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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. General

Wal-Mart's Africa strategy
In the next 25 years, analysts believe the consumer market in Africa will take off. When it does, Walmart wants to be ready to seize the day. This week, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, Fortune 500) announced a cash offer for a majority stake in the South African retail company Massmart Holdings, Ltd. The offer is scaled-back from the roughly $4 billion that Walmart wanted to pay in September for the entire company. Instead, Wal-Mart offered over $2 billion for 51% of Massmart shares. "It's part of their international expansion strategy," says Chuck Cerankosky, an analyst with Northcoast Research. "They want to enter markets that show a great deal of promise of developing a strong consumer sector."
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South Africans left divided as Walmart muscles its way in
The world's biggest retailer already has tills ringing across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Now the sprawling Arkansas-based discount megalith Walmart is trying its luck in Africa. South Africa's labour movement is bracing itself for its biggest campaign since its anti-apartheid heyday as it faces up to the likely arrival of Walmart – a company notorious for its anti-union tactics, with annual sales worth three times the country's budget. Only South Africa's Competition Commission now stands in the way of the US multinational entering Africa in the latest stage of a conquest of emerging markets that has already reached Mexico, Brazil and China.A week ago, the board of a local superstore group, Massmart, accepted Walmart's offer of 16.5bn rands (£1.6bn) for 51% of the company. "We are not opposing the Walmart bid," says Mike Abrahams, of the Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers' Union (Saccawu), which has 70% of Massmart's South African staff as members. "We are running a campaign for centralised bargaining and we want Walmart to sign up to it."
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African diplomats fearful of US-China relationships
African embassy officials, including a South African, are afraid that relationships between the United States and China will hamper Chinese funding to the region, according to a leaked cable from the US Embassy in Beijing. The cable, released by WikiLeaks on Sunday, is one of the latest in the organisation's streaming release of over 250 000 leaked diplomatic cables. It was created on February 4 2010, and was classified as "confidential".
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Leaked US cable says China has 'no morals' in Africa
The United States thinks China is a "pernicious economic competitor with no morals" whose booming investments in Africa are propping up unsavoury regimes, according to a leaked diplomatic cable. The frank assessment by the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Johnnie Carson, was among the latest revelations in thousands of documents released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks. "China is a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals. China is not in Africa for altruistic reasons," Carson said in a February meeting with oil executives in Nigeria. "China is in Africa for China primarily," he said, according to a confidential February 23 cable written by the US consul-general in Lagos.
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African Union cries foul over skewed investment trends
The African Union Commission President, Jean Ping, Tuesday decried the skewed trend in the flow of international investments, in which most African countries were ignored, despite the insinuation that Africa was receiving the highest share of Chinese investments. Speaking just as the EU-AU Summit ended here Tuesday, Ping said African countries received the slightest share of the global foreign investment inflows despite their overall determination to improve governance, fight corruption and introduce privatization.
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2. China in Africa

South Africa: Chinese embrace the union
When Karl Yan moved to South Africa last year to work at a Chinese factory, the last thing he imagined was that he would end up joining the local union. Yan, a skinny, bespectacled 24-year-old from a small town near Shanghai, is a shop steward for South Africa's clothing and textile workers union. He recently attended a union conference in Cape Town where, as the only Chinese delegate, he stuck out like a sore thumb — but he was a big hit with his South African comrades, who posed with Yan for photos and taught him their liberation dances. In China, all unions are controlled by the state and they do little to help workers. South Africa's unions, in contrast, are powerful forces that influence national politics and often disrupt production in factories. These clashing work ethics meet in the industrial town of Newcastle, in northeastern South Africa, where there are scores of factories owned by Chinese and Taiwanese businesses. The South African union is now embroiled in tense negotiations with the factories because many don’t pay the legal minimum wage.
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Textile firms fume over China rival
The textile industry is seething over the accreditation of a Chinese company by the SA Bureau of Standards (SABS). Marcus Varoli, the chairman of Mediterranean Textile Mills, said yesterday that the granting of a certificate of approval by the SABS and the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) to a Chinese textile mill for work wear fabric, in turn being imported for use in the mining industry, undermined efforts to revive the textile sector. “By giving a Chinese textile mill an SABS stamp of approval on their fabrics, you are taking jobs from South Africa to China. It gives a bigger opportunity for China to enter South Africa,” Varoli said. He said this decision would harm the sector further and give Chinese companies an advantage over local ones.
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China in E Cape farming deal
China will cultivate fruit on 500 hectares of land in the Eastern Cape, the province's development corporation (ECDC) said on Tuesday. "Eastern Cape's abundant agricultural land has seen China survey the province for farming business opportunities to supplement its scarce land resources," spokesperson Ikhona Mvaphantsi said. The Yebo Africa Trading Hall (ATH) in Shangai, China, has entered into an agreement with the Alfred Nzo district municipality to use land in the area for pomelo citrus fruit cultivation. The ATH is an entity formed by Chinese businessmen to facilitate trade between Africa and China, and is set to open its doors for trade in March 2011.
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China and Africa sign Hangzhou Declaration
Today, 43 African countries government and Chinese 500 over enterprisers signed Hangzhou Declaration in Hangzhou Zhejiang; deepen bilateral trade cooperation fellow relationship. They are trying to expand and deepen cooperation to promote Africa to become the emphasis region of China "going out" strategy under the rules of equality, mutual benefit, and double win. In the history, the economy and trade cooperation of China and Africa has a very long time. Since 1959, they had started economic activities. While in the twice Touchroad Africa investment summit forum, there are more than 100 African investment projects reached and implemented. The Hangzhou Declaration signed this time is the political promise that each African national government and Chinese government and enterprisers set up better relationship.
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I B Kargbo of Sierra Leone leads Africa’s delegation in Beijing
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Information and Communication and Government Spokesman, Hon. Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo was on Wednesday 8th December, 2010 appointed Spokesman and leader of Africa’s delegation to The “Ministerial Workshop on Information Highway Construction for Developing Countries” organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. The workshop which is hosted by the Academy for International Business Officials (AIBO) in Beijing attracted 13 Ministers of Information and Communication Technology and 12 senior officials from North, South, East, West and Central Africa.
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Largest Ever Greater China Products Exhibition Opens in South Africa
Ever wonder about the ways massive amount of products from China make it to Uganda, Nigeria, or South Africa? (Not counting China's initial sourcing--or some might say ravaging--of materials from the continent). Sourcing fairs, for one. The largest ever "Greater China-products exhibition" launched today in Johannesburg, South Africa, further solidifying Africa-China business ties.
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China backs talks to resolve Cote d'Ivoire's election disputes: spokeswoman
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday that China hopes political parties in Cote d'Ivoire can settle election disputes through legal procedures and political dialogue. "(China) hopes the relevant parties in Cote d'Ivoire can give top priority to the national and public interests, remain calm and restrained, and resolve disputes through legal procedures and political dialogue to maintain its national stability and solidarity," spokeswomen Jiang Yu said in a press release.
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Zimbabwean trains held in China over debt
A Chinese firm has frozen the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ)'s locomotive order over a US$27 million debt derailing plans by the country's sole railway operator to rejuvenate the struggling parastatal. The grounded NRZ is currently on recovery path after close to ten years of nose diving presumptively due to mal-administration and vandalism. China North Railway Company (CNRC) had initially received a US$3 million deposit fee from the NRZ in the purchase of locomotives in a deal valued at US$30 million. The CNRC then indicated that it would only make delivery to the NRZ upon the full payment of the money.
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Why Africa must make China a priority development partner
Don’t lynch China; there are good things it is bringing to Africa’s extractive industry,” argues Muthuli Ncube, vice President of the African Development Bank. Addressing a group of journalists attending a workshop in Tunis recently, Prof Ncube said that whereas Africa mostly looked to development partners from America and Europe, China was worth considering because it was biased towards improving infrastructure in the countries it is doing business in.
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3. India in Africa

First India-Ethiopia joint ministerial commission meeting opens
The first India-Ethiopia Joint Ministerial Commission Meeting is taking place in New Delhi, India on December 1 and 2, 2010. The Ethiopian delegation is being led by Hailemariam Desalegn, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Ethiopia. The delegation will also have two State Ministers, namely, Ahmed Tusa, State Minister for Trade and Ahmed Shide, State Minister for Finance and Economic Development. According to a press release the Indian Embassy sent to WIC today, senior government officials including the Director General in charge for Asia, Ambassador Mahdi Ahmed Gadid as also Director General in charge of Ethiopian Investment Agency, other senior officials of various ministries and departments of the government would be participating in the deliberations.
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4. In Other Emerging Powers News

Tanzania plans $2bn hydro plant with Brazil
Tanzania is planning with Brazil to build a power plant estimated to cost $2-billion that could transform east Africa's second largest economy into a net exporter of electricity, a senior official said on Wednesday. Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Membe and other officials held talks with their Brazilian counterparts in Sao Paolo in September on the construction of the proposed 2 100 megawatt (MW) Stiegler's Gorge hydro-power station. "The power plant to be constructed using Brazilian technology would generate excess power that could be exported to the east African and southern African power pools," Aloyce Masanja, director general of Tanzania's state-run Rufiji Basin Development Authority, told Reutes.
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Brazil eyes out South Africa for biofuels growth
Brazil says its interested in buying agricultural land in Southern Africa to use as a source of biofuels on the African continent, specifically in South Africa. That’s according to the country’s deputy minister for foreign trade, Welber Barral, who spoke to Business Day in Sandton. A Brazilian trade mission has arrived in South Africa to explore investments and to strengthen ties. With far reaching agricultural agreements focusing on the development of alternative fuels already in place in Angola, the country believes that further development opportunities are possible.
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SA and Brazil aim to expand trade by $1bn in 2011
Latin America’s largest economy, Brazil, is expected to become one of South Africa’s top-20 trading partners, said a top South African official on Wednesday. The countries aim to boost bilateral trade by $1-billion over the next 12 months. Trade has grown from about $500-million in 2000 to a peak of $2,5-billion in 2008, but dropped sharply during the global recession. In 2010, it rebounded to $1,76-billion. Despite growth over the last decade, Brazil is still only South Africa’s 32nd export partner.
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Brazil to help African, Asian countries in satellite-based forest monitoring
Brazil will provide technical assistance to help tropical countries improve their forest monitoring capabilities, according to an official with the South American country's satellite agency. Carlos Nobre, head of the Earth System Science Center at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), said Brazil will share "knowledge and technology" on its leading satellite-based deforestation monitoring system with countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.
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Banco do Brasil Seeks Vale, Petrobras Advice on Africa
Banco do Brasil SA is talking to Vale SA, Petroleo Brasileiro SA and other Brazilian companies with operations in Africa about its expansion in the continent, said Antonio Bizzo, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Latin America’s largest bank by assets. Government-controlled Banco do Brasil is also drawing on the experience in Africa of construction companies such as Camargo Correa SA and Odebrecht SA, Bizzo said. The lender is still in talks with Banco Bradesco SA and Banco Espirito Santo SA to determine details of a joint holding company that will buy stakes in banks on the continent, he said.
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Gazprom, Namcor to Acquire Part of Tullow’s Gas Field in Namibia
OAO Gazprom, the world’s largest natural gas producer, and Namibia’s state-owned oil company, Namcor, plan to buy part of Tullow Oil Plc’s Kudu field off the African nation’s coast. Gazprom and Namcor plan to set up a joint venture that will hold 54 percent in the gas field, Boris Ivanov, head of the Moscow-based company’s international exploration and production unit, said in Gazprom’s corporate magazine. Tullow will hold 31 percent and Itochu Corp. the remaining 15 percent, he said.
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Tata Steel may form alliance to bid for Riversdale
Tata Steel could team up with an Indian metals company or a miner to make a counterbid for Riversdale Mining, in response to Rio's $3.5 billion (about . 15,750 crore) bid for coal-rich Australian miner Riversdale. Tata Steel is gearing up for a battle to control the Australian-listed miner that owns large coal mines in Mozambique and has become a target for global mining majors such as Anglo-American and Rio Tinto, said three people connected with the issue.
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China sourcing loses charm for Indian cos
China's manufacturing costs are reaching levels that are now forcing some companies that source products from the land of the dragon to reduce such sourcing and manufacture these in India more economically. Watch and jewellery major Titan Industries, which sources watch components from China, said it plans to restrict such sourcing and instead make additional investments in its manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. Similarly, it is now cheaper for Dell to supply PCs from India than from China, especially to countries in the Middle East, Africa and the CIS countries.
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India has potential to be leader in green technology: Ramesh
As he heads for crucial negotiations at UN climate change meet, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said India has the potential to become a world leader in green technology especially in nuclear energy. Trying to put across the message at the global platform that India need not always be seen as a recipient of technology, Ramesh said, "I have been saying repeatedly that challenge of climate change is god-sent opportunity to Indian business to become world leader in green technology.
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EU pact won’t be tighter against drugs
India and the European Union (EU) have agreed that the comprehensive bilateral trade agreement being negotiated by the two will not result in an intellectual property regime that restricts the ability of Indian pharmaceutical firms to export generic or off-patent drugs by being far more stringent than the TRIPS regime of the World Trade Organization.
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Russia willing to assist Sudan in obtaining debt relief: envoy
The Russian government informed Sudan that it is prepared to help it obtain debt relief from external creditors, its special said today. "Sudan is a friendly country, and Russia is ready to consider positively the problem of Sudan’s debt, and also to raise the question of cancelling Sudan’s debt to the international community," Russian special envoy to Sudan Mikhail Margelov told Russian news agency (RIA Novosti).
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Engen buys Chevron’s Réunion, Malawi, Zambia assets, more to follow
South African downstream petroleum marketer Engen announced on Wednesday that it had concluded three deals to acquire some of the sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands assets previously owned by petroleum giant Chevron, of the US. The deals will see Engen entering the new territories of Réunion and Malawi, while strengthening its presence in Zambia.
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Raw export rise flies in face of beneficiation calls
Despite strident calls for greater job-creating beneficiation, South Africa’s raw material and intermediate exports collectively increased by nearly 20% in the first six months of 2010. A 53-page study of sectoral trends, just released by the research department of the State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), shows that raw material exports rose by 6,8% and intermediate goods by 12,8% in the first half of the year. Overall, these primary goods intensified their dominance by combining to account for virtually three-quarters of South Africa’s exports in the six months to June 30.
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Zille leads Cape group on Mideast trade trip
In an effort to boost trade, investment and tourism relations between the Middle East and the Western Cape, Premier Helen Zille is leading a business delegation to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia. Her delegation includes finance, economic development and tourism MEC Alan Winde and agriculture MEC Gerrit van Rensburg. The seven-day visit, which started today, comes after the successful bilateral discussions between Ms Zille and ambassadors representing countries in the Gulf region in November last year. The ambassadors of Saudi Arabia and the UAE subsequently invited Ms Zille and a provincial delegation to visit their countries to explore strengthening bilateral relations.
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Zuma in Mexico to enhance relationships
President Jacob Zuma will begin his visit to Mexico on Wednesday, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said on Wednesday. The visit, to deepen bilateral relations between the two countries, would end on Friday, spokesperson Clayson Monyela said in a statement. Agreements in the area of crime prevention and justice were expected to be signed. Zuma would hold talks with his counterpart Felipe Calderon Hinojosa on the sidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP16) in Cancun. South Africa would host COP17 in Durban in 2011.
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South Africa cancels R1,1bn Cuba debt, unveils credit package
A debt of R1,1-billion owed by Cuba for diesel engines bought from South Africa during the 1990s was cancelled on Tuesday, the Presidency said. "It is not as if Cuba could not repay the debt. The problem is that it was becoming a hindrance to trade and economic development between two countries," Trade and Industry minister Rob Davies said in a statement issued by the presidency. "South African businesses demanded cash in advance because the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of the DTI could no longer insure Cuba's orders as it had exhausted its credit limit," he said.
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W Cape Should Be Part Of African Growth
The Western Cape can be a forerunner in the new African growth narrative and a natural springboard into the African West Coast if it harnesses opportunities for trade and investment in Africa, according to the Western Cape Investment and Trade Promotion Agency (Wesgro). Wesgro CEO Nils Flaatten and Jacyntha Maclennan, senior manager of Wesgro IQ, the agency’s intelligence unit, spoke about seizing African growth opportunities during a presentation on exploring the African continent held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) in collaboration with Ernst & Young yesterday.
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SA fudges China’s push for Nobel boycott
SA HAS found a neat diplomatic solution to avoid embarrassing China, deciding to send a low-level diplomat to tomorrow’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway, for the award to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. SA has in the past caved in to China’s demands to refuse a visa to SA for the Dalai Lama, but will not join a growing list of states boycotting the ceremony at China’s behest. With the ambassador to Norway, Beryl Sisulu, back home "on compassionate grounds" until next year, SA will be represented by embassy charge d’affaires Marida van der Westhuizen-Nel. Department of International Relations and Co-operation spokesman Clayson Monyela denied Beijing had influenced SA’s decision to send a low-ranking envoy to the ceremony.
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Federation of Sudanese Workers Trade Unions Stresses Necessity of Activating Relations of All-China Federation of Trade Unions With Africa And Arab World
The General Federation of the Sudanese Workers Trade Unions (GFSWTU) stressed the need to activate relations linking China, Africa and the Arab world with regard to Trade Unions, saying China is the largest economic partner and would be so reliable in achieving the demanded economic development. This came when a high-level delegation of All-China Federation of Trade Union (ACFTU) visited the premises of the GFSWTU where it was received by the Executive Office, headed by Prof. Ibrahim Ghandour.
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5. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

For South Africa’s workers, a Chinese-supplied job comes at a price
Call me Raymond, he says. He doesn’t want his real name known. He knows he could get into serious trouble for the illegally low wages that he pays his workers. Raymond grew up in China, found it too fiercely competitive, and came to Africa in search of easier opportunities. Now he owns a clothing factory, toils long hours and makes a steady profit – but only because he violates the law by paying below the minimum wage. “Here the people work too slowly,” he complains. “Even if they could get more money, they would rather drink beer or something.” Raymond is one of dozens of Chinese entrepreneurs who own clothing factories in Newcastle, an industrial town in an impoverished rural region of South Africa. With unemployment at nearly 60 per cent in the surrounding region, the factories have a steady supply of workers – but they’ve been condemned by unions for ignoring the wage laws.
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China Can Help Africa Escape Colonial Legacy
Last month, some observers groaned loudly after a shooting incident at a Chinese-run coal mine in Zambia. They accused China of just being interested in exploiting Africa’s resources. But I always believe that time will tell if Chinese presence is good for Zambia and the whole of Africa. I was 10 years old when I saw a color film for the first time. It was not in a movie house. It was shown in a basketball field in a village in northern China. It was a documentary film about the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) in 1970. In the film, people were beating drums and dancing like the steps of a rhinoceros, powerful and spontaneous. It was also the first time I saw men and women dancing together, which was what impressed me most.
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