Forum focuses on food security challenges

Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahayan, Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor Higher Colleges of Technology on Thursday opened the Gulf Intelligence Food Security Forum hosted by the institution at its Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT) in Abu Dhabi city.

Sheikh Nahyan noted that lack of enough food resources threaten national and economic security of states as well as global environmental security.

The Korean paradox

When we speak about Korea, a paradox is immediately apparent: European public opinion is much more focused on North Korea, one of the most closed, isolated and secretive states in the international community, whilst the attention that its southern neighbor, South Korea is due, is rarely given. Below the 38th parallel there is a story of recent economic success and burgeoning international prestige.

Will China's rise lead to the decline of U.S.?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently made a bold prediction that China will exceed the United States and become the world's largest economy as early as 2016 in terms of purchasing power parity. This prediction seems to add new evidence to the popular statements made by some western analysts who believe China's rise is the main cause for the decline of the United States.

PM praises cooperation between Vietnam and UN

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has spoken highly of contributions made by John Hendra, UN Resident Coordinator in Vietnam, to promoting and developing cooperative ties between Vietnam and the United Nations.

The cooperation is developing well, especially the smooth operation of the pilot model of One UN in Vietnam, PM Dung told John Hendra in Hanoi on April 26, during the UN Resident Coordinator’s farewell visit at the end of his term of office in Vietnam.

Reordering the world

Before he died in 323 BC, Alexander the Great had overthrown Darius III to conquer the Persian empire. The conquest included Assyria, Asia Minor, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and the steppes of Central Asia. The 300 years that followed this conquest, the so-called Hellenistic period, are a good example of a multipolar political world. Macedonia, Syria, Pergamon and Parthia vied with one another for domination, but no single state could establish hegemony. In the end, all were left weakened, to be dominated by a surging Roman empire from the first century BC onwards.

Stratfor: China and the end of the Deng dynasty

Beijing has become noticeably more anxious than usual in recent months, launching one of the more high-profile security campaigns to suppress political dissent since the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

Journalists, bloggers, artists, Christians and others have been arrested or have disappeared in a crackdown prompted by fears that foreign forces and domestic dissidents have hatched any number of "Jasmine" gatherings inspired by recent events in the Middle East. More remarkable than the small, foreign-coordinated protests, however, has been the state's aggressive and erratic reaction to them.

Qatar Meeting World Environmental Energy Needs

Qatar's Minister of Energy and Industry Mohammed Bin Saleh Al Sada, has stressed Qatar's commitment to its leading role in meeting the world's needs of environment-friendly energy in a sustainable manner .

He told the Fourth Asian Energy Ministers Roundtable Meeting in Kuwait on Monday that Qatar will remain committed to investing in various energy sectors and was using latest latest technologies.

How we'll meet our 5m jobs goal - Jacob Zuma

Let me extend a warm welcome to all of you to this Presidential Labour Summit on Job Creation. In the State of the Nation Address in February this year, I laid out the broad outline of government's programme of action, which places the creation of decent work as the central priority for this year.

I was pleased that the labour movement responded positively to the programme. During the reply to the State of the Nation debate, I undertook to consult with the leaders of organised labour and business regarding government's programme.

Algeria-Morocco: Border Closure Hinders Security and Economy

The Maghreb is at the moment a particularly sensitive and fragile region, because of a distinctive combination of various security challenges, including “frozen” border disputes, which have in turn discouraged attempts at meaningful and effective regional integration. However, this situation is currently overshadowed and aggravated by a wave of pro-democracy protests that have hit, to various degrees, all countries of the region.

IMF, World Bank meetings mark host of global economic challenges

Leaders from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank this weekend outlined a number of global economic risks, chief among them surging food prices, inflation, an uneven worldwide recovery and overheating in Asia.

While the global economy has shown signs of improvement, it remains in a "fairly fragile" state, said IMFC Chairman Tharman Shanmugaratnam at a press briefing on Saturday.

China, Russia endorse India's place in un Security Council

BRICS stands united on Libya, opposes use of force.

India has secured a significant endorsement of its aspirations for a permanent place in the United Nations Security Council or UNSC. India has been lobbying hard in various international forums for some time to gain a permanent seat at the UNSC, on the ground that the UN body should appropriately reflect the shift in power and relative importance in favour of developing countries like itself.

US lacks credibility on debt, says IMF

The US lacks a “credible strategy” to stabilise its mounting public debt, posing a small but significant risk of a new global economic crisis, says the c.

In an unusually stern rebuke to its largest shareholder, the IMF said the US was the only advanced economy to be increasing its underlying budget deficit in 2011, at a time when its economy was growing fast enough to reduce borrowing.

US lacks credibility on debt, says IMF

The US lacks a “credible strategy” to stabilise its mounting public debt posing a small but significant risk of a new global economic crisis, says the International Monetary Fund.

In an unusually stern rebuke to its largest shareholder, the IMF said the US was the only advanced economy to be increasing its underlying budget deficit in 2011 at a time when its economy was growing fast enough to reduce borrowing.

Germany: A test of strength

In the curious political blame game that is the daily bread and butter of the European Union, it seems there is one country that can never win: Germany.

Europe’s most populous and economically powerful country may be by far the biggest guarantor of a rescue fund for its cash-strapped eurozone partners. But that has not spared Berlin the brickbats from Greece, Ireland and now Portugal, where the popular feeling is that German meanness – not generosity – is partly to blame for austerity programmes those countries are being forced to adopt.

Keynes the key to maintaining Australia's economic health

The government's swift adoption of Keynsian policies protected the nation during the GFC. Now it is time to finish the job and bring in a surplus.

TWO and a half years ago, the fall of Lehman Brothers triggered the global financial crisis and sharemarket collapse that pushed the world economy to the brink of utter catastrophe. Australia's swift policy response saved tens of thousands of jobs, countless business failures, and a level of individual misery and hardship that can never be known. Today, despite the hammer blows of recent natural disasters, our economic outlook is strong and we are in a better position than almost any of our peers.

Canada's Dollar Strengthens to a 40-Month High as Crude Oil Prices Surge

Canada’s dollar strengthened to the highest level against its U.S. counterpart since November 2007 as commodities including crude oil, the nation’s biggest export, surged amid optimism global economic growth is accelerating.

The currency gained for the third straight week as oil exceeded $112 a barrel on concern Libyan output won’t rebound when fighting ends in that divided nation. Gold surged to a record. The Bank of Canada is expected to keep its target interest rate at 1 percent when policy makers meet next week.

2011 UN INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF RACISM

COUNCIL FOR AFRIKA INTERNATIONAL welcomes the United Nation's Declaration of 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent but cautions that it has come rather late and unless an urgent suite of creative, innovative, unorthodox action-backed paradigms are taken to comprehensively and irreversibly eradicate discrimination faced by persons of African ancestry and the African Continent, the entrenched African Holocaust will continue.

South Africa Into BRICs: Shifting Global Economic Balance Away From Developed Countries? – Analysis

In January Chinese President Hu Jintao formally invited South African President Jacob Zuma to attend the third BRIC leaders’ summit to be held in China in mid April 2011, thus taking the number of BRIC nation to five (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). South Africa had applied and lobbied to join the BRIC at the G20 meeting of the world’s leading economies in Seoul in November 2010. The acronym, BRIC was coined by Jim O’Neill an economist with the Goldman Sachs in a paper entitled “The World Needs Better Economic BRICs” published in 2001. Yet in another paper Dominic et. al. (2003), again from Goldman Sachs argue that over the next 50 years, the BRICs could become a much larger force in the world economy and could be larger than the G6 in US dollar terms.

Recent reforms in Oman add to the feeling of hope

There is an apparent feeling of satisfaction among the Omanis, despite the demonstrations that took place in Sultanate recently.

The good news is that Oman has maintained its 34th rank in the World Economic Forum’s annual report on World Competitiveness for 2010-2011. And this is no mean achievement since 139 countries were included in the World Competitiveness Index survey. Moreover, the Sultanate maintained its top ranking despite the global economic slowdown.

Middle East MICE industry is upbeat

The overall outlook for the Middle East Meetings Incentives Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) industry is upbeat, despite recent regional political upheaval. This is according to delegates polled at the Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition (GIBTM) which is being held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre this week.

At a panel discussion entitled ‘What is happening in the World of Meetings?’ hosted by Sally Greenhill, from The Right Solution, delegates were asked how the current political unrest had affected their business.

BRICS Summit to Focus on Global Developments

An upcoming summit of emerging economic powers will focus on global developments, financing and cooperation the attending countries, a senior Chinese diplomat said in Beijing on Saturday.

The meeting of BRICS, or Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will be held in Sanya on south China's tropical island of Hainan Province on April 14.

Corruption, dictatorship don't necessarily impede development: AUB lecture

BEIRUT: Corruption and absence of democracy are not necessarily obstacles to economic growth, according to the head of a leading Canadian funding agency for international development.

During a lecture at the American University of Beirut this week, Dr. David Malone, the president of Canada’s International Development Research Center, told an AUB audience of faculty members and senior administrators that there is no one successful model for development.