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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.

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

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

 

联合国秘书长潘基文访问瑞典

北欧绿色邮报网报道(记者陈雪霏)--联合国秘书长潘基文30日从日内瓦抵达瑞典对瑞典进行为期两天的访问。

当天下午,潘基文与瑞典首相勒文进行了会谈。潘基文在会谈后双方举行的记者招待会上说,他们就最富有挑战性的席卷欧洲的难民问题进行了交谈。他对瑞典接受最多难民的努力表示赞赏。

“我尤其对瑞典首相提出的支持叙利亚妇女的倡议表示高度赞同。”

潘基文还表扬了瑞典在可持续发展方面,在实现2030年远景目标方面发挥的带头作用。

 

http://www.government.se/?setEnableCookies=true

 

UN Chief is going to visit Sweden to discuss refugee crisis

STOCKHOLM, March 30, (Greenpost)–UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is in Stockholm to meet Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven in Rosenbad in a few hours. 

The Secretary-General is travelling to Sweden directly from Geneva, where he kicked off a ministerial conference hosted by UN refugee agency UNHCR on Wednesday morning by calling on all countries to help resettle nearly half a million Syrian asylum seekers over the next three years.

“This demands an exponential increase in global solidarity,” he told the summit.

According to Swedish government website, Swedish PM will also talk about UN goals in 2030 and other issues.

The UN wants to resettle around 480,000 refugees by the end of 2018, but is facing a tough challenge as an increasing number of countries, including Sweden, have been tightening their borders in the past year.

Ban’s visit comes less than two weeks after the EU struck a bargain with Turkey to plug migration flows to Europe, with all refugees arriving in Greece to be sent back across the border.

More than 1.2 million migrants have come to Europe since January 2015 in the continent’s biggest migration crisis since World War Two, and around 4,000 have drowned while trying to cross the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece.

But the UN has criticized the deal, fearing it could violate international law.

Sweden on the other hand, which took in a record 163,000 asylum seekers last year, was one of the main proponents behind the controversial agreement made in Brussels.

“We must put an end to the unregulated, very dangerous escape over the Mediterranean which this year alone has cost several hundred people their lives,” Löfven said at the time.

Other topics which the two leaders are likely to discuss are Sweden’s work to stop sexual violence in international armed conflicts and the ongoing peace negotiations in Syria, which are headed by Swedish-Italian diplomat Staffan de Mistura, according to the Local.

They are expected to hold a joint press conference at around 5pm, after which the UN Secretary-General is set to give a speech at a memorial event for one of his predecessors, the late Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld.

China Focus: China makes gains, faces hurdles in extending financial services

BOAO, Hainan, March 24 (Xinhua) — By removing systematic blocks and adopting new technology, China will be able to expand access to financial services to all people, according to experts at the Boao Forum conference.

Recent changes by China’s rural and private financial institutions will help relieve obstacles to inclusive finance, which have held back the nation’s anti-poverty efforts, according to experts at the 2016 Annual Conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, held in China’s island province of Hainan.

INCLUSIVE FINANCE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

With a bad loan rate of 88.3 percent, Hainan Rural Credit Union, a rural credit cooperative in Hainan, was on the verge of collapse in 2007. Over the past nine years, the cooperative has focused on rural microcredit, lending a total of 23 billion yuan (about 3.5 billion U.S. dollars) to Hainan’s 600,000 rural households. The non-performing loan rate has dropped to less than 2 percent.

Thanks to financial education and agricultural training provided to borrowers, Wu Weixiong, board chairman of Hainan Rural Credit Union, isn’t worried about the 23 billion yuan in loans his cooperative has made to the island’s rural population.

“Our staff are experts in both finance and agriculture, which enables them to help farmers acquire necessary knowledge and techniques to make a living and pay back the loan,” he told attendees at the “Inclusive Finance” Boao sub-forum.

Private financial institutions are also making financial services much more accessible to people who are underserved by traditional banks. Ant Financial, a financial arm established last June by the E-commerce giant Alibaba, has lent a total of 45 billion yuan to farmers, online merchants, restaurant owners and mom-and-pop stores, extending loans to 800,000 borrowers who have trouble accessing financial services.

Despite the efforts, a large proportion of the population still lacks access to financing, according to the experts.

NOT ALL HAVE ACCESS

“The core of the problem is that inclusive financing is badly needed by rural people,” said Dong Wenbiao, board chairman of China Minsheng Investment Corp. Ltd., the nation’s largest private equity firm.

The nation still has 55.75 million impoverished people in rural areas, official statistics showed.

Dong blamed “serious systematic deficiency” for the problem, saying that China’s existing financial establishments, including the banking and insurance systems, don’t support expanding access to finance. Large banks are inclined to lend to big companies with lower risk.

The lack of an individual credit system, high operational costs and risks, and the absence of an information-sharing mechanism have all worsened the situation, according to Li Yang, vice director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Inclusive finance will play a key role in China’s goal of building a “well-off society” by 2020. The nation’s financial industry should make itself available to all people, said Wu Xiaoling, vice chairwoman of the Financial and Economic Committee of the National People’s Congress and former vice governor of the central bank.

More than 50 countries have set formal targets and goals for inclusive finance in recent years, indicating growing global recognition that access to financial services plays a critical role in reducing extreme poverty, boosting shared prosperity, and supporting sustainable development.

SYSTEMATIC REFORMS

To clear hurdles, the State Council in January released the 2016-2020 Plan on the Development of Inclusive Finance, China’s first national strategic plan on financial inclusion. It targeted building inclusive financial service and security systems that provide reasonably-priced, convenient and secure services to small companies, farmers, low-income urban households, the poor, the disabled and the elderly. It vowed to boost inclusive finance’s development to a level comparable to the global average by 2020.

The government also reiterated in a report in March the development of inclusive finance to increase services for micro, small, and medium-sized businesses as well as for rural areas.

“To tackle the issue, systematic reforms are required,” said Dong, suggesting that farmers should be endowed with land rights that can be viewed as assets when obtaining loans.

Ellen Richey, vice chairwoman of Risk and Public Policy at Visa Inc., said that China already has an advantage in fostering inclusive finance, as 79 percent of its residents have financial accounts, much higher than most countries. But account holders generally only use them for basic banking services or use them infrequently.

“The challenge to inclusive finance in China is not necessarily to get someone an account, but to give them an efficient way to use it,” she said, adding that electronic payment and mobile phones will enable China to bypass expensive investment in infrastructure, such as terminals and telecommunications.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jenny Shipley called on lenders to form trust relationships based on human potential, rather than just looking at assets. Shipley said that micro-finance requires collaboration between multiple players, including governments, financial institutions and NGOs.  Enditem

Interview: Russian Far East official expects more Chinese investment

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, March 23 (Xinhua) — The Primorsky region in the Russian Far East will see more Chinese investment, said Vladimir Miklushevsky, the region’s governor.

More than half of the foreign trade turnover of Primorsky is connected with Northeast China, Miklushevsky told Xinhua.

“We are now working with 200 Chinese companies investing in agriculture, manufacturing as well as trade. And we’re very excited to increase this investment flow.”

He noted that projects in the priority areas of farm products, logistics, industrial and food production have already started in the region.

The governor said investors can enjoy a number of tax benefits in those sectors and in the meantime, foreign investment will bring benefits to local residents.

Miklushevsky also said cultural, scientific and educational ties is the basis for economic trade relations between the two nations.

Despite global financial woes and Russia’s economic difficulties, new opportunities are emerging for the region’s ties with China, he said.

“A huge influx of Chinese tourists visited Primorsky. In 2015, the number of Chinese tourists doubled compared with the previous years, and our tourist income increased 30 percent,” said Miklushevsky.

The governor said authorities are preparing for this year’s East Russia Economic Forum scheduled for Sept. 6-7.

“The first forum had a great success, and the Chinese delegation was the largest and the most active one. They showed great interest toward Russia,” he added.  Enditem

 

China will maintain medium-high growth: premier

  BOAO, Hainan, March 24 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday that China will follow a medium-high track of growth and pay attention to the quality and benefits of development.

The premier said this at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) held in the southern province of Hainan.

Li said the nation will endeavor to maintain medium-high growth in the long term and promote the development toward the medium-high end.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Asia’s New Future: New Dynamics and New Vision.”  Enditem

China announces detailed rules on VAT reform

   BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) — China’s financial and taxation authorities announced Thursday a set of detailed rules on VAT reform.

Starting from May 1, VAT of 5 percent will be levied on homes if they are resold less than two years after purchases, according to a joint statement from the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation.

Those sold after the two-year window are exempt from the levy.

Currently, homes that are sold less than five years after they were purchased are subject to a 5 percent business tax.

As of April 8, a tariff, VAT and consumption tax will be applied to  imported items sold by cross-border e-commerce companies, to support the healthy development of the industry, the statement said.

The current tax rate on most imported products sold by e-commerce firms is 10 percent.

A business tax-to-VAT pilot began in 2012 and has been gradually expanded. It had reduced the tax burden of enterprises, most of which are small companies, by 641.2 billion yuan by the end of 2015. Enditem

中国女子冰球队访问瑞典热身备战世锦赛

北欧绿色邮报网报道(记者陈雪霏)——中国女子冰球队26日与瑞典动物园(DJurgården)冰球队大战,为参加四月四日在意大利举行的世界锦标赛做准备。

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中国女子冰球队领队于天德在斯德哥尔摩冰球场接受记者采访。陈雪霏拍摄。

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教练Matthew Bourgois, 于天德和Perka Holmström. 陈雪霏拍摄

中国女子冰球队领队于天德在接受北欧绿色邮报网记者采访时说,本次来瑞典访问主要是为参加四月初在意大利举行的世界锦标赛打三场热身赛,因为瑞典的冰球水平比较高,瑞典的冰球俱乐部和国家队都是世界上比较好的队伍。所以我们到这里来主要是在比赛之前打个热身赛,锻炼锻炼队伍,适应一下比赛。目的是要打好世界锦标赛。

世界锦标赛将在4月4日举行。

于天德说,中瑞之间在冰球运动方面以前就有合作。去年中国邀请瑞典队员到中国打三场比赛,这次他们19个队员3名守门员也将在瑞典打三场比赛。有两个中国教练,一个加拿大教练。

于领队说中国女子冰球队每年都参加世锦赛。

DSC_8306瑞典动物园冰球俱乐部副主席K.G.思道佩尔说,动物园俱乐部是瑞典获得冠军最多的俱乐部,成立于1891年,历史悠久,经验丰富,总共有300多冰球队员,15000多球迷支持他们,是瑞典的最大俱乐部之一。

他说,动物园俱乐部有各种体育运动,但冰球和足球是最大的运动。

DSC_8338他说,中国女子冰球队与瑞典同行对决是很好的比赛,你可以看出中国女队打得不错,如果她们继续努力,一定会打出很好的水平。中国可以从小培养更多儿童开始滑冰,进而打冰球,打的人多了,水平自然会上去。这样互相访问打比赛,也是很好的训练方法。

DSC_8310中国队除了两位中国教练外,还请了加拿大教练,专门训练守门员。

今天的比赛是首场热身赛。今后的两场比赛将于3月28日下午13:00和3月30日晚上19:00在Stora Mossens Ishallen, Bromma举行。

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DSC_8314 中国女子冰球队在斯德哥尔摩冰球场的英姿。陈雪霏 拍摄。