News digest

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived on Sept 17 in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, starting his three-day visit to the South Asian neighbor.

It is Xi's first trip to India since he took office in March 2013, and also the first state visit in eight years by a Chinese president to the country.

At the airport, Xi was presented with flowers by each minister of Gujarat and greeted by Indian youths performing local traditional dance.

Thousands of citizens stood along the streets in Ahmedabad to extend their welcome with warm applause when the convoy of the Chinese delegation was en route from the airport to the hotel Xi stays in.

In a written speech delivered at the airport, Xi extended the Chinese people's sincere greetings and good wishes to the Indian people.

China and India, as neighbors, have kept friendly exchanges for thousands of years, Xi said.

FTA tops agenda during Xi's visit to Sri Lanka

China and Sri Lanka have announced the start of negotiations on a free-trade agreement, a deal that observers said will inspire greater engagement from other South Asia nations in Beijing's proposed Maritime Silk Road project.

The announcement came after President Xi Xinping met with Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo on Sept 16, the first visit to the country by a Chinese head of state in 28 years.

New infrastructure for the Maldives

A range of key joint infrastructure projects have been revealed by China for the Maldives, including the building of a landmark bridge, and the upgrading of its main airport.

Visiting the island country during Sept 14-16, President Xi Jinping said China will examine the viability of building a bridge linking the capital Male to the nearby island of Hulhule. A preliminary contract agreement expanding and upgrading the airport was also signed.

UN urges Africa to boost labor productivity

The United Nations has urged governments in Africa to improve the productivity of their labor forces in order to reduce high levels of poverty.

Visiting the UN Conference on Trade and Development in Nairobi, Secretary General Mukhisa Kituyi said that the model of attracting foreign investments through low wages is unsustainable in the long-run.

"High labor productivity will ensure Africa produces quality goods that can compete in global markets," Kituyi said, launching the UNCTAD Trade and Development Report 2014.

He said the continent is rich in natural resources that can accelerate industrialization.

"All that is required is the implementation of the right policies to make Africa becomes a major producer and exporter of manufactured goods."

FDI dips for second straight month

Foreign direct investment into China dropped 14 percent in value to $7.2 billion last month from a year earlier, after a 17 percent drop in July - the first consecutive double-digit declines since 2009.

But the Ministry of Commerce denied the falls were the result of the government's ongoing antimonopoly measures, which some overseas commentators have suggested is targeting foreign companies more than domestic.

In the first eight months of 2014, China's FDI fell by 1.8 percent from a year ago to $78.3 billion.

Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang attributed the drop to the weak global economy, fluctuation of the yuan and soaring costs, which made investing in China's low-end manufacturing unattractive.

Last year, average manufacturing costs in China were just 30 percent lower than in the US, Shen added. As a consequence, FDI in Chinese manufacturing in the first eight months slumped by 15.7 percent compared with a year earlier, and its share in total inbound investment retreated to 35 percent.

By comparison, FDI in service industries grew by 8.9 percent in the same period, accounting for 55 percent of FDI.

62 sites chosen to pilot new urban plan

The government has earmarked 62 sites as experimental areas for new-style urbanization, within a grand strategy that Premier Li Keqiang said will greatly stimulate China's economy.

The areas range from provincial and city levels to county and town levels, although the focus will be on medium-sized and small cities and small towns, Li said during a seminar in Beijing organized by the central government.

"This new-style urbanization is a big strategy for modernization and will improve the lives of several hundred million people - it is our biggest structural adjustment," Li said.

Foreign teachers face tighter requirements

Foreigners planning to work as teachers across China may be expected to have higher educational qualifications and greater experience, after new regulations were released in Beijing that demand all new teachers have at least five years' teaching under their belt to find a job there.

Language teachers will also be required to have teacher qualifications or other international language teaching qualification certificates, such as TEFL and TESL.

China has more than 50,000 training centers for about 300 million English learners, according to a Ministry of Education report in 2013.

Flammable ice seen as future energy source

China is set to begin exploration of 'flammable ice', or gas hydrate, an unconventional untapped energy source found in permafrost and ocean sediment, around 2030 as it tries to diversify its energy mix with unconventional sources.

Gas hydrate is a solid compound in which a large amount of methane is trapped within a crystal structure of water, forming a solid similar to ice.

Li Jinfa, deputy director of China Geological Survey, said that with consistent efforts in gas hydrate research and related policies, China will keep pace with advanced countries in turning the resource into energy.

China has been the largest global energy consumer since 2010, prompting the authorities to increase research and exploration of unconventional energy sources such as shale gas.

Gas hydrate deposits in China are estimated by CGC to be 110 billion metric tons in oil equivalent, while China consumed 2.6 billion tons in oil equivalent last year.

Li said he believed the energy source will gradually change China's energy structure.

Zimbabwe to prop up falling revenues

Zimbabwean Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa is to raise individual and commercial tax to prop up falling revenues and a declining economy.

Zimbabwe's economic growth forecasts for this year have been cut to 3.1 percent from the initial 6.1 percent.

While agriculture, the mainstay of its economy, recorded positive growth in the first half, Chinamasa noted that would be insufficient to offset poor performance in sectors such as mining, which is now expected to record a fall of more than the 10.7 percent initially forecast.

In the six months to June, the government missed its revenue targets by 6.1 percent after it collected $1.735 billion in taxes against a target of $1.847 billion.

Exports during the period stood at $1.2 billion against imports of $3 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $1.8 billion, albeit an improvement on the $2.4 billion deficit in the same period last year.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/19/2014 page2)