Printer-friendly versionSend by emailPDF version

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

1. China in Africa

World Bank, China may cooperate to transfer manufacturing jobs to Africa
The World Bank is in 'very early stage' talks on cooperating with China to promote the transfer of low-value manufacturing jobs from the nation to Africa, said Robert Zoellick, head of the Washington-based lender. An expected end to the expansion of China’s labor force and the government’s push for domestic companies to move up the value chain could help shift jobs that would boost employment in sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, Zoellick said at a briefing in Beijing at the end of a five-day visit.
Read More

West Africa rising: Guinea to sign $5.8 billion mining deal with Chinese firm
In Conakry, Guinean officials are on the verge of signing a $5.8 billion mining deal with a Chinese state-owned fund, Reuters reports. In return for digging rights to a plot outside the capital, China Power Investment would finance the construction of a coal power plant, a deep water port, and a refinery long sought after by the nation's rulers.
Read More

China targets Rwanda infrastructure projects
Rwanda has become the latest beneficiary of China’s foray into East Africa as the Asian giant seeks to control the region’s economic landscape, also targeted by Japan and India. China last week gave Rwanda $15.7 million to boost trade between the two countries. Rwanda will receive half the amount as a grant and the remaining 50 million yuan as a five-year interest free loan, said Gao Hucheng, Chinese Deputy Commerce Minister and international trade representative.
Read More

China, Africa gather to discuss rural development
Officials and delegations from China and African countries have gathered at a seminar being held in Beijing to discuss rural development and economic growth. The seven-day seminar kicked off on Sunday, attracting representatives from China and 11 African countries to exchange views and experiences related to the seminar's theme of 'agriculture and rural development.'
Read More

CNPC terminates 6 overseas projects, estimates losses of 1.2 bln yuan
China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the country's largest oil and gas producer, terminated six exploration projects in Libya and Niger amid ongoing political turbulence in the Middle East and North Africa, the Securities Daily said Monday. The termination of the six projects run by Great Wall Drilling Co. (GWDC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNPC, is estimated to cause 1.2 billion yuan (187.51 million U.S. dollars) in losses for the company, higher than losses incurred during the 2009 financial crisis, said the report.
Read More

Investment in Africa urged
China will encourage companies to invest in new fields in Africa including agriculture, manufacturing, finance and environmental protection industries, Chen Deming, the Chinese minister of commerce, said at a China-Africa investment and cooperation forum on Sept 8. Chen said that Africa's development faces key problems including the food crisis and underdeveloped processing of agricultural products and natural resources. He said he encourages and supports 'Chinese companies to invest in Africa, especially in agriculture, manufacturing, finance and environmental protection.'
Read More

Ghana parliament approves $3 billion Chinese loan
Ghana's parliament on Friday approved a $3 billion Chinese loan and the country's finance minister said the west African nation was in talks with China's Exim bank for loans worth another $6 billion, which are part of a broader Chinese package. The money is part of a total $13 billion in agreements signed in September 2010 between Ghana and the China Development Bank and China Exim Bank aimed at developing infrastructure projects, including in the oil and gas sector.
Read More

Full Text: Nairobi Declaration adopted at the First China-Africa People's Forum
We, 200 representatives of non-government organizations from China and 19 African countries, gathered in Nairobi between 29th and 30th of August 2011 for the First China-Africa People’s Forum. Concerned about the severe drought and famine situation in the Horn of Africa region, we call upon governments and NGOs around the world, and the international community to render more support to people of the region in their disaster relief efforts to avert further suffering and loss of lives.
Read More

2. India in Africa

Investments in Ethiopia farming face criticism from activists
'Ethiopia offers an investor-friendly climate for companies, with incentives such as a three-year tax holiday,' Saleem, founder and chief executive of Sara Cotton Fibers Pvt. Ltd, said in an email response from Ethiopia. 'The Ethiopian government has also announced cotton as a priority sector for the country.' Indian companies are making a beeline to grow agricultural commodities and sell seeds, fertilizers and agriculture equipment in the Horn of Africa thanks to the availability of cheap labour and a dole-out of vast fertile land chunks by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi through the last decade.
Read More

Indian agribusiness sets sights on land in east Africa
Indian agribusiness companies are ready to spend $2.5bn buying, or renting for decades, several million hectares of cheap land in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda in what could be some of the largest farming deals struck in Africa in the last 50 years. But in a separate development, plans for a US-based investment company to lease up to 1m hectares of South Sudan for only $25,000 a year appear to have stalled following protests by local communities over the potential 'land grab'.
Read More

India's interests growing in African oil, gas assets
Even though Sudan is the only African country where state-owned Indian companies have started extracting hydrocarbons, other countries in the continent are also showing promise, according to information available with India's oil ministry. ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), has in the past three financial years produced 2.7 million, 2.4 million and two million tonnes of gas from its assets in Sudan. Soon, state-run firms are expected to strike oil in more from African nations.
Read More

3. In Other Emerging Powers News

Brazilian major now active in Southern, Central and West Africa
In June, Brazilian diversified mining major Vale, the world’s second-biggest mining company by market capitalisation, reaffirmed that it is set to make major investments in Africa by 2016. 'Our current investment proposal in Africa is to expend more than $12 billion over the next five years, subject to board approval,' Vale Zambia exploration manager Ian Hart told the recent first Zambian International Mining and Energy Conference and Exhibition, in Lusaka. The peak year in this programme will be 2012, which should see the company invest $3.3 billion in the continent. As of April this year, Vale’s investment in the continent totalled $2.5 billion, reported the Financial Times.
Read More

Basic countries back Indian proposals on climate
Ahead of the crucial ministerial level climate talks in South Africa, India has convinced the other three BASIC countries – Brazil, South Africa and China - to endorse its stand on equity, intellectual property rights and green trade barriers. The BASIC countries approved the Indian proposals, which had taken some strong negotiations to be put back on the table in the UN climate talks despite resistance from the developed countries.
Read More

Russia unveils Libya policy
This week Russia recognized Libya’s National Transitional Council as the only legitimate power in the country. A statement to this effect was published on September 1st, on the same day Col Muammar Gaddafi overthrew King Idris of Libya 42 years ago. Russia’s envoy to Africa Mikhail Margelov met with NTC’s Chairman Abdel Jalil on the sidelines of an international conference on Libya in Paris, which brought together representatives from 63 countries. Mikhail Margelov had this to say.
Read More

4. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

Brazil's soy frontier: Next stop, Africa
A couple weeks ago, the government of Mozambique offered farmers from Brazil 50-year leases on 15 million acres of land: an area equivalent to a bit more than half of the acreage under cultivation in Iowa. According to Reuters, the price is right: $5.30 per acre, vs. a going rate of as much as $8,800 per acre in Brazil. Understandably, Brazilian farmers are jumping at the offer.
Read More

China's second coming in Libya
With Libyan rebels taking over Tripoli and authoritarian leader Muammar Gaddafi on the run, the rebellion aided by North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led air strikes to overthrow the Gaddafi regime will come to the end soon. Now reconstruction is an urgent practical issue on the agenda for the Libyan people and international society. China, an active player in Libya's economic affairs, had to evacuate some 35,000 Chinese nationals - workers, managers, engineers, traders and tourists - leaving dozens of projects unattended after civil war broke out in February. It has made it plain that it is ready to return 'to play an active role in future reconstruction,' as Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Chaoxu put it on August 24, under the United Nations' lead.
Read More

Fall of Gaddafi: Policy challenge for China and Russia – analysis
The impending victory of NATO-backed rebels over the military forces of Colonel Moammar Gaddafi throughout Libya and the effective takeover of Tripoli by the rebel Transition National Council (TNC) pose a significant policy challenge for China and Russia with regard to their support for autocratic leaders in the Middle East and North Africa.
Read More

Africa calls and young entrepreneurs heed
'It's like what happened in China 30 or 40 years ago, filled with potential and opportunity,' Yu told China Daily in an online chat, while tending to her handkerchief wholesale business in Accra, the capital of Ghana. 'Handkerchiefs are especially popular here. Almost everyone carries one, while in China, most people prefer paper tissues,' said Yu, whose family made a fortune as wholesalers in Yiwu, as did her fiance Yang's family - but neither family in handkerchiefs or textiles.
Read More