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Ottobre 2017 - page 4

Steady growth of China’s private investment

in ASIA/PRESS RELEASE/REGIONS by

China’s private investment has kept growing at steady and sustained pace this year, a senior official said Saturday. Private investment plays a critical part in Chinese economy, Zhang Yong, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference on the sidelines of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The growth cooled down last year after the country’s total fixed-asset investment lost steam and the property and manufacturing sectors underwent a difficult time, he said. Despite the hardships, private investment increased 6 percent in the first nine months this year, 3.5 percentage points higher than the same period a year ago.Private investment growth has anchored from last year’s weakness, he said. Zhang underlined the importance of implementing supportive policy for private investors such as streamlining administrative procedures and cutting red tape, lowering market threshold, applying negative-list approach and increasing market transparency. Private investment should play a bigger role in the future, he added.Private investment accounts for at least 60 percent of China’s total fixed-asset investment. It generates 80 percent of China’s jobs, 60 percent of the GDP and 50 percent of the tax revenue.

 

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Yemen: Saleh’s party threatens to break partnership with Houthis

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Deposed Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s political party has formally warned that they will end their partnership with the Houthi militias. In their statement, the General People’s Congress party in Sanaa accused their Houthi partners of persecuting and insulting their leaders and members. The letter, authored by the party’s Secretary-General Aref al-Zouka, was sent to the Houthi political council and described that they are being de facto ruled by their coup detat partners. Al-Zouka added that journalists and politicians loyal to them are being harassed by Houthi militiamen describing the actions as “terrorist acts” and “irresponsible”. The letter further added that there is a clear indication of a lack of desire from the Houthi’s to continue the partnership. The Secretary-General enclosed a list of 44 members of the Houthi militia and its journalists who were attacking Saleh and the leaders of his party. He stressed that these elements can not dare to write and publish without the approval of their supreme leadership. Members of the deposed party expressed their rejection of a sham or decorative partnership with the Houthis, in their first official threat to withdraw from the alliance since conflict between the two allies erupted with armed clashes in central Sanaa in August. Sources in the General People’s Congress, said that there is strong pressure on Saleh from party leaders to break the alliance with the Houthis after the increasing attacks and violations.

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‘UAE on the verge of splitting Yemen in two’

in MIDLE EAST/PRESS RELEASE/REGIONS by

After a tumultuous marriage of more than 27 years, South Yemen appears to be edging closer to divorcing the north in a move politically and financially sponsored by the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the southern coastal city of Aden, unified Yemen’s familiar flag of three horizontal bars has all but vanished, replaced by the former Communist nation’s emblem of a red star within a sky-blue chevron, while pictures of Emirati royals adorn the hallways of government buildings and ministries. Military units once loyal to the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi are also distinctly absent. Instead, local militias and Yemeni soldiers are flanked by Emirati troops – tasked with guarding key installations and protecting Aidarous al-Zubaidi – the UAE’s ‘man in the south’ and leader of the southern secessionist movement. Perceived by some as the only credible rival to Hadi, the 50-year-old militia leader set out his vision for the region on Friday saying an independence referendum would be “held soon.” Speaking to a raucous crowd of southerners hungry for secession, he announced the formation of a new 303-member parliament, a body analysts say will be administered under his presidency.

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Tillerson heads back to deal with Gulf crisis

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The United States will again try to resolve a Gulf crisis that Washington has alternatively fueled or tried to soothe, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson heads back to the region.
The top US diplomat did not himself hold out much hope of an immediate breakthrough in the stand-off between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but the trip may clarify the issues at stake.
“I do not have a lot of expectations for it being resolved anytime soon,” Tillerson admitted on Thursday, in an interview with the Bloomberg news agency. “There seems to be a real unwillingness on the part of some of the parties to want to engage.” Nevertheless, President Donald Trump’s chief envoy is to leave Washington this weekend for Saudi Arabia and from there head on to Qatar, to talk through a breakdown in ties. Trump, having initially exacerbated the split by siding with Riyadh and denouncing Qatar for supporting terrorism at a “high level,” has predicted the conflict will be resolved. Tillerson, a former chief executive of energy giant ExxonMobil, knows the region well, having dealt with its royal rulers while negotiating oil and gas deals. But the latest diplomatic spat is a tricky one, pitching US allies against one another even as Washington is trying to coordinate opposition to Iran and to Islamist violence.

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Smugglers prep to capitalize on skyrocketing price of sanctioned fish

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The price of North Korean seafood for sale in China’s Yanji City has spiked recently due to coordinated sanctions from the international community against the regime. Since United Nations Security Resolution 2371 came into effect on August 15th, North Korean seafood sales have slumped in China’s markets. “At the beginning of this year, pollock was selling for about 8 yuan apiece, but the price has nearly doubled to about 15 yuan since the sanctions,” said an inside source in China during a telephone conversation with Daily NK on October 13. “It’s risen to practically the cost of gold, so most people won’t consider buying it. Before the implementation of the sanctions, North Korean pollack was relatively cheap. Some Chinese merchants expanded their procurement at that point. They waited for the sanctions to go into effect so they could take advantage of the scarcity by selling at a higher price and increasing their profit margins,” the source said. A separate source in China close to North Korean affairs told Daily NK that some smugglers are freezing as much fish as they can get their hands on. They anticipate that the sanctions will loosen up in future, and are making the appropriate preparations.

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China will appoint Guo Shuqing, icon of liberal market, as the next governor of the central bank

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China is likely to name Guo Shuqing, a key figure in China’s market reform camp as the next central bank governor. Guo, the current chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, is currently ahead of the other candidates for the post including Jiang Chaoliang, the Hubei party secretary; Yi Gang, a deputy governor at the People’s Bank of China and Liu Shiyu, the chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission said one source, who declined to be named. If the appointment of Guo, 61, who holds similar liberal views to the retiring governor Zhou Xiaochuan, is confirmed in the coming weeks, it will ensure the presence of a well-known market believer in President Xi Jinping’s economic team  a development that could help to shore up confidence that Xi is not totally sidelining market liberalisation. Guo was a deputy central bank governor and the chief of State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe), the agency that runs China’s capital control and foreign exchange reserves, from 2001 to 2005.

He became chairman of China Construction Bank in 2005 after his predecessor was toppled for graft. In that role he restarted the bank’s joint-stock restructuring and floated its shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai. “Both Zhou and Guo have a liberal streak in their thinking and both understand market economics very well,” John Wong, a professorial fellow at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, said. Guo’s experiences in different posts as a scholar, a banker, a provincial governor and a regulator had made him “politically very shrewd”, he said, another critical skill that is needed to navigate the vested interests within the government and to seek compromise and consensus. In the latest institutional move, for instance, China decided to create a financial development and stability committee that is likely to be headed by a vice-premier. The central bank will have an office to run the day-to-day affairs of the agency. “Guo is of the same vein [as Zhou in understanding what China needs],” Fraser Howie, director of Newedge Financial in Singapore, said. “The problem though is, as Zhou states, too much interference and fear from other ministries.”

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MEFA condemns Greece intervention in Albania’s Interior Affairs

in EUROPE/POLITICS/PRESS RELEASE/REGIONS by

The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEFA) expresses the deepest indignation for the provocative langùage and unprecedented intervention characterizing the statement issued one day ago by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Greece. Through an official statement issued on Friday the MEFA denounced the violation of the diplomatic practice by the Greek authorities through the involvement in a domestic political debate.  Through an official statement issued on Friday the MEFA denounced the violation of the diplomatic practice by the Greek authorities through the involvement in a domestic political debate. Involvement in the domestic political debate in Albania and the fact that these issues, currently under consideration by the justice institutions, are mentioned in this statement constitutes a violation of the diplomatic practice and the spirit of good neighborhood and strategic relations between two countries.

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Xi Jinping’s leadership reshuffle revealed: meet the pair poised to become two of China’s most powerful men

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President Xi Jinping’s trusted ally Li Zhanshu stands a good chance of becoming chairman of China’s parliament while Communist Party organisation chief Zhao Leji is likely to head its corruption watchdog, sources have told the South China Morning Post. Li is widely expected to be elevated to the Politburo Standing Committee – the ruling party’s top echelon of power – on Wednesday, a day after the party’s 19th national congress closes in Beijing. Most observers had predicted he would succeed Wang Qishan as anti-corruption. “Li Zhanshu will succeed Zhang Dejiang”, a source familiar with the situation said, adding that Zhao would also be promoted into the Politburo Standing Committee and was likely to succeed Wang Qishan in leading anti- corruption work. The moves were confirmed separately by another source. Li was one of the key officials who accompanied Xi to Hong Kong in July for celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of its return to Chinese sovereignty. Professor Lau Siu-kai, vice-chairman of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said Xi had clearly spelled out political directions for Hong Kong during that visit. “Whoever takes over from Zhang Dejiang will only be an implementer”, he said. “I believe Xi will continue to watch over Hong Kong affairs. But given the strong ties between Xi and Li, if Li takes charge of Hong Kong affairs, he will understand the president’s thinking better than others”.

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North Korea threatens nuclear fire

in AMERICAS/ASIA/PRESS RELEASE/REGIONS by

Intensifying the war of words further, North Korea on Thursday mocked U.S. President Donald Trump as the “rabid man in the White House”. The reclusive nation has also threatened to attack the United States with an “immense volley of nuclear fire”. The menacing message from Pyongyang coming just days after it warned other countries to avoid an alliance with America if they wanted to evade a nuclear attack on their own nations. A North Korean ambassador said in prepared remarks, “The entire U.S. mainland is within our firing range. And if the U.S. dares to invade our sacred territory even an inch it will not escape our severe punishment in any part of the globe”. The KCNA report featured the statement by the reclusive nation along with photos of Kim Jong Un and his wife, Ri Jol Ju, smiling at workers in a shoe factory. The statement said, “The U.S. is running amok by introducing under our nose the targets we have set as primary ones. The U.S. should expect that it would face unimaginable strike at an unimaginable time. From the very day of the birth of the DPRK, its people have experienced sanctions and pressure, a war without gunfire. The U.S. is different from the DPRK. Historically, it is the chieftain persistently threatening the DPRK”.

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Xi heralds ‘new era’ of socialism

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The Communist Party of China (CPC) rolled out “Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” and embarked on a journey to build a “great modern socialist country” at the opening of its 19th National Congress on Wednesday. General secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping delivered a 3.5-hour speech to the congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday morning, during which he mentioned several times a “new era” for socialism with Chinese characteristics. Xi said the new era “will be an era of securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and of moving on to all-out efforts to build a great modern socialist country”. The principal contradiction facing Chinese society now is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life, Xi said. “The phrase ‘new era’ represents the changes in China after 40 years of development”, Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the Chongqing Committee, told the Global Times on Wednesday. “And by pointing out the new contradiction in Chinese society, Xi also revealed the key emphasis of future work – more balanced development in rural and remote areas with science and technology driving the economy”. China will see socialist modernization basically realized in the first stage from 2020 to 2035 and then become a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful from 2035 to the middle of this century, Xi noted in the report.

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