BRICS News

Premier of the State Council of China Li Keqiang has been the main proponent of Made in China 2025 [PPIO]
China is ready to facilitate the ease of foreign investors doing business on the mainland by significantly reducing restrictions and cutting red tape.
Spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Yan Pengcheng told reporters on Wednesday that the government wants to open up and facilitate investment opportunities in finance, infrastructure, transportation and the automobile industries, to name a few.

China will account for more than one-third of the world’s use of renewable energy by 2040 [By Kenueone [CC0 or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons]
With the US opting out of the Paris Accords on Climate Change, many have turned their focus to China to spearhead efforts to curb green house emissions and move from fossil fuel to renewable energy.
The potential for growth in the latter in China is usge says a British Petroleum Energy Outlook report for 2018.

Russian FM Serge Lavrov does not want Syria to go the way of Iraq and Libya [PPIO]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has once again pointed to the US debacle in Iraq and Libya as likely fallout if Washington repeats its former foreign policies in Syria.
“God forbid anything adventurous will be done in Syria following the Libyan and Iraqi experience,” Lavrov told a press conference on Friday.
Russia has previously pointed to these two Middle Eastern and North African states as the aftermath of US interventionism in the region.

Chinese naval vessels have participated in several exercises in the South China Sea and in drills with the Russian navy [Courtesy: Russian Ministry of Defence]
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the navy to “unwaveringly accelerate its modernization” to become a world-class force.
“The task of building a strong navy has never been as urgent as it is today,” he said.
Xi was touring the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy in the South China Sea on Thursday.

China has enacted 36 sets of conditions for its companies to invest abroad in a bid to curb bad investments and cut debt [PPIO]
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday that foreign direct investment (FDI) in China has been steadily growing in Q1 of 2018.
Total FDI during this period grew by 0.5 per cent to 227.54 billion yuan, or $36 billion, with a focus on technology industries.
Year on year, the increase has been 0.4 per cent.

Early morning on the Zambezi River, a popular tourist destination [Preuss]
The Zambia Tourism Agency (ZTA) is hosting more than 60 international buyers and media this week ahead of the Zambia Travel Expo (ZATEX) from April 12 to 14 in Lusaka.
There are three familiarisation tours which feature a trip to a game reserve, but the one common feature is that all three tours include a visit to Livingstone, the Zambian city closest to the Victoria Falls.

Climate change and desertification will exacerbate the negative effects of conflict on food security for needy people [Sara Mohamed]
The United Nations this week is warning African nations to pay more attention to the predicted effects of climate change, particularly in how it will likely affect issues of food security.
UN studies have shown that Sub-Saharan Africa will be severely affected by climate change and likely lose most of its arable land this century.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, center, says the US is trying to promote its business interests around the world by sanctioning Russian business leaders [PPIO]
The new slate of US Treasury sanctions against Russia have hit the business community there, especially among foreign investors who were rattled that Russian business leaders with ties to the government were on the latest target list.

France has proposed that India purchase an additional 36 ready-to-fly Rafale fighter jets [India: PMO]
In a bid to boost its air combat force from 31 to 42 fighter squadrons, India this weekend embarked on a global tendering process to buy some 110 aircraft at an estimated cost of $15 billion.
This comes as part of a drive initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to upgrade the air combat fleet with a budget of $250 billion over the next few years.
The Modi government has stipulated that at least 85 per cent of the aircraft must be manufactured in India.

China says it does not want a trade war but will respond firmly if the US pushes it in that direction [PPIO]
The United Nations Secretary-General has said that protectionism is not the answer to trade disputes, just hours after the White House announced that US President Donald Trump was seeking an additional $100 billion in tariffs against Chinese goods.