This was supposed to be a spring of soup kitchens and breadlines in China’s manufacturing heartlands, the potential precursor to a long, hot summer of industrial unrest threatening the government’s vision of a “harmonious society”. Times are hard in China’s export sector, the hardest in memory. Exports from southern Guangdong province, which account for a third of the country’s total, fell 21 per cent in January and February as western retailers ran down their inventories.

When corporates venture into other countries, the success of their businesses ventures, to a great extent, depends on the quality of services offered by banks and financial intermediaries in those countries. Hence, having a banking partner whose services are reliable is of utmost importance. HSBC, which has been in the forefront of helping Indian businesses find their feet in foreign lands, is of the view that Indian businesses, including SMEs, can look at Mauritius as an investment destination as well as a gateway to other African nations.

South Africa, the self-acclaimed rainbow nation, is in the news again and for all the wrong reasons. The authorities of that country recently barred the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibet from participating in a peace conference slated for South Africa. No cogent reason was given for their action which has drawn an outcry from the rest of the world.

Seardel’s decision to close Frame Textiles, with the loss of up to 1400 jobs, illustrates both the deep flaws in SA’s industrial strategy and the futility of trying to insulate the country from the global economic crisis by means of protectionist policies. Frame, the biggest textile operation in southern Africa, has been struggling for years to compete with cheap imports, soaring input costs and — for the past six months in particular — the collapse of export markets globally.

The tiny desert town of Abeche, in eastern Chad, offers a curious sight: Sandwiched between the mud huts that most people call home and the compounds belonging to international aid workers is a humble Chinese restaurant catering to Chad's growing population of Chinese engineers and managers. Significantly, no equivalent American-style restaurant is to be found.

China isn't in Africa merely to snap up raw materials, exploit African labor, or build geopolitical influence. Rather, its goals blend a combination of all the above with a need to beta-test future global brands, open new markets, enhance its soft power through international organizations such as the International Standards Organization - where African votes carry more than a third of the weight - nurture a new diaspora and build a resilient microeconomic bridge by exporting entrepreneurs

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's seizure of a ministry controlled by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is casting more doubt on his commitment to the fledgling power-sharing deal. The birth of the unity government on 11 February 2009 was designed to dilute the powers accumulated during Mugabe's nearly 29-year rule, which has reduced the once prosperous nation to penury.

“Training in ICT skills gets the community to start thinking differently and to consider the sources of income available to them more clearly. From a commercial standpoint, they become aware of the fact that their products have to meet certain standards of quality in order to be sold at higher prices,” says Aura Elena Plaza from Villa Paz, an Afro-Colombian community in the Cali region. Dafne Plou reports for APCNews on her first-hand experience of the impact access to information has had on the lives of people in remote villages in Mali, Africa and Cali, Colombia.

Five developing countries have received US$18 million in funding to plan how to implement a proposed scheme to reward countries that protect forests and reduce deforestation. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and Vietnam will share the funds, which will enable them to prepare national action plans to take part in the proposed Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) mechanism — likely to be agreed upon at climate talks in Copenhagen in December this year.

Farmers' and peasants' organisations, landless workers, rural women and youth are mobilising on April 17th for the International Day of Peasant's Struggle. This year, more than 100 actions including demonstrations, street theater, video screenings, direct action, conferences, art shows, local food markets, publications and exchanges... are being organised *by the international farmers' movement Via Campesina, its friends and allies.

Multinationals accused of human rights abuses can no longer feel safe now that the oil giant is facing allegations of complicity in the execution of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Could this be the beginning of the end of the age of impunity? Fourteen years after the judicial murder of the Nigerian novelist, environmentalist and human rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Shell is about to go on trial in New York, accused of complicity in his execution.

My long trip started on the 20th January 2009 when I traveled from Cape Town to Durban by bus. I spent 26 hours on a City to City bus, moving from Cape Town via PE, East London and Umtata and then to Durban. As much as it was a long journey I must say it I really enjoyed it. I think it was nice touring my own country, getting the opportunity to be exposed to different corners of South Africa from Cities and Townships to Rural areas where the poorest of the poor are located as a result of the past.

Following the G20 meeting in London last week, Stephen Marks unpacks the spin behind the apparent swelling of financial resources available for a global recovery plan. While the IMF remains free to impose the infamous conditionalities that have been the bane of many of its recipient countries, Marks highlights the glaring irony of an organisation that has long pressured others into reform without ever being subject to self-reflection and change itself. While the motives of each G20 player may differ, Marks writes, China at least has a clear interest in seeing the reforming rhetoric of the meeting turned into genuine action and greater representation for developing nations.

On March 9th, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food presented the conclusions from his mission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the Human Right Council. In its March 20th resolution on the right to food, the Council encourages the Special Rapporteur to continue to engage with the World Trade Organization to follow up on the issues of concern identified in his report.

Can Facebook and YouTube help the poor tackle their pressing problems? Or is this promise just hype? One is faced with tough questions: Can “Web 2.0 tools” directly influence the poor themselves? Can those interested in poverty work do better to start with the “situation” rather than the “technology”? Or should one think big and dream of a network of networks encompassing a billion children and their teachers, families and friends — nearly all of the poor people in the world, and most of the rich?

Throughout Mali, the use of mobile phones, the services offered by telecentres established in different parts of the country – thanks to agreements between local organisations, companies and cooperation agencies – and convergence with local radio stations, are opening doors that were unimaginable just a few years ago for people cut off from the flow of information and communications.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa dismissed as "false" a South African TV documentary which exposed the appalling prison conditions in Zimbabwe. The documentary showed emaciated bodies of prisoners dying from hunger and disease. RadioVOP quoted the Justice Minister accusing the SABC of fabricating the story and claiming the pictures were taken in other jails in Africa, not in Zimbabwe.

“We need to redefine what it means to be a man, reinforce zero tolerance of gender-based violence, and make sexual and reproductive health services more relevant and user-friendly for men,” Purnima Mane, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, told participants in a global symposium on gender equality.

From the early eighties, when African students could still study for free at the Beida University in Beijing, discrimination against Africans in China was reported in the international media. Since then, the story has been regularly repeated. Just before the Beijing Olympics, racism was front page news again. In the bars of Sanlitun, the downtown area for foreigners, they were systematically denied entrance, just as in the discos of the capital.

In an attempt to confront the current economic crisis by encouraging pro-poor investment in housing, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, Thursday signed six agreements with project partners from Argentina, Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda with the aim of providing funds for affordable housing and infrastructure.