Lagos: To further strengthen bilateral trade between Nigeria and Brazil, authorities have launched a new chamber of commerce even as trade between the two countries in the last five years had risen to US$8.9 billion naira, the local Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday. The privately-owned paper said that the bilateral trade has all along been in favour of Nigeria, due to the country’s crude oil export to the South American country.
Johannesburg: The West must realise South Africa does not need its money since it can turn to India and China to fund its economic development, says Gwede Mantashe. “There is a dynamic that Western investors must wake up to,” the ANC’s secretary general Mantashe told Reuters in an interview. “If they are still sulking regularly, there is a growing ‘look East’ tendency that is emerging throughout the continent, the developing world.”
Accra: This coming month of July is again for another African wide election to be held during the 19th Africa Union Summit in Lilongwe, Malawi between 15th -16th July 2012 that will be deciding who shall be manning the AUC (Africa Union Commission) for another four years. Interestingly, with barely a month to go, the Ad hoc Committee of eight set up to present the 54 AU Assembly members with potential candidates have met first on the 17th March, 2012 and again on the 14th May, 2012 in Cotonou, Benin without a final outcome.
New York: Africa is a continent widely associated “in the Western imagination with poverty, corruption, conflict and disease,” Ian Bremmerwrites in The New York Times. “Yet Africa has become the world’s most underrated growth story — in part because many of its governments have developed the resilience that comes with the ability to pivot.”
Cape Town: Though its Brics partners strive to expand their already considerable merchant fleets, South Africa does not have a single national-flagged commercial vessel on its shipping register, MPs heard yesterday. "South Africa has no ships on its register and pays R37-billion a year [2007 figures] in maritime transport services to foreign owners and operators," SA Maritime Safety Authority CEO Tsietsi Mokhele told parliament's transport portfolio committee.
Johannesburg: Shifts in the investment world are resulting in money flowing into Africa again but SA risks missing the boat because of its low economic growth and lack of regional cohesion. Indian President Pratibha Patil was in SA last week to boost investment, tourism and trade between the two countries. Commercial ties between the two countries are strong, with SA exporting goods worth R24,4bn to India last year, while products worth R29,3bn were imported from India.
Cape Town: The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) is considering forming a new subsidiary to house its international division, DBSA International. The bank would hold the majority stake in DBSA International with other shareholders including local, regional and international entities. These could include entities from SA's partners in Brics (Brazil, Russia, India and China) who have agreed to seek ways to facilitate greater trade and investment in Africa.
Kampala: On Mar. 29, the fourth annual BRICS summit began. The conference was attended by the heads of the five member states: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, President Hu Jintao of China and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa. Along with these figureheads came each corresponding trade minister - China even brought along some high profile business executives.
Lagos: For self-serving reasons, I wasn’t particularly excited with the notion of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy for the presidency of the World Bank. I believed and still remain partly convinced that she is needed more in her home country, Nigeria, than on the global stage. We need her to lead the charge in the reform process and economic transformation of the country.
President Jacob Zuma intends to position South Africa as a global force representing emerging African economies in international platforms at the fourth BRICS summit in India, the government said on Tuesday. Zuma would be accompanied by the Ministers of International Relations and Co-operation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies.
The summit is to be held in New Delhi from March 28 to 29. The Brics group represents Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which joined the group in 2011.
