IN BRIEF (Page 2)

China's rail success can be a lesson for Africa

Africa can learn a lot from China in developing a strong rail infrastructure, spurring intraconnection, Dapo Ogunmuyiwa, chairman of the German-based Ogunmuyiwa Motorentechnik GmbH, said.

He said the continent's poor rail infrastructure is hampering swift movement of goods and people.

"Many African countries have high densities of people, and this creates a need for a high-speed passenger network linking main cities," he said on the sidelines of the Africa Rail Exhibition 2015 in Johannesburg. "In the past 20 years, China has developed a high-speed rail network (that has) worked wonders.

"In five years, China built a high-speed railway from Beijing to Shanghai, and that is the kind of development Africa needs. Although a lot of money was invested in that project, the country is now enjoying the social benefits."

He said most rail infrastructure in Africa is more than 100 years old and is struggling to satisfy modern demands.

China helps Gabon to construct stadiums

The Gabonese government and China State Construction Enginnering have signed an agreement to construct a stadium in Port Gentil, the country's commercial capital.

The 20,000-seater stadium will be constructed over a period of 18 months and eventually used to host the 2017 African Cup of Nations soccer tournament.

"President Ali Bongo Ondimba will lay the foundation stone for this structure in mid-July," said spokesman Alain Claude Bilie Bi Nze.

Gabon also plans to construct a 30,000-capacity stadium in the northern town of Oyem, as well as invest in a number of infrastructure projects, including hotels and urban roads, to ensure a successful tournament, he said.

Chinese-owned private bank to open

China Commercial Bank, the first private African bank owned by Chinese investors, is to launch trial operations in Tanzania after two years of preparatory work.

Although similar in name to an established Chinese bank, CCBank was founded in Tanzania and most of its core employees are Tanzanians.

The Chinese CEO, Yan Gang, relocated to Dar es Salaam from Canada two years ago. He previously worked at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, one of the top banks in Canada.

The preparatory work involved finding the ideal location, recruiting competent staff and acquiring the right technological infrastructure.

"Founding a bank in Tanzania required a fairly large amount of imports, from technology to hardware," Yan told Xinhua, adding: "Small items such as printers and big ones such as ATM machines all came from abroad."

The toughest part, however, was creating a banking system. "All big foreign banks here kept their existing systems when they reached Tanzania, and they transferred data abroad through the Internet. But for my team, we did not have that privilege; we had to hire a service provider to build a new system."

World Bank: Learn from economic zones

Special economic zones can be an effective instrument for Africa to achieve industrialization, and countries can learn from China's experience in this regard, a World Bank report has said.

The continent has traditional export processing zones, but these have proved to be weak in creating jobs and boosting the export sector, mainly due to the high costs of doing business and the poor state of infrastructure and management.

"In most of sub-Sahara Africa, the costs of doing business are high due to an overall constraining environment in terms of registration, licensing, taxation, trade logistics, customs clearance, foreign exchange, and service delivery," read the report, released on June 7 at the Investing in Africa Forum in Addis Ababa jointly held by the World Bank, China and Ethiopia. "Many one-stop shops for investors do not live up to their names."

Between 2004 and 2007, Africa's economic zones created direct employment for a million people and $8.6 million in exports.

China safe from effect of Greece default

Greece's debt default will not affect China's investment because it has a small number of assets in the country and its companies are diversified in other parts of Europe.

Shen Danyang, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said the scale of investment between China and Greece is not significant. China has invested $1.3 billion in Greece, mainly in the fields of shipping, telecommunications and photovoltaic cells.

Chinese contractors in Greece signed contracts worth $45.2 million and completed projects worth $22.4 million in the first five months of this year in fields such as shipbuilding and ship maintenance, according to the ministry.

Greece has invested $96 million in 130 projects in China but has not invested this year.

Beijing rejects arbitration gambit

China criticized the Philippines on July 7 for "betraying bilateral consensus" on resolving its South China Sea concerns through negotiations, as an international tribunal at The Hague took up Manila's request for arbitration over the issue.

The five-member tribunal is to "address China's contention that the arbitration body does not have authority to assume jurisdiction over Manila's complaint against Beijing", the Associated Press reported. The Philippines initiated the arbitration case in January 2013.

Forgetting history is a betrayal, president says

All seven members of the Standing Committee of the Communisty Party of China's Central Political Bureau visited a museum on July 7 to mark the anniversary of the event that triggered Japan's invasion of China.

"Remembering history is to open up to the future; forgetting history is a betrayal," President Xi Jinping said at the new Great Victory, Historical Contributions exhibition.

The museum is next to Lugouqiao, also known as Marco Polo Bridge, the site of a skirmish in suburban Beijing 78 years ago that sparked the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).

Xi called on the country to remember the contribution of the Chinese people to the world's anti-fascist war, cherish peace and adhere firmly to a path of peaceful development.

Military gear being adapted for police use

Chinese defense equipment manufacturers are eager to adapt their military technologies for the police and anti-terrorism equipment market, industry insiders said.

Pods designed for military aircraft, usually containing electronic warfare equipment, can be mounted on police helicopters, patrol ships and armored vehicles, said Wang Yanyong, a manager at Beijing A-Star Science and Technology.

"The pods were primarily developed for military aircraft, especially the modern, advanced types in service with the People's Liberation Army air force, but now we plan to promote them to public security authorities," he said on July 7 at the opening of the 2015 China Military and Civilian Integration Expo in Beijing.

Database to help handle cross-border cases

A database for searching foreign laws is being developed along with a new rule under which foreigners can visit Chinese courts, the Supreme People's Court announced on July 7.

The moves represent the latest effort to improve access to China's legal system as the country pushes its Belt and Road Initiative, the court said. The database will cover foreign laws, international conventions and contracts, and will be shared through China's court network for judges to search and study.

Under international conventions, litigants have a right to choose which law they prefer to apply in a commercial dispute, and the ongoing trade initiative may bring a wave of such cases, said Luo Dongchuan, chief judge of the foreign-related tribunal at the top court.

If the database can be built up, it will help courts improve efficiency and accuracy when hearing cross-border cases, especially commercial and maritime cases. In addition, it will help to ensure that litigants receive legal services in a timely manner, Luo said.

High-speed rail getting popular for tours

High-speed rail tours have become a popular choice for travelers, especially families and students during the peak summer season, as the growing railway network connects the country's scenic spots.

In a report by Chinese online travel agency Tuniu, nearly 80 percent of respondents said they were planning to travel by rail. Most were students, parents and teachers.

Parade in Beijing will 'surprise'

Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov said a show by Russian soldiers in September in the planned Tian'anmen Square parade will have "a surprise".

Denisov praised a Chinese honor guard's May show in Moscow's Red Square.

Beijing said this year the Russian army will be welcomed at the September commemorative events marking the 70th anniversary of China's victory in World War II and the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).

Although details of the Russian armed forces that will attend the Beijing parade are still unavailable, the envoy said: "The Russian unit will march as well as the Chinese did in Moscow in May."

Tibetan antelope removed from danger list

Wildlife advocates have welcomed the removal of the chiru, or Tibetan antelope, from the endangered species list, but plan to continue their protection program.

A joint report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Chinese Academy of Sciences published in June said the Tibetan antelope was no longer an endangered species.

"Due to effective protection, there are now around 200,000 in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau area, and the population is steadily climbing," said Shirab, the forestry police chief in Nagchu prefecture, Tibet autonomous region.

Tibetan antelopes mainly live in western China, in Qinghai province, Xinjiang Uygur and Tibet autonomous regions. About 80 percent live in Changtang in northern Tibet.

Beijing names candidate for AIIB leadership

China has become the first member to nominate a candidate for president of the emerging Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, according to a Finance Ministry statement on July 6.

The selection of Jin Liqun, secretary-general of the Multilateral Interim Secretariat for the AIIB, is not surprising, analysts said. Long before the announcement, Jin had been widely discussed by outsiders as the most likely candidate for the post.

"Jin Liqun ... has an outstanding leadership record in the public and private sectors, and in multilateral development institutions," the statement said.

A source close to the process who requested anonymity said: "There is a widespread expectation among the prospective founding members that the first president of the AIIB should be a Chinese national. But too much publicity is not necessarily good for the outcome."

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/10/2015 page2)