1. China in Africa

China eyes $10bn investment in Zimbabwe
China Development Bank could fund up to $10-billion in Chinese investment in Zimbabwe's mining and agriculture sector, a big boost for a country struggling to attract foreign investors, a government minister said on Monday.
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Sasol to hold off on China CTL plant pending review
South African petrochemicals group Sasol said on Thursday it would delay any further work on a 94 000 barrels-per-day coal-to-liquids plant in China pending a review by the Chinese government. Sasol and its partner, the Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group (SNCG), submitted the project for review in December 2009 and are awaiting a decision on their application.
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China eyes Kenya telecoms
China is looking to Africa again for business. This time it is the telecommunications industry in Kenya that has the Asian giant on the prowl. It hopes to increase its market share in mobile handsets and the infrastructure market, which has left European companies on the out. “We are witnessing China’s great push into the telecom industry across Africa and Kenya is just the latest to see China’s influence grow,” said IT consultant Mary Evans in London. Until five years ago, the Kenyan telecommunications sector heavily leaned towards European based firms such as Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia. However, China based firms such as Huawei and ZTE Technologies have been gaining steam in the infrastructure arena and are now establishing a foothold in the retail segment with low cost mobile phones and Internet modems.
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Key African economist hails China's investment
China is winning more understanding and recognition in Africa, Chinese experts said after a key African economist said Chinese investment is "really largely positive" at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Such views will benefit both sides as positive opinions from Africa will encourage more Chinese companies to invest in the continent, they said. Late last week, the Voice of America (VOA) website quoted African Development Bank Chief Economist Mthuli Ncube as saying that Africa welcomes Chinese investment and that China has become a valuable partner of the continent in many ways.
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Mandarin for the future as China takes off
Mandarin is fast "becoming a good contender" against European languages such as German and French as China becomes a major global force. And increased relations between South Africa and the Far East country - and more recently an invitation by China for South Africa to join the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) group of countries - are also feeding the demand to learn the language and culture. So convinced is Pretoria mother Unathi Mguye that "China is the future", she removed her three daughters from one school and enrolled them at Pretoria Chinese School this year where they are doing Chinese as a compulsory subject. "China is leading the economy and I want to prepare them so that they are globally ready after school. They want to go and stay overseas and not be confined to South Africa," she said.
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2. India in Africa

India, Ethiopia decide to enhance economic engagements
India and Ethiopia today decided to increase volume of their bilateral economic engagements by starting new ventures particularly in the field of agriculture. Decision to this effect was taken at a meeting between Food minister K V Thomas and Ethiopian Agriculture Minister Tafera Derbew here. India's investment in Ethiopia, a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa, at present stands at USD 4.4 billion which we wish to increase "substantially" by opening new ventures particularly in the farm sector, Thomas told reporters after the meeting.
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3. In Other Emerging Powers News

South African health worse than BRIC countries
South Africa’s proportional health expenditure is the highest in comparison to the BRIC group of countries, but our health outcomes are generally worse, says the South African Institute of Race Relations. Spending is at 9% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), followed by Brazil’s 8% and Russia’s 5%. China and India both spend the lowest proportions at 4%. These figures appear in the latest South Africa Survey, published by the Institute in Johannesburg this week. With 49 million people, South Africa has the highest incidence of tuberculosis (TB) at 960 per 100 000 people. China’s population of 1.32 billion has an incidence of 97 while Brazil’s 192 million people have the lowest incidence at 46. Russia’s 142 million people have an incidence of 107 and India, with 1.14 billion people, is at 168.
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Lending a Hand to Less Developed Countries
Mothers' milk banks that are helping reduce infant mortality in Guatemala and are starting to be set up in Africa as well form part of the numerous social technologies developed by Brazil that are driving the fast growth of its international development cooperation. The total funds dedicated annually to international organisations, technical and humanitarian assistance, and scholarships for foreign students grew 129 percent between 2005 and 2009, from 158 million dollars to 362 million dollars, according to the first official report on Brazilian Cooperation for International Development. That is still not much, a mere 0.02 percent of GDP, said Guilherme Schmitz, one of the authors of the study, carried out by Brazil's Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA). But South America's giant is just now gaining stature as a donor country. And as a developing nation, it does not have a target to live up to, he told IPS -- unlike industrialised countries, which have pledged to give 0.7 percent of GDP to official development aid.
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4. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

Commentary: Beijing's Response to Egypt's Upheaval
Beijing is taking no chances regarding the possible impact that the “color revolutions” raging in North Africa and Middle East may have on China. While news about the dramatic events in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and surrounding regions can still be found in the state media, all Chinese editors have been told by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Propaganda Department that they can only use news dispatches by the official Xinhua News Agency. Moreover, Netizens and bloggers are not allowed to discuss Egypt in the Chinese equivalents of Facebook or Twitter. Egypt-related searches on various micro-blogs, such as Sina.com, Netease.com and Weibo have produced either no results or error messages. The Hu Jintao administration has attempted to divert public attention by focusing on the speed and efficiency with which Beijing dispatched chartered flights to send home hundreds of Chinese (including tourists from Hong Kong) stranded in various Egyptian cities.
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Questions About China’s “Win-Win” Relationship With Angola
In November last year, China’s vice president Xi Jinpeng (who is widely tipped to take over from Hu Jintao), visited Angola on a tour of Africa which also took him to Botswana and South Africa. In a joint statement at the conclusion of the visit, much was made about the development of a “strategic partnership” to “jointly seize opportunities and tackle on challenges facing the new international context”. Such “challenges” and “opportunities” were discussed on Jan 31 in Luanda at a high-level conference organised jointly by the University of Durham, the Centre for Scientific Studies and Investigation (CEIC) at the Catholic University of Angola and the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Organiser Dr Marcus Power, from the University of Durham, told IPS: “Although there is a lot of academic research about the relationship between the two countries, there has been a real lack of dialogue among Angolans.
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China's Year of Africa?
As it ushers in the Year of the Rabbit, China has spoken of more plans to deepen its economic ties with Africa. And, its African friends are making a concerted effort to dispel notions that China is little more than a neo-colonialist intent on ensuring access to resources like oil. China's business sector this week has more-or-less ground to a halt as the New Year celebrations, China's equivalent to the festive season, gather momentum. February 2 marks the start of the week-long holiday, the most important period on the calendar to spend time eating and relaxing with family. But, amid the frenzy of buying gifts, food treats and rabbits - real and toy ones, lanterns embellished with rabbits, paper art cuts in the shape of bunnies, and so on - Africa has not been forgotten. Ahead of the Spring Festival festivities, China's leaders were talking about further strengthening the country's ties with nations across the African continent.
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S Africa: first trade surplus since 2003
So much for an uncompetitive exchange rate. South Africa recorded its first annual trade surplus in seven years in 2010, according to the South African Revenue Service, defying the much-maligned strengthening of the rand. Exports soared 14.1 per cent compared to 2009, while imports rose 8.2 per cent, giving South Africa a modest 5bn rand ($0.7bn) surplus for the year. The figures are a timely reminder that ? although important ? currencies are not the only factor determining global trade patterns. The surplus was much higher than consensus forecasts of 3.1bn rand ($0.4bn). This was largely due to a 15.9 per cent monthly fall in imports in December, which outweighed the 10.4 per cent fall in exports. The rapid growth in exports over the year is largely due to strong global demand for South African commodities. Exports of gold, precious stones, metals and minerals made up the bulk of the trade surplus.
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Top in trade and investment
Standing at US$114.8 billion in November 2010, China-Africa trade has bounced back faster than most of Africa’s other foreign trade since the 2008 global financial slowdown. China is now marking its second year as Africa’s biggest trading partner after overtaking the United States in January 2010. China-in-Africa fits into the wider picture of China’s rise: bailing out weakened European economies, the building of a muscular military infrastructure and the Beijing government’s available, but unused, leverage to resolve global conflicts from North Korea to Sudan. As China rises, it also wants to be seen as a responsible member of the international system, and as the world’s banker – as well as its workshop. Generally, China has more interest in stability than insurrection. In December, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi insisted Beijing is keen to meet its international responsibilities. The recent revelation, based on research from London’s Financial Times, that China’s capital flows to developing countries now exceed those of the World Bank put Yang’s statement in economic context.
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Tighten US-Africa links
American President Barack Obama is expected to focus more on Africa in 2011. This comes none too soon. Africa has become a competitive terrain as emerging powers accelerate their economic diplomacies on a continent considered the "last frontier" for trade and investment opportunities in the West-to-East shift in global economic momentum. The unfinished business of Iraq and Afghanistan and Obama's reaching out to the Muslim world and re-engaging with neglected vital interests in East Asia inevitably pushed Africa on to the back burner. The "Great Recession" reinforced his domestic focus and interrelated with his administration's initial Asia-Pacific emphasis. Yet, simultaneously, Obama's opening move saw Asia as Sinocentric and meant acknowledging the rise of emerging powers and regions. The orchestrated emergence of the G20 (including South Africa), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's opening foray into the continent and Obama's symbolic visit to Ghana, including his "tough love" remarks for Africa's leaders, seemed a harbinger of things to come.
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India could teach SA a thing or two
About a week ago I had the opportunity to visit India for the first time. The trip was an eye opener. When you get to New Delhi you soon realise that you have arrived at what must be one of the most fortified capitals in the world. Since the co-ordinated terrorist bombings of hotels in Mumbai in 2008, India has had to beef up security immensely. Visible policing is nearly everywhere there are checkpoints with heavily armed police on about every stretch of the road in New Delhi. Even when you check into a major hotel your luggage has to be X-rayed before you are let in. To an outsider all this might seem a bit of an inconvenience, but Indians say that the heightened security merely reflects a fact of their lives that they live in a dangerous neighbourhood. Security challenges to India are nothing new. Indian government officials say that the country has been a victim of terrorism for more than 30 years. In conversations with financial editors from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa government officials were quick to point to neighbouring Pakistan as one of the biggest security challenges.
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Interview with China’s FM
Ethiopia and China have long standing relations. The presence of China in Ethiopia’s market in particular and that of Ethiopia in general has been showing an upward trajectory. China’s relation with the Africa Union is rising from time to time. Walta Information Center has conducted an interview with H.E. Mr. Liu Zhenmin, Special Envoy of the Chinese Government and Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China on China-Africa cooperation
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