斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所所长史密斯在安全与发展论坛开幕式上的讲话

北欧绿色邮报网报道(记者陈雪霏)--斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所所长丹.史密斯5日在斯德哥尔摩安全与发展论坛开幕式上发表讲话。

他说,今年是研究所建立50周年。我们确定这是反思的一年。当今世界确实存在很多问题,但是,也存在很多机遇和希望,最典型的例子就是去年11月在巴黎气候大会上达成的协议。联合国千年发展目标也已经实现。我对即将召开的有关人道主义的会议也充满希望。多年来,不管你喜欢不喜欢,也不管是好是坏,一路走来,你们都愿意一起走,因此,我们希望向你们学习。反思一下过去的道路,应该吸取哪些教训。

 

今日头条:斯德哥尔摩安全与发展论坛聚焦可持续和平

北欧绿色邮报网报道(记者陈雪霏)--联合国副秘书长扬.埃利亚松5日在斯德哥尔摩安全与发展论坛上强调,要想实现可持续和平,人们必须改变思维,改变文化,采取预防措施,防止战争和冲突重演。

埃利亚松说,人们几乎忘记,其实在联合国宪章中就有这么一条说明国际社会应该防止战争或冲突爆发或重演。

他说,目前的世界进入了非常不可预测的阶段。非洲,中东冲突造成很多人流离失所。同时,这世界也充满希望,至少,在叙利亚,人们开始坚守停火协议。月底将在也门召开会议,进一步确保和平。

瑞典外交大臣瓦尔斯特罗姆表示,仅仅停火是不够的,深陷冲突的国家需要停火后要从法律上确保男女平等,确保妇女能够参与国家建设,享受平等的权利,不能游离于国家建设之外,白白吃苦受累。

瑞典国际援助大臣略文说,瑞典的女性主义外交政策的主要目的是要让发展中国家的妇女参政议政。根据她的经历,她发现很多国家从制度上就是歧视妇女,尽管妇女干很多活儿,但是,她们没有平等待遇。因此,瑞典提倡女性主义政策,就是强调平等,强调全面参与。

G7特使皮雷斯分享了东帝汶实现和平的经验。她说,东帝汶的总统在战争结束后,下令盖很多幼儿园和儿童乐园。这样,那些在战争中幸存下来的孩子才能享受和平的环境,结果,他们原本打算用10年时间实现的和平重建,两年就实现了。主要经验就是民主,让大众参与决策。

今年是斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所与外交部第三次举办斯德哥尔摩安全与发展论坛,主要讨论如何促进可持续和平。来自各地的300多名代表参加了会议。

World Military Expenditure rose by one percent in 2015

STOCKHOLM, April5 (Greenpost)–World military expenditure rose by 1 per cent in 2015. The first increase in military spending since 2011.* The increase reflects continuing growth in Asia and Oceania, Central and Eastern Europe, and some Middle Eastern states. The decline in spending in the West is also levelling off. At the same time, spending decreased in Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Thus, the global military expenditure picture is mixed, according to SIPRI.

The United States remained by far the world’s biggest spender in 2015, despite its expenditure falling by 2.4 per cent to $596 billion. Among the other top spenders, China’s expenditure rose by 7.4 per cent to $215 billion, Saudi Arabia’s grew by 5.7 per cent to $87.2 billion—making it the world’s third-largest spender—and Russia’s increased by 7.5 per cent to $66.4 billion.

Falling oil prices signal cuts to military expenditure

A combination of high oil prices and new oil discoveries and exploitation has contributed to a surge in military spending in many countries around the world in the past decade. However, the crash in oil prices that started in 2014 has begun to reverse this trend in many oil revenue-dependent countries. Further cuts in spending are expected in 2016.

The most dramatic oil revenue-related reductions in spending in 2015 were in Venezuela (–64 per cent) and Angola (–42 per cent). Decreases were also recorded in, among others, Bahrain, Brunei, Chad, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Oman and South Sudan.

Despite declining oil revenues, several other oil-exporting countries continued to increase military spending in 2015. Many of these countries—notably Algeria, Azerbaijan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Viet Nam—were involved in conflict or faced with heightening regional tensions. However, Russia’s expenditure was lower than projected in its budget, and Saudi Arabia’s spending would have fallen but for the additional $5.3 billion cost of its military intervention in Yemen. Russia and Saudi Arabia are planning cuts in 2016.

Decline in Western military spending coming to an end?

Military spending in North America and Western and Central Europe has been decreasing since 2009, largely as a result of the global economic crisis, as well as the withdrawal of most US and allied troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. There were signs in 2015, however, that this decline was coming to an end.

US military spending was down by 2.4 per cent in 2015, a much slower rate of decline than in recent years. This was the result of measures passed by the US Congress to partially protect military spending from previously agreed budget deficit-reduction measures. US military spending is projected to remain roughly level in real terms in 2016.

Taken together, spending in Western and Central Europe was down by just 0.2 per cent in 2015. However, in Central Europe alone spending was up 13 per cent. There were particularly large increases in countries bordering Russia and Ukraine—namely Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia—which are those most concerned about Russia’s intentions following the crisis in Ukraine. In contrast, Western European expenditure was down 1.3 per cent but this was the lowest rate of annual decline since the start of the recent fall in spending, which began in 2010. The United Kingdom, France and Germany have all announced plans for modest spending increases in the coming years sparked by concerns about Russia and the threat posed by the Islamic State.

‘Military spending in 2015 presents contrasting trends’, said Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of SIPRI’s military expenditure project. ‘On the one hand, spending trends reflect the escalating conflict and tension in many parts of the world; on the other hand, they show a clear break from the oil-fuelled surge in military spending of the past decade. This volatile economic and political situation creates an uncertain picture for the years to come.’

Other notable developments

• Military spending in Asia and Oceania rose by 5.4 per cent in 2015 and was heavily influenced by China. Heightening tensions between China and various countries in the region contributed to substantial increases in expenditure by Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam, and triggered the start of a reversal of the long-term downward trend in Japan’s military spending.

•  SIPRI is not publishing an estimate for the Middle East for 2015 as data is unavailable for several countries. For those countries for which data is available, spending increased by 4.1 per cent in 2015. Iraq’s military expenditure rose by 536 per cent between 2006 and 2015—the largest increase by any country in the world during that period.

• Military expenditure in Latin America and the Caribbean decreased by 2.9 per cent, largely explained by the huge fall in spending in Venezuela. Brazil’s military expenditure also declined slightly as a result of its economic crisis. Spending continued to increase in Central America due to the growing militarization of the anti-drug war.

• Military expenditure in Africa fell by 5.3 per cent, following 11 years of continuously rising spending. This was mainly due to the large cut by Angola, the largest spender in sub-Saharan Africa, in the wake of the sharp fall in oil prices.

Interview: Chinese efforts to enhance nuclear security contribute to common good: IAEA official

by Lyndal Rowlands
UNITED NATIONS, March 29 (Greenpost) — China is contributing to the common good through its efforts to improve nuclear security both at home and abroad, a senior official from the International Association for Atomic Energy (IAEA) has said.
China has taken effective steps to ensure the security of nuclear materials, including those at nuclear power plants and medical research centers, and to protect people and environment from being harmed by nuclear materials, Khammar Mrabit, director of the IAEA’s Nuclear Security Office, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
The interview was conducted ahead of the fourth Nuclear Security Summit, which is scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C., from Thursday to Friday. Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the meeting.
Nuclear security refers to ensuring that peaceful uses of nuclear materials and technology are not diverted into the wrong hands, Mrabit said.
“Nuclear security is a common good. It’s good for everybody whether you have a nuclear power program or you don’t,” said Mrabit. “You have to protect your people and the environment from malicious acts and anything that would harm the public society and the environment.”
He said countries such as China that own nuclear power programs should bear special responsibilities on nuclear security, while calling on all countries to use radioactive sources at a minimum level, even for medical purposes.
“(Ensuring the) security of such materials and facilities is the responsibility of China because this is the responsibility of each country when you have such materials and such facilities,” he said. “That nuclear power program, those installations, have to be protected from falling, of course, into the wrong hands, meaning criminals and terrorists.”
In this regard, Mrabit said that China is a very important partner of the IAEA and enjoys sound cooperation with the international nuclear watchdog.
He described China’s recently completed Nuclear Security Center of Excellence as “a big achievement.”
“(The center) would not only improve nuclear security but would sustain nuclear security infrastructure in China and certainly would contribute… to improving nuclear security in the region,” he said.
The center, which is the largest in the Asia-Pacific region, opened in Beijing, the Chinese capital, on March 18, with the aim to boost nuclear security cooperation in the region and the world.
The IAEA supports its member states, including China, to reach nuclear security standards, in some cases providing support as requested, and in other cases providing more hands-on assistance.
For example, China has requested that the IAEA visit China to conduct a peer-review of its national nuclear program and facilities, the official said, adding that the IAEA can provide a higher-level of support to other countries in need.
“There are countries where we need more assistance, where we have what we call integrated logistical support plans, where we identify all that is needed to help them improve their nuclear security infrastructure,” Mrabit said. But he did not disclose the names of these countries.
Mrabit, a national from Morocco, has a PhD in nuclear physics and has been working for the IAEA since 1986.
The IAEA is the world’s center for cooperation in the nuclear field and a part of the United Nations family. It is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and currently has 168 member states.  Enditem

Source: Xinhua

Feature: Chinese dance drama to boost Belt and Road Initiative in ASEAN

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 (Xinhua) — A dance drama featuring Chinese father and son who set sails on the ancient Maritime Silk Road centuries ago debuted in Southeast Asia on Tuesday with the expectations to boost the Belt and Road Initiative in the region.
Thousands of audience watched the dance drama “Dream of the Maritime Silk Road” at a performance hall in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, the first leg of the tour in members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Singapore and Indonesia.
The drama, through distinctively Chinese classical dance, tells a story in Quanzhou port, China’s southeastern Fujian province 800 years ago. The captain of a commercial fleet sets sail on the Maritime Silk Road under the invitation of a Persian prince but was killed in storm when trying to protect his crew, leaving behind his wife and a son in cradle. His son followed his step to become a sailor too after he grew up.
The two-hour drama highlights a prosperous Quanzhou port and friendship forged among people along the Maritime Silk Road when they seek common prosperity and happiness, with cultural elements from China and other Maritime Silk Road countries.
The drama was performed around the globe including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Chen Qiuping, head of Department of Culture of Fujian province, said the drama was well received by the Malaysian audience.
“The performance is indeed enlightening,” said Bong Hon Liong, president of Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce. “It reminded us of the importance of openness and the friendship among people along the Maritime Silk Road.”
Xia Menglong, a university student who is on an exchange program in Malaysia, said he was surprised to find many Chinese traditions were well preserved and observed in Malaysia.
Huang Huikang, Chinese ambassador to Malaysia, expected the show to boost cultural exchanges between the two countries.
Meanwhile, officials believed such event would help promote the Belt and Road Initiative, namely the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in Southeast Asia.
The initiative, proposed by China in 2013, is aimed at reviving the ancient trade routes that span Asia, Africa and Europe.
Chen said the performance in Malaysia was of significance as it was an important country along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. He hoped the tour could help boost cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.  Enditem

China Focus: Inland city helming Yangtze shipping growth

YIBIN, Sichuan, March 30 (Greenpost) — A ship loaded with three tanks weighing about 60 tonnes each is nearing Shanghai during a pioneering two-week journey starting from southwest China’s Yibin City along the Yangtze River.
Such a shipment from China’s inland along the mighty Yangtze would have been impossible just a few years ago when only small docks for barges, ferries and fishing boats dotted Yibin’s banks.
Yibin, an industrial city known for coal mining and liquors, used to rely on trucks and trains to transport goods, even though it is where two upper tributaries meet to form the main section of the Yangtze.
Local authorities began developing a major port in Yibin in 2010, amid broader work by China to turn the Yangtze into a “golden waterway” with an enhanced role as the cargo artery between the wealthy coast and the vast under-developed inland. Central and local governments see increasing trade as the key to strengthening economies away from the coast.
On March 25, the Communist Party of China Central Committee passed a guideline on developing the Yangtze River Economic Belt, stressing that the program must be driven by market principles and have green credentials.
Yibin was years ahead of the curve. Its port with five docks is designed to handle half a million containers and 2.24 million tonnes of cargo every year. Ships of up to 3,000 tonnes can set sail even in the dry season.
Transporting giant goods like the tanks by land is extremely difficult, as they would overload lorries or trains and have to be dismantled to pass through tunnels or bridges. The costs tend to be very high, explained Yuan Daiqian, general manager of Jiangyuan Chemical Engineering Machinery, which manufactured the tanks for a fertilizer plant being built by Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi in Turkmenistan.
Thanks to the Yibin Port and new shipping routes, “we can do business that was not possible before,” Yuan said. His company has manufactured 71 pieces of large equipment for Mitsubishi’s project, including the tanks.
They will head for Turkmenistan from Shanghai, where the Yangtze empties into the sea. Shanghai International Port Group and the government of Yibin co-funded the construction of Yibin Port.
Yibin’s shipping industry has grown rapidly as investment has flowed to infrastructure along the Yangtze River.
The volume of goods passing through Yibin harbor has been growing at an average 130 percent a year since the port became operational in 2010. It handled 200,000 containers in 2015 and 66,000 in the first quarter of 2016.
China’s development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has accelerated since a plan approved by the government in September 2014.
There is certainly a lot riding on it. The belt includes nine provinces and two municipalities. It spans 2.05 million square km and accounts for more than 40 percent of China’s population and economic aggregate.
Yibin, a city of about five million people, is nudging into the global market through better connection with big cities along the river.
It has launched shipping routes to Japan and the Republic of Korea via central China’s Wuhan and east China’s Nanjing and Shanghai. It is also planning four routes to Southeast Asia.
As a result, Yibin’s foreign trade reached 890 million U.S. dollars and 950 million U.S. dollars in 2014 and 2015, growing at 9.1 percent and 7 percent year on year, at a time when China’s overall foreign trade has stalled.
To help e-commerce, Yibin is also building a bonded warehouse where imported goods can be stored without paying duty. With a storage area of 53,000 square meters, the warehouse is due to open before the end of June.
“The golden waterway has boosted Yibin’s shipping cooperation with cities along the Yangtze, opening up markets for local companies and improving their competitiveness by saving transport costs,” said Liu Zhengyu, board chairman of Yibin Port.
“When e-commerce gets going, this industrial city will become a major trading center in southwest China,” Liu said.  Enditem

Source    Xinhua

Moody’s China outlook downgrade misses big picture: MOF

BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) — Credit rating agency Moody’s decision to downgrade the outlook for China’s sovereign bonds misses the bigger picture and has little impact on financial markets, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Wednesday.
Moody’s changed China’s credit rating outlook to negative from stable earlier this month, citing a weakening of fiscal metrics, a continuing fall in foreign exchange reserves and uncertainty over capability to implement economic reforms.
Rating firms should learn more about China’s economic and financial conditions to avoid information asymmetry, according to a statement released by MOF.
Domestic stock and bond markets, and the onshore and offshore yuan foreign exchange rate remained stable despite the downgrade, reflecting investors’ confidence and upbeat expectations of the Chinese economy, the statement said.
Meanwhile, balancing economic growth, structural reform and market stability is not a contradictory task — as claimed in Moody’s report — but a complementary process, MOF said.
Steady economic growth is the basis, pushing structural reform is the means to the end, and a stable financial market is a precondition to secure the sound development of the whole process, MOF pointed out.
Local government debt level and corporate leverage ratio are both below the international warning line and the government is taking active measures such as debt-for-equity swap to help ease debt pressure, the statement added.  Enditem

China rolls out new policies to encourage innovation

    BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) — China’s State Council on Wednesday announced a string of new policies to encourage innovation as the country seeks to foster new engines for growth.
China will set up three new “national innovation demonstration zones” in the provinces of Henan, Shandong and Liaoning, bringing the number of such areas to 14, according to a statement issued after a State Council  meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.
The zones, including Beijing’s Zhongguancun, known as “China’s Silicon Valley,” and Shanghai’s Zhangjiang high tech zone, have been created to pilot new ideas and development models for use nationwide.
Expansion of the program is aimed at fostering trailblazers for China’s economic restructuring and transformation, according to the statement.
The State Council will test innovative reforms in China’s financial hub of Shanghai over three years, including exploring new financial service models and simplifying foreign investment rules.
Government intervention will be further reduced to create an amicable environment for business start-ups and innovation, the State Council pledged.
To boost employment and sustain growth, the Chinese government has stressed the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in its 13th five-year plan. A wide range of measures has been unveiled, including financial support, facility construction and administrative assistance, for start-ups.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the council also decided to foster city clusters centered around Chengdu and Chongqing to stimulate economic potential in western regions.  Enditem

Chinese vice premier presents proposal to deepen China-Israel innovation cooperation

JERUSALEM, March 30 (Xinhua) — Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong has presented a four-point proposal to deepen and broaden cooperation between China and Israel on innovation in various fields.
Liu made the proposal while addressing the second meeting of the China-Israel Joint Committee on Innovation Cooperation in Jerusalem Tuesday. The meeting was co-chaired by Liu and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In her speech, Liu said that initial achievements have been made in bilateral pragmatic cooperation in such areas as science and technology, education, culture and health,since the joint committee successfully held its first meeting in January last year in Beijing.
China has made innovation-driven development as a national strategy and such a perception is shared by Israel, which is known for innovation, Liu said, adding that the two countries have great potential in deepening innovation cooperation.
China and Israel should further strengthen the joint committee’s role in planning holistically and coordinating and constantly expand the scope of bilateral innovation cooperation, she pointed out.
The Chinese vice premier, who arrived in Israel Monday evening for a two-day visit, suggested that the two countries increase the complementarity of their innovation strategies and facilitate the incorporation of Israel’s experience as a “startup nation” and its technologies into China’s strategy of pursuing innovation-based growth.
Liu said that China will step up the protection of intellectual property rights, encourage local governments and enterprises to strengthen exchanges with their Israeli counterparts and establish a more fair, regulated and predictable environment for development.
Other proposals offered by Liu included setting up more industrial innovation parks in China in cooperation with the Israeli side, learning from each other’s useful experience, and intensifying joint efforts in research and development.
On the same occasion, the two sides signed 13 cooperation agreements in the presence of Vice Premier Liu and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Among them was an agreement which allows both sides to issue 10-year multiple-entry visas to each other’s applicants, making China the first country to have such an arrangement with Israel.
In another major step to boost bilateral economic ties, the two sides agreed Tuesday to officially start talks on a free trade agreement, when Liu and Netanyahu met earlier Tuesday.  Enditem

 

Central bank pumps more money into market

BEIJING, March 31 (Greenpost) — China’s central bank pumped more money into the market to ease a liquidity strain on Thursday.   The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) conducted 100 billion yuan (15.4 billion U.S. dollars) of seven-day reverse repurchase agreements (repo), a process in which central banks purchase securities from banks with an agreement to resell them in the future.
The reverse repo was priced to yield 2.25 percent, unchanged from Wednesday’s injection of 60 billion yuan, according to a PBOC statement. The injection has resulted in a net 40 billion yuan being pumped into the market Thursday, offset by 60 billion yuan in maturing reverse repos.
The move follows a week-long rise in money-market rates as maturing reverse repos continued to drain liquidity from the market while commercial lenders hoard cash to meet quarter-end regulatory reserves.
In Thursday’s interbank market, the benchmark overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which measures the cost at which Chinese banks lend to one another, climbed by 1.3 basis points to 2.017 percent, the highest level in a month. Shibor for two-week loans rose the most, by 5.8 basis points to 2.788 percent.  Enditem

 

图片新闻:江西金溪:饲养野生动物也能发家

北欧绿色邮报网报道(编辑陈雪霏)--3月31日,王辉在养殖场喂养野鸭和天鹅。

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41岁的王辉是江西金溪县人。2000年,还在广东省茂名市一家农业公司做养殖员时,从朋友那里了解到野生动物、珍禽养殖的经济价值,就萌发回乡创业的想法。2008年,在获得相关养殖许可证后,王辉回到江西金溪开始了野生动物养殖的创业之路。

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王辉自嘲道:“最初的那段时间里,由于长时间和动物待在一起,我甚至都不太习惯和人说话。”8年的坚守为王辉带来了财富,如今,王辉和当地百姓通过开展“公司(合作社)+农户”的合作形式,扩展了野生动物养殖范围。他的养殖场中有甲鱼、鸿雁、白天鹅、黑山羊、野鸭、孔雀、鸵鸟等10多种动物,成为当地有名的“动物世界”。

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截至2016年3月初,合作社与农户数量已超过110户,养殖家庭平均年收入达9万元。

编者的话:王辉是一个即保护生物多样性又能发家的典型。人们不能总是吃人家嚼过的馍,而是要创新,要种植市场上稀有的但附加值又很高的作物,或动物。这样濒危野生动物也会慢慢的多起来,避免绝种。
新华社记者 胡晨欢摄

图片新闻:华北最大光伏发电项目并网发电

北欧绿色邮报网报道(编辑陈雪霏)--3月31日,位于天津滨海新区的华北地区最大光伏发电项目——信义光伏发电站正式进入并网发电阶段。

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该项目预计4月底实现全部并网发电,每年将为滨海新区增加绿色电能1.8亿千瓦时,相当于6.8万户天津居民的年用电量总和。信义光伏发电站项目建设容量为174兆瓦,占地面积为4350亩。 253119816_8

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这是信义光伏发电站项目(4月1日摄)。
新华社记者 岳月伟 摄