security based in a Delhi suburb said. “The environmental cost of intensive farming like exhausted soil from over fertilisation and over exploitation of water resources would be the liabilities left behind for the host country.”

The Confederation of Indian Industry disagrees. “Involvement in agriculture across Africa is a business model that provides value addition locally to the concerned countries,” said Shipra Tripathi, the head of CII’s Africa Division. It greatly helped entrepreneurs from either side by enhancing commerce, providing employment and boosting depressed economies, she said.

India is one of Africa’s relatively newer and more modest colonisers.

According to a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, between 15 million to 20 million hectares of land had recently been sold for US$20 billion- $30 billion across Africa to a handful of investors from China and the Gulf - regions which face graver land and water shortages than India. South Korea has also joined in the race, buying 690,000ha in Sudan to grow wheat to meet domestic demands.

“Many governments, either directly or through State-owned entities and public-private partnerships are in negotiations for, or have already closed deals on, arable land leases, concessions, or purchases abroad,” said the IFPRI report titled Land Grabbing by Foreign Investors in Developing Countries: Risks and Opportunities.

India is also challenging China’s influence across Africa by investing in infrastructural, industrial and human resource capabilities in return for access to vast, untapped reserves of oil, gas and minerals.

India has in recent years developed close relations with the 53-member African Union and various regional organisations not only by extending credit and expanding trade but also by building defence and military links.

(nzherald.co.nz)

* Chinese oil giant has signed deals in Iraq, Angola and Canada in the past month alone

SHANGHAI: Heads may have turned when more Chinese firms than ever made Fortune’s list of 500 top global companies, but experts say the increase reflects Beijing’s power — not companies’ competitiveness.

An unprecedented 34 firms from mainland China made the list of the world’s top companies by revenue, up from 25 last year. Conversely, the number of US firms fell to 140, the lowest since Fortune began the list in 1995.

The Chinese firms may not be global household names, but the impact of companies like top-10-ranked Sinopec is felt around the world as they jostle with other Fortune 500 firms to snap up acquisitions.

In the past month alone, the Chinese oil giant has signed deals in Iraq, Angola and Canada. However, unlike other countries represented, the Chinese companies are all state-owned enterprises — with one exception, steelmaker Shagang Group, which has been fully private since 2004.

“You can be big because you are competitive and you have rolled out good products,” said Yasheng Huang, author of “Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics”.

“Or you can be big because you are a state-sanctioned monopoly that stifles competition. The list makes no distinction,” said Huang, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Sloan School of Management.

Fortune’s list is based on sales revenue, but if it were based on profitability, the Chinese contingent would shrink, said Zhang Ming, an economist at Beijing’s China Academy of Social Sciences.

“Most of the (list’s) Chinese companies are state-run because they enjoy monopolies, favourable policies and state funding. If they lost their monopoly positions, would they still be big and profitable? That’s doubtful,” he said. After 30 years of reforms aimed at transforming China from a controlled economy to a market-based system, state firms’ dominance shows the need for more private assets and allowing more competition, Zhang said.

“The monopoly role means they can reap profits very easily,” he said, adding: “They lack the initiative to explore high-tech and research.” The list underlines the protection that Chinese government ties can provide against the financial crisis, analysts said, pointing to independent companies that dropped off the list this year including computer maker Lenovo and Ping An Insurance — 16.8% owned by HSBC.

“State-owned enterprises have ample access to the financial and political resources of the state and they are protected. The private-sector firms are not so fortunate,” MIT’s Huang said.

That same support should help state firms rise further in global rankings as others fall, said Jianmao Wang, a professor at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.

China has predicted its economy will grow 8% this year while the International Monetary Fund has forecast the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development grouping of 30 developed countries will see a 4% contraction.

Although state firms’ dominance may hurt efficiency in the short term, they do not threaten China’s economic long-term development because market reforms will continue, Wang said. “As China’s pension funds develop, they will own more and more shares in these listed companies and improve their corporate governance,” he said.

But even if its control becomes less direct, the government is unlikely to let its giants go fully independent, Wang said. “As a socialist country, China should not allow any individuals to control the most important firms in the country,” he said.

Beijing aims to add even more state firms to Fortune’s Global 500 under a plan to consolidate companies into 80 to 100 very large state-owned enterprises, half of which it wants to see on the list next year, Wang said.

Is there hope for an independent Chinese Sony or Apple?

Huawei Technologies in Shenzhen is a company to watch, analysts said. With 43% of its 87,500 employees dedicated to research and development and nearly 9,000 domestic filings last year, it led the world in patents, Wang said.

“Huawei is a company with great potential,” Zhang agreed. “But funding channels are very limited for private companies in China, especially after the financial crisis.”
( afp)

LANZHOU,  (Xinhua) — A total of 43 experts and government officials from Africa and central Asia are attending a six-week training program on rainwater storage in northwest China’s Gansu Province.

The courses, which started from Monday in the provincial capital Lanzhou, focus on how to build water cellars to gather rainwater and how to maintain water quality.

Sponsored by China’s Ministry of Commerce and organized by Gansu Provincial Water Resources Department, the program had trained almost 200 technicians from 47 developing countries for free since 2003, said Luan Weigong, deputy director of the department.

Gansu is one of the driest provinces in China, with annual rainfall of less than 300 mm.

Its inhabitants and specialists have developed technologies in rainwater harvesting, storage, purification and irrigation. A single cellar can store 30 to 40 cubic meters of water, enough for a family of 10 for five months in dry seasons.

About 3 million rainwater storage cellars have been built across the province to provide drinking water for 2.63 million people and to irrigate 367,000 hectares of farmland, said Ze Bazu, vice governor of Gansu.

“African countries and Gansu have similar conditions. Rain falls mainly in a three-month period, and there is little rain in the dry season.,” said Li Yuanhong, head of the Gansu Research Institute for Water Conservancy.

Ackim Shawa, a trainee from Zambia, said his country had been building rainwater harvesting projects.

“Gansu’s technologies in this field help us a lot,” he said.

The institute had sent expert teams to drought-hit African and Central Asian countries to build water cellars, Li said.

“We have built more than 200 cellars in Nigeria, helped design 15 rainwater harvesting projects in Saudi Arabia, and provided consulting services to Caribbean countries,” Li said.

From Chinwe Ochu in Abuja

Chinese government had agreed to issue exit visas to Nigerians resident in China illegally, to enable them  leave the country without molestation, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The development is coming on the heels of street protests last week, over the  death of two Nigerians who jumped out of a window to escape police clampdown of illegal migrants in Guangzhou Province.
This is as Chinese Embassy in Abuja, has said  it was yet to receive detailed information on the alleged death of a Nigerian, Emmanuel Egisimba, in the Chinese town of Guangzhou last Wednesday.
The Embassy’s Spokesman, Mr Peng Yijun, said  they are still waiting for confirmation and approval from Beijing before any reaction could be sent to that effect.
“There is an agreement in principle with the Chinese authority to issue exit visas to  Nigerians who have overstayed without arresting and clamping them into jail,” Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Ayo Olukanni, told NAN yesterday in Abuja.
‘This is what the Nigerian mission in China is currently negotiating. The mission is working with the Nigerian community to ensure that the list of those affected is compiled for necessary issuing of the visas,” he said.
Olukanni denied that two Nigerians died after jumping through a window.
‘No Nigerian died. The two people, Mr Ndubusisi Ohaneme sustained some injuries and had been discharged from the hospital, while Emmanuel Okoro, who was in intensive care, is now out and is in stable condition in the hospital,” he said.
According to Olukanni, nearly 20,000 Africans, including 5,000 Nigerians, reside in the Guangzhou Province, adding that in recent times, the Chinese had embarked on an exercise to `flush’ out those staying illegally.
He advised Nigerians against overstaying their visas to avoid harassment from the security personnel of their host countries.

(thisdayonline.com)

LUSAKA (Reuters) - A Chinese firm plans to invest about $3.6 billion in copper exploration and mining in Zambia, reflecting growing Chinese interest in the country’s mineral wealth, a senior investment official said on Wednesday.

Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) Spokeswoman Margaret Chimanse said Zambia and Zhonghui Mining Group signed an investment agreement on Tuesday.

“The $3.6 billion will be invested by Zhonghui in the first five years (from 2009) and it is likely to be increased depending on economic factors affecting the copper industry,” Chimanse told Reuters.

She said the Chinese firm also plans to construct a major copper smelter in Kitwe, 350 km (217 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, and that exploration of minerals by Zhonghui in the Northwestern and Copperbelt provinces of Zambia had already started.

Industry officials said the smelter’s capacity could be 300,000 tonnes per year.

Chimanse said Zhonghui Mining Group would set up projects to be implemented by its Zambia-registered subsidiaries for copper mining and exploration in the southern African country.

“The total number of jobs to be created directly by all the projects is 32,425. The project for copper refining will create 1,200 jobs,” Chimanse said.

The Chinese are currently developing mining infrastructure in Zambia and in March commissioned another 300,000 tonnes per year copper smelter in Chambishi, where up to 50 Chinese companies will begin to operate, under a separate $900 million programme.

Zambian authorities are waiving a 25 percent customs duty on imported equipment, 16.5 percent value added tax and several other taxes for Chinese companies investing in the Chambishi economic zone.

By Andualem Sisay

“For us Malawians it is time to depict the significance of the 2010 FIFA World Cup closer and the initiative is set to effectively market and promote the country’s tourism growth overseas,” Culvin Mavunga, coordinator for Miss Tourism Malawi, auditions for the national event told media.

“We have to start putting in use all our available resources and utilizing and channeling all the funds available in order to make a national investment in tourism. This will not only bring financial freedom but above all it will bring a national investment that can enhance our heritage and uplift our national pride as Malawians,” said Mavunga.

By hosting the event Malawi will send in the winner to the world’s biggest modeling showcase, which will take place for 24 days in China. Through the Miss Tourism Malawi event, the country joins over 100 countries that respectively host the event annually.

Following Miss Tourism Malawi event, other auditions took place at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe and at Anne’s Lodge in Zomba.
Third Eyed Models further observes that just like any other nation, Malawi has its own beautiful and marketable resorts and tourist attraction places across the map.

“We have amazing natural features such as Lake Malawi and the Mulanje Mountain. It is a positive conjecture that during the World Cup soccer showcases, a lot of tourists and soccer loving fans would like to take advantage of this showcase to try and sightsee around countries nearby the host nation.”

As indicated by the organizers of Miss Tourism Malawi, whose finals will be held on July 23 at Mount Soche Hotel in Blantyre, the panel of selectors shall short list a total of 60 applicants during the regional contests.

“In each region there shall be 20 models. These models will then go through regional casting and only 4 models from each region will qualify, which means in total there shall be 12 models at the national finals where the judges will decide the top 4.

“Winners shall include the Queen, her two Princesses and Miss Personality. The judges shall also choose Miss Photogenic and Miss Cat Walk,” states Mavunga.

The Malawi Queen, with a delegation that shall include local journalists, is scheduled to leave the country early next month for China, where among other things she will market the country’s scenic tourism areas, cultural heritage, clothing designs as well as hotels. She will also be part of the modeling team that will be showcasing international fashion designs.

With each country’s tourism ambassadors gathering together, Miss Tourism Queen International is an annual Chinese-based international beauty contest established in 2004. It aims at enhancing the tourism development, the friendship among different countries, and international culture exchange.

(africanews.com)

Addis Ababa, July 20, 2009 — Belayab Enterprise, a local company is to begin the assembly of Chinese vehicles and the manufacture of conduits and electrical cables in Adama in four months, the company’s management disclosed.

Established with a capital of 136 million Br, the company expects to complete the construction of its car assembly and conduits manufacturing plant over the next four months on an 80,000hct plot six kilometers from Adama, on the road to Wenji, near the Canvass and Garment Factory, according to Wondwossen Engida, project manager of the company. The construction started four months ago.

The founders of the company, Aschalew Belay and Zenebe Belay, have deals with Foton, the Chinese vehicle manufacturer, to assemble vehicles at the plant which will be erected on 50,000hct of the 80,000hct plot, Wondwossen said. Among the first to be assembled will be pick-ups, mini buses, dump trucks, cargo trucks, with automobiles to follow in due time. The plant will also assemble small motorized agricultural equipments.

Belayab is not new to the business. At its existing facility near Kera in Addis Abeba, it has been importing and assembling heavy duty vehicles such as low-beds, loaders, back loaders, and excavators.

The conduit and insulated cable manufacturing plant will rest on the 30,000hct next to the assembly plant. Wondwossen says that the two plants could employ up to 800 people.

The construction is expected to take a total of eight months with 150 people employed on the job. Construction was interrupted recently for four days because of the shortage of cement, according to the manager. Part of the plant’s construction beyond the foundation will be done by prefabricated building parts.

(chinacartimes.com)

Trade minister, Amos Kimunya. Photo/PHOEBE OKALL

Lee Yue Zhong said he was disappointed not to reach Mogadishu

A Chinese cyclist has been forced to put the brakes on a 12-year world tour, after officials in Somalia deported him for not having the right documents.

Lee Yue Zhong, who says he has visited 114 countries since setting off on his tour in 1997, arrived in the semi-autonomous Puntland region last week.

But he had no visa and Somali police arrested him before deporting him to neighbouring Djibouti.

The cyclist said he was disappointed with the decision.

He said he had travelled from Somaliland to the Puntland capital Garowe, where he was arrested.

“It took me two weeks from Hargeisa to here and it was part of my long trip to tour continents worldwide, but they really disappointed me,” the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

Local police commissioner Abdirahman Haji Abshir said Mr Zhong, who is in his mid-fifties, could not continue through Somalia “for security reasons”.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991 and has been riven by fighting between Islamist insurgents and government troops.

Somaliland has declared itself independent while Puntland has semi-autonomous status. Both areas run their own affairs.

(BBC)

By John Duce

(Bloomberg) — China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and Cnooc Ltd., the nation’s second- and third-largest oil producers, rose in Hong Kong trading after they agreed to buy a $1.3 billion stake in an Angolan offshore oil block.

Cnooc gained 4.5 percent, the most since July 14, to close at HK$10.22. China Petroleum, also known as Sinopec, rose 1.7 percent to HK$6.45, while the Hang Seng index climbed 3.7 percent.

Sinopec and Cnooc agreed to purchase a 20 percent stake in Angola’s deepwater Block 32 from Marathon Oil Corp., the companies said July 17. China is buying energy and commodity assets in Africa and Central Asia to avoid the political opposition that has caused planned acquisitions in the U.S. and Australia to fail. Cnooc Chairman Fu Chengyu said in April rising protectionism is making overseas takeovers difficult.

“Chinese oil companies are interested in Africa because there aren’t some of the political restrictions in buying assets that exist in other countries in the world,” said Grace Liu, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Hong Kong. “Countries like Angola have quite rich oil resources and are open to Chinese development.”

Opposition to Chinese investment helped blocked Cnooc’s $18.5 billion bid for El Segundo, California-based Unocal Corp. and Haier Group Corp.’s offer for U.S. appliance maker Maytag Corp. in 2005. Aluminum Corp. of China failed in a plan to invest $19.5 billion in Rio Tinto Group.

Nigeria, Kenya

Cnooc has interests in African oilfields in Nigeria, Kenya and Equatorial Guinea, according to its 2008 annual report.

Chinese companies have spent $12.6 billion on oil assets overseas since December, including in Singapore, Syria and Kazakhstan. China Petroleum agreed last month to buy Geneva- based Addax Petroleum Corp. for $7.2 billion, giving the Chinese company access to reserves in Iraq’s Kurdistan and West Africa.

The Angolan purchase comes after the Chinese government warned its citizens based in Algeria, northern Africa, to heighten security after an al-Qaeda-linked group vowed to avenge Muslim Uighurs killed during this month’s riots in Xinjiang province. The clashes between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi, the capital of China’s westernmost Xinjiang province, had left 192 people dead.

China’s oil consumption doubled in the last decade, rising to 8 million barrels a day last year from 4.2 million barrels in 1998, according to the BP Statistical Review. The world’s fastest-growing major economy imported 3.6 million barrels of oil a day last year, meeting about 45 percent of its needs.

Financial Impact

The impact of the Marathon Oil deal on Cnooc and Sinopec’s financial performance is unclear as the field is still under exploration, said Gordon Kwan, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong, in e-mailed comments. “The Angolan oil block has already yielded 12 discoveries” and “until more appraisal and development drilling are conducted, it is difficult to gauge the production and reserves potential,” he said.

The field, 150 kilometers off the African nation’s coast, is operated by Total SA of France, which owns a 30 percent stake. Sonangol SA, Angola’s state-owned oil company, owns 20 percent, Cnooc said on July 17. Marathon, the fourth-largest U.S. oil company, will keep a 10 percent interest in the project.

“This suggests to us that Marathon still believes that the block could hold further potential long-term upside,” Kwan said.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Duce in Hong Kong at Jduce1@bloomberg.net

Xinhua

China and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) agreed on Wednesday to strengthen bonds between parliaments and ruling parties.

The agreement was reached in a meeting between China’s top legislator Wu Bangguo and Evariste Boshab, speaker of the DR Congo’s National Assembly and secretary general of the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), the country’s ruling party.

Wu praised the vibrant exchanges between governments, parliaments and political parties, and trade, military and education cooperation and close coordination in regional and international affairs.

Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, said China appreciated the support of DR Congo on major issues concerning China’s core interests.

He vowed to continue support for the DR Congo in its efforts to maintain national security and social stability.

The DR Congo was an important cooperative partner in Africa, and the Chinese government and the ruling party were ready to strengthen exchanges and explore new ways to step up cooperation.

Boshab told Wu Congo’s government and ruling party had made a strategic decision to develop relations with China. His country appreciated China’s domestic and foreign policies.

He called for closer cooperation in trade, infrastructure construction, energy and resources.

Wu said he hoped the Chinese NPC and the DR Congo’s National Assembly would strengthen dialogue among special committees while maintaining high-level exchanges.

Boshab rejected criticism of China-Africa cooperation as “new colonialism” at a joint press conference with the Chinese media, saying that only African and Chinese peoples were in the position to comment truthfully on the Africa-China cooperation.

“Those critics, bearing their own ulterior motives, only hope to see Africa always struggling in poverty and wars,” Boshab said through a Chinese translator.

Boshab said the use of the word “neocolonialism” to tar Africa-China cooperation only aimed to frustrate China and force African countries to return to the past colonialists for cooperation.

“Ever since we succeeded in national independence, we found China as a good partner for cooperation…and it’s our own choice (to cooperate with China) and no matter what those critics may say, we will adhere to our choice to develop cooperation with China,” Boshab said.

China never had a history of colonialism and always honored the principles of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit when promoting cooperation with African countries, unlike the countries that used to colonized Africa, Boshab said.

He cited China-DR Congo cooperation as an example of the benefits of cooperation in fields such as trade, infrastructure, public health and education, especially to the Congolese people.

“As a country torn by wars and just starting its efforts on post-war construction, the DR Congo values its cooperative relations with China. To us, it’s vital for our national development,” Boshab said.

Boshab’s fourth visit to China, from July 13 to 19, is at the invitation of the Communist Party of China.

()

Two Chinese oil firms, with a developing interest in Africa, have agreed to purchase a 20% stake in an Angolan offshore oil block, located 150 kilometres off of the African nation’s coastline.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation has joined together in a 50/50 joint venture with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), signing an agreement worth $1.3 billion to acquire the stake in deepwater Block 32 from Marathon Oil Corporation.

The nation’s second and third largest producers respectively are moving to build up their portfolio of energy and commodity assets in Africa and Central Asia to avoid the political opposition that has caused planned acquisitions in the U.S. and Australia to fall through. Energy-hungry China is hoping to secure future oil supplies for its rapidly growing economy.

CNOOC Chairman Fu Chengyu said back in April that rising protectionism was making overseas takeovers difficult for China, and this has proven to be the case.

Opposition to Chinese investment helped block CNOOC’s $18.5 billion bid for El Segundo, California-based Unocal Corporation, and Haier Group Corporation’s offer for U.S. appliance maker Maytag Corporation, back in 2005. Aluminum Corporation of China also failed recently in a plan to invest $19.5 billion in Rio Tinto Group.

Upon successful completion – which is expected by the end of the year –the Block 32 project is expected to provide a meaningful contribution to CNOOC’s earnings by the year 2015. However it is the guaranteed supply of oil in the long-term that is more important to the state-owned company and the nation at large.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs reported that the oil field has “a significant resource base with estimated recoverable light crude oil reserves of 1.5 billion barrels.

“The $1.3 billion consideration compares with our valuation of $1.4 billion to $1.65 billion and Marathon’s publicly disclosed offer of $1.8 billion to $2.0 billion,” the report continued. The broker values the recoverable reserves at $4.30 a barrel.

Under the agreement Houston-based Marathon Oil will continue to hold a 10% stake in the 1,965 square-mile block. The field, which has had 12 previously announced discoveries, is currently operated by French energy giant Total.

The deal in Angola, which is a major supplier of crude to China, prices the African-nation’s assets significantly cheaper than Marathon had originally hoped. Marathon valued the stake at $2 billion.

CNOOC now has a portfolio spanning African oilfields in Nigeria, Angola, Kenya and Equatorial Guinea.

Grace Liu, analyst at Guotai Junan Securities, Hong Kong, said: “Chinese oil companies are interested in Africa because there aren’t some of the political restrictions in buying assets that exist in other countries in the world.

“Countries like Angola have quite rich oil resources and are open to Chinese development,” added Liu.

China’s oil demand has accelerated rapidly over the last decade, doublings its consumption to 8 million barrels per day (bpd) for 2008, up from 4.2 million bpd in 1998 – according to the BP Statistical Review.

(oilvoice.com)

CNOOC and Sinopec have agreed to buy a 20 per cent stake in a subsea oil field off Angola for $1.3bn from Marathon of the US, as China continues to pursue its sometimes chequered efforts to buy up overseas energy and mining assets.

The Chinese energy companies said that they would form a 50-50 venture to buy the stake in an area known as block 32, which has already yielded 12 discoveries. Marathon will retain a 10 per cent working interest in the block

Chinese companies have been quietly buying up sources of commodities that will be needed to fuel the country’s economic growth. Sinopec recently moved into the booming oil frontier of Iraqi Kurdistan by agreeing a C$8.3bn (US$7.2bn) takeover of Addax Petroleum, an independent oil company based in Canada. Earlier this month, China Investment Corporation, the country’s $200bn sovereign wealth fund, agreed to pay C$1.74bn for a 17.2 per cent stake in Teck Resources, a Canadian zinc and copper miner.

However, the country’s pursuit of resources was dealt a blow when Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining company, rejected Chinalco’s $19.5bn bid for part of the company.

That deal, which ultimately foundered for market reasons, also faced economic, political and shareholder opposition, reflecting fears over the consequences of giving China direct access to big supplies of natural resources.

Concern has risen over Chinese attempts to gain greater power over natural resources since Beijing has detained four employees of Rio, including one Australian citizen, in connection with global iron ore contract pricing negotiations.

The deal in Angola, already a big supplier of crude to China, prices the African assets more cheaply than Marathon had originally hoped. Marathon had tried to sell the stake for up to $2bn, people close to the deal said at the time. Other partners in block 32 – Total of France with a 30 per cent stake; Sonangol, the Angola state-owned company, with 20 per cent; ExxonMobil with 15 per cent and Galp of Portugal with 5 per cent – have rights of first refusal over the sale. Any of those companies could buy the 20 per cent stake at the price being offered by the Chinese.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

(ft.com)

By Joost Akkermans

(Bloomberg) — A Nigerian man feared dead after falling from a window in the Chinese city of Guangzhou trying to escape a police visa check is still alive though in critical condition, the South China Morning Post said, citing a doctor.

As many as 200 Africans surrounded a police station in the southern Chinese city on July 15 after two Nigerian men fell from a second-floor window of a building, according to the Morning Post. Both men had overstayed their visas, the Hong Kong-based newspaper said, citing a police statement.

The critically injured man suffered severe head injuries from the fall, the English-language Post reported, citing a doctor at the Guangzhou Military District Main Hospital who declined to be named. The condition of the second man wasn’t clear yesterday, the newspaper said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joost Akkermans in Hong Kong at jakkermans@bloomberg.net

by Guo Chunju

DAR ES SALAAM,  (Xinhua) — “I expect my trip to China and see the lovely people there and many many magnificent things, including the Great Wall and the Forbidden City among others, ” the 24-year-old Sophia told Xinhua on Saturday evening.

At the seeing-off party for a delegation of 50 Tanzanian youth delegates hosted by the Chinese embassy to Tanzania, Sophia, a third-year student leader from the Open University of Tanzania talked about her upcoming journey with an expression of excitedness.

As the visit will be the first time for her to go to China, Sophia noted that she expects the trip will enrich her knowledge about China, which is now the third largest economy in the world, especially at the moment that the 60th founding anniversary of China is coming near.

Mentioning the great economic progress in China in the past years, Sophia said more and more Chinese products are sold abroad, “I have a Chinese TV set, and I also bought Chinese trousers “.

She added that she would like to buy a mobile phone and some beautiful clothes during the upcoming trip to China.

Delivering a speech, LP.R. Musaroche, Director of Secondary Education and Acting Commissioner for Education and head of the delegation, said that Tanzania and China have a long and old history of diplomatic relations, and that the volume of trade and investment, as well as people-to-people exchanges are increasing.

The trip to China would be an opportunity to Tanzanian youths to witness and learn high level of your development in various fields including education, technology, industry, trade, sports and culture among others, he noted.

“It is expected that they will also be able to share new ideas from your country,” Musaroche added, expressing his hope that the trip to be fruitful to strengthen the traditional friendship and enhance cooperation between the two countries.

In his remarks, Fu Jijun, Charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy to Tanzania, expressed his belief that the trip will help extend Tanzanian youths’ understanding of Chinese history and culture, expecting the delegates to become “young ambassadors” in promoting China-Tanzania friendly relations and cooperation.

He also hoped that the two members of the delegation from Tanzanian media to cover a truly China for Tanzanian people.

Invited by Chinese President Hu Jintao during his state visit to Tanzania in February, the delegation of 50 Tanzanian youths from various sectors is due to leave on Sunday for starting an eight-day visit to three Chinese cities.

Standard Bank has a head start — and the others don’t like it.

South African banks may not be fiercely competitive at home, but they certainly are when it comes to the rest of Africa. Nedbank and FirstRand are trying to play catch up with market leader Standard Bank, while Absa is trying to figure out how to work more closely with Barclays on the continent. While Standard is still streets ahead, the other banks are now pushing hard to develop a coherent African strategy.

The scramble for Africa is on because the continent offers serious growth opportunities. Many African banking markets remain quite undeveloped. Not because banks just haven’t thought of being better; rather, the economic environment often acts as a major constraint. It’s not easy to offer home loans where there is no deeds registry (although some creative solutions are being cooked up), or credit cards when there are no phone lines (cell networks are cracking that problem too). But a combination of new technologies and better policy-making, particularly around financial systems, means many African economies now have major potential. South Africans’ continental base and experience with African issues such as inequality and poor infrastructure equip them well to ply their trade on the rest of the continent.

It’s not easy, though. South Africans have not only each other to contend with; Nigeria’s banks, flush with capital, have the same idea. CNN and London’s Underground are filled with advertising by Nigerian majors like Zenith Bank, UBA and Intercontinental announcing their intention to be major African players. East Africa also has a handful of contenders for continental dominance. And then there are the foreign majors like Citibank, Standard Chartered, HSBC and Barclays trying to establish their own continental supremacy, although one gets the sense their African strategies don’t occupy too much time on the agendas of global managers.

While Standard Bank took the lead in Africa by buying the ANZ Grindlays Africa network in 1993 (to which they have since added a number of other acquisitions), the other South African banks were more tentative (outside of the neighbouring countries), waiting for their traditional South African client base to lead the way.

Now, though, the strategy is to pick up direct African business. Nedbank has formed a joint venture deal with West Africa’s Ecobank to cooperate in each other’s markets. Unfortunately, it has a bit of the flavour of Nedbank’s last major African foray — a joint venture with HSBC, in Equator Bank. Nedbank was a partner from 1994 to 2003, but it didn’t work out, costing money rather than making it.

Presumably it will work harder with Ecobank, although it will have some work to do to form a productive relationship with its francophone counterpart.

Joint ventures are far from straightforward. When the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) bought 20% of Standard in 2007 and announced a major cooperative agreement, much was expected.

But so far not much has been delivered, with one exception — Standard and ICBC’s joint deal to finance the R13-billion Botswana Morupule B Power Station project in May this year. It was a corker of a deal. All the usual suspects pitched to get the work — offering the usual financing options like raising capital in European debt markets, sweetened by some overpriced own-balance-sheet lending.

But Standard swept in with an innovative deal that saw ICBC inject R7-billion in finance, with the risk mostly taken care of by a credit guarantee from Sinosure. It helped that the construction tender had been won by a Chinese major that ICBC had banked forever — but it was also made possible by Standard’s on-the-ground presence in Botswana.

FirstRand’s strategy is different. It has mostly pursued a suitcase approach to the continent — flying in to pitch for business. This is slowly evolving into a more engaged approach in some markets where it will open an office, particularly for its Rand Merchant Bank side which has been hunting for deals. FirstRand is also trying to establish itself as banker to India-Africa business (much as Standard has done for China-Africa) with a feisty Indian operation.

Which leaves Absa. Its Barclays parentage should give it a major advantage in Africa, but so far it has not. That has largely been because of regulatory obstacles. The idea when Barclays bought Absa in 2005 was that Absa would then buy out all of Barclays’ operations in the rest of Africa. That would have made Absa a serious player. But South African regulators poured cold water on the idea, concerned at how much strain a spate of African acquisitions would put on Absa just after the Barclays deal. This has stymied Absa when it comes to figuring out what to do in Africa. Inevitably, though, the acquisition of Barclays’ African businesses will land back on the agenda at some point, and then Absa may well become Standard’s main challenger on the continent.

Feedback: banknotes@intellidex.co.za

(thetimes.co.za)