China remained as Angola’s main export destination in the first half of 2014, according to figures published Monday in Luanda by the National Customs Service, cited by state newspaper Jornal de Angola.
The figures showed that in the first six month of the year China bought goods from Angola worth over 1 trillion kwanza, accounting for over 50 percent of Angola’s exports, followed in order of value by the United States (12.1 percent), India (6.8 percent), Taiwan (3.7 percent) and Portugal with 3 percent.
In the period Angola’s exports fell year on year by 37.7 percent to 2.137 trillion kwanza (US$21.706 billion).
The figures showed the customs value of the five main Read More
The debt owed by Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) to Portugal rose 3.5 percent in 2013 to US$3.508 billion, according to figures issued by the Bank of Portugal in Lisbon.
“The official debt owed by PALOPs to Portugal at the end of 2013 amounted to US$3.508 billion, continuing the upward trajectory apparent since 2005,” said the report published by the central bank.
The document presented as part of the 24th Lisbon Meeting between the central banks of Portuguese-speaking countries, detailed that “the whole of the direct debt owed to the Portuguese State and guaranteed by it increased by US$122 million in 2013 (+3.5 percent ), despite slowing compared to the additional US$808 Read More
Francois Traore grows cotton in Burkina Faso. He is one of 450,000 farmers from six African countries whose cotton runs under the label “Cotton made in Africa”, which wants to create better conditions for African farmers on the global market.
By joining the initiative, Traore agreed to refrain from using chemicals on his crops and to send his children to school. In exchange he receives training in modern agricultural methods, a financial advance for seeds and fertilizer and a slightly higher price for his cotton. Traore however still worries about his family’s future. “It’s a paradox. We send our children to school but later they won’t find any work,” says Read More
Nigeria responded with fury Monday after South African authorities confiscated a second tranche of funds meant for arms purchase to fight the extremist Boko Haram sect, denying the deal was unlawful and warning South Africa of its investment in Nigeria.
The warning came after the South African government seized US$5.7 million wired by the Nigerian government through a bank to an arms dealer in that country.
South Africa’s Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority said the money, about N952 million, was the proceed of illegal transactions, according to local paper, City Press.
The seizure was the second in nearly three weeks, coming after authorities there froze $9.3 million transported in Read More
Daria Chernyshova – In the event of Aécio Neves winning the presidential election in Brazil on October 26, the foreign policy priorities of the country will change, shifting the focus from the BRICS to the United States and the European Union, a political scientist from the Getulio Vargas Foundation told RIA Novosti on Monday.
“If Neves wins the election, we can expect changes – a return to foreign policy much more linked to the North and the South not being as strong as it was under Dilma’s [Rousseff] government,” Sonia Fleury said. “Alignment with the USA and Western Europe are more likely to occur than the push for consolidating the Read More
Chinese company Guangxi Hydroelectric Construction Bureau has started building a a housing estate on the island of Sao Tome, on a self-funding basis, the Minister of Public Works of Sao Tome and Principe said last week.
Minister Fernando Maquengo said that under the terms of the concession agreement, the company will have the right to market and manage the housing estate in order to make back its estimated US$300 million investment.
The new housing estate, which will be built between the capital of Sao Tome and Principe and the district of Lobata in an area of 214 hectares, will have just over a hundred dwellings as well as supermarkets, schools, kindergartens Read More
LONDON — African leaders have seen quite a lot of one another in Western capitals in the past 12 months. They were invited to Paris for a France-Africa summit last December, Brussels for a European Union-Africa gathering in April and Washington for the first US-Africa summit in August.
The United States has been a late convert to this kind of Africa-wide exercise, seeking to reaffirm its standing in a region where it and Europe face ever-increasing competition. Rapid expansion of other interests across the continent — Chinese, above all, but also Indian, Brazilian and others — has done much to make Africa’s traditional partners refocus their approach.
“It has forced Europe Read More
WINDHOEK – Namibia is currently home to more than 40 competent Chinese companies, which altogether are managing about N$38 billion worth of investments (US$3.4 billion), and employing a total of 4 000 local people, the Chinese Ambassador to Namibia Xin Shunkang said during the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China last night [Thursday, October 02]. In addition to employing local people, the companies are also providing skills development, the ambassador said.
Further, the Agreement on Bilateral Economic and Technological Cooperation for this year, has China committing to give Namibia free aid of nearly N$18 billion (US$1.6 billion), the ambassador said of the Read More
The Federal Government has urged the European Union, EU, to invest in the proposed Wholesale Development bank through the union’s development financing outfit, the European Development Bank, EIB.
The Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda, made the call while receiving a delegation of the European Union led by the EU Ambassador to Nigeria, Michel Arrion.
Mr. Yuguda said the bid to set up a Wholesale Development bank has raised significant interest among global funding agencies.
According to him, the World Bank has pledged about $500 million to the proposal, while other development-oriented financial institutions like the African Development Bank, ADB, have also committed some funds for the take-off of the bank.
The Read More
On Sept. 30, the head of Russia‘s second largest bank stated in an interview that it will take only two to three years before the Rouble could be completely disconnected from the dollar and Swift system, and become fully convertible in transacting direct trade in the Russian currency. Andrey Kostin, the head of Russian bank VTB, pointed to America’s part in the Ukraine conflict as the catalyst for Russia now deciding to pursue a path away from the dollar and towards one where the U.S. cannot use SWIFT and other forms of economic warfare to restrict nations in their pursuit of free global trade.
Swift is Read More