Latest edition: emerging powers news roundup

1. China in Africa

Analysis: Chinese investors to tread more carefully in Africa
China's oil and commodities firms are set to tread more carefully in Africa after being stung by kidnappings, seizures of cargo and, most recently, the expulsion of a chief executive. But they won't pull back. If anything, China will broaden its exposure to the region, home to some of the world's most resource-rich but unstable countries, as it scours the globe for resources needed by the factories and businesses of the world's fastest-growing economy.
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China calls for int'l efforts to address transnational crime in W.Africa
A Chinese UN ambassador on Tuesday urged the international community to take effective measures to help West Africa and countries in the Sahel region in addressing transnational crime. Addressing a Security Council open debate on peace and security in Africa, Wang Min, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said the rise of illegal drugs and arms trafficking, piracy and terrorist activities is seriously threatening peace and stability, endangering the economic and social development and negatively impacting the humanitarian situation in the region.
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Zambia-China trade zone marks the fifth anniversary of founding
Since its inception five years ago, the Zambia-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone has attracted 17 companies and a total investment of nearly $1 billion. Its resident companies have generated nearly $500 million in taxes and sales revenues of $4.35 billion, officials said during a ceremony on Feb 3 in Beijing to mark the zone's fifth anniversary. Founded by China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co Ltd (CNMC), the zone is another milestone in ties between the two countries following the Tazara Railway built by China 40 years ago to link Zambia with Tanzania, said China's Vice-Foreign Minister Zhai Jun.
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2. India in Africa

India signs cooperation pact with Burundi
Building upon initiatives unveiled during the second Africa-India summit last year, India has signed a crucial cooperation agreement with Burundi, a landlocked country in eastern Africa, and agreed to accelerate key capacity building institutions in that country. During her visit to the capital Bujumbura, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur called on President Pierre Nkurunziza and held wide-ranging talks with Burundi's Foreign Minister Laurent Kavakure.
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3. In Other Emerging Powers News

Africa: Brazil to fund food purchasing in 5 countries
The Brazilian government is providing US$2,375,000 for a new local food purchase programme to be set up by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to benefit farmers and vulnerable populations in five African countries – Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Senegal. Under an agreement signed here, Brazil will fund the project as well as share expertise drawn from its own national Food Purchase Programme (PAA), the UN agency said in a news dispatch Tuesday.
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BRIC member-nations, South Afrcia Mull Own Multilateral Bank
Amidst a global financial pandemonium, the group collectively known as BRIC - the countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China - in a show of collective strength is contemplating pooling resources and funds together to create a multilateral bank, but only by and for the exclusive use of developing nations such as theirs. Media reports circulated that India thought of the proposal and that the other countries have agreed to discuss the possibility and potential of the scheme. Delegates from the four nations are scheduled to meet at the Group of 20 meetings this weekend in Mexico City.
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Russia will continue to partake in anti-piracy operation – official
The Russian Navy will continue to take part in an international anti-piracy operation off Somalia, but Moscow will not launch strikes on pirates’ ground bases, Mikhail Margelov, the Russian President’s special representative to Africa, told an international conference on Somalia on Thursday.
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Mena-Russia trade set for major growth
The Middle East and North Africa (Mena) trade flows will grow fastest with Russia, India and China between 2012 and 2020, according to Ernst & Young. Beating the global average of trade growth set at 9.4 per cent per annum, Mena trade with Russia will grow at 14.4pc, with India at 13.5pc and with China at 12.5pc through to 2020.
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4. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

China and the West in Africa
Stronger cooperation with Africa could increase China`s sphere of influence and bolster its attempts to redefine its relations with the rest of the world. This would be a dramatic change in the traditional patterns of Western dominance over African affairs and would diminish Western political and economic leverage over the continent, thereby constituting a major challenges to Western hegemony over the political, economic and development discourse in Africa and internationally.
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