China Development Bank to invest more in African farming

Published on 5th August 2008

The China Development Bank plans further African farming investments as the continent tries to raise output to curb food inflation and shortages said Governor Chen Yuan.

An oil and commodities boom has brought Africa billions of dollars of investment from China and elsewhere in recent years, but has also contributed to soaring food prices which threaten to make life harder for hundreds of millions of poor Africans.

"China Development Bank is anxious to work in the area of agriculture. Given the current scenario of a great shortage of food and food price hikes I believe African countries should put agricultural development as their top priority," he said.

Addressing the IMF and World Bank Africa Caucus in Mauritania, Chen said African countries should grow cereals as well as cash crops such as rubber and pine, and upgrade their processing capacity to make value added agricultural projects.

China  has become a big investor in Africa's oil sector and other heavy industries like construction in recent years as it secures access to some of the continent's huge oil, minerals and other natural resources to fuel China's fast-growing economy.

The China Development Bank has already granted loans worth several hundred million dollars to agricultural processing companies, mostly in East Africa, Chen told Reuters after delivering his speech. China's trade with Africa has surged in recent years, reaching $73 billion in 2007, Chen said.

Tsvangirai denies being offered VP post

Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, on his whistle-stop tour to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, denied he has been offered Vice President to end the political stalemate in Zimbabwe.  

Tsvangirai was meeting Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade to discuss the current state of negotiations. He suggested two weeks for concluding the talks as flexible and added that more African leaders should be involved in ensuring that a political settlement is found for Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai said that Wade had met US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice and raised the issue of the US sanctions which according to him was not helpful. The MDC leader said little about specifics of the negotiations but said they was progressing well.

Zuma trial delayed till September

“The corruption trial of the leader of South Africa's ruling party, Jacob Zuma will be ruled next month” Said a South African judge. Judge Chris Nicholson also set 8 December as a provisional date for a criminal trial.

Mr Zuma, who is favored to become president next year, denies charges of corruption linked to an arms deal. His legal team has argued that delays in bringing the case to court mean he would not get a fair trial. Mr Zuma's colleagues in the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) are standing firmly by him. They say he is a victim of a political conspiracy intended to prevent him becoming South Africa's president in elections due to be held before July 2009.

Meanwhile, Mr Zuma has said that he will stand down as ANC leader only if he is found guilty of the charges - corruption, fraud, racketeering and money-laundering. Critics say he is just trying to delay proceedings until after he is elected president. The shadow of corruption has been hanging over Mr Zuma for several years.

Health systems 'impede' fight against HIV

Former US President Bill Clinton has said that improving health services is the main challenge to fighting HIV/Aids in Africa, not a lack of money.

He said the U.S. government has failed to prevent the virus in blacks, who account for half of new infections, at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. In Africa, 30 percent of babies born to mothers with HIV are infected with the virus, though there are drugs that could cut the risks to less than 2 percent if widely available. He said his foundation will increase projects to reduce the infection rates.

In a BBC interview, Mr Clinton said his foundation had therefore been focusing more and more on cost-effective ways to improve national health systems.

"That's what our foundation has focused on - what is the most cost-effective way to mobilize a national health system, but we don't have the health care systems to reach out to people, get them tested and diagnosed in a timely fashion, get them on treatment and do the regular follow-ups." Mr Clinton said.

He also said male circumcision had proved an effective way of lowering HIV infections, and that it was "very important" to change peoples' attitudes in favour of more monogamy - though he noted that this was not just a problem in Africa.

Mr Clinton has called for a 50% increase in funding to keep pace with expanding HIV drug programmes.

Way forward in Church gay row

The last day of the Lambeth Conference saw the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams say that "pieces are on the board" to resolve the row over homosexuality that has threatened to split the Anglican Church.

About 200 bishops boycotted the once-a-decade forum over the row.
The man whose ordination triggered the crisis - the Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson - told Radio 4's Sunday programme that some traditionalists were actively working towards schism.

"Bullies always come back for more. And the one thing that I think the archbishop is blind to the fact that nothing short of total victory will satisfy these guys."

But Dr Williams said there was a recognition "though still with many questions" that a Covenant was needed, and put forward an idea involving a "global Church of inter-dependent communities".

He told the audience of 650 bishops from around the world it was important the Communion stayed together. He however recognized that there was still a lot of work to do and this was a longer-term solution to the current controversy.

Traditionalist Anglicans say several passages in the Bible clearly outlaw active homosexuality but liberals say the Bible's general message is that all people should be included in the Church.

Kenya police nab two aides of top Qaeda suspect: police

Kenyan police have captured two suspected aides to Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Comoran Al-Qaeda operative wanted over the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Mohammed narrowly escaped Saturday's raid in the coastal town of Malindi, said an anti-terrorism police officer on condition of anonymity.
"We carried out a raid on Saturday night and managed to arrest two suspects," he said, adding that police seized two of the suspects' passports and a laptop.

Mohammed is one of Africa's most wanted men and features high on the US wanted list for his alleged role in the embassy bombings.

Kenyan police are hot on his trail again as the region prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the bombings, which left more than 220 people dead and thousands of wounded in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on August 7, 1998.

Mohammed, who was born in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros, is also suspected of involvement in twin anti-Israeli attacks in the Kenyan resort of Mombasa in 2002.

SMS Banking in Rwanda

Introduction of Internet and Short Message Service (SMS) banking facilities has made it easier for people in Rwanda to do banking with Commercial Bank of Rwanda.

SMS banking is a service that allows bank clients to get instant information on their bank accounts using their mobile phones while internet banking is a facility that allows the bank clients to consult their bank accounts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without queuing up in the banking halls.

Rwanda Commercial Bank(bcr), the second largest private bank with over 30% market share in the country announced introduction of the two urbane facilities last week.With the two facilities up and running, the bank's clients will have a choice to interact with their bank accounts. With internet banking, electronic money transfer will be easy to all bcr clients in Rwanda and abroad. The two services will be available in a couple of months, according to bank officials.


 


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