{jcomments on}OMAR, BXL, AGNEWS, le 28  juin 2010 — Guinea — They’ve voted before — but never freely, and never fairly.

BURUNDI :

Burundians Begins Voting in Election in Which Nkurunziza Is Sole Candidate
By Franz Wild/www.bloomberg.com/Jun 28, 2010 

Voters began casting their ballots in elections in Burundi in which President Pierre Nkurunziza is the sole candidate because of an opposition boycott. 

More than 3.5 million Burundians are eligible to vote at 7,000 polling stations across the country, Pierre-Claver Ndayicariye, president of the National Independent Electoral Commission, said in a phone interview today from Bujumbura, the capital. Voting began at 6 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m., he said. 

“Everything is running smoothly,” Ndayicariye said. “There haven’t been any incidents.” 

The elections are the Central African country’s first since rebel groups laid down their arms in 2009 after a conflict in which 300,000 people died. Nkurunziza’s ruling Forces for the Defense of Democracy last month won nearly two-thirds of the ballots in local council elections. Six opposition candidates withdrew from today’s presidential poll, accusing the government of fraud in last month’s vote. 

While European observers found little evidence of fraud in the May election, the opposition boycott will undermine the credibility of the presidential vote, said analysts including Dieudonne Tshiyoyo of the Johannesburg-based Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa. 

Former rebels may “return to the jungle” if they don’t think they can get into government, Tshiyoyo said in a June 25 interview from Bujumbura. “People fear we could fall back into violence.” 

Conflict erupted in Burundi in 1993 when soldiers from the ethnic Tutsi minority assassinated the leader of the main party of the Hutu majority. Nkurunziza, a former Hutu insurgent, was elected president in 2005. The National Liberation Forces, the last remaining rebel group, then signed a cease-fire with the government, before giving up its weapons last year. 

Burundi’s economy, which relies mainly on coffee exports, has benefitted from greater political stability, with higher coffee volumes and donor aid expected to boost economic growth to 3.9 percent this year from 3.5 percent in 2009, the International Monetary Fund said on June 4.

RWANDA

Rwanda: You Have What It Takes to Develop
Edmund Kagire/The New Times/allafrica.com/28 June 2010

Kigali — President Paul Kagame, yesterday, told the youth that they form the engine that the country can run on to achieve its development goals and build the country that the Rwandan people want.

Addressing thousands of youth from across the country, who had converged at the national stadium to mark the end of the Youth Week, as well as celebrate 10 years since the establishment of the National Youth Council, President Kagame said that the country expects a lot from the youth and they should live up to the expectations.

Kagame assured the upbeat and evidently energetic youth – who had filled the Stadium to capacity – that they have what it takes to drive the country towards its development aspirations, if they have the will and determination to do so.

The President further promised continued Government support in helping the youth to maximise their capacity, noting that it will take everyone’s effort to achieve Rwanda’s vision of development.

President Kagame told the youth that rebuilding Rwanda, a country that was devastated by the genocide, seemed like an impossible task, but with the will and commitment of the people, the country has recorded remarkable success.

He cited the achievements registered within the last 16 years as an example that everything is possible, urging the youth to base on what has already been built, as a foundation, to steer Rwandans to better standards of living.

Kagame called upon the youth to take advantage of the many friends of Rwanda to acquire additional knowledge and skills.

The President further reminded the youth that, unlike in the past when bad leadership encouraged them to commit Genocide, today, their energy is constructively used to build the nation.

Kagame pointed out that the government considers the youth to be a pivotal part of the population and that is why institutions such as the Ministry of Youth and Rwanda National Youth Council were formed.

Amidst applause, Kagame called upon the youth to shun politicians who want to drag the country back to divisive politics of ethnicity and hate. He urged the youth to be examples of good values and result oriented people.

Rwanda repression rises ahead of poll -watchdog
Mon Jun 28, 2010 / By Hereward Holland/Reuters

KIGALI (Reuters) – Insecurity and political repression are on the rise in Rwanda in the run-up to August’s presidential ballot which incumbent Paul Kagame is widely expected to win, rights group Human Rights Watch said.

The New York-based watchdog said the murder of a critical journalist, the arrest of a second opposition leader and the detention of dozens of opposition party members were attempts to muzzle dissent ahead of the poll.

“The security situation is rapidly deteriorating,” Rona Peligal, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “With only 45 days left before the election, the government is lashing out to silence its opponents and critics.”

Authorities deny involvement in the murder of reporter Jean Leonard Rugambage, who had linked Rwandan security services to the shooting of an outspoken general in exile in South Africa.

“The government of Rwanda might have its disagreements with journalists, like other governments, but we do not kill them,” government spokeswoman and foreign affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo told Reuters by text message.

“We have requested a thorough investigation of this case and will do everything to find the culprit.”

Rugambage, an editor at the banned Umuvugizi newspaper, was gunned down on June 24 outside his home in the suburbs of the capital Kigali.

Bernard Ntaganda, leader of a branch of the Social Party Imberakuri, was arrested on Thursday on charges including attempted murder and ethnic “divisionism”, police said. Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, a presidential aspirant for the United Democratic Forces party, was arrested in April.

THOROUGH INVESTIGATION

The government rejects accusations by Rugambage’s senior editor Jean-Bosco Gasasira, that it was behind the murder. International rights groups have asked for an independent probe into the killing to ensure other journalists can work safely.

Gasasira fled to Uganda when his paper, alongside another critical outlet, was suspended in April for insulting the head of state, sowing discontent in the army and causing panic.

Umuvugizi published an online article on Thursday blaming the government for the attempted murder of ex-army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa on June 19. Rwanda’s two main internet service providers have blocked the paper’s website.

The government has boosted the number of army patrols around the capital at night in response to a series of deadly grenade attacks since the beginning of the year.

Regional analysts say the arrest of top military officials, the flight of a former chief of staff and a high-profile reshuffle in the army in recent months may indicate a growing schism in the central African country’s leadership.

“Freedom of expression is already severely restricted in Rwanda, but the death of Rugambage is a further chilling blow to investigative journalism and, more broadly, to freedom of expression in the country,” Peligal said.

Nile agreement countries reject Egyptian pressure
Mon Jun 28, 2010 /By Barry Malone/Reuters

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Five East African countries said on Sunday that they would not go back on a deal they signed to share River Nile waters that has drawn fierce criticism from Egypt and Sudan.

After more than a decade of talks driven by anger over the perceived injustice of a previous Nile water treaty signed in 1929, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed a deal last month without their northern neighbours.

“The signed (agreement) can’t be unsigned,” Ethiopian minister for water resources, Asfaw Dingamo, told reporters. “But we hope to reach a consensus and I hope to do it very soon.”

The five signatories have given the other Nile Basin countries — Egypt, Sudan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — one year to join the pact.

Stretching more than 6,600 km (4,100 miles) from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean, the Nile is a vital water and energy source for the nine countries through which it flows.

Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have not signed the deal yet and have so far been tight-lipped about whether they plan to or not.

The latest meeting of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) ended with open disagreements at a press conference in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Sunday.

LIVE IN THE DESERT

Sudanese water minister Kamal Ali Mohamed said his country would now stop cooperating with the NBI because the agreement raised legal issues.

“We are freezing activities regarding the NBI until these issues, these legal implications, are resolved,” Mohamed said.

The statement drew immediate fire from Asfaw who said the Sudanese had not revealed their intention to freeze cooperation during the two-day meeting.

Egypt’s Water Resources and Irrigation Minister, Mohamed Nasreddin Allam, told Reuters that a meeting to discuss the Nile agreement would be held in Nairobi between September and November. He did not give a precise date.

The official Egyptian news agency MENA said the meeting would be held but did not give more details. It said the other states had said they “understood Egypt and Sudan’s position … and based on this an exceptional ministerial … will be held to decide how to move forward in a matter that serves all Nile Basin states.”

Egypt, almost totally dependent on the Nile and already threatened by climate change, is closely watching hydroelectric dam construction in East Africa.

“Ask the Egyptians to leave their culture and go and live in the desert because (you) need to take this water and to add it to other countries? No,” Allam said.

Under the original pact Egypt, which faces possible water shortages by 2017, is entitled to 55.5 billion cubic metres a year, the lion’s share of the Nile’s total flow of around 84 billion cubic metres.

Some 85 percent of the Nile’s waters originate from Ethiopia and the Lake Basin is estimated to harbour more than half of Kenya’s surface water resources.

Statement by the EAC Secretary General, Amb. Juma V. Mwapachu on the occasion of the commencement of
pr-usa.net/Monday, 28 June 2010

1st July 2010 marks the commencement of the operationalisation of the East African Community (EAC) Common Market. Following the completion of the ratification of the Protocol on the Common Market, the complex and long march towards transforming the EAC region into a Common or Single Market begins with resolve and fervour. It is important to underline the words complex and long march. Unlike the operationalisation of the Customs Union which had a big bang start up with the Common External Tariff and zero rating of Customs duty in respect of intra-regional trade in goods (except for goods destined to Tanzania and Uganda from Kenya), taking effect from day one, the operationalisation of the Common Market is a process. Indeed, the process itself is complex in terms of what is required to be undertaken at the levels of the Partner States and, in certain respects, at the level of the EAC itself. 

A New Milestone 

In this context, it is important that the citizens of the East African Community Partner States and the economic players in the EAC region have a clear understanding of what the 1st of July holds and portends. Yes, the date is a historic one and is deservedly celebratory. Achieving successful negotiations leading up to the adoption of the Common Market Protocol, its approval by EAC Heads of State and its ratification in record time is a milestone for the EAC. No other Regional Economic Community in Africa has achieved such milestone. It is a milestone that epitomises strong political will and firm commitment by all the EAC stakeholders in deepening and widening integration. Yet what we have achieved so far is only the basic legal framework that outlines what needs to be done and implemented for the Common Market to make meaning and have impact in transforming the lives of the East African Community citizens. 

Hard Work Begins 

Thus, 1st July 2010 for the EAC Common Market, means entry of the critical phase when the Partner States, which, pursuant to the Treaty establishing the EAC are the principal implementers of EAC programmes, must begin to determine how the four freedoms encapsulated in the Common Market Protocol should resolutely be put into effect. It also marks the beginning of serious work at the EAC executive organ level, notably the Council of Ministers, in determining what regional-based interventions can and should be undertaken to speed up the process of getting the four freedoms to take force, mainly through a legislative process. 

It is important to note though that the EAC region has, in the past decade, seen a number of policy and legal measures being effected at Partner States’ level that are within the ambit of the Common Market Protocol. These measures will understandably make life easier in getting a fuller and quick implementation of the Common Market Protocol provisions. A number of examples can be adduced, particularly in the field of services, an area which, in other Economic Community regions, including the European Union, have posed serious challenges at the implementation level. 

Some Common Market Freedoms Already in Place 

Examples in this regard span a wide range of services: banking and finance (including insurance and brokerage); distribution (retail in particular); transport and logistics; telecoms (notably mobile telephony); air transport; tourism (hotels and lodges, tour operators); education (primary, secondary and tertiary); energy; professional services (accounting and auditing, management consultancy and other knowledge services); ICT (plus broadband internet); media (print, radio and TV); and music. In other words, the EAC economies have seen significant cross-border services intensify, benefitting from bold economic liberalisation policies and measures effected in all the five EAC Partner States. 

Immediate Challenges in Services Sector 

The entry of the Common Market Protocol will thus provide a fillip and impetus to an already thriving cross-border services industry. The impetus will largely lie in creating the empowering conditions at the level of the Partner States for the services sector to be scaled up and made more robust and buoyant. A few examples can be mentioned first, the case of air transport which is yet to be fully liberalised within the framework of the Yamoussoukro Decision. The EAC region needs not only a “free skies” agreement but also deeper liberalisation of air transport operations to bring down costs of passenger and cargo transportation which are currently too high. Second, the securities market is yet to be “regionalised” and the capital account is yet to be sufficiently liberalised by Tanzania to enable Tanzanians participate outside the present framework of cross-listing of market shares at national level. Removal of restrictions on capital flows should serve as a catalyst for capital market development and the provision of long term and risk capital most needed to spur economic development. At the EAC level, there are definitive programmes on-going towards the promotion of a regional capital markets regime and institutions. 

Third, the regulatory framework for cross-border television broadcasting is still stringent; it needs to be further liberalised to promote greater offerings by competing regional networks. Fourth, whilst there is significant cross-border tertiary education access, tuition fees, even in public universities, are yet to be harmonised in spite of decisions having been taken at the EAC level requiring charging of similar fee rates. Fourth, the cross-cutting challenge of work permits which underlie the effectiveness of the services sector needs to be frontally addressed. You cannot realise the full benefits of free movement of professionals under the services sector when labour market policies and laws stand in the way of such freedom. A starting point in leveraging this freedom could be to eliminate the requirement of work permits for citizens of EAC Partner States who have professional qualifications and who seek to set up their own businesses in fields such as law, medicine, engineering, accounting and auditing, architecture etc.

Making Free Movement of Labour Work 

Turning to the aspect of free movement of labour, a key freedom in promoting human capacity in the EAC region for social and economic transformation, it is important that the EAC Partner States quickly work out the modalities for enabling such freedom to take effect. An initial word of appreciation to Rwanda and Kenya is deserved for leading the elimination of work permits, at a bilateral level, between them. In the case of Rwanda, the elimination of work permits is extended to all citizens of EAC Partner States. An important element in the process of elimination of work permits, wholly or partially, is the conclusion of the Mutual Recognition of Academic and Professional Qualifications. The EAC, through its institution, the Inter-University Council of East Africa, has reached an advanced stage in setting up a mechanism through quality assurance that will form the basis for determining such mutual recognition. A related issue is mutual recognition of accreditation of higher education institutions which would remove the regulatory requirement of tertiary education institutions moving across borders applying for fresh accreditation. It should also be mentioned that the EAC is working towards the harmonisation of social security benefits in order to support the free movement of labour. EAC Partner States are already at advanced negotiating stage in this area. 

Free Movement of Persons 

It is notable that to most ordinary citizens of the EAC Partner States the 1st of July infers the free movement of persons in the region from this date. This is one issue that the Partner States will have to offer elaborate explanations. Suffice to state that citizens of the EAC region have enjoyed free movement across their borders for years. The national passports and the East African passport travel documents are accepted and respected at border points without a visa requirement and six months’ stay each time of entry is offered without hassle. This free movement will be further facilitated when all the five Partner States introduce Third Generation (Machine Readable) identity cards. Only Rwanda has such an ID in use. Kenya is about to introduce one in July this year. Tanzania and Uganda are in the process of introducing such IDs as well. Burundi will follow. 

Conclusion 

The EAC Common Market is finally here. It ushers in a higher level of integration beyond trade in goods which the Customs Union caters for, with positive impact on the economies of the Partner States as reflected by growing intra-regional trade in the past five years. The broad economic space which the services sector will unleash will trigger the expansion of economic activities and jobs in the region. Cross-border capital movements will also spur the growth of industrialisation driven by an expanding and more productive agricultural sector. East Africans have every right to be proud of the stage of integration the EAC has reached. But it is upon them to exploit all available opportunities to make the Common Market work for them and for the better livelihoods of all citizens of the EAC. We can do it; let us together make it happen. 

Source: East African Community (EAC)

UGANDA

Uganda to double stake in Shelter Afrique
Business /mugalu@observer.ug/Written by Moses Mugalu /Monday, 28 June 2010 

Uganda has marked its ascension to the highest seat at Shelter Afrique, one of the largest companies in Africa lending funds towards housing projects, by doubling its investment. Government has also began a process of courting local housing developers to take advantage of the loans available. The country took up the chairman’s seat for one year during the company’s General meeting in Kampala recently. And with all the spotlight that comes with the country at the forefront of pushing ahead Shelter Afrique’s goals, Uganda used the occasion to show some muscle by promising to increase its shareholder funds from $600,000 to $1.5 million next year. 
While the hike might have won Uganda applause during the meeting, the fact that local housing entrepreneurs are not taking advantage of the credit window at Shelter Afrique is bound to raise questions about the need for the increase in the shareholder funds. 
William Walaga, the Director of Housing at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, said Uganda’s property developers might now know that they could borrow from Shelter Afrique. Uganda’s property developers can borrow up to $25 million (about Shs 52 billion) from Shelter Afrique. But Walaga says that much of this money is lying idle. “We have never even hit our (borrowing) sealing but after this symposium one expects us to utilize the facility fully,” said Walaga. 
Nevertheless, housing projects such as Namuwongo low-cost housing project, Lubowa Apartments, Simbamanyo House, Buziga Apartments and Akright Projects, have benefited from Shelter Afrique’s loans. 
Shelter Afrique’s loans carry a 5-year repayment period. The company does not lend more than 10% of its shareholder funds. Shelter Afrique, which covers the risks and monitors the performance of its loans, also covers up to 60% of the project cost. 
While Shelter Afrique’s interest rate on the loans is calculated according to different projects, it is lower than the commercial bank rates on mortgage finance in Uganda, which range somewhere between 16%-22%
It is not clear whether Uganda has a strategy of promoting Shelter Afrique’s loans beyond holding workshops and breakfast meetings, but the initiative, if well exploited, could play a role in reducing the country’s housing backlog. Uganda’s housing backlog is estimated at close to 1 million. 
Shelter Afrique has 42 African states as its members.

Uganda: NRM Adopts New Voting System
Cyprian Musoke And Joyce Namutebi/The New Vision/allafrica.com/28 June 2010

Kampala — THE National Resistance Movement (NRM) national conference has adopted the universal adult suffrage system for its primary elections.

This means that every party member will be involved in electing the flag-bearer to stand for any position in the upcoming elections, as opposed to electoral colleges.

Presenting the amendments at the closure of the conference at Mandela National Stadium, Namboole yesterday, party legal adviser Adolf Mwesige said this is intended to reduce people standing as independents. The two-day conference was presided over by the national chairman, President Yoweri Museveni.

Candidates for district councils shall be elected by all members in the sub-county, while those for sub-county positions shall be elected by all members in a parish.

The delegates, who adopted several amendments to the party constitution, also voted in favour of a secret ballot in primaries.

The conference created two extra NRM regions, Kampala and Karamoja, for better mobilisation and management of elections. The regions are said to have unique characteristics.

Delegates agreed to have independent disciplinary committees, but referred back to districts an amendment to abolish the position of national secretaries. It was also agreed that party leaders who are elected to higher offices should relinquish lower offices.

The delegates agreed that candidates for village chairperson be elected by all party members in the village, while those for the position of mayor in every municipality be elected by all members in the municipality. Municipal councillorship candidates shall be elected by all members in their division.

It was also agreed that candidates for municipal councillor be elected by all members in the parish.

One of the contentious issues was whether to convene the national conference once or twice in five years. Members argued that convening only once puts them out of touch with party activities. When the matter was put to vote, those in favour of two conferences took the day.

It was agreed that the composition of the national conference be expanded to include district youth chairpersons in order to increase its participation.

The conference rejected a motion by MPs Jane Alisemera and Jalia Bintu to have women MPs considered in the leadership of the women league at the district.

The majority of women delegates opposed the proposal, arguing that women MPs were too busy, they do not associate with the rural women and that if the amendment is upheld, the women at the lower levels would not be heard. They also argued that the women had not been consulted on the matter. Alisemera later withdrew her motion.

During the meeting, President Museveni responded to several issues raised by the members. On raising funds locally for the party, he said in the upcoming central executive committee meeting, an account would be opened for anyone to make deposits. He said the account shall be publicised.

“We shall distribute that money to the constituencies. But raising money from members is something I do not like. I am always very careful about money. That is why we have never bothered to raise money from you,” he said.

Museveni said he was aware that there were people formenting religious differences and warned that they would be defeated.

“I am handling many of those situations.”

He said unlike other groups, the NRM has supporters in all religions.

The President warned that anybody who tries to promote sectarianism shall be isolated.

Responding to a question on taxes, he criticised some ministers whom he said do not explain the issues to the wananchi.

“The mistake is that these NRM leaders do not talk. They are always busy with themselves, but the tax regime here is the best.”

Museveni directed the education minister to go on radio to explain why universal primary education (UPE) funds do not get to schools on time, leading to expulsion of pupils.

Responding to reports that some civil servants are disloyal to the Government, the President blamed supervisors for the weakness. He said disloyal civil servants should be sacked.

He also directed the party leaders to expose public servants who sabotage government programmes.

“Public servants fighting the Government should be expelled. But they must be first exposed by NRM leaders like RDCs, LC5 chairmen and NRM Members of Parliament,” he said.

The party secretary general, Amama Mbabazi, said the national chairman had agreed to award certificates of service to all the national conference members. He apologised for all shortcomings at the conference.

However, there was drama at the conference when delegates, whom the President chose to speak, complained of delays in processing their facilitation.

“I travelled from Busia expecting to get my allowances, but I have to walk back because I have got no money,” said Ssekandi Musana, a councillor from Namayingo in Busia.

Robinah Namukose, from Mpungu in Kanungu district, proposed that mobilisers receive more money since they traverse many sub-counties.

Kidomoole, a popular NRM supporter, advised the President not to give more money to NAADS officials at districts, saying the money does not benefit people in villages.

“They (officials) use the money to decorate their homes. They betray us. You gave me money for a car, a house and clothes but it has never reached me,” he said.

Another delegate from Nasingwe said children were chased from UPE schools due to extra charges. He also cited corruption in the lands registry.

Kalimi Kyeswa from Ssembabule urged the delegates to forgive Mbabazi for any shortcomings of the conference.

There was also drama as Naalongo Lugudde from Buwenge town council sobbed as she narrated how the Presidential Guard Brigade officers mistreated her while stopping her from accessing restricted areas at the stadium.

Other members complained of teachers who criticise government programmes.

NEW NRM AMENDMENTS

•Aspirants for district councils to be elected by all members at sub-county level
•Candidates for sub-county positions to be elected by all members at parish level
•Village chairperson to be elected by all party members in the village
•Mayor for every municipality to be elected by all party members in the municipality
•Municipal councillorship candidates to be elected by all party members in their division
•Municipal councillors to be elected by all party members in the parish
•Delegates vote in favour of secret ballot in primaries
•Expanded national conference to include district youth chairpersons
•Creation of two extra NRM regions, Kampala and Karamoja, for better mobilisation
•Creation of independent disciplinary committees
•Party leaders elected to higher offices should relinquish lower offices
Deferred

Amendment to abolish the position of national party secretaries referred to districts

Rejected

Amendment to include women MPs in the leadership of the women league at the district

Public Private Partnerships: Police next in line
feupal@observer.ug/Written by Felix Eupal /Monday, 28 June 2010 

But how prepared is government for a transparent PPP model?

Uganda’s Police force is to receive a major facelift if government succeeds in its plans of seeking funds to overhaul the security organ’s housing structure through a public private partnership. By lining up the Police force for a Public Private Partnership, government appears bent on engaging investors to execute projects that it would otherwise not be able to carry out on its own. 
“We had proposed to construct several barracks across the country as well as Police headquarters to ameliorate these accommodation problems but unfortunately, police does not receive a sufficient budget for these developments,” said Kirunda Kivejinja, the Internal Affairs Minister. 
Initial plans are that the housing for Police force needs about $700 million. The money is to be spent on the barracks. The Police’s accommodation remains dilapidated. 
Many police officers live in a deplorable state with their families. Often times, one housing unit – not enough for a family of five – takes in more than two families. 
The Police is also one of the poorly funded institutions in the National Budget. The force, the custodians of the country’s security, is to receive slightly less than Shs 3 billion in this year’s National Budget. Much of this money is spent on recruiting constables and in investigations. And this money pales in comparison with institutions like State House, which is expected to spend twenty times more between now and the end of the year. 
The new Police force project is anticipated to be for a period of 30 years. Approximately 7215 barracks units are to be constructed, police headquarters of approximately 20,000 m in Kampala, a training centre in Masindi district of approximately 71 200m, three regional police stations, 11 divisional police stations and ten police stations. 
Ambitious? Perhaps! Anatoli Kamugisha, the Managing Director of Akright Projects Limited, said the project was good, but said government bureaucracy could stand in the way of its success. “The project is very good on the face and will definitely help but it will be tricky if the bureaucracy is not dealt with,” he said. 
While the bureaucracy is something that investors will worry about, the country’s taxpayers will have a lot to think about considering the manner in which government has mismanaged PPPs over the last five years. Government has given the model of PPPs an ugly face in the wake of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting probe. The CHOGM probe by Members of Parliament, borne out of the mismanagement of funds during government’s preparation to host the 2007 meeting, has discovered that many public officials swindled money through PPPs. Examples such Government offering Shs 3 billion to J&M Airport Road Hotel to complete the rooms less than a week to CHOGM was either lack of business acumen or outright fraud.
Government has also been cited in ignoring watchdogs, such as the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority, that it put in place to oversee some of its deals. 
Also other bodies like the National Environment Management Authority have been sidelined as government pushes for its deals. 
Nevertheless, donor organizations like the World Bank continue to push for PPPs as they remain the best way of holding government accountable. In pushing for PPPs, institutions such as the World Bank believe that investors would not engage in fraudulent deals that could hurt their image. 
At the moment, government is preparing a policy for PPPs. “Once the law is put in place, we expect to have speedy implementation of projects in Energy, Value addition, Agro-processing and infrastructural development especially roads and railways,” notes the Ministry of Finance.
Government has already zeroed on PPPs in the agricultural sector, using the model on tea estates in Igara in Western Uganda. The government is also courting investors to partner with and construct the 650 MW power plant at Karuma.

TANZANIA:

Dominion sizes up Tanzanian catch
28 June 2010/Upstream staff

UK independent Dominion Petroleum said an independent audit showed mean prospective resources of 1.1 billion barrels of oil or 7 trillion cubic feet of gas in its Alpha prospect on Block 7, offshore Tanzania. 

Dominion said the competent persons report (CPR) was performed by Energy Resource Consultants who risked the prospect with a 12% chance of success. 

Alpha is Dominion’s first prospect in Block 7 and it said the CPR work was carried out to assist in the planning of a 1000 square kilometre 3D seismic survey. 

The survey will begin next month and the company said it expects it to take 60 days to acquire. 

Chief executive Andrew Cochran said the work completed so far demonstrated the “world class” nature of Block 7 in terms of hydrocarbon potential. 

“Once armed with the upcoming 3D we will carry out additional technical analyses and update the full prospect and lead inventory accordingly,” he said. 

Dominium also announced it had spudded the Kianika-1 well in the Mandawa PSA, onshore Tanzania which was targeting about 264 billion cubic feet of gas.

Tackle graft seriously
Monday, 28 June 2010/The Citizen Daily

Tanzania’s recent settlement of a dispute with the government of Norway over embezzlement of funds donated by the Scandinavian country towards a development project resurrects questions over aid dependence and corruption in handling donor funds.

Tanzania being a country that depends heavily on development aid in order to fulfill her obligations towards wananchi should now wake up to the fact that mismanagement of donor funds could place the country in great danger of meeting policy needs. 

The country’s failure to wean herself off donor aid means that Tanzania cannot be complacent with money that is, not only attached to many conditions, but also deepens her dependence on aid. Dependence on aid means that the country will have to tow the line of donors and continue to run her affairs without disregarding the whims of her benefactors.

The sad fact about this state of affairs is that if donors were to end their development aid to this country, the government would face enormous challenges in delivering services to her citizens. 
It is for this reason that misuse of donor aid, through corruption, comes across as very distasteful for both Tanzanians and donors.

Since it is highly likely that the Sh2.8 billion used to refund the Norway aid fund came from the taxpayer, we are assuming that the government will find a way of returning the money to the state 

Consequently, it would make great sense if the government gets to the bottom of the heinous theft that led to the loss of such a huge amount of donor funds. Tanzanians expect nothing less.

CONGO RDC :

Soco Congo block finally gets presidential decree
Mon 28 Jun 2010/SHARECAST

LONDON (SHARECAST) – Soco International says the Production Sharing Agreement for Block 5 in the Albertine Graben area of the Democratic Republic of Congo has received the Presidential Decree, the final step in the concession award of the block. 

During the initial five year exploration period the Block 5 partnership have committed to acquire at least 300 km of seismic data and drill two exploration wells, said Soco/. 

Soco has a 38.255 interest in the block, at the southern end of the Albertine Rift system and includes part of Lake Edward, along with Dominion Petroleum Congo SPRL (46.75%) and the state oil company of the DRC with 15%. 

The block, along with others in the resource-rich country, has been awaiting the approval of President Joseph Kabila since December 2007.

Angola: DRC to Open Consulate in Cabinda Within Three Months
28 June 2010/AngolaPress

Cabinda — The vice-governor of the Congolese province of Lower Congo, Deo Nkusu, arrived Friday in the Angolan northern province of Cabinda to discuss the opening, within three months, of his country’s consulate in this neighbouring territory.

Speaking to the press, Deo Nkusu said that the relations between Cabinda and Lower Congo will be strengthened with the opening of the consulate and enable solving of several issues between citizens of both countries.

On his turn, the governor of Cabinda, Mawete João Baptista, informed that the vice-governor of Lower Congo is carrying out a joint work on some aspects related to the creation of a consulate of the DRC.

G8 leaders scold Congo on governance
Peter Koven , Financial Post / Jun. 28, 2010

TORONTO — World leaders offered up some pointed words for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at the Group of Eight summit, shortly after a Canadian mining company ran into a serious conflict there.

Last September, Vancouver-based copper miner First Quantum Minerals Ltd. had its Kolwezi Tailings copper project expropriated by the DRC government. 

The Financial Post reported this month that the Kolwezi passed on to a British Virgin Islands-based company in a highly irregular transaction. First Quantum has taken its case to international arbitration.

Officials in Stephen Harper’s office said the Prime Minister was very concerned about the expropriation and planned to bring the issue up at the conferences alongside officials from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. And it appears he has.

In the official communiqué for the G8 conference, one entire declaration was devoted to the DRC. 

It calls for an end to resource conflict in the eastern part of the country, and asks candidate countries to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, including the DRC, to “enhance governance and accountability in the extractive sector.”

The singling out of the Congo suggests its governance is becoming a major concern for world leaders, even as they prepare to forgive billions of dollars of the country’s debt. 

First Quantum, for one, was very happy with the efforts of the leaders. 

“The company is encouraged by the G8’s statement regarding the governance issues challenging the resource sector in the [DRC], which will empower those within the [DRC] working towards peace and sustainable economic development,” a company spokesperson said.

While the G8 statement on the Congo was unusual, it was also very measured. There was no specific criticism of the country’s political leaders, nor was there any suggestion that debt forgiveness could be rescinded if it does not improve its governance. 

The measures that will forgive billions of dollars of debt are expected to proceed in the coming weeks.

The First Quantum issue is viewed as an urgent one for officials at the World Bank and the IMF, as the World Bank is a joint venture partner on Kolwezi with First Quantum, and the IMF is involved in the Congo’s debt-forgiveness measures. 

The World Bank has halted all investments in the DRC through its finance arm, and finds itself in international arbitration for the first time ever.

First Quantum is hoping pressure from the Canadian government and other world leaders will convince the DRC to give back the Kolwezi project.

Financial Post

KENYA :

Economic impact of Kenya’s referendum
Mon Jun 28, 2010 /By Jeremy Clarke/Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s economic outlook is mixed but most analysts agree the August 4 constitutional referendum will affect the economy regardless of its outcome.

While adopting a new charter is widely expected, a grenade attack at a political rally earlier in the month, killing six, was a reminder that polls in Kenya are often marred by violence.

Here are a few scenarios for the nation-wide vote and the effect each may have on east Africa’s largest economy:

THE NEW CONSTITUTION IS PASSED BY VOTERS

The proposed charter is the centrepiece of the deal signed to end the violence that followed the 2007 presidential election, which killed at least 1,300 people, scared off investors and tourists and sent growth rates plummeting.

Many traders and analysts say markets would take enormous confidence from its peaceful passage into law.

“It will give a boost to the market because it will be seen addressing the issues that brought about the post-election violence,” said Ignatius Chicha, treasurer at Citi.

“It will give a good platform for the economy. Aside just causing positive local sentiment, I think offshore players will also look at it very positively. I think it is generally good for the entire economy,” Chicha told Reuters.

Stocks are also seen benefiting.

“We are going to see a wide range of stocks doing better because of the view there are fewer obstacles to keep the market down,” said Fred Mueni, managing director at Tsavo Securities.

“I think interest rates will come down if the constitution passes … we may see the 91-day T-bill reaching 2.0 percent because people will feel more confident lending the government more.”

Traders said it could also shore up Kenya’s shilling.

“It should spur a stronger shilling because most development partners that Kenya trades with are in favour of the draft,” said Chris Muiga, a senior trader at Kenya Commercial Bank.

But other observers said that the adoption of a new constitution was now so widely anticipated that the market had already accounted for it, so its effect would be subdued.

“I think in many ways the market has already factored in a “yes” vote so if it passes it may have a minimal effect,” said Joshua Anene, a trader at Commercial Bank of Africa.

THE NEW CONSTITUTION IS REJECTED BY VOTERS

The August poll is seen as a test of the uneasy partnership between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who are both campaigning across the country for a “yes” vote.

“Kenya’s most powerful politicians back a “yes” vote, if it doesn’t pass it will be a crisis of confidence in Kenya’s leadership, which could be very bad for the market,” Anene said.

“In terms of perception, we will essentially be back to the old constitution and we will be back to the same issues (that have unsettled the market in the past),” Chicha said.

But traders did not see a “no” vote having a dramatic effect, in fact some argued that the possibility of violence was only there after a “yes” vote because they saw the “no” campaign as being more volatile and less likely to react well to a loss.

“If it doesn’t pass I think the stock market will be undecided how to react. I don’t see a clear direction there,” said Mueni, who added Safaricom and National Bank of Kenya, might lose turnover due to foreign perception of risk.

But Mueni said a view may develop that the government will struggle to get funding if the constitution and its sweeping reforms are rejected as donors may then put extra conditions on loans, which could unsettle investors.

“In the long-term the effect (of a “no” vote) would probably not be as bad as most would expect, but in the short-term there would invariably be some sort of readjustment and realignment of views — as a result it will harm the shilling,” Muiga said.

THE POLL SPARKS VIOLENCE

Analysts and traders are unanimous in agreeing that poll violence is the worst outcome for Kenya’s developing economy.

Following the post-election crisis in 2008, growth fell to 1.6 percent from 7.1 percent in 2007. Tourism was one the sectors hardest hit as earnings fell 19.4 percent — after the best year in its history in 2007 — as wary travellers stayed away.

Any trouble in Kenya will also hit trade and transport with its land-locked neighbours, especially Rwanda and Uganda.

“The violence would open up old wounds, those that came up last election. It will really freak out investors and as a result we could see some really adverse movements,” Muiga said.

During the post-election crisis, Kenya’s shilling fell past the 70.00 mark, compared with near 63.00 before the poll.

“We were in the 60s (before the crisis), this time we are already in the 80s. The highest I’ve ever seen the shilling is 83.80, but I think anything that even hints at violence could take us to 85.00 or 86.00,” Muiga told Reuters.

Traders predicted a flight to safer currencies, such as the dollar, and for stocks to take a battering if violence ensued.

“I think those most under threat are these former parastatals like Safaricom, KenGen, KenyaRe, with some of the biggest numbers of shareholders,” Mueni said.

Observers said small, localised violence was inevitable — disagreements in bars and public gatherings, for example.

“One or two days of violence (in remote parts of the country) won’t necessarily have much of an impact on the market. But riots in Nairobi, that is very different,” Anene said.

ANGOLA :

USA and Angola discuss trade relations in Luanda
[ 2010-06-28 ] /(macauhub)

Luanda, Angola, 28 Jun – A US delegation arrived in Angola on Sunday to take part in the first meeting of the United States/Angola Trade and Investment Council, reports Angolan news agency Angop.

The gathering is a mechanism created per the trade and investment framework agreement between the two countries, signed in May 2009 in Washington, DC, by US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Angolan Foreign Minister Assunção Afonso dos Anjos.

Soon after arriving, the US deputy trade representative for Africa, Florizelle B. Liser, said she would take up with the Angolan authorities issues associated to the diversification of trade relations between the two states.

“We want to seek alternatives to the oil sector. That’s why we want to propose the agriculture sector, because Angola has great potentials and was previously a major exporter,” Liser said.

As in other African countries, “we (the USA) are also encouraging the export of added value (transformed) products as a way to create jobs and diminish poverty,” she added.

The US delegation includes representatives from the departments of Transportation, State and Commerce. 

Next Export Home Angola fair may have 10-month exhibition
[ 2010-06-28 ] /(macauhub)

Luanda, Angola, 28 Jun – The next Furniture, Decoration, Lighting and Home Textile Fair (Export Home Angola) may have a permanent exhibition lasting 10 months, the director of the Luanda International Fair (FIL) said on Sunday in Luanda. 

Matos Cardoso made his comments at the end of the second Export Home Angola. The possibility that the fair could eventually include a permanent exhibition aims simply to give the public and potential clients more time to appreciate the products on show, he said.

Cited by Angolan news agency Angop, Matos Cardoso said the idea was still under study, especially regarding the format and coordination, bearing in mind the time needed and the financial and human resources implied by the challenge.

“If there are positive indications, we’ll go ahead with the project,” he added.

This second fair, Export Home Angola 2010, closed its doors on Sunday, having gathered 80 Angolan and Portuguese companies, 40 less than the previous fair.

According to the FIL management body that organised Export Home Angola together with Portugal’s Exponor, sector-specific fairs aim to provide conditions that facilitate company efforts to establish partnerships. (macauhub)

President Eduardo dos Santos returns home
6/28/10/www.portalangop.co.ao

Luanda – The Angolan Head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos, returned to the country in the early hours of this Monday, after carrying out official visits to Ghana and Brazil, respectively.

At Luanda’s 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, the country’s Chief Magistrate was welcomed by the Vice President, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, and other government officials.

In Ghana, President Eduardo dos Santos and his local counterpart, John Eva Atta Mills, witnessed the signing of two juridical instruments, relating to the co-operation between both countries. 

Angola and Ghana signed the Economic Co-operation General Accord in science, technique and culture, as well as the Memorandum of Understanding on Permanent Consultations between the two countries’ Ministries of Foreign Affairs.

In Brazil, the Angolan statesman and his counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed a financial co-operation protocol and a joint declaration on the establishment of s strategic partnership.

In the same meeting, officials from both countries’ governments signed co-operation accords in the fields of defence, education and staff training. 

During President Eduardo dos Santos’ two-day visit to Brazil were also analysed agreements of supplementary adjustments to the economic, scientific and technical co-operation, for the implementation of upgrading projects in rural extension in Angola, as well as to support the Angolan national system of agrarian research. 

The signing ceremony was preceded by a one-hour private meeting between the two heads of State.

SOUTH AFRICA:

TWO PAKISTANI, WORLD CUP TERROR SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN SOUTH AFRICA.
accra-mail.com/28062010

The South African police have arrested two Pakistani terror suspects. One of them is per warrant sought by Interpol in connection with terrorist activities, reported the South African broadcasting.

The 
South African police have arrested two Pakistani terror suspects. One of them is per warrant sought by Interpol in connection with terrorist activities, reported the South African broadcasting.

They tried last Sunday, at the Beitbridge border crossing from Zimbabwe to the Cape government to enter, during the world Cup

The state-controlled Zimbabwean newspaper,The Herald reported that the South African police have arrested the two Pakistan citizens, Muhammad Imran, 33 and Chaudhry Parvez Ahmed 39. When trying to cross the South African boarder.

Both Pakistanis, who were from Saudi Arabia, first took a flight to Tanzania, where they obtained fake Kenyan passports before driving to Zimbabwe. They are in custody in capital Harare.

The South Africa’s border with Zimbabwe which was formerly extremely porous was for the World Cup security precautions tightened. 

FRANCIS TAWIAH (Duisburg Germany)

AFRICA / AU :

Guinea holds 1st free election
Military rule dissolves with democratic vote
By Todd Pitman / June 28, 2010 /www.boston.com

CONAKRY, Guinea — They’ve voted before — but never freely, and never fairly.
Yesterday, junta-ruled Guinea cast ballots for a new president in the first democratic election this West African nation has ever known. The poll caps an odyssey of repression and dictatorship spanning a half century that climaxed with a year of military rule so terrifying, people carved hiding places in their attics to avoid their own rampaging army.

It also breathes life into the hope for substantive change in a corruption-riddled country whose 10 million inhabitants rank among Africa’s poorest despite sitting atop billions of dollars of mineral wealth.

“We have voted and we are free!’’ one man with tears in his eyes screamed at a red-bereted presidential guard outside the villa housing General Sekouba Konate — the junta chief who steered Guinea toward elections after his predecessor was shot in the head and nearly killed in December.

“The military is now in their place and we are in ours. . . . Do you understand?’’ the man said, waving a voter registration card.

The soldier replied quietly and nodded.

Just a few months ago — during the yearlong reign of exiled coup leader Captain Moussa “Dadis’’ Camara — such a scene would have been hard to imagine.

Ruled as a one-party state for decades after independence from France in 1958, Guinea suffered its first coup in 1984 and spent 32 years under late strongman Lansana Conte. When he passed away in December 2008, Camara stepped in to take his place — and turned out to be little better.

Last September, Guinea hit rock bottom when the military sealed off a Conakry stadium where thousands of protesters had rallied to insist that Camara step down. In broad daylight, security forces burst through the gates and machine-gunned unarmed crowds, slaughtering more than 150 people, leaving bodies strewn across the field and draped over walls. They also wounded more than 1,000 and raped women.

The tragedy marked a new low in Guinea’s history, but it also set the stage for unprecedented change. A United Nations investigation into the killings fueled tensions within the junta over who would take the blame, and on Dec. 3 Camara was shot by his presidential guard chief, who has since disappeared.

After a peace deal neutralized Camara in Burkina Faso in January, Konate appointed a civilian prime minister and a transitional governing council comprised of junta opponents. He marginalized Camara loyalists and imposed discipline on the army.

Twenty-four candidates are competing for the presidency. Leading contenders are Alpha Conde of the Rally of the Guinean People, Cellou Dalein Diallo of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea, and Sidya Toure of the Union of Republican Forces, according to Kissy Agyeman-Togobo, West Africa analyst with IHS Global Insight.

Results are expected by Wednesday, officials said.

African Queen Mines Commences Core Drilling at King Solomon Project in Mozambique; Recent IP Survey Confirms Prospectivity
www.marketwatch.com/June 28, 2010

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jun 28, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — AFRICAN QUEEN MINES LTD. (the “Company”) is pleased to announce that core drilling has now commenced on the King Solomon Project in western Tete Province in Mozambique (the “Project”). The initial reconnaissance drill program of approximately 2000-3000 m is being conducted on a contract basis for the Company and its partner, Swiss-based Opti Metal Trading Limited (“Optimetal”), by Resource Drilling Mozambique Lda. of Tete, Mozambique. Resource Drilling has been active in most parts of Africa over the past 15 years and has a fleet of some 20 drill rigs. 

The drilling program began with the construction of all necessary access tracks, selection of drill sites and mobilization of the drill rig to site. Approximately 15 reconnaissance boreholes are planned for this first pass program to a depth of 150-200m. A track-mounted drilling rig has now commenced the first hole, which is on the Mankombiti target, utilizing HQ size core. 

During the past few months while awaiting an end to this year’s extended rainy season, the Company concluded a thorough review of all geochemical and geophysical results from the Project. In addition, it was decided to undertake an induced polarization (“IP”) survey to assist in defining the final drill targets. This was successfully concluded in May and a number of conductive anomalies have been identified. Many of these are co-incident with the projected dip of the known surface mineralisation. The surface mineralisation is identified as a magnetite rich, copper bearing shear zone located on the contact zone of overlying limestone marbles and underlying granites. 

The previous geochemical, magnetic and geological mapping results have now been integrated with data from the recent IP survey to target mineralisation on the Mankombiti, Eiland and Kazito zones. The drilling program planned will allow for testing of these three highly prospective zones, and review of these results will enable future drill planning for other already identified targets (see PR dated January 11, 2010). Data obtained to date indicate a number of linear Cu-Au-Zn enriched zones are present, with the potential to host skarnoid-type Cu-Au mineralization over the Mankombiti target as well as mesothermal shear-hosted Au-Cu-Zn mineralization over the Eiland and Kazito targets. 

The IP survey data were collected by the geophysical division of Remote Exploration Services of Cape Town, S.A. (“RES”) and a total of 7 section lines comprising approximately 9 line km were completed. Four lines located on the Kazito Target have allowed 3-D modelling, with all sections confirming the presence of a substantial conductor at depth. In addition it was determined that much of the area underlain by the conductor is covered by alluvium. The results on the Mankombiti Target confirm the geological as well as magnetic mapping previously conducted. It is clear that the conductor is flanked by resistive and non-conductive rocks, namely the hanging wall limestones and the footwall granites, which is the expected setting of the mineralised sheared contact zone. Modelling has indicated that the upper levels are fairly resistive whereas at about 40 — 50 m below surface a prominent conductor is present. This conductor is located near where the interpreted water table would be, and may reflect supergene enrichment. However, the anomaly may mask continuation of this body with depth. The quality of the data is regarded as good with sufficient penetration encountered. 

The King Solomon Project is located within the central parts of the Mesoproterozoic Fingoe Belt in western Tete Province, Mozambique. These rocks consist of metavolcanics, metasediments and intrusive granitic and gabbroic rocks. The Project is the subject of the Earn-in and Joint Venture Agreement dated July 10, 2009 (the “Agreement”), with Optimetal, covering exploration, development and exploitation of Prospecting License No. 884L held by Optimetal’s Mozambique subsidiary (the “License”). The License covers an area of approximately 230 km(2)in the center of the Fingoe Belt. 

The work program at King Solomon is being conducted by RES under the direction of C. Ocker on behalf of the joint venture partners. RES has been conducting field programs for the Company on the Fingoe Regional Gold Project from the initiation of the program in 2006. The Project is being managed on behalf of the Company by Senior Consulting Geologist Mr. Pete Siegfried (M.Sc., MAusIMM), a qualified person, who has reviewed and approved the contents of this Press Release. 

About African-Queen 

The Company is an exploratory resource company with diversified mineral properties in Southern and West Africa. It is exploring its properties in Mozambique, Kenya and Ghana for gold and other metals and it is exploring its properties in Botswana and Namibia for diamonds. The Company’s licenses in Botswana and Namibia comprise approximately 9208 sq km of diamond prospects. In Mozambique it has approximately 230 sq km of gold and other metals licenses under an agreement with another company. In Kenya it has approximately 112 sq. km. of gold and other minerals licenses under an agreement with another company. Its operations in Botswana are carried out through its operating subsidiary, PAM Botswana (Pty) Ltd.; its operations in Namibia are carried out through its operating subsidiary PAM Minerals Namibia (Pty) Ltd.; its operations in Mozambique are carried out through its subsidiary PAM Mocambique Limitada and its operations in Ghana are carried out through its subsidiary AQ Ghana Gold Limited. Its operations in Kenya are being carried out through its operating subsidiary AQ Kenya Gold Limited. The Company has its executive offices in Vancouver, Canada. 

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF
AFRICAN QUEEN MINES, LTD.
“Irwin Olian”
————————————–
Irwin Olian
Chairman & CEO

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of the information contained herein. The statements made in this press release may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ from the Company’s expectations. 

SOURCE: African Queen Mines Ltd.

UN /ONU :

FAO Urges Tea Producing Countries To Push Domestic Consumption Of Beverage
Capital Market /www.indiainfoline.com/ Jun 28, 2010 

FAO has urged tea-producing countries to increase income from the crop by marketing the drink more heavily at home and publicizing the health benefits of the beverage abroad. The UN agency warned against increasing the size of tea plantations, which would damage prices in the long run. 

In a report published online this week, FAO also said that the export market in green tea will grow more quickly over the next ten years than that of black tea, where the markets in major importing countries are unlikely to expand further as they are already nearly saturated. 

“Scope for expansion in consumption in traditional import markets like the United Kingdom and Russia is quite limited but in the countries where tea is produced the per capita consumption is much lower and so there is a lot more market potential,” said Kaison Chang, Secretary of FAO’s Inter-Governmental Group on Tea, the only international tea authority.

Consumers in tea-producing countries drink just a tenth of the amount of tea than those in mature import markets, representing a major opportunity for tea-growers if the right marketing strategies are employed, said the FAO report. 

The FAO Composite Price for tea, the indicative world price for black tea, increased by 13 percent in 2009, pushing prices to record levels last year due to drought in some of the major tea-producing regions of Asia and Africa. 

Prices have now stabilized as weather patterns return to normal. The effect of this price increase on the consumer in developed countries was just five percent in 2009 because of intense competition in the beverages market. 

In developing countries retail tea prices rose 12 percent during the same period. World black tea exports are projected to grow by 1.8 per cent between now and 2019. 

Green tea exports are expected to grow as much as 5.5 per cent per year. 

China is the world’s largest tea exporter, followed by Kenya, Sri Lanka and India. 

“Tea can be an important contributing factor to a nation’s food security,” said Chang. “In Kenya for example, receipts from tea exports covers the country’s entire food import bill.” 

Earnings from tea exports account for about 35 percent of total agricultural export receipts in Kenya and constituted 50 percent of agricultural export revenue in the next largest tea producer, Sri Lanka, covering around 60 percent of food imports.

The increase in the FAO Tea Composite Price in 2009 translated to a seven percent increase in export earnings at the global level, significantly affecting rural incomes and household food security in tea producing countries, FAO said. 

Black tea accounted for 65 percent of total tea production over the past five years, 67 percent of consumption and 80 percent of trade. The acceptance of the health benefits of green tea over the past few years in developed countries has helped exports.

G8 Leaders To Discuss Economic Policy, Developing World, Maternal And Child Health, Haitian Rebuilding
www.medicalnewstoday.com/28 Jun 2010

Ahead of the G8 summit, which begins Friday in Canada, “leaders engaged in a series of dueling letters and interviews that exposed their conflicts” in how to foster global economic recovery, the Associated Press reports. The G8 – comprised of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States – are also set to “discuss proposals to increase support for maternal and child health care in poor nations” and meet with leaders from seven African countries.

According to the news service, G8 countries are “struggling to resolve major differences over reform of the financial system.” Obama sent a letter to the G20, due to meet in Toronto after the G8 meeting, cautioning against “removing the massive government stimulus … But [Canadian Prime Minister Stephen] Harper sent out his own letter urging establishment of firm deficit reduction goals,” the AP reports, adding that Britain, Germany, France and Japan also support deficit reduction (Crutsinger/Aversa, 6/25).

Summit To Address Donor Countries’ Commitments To Developing World 

Although the summit is expected to address G8 nations’ “economic troubles,” the group “wanted to carve out some time to discuss problems facing poor countries, G8 officials said,” Reuters reports. “Canada, host of the G8 and G20 meetings, wants to ensure that donor countries follow through on their commitments,” according to the news service. In addition to its maternal and child health initiative, Canada wants the group to focus on the Haitian reconstruction effort. 

“The G8 will discuss progress toward meeting the eight U.N. Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, on poverty by 2015. The group will also review the $18 billion shortfall in reaching the $50 billion total pledged in 2005 at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland,” Reuters writes (Wroughton, 6/25). 

“At the Muskoka summit, I will join my fellow G8 leaders to take action on some of the world’s most pressing problems,” Harper said in a message to delegates, Agence France-Presse reports. “We will make a real difference and deliver results.” President Barack Obama said it was time for “a new era of engagement that yields real results for our people – an era when nations live up to their responsibilities and act on behalf of our shared security and prosperity,” according to AFP, which notes the focus on aid pledges and the recent G8 accountability report (Biddle, 6/24). 

“While the G8 meeting usually involves discussions about global economic issues, this year’s gathering will include special sessions devoted to peace and security in South America and development issues in Africa,” the Globe and Mail notes. G8 leaders have “set aside about three hours today to talk to leaders from Haiti, Jamaica, Colombia and a group of African countries,” according to the newspaper (Waldie, 6/25). 

Though “a small hand-picked group of African leaders” is invited to the G8 summit every year, “this year African campaigners are hoping to secure a firmer platform from which to make themselves heard,” Sapa-AFP/Times LIVE reports. The article notes Africa’s involvement in the G20 and outlines the challenges associated with the continent’s lack of representation on the G8 (6/25).

The Toronto Star examines how international organizations are highlighting global hunger ahead of the summit. “The food crisis hasn’t gone away, it’s been compounded,” David Stevenson, policy director of the U.N. World Food Program, said. Of the G8’s $22 billion food security initiative, Stevenson, who is addressing a youth summit on the sidelines of the G8 meeting, said, “leaders must stay the course … And they should know that 80 percent of food (aid) beneficiaries are mothers and children” (Ward, 6/24).

In a separate article, the Toronto Star reports on the “polite” protest activity in advance of the summits. Victoria Harnett, the G8/G20 coordinator for Oxfam Canada, said, “There are a thousand women around the world who die every day in pregnancy and childbirth. … The message we want to get across today is that it is absolutely essential that G8 leaders start keeping their promises” (Brennan, 6/24).

Media Outlets Look Ahead To G20 Summit 

The G20 is expected to approve “Canada’s plan to pump billions of dollars into maternal health programs in poor countries … but leaders are still struggling to find common ground on all-important economic measures,” CTV News reports (6/24). 

Furthermore, a “leaked final version” of a
G20 communique for the upcoming summit, showed the group “will expand its narrow focus on the economy to include plans for tackling global poverty,” the Globe and Mail writes. “Should the essence of the draft, which is dated June 11, hold true until Sunday, it would be a clear sign that the G20 is poised to further eclipse the G8, which has made foreign aid the focus of its agenda in recent summits,” the newspaper writes before looking at advocates’ attitudes towards the G20’s evolving role (Curry, 6/24).

USA :

Rwanda: Two arrested for killing reporter Rugambage
Monday, 28 June 2010 /news.bbc.co.uk

Two people have been arrested over the shooting of a reporter last week, with police saying it was a revenge attack.

Witnesses say Jean Leonard Rugambage, the acting editor of Umuvugizi newspaper, was fired on by two men who then fled in a car.

The government has denied as “baseless” accusations it was behind the killing.

A police statement says one of the suspects is related to someone allegedly killed by Mr Rugambage during the 1994 genocide.

Mr Rugambage, who is survived by his wife and a child, was acquitted of genocide crimes by a local “gacaca” court in 2006.

Human rights groups have accused President Paul Kagame of intimidating the media and the opposition ahead of elections due to take place in August.

A police statement quoted by the state-owned New Times newspaper says the pistol used to shoot Mr Rugambage has been recovered.

The authorities recently suspended the Umuvugizi paper, prompting it to start publishing online instead.

Editor Jean Bosco Gasasira, who fled to Uganda in April after his paper was suspended, said Kigali had masterminded the assassination of Mr Rugambage who died in hospital after the shooting.

“I’m 100% sure it was the office of the national security services which shot him dead,” he told US state-funded radio Voice of America.

Mr Gasasira said it was because of an article published on the Umuvugizi website relating to the attempted killing earlier this month of former army chief Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa. 

But Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo strongly denied such accusations.

“Of course, this is not true, it’s baseless,” she told the AFP news agency.

“We are not a government that assassinates journalists, we are a responsible government.”

The government has also denied accusations it was behind the shooting of Lt Gen Nyamwasa.

He went into exile in South Africa earlier this year after falling out with President Kagame.

In April, Mr Kagame reshuffled the military leadership and two high-ranking officers were also suspended and put under house arrest.

Earlier in the month, Umuvugizi was suspended for six months by the press council for inciting opposition to the government. 

Its website, launched in May, is not currently accessible through Rwandan internet providers; the authorities deny involvement in blocking it.

Mr Kagame’s government argues that it must take care to control the media and politicians to avoid a repeat of the genocide, in which some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.

New York: UN chief tasks nations on MDGs targets
Pana /28/06/2010

News – Africa news .New York, US – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed the need to step up the efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Ban was speaking at a private meeting in Toronto, Canada, Sunday with the top officials of two European Union institutions, on the sidelines of the G-20 leaders’ summit – the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.

The Secretary-General said he was encouraged by the commitment of support for the MDGs, including the role of overseas development aid.

He, however, stressed that greater investment must be made if the eight goals for reducing extreme poverty and hunger, improving health and education, empowering women and ensuring environmental sustainability, are to be achieved by 2015.

In addition to the MDGs, the leaders discussed Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Gaza, PANA reported.

New York

CANADA :

Diamond meeting ends without consensus on Zimbabwe / Serious challenges ahead for landmark certifica
Monday, 28 June 2010 /www.melodika.net

The lack of consensus among Kimberley Process (KP) certification scheme members over whether Zimbabwe can resume diamond exports from the troubled Marange area was welcomed by the KP civil society coalition today as the ‘least bad’ outcome. The scheme’s annual meeting in Tel Aviv broke up without agreement after through-the-night talks.

The Marange diamond fields have been plagued with violence over recent years. A joint work plan was agreed last year between the Kimberley Process and the Zimbabwean government, which aimed at bringing Zimbabwe back into line with the scheme’s minimum requirements. Almost no progress has been made on key aspects of this plan, including smuggling and demilitarisation of the diamond fields. Despite this, a number of governments supported a resumption of exports at this week’s meeting. 

“There are no winners with this result. But by maintaining a ban on exports in the absence of significant improvements in Marange, the Kimberley Process has taken an important step towards restoring its battered credibility,” said Elly Harrowell from Global Witness. “If Zimbabwe follows through on its threat to export diamonds from Marange regardless of the lack of consensus, members, including the diamond industry, will need to think hard about how they will respond, and what action they can take to stop these diamonds from contaminating the international trade.” 

Zimbabwean authorities have demonstrated a worrying lack of respect for the three-way partnership at the heart of the Kimberley Process. Zimbabwean Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu, present at the Tel Aviv meeting, openly denigrated the role of civil society organisations in the process. The collaboration between governments, industry and civil society has underpinned the success of the KP since its inception in 2003. 

Shortly before the meeting in Tel Aviv, a prominent human rights activist, Farai Maguwu, was arrested and detained by the Zimbabwean authorities. As director of the Centre for Research and Development in eastern Zimbabwe, he had been researching and exposing state-sponsored violence and military involvement in mining and smuggling in the fields. Mr Maguwu remains in detention. 

“We continue to be troubled by the Zimbabwean authorities’ aggressive attitude towards human rights campaigners and its disregard for the rules of the Kimberley Process. We would welcome the opportunity to work with Zimbabwe in the collaborative spirit of the scheme, to address challenges in the country’s diamond sector,” said Alan Martin from Partnership Africa Canada. 

The coalition is calling on the Zimbabwean authorities to work constructively and openly with all members of the Kimberley Process to bring the Marange diamond fields into compliance with the minimum requirements. They also repeat their call for the immediate and unconditional release of human rights activist Farai Maguwu. 

The debate around Zimbabwe eclipsed a number of positive initiatives in Tel Aviv this week, including a workshop on future improvements to the Kimberley Process, and an enforcement seminar bringing together customs and police representatives from around the world to discuss stronger implementation of the scheme. 

Title: World leaders aim to cut deficits
BuaNews /Date: 28 Jun 2010

Pretoria – Leaders of the world’s biggest countries have pledged to halve budget deficits by 2013 and stabilise or reduce government debt by 2016. 

The leaders who attended the G20 summit, said their “highest priority is to safeguard and strengthen recovery and lay the foundation for strong, sustainable and balanced growth, and strengthen our financial systems against risks,” the communiqu, said adding that “these (actions) will be differentiated and tailored to national circumstances.

The summit, which concluded in the Canadian city of Toronto on Sunday, acknowledged that, after the downturn, the economic recovery varies in pace across the world and a delicate balance is needed between restoring budget discipline and sustaining growth.

“There is a risk that synchronised fiscal adjustment across several major economies could adversely impact the recovery. There is also a risk that the failure to implement consolidation when necessary would undermine confidence and hamper growth,” it said.

Countries already facing “serious fiscal challenges” should accelerate their budget reductions, the G-20 said. 

The leaders also acknowledged coming up short in the effort launched in Pittsburgh to rebalance global growth, saying “we can do much better.” 

The summit, which saw President Jacob Zuma in attendance, was also attended by leaders of the world’s biggest economies. 

Speaking during the plenary session on the reform of the international financial institutions, Zuma said the International Monetary Fund’s focus should shift to benefit developing nations as their needs are higher. 

Zuma said world leaders should play a greater role in providing strategic direction to the IMF and ensure that an equitable representation is achieved in the Board of the IMF to reflect appropriate regional representation.

“This could be achieved through reforming the composition of the Board as was done at the World Bank, to afford an additional chair for sub-Saharan Africa,” he said, adding that this “appointment should be based on merit without regard to nationality or gender”.

To accommodate emerging economies, the G20 also called on the world’s emerging economies to allow their currencies to float more freely, so as to balance world trade.

The leaders also sought to keep trade flowing by renewing their pledge to avoid protectionist measures for three years and reach a deal on the Doha round of trade talks. 

JSE opens flat in tentative trading
June 28, 2010/I-Net Bridge

The JSE tracked higher at its opening on Monday on bargain hunting following the G-2O summit, but lost momentum amid fears of a double dip recession in Europe, UK and US, a local trader said.

At 9.36am local time the JSE all share index had shed 0.06 percent, resources were flat at 0.01 percent.

Platinum miners were down 0.01 percent, while gold miners added 0.19 percent. Banks gained 0.12 percent, financials were flat 0.01 percent firmer with industrials 0.08 percent in negative territory.

The rand was bid at R7.57/$, from R5.65/$ at the JSE’s last close. Gold was quoted at $1 253.75/oz from at $1 243.57/oz at the JSE’s previous close, while platinum was at $1 583.50/oz from $1 564.50/oz at the JSE’s last close.

“We opened reasonably firmer but turned negative in line with the Asian markets. The G-2O summit in Canada was on the whole positive but fears of a double dip recession in Europe, UK and US are weighing on the investor sentiment this morning.”

Globally, in Asia on Monday were mixed in cautious trade as investors considered the lacklustre session on Wall Street on Friday and the communiqu from the G-20 nations over the weekend, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.5 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.2 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.5 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.2 percent.

European stock markets were mixed in early session, with the weekend’s Group of 20 communiqu optimistic about debt reduction, despite ongoing worries about global growth following recent downbeat economic data.

Leaders of the G-20 nations focused on containing budgets and debt levels, while pledging to stick to the 2012
timetable to implement tougher capital and liquidity standards for banks.

These signs of progress at the G-20 meeting over global deficit reduction should be seen as encouraging, said IG Markets, “although this has done little to ease the price of gold, which remains stuck above the $1250 per troy ounce level, underlying the ongoing popularity of the classic safe haven investment.”

Still, equity-market momentum has faded against the background of renewed growth concerns, including growing evidence of a double-dip in the US housing market as well as fresh worries about the European banking sector, said Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank.

“Whilst a double-dip scenario still seems unlikely, there can be no doubt that austerity measures and the waning of fiscal stimulus measures are beginning to weigh on growth prospects,” it said, noting this suggests that the third quarter of 2010 could turn into a period of heightened uncertainty in which equity markets and risk assets will struggle to gain traction.

AUSTRALIA :

Autopsy done on one plane crash victim
June 28, 2010/www.smh.com.au

An autopsy has been completed on one of the bodies recovered from the Congo plane crash that killed six mining executives from Perth-based Sundance Resources.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is working on a plan to repatriate the bodies of the mining executives who were among 11 people killed.

The entire Sundance board died when the twin turboprop CASA C212 crashed on a flight from Cameroon’s capital Yaounde to Yangadou in Congo a week ago.

Helicopters transported the bodies to Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo and the operation was completed by about 2.20am WST on Saturday.

Seven Australian Federal Police officers from its disaster victim identification team are working with Congo officials to complete the lengthy identification process.

A DFAT spokesman said he did not know when the bodies of the mining executives would be flown home.

“There has been thus far one autopsy undertaken and that was completed over the weekend,” he said.

“Obviously the remaining autopsies need to be done and there’s a whole range of formal identification processes that need to take place.”

He said Sundance Resources was working with DFAT on a repatriation plan.

“We’re working to support the company’s efforts both here in Australia and in Africa,” he said.

The US National Transportation Safety Board will also join the investigation efforts after a request from the Congolese government.

Although the body of the plane was made in Spain, the engines originated from Arizona in the US.

“Australia has not formally been asked to provide assistance for the air crash investigation,” the DFAT spokesman said.

“We understand that the plane’s voice recorder and GPS have been located.”

On board the ill-fated flight were Queensland mining magnate and Sundance non-executive director Ken Talbot, West Australians Geoff Wedlock (chairman), chief executive Don Lewis, non-executive directors John Jones and Craig Oliver and company secretary John Carr-Gregg, from Sydney.

The other passengers were Natasha Flason, a Frenchwoman based in Brisbane who worked for Mr Talbot’s private investment company the Talbot Group, American Jeff Duff, who was working as a consultant to Sundance, a British citizen and the two pilots, one from France and the other from Britain.

EUROPE :

Human trafficking: EU inaugurates ¤1.2m project in Nigeria
By John Alechenu /www.punchng.com/Monday, 28 Jun 2010 

The European Union is to inaugurate a project worth 1.2m Euros to assist in curbing the menace of human trafficking between Africa and Europe.

The project which is being financed by the EU is to be implemented by the International Labour Organization and the Department for Equal Opportunities, Counter Trafficking Commission, Italy.

This was contained in a statement by the Press and Information Officer of the Delegation of the EU to Nigeria, Mr. Kelechi Onyemaobi, and made available to our correspondent in Abuja, on Sunday. The statement said the project will be inaugurated in Abuja, on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the EU and the ILO view with serious concern the increasing volume and complexity of human trafficking, especially in women and children, worldwide.

Both bodies said it was imperative to address this menace at national, regional and global levels by promoting bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation.

They also observed that trafficking in persons from Nigeria to Europe has posed serious challenges to people and governments of both countries.

The statement read in part: “This project, funded by the European Union is worth €1.2m (about N220m).

“The objective is to progressively reduce human trafficking through better cooperation between Nigeria and Italy in the prosecution of traffickers, protection and re-integration of victims, as well as prevention of trafficking through awareness creation.

“The project will be implemented from Nigeria and Italy during the next 24 months.

“The institutional and implementing partners of the project are: the Federal Ministries of Labour and Productivity, Foreign Affairs, Women Affairs, Education, “Justice, and Youth and Social Welfare, as well as the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Nigerian Police, Immigration, Customs, employers’ and workers’ organisations, relevant NGOs and ECOWAS.”

Two grenades fired near residence of EU observers in Burundi
Monday, June 28, 2010/(Source: iStockAnalyst ) 

BUJUMBURA, Jun. 28, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) — One of the two grenades exploded on Sunday night when unidentified people fired them near a house at Muyinga Avenue, in Rohero urban commune in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura where the EU observers for the country’s presidential election are staying.

Rohero administration officials on Monday morning told reporters of 15 media outlets working together that the grenade attack occurred around 9 p.m. local time on Sunday, and the grenade blast did not cause any casualties.

The other grenade which didn’t explode was removed by the police early on Monday, according to the local administration officials.

No one has so far been arrested in connection with the grenade attacks.

The grenade attacks occurred a few hours ahead of the beginning of the presidential election in which ruling party President Pierre Nkurunziza is the only candidate running. 

Nigeria: When “Wise Men” Gathered in Owerri in Search of Opportunity
Ochereome Nnanna/Vanguard/28 June 2010

It was one of the most hyped government programmes ever seen on these shores. Billboards were mounted in Lagos and Abuja announcing the Imo Investment Summit. The organisers sent text messages to the mobile handsets of people almost every hour. The Imo State Government was holding its first investment summit in its 34 years of existence.

Come June 8 and 9, 2010, the grounds of the Imo Concorde Hotel, venue of the event, was agog with activities, as contingents from the 27 local government areas of the state came to exhibit the agricultural, industrial, mineral and even cultural products for which each of them was famous, for the benefit of investors looking for opportunities.

Inside the conference hall of the hotel, contingents from many parts of the world were gathered for the summit proper. Among these was a former Prime Minister (Taoiseach) of Ireland, Mr Bertie Ahern, who introduced himself as having served in that capacity for “ten years, ten months and ten days”. He is currently still a member of parliament, where he has served for 23 years, 18 of them as a cabinet member. Leading a group of investors from the United States of America was Mr. J. C. Watts, a former congressional Minority Leader and frontline businessman. Also in attendance was the representative of Vice President, Namadi Sambo, Mrs Josephine Tapgun, who holds the Minister of State, Commerce portfolio.

Three states were represented. The governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi, attended in person, while the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State, Professor Chibuzor Ogbu, stood in for Governor Martin Elechi and the Chief Servant of Niger State, Dr Aliyu Babangida, sent a representative. These are just to mention but a few.

An investment summit idea from an Ikedi Ohakim regime should not come as a surprise because this was the guy who, as Commissioner for Commerce in the late Governor Evan Enwerem cabinet some eighteen years ago, drew up the first economic masterplan for Imo State. Since he found himself on the gubernatorial seat, he has pushed ahead with an ambitious dream of making the state one of the most industrialised in the country and among the big five economies.

According to his text of keynote speech, the government decided that investors can only be attracted to safe and secure environments. This informed the launching of the Clean and Green initiative, which appears to have yielded result as, according to Imo State government officers, Owerri has been ranked as the cleanest state capital in Nigeria. Here was a city where, some three years ago, refuse heaps were used to block road junctions. The governor also boasted that the security policies of his government has made it possible that “today, verifiable statistics from Police Headquarters in Abuja shows that Imo State has the lowest crime statistics in the federation”. This bit of information will surprise many, what with the reported spate of kidnapping and violent robberies in the whole South East and South-South.

The governor also has a dream to transform the state into what he calls “one city-state”, linked to adjoining states through the opening up of rural roads by the Imo Rural Roads Maintenance Agency (IRROMA).

The state’s educational ranking in Nigeria is without parallel. Owerri is the only state capital with three tertiary institutions, while the state has continued to lead the pack in terms of candidates seeking admissions into universities and like institutions.

With such a massive turnout of executive level manpower every year, the economy of the state must be expanded to accommodate the over five million resident, highly literate Imolites, while improving its political climate to avoid a socio-economic chaos.

Noted the governor: “As I said at the 5th Nigeria-China Business and Investment Forum in Beijing, China, in September 2007, of the over 80 million Igbo in Nigeria, about ten million of them are Imo citizens with about five million of them resident in the state. Our citizens are dynamic entrepreneurs scattered all over Africa, forming the largest distribution network in Africa. When a people are called the Jews of Africa that tells you about their business acumen”.

In his word of encouragement, the former Irish PM, Mr. Ahern, pointed out that if his country could rise from it mediocre economic standing to its present enviable position, it can be done by anyone who has the vision and determination to succeed.

“In 1986, the year in I which I was elected Lord Mayor of my native city. Dublin, Ireland had a higher debt per head than Ethiopia or Sudan. We had the lowest standard of living in Western Europe. On the day I retired as Irish Prime Minister, in May 2008, we had the second highest standard of living in Europe. During my time as Minister for Finance, the Irish economy created 1,000 new jobs every week. This was the beginning of a massive transformation of Ireland’s economy that became known as the Celtic Tiger.

During the period I served as Irish Prime Minister from 1997-2008, Ireland was Europe’s most successful economy. Ireland had the lowest level of unemployment in the EU; the second lowest national debt, the second highest minimum wage; the biggest spend in the EU on infrastructure; the fastest growth of all OECD countries in spending per capita on health; and, the most generous tax and welfare system in the world for single income families on the average industrial wages”.

Governors Ohakim and Shinkafi shared the opinion that Nigeria must shift its attention from crude oil and gas to other equally rich but untapped natural sources, especially solid minerals and agriculture. Zamfara is reported to harbour more gold deposits than South Africa, though this has not been independently confirmed. But it says much for the possibilities that await investors outside the hydrocarbons area.

Owerri’s new bubble

One of the ways of knowing whether the economy of an entity is growing or otherwise is to check out the commercial bustle rate during the day and night life during the after hours. In Owerri, more and more choice hotels are springing up, and from Thursday to Sunday every week, most of them are fully booked, with events bubbling in many venues.

Day time traffic in the city has turned into a nightmare due to its congestion and slow pace, and this is one area the state government has has to work on. Most of the hotels have night clubs, and some of them are beginning to offer what
can be termed as “exotic” entertainment.

Truly, Owerri is beginning to don the toga of “the entertainment capital” of Nigeria (the state government says it already is).

However, more attention needs to be paid to other towns apart from Owerri, such as Okigwe, Orlu, Mgbidi and Oguta. Moreover, the inner city roads are begging for attention.The Ohakim government has made a lot of giant strides but evidently, a lot of work is still waiting to be done.

CHINA :

Developing countries join G8 at Huntsville summit
Monday, 28 June 2010 /www.waltainfo.com

In a barrage of camera flashes, the leaders of seven African countries, Haiti, Jamaica and Colombia arrived at a resort in Huntsville, Ont., joining the meeting of G8 nations that opened Friday. 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper welcomed the select group of developing-country leaders after handpicking them to attend side meetings at the G8 summit. 

“I’d like to offer a special welcome to our new attendees,” Harper told reporters. “I’m glad that once again we’re able to build on the G8’s strong tradition of outreach to African partners.” 

In addition to discussions of global economic issues that are typical of a G8 summit, talks with Haiti, Jamaica, Colombia are expected focus on peace and security issues stemming from problems such as the illegal drug trade.

Discussions with the leaders of South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Malawi, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Senegal will focus on development issues. 

Earlier in the day, Harper welcomed the G8 leaders with a series of handshakes and camera poses, officially launching the international meeting. The G8 leaders later lunched together and then posed for a group photo along the shore of a nearby lake at Deerhurst Resort. 

Prior to the summit’s official launch on Friday, Harper held bilateral meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Their talks ranged from development, security and relations with North Korea. 

Informal meetings at the summit were underway all morning. The side meetings came as U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Canada, hot on the heels of a last-minute agreement on a bill that would bring sweeping changes to rules overseeing Wall Street. 

Obama touched down at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport before 10:30 a.m. Friday, and immediately boarded a helicopter to make the trip north to Huntsville. 
Just hours earlier, Obama put the final touches on a compromise agreement wit

h congressional negotiators that would overhaul a sweeping range of financial transactions. 

“We’ve all seen what happens when there is inadequate oversight and insufficient transparency on Wall Street,” Obama told reporters in Washington, promising to discuss the regulations during the weekend meetings in Ontario. 

“The reforms working their way through Congress will hold Wall Street accountable so we can help prevent another financial crisis like the one that we’re still recovering from.” 

Signature initiative 
Obama arrived just hours before Harper launched the meeting of leaders from the Group of Eight — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. A broad range of issues, from North Korea, Iran’s nuclear program, drug trafficking and the global economy are all on the agenda. 

Harper marked the summit with an official announcement of his government’s pledge of more than $1 billion for a maternal and child health initiative. Harper’s proposal, positioned as a “signature” of these meetings, has come under fire since his Conservative government declared no Canadian money would go toward funding abortion. 

Despite widespread criticism, the U.S., Britain and France have signalled their support for the plan, with Russia and Germany indicating they may also pledge some cash. 

There are reports a compromise may be struck allowing each contributor to determine how their money will be spent. That’s also fuelled ongoing arguments over whether the final announcement should include a total amount of the collective commitment, or outline each nation’s individual contribution. 

Whatever the final amounts, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said Harper is seeking new money, not rechannelled committments. 
“Canada is seeking a new resources and new commitments from

G8 partners on maternal new born and child health initiatives,” Dimitri Soudas told reporters at a press conference at Deerhurst Friday morning. “And we are working to mobilize support from non-G8 members as well as private organizations and foundations.” 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already committed more than $1-billion USD to the initiative. 

Agree to disagree Despite indications Harper may yet cobble together consensus on his signature initiative, agreement on other key issues seems less likely. In the long run-up to the summit, key sticking points have included: · the course of global economic recovery, particularly the debate over stimulus spending vs. deficit cutting · financial system reform, including bank capital standards and oversight · the imposition of a tax on banks to cover future bailouts 
· climate change 

Hours before G8 leaders were to begin their lakeside summit, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty downplayed the need for absolute consensus on key issues. 

In an interview with CTV’s Canada AM, Flaherty said, “One size doesn’t fit all, of course.” 

In Flaherty’s view, the issue is divided among three camps: the emerging economies in Asia that need to increase domestic demand, some European countries that need to consolidate debt “on an urgent basis,” and the countries in the middle that have the luxury of more time to deal with their debt and deficits. 

“The whole point is to get the balance,” Flaherty explained. 

On his way to the summit, the British Prime Minister was also downplaying the G8 leaders’ differences of opinion. 

“This weekend isn’t about a row over fiscal policy. We all agree about the need for fiscal consolidation,” Cameron told reporters on his flight from London. “This is about putting the world economy on an irreversible path to recovery.” 

In the lead-up to these summits, Obama has struggled to rally support behind his warnings that stimulus spending shouldn’t be cut off too quickly. Last week, Obama sent a letter warning his G8 counterparts that such a move could spur a repeat of the Great Depression. 

Harper issued his own missive urging leaders to target deficit reduction instead. Britain, Germany, France and Japan have already unveiled their own deficit-cutting plans. Harper underscored his pleasure with those moves after his meeting with the British Prime Minister on Friday. 

“… I’m delighted to have you here just off a budget where you highlighted the very fiscal consolidation that we’re trying to steer the G20 toward,” Harper said. “I appreciate your responsible and difficult decisions in that regard.” 

G8 leaders will spend just a day and a half in Huntsville.

G20 Preparations 

At the conclusion of the Huntsville meetings, leaders will travel south to Toronto for the larger Group of Twenty summit. Leaders of the G20 — including such major developing powers as China, Brazil and India — will begin official discussions over dinner in Toronto Saturday night before concluding their talks Sunday. 

During the first G20 leaders’ meetings in
Washington and London — spurred by the global economic crisis that followed the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers — the group reached widespread consensus on the need to pump public money into the economy. Nearly a year ago, at the Pittsburgh summit, leaders agreed on a framework for long-term growth. Since then, as the global economy has retreated from the brink of collapse, that spirit of co-operation has been waning. 

The prospect of leaders emerging from this weekend’s talks without some substantive agreement could prove embarrassing for Canadian officials, in light of the summits’ estimated $1.24 billion pricetag. Most of that budget – over $800 million – has been spent on security. 

In anticipation of the world leaders’ arrival, Toronto’s downtown core has been transformed into a fortified security zone. An estimated 19,000 members of security forces from across Canada have gathered in anticipation of potentially violent protests. 

Reporting from inside the secure zone, CTV’s Tom Clark said it’s not surprising that so far, no major security incidents have materialized. 

“You’ve got a billion dollars worth of security on a tension wire, so nothing goes beyond their view,” Clark told CTV News Channel, adding that the effect has been to eerily transform the city. 

“Canada’s biggest, busiest city is deserted.” 

Huntsville Protests 

Unlike Toronto, where a series of protests, marches and demonstrations have been mounted in the days leading up to the gathering of G20 leaders, the resort town of Huntsville hadn’t seen any significant public protest ahead of the summit. As the official summit events kicked off that changed, however slightly. 

A small group of locals led a march through the town centre Friday morning, calling for G8 leaders to declare water a human right. 

Oxfam staged its own publicity stunt with a gathering of people wearing giant papier mache heads of the G8 leaders. Urging the real G8 leaders to put the issue of extreme poverty on the agenda, they were joined by actor Bill Nighy, an Oxfam ambassador who declared his presence in the idyllic lakeside town as one of “benign nuisance.” 

Capturing the mood in Huntsville, CP24’s Sue Sgambati described the tone of muted dissent as “folksy”. 

UPDATE 1-Singapore tanker “seized by pirates” off Somalia
Mon Jun 28, 2010/Reuters

BEIJING/SINGAPORE June 28 (Reuters) – A Singapore-registered ship with 19 Chinese sailors onboard was hijacked on Monday in the Gulf of Aden, where Somali pirates have menaced ocean traffic, the Singaporean and Chinese governments said.

The MT Golden Blessing was on its way from Saudi Arabia to India when it was boarded off East Africa, said a brief Chinese-language report on the Chinese Ministry of Transport’s website (www.moc.gov.cn).

“Currently, a rescue operation is under way,” said the report, which said the vessel was a container ship.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore described the vessel as a petroleum/chemical tanker and said the crew were safe.

The reports did not specify any demands from the pirates.

Somali pirates have made millions of dollars in ransoms by hijacking ships off their anarchic country’s coast and have extended their range using mother ships, sometimes seized vessels, from which to launch attacks with smaller craft.

Chinese sailors have been caught before by pirates around the Gulf of Aden. In December, the crew of a Chinese ship hijacked by Somali pirates in mid-October was safely rescued.

China is among the nations participating in a multi-national effort against pirates who use Somalia as a base. (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Alex Richardson) 

China Mobile mulls African investment 
By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent/Johannesburg,/28 Jun 2010

While the world’s largest cellular operator, China Mobile’s, primary focus is on its domestic market, it has not ruled out investing in the African market, particularly those that scale quickly, says chairman Wang Jianzhou.

Speaking at the Fortune Global Forum, in Cape Town, Jianzhou admitted that, while Africa was an interesting prospect for China Mobile, it had not identified any target companies.

“Our domestic market remains our primary focus,” he said.

Jianzhou said that, while the company had more than 550 million subscribers in China out of a population of over 1.3 billion, it still saw huge potential, especially in the rural market that has around 700 million people.

“The rural market is still 60% of our new subscribers, while the cities have an oversubscription rate of more than 120%,” Jianzhou said. “We have 99% coverage of the rural areas now.”

He said China Mobile was also looking at increasing its various data services, such as mobile payments and other electronic forms of communications. It now has 50 million subscribers for its mobile newspaper service.

Mobile payment solutions have become an increasingly compelling business case for China Mobile, sparking its 20% purchase of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

A conference attendee, who asked not to be named, said there was strong overlap between what China Mobile would like to develop as a mobile payment solution and what some African-based network operators have already achieved.

“African operators have shown the world that mobile payment solutions work, are convenient and bring the unbanked into mainstream financial services. This is something China would like to do with its rural population,” he said.

The conference attendee said that, while China Mobile may look at buying an African telco for scalability reasons, it may also find this a cheap way to import mobile payment solutions back into China.

“Africa is interesting for us, however, we have not targeted any company,” Jianzhou said.

He added that apart from people-to-people communication, China Mobile was also exploring machine-to-machine communications.

“It is not just about people communications, but also communications between things such as machines and even plants,” Jianzhou said.

African products gain easy access to Chinese market
[ 2010-06-28 ] /(macauhub)

Beijing, China, 28 Jun – China is granting duty-free access to nearly 4,000 products from more than 20 African countries, stimulating Chinese industrial development and economic growth in Africa.

Xie Yajing, Chinese commercial counsellor for Africa and West Asia, recently told the Kenyan newspaper The Standard that the effort to boost African imports also includes opening an African exhibition centre in Beijing to enhance those products’ visibility in the country.

“China has signed free access agreements with more than 20 African countries to allow imports of more than 4,000 products without customs duties,” Xie told the African newspaper.

Chinese exports to Africa have remained stable, while 23 African countries have increased their exports to China, she said.

The bilateral trade volume increased 24 percent in the first quarter of this year to US$27.8 billion, she added.

The latest figures from the Chinese customs service indicate that this rise is even greater for all the Portuguese language countries: 91 percent until April, to US$25.089 billion.

During the period, China imported goods worth US$17.459 billion (up 108 percent year-on-year) from the eight Portuguese language countries and exported goods worth US$7.630 billion (up 60 percent).

The pledge to open the Chinese market to African products was initially made by Wen Jiabao in 2003.

Some 190 product types were initially included on the duty-free access list. In November 2006, at the China-Africa Cooperation Forum in Beijing, the list was expanded to include a range of 440 products.

Citing Chinese Commerce Ministry data, a recently published study by South Africa’s Standard Bank reported a list of 454 product types, of which three quarters are industrial.

Among these are car parts, bicycles, soap, plastic, leather wallets, cotton and t-shirts, umbrellas, pens, lamps, refined copper products, diesel generators and fish hooks.

In her recently published book “The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa”, US university researcher Deborah Brautigam indicates that there is a “clear correspondence” between this list and the ongoing reorganisation of Chinese industry, which is paving the way for Chinese industrial development in Africa.

African governments wanting to boost industrial investment now have a list of products for which they can offer their own incentives, Brautigam claims in her book, published by the Oxford University Press.

Some Chinese companies will weigh transferring production to Africa so that they can re-export to China duty-free, the author states, adding that other Chinese companies in Africa are already involved in the production of sesame (Senegal), plastic (Nigeria) and spun cotton (Mauritius).

INDIA :

Malaria accompanied humans moving out of Africa
Submitted by Mohit Joshi/(ANI)/Mon, 06/28/2010

Washington, June 28 : Malaria accompanied the modern man as he moved out of Africa some 60,000 years ago, according to a new study.

An international team of researchers used DNA sequencing to reach the conclusion.

The scientists analysed over 500 blood samples taken from people infected with P. falciparum – the most lethal form of malaria – in nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia, Oceania, and South America.

By measuring the differences in SNP (single nucleotide pair) mutations within two well known genes in the P. falciparum genome, the team were able to determine how much genetic variation there was in the malaria genome in different regions.

They discovered that the greater the sample”s distance from Africa, the less genetic variation there was in these marker genes of P. falciparum.

This is because as populations move away from their origin and become isolated, their genetic pool becomes more concentrated and less diverse. 

Humans too show less genetic diversity the further away from Africa they get, the researchers point out.

This, coupled with the fact that humans are the only known host for malaria, strongly suggests that both humans and the malaria parasite evolved together as they migrated out of Africa between 60,000 to 80,000 years ago, reports ABC Science.

The evidence also suggests it may have originated in central sub-Saharan African around the Great Lakes region. 

The study has been published in the journal Current Biology. (ANI)

Arrests spark terrorism fear
Detained Pakistani ‘suspected of link to Mumbai attack’ 
Jun 28, 2010 / By STAFF REPORTER /www.timeslive.co.za

One of the two Pakistanis arrested while trying to enter South Africa illegally is reportedly suspected of links to the 2008 Mumbai attack. 

Zimbabwean officials arrested two terror suspects trying to enter South Africa at Beitbridge border post on Sunday last week. 

The state-run Zimbabwe Herald named the two men as Imran Mohammad, 33, and Chaudhry Pevez Ahmed, 39. 

“Indications were that Mohammad is wanted in Pakistan as he was allegedly involved in the terror attacks that rocked Mumbai, India, in November 2008,” the newspaper reported. 

More than 160 people were killed in the bombing of landmarks in Mumbai. 

Last week’s arrests prompted Zimbabwe’s security agency to ask global police organisation Interpol for help in the investigation. 

The men are thought to have flown from Saudi Arabia to Tanzania and fraudulently acquired Kenyan passports there before entering Zimbabwe by road. 

The reason for their coming to South Africa is not known but a terrorism motive cannot be ruled out with the World Cup in its third week. 

The Sunday Times reported recently that Ronald Sandee, of the Nine Eleven Finding Answers Foundation, had warned that trainees from militant camps might have crossed into South Africa to join cells planning attacks on World Cup targets. 

•The Department of Home Affairs had barred 613 foreigners from entering South Africa during the World Cup. Department spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said that, since the beginning of the month, these people had been denied entry because their names appeared on Interpol, Fifa or government visa and entry stop lists.
“The 613 foreign travellers were detected through South Africa’s movement-control system, which was launched in May,” he said. 

“The South African movement-control system, which is linked to law-enforcement agencies and the SA Revenue Service, also prevented 32 soccer hooligans from Argentina and England entering the country,” he said. 

Since the beginning of the month, more than 2million foreign travellers – including South Africans returning from abroad – had entered the country.

BRASIL:

Historic step toward new world balance
G20 economic co-ordination has been tried before, but accountability will now rest at the highest levels
Kevin Carmichael/From Monday’s Globe and Mail /Jun. 28, 2010

.Against significant odds, the Group of 20 is moving closer to its goal of rebalancing the global economy. 

In a surprising show of faith in an institution that has met only four times, leaders from countries as disparate as Germany and Saudi Arabia agreed Sunday in Toronto to subject their domestic economic programs to peer review within the G20. 

By this fall’s Seoul summit, countries have promised to explain in some detail how their domestic policies are helping to achieve the G20’s goal of reducing the excessive mismatches in spending and saving that exacerbated the financial crisis. Then, with the help of the IMF and its expertise in economic modelling, the other members will assess whether each partner is doing enough. 

The commitment is historic. 

The promise by each leader agreed to put his or her cards on the table adds a level of transparency and credibility that the process lacked until now. While economic co-ordination has been tried before, it has been with lesser officials or the International Monetary Fund as the arbiter. Now, the accountability rests at the highest levels. Where previous failures could be blamed on bureaucratic deadlock, global economic co-operation is now a political imperative in the hands of presidents and prime ministers. 

The increased transparency could even encourage competition among members to implement policies that curry favour with investors. 

Since the review remains a voluntary exercise without penalties, success will depend on G20 members taking the process seriously, both by submitting credible policies and showing the courage to offer tough, but fair, criticism. Given how these countries allowed the global economy to get so out of whack in the first place, there is reason to be skeptical they have what it takes to deliver, especially as the economy improves. 

Still, “it’s a pretty significant step,” said Tim Adams, managing director at the Lindsey Group consultancy in Fairfax, Va., and a former undersecretary of international affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department. “It creates the potential that this will become a serious exercise.” 

Going into Toronto, it was unclear whether the G20 was fully committed to their September pledge at the summit in Pittsburgh to create a forum in which they would shape their domestic policies in way that would ensure “strong, sustainable and balanced” global economic growth. 

In Pittsburgh, the G20 acknowledged that self-interested policy making had created the conditions for the global recession that was sparked by the 2008 credit crisis. 

U.S. consumers spent too much borrowed money, an unsustainable circumstance that the world’s major exporters were all too happy to exploit. 

,In fact, China underwrote the spending by purchasing U.S. debt in an effort to keep its currency low against the dollar, a policy that had the effect of lowering American interest rates. Big oil exporters run up surpluses of their own by using their wealth to buy U.S. bonds instead of investing in their domestic economies. Continental European countries refused to confront rigid labour markets that constrained investment and productivity. 

The Framework for Strong, Balanced and Sustainable Growth was launched to correct this policy mismatch. 

Few gave it much chance for success. Noting previous failures, academics, economists and former policy makers said they doubted sovereign nations would ever tailor domestic policies for the sake of the greater good. Going into Toronto, some countries, including China, were balking at accepting country-level reviews under the framework, saying instead that G20 members should simply be grouped under headings such as “surplus countries” and “deficit countries.” 

Daniel Schwanen, an award-winning economist at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, earlier this month published an analysis of the framework effort that was laudatory of the concept, but skeptical that national self-interest would allow the process to work.

“It is, of course, conceivable that the framework introduced at the Pittsburgh summit will prove only a passing phase, a temporary political convenience that usefully helped leaders’ intentions to coalesce at a time of global crisis,” Mr. Schwanen wrote in his paper. 

But in Toronto, the reluctance to embrace a transparent process faded. 

That might have had something to do with convincing evidence of what co-operation could achieve. The IMF and World Bank submitted studies that showed the G20 could generate GDP of $4-trillion, create tens of millions of jobs and lift even more out of poverty if countries actually made the changes necessary to achieve more balanced growth. 

“We concluded that we can do much better,” the G20’s final statement said. 

To be sure, the G20 is far from reaching its goal of a balanced global economy. 

The IMF warned recently that trade imbalances, which narrowed after the financial crisis, are starting to move back to pre-crisis levels. The U.S. still has a current-account deficit that is more than 3 per cent of GDP, while China and Germany run current-account surpluses that are about 4 per cent of GDP and 5 per cent of GDP respectively. 

Also, G20 countries must be tough critics of their fellow club members. Any boost in credibility the G20 gets from embracing country-by-country peer review will be lost if the promises the process accepts lack ambition or commitment. Because the threat from global imbalances is present, the framework process must result in national programs that are implemented over the next three to five years, Mr. Adams said from Washington. 

The G20 took another step toward credibility by describing the kinds of policies that various members should strive to implement. 

In the statement, the G20 said advanced economies in the group already have committed to fiscal programs that will at least halve deficits by 2013 and “stabilize or reduce” debt levels by 2016. Those countries also must take steps to boost national savings and avoid protectionism. 

The G20 said that some emerging markets need stronger social safety nets, enhanced corporate governance, further exchange rate flexibility and more vibrant financial markets – a prescription for increased domestic demand in the world’s fast growing emerging markets such as China and India. These nations also will lessen their reliance on exports and focus more on domestic sources for growth, the G20 statement said. 

Mr. Schwanen admitted surprise with what the G20 accomplished, especially the agreement on peer review. “If you have a scorecard, the targets look a lot more serio
us,” he said. 

Ghana Stocks May Jump 40% as Oil Spurs Best Growth Next Year, Exotix Says
By Janice Kew/www.bloomberg.com/Jun 28, 2010 

Ghana’s main stock index, the best performer in Africa this quarter, may soar another 40 percent this year as the start of oil production spurs the world’s fastest pace of economic growth, Exotix Ltd. said. 

Exotix, the London-based brokerage that gets a quarter of its revenue from African securities and three quarters from frontier markets, said buy orders for Ghanaian stocks are up more than 50 percent from the start of the year, even after a 9.8 percent rally since March 31 drove valuations above the average for emerging markets. The country’s All-Share Index has a further 20 to 40 percent “upside” in 2010, according to Ashley Bendell, New-York-based frontier and emerging market equity broker at Exotix. 

The west African nation’s equity market has been the most volatile globally. It soared 58 percent in 2008, beating all 93 national equity gauges tracked by Bloomberg, after its discovery of oil in 2007 and as crude jumped to a record $147.27 a barrel. The measure plunged 47 percent last year, the world’s worst slump, when crude tumbled to as little as $32.70 a barrel and Ghana’s currency depreciation triggered 20 percent inflation and a $1 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. 

“The oil find has without a doubt brought a lot of interest,” Bendell said in an interview in Johannesburg. 

Templeton Asset Management Ltd.’s Mark Mobius said in his blog on June 24 that he’s looking at Ghana along with South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Botswana, Morocco and Tunisia for investment. 

Too Small 

Ghana’s index is rising as the IMF predicts a surge in economic growth to 20.1 percent in 2011, triple the average 6.5 percent for developing nations. The cocoa and gold exporter is scheduled to start pumping oil in the fourth quarter of this year. Oil has gained 75 percent since the beginning of last year to $78 a barrel. 

The market remains too small to allow larger fund managers to buy and sell stocks, said Bryan Collings, who manages $1 billion in London-based Hexam Capital Partners LLP’s Global Emerging Markets fund. He has no holdings in Ghana and favors China and Brazil. 

“I don’t think Ghana’s all that brilliant, the market isn’t liquid and there are often concerns about getting money in and out,” Collings said. “For us, it’s key to stay relatively liquid.” 

Banks, Oil Stocks 

The market value of shares listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange is $12.8 billion, according to data from the bourse, a fraction of South Africa’s All Share Index at $590 billion, based on Bloomberg data. Average trading volume is about 650,000 shares a day, compared with an average 215 million in South Africa. 

The lower trading volume in Ghana means it can take months to carry out orders for share trades, Bendell at Exotix said. Ghana’s pension-reform program may help boost trading by allowing private brokers to manage company retirement plans for the first time, he said. 

Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd., the country’s biggest lender with 157 branches, and Ghana Oil Co., which runs a network of filling stations in the West African nation, may be among the biggest gainers, Bendell said. Ghana Commercial’s stock has doubled this year, while Ghana Oil has rallied 59 percent. 

Tullow Oil Plc, which owns a 34.7 percent stake in the Jubilee field off Ghana’s western coast, said production will start at 120,000 barrels a day. The field, with as much as 1.8 billion barrels, will make Ghana one of the world’s top 50 oil producers, according to Tullow. Shares in Tullow jumped 98 percent last year and are down 18 percent this year. 

Gold, Cocoa 

Ghana’s stock rally this quarter has lifted valuations to 15.1 times estimated earnings from 9 times on March 31, Bloomberg data show. Valuations on the MSCI Emerging Market Index have fallen in the same period to 11.5 times expected earnings from 13. 

“The stock-market valuations are relatively attractive versus sub-Saharan and emerging-market peers, given the country’s growth outlook and political stability,” Bendell said. “There’s a lot of focus on how government will spend its oil income.” 

Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain independence from Britain, in 1957, and has become the world’s second-biggest cocoa grower and Africa’s largest gold producer after South Africa. President John Atta Mills, who took office in January 2009, served as former military leader Jerry Rawlings’ vice president from 1997 to 2001. 

Inflation has slowed from a five-year peak of 20.7 percent in June 2009 to 10.7 percent last month, the 11th consecutive monthly decline. The rate is the lowest since December 2007. The central bank reduced its benchmark interest rate to 15 percent in April and has cut a total of 3.5 percentage points since November. 

EN BREF, CE 28 juin 2010… AGNEWS /OMAR, BXL,28/06/2010