China's top legislator Wu Bangguo on Monday pledged to work with Seychelles to push forward relations between the two countries and their parliaments. Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, made the remarks when meeting with Seychelles National Assembly Speaker Patrick Herminie.

Chinese and Guinean workers toil shoulder to shoulder on a sun-blasted construction site at this crumbling city's edge, building the latest symbol of an old and sturdy alliance: a $50 million, 50,000-seat stadium. This city is littered with such tokens of a friendship that first flowered when Guinea was an isolated and struggling socialist state in the late 1950s.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Tuesday urged tougher prevention and punishment on corruption, saying "China faced the toughest year in its economic development since the turn of the century." Localities and departments should step up supervision over corruption, regulate the use of executive power, tackle persistent problems that harm public interest and accelerate construction of a system to prevent and punish corruption to provide a solid guarantee for reform, development and stability, Wen told a conference on clean governance.

China’s so-called investments in Namibia bring very little, if any, skill and technology transfers, neither do such investments play a significant role in developing the country’s value addition and manufacturing base. This is according to a new report on Chinese Investments in Namibia. The report lays bare the murky Chinese investments and more importantly Government’s ineptitude to set strategic priorities on which to negotiate foreign direct investment

Four Chinese nationals have been caught red-handed while over-harvesting limpets worth N$21 680 in Walvis Bay around the Mola Mola and NamPort areas. According to the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Control Fisheries, Michael Koopman, the Chinese nationals tried to run away, but the fisheries inspectors eventually caught up with them and brought them in for questioning.

A Mozambican and South African consortium, Petroline Holdings, plans to start building a $620-million oil pipeline linking Johannesburg to the port of Maputo before the end of this year. Mateus Kathupa, CEO of state-run Mozambican company PETROMOC, which holds a 40% stake in the consortium, said on Thursday the construction of the petrol and diesel pipeline would take six months.

Beninese President Boni Yayi met with Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun here Wednesday. Yayi said Benin and China have a deep-rooted friendship and the Beninese government and people thank China for its long-term aid. He said the Beninese government will continue to adhere to the one-China policy. Benin hopes to establish and develop a comprehensive partnership of cooperation with China, enlarge collaboration in the fields of infrastructure and social development, and enhance bilateral relations, Yayi said.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its near global ratification have been seen as true accomplishments in this sense. Yet, despite this recognition and success, the range and severity of problems faced by children at the start of the twenty-first century are persisting, if not increasing. The year 2009 marks the 20 th anniversary of the Convention. The occasion provides a timely opportunity to assess the value of the CRC in engaging with dilemmas on the ground, in devising multi-faceted approaches other than a purely legal or technical response, and in evolving to meet new challenges that emerge from its practical implementation.

Following the South African brokerage of a power-sharing deal between Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Zanu (PF) Patrick Bond explores whether, in the face of myriad threats to the country’s democracy, the wishes of the Zimbabwean people – as expressed in the People’s Charter adopted at a convention in February – could prevail. As South Africa and the African Development Bank join the Bretton Woods Institutions in calls for Tsvangirai to repay Mugabe’s odious debts, and South African firms hover in the wings to buy up the country’s assets for a song, what is at stake says Bond, is who will win the new economic chimurenga (liberation war) being waged in Zimbabwe. This article was presented at seminars in February, prior to the introduction of the Short-Term Emergency Recovery Programme and revised 2009 Budget.

The recent decision by the South African government to deny the Dalai Lama a visa to attend a peace conference organised as has provoked acute public outrage in South Africa. Caught in the eye of the storm of international and domestic public opinion, the South African presidency blighted itself by arguing that ‘The South African government does not have a problem with the Dalai Lama….But at this time the whole world will be focused on the country as hosts of the 2010 World Cup. We want the focus to remain on South Africa… A visit now by the Dalai Lama would

African leaders put their case as finance ministers from the world’s 20 richest countries met in London, ahead of next month’s G20 summit on the global economic downturn. British premier Gordon Brown took the opportunity to promote himself as Africa’s friend within the G20. But in a first-ever joint communique on the eve of the meeting, Brazil China Russia and India called for reform of the global financial institutions to give a greater voice to emerging economies and provide better regulation of the financial system in future.

This is a practical, do-it-yourself guide for leaders and facilitators wanting to help organisations to function and to develop in more healthy, human and effective ways as they strive to make their contributions to a more humane society. It has been developed by the Barefoot Collective.

Libya will exercise its right to buy Verenex Energy Inc., trumping a proposed C$499 million ($393 million) takeover of the Canadian explorer by China National Petroleum Corp. “We will exercise the right of preemption,” Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya’s state-run National Oil Corp., said today in an interview in Vienna. Libya wants to buy the Calgary-based explorer for “purely commercial reasons,” he said. Under the preemption clause, Libya has to match the offer from China’s biggest oil company.

Telecoms operator Neotel has become the anchor tenant on the Seacom cable, poised to deliver vast quantities of cheaper bandwidth to SA through a deal struck by its parent company, Tata Communications. Tata, which owns 56% of Neotel, has signed up as the undersea cable’s first big customer, and has struck another deal to actually manage the cable, its billing systems and customer relations on behalf of Seacom.

Lifan Group, one of the biggest privately-owned enterprises in China, will set up a vehicle assembly plant, the first of its type, in Ethiopia with an initial investment outlay of $10 million, Pan Juequan, chief representative of the company and project manager of the future establishment in Ethiopia told The Reporter. Lifan Group is also the sole supplier of engines, motors and spare-parts for the locally assembled Holland Car which produces Abay and Awash antomobile for the local market and export.

China has lost tens of billions of dollars of its foreign exchange reserves through a poorly timed diversification into global equities just before world markets collapsed last year. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the opaque manager of nearly $2,000bn (€1,547bn, £1,429bn) of reserves, started making huge bets on global stocks early in 2007 and continued this strategy at least until the collapse of the US mortgage finance providers Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in July 2008, according to analysts and people familiar with Safe’s operations.

A group of Mozambique's nineteen development partners on Wednesday approved a $816 million aid package to support the government's 2009 state budget and other development projects for the next five years. The group, known as the Programme Aid Partners (PAP), who provide support to the national budget, are the largest grouping of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Indian vehicle manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra has increased its stake in the joint venture with its South African partner to 90 percent from 51 percent, and invested a further 30 million rands ($3 million) in the country’s automotive business. Mahindra South Africa, which launched its new multipurpose vehicle Xylo here last week, also expressed confidence in the South African auto market, though other manufacturers reported record drops in sales in the wake of the global economic downturn.

Current global economic meltdown might be a blessing in disguise for Tanzania should long term strategies be employed to revamp its agricultural sector, Standard Chartered Bank` s Regional Head of Research, Africa Razia Khan has said.
Addressing a press conference in Dar es Salaam this week, Khan said the country stands to benefit immensely from adequate investment in agriculture, its traditional economic mainstay, owing to expected increase in demand for food and food products in countries currently grappling with the economic recession.

More opportunities for Chinese investment into Africa are to open up soon, with the announcement that China is to bolster its China-Africa Development Fund by an additional R19.8-billion ($2-billion). The state-run equity fund has already invested in 20 projects, totalling a massive R3.9-billion ($400-million), in Africa since it was established in June 2007. The latest development will give Chinese enterprises added impetus to sink their funds into the continent, particularly in light of the withdrawal of Western investors, many of whom find themselves under financial pressure because of the global recession.