Angolan State issues 1.80 billion kwanzas debt in 2022

 Luanda - The Angolan state issued 1.80 billion kwanzas in domestic debt securities to banks in 2022, according to weekly information on the Angolan economy published Monday in Luanda, by Fomento Angola Bank (BFA).

According to the publication dated 9th January, sent to the bank´s partners, to which ANGOP had access, it is estimated that total issues of securities on the primary market totalled 1.83 billion kwanzas, plus securities issued directly to investors, which totalled 0.02 billion kwanzas accounted until September 2022.

 

With this figure, BFA said that debt is closer to 82% of the forecast in the Annual Debt Plan (PAE).

 

The report also stresses that with oil taxes revenues, which were higher than expected, the Treasury Office issued less than half of what it expected in short term bonds and less than a third in dollar bonds, and took advantage of the opportunity to reduce rates as well as to issue further 32% in bonds with maturity ranging from 2 to 10 years.

 

However, the 2023 emissions will begin in the current month, after approval of the Presidential Decree in order to authorise emissions of up to 2.16 billion kwanzas

 

The mentioned Presidential Decree allows the Treasury Office to start financing this year, before approval of the 2023 State Budget, which will be discussed in the National Assembly this month.

Central Bank establishes new rules for foreign transactions

 

Luanda - Banking institutions must subscribe to the Swift FIN Inform transaction reporting system to ensure that data from international payments and receipts operations carried out are directly reported to the National Reserve Bank of Angola (BNA).

According to the BNA Instruction no. 01/2023, that ANGOP has had access to, it clarifies the need to regulate the rules and procedures for the reporting of statistical information on the bank´s foreign transactions.

 

With this Instruction, BNA also aims to ensure the quality of the system for monitoring and processing foreign exchange operations, as well as guaranteeing the correct definition and execution of foreign exchange policy.

 

Banks will communicate with the National Reserve Bank of Angola, via copies of messages, such as for Client Payments and Cheques (MT103), Financial Institution Transfers (MT202) and Documentary Credits and Guarantees (MT700).

 

BNA Instruction also states that banking financial institutions will now obey new rules of filling in the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

 

To register for the FINInform service, the BNA guarantees that there are no additional costs for financial institutions.

 

With this BNA Instruction, the previous Nr. 11/2022, of 20 September, as well as all the provisions that contradict what is stated in this document, are no longer in force.

 

Meanwhile, the Instruction no. 01/2023, comes into force 180 days after its publication.

How the world cup triggered protests against Covid lockdowns in China

 A SPECIAL DNT REPORT – From the onset of the pandemic, China adopted what it called the zero Covid policy to curb the spread of the virus given its population concentration and being the origin of the virus.

With sections of their cities organized like large gated communities, it was easy for the government to lock down any area where someone tested positive by just shutting the gates to that section.

They would conduct contact tracing and vaccinate as necessary to ensure that the entire area was Covid-free before ending the lockdown. Sometimes it took as long as a couple of months.

Because China’s lockdown was basically pockets in a city rather than nationwide as other countries enforced theirs, lockdowns meant LOCK DOWN in that area.

This unleashed economic hardships that the Chinese had not been accustomed to in recent memory. With as high as 80% of the population working in the private sector where salaries are not guaranteed, bills began to pile up for the working class.

Young Chinese men who had purchased apartments and vehicles on their credit cards because the two are prerequisite to marriage began to feel the pinch.

Pretty soon, while Covid remained the number one killer of Chinese, right behind it were stress-related deaths and suicides in that order with the favorite method being jumping off high rise buildings.

But the Chinese suffered in silence because not only are they a highly patriotic citizenry, they take whatever their government announce to them as ‘gold.’

As pressure mounted on the government to relax its zero Covid policy, the national Congress of the People’s Party was approaching where President Xi Jingping was to be re-elected.

So the government placed a tight lid on any form of protests until after the Congress telling the citizens that Covid is running wild in countries around the world and lockdowns are happening everywhere.

Then the world cup in Qatar came up.

The Chinese love football, but they also love one thing better – betting on football. That means the the games had to be broadcast live to Chinese households so that they can at least enjoy the games as many of them remained locked down.

And that’s where the lie was exposed.

Here were the Chinese enduring lockdown after lockdown and being told that the rest of the world is also on lockdown due to the pandemic.

But here were fans from all over the world congregated in large stadiums in Qatar without masks cheering their teams on and having fun.

Every once in a while the television would show clips of fans enjoying the game not from the stands in Qatar, but from the comforts of their mask-less societies drinking in bars and cheering their teams on.

on the one hand, the Chinese authorities had been successful in convincing their citizens that the unending lockdowns constitute the best way of fighting Covid compared to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, beamed to their television sets are images refuting the lies and demonstrating that other countries have done a better job of fighting Covid without the stifling lockdowns.

That’s when the dam broke loose. The youth decided that they have suffered enough economic hardship so the lockdowns must end.

Luckily for the authorities, the Congress of the People’s Party had been completed with Xi Jingping securing his re-election before the protests began so the decision to relax lockdowns was an easy one to make.

Now not only has China done away with lockdowns, it has opened her doors to the world again. Ironically, it is now that the world appears to close its doors to Chinese travelers.

Chana, the United Kingdom, and United States are three of many countries instituting Covid restrictions on travelers from China. Morocco has even decided to ban entry to all travelers coming from China outright in a measure that will go into force on Tuesday.

The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday the agency is “concerned about the risk to life in China” amid the coronavirus’ explosive spread across the country and the lack of outbreak data from the Chinese government.

If you are worried about a revisit of the Covid explosion that began at the beginning of the second quarter of 2020, you should because China’s doors are now fully open. And the world has no accurate data on the magnitude of the outbreak while their doors were closed.

DNT Special Report with Correspondence from Nana Owuraku Amoa-Ampong, Hainan, China

 

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New Chinese foreign minister heads to Africa for first trip

 The new foreign minister’s visit follows in the footsteps of his predecessors over the last three decades.

China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang is starting his term with a weeklong trip to five African countries, its foreign ministry announced.

Qin, who until recently was ambassador to the United States, will visit Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, Benin and Egypt from January 9 to 16, spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily media briefing on Monday.

In Egypt, Qin will also meet the secretary-general of the Arab League.

The new foreign minister is following in the footsteps of his predecessors, who have for more than 30 years started each year with a trip to Africa.

“It shows that China attaches great importance to the traditional friendship with Africa and the development of China-Africa relations,” Wang said.

Qin, 56, was appointed foreign minister on December 30. He succeeded Wang Yi, 69, who has replaced Yang Jiechi as the government’s top foreign policy official.

Some commentators have called the China-Africa cooperation a symbiotic relationship from which both parties stand to gain. But there have also been controversies about a perceived “debt trap” and China’s “palace diplomacy” – funding huge infrastructure projects for African governments to secure influence within their ranks.

And as the United States and France look to rebuild relationships with Africa just as Russia’s sphere of influence is widening, China has been strengthening its footing on the continent.

The moves demonstrate the increased need to woo Africa at a time of growing global tension and a potential “new Cold War”, said Stephen Chan, a professor of world politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

“France, Russia, the US and China are all courting African countries – both for diplomatic support in organs like the UN, but also as economic and political allies and partners,” he told Al Jazeera.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Bosnian Serbs award Putin with medal of honour

 Separatist leader awards Russian president with medal for ‘patriotic concern’ for Bosnia’s Republika Srpska entity.

Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb separatist leader, has awarded Russian President Vladimir Putin in absentia with the highest medal of honour for his “patriotic concern and love” for the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Putin is responsible for developing and strengthening cooperation and political and friendly relations between RS [Republika Srpska entity in Bosnia] and Russia,” Dodik said at an awards ceremony on Sunday in the Serb-majority city of Banja Luka.

Dodik, who visited Putin in September in Moscow, has maintained close ties with the Russian president despite Russia’s war in Ukraine.

He praised Putin for Russia’s support of Republika Srpska and said he would present the medal to him at their next meeting.

“Thanks to the position of Vladimir Putin and the strength of the Russian Federation, the voice and position of Republika Srpska has been heard and respected,” he said.

Moscow has often been accused by the West of seeking to destabilise Bosnia and the rest of the Balkans through its proxies in Serbia and Bosnia.

Dodik has openly advocated tearing away Republika Srpska to join it up with neighbouring Serbia.

Russian envoys have supported him in his secessionist moves aimed at weakening the central government.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Dodik tried to block efforts of the tripartite presidency for Bosnia to join European Union sanctions against Moscow.

Last month, Russia denounced the EU for granting Bosnia candidate status to join the bloc. The Kremlin earlier warned that it would consider Bosnia’s moves towards joining NATO as a “hostile act”.

A US-brokered peace deal in 1995 ended the war in Bosnia that killed at least 100,000 people and made millions homeless, but left the country deeply divided between its three main ethnic groups.

Dodik awarded Putin on the occasion of “Republika Srpska Day”, which is deemed illegal by Bosnia’s Constitutional Court.

January 9 marks when Bosnian Serbs proclaimed they were splitting from Bosnia in 1992, with the aim of separating the Serb-populated regions of the Balkan state and joining them up with Serbia.

Tensions were running high in Bosnia as the Serbs planned to hold their main celebrations on the outskirts of Sarajevo on Monday, the town they held under siege for three years during the war.

Thousands of people were killed in the relentless shelling and sniping of the Bosnian capital.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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I’m ashamed to beg for food – Kenya’s deputy president

 Kenya’s deputy president says he is ashamed that he has beg for food relief amid food shortages in the country.

“I spend all my time, with foreigners, begging for food. Including those who colonised us. It is humiliating. But I have no choice because we cannot let our people die,” he told local media.

The deputy president said that consecutive failed rains had left many people with no food and some had died.

He said he had prayed while at the foot of Mt Kenya for God to “heal our land” and save the people from the crisis.

Speaking to a local-language TV, Mr Gachagua said begging was deeply loathed within his community, terming it demeaning as a son of a former freedom fighter.

Source: BBC

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Single-Use Plastic Cutlery And Plates To Be Banned In England

 

Single-use items like plastic cutlery, plates and trays will be banned in England, the government has confirmed. It is not clear when the ban will come into effect, but it follows similar moves already made by Scotland and Wales. Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said the move would help protect the environment for future generations.

Campaigners welcomed the ban, but called for a wider-ranging plastic reduction strategy.

Government figures suggest that 1.1 billion single-use plates and more than four billion pieces of plastic cutlery are used in England every year.

Plastic waste often does not decompose and can last in landfill for many years.

Although it might be useful in terms of food hygiene, it can also end up as litter, in turn polluting soil and water.

The confirmation of the move from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) follows a long consultation, which will be published on Saturday 14 January.

Each person in England uses an average of 18 single-use plastic plates and 37 items of plastic cutlery every year, according to Defra, while just 10% of those are recycled.

Ms Coffey is set to ban a range of single-use plastic items mainly relating to takeaway food and drink.

“I am determined to drive forward action to tackle this issue head on. We've already taken major steps in recent years – but we know there is more to do, and we have again listened to the public's calls,” she said.

“This new ban will have a huge impact to stop the pollution of billions of pieces of plastics and help to protect the natural environment for future generations.”

Similar bans have already been made in Scotland, while single-use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds were already banned in England in 2020.

Scotland introduced a ban on businesses using a range of single-use plastic goods in June last year. Laws for a similar ban in Wales were approved in December and will come into force later in 2023.

This latest measure does not, however, cover items found in supermarkets or shops. The government said it would address those by other means.

Megan Randles, political campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said that the organization welcomed the ban but further action was needed.

She said: “We’re dealing with a plastic flood, and this is like reaching for a mop instead of turning off the tap.”

She called on the government to deliver a “meaningful” strategy on how to reduce plastic use, which would also include stringent targets and “a proper reuse and refill scheme”.

Source: BBC

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