Construction | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

01/11/2019

Millions of masks distributed to students in ‘gas chamber’ Delhi

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal distributing masks to students — Image caption Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been handing out masks to school students

Five million masks are being distributed at schools in India’s capital, Delhi, after pollution made the air so toxic officials were forced to declare a public health emergency.

A Supreme Court mandated panel imposed several restrictions in the city and two neighbouring states, as air quality deteriorated to “severe” levels.

All construction has been halted for a week and fireworks have been banned.

The city’s schools have also been closed until at least next Tuesday.

Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Delhi had been turned into a “gas chamber”.

The masks are being handed out to students and their parents, and Mr Kejriwal has asked people to use them as much as possible.

The levels of tiny particulate matter (known as PM2.5) that enter deep into the lungs are 533 micrograms per cubic metre in the city. The WHO recommends that the PM2.5 levels should not be more than 25 micrograms per cubic metre on average in 24 hours.

As thick white smog blanketed the city, residents started tweeting pictures of their surroundings. Many are furious that the situation remains the same year after year.

The hashtags #DelhiAirQuality and #FightAgainstDelhiPollition are trending on Twitter.

Skip Twitter post by @vishmlondhe

One of the main reasons for air quality in the city worsening every year in November and December is that farmers in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana burn crop stubble to clear their fields. It’s made worse by the fireworks during the Hindu festival of Diwali.

There are other reasons too, including construction dust, factory and vehicular emissions, but farm fires remain the biggest culprit.

Media caption A hair-raising drive through the Delhi smog

More than two million farmers burn 23 million tonnes of crop residue on some 80,000 sq km of farmland in northern India every winter.

The stubble smoke is a lethal cocktail of particulate matter, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide.

Using satellite data, Harvard University researchers estimated that nearly half of Delhi’s air pollution between 2012 and 2016 was due to stubble burning.

The burning is so widespread that it even shows up in satellite photos from Nasa.

What are PM 2.5 particles?

Particulate matter, or PM, 2.5 is a type of pollution involving fine particles less than 2.5 microns (0.0025mm) in diameter
A second type, PM 10, is of coarser particles with a diameter of up to 10 microns
Some occur naturally – e.g. from dust storms and forest fires, others from human industrial processes
They often consist of fragments that are small enough to reach the lungs or, in the smallest cases, to cross into the bloodstream as well

Source: The BBC

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28/10/2019

Transport infrastructure key for China’s rural vitalization: experts

BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) — Strengthening the construction of rural transport infrastructure is the key to boost various rural industries, said experts at a forum on rural vitalization and transport industry Sunday.

The construction of rural transport infrastructure should be integrated with the development of various undertakings in the rural areas, said Li Chunsheng, vice chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, at the forum held by China Well-off Society Association.

Rural transport construction has brought about major changes in the agricultural production chain, the ecological and environmental chains, as well as the value chain, and it will certainly speed up the rural vitalization, said Yin Chengjie, head of the Chinese Association of Agricultural Economics.

More efforts should be made to establish a mechanism for increasing financial input and integrating funds for agriculture and transport, so as to achieve various goals including high-quality rural road construction, said Chen Jiding, deputy head of the China Academy of Transportation Sciences.

The central government has issued an outline on transport construction, which clearly plans to form a rural transport infrastructure network and achieve poverty alleviation through transport facilitation.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, Beijing, Central government, China Academy of Transportation Sciences, China Well-off Society Association, China's, Chinese Association of Agricultural Economics, Construction, key, National People's Congress, poverty alleviation, rural industries, rural transport infrastructure, rural vitalization, transport infrastructure, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

06/10/2019

Xinhua Headlines: China’s Greater Bay Area busy laying foundation for innovation

As China aims to develop its Greater Bay Area into an international innovation and technology hub, innovation and entrepreneurship resources are shared in the area to provide more opportunities for young Hong Kong and Macao entrepreneurs.

The provincial government of Guangdong has stepped up efforts to improve basic research capability, considered the backbone of an international innovation and technology hub, by building large scientific installations and launching provincial labs.

by Xinhua writers Liu Yiwei, Quan Xiaoshu, Wang Pan, Jing Huaiqiao

GUANGZHOU, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) — Hong Kong man Andy Ng was surprised his shared workspace Timetable was rented out completely only six months after it had started operation in Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province.

While studying economics at City University of Hong Kong, Ng set up his first business, developing an online education platform, but soon realized the Hong Kong market was too small. After earning a master’s degree in the UK in 2017, Ng returned to China and chose Guangzhou as his new base.

Timetable is now accumulating popularity and even fans in Dianping.com, China’s major online consumer guide. Ng feels lucky that his business caught the implementation of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) development plan.

The bay area, covering 56,000 square km, comprises Hong Kong and Macao, as well as nine cities in Guangdong. It had a combined population of about 70 million at the end of 2017, and is one of the most open and dynamic regions in China.

Aerial photo taken on July 11, 2018 shows the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in south China. (Xinhua/Liang Xu)

In July 2017, a framework agreement on the development of the bay area was signed. On February 18 this year, China issued the more specific Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. One of its major aims is to develop the area into an international innovation and technology hub.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH

The plan proposes that innovation and entrepreneurship resources be shared in the bay area to provide more opportunities for young Hong Kong and Macao entrepreneurs.

An incubator for entrepreneurship, Timetable is home to 52 companies, including 15 from Hong Kong and Macao, such as Redspots, a virtual reality company that won the Hong Kong Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Awards 2019.

“I persuaded them one by one to come here,” Ng said. “I told them of my own experience that the GBA is a great stage for starting a business with ever-upgrading technologies, ever-changing consumer tastes and a population 10 times that of Hong Kong.”

Timetable is a startup base of the Guangzhou Tianhe Hong Kong and Macao Youth Association, which has assisted 65 enterprises founded by Hong Kong and Macao young people since its establishment in October 2017.

The association and its four bases provide a package of services from training and registering to policy and legal consultation, said Chen Jingzhan, one of the association founders.

Tong Yat, a young Macao man who teaches children programming, is grateful the association encouraged him to come to Guangdong, where young people enjoy more preferential policies to start their own businesses.

“The GBA development not only benefits us, but paves the way for the next generation,” Tong said. “If one of my students were to become a tech tycoon in the future and tell others that his first science and technology teacher was me, I would think it all worthwhile.”

In the first quarter of this year, there were more than 980 science and technology business incubators in Guangdong, including more than 50 for young people from Hong Kong and Macao, said Wu Hanrong, an official with the Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province.

INNOVATION HIGHLAND

As the young entrepreneurs create a bustling innovative atmosphere, the Guangdong government has stepped up efforts to improve basic research capability, considered the backbone of an international innovation and technology hub, by building large scientific installations and launching provincial labs.

Several large scientific facilities have settled in Guangdong. China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) operates in Dongguan City; a neutrino observatory is under construction in Jiangmen City; a high intensity heavy-ion accelerator is being built in Huizhou City.

Aerial photo taken on June 23, 2019 shows the construction site of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) in Jiangmen, south China’s Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

Guangdong also plans to build about 10 provincial labs, covering regenerative medicine, materials, advanced manufacturing, next-generation network communications, chemical and fine chemicals, marine research and other areas, said Zhang Yan, of the provincial department of science and technology.

Unlike traditional universities or research institutions, the provincial labs enjoy a high degree of autonomy in policy and spending. A market-oriented salary system allows them to recruit talent from all over the world, and researchers from other domestic organizations can work for the laboratories without giving up their original jobs, Zhang said.

The labs are also open to professionals from Hong Kong and Macao. Research teams from the universities of the two special administrative regions have been involved in many of the key programs, Zhang said.

For example, the provincial lab of regenerative medicine and health has jointly established a regenerative medicine research institute with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a heart research center with the University of Hong Kong, and a neuroscience research center with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

Photo taken on July 24, 2019 shows a rapid cycling synchrotron at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) in Dongguan, south China’s Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

Guangdong has been trying to break down institutional barriers to help cooperation, encouraging Hong Kong and Macao research institutions to participate in provincial research programs, exploring the cross-border use of provincial government-sponsored research funds, and shielding Hong Kong researchers in Guangdong from higher mainland taxes.

NANSHA FOCUS

Located at the center of the bay area, Guangzhou’s Nansha District is designed as the national economic and technological development zone and national free trade zone, and is an important pivot in building the area into an international innovation and technology hub.

The construction of a science park covering about 200 hectares started on Sept. 26. Gong Shangyun, an official with the Nansha government, said the park will be completed in 2022.

Jointly built by the Guangzhou government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the science park will accommodate CAS research institutes from around Guangzhou, including the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, the South China Botanical Garden (SCBG) and the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion.

Ren Hai, director of the SCBG, is looking forward to expanding the research platforms in Nansha. “We will build a new economic plant platform serving the green development of the Pearl River Delta, a new botanical garden open to the public, and promote the establishment of the GBA botanical garden union.”

Wang Ying, a researcher with the SCBG, said the union will help deepen the long cooperation among its members and improve scientific research, science popularization and ecological protection. “Predecessors of our botanical garden have helped the Hong Kong and Macao counterparts gradually establish their regional flora since the 1950s and 1960s.”

HKUST also started to build a new campus in Nansha the same day as the science park broke ground. “Located next to the high-speed rail station, the Guangzhou campus is only a 30-minute journey from the Hong Kong campus. A delegation from the HKUST once paid a visit to the site and found it very convenient to work here,” Gong said.

Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam hoped the new campus would help create a new chapter for the exchanges and cooperation on higher education between Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and cultivate more talents with innovative capabilities.

Nansha’s layout is a miniature of the provincial blueprint for an emerging international innovation and technology hub.

“We are seeking partnership with other leading domestic research institutions and encouraging universities from Hong Kong and Macao to set up R&D institutions in Guangdong,” said Zhang Kaisheng, an official with the provincial department of science and technology.

“We are much busier now, because research institutes at home and abroad come to talk about collaboration every week. The GBA is a rising attraction to global scientific researchers,” Zhang said.

Source: Xinhua

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05/10/2019

Economic Watch: Foreign investors show strong appetite for Chinese market

BEIJING, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) — Despite the slowing momentum of global trade growth, China remains attractive to the world’s multinationals with its huge consumer market, optimized business environment and innovation capability.

EXPANDING PRESENCE

Swiss tech giant ABB began construction of its new 67,000-square meter robotics manufacturing and research facility in Shanghai in September with an investment of 150 million U.S. dollars.

It is designed to be the most advanced, automated and flexible factory in the global robotics industry, utilizing the latest manufacturing processes –– a cutting-edge center where robots make robots.

Since 1992, ABB has invested more than 2.4 billion U.S. dollars in China, with nearly 20,000 employees in total. China has become the company’s second-largest market.

“In the future, we will continue to expand investment in the country, further optimize the business layout and enhance innovation capability,” said Gu Chunyuan, president of ABB Asia, Middle East and Africa Region.

German company Henkel, a leading player in industrial and consumer businesses, also has a long-term commitment to and strong confidence in China. Early this year, Henkel announced it is stepping up investment by around 300 million euros annually to build on its strengths and capture opportunities.

“China will be one of the focal markets. We will strengthen our position by accelerating the launch of new brands and innovations, increasing our marketing investments and driving digitalization even further,” said Jeremy Hunter, president of Henkel Greater China.

Having established its first office in Beijing in 1988, the company now has around 5,000 employees at 25 sites across China. The production output of its manufacturing plant in Yantai of Shandong Province has increased more than 50 times over the years.

EMBRACING OPPORTUNITIES

“China’s huge market, steady growth momentum, complete industrial infrastructure as well as rich talent resources are all very attractive, ” said Gu Chunyuan.

As ABB’s second-biggest market, China’s increasingly optimized business climate, more energetic and effective market system and deepened opening-up policies have lured the company to beef up its confidence in the China market, he said.

As the center of the world’s manufacturing industry, China has witnessed unprecedented upgrading and transformation of industries toward digitalization and intelligence, which will unleash huge market potential, said Gu, adding that China’s development has brought many opportunities to the company, and convinced ABB to expand investment.

Hunter attributed Henkel’s success in China to the country’s continuous efforts of pursuing innovation-driven economic development, which has fostered a favorable environment for the company.

“Moreover, China has become a global force in digital technologies. Accelerated digitalization has also been a key driver for Henkel,” said Hunter, noting that the rapid transformation of China’s manufacturing and consumption upgrading are also driving demand for the company.

EXPECTING GROWTH

Foreign investors agree that the Chinese economy offers them indispensable certainty and confidence with its positive outlook.

Commenting on China’s efforts on pushing for all-around opening-up and building a stable, transparent and predictable investment environment, Gu said these measures will bring huge development opportunities for foreign-funded companies.

“We believe that China’s further opening-up will promote the globalization as well as the liberalization and facilitation of trade,” Gu said.

Hunter noted China will maintain its unparalleled momentum in industrial and consumption upgrading and its integration into global flows of trade, talent and innovation.

“I believe that the Chinese market will go beyond just participating in these areas to actively shaping their future development,” he said.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in ABB, ABB Asia, Middle East and Africa Region, Beijing, business environment, Chinese market, Construction, consumer market, cutting-edge center, foreign investors, global trade growth, Henkel, Henkel Greater China, industrial and consumer businesses, innovation capability, robotics manufacturing and research facility, robots make robots, shandong province, Shanghai, slowing momentum, strong appetite, Swiss tech giant, Uncategorized, Yantai City | Leave a Comment »

04/10/2019

Chinese-built Benguela Railway handed over to Angola

Photo taken on Oct. 3, 2019 shows a large maintenance machine at the Lobito station of the Benguela Railway in Lobito, Angola. The Benguela Railway, which was built by the China Railway 20 Bureau Group Corporation (CR20), was officially handed over to Angola in the port city of Lobito on Thursday. The 1,344-km railway runs through Angola, from west of the Atlantic port city of Lobito, eastward through important cities such as Benguela, Huambo, Kuito and Luena, and reaches the border city of Luao, bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Photo by Liu Zhi/Xinhua)

LOBITO, Angola, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) — The Benguela Railway, which was built by the China Railway 20 Bureau Group Corporation (CR20), was officially handed over to Angola in the port city of Lobito on Thursday.

The 1,344-km railway runs through Angola, from west of the Atlantic port city of Lobito, eastward through important cities such as Benguela, Huambo, Kuito and Luena, and reaches the border city of Luao, bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

According to Han Shuchen, General Manager of CR20 Angola International Company, the Benguela Railway, which started construction in January 2006, was one of the most important projects in Angola after the civil war.

The total investment of the railway was about 1.83 billion U.S. dollars. It was contracted by CR20 for design, procurement and construction with Chinese standards.

During the construction, CR20 created more than 25,000 jobs for locals, and trained more than 5,000 technicians, including drivers, line workers, communication and signal technicians, said Han.

“Because of natural disasters, diseases and landmines, more than 20 Chinese employees and two local employees sacrificed their lives in the construction of the project. Their lives were honored for the unbreakable friendship between China and Angola.” he said.

On August 21, 2014, the Benguela Railway was announced to be completed and was delivered to the Angola authorities on July 27, 2017.

Luis Lopes Teixeira, chairman of the Benguela Railway company(CFB-EP), spoke at the handover ceremony that the official handover of the railway marked the beginning of a new era, with more cooperation projects and new investment for Angola.

Teixeira expressed confidence with CR20 in the future cooperation, and hoped that CR20 would have more cooperation and support in railway technology, practical operation, line maintenance and other aspects.

Ottoniel Mauro de Almeida Manuel, Director of the National Railways of Angola, stated that the official handover ceremony meant the transfer of responsibility.

Manuel said all the projects of the Benguela Railway are of good quality, and the test results of the equipment also prove that they meet the international standards of railway operation and traffic.

Source: Xinhua

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25/09/2019

China Focus: China completes world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge

CHINA-FUJIAN-CROSS-SEA ROAD-RAIL BRIDGE-COMPLETION (CN)

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 21, 2019 shows a steel girder being lifted by a crane at the construction site of the Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge in southeast China’s Fujian Province. China on Wednesday completed the main structure of the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge in Fujian. The last steel girder, weighing 473 tonnes, was bolted on the Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge, another mega project in China, on Wednesday morning. With a staggering span of 16.34 km, the bridge connects Pingtan Island and four nearby islets to the mainland of Fujian Province. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

FUZHOU, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) — China on Wednesday completed the main structure of the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge in its southeastern province of Fujian.

The last steel truss girder, weighing 473 tonnes, was bolted on the Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge, another mega project in China, on Wednesday morning.

Hundreds of bridge builders clad in orange overalls, as well as government officials, hailed the completion on the bridge deck, with several rounds of fireworks being set off to celebrate the moment.

With a staggering span of 16.34 km, the bridge connects Pingtan Island and four nearby islets to the mainland of Fujian Province.

The bridge, which is expected to open to traffic next year, can help shorten travel time from two hours to half an hour between Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian Province and Pingtan, a pilot zone set up to facilitate trade and cultural exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.

“Of all the bridges being built across the world, this is no doubt the most challenging,” said Wang Donghui, chief engineer of the project, adding that it is China’s first and the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge.

The project has attracted worldwide attention from the start of construction in 2013 as it spans an area off the coast of southeast China long seen as a “no-go zone” for bridge-building.

The region has strong gales and high waves for most of the year and is known as one of the world’s three most perilous seas along with Bermuda and the Cape of Good Hope.

Workers had to battle the notoriously strong winds, choppy waters and rugged seabed in the region to drill 1,895 piles into the ocean.

MORE THAN MEGA PROJECT

The road-rail bridge has a six-lane highway on the top and a high-speed railway at the bottom, which is designed to support bullet trains traveling as fast as 200 km per hour. It is a part of the 88-km Fuzhou-Pingtan railway.

In the past, Pingtan was a backwater island of humble fisheries. It did not even have a bridge connecting it to the mainland until 2010 when the Strait Bridge began operating for cars only.

In 2010, China established the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone to facilitate cross-Strait exchange and cooperation, ramping up its efforts to improve the island’s infrastructure.

Today, skyscrapers are popping up all along the shoreline, with the glow of construction work filling the night sky. Meanwhile, thousands of Taiwan residents swarm into the booming island to live and start businesses.

The island has accommodated more than 1,000 shops and companies set up by Taiwan residents, according to government statistics.

Chen Chien-hsiang, a 29-year-old man who moved from Taiwan to Pingtan two years ago, believes that the new bridge will help attract more businesses to the island and further boost its economic development.

“The new bridge means more than a mere mega project,” Chen said. “It also promises a brighter future for people from Taiwan who chose to live and work here.”

INFRASTRUCTURE MANIAC

Huang Zhiwei, 22, found himself making history by lifting the last piece of the bridge girder from a ship about 80 meters below the bridge deck, an undertaking that he had never expected when he joined the project a year ago as an intern.

His parents, unhappy about their son’s career choice, felt relieved after several video chats during which their son showed them his working and living conditions at the construction site.

“With so many advanced technologies and safety measures, I am convinced that we will accomplish the mission, and I am very proud of my contribution,” said the young operator.

More than 1.24 million tonnes of steel have been used for the bridge, enough to build 190 Eiffel Towers, and 2.97 million cubic meters of cement, nine times the amount of cement used to build the Burj Khalifa towers in Dubai, the world’s tallest skyscraper.

“We could not possibly have realized the construction 15 years ago for lack of advanced construction technologies and equipment such as the drilling machine and ship cranes we have developed today,” said Xiao Shibo, an engineer of the China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd. The bridge has made history in many aspects, Xiao added.

China is dubbed as an “infrastructure maniac” for countless dazzling megaprojects, with the Chinese builders breaking their own world records.

China is home to the world’s highest bridge, longest cross-sea bridge and 90 out of the 100 highest bridges built this century.

From 2015 to 2020, China’s transportation investment is expected to exceed 15 trillion yuan (2.1 trillion U.S. dollars), with a substantial portion reserved for bridge construction.

Source: Xinhua

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27/08/2019

Viewpoint: How serious is India’s economic slowdown?

Indian factory worker — Image caption Private sector investment is at a 15-year low

Top Indian government officials are engaged in a vociferous public debate over the state of the country’s economy.

Rajiv Kumar, the head of the government’s think tank Niti Aayog, recently claimed that the current slowdown was unprecedented in 70 years of independent India and called for immediate policy interventions in specific industries.

The Chief Economic Adviser, K Subramanian, disagreed with the idea of industry-specific incentives and argued for structural reforms in land and labour markets. Members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic advisory council sound inchoate, resorting to social media and opinion editorials to counter one another.

In essence, the quibble among the members of the economic team of Mr Modi and his government is not about whether India is facing an economic slowdown or not, but about how grave the current economic crisis is.

This is a remarkable reversal in stance of the same group of economists who, until a few months ago, waxed eloquent about how India was the fastest growing economy in the world, generating seven million jobs a year.

To put all this in context, it was less than just two years ago, in November 2017, that the global ratings agency Moody’s upgraded India’s sovereign ratings – an independent assessment of the creditworthiness of a country – for the first time in 14 years.

Gurgaon — Image captionSales of cars and SUVs have slumped to a seven-year low

Justifying the upgrade, Moody’s had then argued that the economy was undergoing dramatic “structural” reforms under Mr Modi.

In the two years since, Moody’s has downgraded its 2019 GDP growth forecast for India thrice – from 7.5% to 7.4% to 6.8% to 6.2%.

The immediate questions that arise now are: is India’s economic condition really that grim and, if yes, how did it deteriorate so rapidly?

Not easy

The wobbly state of the economy has also thrown government finances in disarray: tax revenues are much below expectations.

On Monday, the government got a much-needed breather when India’s central bank announced a $24bn (£19bn) one-time payout for the cash-starved government. (This amount is more than the dividend paid by the central bank to the government in all five years of the Congress rule between 2009 and 2014.)

The solutions to the economic crisis are not easy.

Indian industry, fed and fattened with government protection through decades, is once again clamouring for tax cuts and financial incentives.

But it is not clear that such benefits will revive private sector investment and domestic consumption immediately.

For all the hype about the Make in India programme, hailed as the harbinger of the country’s emergence as a manufacturing power, India’s dependence on China for goods has only doubled in the past five years.

India today imports from China the equivalent of 6,000 rupees ($83; £68) worth of goods for every Indian, which has doubled from 3,000 rupees in 2014.

India’s exports have remained stuck at 2011 levels and not grown.

So, India is neither making goods for itself nor for the world.

An Indian farmer carries sugarcane to load on a tractor to sell it at a nearby sugar mill in Modinagar in Ghaziabad, some 45km east of New Delhi, on January 31, 2018 — Image caption India’s agrarian crisis is a major stumbling block

Ornamental tax and other fiscal incentives to specific industries are not suddenly going to make Indian manufacturers competitive and stop India’s addiction for affordable Chinese goods. If any, the trade spat between China and the United States only saw countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh benefit and not India.

More currency or trade tariffs are not the solutions either. The central bank has lowered interest rates and there is some push to lowering the cost of capital for industry. But again, Indian industry will invest more only when demand for goods and services increases. And demand will increase only when wages increase, or there is money in the hands of people.

So, the only immediate solution for India seems to be to boost consumption through a stimulus given directly to people, in the classical Keynesian mould.

Of course, such a stimulus should be combined with reforms to boost business morale and confidence.

In sum, India’s economic picture is not pretty.

It is important for India’s political leadership to see this not-so-pretty picture and not hide behind rose tinted glasses. Prime Minister Modi has a unique electoral mandate to embark on bold moves to truly transform the economy and pull India out of the woods.

Source: The BBC

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17/08/2019

Are Chinese infrastructure loans putting Africa on the debt-trap express?

Beijing has lent billions of dollars to countries on the continent to build railways, highways and airports but critics say the borrowings are unsustainable
Chinese officials say the projects will pay off in the long run and host nations are well aware of their limits and needs

Illustration: Lau Kakuen

When Clement Mouamba went to Beijing last year, he had two main tasks.

The prime minister of the Republic of Congo needed to find out exactly how much his country owed to China, a number the struggling, oil-rich central African nation had until then not been able to provide the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to qualify for a bailout. He also needed to convince Beijing to restructure its debt to ensure sustainability.

The IMF had put talks for further loans on hold until Mouamba’s administration could say exactly how much it had to repay to the country’s external creditors, including China – the republic’s single largest bilateral lender – and oil multinationals such as Glencore and Trafigura.

The country, which heavily depends on oil revenue, turned to China and private oil majors for funding to run the government when in 2014 oil prices fell from a high of US$100 per barrel to as low as US$30.

Critics say countries on the continent are being burdened with unrealistic levels of debt for inviable infrastructure backed and built by China without adequate transparency and scrutiny.

The biggest concern is that several African countries will be left with huge debts and grandiose infrastructure that they cannot maintain and run profitably. I liken it to borrowing money to buy a Tesla when you don’t have adequate access to electricity: Obert Hodzi of the University of Helsinki in Finland

But Chinese observers say the West must take some of the blame for the countries’ debt problems and that the support China offers will benefit the host countries in the long run.

In the early 1990s, when China began to embrace Africa again after years of isolation from the outside world, the aspiring manufacturer was at a serious disadvantage in the race for raw materials and markets for its industrial goods.

The former colonial powers of the West had already sewn up deals for many of the continent’s most lucrative and readily exploitable reserves, from fossil fuels to minerals.

China needed new strategies to convince African governments to allow it access raw materials for its industries and markets for its products to a largely unfamiliar partner.

China also wanted to challenge the dominance of the US in global trade and politics so it courted allies in Africa to help it push for political legitimacy in international institutions.

A Kenya Railways freight train leaves the port station on the Mombasa-Nairobi railway in Mombasa, Kenya, a huge project backed by China. Photo: Bloomberg

At the time, many African leaders were under fire to liberalise their economies. China’s approach was to promise not to meddle in individual country’s internal affairs and assure African countries that they could get billions in exchange for future delivery of minerals through resource-backed deals.

Beijing sold its policies that it had no conditions attached to its development finance. In the drive to drum up business, China promised affordable loans for African countries to build roads, bridges, highways, airports and power dams.

Is Kenya’s Chinese-built railway a massive white elephant?

But Beijing also pursued tied finance, ensuring that countries borrowing from China used Chinese contractors to implement the projects rather than open them up to outside bids.

In addition, many of the deals were built on weak financial, technical and environmental conditions, with Chinese state firms conducting the technical feasibility, environmental impact assessment and financial viability studies for free for projects that they also build.

For example, in Kenya, the China Road and Bridge Corporation conducted a free feasibility study that was used in the construction of the railway.

The same company was handed the contract to implement the project and is operating both the passenger and cargo train service for a fee.

Chinese companies were responsible for the construction of a rail line between Addis Ababa and Djibouti. Photo: AFP

In contrast, the World Bank and its partner institution, the IMF, demand that such studies be done by an independent consultant and not by the company that implements the project.

According to data compiled by the China-Africa Research Initiative, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Beijing has advanced loans worth US$143 billion to African countries since 2000, levels that some critics say are unsustainable for the borrowers.

China meets resistance over Kenya coal plant, in test of its African ambitions

For many of China’s new African partners, these arrangements – from easy lending terms, to non-competitive bidding and opaque contract details – have led to new problems – problems that corrupt or poorly managed governments now share substantial responsibility.

Some critics, both in the West and in host countries, suggest there is a “debt-trap strategy” at the heart of Beijing’s push for international business and influence, but there is no evidence that China deliberately pushes other countries into debt to seize their assets or gain sway.

However, the drive for overseas contracts and big business has led some countries into difficulties with new debts, and there are question marks over the viability of many of the projects the money is funding.

Obert Hodzi, an international relations expert at the University of Helsinki in Finland, said the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway and the Mombasa-Nairobi railway were good examples of huge projects that were financed by easy borrowing terms from China but were not sustainable and that had in turn forced the African partners to seek further Chinese help.

“The biggest concern is that several African countries will be left with huge debts and grandiose infrastructure that they cannot maintain and run profitably,” Hodzi said. “I liken it to borrowing money to buy a Tesla when you don’t have adequate access to electricity.”

Ken Opalo, a Kenyan scholar at Georgetown University in Washington, said the key issue was the inability of African countries to design projects that were actually needed for the local economies.

A road is not just a means of transport but an economic belt or corridor that will catalyse the development of the whole region: Huang Xueqing, spokeswoman for the Chinese embassy in Nairobi

“Most African countries have been willing to accept projects designed, financed, and implemented by Chinese firms,” Opalo said.

“It would be better to decouple the feasibility studies and design phases of projects from the financing. That way African governments can ensure that they are truly getting value for money.”

But Chinese officials said Beijing had invested in infrastructure largely at the request of the host countries, adding that it could take time to yield returns on the projects.

Huang Xueqing, spokeswoman for the Chinese embassy in Nairobi, said the projects were valid assets with value that would grow in time.

“So, in the long run, it is beneficial to the host countries. Just like when young people buy a house with a mortgage, they may take some debts, but they have a place to live in and have their own assets,” Huang said.

“Underdeveloped infrastructure is the bottleneck that has been holding back Africa’s development. Up to today, many African countries, although in the same continent, are not connected with direct flights, railways or even roads. You have to fly to Paris or Zurich in order to get to some African countries.

“A road is not just a means of transport but an economic belt or corridor that will catalyse the development of the whole region.”

Huang said Beijing had advised the countries to act within their means and not to overstretch themselves when they considered projects that might not be in line with local conditions.

“When making investment decisions, the Chinese side, along with the recipient countries, carry out rigorous feasibility studies and evaluations. We do things according to our ability,” she said.

China’s leadership has also said it is paying close attention to the fiscal and financial difficulties faced by some African countries.

“As a good friend and good brother … the Chinese side is willing to lend a helping hand when needed by the African people to help them overcome temporary difficulties,” State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in January while on a trip to Ethiopia, adding that the debt situation in Africa is also a legacy issue.

China must allay any debt-trap fears in its dealings with Africa

“The African debt issue does not come up today, still less is it caused by the Chinese side. The African people know who are the initiators of African debt.”

The West should take a lot of the blame for worsening debt problems in some African countries, according to Li Anshan, from Peking University’s Centre for African Studies.

He cited the cases of Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, two countries that have had close relations with the West for many years but remain ravaged by war and poverty despite immense natural resources.

“China-Africa relations have been going on for quite some time. Is there any African country which has got poorer because of its deal with China?” Li said.

Gyude Moore, a former Liberian minister of public works whose department oversaw construction and maintenance of various public infrastructure funded and built by China, said it would be difficult to imagine that China would knowingly ensnare its partners in debt.

“China attempts to differentiate itself from Western donors by limiting non loan-related conditionality. China also practices non-interference, so how a country manages its resources, treats its people or deploy its finances were considered ‘internal’,” he said.

“So, Chinese loans are negotiated faster and place less emphasis on public financial management.”

Moore, now a visiting fellow at the Centre for Global Development, said there were trade-offs in such situations.

China focuses on sustainable projects to dismiss fears of African debt trap

“If the loans are going to be fast – the due diligence will not be as rigorous. Chinese project selection mixes political with economic considerations. So, while a project may not make as much economic sense, it may pay political dividends,” he said.

He said non-transparent processes would invite abuse, be they Chinese, Western or African.

Other observers say the question of opacity is more directly related to China’s own economic system.

Howard French, author of China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants are Building a New Empire in Africa, said China has very limited transparency and public accountability in its own domestic processes.

The Mombasa railway station is seen in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2018. Photo: Xinhua

“So it would be unusual to expect that China would introduce greater transparency and accountability in its dealings with African countries than it is used to at home – that is, unless African governments insist on it,” French said.

“And this is where African governance comes in. African states should insist on contract transparency but often don’t do so because that offers leaders plentiful opportunities for graft.”

David Shinn, professor of international relations at George Washington University in Washington, agreed that China’s lack of loan transparency was a huge problem and increased the risk of corruption on both the African and Chinese sides. But he also said that in some cases, African governments might have negotiated poorly.

“This is, however, the responsibility of the African government. I don’t think China is purposely trying to encourage African debts in order to gain leverage,” Shinn said.

“In fact, China is becoming more careful about its lending because it is concerned it has made too much credit available to some African countries.”

China ‘ready to talk’ about trade deal with East Africa bloc

Huang Hongxiang, director of China House, a Nairobi-based consultancy that helps Chinese in Africa integrate better, agreed, saying the Chinese government needs to communicate more about projects in Africa but African countries also have a bigger part to play in ensuring better deals.

“On commercial viability, accountability, transparency and governance, I believe the responsibility does not lie with China, the US or the West but in the hands of African countries,” he said.

Wherever the fault lies, one thing is clear when money is wasted on ill-designed projects that have little to no economic return, according to Opalo.

“The lack of planning and transparency creates default risks … [and] African taxpayers will be left holding the bag.”

This article is the third in a series examining the local impact of Chinese investment and infrastructure projects in Africa. Read part one here and part two

here

The next report will examine whether African countries can speak with one voice in relations with China.

Source: SCMP

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07/07/2019

China’s Sichuan earthquake death toll rises to 12, with 134 injured

Authorities report roads closed and 10,000 buildings damaged after magnitude 6.0 quake on Monday night
More than 100,000 people affected

Residents gather in the open in Changning county on Monday night after a magnitude 6.0 hit the area. Photo: Xinhua

The death toll from a strong earthquake which hit the southern Chinese province of Sichuan late on Monday night has risen to 12, with 134 people injured.

More than 100,000 people were affected – mostly in the epicentre at Changning county in Yibin, while more than 10,000 buildings were damaged, according to a statement by the local government on Tuesday.

Land subsidence and a landslide caused by the magnitude 6.0 quake, blocked a highway, several major roads and numerous village roads, the statement said, while a major bridge in the area was also at risk.

The Yixu highway in Changning had been closed and authorities were assessing the Dongdi Bridge. The Yibin government statement also said workers had been sent to clear the affected village roads.

According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake was centred at a fairly shallow depth of 10km (6 miles). Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage to buildings and infrastructure.

An aftershock measuring magnitude 5.2 later hit the same area, the USGS said.

More than 300 firefighters were sent to the scene overnight, as well as rescue personnel with 5,000 tents, 10,000 folding cots and other emergency supplies, according to state news agency Xinhua.

In 2008, China’s worst earthquake in recent years struck the mountainous western portion of Sichuan province, leaving 87,000 dead, 370,000 injured and 5 million people homeless. That earthquake was about 400km (249 miles) from Monday’s earthquake.

A 1976 earthquake centred in the northeastern city of Tangshan killed at least 250,000 people.

Source: SCMP

Posted in Bridge, Changning county, death toll, Dongdi Bridge, epicentre, injured, land subsidence, Landslide, Sichuan earthquake, Tangshan, Uncategorized, US Geological Survey, Yibin, Yixu highway | Leave a Comment »

11/06/2019

Aarey forest: The fight to save Mumbai’s last ‘green lung’

The Aarey forest, a verdant strip that lies at the heart of India’s bustling Mumbai city, is often referred to as its last green lung. But now, locals say, it’s under threat from encroachment. BBC Marathi’s Janhavee Moole reports.

As a child, Stalin Dayanand used to picnic in the Aarey forest.

“It was the only place where you could go and play, climb trees or just sit and eat under the shade of a tree and be close to nature,” says Stalin, who prefers to go by his first name.

Now the 54-year-old is the director of an NGO that works to protect forests and wetlands. He is fighting for Aarey.

On 6 June, the government cleared 40 hectares (99 acres) of the 1,300 hectare forest to build a zoo, complete with a night safari.

Another slice of it is being claimed by Mumbai’s new metro rail which is currently under construction. Thousands of trees will have to be felled to construct a new multi-level parking unit for the metro.

Stalin has petitioned India’s Supreme Court challenging the construction, but the case is still pending.

Locals and environmental activists like him are up in arms because they fear the government will eventually clear the way for private builders to encroach on the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which lies to the north of Aarey. Spread over 104 sq km (40 sq miles), this protected area makes Mumbai one of the rare cities to have a jungle within its boundaries.

Their concern is partly fuelled by the fact that this is prime location in a city where land is scarce and real estate prices are among the most expensive in the world.

But officials dismiss these fears as unfounded and point out that the construction for the metro only requires 30 hectares of the 1,300 hectares that make up the Aarey forest.

“This is the most suitable land due to its size, shape and location,” says Ashwini Bhide, managing director of the Mumbai metro rail corporation.

Residents of Aarey colony and Aam Aadmi Party members protest against cutting of trees to build a metro shed at Aarey Colony on 2 October 2018 in Mumbai, India. — Image caption Plans to fell trees in the forest have led to protests

She adds that the city badly needs a “mass rapid transport system”. India’s financial hub is congested and infamous for its crawling traffic jams and its local train system heavily overburdened.

Officials say that the metro will eventually carry around 1.7 million passengers every day and bring down the number of vehicles on the road by up to 650,000. The city’s current colonial-era railway system, which is effectively its lifeline, ferries some 7.5 million people between Mumbai’s suburbs and its heart on a daily basis.

But they have been up against the city’s residents, including activists and conservationists, ever since news emerged in 2014 that trees would be cut to make way for the metro.

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

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