Asia

This year, their income is likely to be cut in half due to a record summer heatwave and drought that has smothered more than 20 provinces across the country. Poyang Lake and surrounding wetlands are an important source of irrigation for Jiangxi province, one of China’s rice growing heartlands. Though the lake’s size fluctuates annually between wet and dry seasons – but is shrinking overall – the lack of rain across southern China since July has seen water levels fall at the fastest pace on record, reaching a low of eight metres early in September. In late June, the body of water in the lake was 3,331 square metres (35,854 sq ft), but that had shrunk to just 727 square metres last week. “I have never seen a drought like this,” said Zhang. “The nearby ponds and reservoirs have d...

Brussels, Belgium:  “We will identify strategic projects throughout the supply chain, from extraction to refining, from processing to recycling. And we will build up strategic reserves where supply is at risk. This is why today I am announcing a European Critical Raw Materials Act,” said Von der Leyen in the annual State of the Union address, said Ursula von der Leyen, Global Times reported. However, industry experts have opposed the move by Von der and said that restructuring will take time and raise costs which will, in fact, aggravate the ongoing inflation in Europe amid the ongoing energy crisis. The industry experts also believe that the move by EU may also increase the cost of achieving Europe’s green targets amid the deepening energy crunch. “The consequences of decou...

Colombo, Sri Lanka:   Due to the country’s dependence on imports and borrowings for economically unviable infrastructure projects offered by China through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Sri Lanka is going through tough times and many other countries in Asia and Africa are also on the brink of collapse, a report by Europe Asia Foundation said. For example, Zambia, has numerous BRI projects like the new airport, two modern stadiums and a power station mean that they’ve developed an excessive debt situation. Through BRI, China eyes to influence around the globe with Chinese standards, norms and characteristics and as a consequence, the dependence of the indebted countries on China gets even greater, Former Minister of Environment and Member of European Parliament, Jo Leine...

Pakistan is struggling for post flood devastation relief and reconstruction and facing a huge resource gap despite getting restored IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and World Bank’s intent of clubbing of two of its policy loans over USD 1 billion and Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) indication to provide approximately USD 1.5 billion emergency loans. The problem has in fact prompted the Pak Government to levy an unpopular super tax with three rates PRs.3000/-, PRs.5000/- and PRs.10,000/- to collect PRs.41 billion tax from shopkeepers and an additional tax of 5% on manufacturers having zero contribution to exports. The decision of the IMF to extend EFF to end-June 2023 and rephasing and augmentation bringing the EFF to USD 6.5 billion would give only a temporary relief.  The 7th and 8...

China’s eagerness to end its isolation in the world, whether on account of Covid or its continuing differences with the west, is making it re-invent itself as a friendly Asian giant. The new image was on display at the recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Uzbekistan, but there is no information as yet if there were any takers to the new public relations spiel. President Xi Jinping made it a point to meet the heads of all the central Asian states attending the meeting and trying convince them of his country’s genuine interest in the development of their nations. It was a déjà vu moment as several Asian and African nations have, in the past, heard the same stuff when China was imposing its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on them. In the meetings on the SCO s...

It is estimated that losses caused by the severe floods in Pakistan have accumulated to US$ 18 billion. This natural disaster has aggravated Pakistan’s macro-economic fundamentals despite resumption of the IMF Programme. Over and above these challenges, Pakistan faces a severe dollar liquidity crunch. One of the consequences of the floods and other economic disasters faced by Pakistan is that the demand for imports has gone up manifold but the country does not have enough dollars. In totality the exchange rate has gone under immense pressure whereby the rupee nosedived 9 per cent against the US dollar. The worst performance of the agriculture sector will put pressure on increased demand for commodities imports and if Pakistan fails to generate desired levels of dollar inflows it might cre...

China’s economy is cooling partly due to new constraints and partly change of development strategy. The Covid-19 pandemic, Ukraine war and trade disputes with advanced nations including the US have imposed severe limitations to China’s growth journey. According to a new forecast by Oxford Economics, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow an average 4.5% over this decade. The Chinese zero-COVID policy led to a prolonged lockdown in Shanghai that paralyzed the world's second-largest economy and hit global supply chains. This will force Chinese economy to take longer time than other Asian economies such as South Korea and Taiwan to catch up with living standards in the developed world. China's key financial hubs imposed a two-month lockdown from the end of March as authorities ...

Zambia's finance minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, has been extremely busy duringthe past two months. Finally, he was able to receive a $1.3 billion loan from the IMFwith a grace period of five and a half years and a final maturity of ten years. The loanwas supported by a number of earlier negotiations with Zambia's creditors, which forthe first time included China, which is responsible for almost 30% of Zambia's debtand is comparable to (non-Chinese) private creditors.This is a great offer. Additionally, what does the IMF agreement mean for the otherlow- and middle-income nations that are categorized as being in "debt distress,"including those that receive funding from China?There are two crucial elements of Zambia's agreement with the IMF to comprehendwhen taking a close look at the spec...

Despite years of bilateral discussions involving political leaders, trade & custom officials and business bodies, the volume of Pak-Afghan trade have failed to match up to its potential. More than the efficacy of various mechanisms, it is the intent of implementing agencies from the concerned countries which leads to meaningful results in trade relations. On this count, the Pakistan government and its various departments score much lower than their Afghan counterparts. In order to enhance the bilateral trade, a Pakistani delegation led by Commerce Secretary Sualeh Ahmed Farooqi concluded a three-day visit (July 18-20) to Kabul. As in the previous such meetings, the two sides apparently agreed on many things including extension of Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA)...

Alibaba Group Holding will again kick-start its annual Singles’ Day promotion via a lengthy presales campaign in late October, weeks ahead of the November 11 event, as the e-commerce giant contends with China’s flagging economy and disruptions from Covid-19 control measures across the country. The Hangzhou-based company will commence presales activity from 8pm on October 24, according to multiple Chinese media reports. Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, confirmed the published information on Thursday. During presales, consumers are expected to initially pay a deposit for goods to secure a low price. Payments are to be completed during the two-part checkout period from 8pm on October 31 and on November 10 at the same time. Singles’ Day, known as the world’s largest on...