ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & PLATFORM PROJECTS AROUND THE WORLD BRICS Development Bank The New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is multilateral development bank operated by the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) as an alternative to the existing US-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The Bank is set up to foster greater financial and development cooperation among the five emerging markets. Together, the four original BRIC countries comprise in 2014 more than 2.8 billion people or 40 percent of the world’s population, cover more than a quarter of the world’s land area over three continents, and account for more than 25 percent of global GDP. It will be headquartered in Shanghai, China.Unlike the World Bank, which assigns votes based on capital share, in the New Development Bank each participant country will be assigned one vote, and no countries will have veto power. The banks primary focus of lending will be infrastructure projects with authorized lending of up to $34 billion annually. South Africa will be the African Headquarters of the Bank named the, New Development Bank Africa Regional Centre.[The bank will have starting capital of $50 billion, with capital increased to $100 billion over time] Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will initially contribute $10 billion each to bring the total to $50 billion.] Each member cannot increase its share of capital without all other 4 members agreeing. This was a primary requirement of India. The bank will allow new members to join but the BRICS capital share cannot fall below 55% South Asia Economic Partnership First, as reported in a wire in the Daily Times of Pakistan, China and ASEAN (Brunei, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar) reached an agreement to deepen their strategic partnership. Mentioned as part of the agreement was joint work on Chinas 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and cooperation on projects around the Mekong River development area. China also welcomed all 10 ASEAN nations to join in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as founding members. Thailand has already accepted that invitation. Chinas President Xi Jinping Saturday welcomed Singapores decision to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a founding member. President Xi met with Singapores President Tam Keng Yam on the sidelines of the Asian Youth Olympics being held in Nanjing. Xi spoke highly of the rapid growth of China-Singapore relations and urged the two countries to maintain high-level exchanges, increase mutual political trust, respect the core interests and major concerns of the other side, and exchange views on major issues in a timely manner. Xi also said he hopes the two countries can promptly establish a joint research center to provide intelligent support for bilateral cooperation. New Silk Road On Thursday, China’s state-owned Xinhua News Agency unveiled an ongoing feature entitled “New Silk Road, New Dreams.” The series promises to “dig up the historical and cultural meaning of the Silk Road, and spread awareness of China’s friendly policies towards neighboring countries.” The first article [Chinese] was titled “How Can the World Be Win-Win? China Is Answering the Question.” The Xinhua series promises the clearest look so far at China’s vision for its Silk Road Economic Belt as well as the Maritime Silk Road. One of the most intriguing pieces released Thursday was a map showing China’s ambitious visions for the “New Silk Road” and “New Maritime Silk Road”. It’s the clearest vision to date of the scope of China’s Silk Road plan. According to the map, the land-based “New Silk Road” will begin in Xi’an in central China before stretching west through Lanzhou (Gansu province), Urumqi (Xinjiang), and Khorgas (Xinjiang), which is near the border with Kazakhstan. The Silk Road then runs southwest from Central Asia to northern Iran before swinging west through Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. From Istanbul, the Silk Road crosses the Bosporus Strait and heads northwest through Europe, including Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Germany. Reaching Duisburg in Germany, it swings north to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. From Rotterdam, the path runs south to Venice, Italy — where it meets up with the equally ambitious Maritime Silk Road (China-Indian Ocean-East Africa). China-Russia Space Mission Chinas State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry issued a statement Sunday that the next Change-4 mission will be to launch an orbiter that will circle the Moon and then return to Earth. This is a vital step towards establishing the capability for transporting helium-3 from the Moon back to Earth and is preparatory to the 2017 Change-5 mission testing the capacity to gather samples on the Moon, encapsulate them and deliver the capsule to the spacecraft to return the samples to Earth. Simultaneous to the announcement of the revised mission plans, a Chinese science publication, Kejishun (Science and Technology Report) published a brief report on the lunar program headlined Helium-3 on the Moon Can Provide Mankinds Energy Needs for the Next 10,000 Years. Mining the Moon. Helium-3 (He3) is gas that has the potential to be used as a fuel in future nuclear fusion power plants. There is very little helium-3 available on the Earth. However, there are thought to be significant supplies on the Moon. Several governments have subsequently signalled their intention to go to the Moon to mine helium-3 as a fuel supply. Such plans may come to fruition within the next two to three decades and trigger a new Space Race. Chinas Lunar Exploration Programme is proceeding apace, and is being led by a scientist with a strong belied in potential helium-3 lunar mining. In December 2013, China managed to land a robot lander on the Moon, so successfully completing stage 3 of its Lunar Exploration Programme. By the end of 2017, the fifth and final stage of the current programme has the intention of sending a robotic craft to the Moon that will return lunar rocks to the Earth. If all goes well, a manned programme may follow in the 2020s, so laying the potential foundation for China to mine for helium-3 on the Moon in the 2030s or beyond . .The subject of mining helium-3 on the Moon as a fuel for future clean, safe nuclear power plants is a fascinating one that raises many questions. Some of these questions are highly technical, and relate to the feasibility of the involved nuclear physics. Other questions concern the not inconsiderable practicalities associated with getting to the Moon, mining and super-heating large quantities of lunar rock (Space have reported a suggestion of roughly one million tons of lunar soil being needed to be mined and processed for every 70 tonnes of helium-3 yield), and then getting the precious cargo back to the Earth. Bering Strait Rail A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel spanning the relatively narrow and shallow Bering Strait between the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia and the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. In principle, the bridge or tunnel would provide an overland connection linking Asia with North America, although there is little infrastructure in the nearby parts of Alaska and Russia. According to a report in the Beijing Times stated on Thursday that the country is considering building a new high-speed railway that would ultimately connect it with the lower 48 states of the US. Specifically, the route currently under consideration would begin in northeastern China and run through Siberia to the Bering Strait. At this point, there would be an underground tunnel that cuts through the Pacific Ocean to connect Russia and Alaska, from which the train would continue south through Canada until arriving again in the United States. The concept of an overland connection crossing the Bering Strait goes back before the 20th century. William Gilpin, first governor of the Colorado Territory, envisioned a vast Cosmopolitan Railway in 1890 linking the entire world via a series of railways. Two years later, Joseph Strauss, who went on to design over 400 bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge, put forward the first proposal for a Bering Strait railroad bridge in his senior thesis.The project was presented to the government of the Russian Empire, but it was rejected. A syndicate of American railroad magnates proposed in 1904 (via a French spokesman) a Siberian-Alaskan railroad from Cape Prince Wales in Alaska through a tunnel under the Bering Strait and across northeastern Siberia to Irkutsk via Cape Deshnev, Verkhnekolymsk and Yakutsk. The proposal was for a 90-year lease, and exclusive mineral rights for 8 miles (13 km) each side of the right-of-way. It was debated by officials and finally turned down on March 20, 1907. Czar Nicholas II approved a tunnel (possibly the American proposal above) in 1905. Its cost was estimated at $65 million[ and $300 million including all the railroads.[These hopes were dashed with the outbreak of World War I and the Russian Revolution. More Railway Transport A second railroad line joining the Tibetan capital Lhasa with Xigaze, the provinces second largest city, was put into operation today. The new railway brings the total length of railways in Tibet to 802 km. The Lhasa-Xigaze railway, which spans 250 km, lies in alpine valleys along the Yarlung Zangbo River, and showcases Chinas modern railway bridge and tunnel-building technology. Its 116 bridges and 29 tunnels account for 46% of the length of the railway. In 2006, China had completed the Xining-Lhasa railroad which linked the capital of Qinghai province with Lhasa. Argentina-Russia Food Security Argentinas Industry Minister Debora Giorgi announced from Moscow on Wednesday that her country has the ability to immediately supply the Russian market with food, given Argentinas productive capabilities as the fifth food producer in the world, able to feed 400 million people. Giorgi and Agriculture Minister Carlos Casamiquela are in Moscow with a delegation of government officials and executives from agro-industrial and producer sectors, to discuss immediately increasing Argentine food exports to the Russian market. Dairy, poultry, breads, olive oil, wines, fresh fruit, and beef are among the products being discussed. As reported by the state-run Telam news agency Wednesday, Giorgi has also invited Russian businessmen and industrialists to invest in Argentina, to increase industrial production, particularly to add value to natural resources. Cronica also reported that a Russian delegation will visit Argentina in November to discuss investments in the hydrocarbons sector, which Argentina expects to facilitate. Giorgi emphasized Argentinas enormous potential in this area. New Suez Canal Project The national mobilization for building Egypts New Suez Canal Project continues apace. The Egyptian Army Corps of Engineers is posting daily updates on the status of work on the project. At this moment 43 companies have started work, and 13.6 million cubic meters earth has been removed, according to Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohamed Samir. The Armed Forces has called on all Egyptian youth to apply for job vacancies at the project as well as at other national projects nationwide. The call says that job applicants should not be more than 45 years old, be efficient with periodic equipment maintenance, and have completed or been exempted from military service. The canal is part of the Suez Canal Development mega project, which includes the development of several seaports in the three governorates bordering the canal — Suez, Ismailia, and Port Said — in addition to a seaport in the South Sinai city of Nuweiba and the development of Sharm El-Sheikh airport. The six tunnels will cost around $8 billion with four designated for road traffic and two for railways. Also a Technology Valley in Ismailia and a new industrial zone west of the Gulf of Suez are planned. In his speech on August 5 announcing the construction of the New Suez Canal, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi also declared his governments intention to complete the Toshka project, a mega-project launched in Egypts Western Desert during the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak in which less than 10% has been accomplished during the last 15 years. On July 29, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab announced that the Toshka project was to be revitalized to become a national development project. The project entails transferring water from Lake Nasser behind the Aswan Dam, to the western desert. The main pumping station has already been completed. The government has an emergency plan to reclaim 1 million feddans (more than 1 million acres), including 103,000 feddans in the Toshka region alone. The prime minister said that this would enable Toshka to become a real urban community, and help revitalize the whole region. The project includes the establishment of a hospital, as well as residential areas. More information has been released on the New Suez Canal project revealing new details on how it will be financed. Following a meeting between the President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), and the ministers of international cooperation, finance and investment it was decided to issue debt certificates to the general public (open only Egyptian citizens) in the local currency that will be offered in three categories: LE10 Egyptian pounds, LE100 and LE1,000 at a 12% interest rate. They will also be issued in U.S. dollars at multiples of $1,000 at a 3% interest rate. This would involve a coalition of local Egyptian banks, both private and state-run. The decision to offer debt certificates to finance the Suez Canal expansion was intended to ensure state ownership of the waterway. Tawfik Securities Brokerage trading head and capital market expert Mohamed Gaballah told the Cairo Post. This is a good solution, in my opinion, to maintain the canals property for the Egyptian state. Nicaragua Canal Project Nicaraguas Gran Canal Committee, and Wang Jing, owner of the China-based HKND Group which is to build the project, announced, this Monday, the route chosen for construction of the inter-oceanic Pacific-Atlantic canal, moving the project forward. The canal will run 173 miles from the mouth of the Brito River on the Pacific coast in southeastern Nicaragua, to the mouth of the Punta Gorda River on the Caribbean side. It will include two locks, and 65 miles of it will pass through Lake Nicaragua, and have a projected passage time of 30 hours, coast to coast, for the 5,100 of the largest ships in the world which will be able to use this canal. The canal project engineer, Donlg YungSong, said the plan includes construction of an artificial lake, similar to Lake Gatun in Panama, which will supply water to operate the canal, and serve as a center of aquaculture and eco-tourism. HKND projects that over 50,000 construction workers will be required, and that once in operation it will generate 200,000 jobs, including its sub-projects (airport, two ports, tourist center, etc.) The Nicaragua Canal (also referred to as the Nicaragua Grand Canal, or the Nicaragua Interoceanic Grand Canal) is a proposed shipping route through Nicaragua to connect the Caribbean Sea (and therefore the Atlantic Ocean) with the Pacific Ocean. Construction of such a shipping route - using the San Juan River as an access route to Lake Nicaragua - was first proposed in the early colonial era. Napoleon III wrote an article about its feasibility in the early 19th century. The United States abandoned plans to construct a waterway in Nicaragua in the early 20th century after it purchased the French interests in the Panama Canal. Because the steady increase in world shipping may make it an economically viable project, speculation on a new shipping route has continued. In June 2013, Nicaraguas National Assembly approved a bill to grant a 50-year concession to the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company (HKND Group) to build the waterway.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The concession can be extended for another 50 years once the waterway is operational.[7] Construction of the canal, estimated to cost $40 billion, is to begin in December 2014 and would be completed within six years. Kra Canal Project The Strait of Malacca is the doorway from the Indian Ocean to the broader Asia-Pacific region and enables the transport of water-borne crude delivery and other strategic resources to East Asia’s many ports, from Manila to Tokyo. It’s not surprising then, that the idea of a canal through the Kra Isthmus in Thailand has been a topic of interest for seafarers, traders, and geostrategists since roughly the late-17th century. A glance at Southeast Asian geography, and the merits of such an idea are immediately apparent — doubly so to seafarers. The Kra Isthmus, a mere 44 kilometers at its thinnest point, would render the current necessity for navigating south and around the entire Malaysian peninsula in East-West transit obsolete, connecting the Andaman Sea in the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea. The fuel and time savings wouldn’t be as great as they were in the case of the Panama or Suez canals, but a Thai Canal (also known as the Kra Canal) could assuage some of the overcrowding currently experienced in and near the Strait of Malacca An alternative shorter route is to build a canal at Kra Isthmus, Thailand. It will save shipment costs and time as the route is shortened by 1,000 km. Due to close trade relations between China and ASEAN for years, their bilateral trade rose from $54.8 billion in 2002 to $443.6 billion in 2013. In the same period, mutual investment grew four times to an accumulated total of $100 billion. The close relations and accumulated wealth due to economic and trade growth make people believe that the construction of Kra Isthmus is affordable now. China’s huge state-owned LiuGong Machinery Co. Ltd and XCMG, and private Sany Heavy Industry Co Ltd have taken the lead to set up a preparations group for the construction of Kra Isthmus Canal. The 100 km artificial link to the Indian Ocean will benefit not only China and ASEAN, but also Japan and other countries’ world trade. compiled from Wikipedia and various news sources
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 20:15:25 +0000
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