Education World

China has vowed to push vigorously its traditional friendship with Zimbabwe to a new height on the occasion of 30 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe Xin Shunkang made the remarks in a speech published in the Herald newspaper on Monday to mark three decades of China-Zimbabwe diplomatic relations.

“In the context of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of China-Zimbabwe foreign ties, the Chinese government and Embassy will exert our best efforts to further enhance practical cooperation in all sectors,” Xin said.

China and Zimbabwe established diplomatic relations on April 18, 1980, the day of Zimbabwe’s independence.

The ambassador said China will actively carry out the new eight measures announced at the 4th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in Sharm el Sheik in November 2009 to further cement bilateral ties with Zimbabwe.

He said China has valued its traditional friendship with Zimbabwe, and has viewed it as a trustworthy friend and important partner.

The two countries support each other and share common interests at the multilateral fora.

Xin paid tribute to the strong ties that exist between the two countries, saying these have remained as vigorous as ever.

The two countries have enjoyed frequent high-level contacts, enhanced political mutual trust and ever-deepening cooperation in such fields as economic development and trade, culture, education, health as well as close consultation and coordination in international affairs, he said.

Meanwhile, the two countries have lined up various activities this week to mark the 30 th anniversary.

On Saturday, the visiting Chinese U-19 soccer team played at Zimbabwe’s Dynamos football club at the newly refurbished national sports stadium as part of events to commemorate the two countries’ diplomatic ties.

China refurbished the stadium at a cost of 10 million U.S. dollars, and handed it back to Zimbabwe just before the match.

China first built the stadium in 1987 but it was closed by government in 2007 to allow Chinese contractors to carry out maintenance work.

Simplified welcoming protocol was observed when Chinese President Hu Jintao’s plane landed at the Andrews Air Force Base in Washington D.C. on Monday.

It is quite noticeable and unusual not to see passionate crowds waving welcoming banners when the president’s plane landed at 11:00 local time (1600 GMT) on Monday.

Coming out of the cabin at 11:03 local time (1603 GMT), it took the president only five minutes to finish hand-shakes with American officials, Chinese ambassador to the United States and other welcoming guests and leave the base.

Explaining to Xinhua reporters on the simplified protocol, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said: “With the consent of the central government, welcoming and seeing-off ceremonies organized by Chinese embassies and consulates for Chinese leaders’ overseas visits will be simplified.”

According to the new protocol, which was first applied to Hu’s visit, overseas Chinese would not be organized to welcome or see off visiting Chinese leaders, demonstrating a people-oriented and pragmatic working style, said Cui.

In fact, such decision is another forward step to simplify China’s diplomatic protocol since the reform and opening-up policy was adopted in late 1970s.

Since 1978, the site for welcoming foreign dignitaries has been moved from the airport to the square outside the east gate of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and no more welcoming crowds were organized.

Since the 1980s, no more reciprocal banquets were held during Chinese leaders’ overseas visits.

Since 1991, seeing-off and welcoming-back ceremonies for Chinese leaders’ foreign visits have been moved from the airport to the Great Hall of the People. And in 2003, both ceremonies were abolished.

Huang Keqiang, chairman of Lin Zexu Foundation in the United States, said: “The simplification of the ceremonies, instructed by President Hu, is so considerate that it makes all of us feel warm.”

Zhu Lichuang, president of the New York Chinese Associations Alliance, said overseas Chinese could express patriotism through a variety of ways, and they were encouraged by each step of progress of China.

Wang Jun, head of the U.S.-based China Tomorrow Education Foundation, also hailed the simplification of ceremonial procedures of the Chinese president’s visit.

“It demonstrates China’s mentality of keeping pace with the times and being pragmatic and open. I am proud of it,” Wang said.

Simplified protocol was also seen when Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, arrived the same day in Germany’s Dresden to start his six-nation tour.

The “west delta”, the unofficial name for a planned economic zone in relatively less developed western China, is becoming a magnet for overseas investment thanks to policy incentives, low costs, a large, educated workforce and low competition.

The “west delta” comprises Chongqing Municipality, Sichuan Province and Shaanxi Province, and the term, first coined by Huang Qifan, mayor of Chongqing, in 2009, has yet to be officially recognized by the central government. Nonetheless, provincial governments have been strengthening cooperation in policy consolidation,resource sharing and personnel training.

Entrepreneur Martin J. Stroka, 26, from Chicago, set up SkyNet Media & Consulting, with ten employees, in 2009 in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province.

“I started my business here because the area has low living and operation costs, but high quality employees, since as far as I know, Xi’an’s college education is among the best in China,” Stroka told Xinhua while attending the 14th Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation Between East and West China, which was held in Xi’an from　April 8 to 12.

More importantly, the competition in western China is less fierce than in eastern China or other developed areas in the world, where many established companies had already gained a secure foothold, he said.

James Wu, also present at the forum, is deputy director of the Chinese　Mainland and Taiwan Companies Exchange Association, which aims to assist companies across the Taiwan Strait in exchanges and cooperation.

Wu told Xinhua more outside investment is being lured into western China thanks to tax incentives provided in the “go west” drive launched in 2000 and the bountiful workforce, which is a big draw given the labor shortages in China’s coastal areas.

“It is becoming a trend for outside investment to cluster in China’s west instead of the traditional magnet of east China. More and more Taiwan companies are investing in the west mainly because of tax breaks,” Wu said.

Chongqing alone saw an influx of 4.016 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, up from 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, the fastest growth in China.

Provincial government statistics show more than 4,000 foreign companies invested in Shaanxi, with total foreign direct investment in 2009 of 1.511 billion U.S. dollars. Sichuan saw 3.253 billion U.S. dollars of foreign investment from January to November 2009.

The delta’s foreign investment accounted for 9 percent of the national total of 90 billion in 2009, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Stroka also plans to locate his new venture in the delta. His company is developing a new website, iChina.com, to make it “the ultimate destination for expats, travelers and Chinese, which will cover information sharing, social networking and e-commerce.”

The team, based in Xi’an, started building the website at the end of 2009 and they expect to have it up and running by the fall 2010, Stroka said.

But not all foreign companies find it convenient to invest in the delta.

Stephen Sham, Mayor of Alhambra, California, who was also present at the forum, said some　industries were not “the priority areas” for the local government, which had discouraged some　foreign firms.

“I once introduced an American textile company to the Shaanxi provincial government, but the province’s textile industry was not very well-developed since it had not been a top priority for the provincial government, and the American company later invested in Nanchang, capital city of east China’s Jiangxi Province,” Sham said.

The delta, included in the “go west” drive, spans 380,000 square km and has a population of 130 million. The area’s GDP was 1.9 trillion yuan (278 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, about seven percent of China’s total.

The “go west” drive, initiated in 2000 to boost the less developed western regions, covers six provinces, five autonomous regions and Chongqing municipality, accounting for more than 70 percent of the mainland’s area.

China’s western development strategy involves infrastructure building, attracting of foreign investment, and increased efforts in ecological protection, education, and talent retention.

One child died of injuries on Tuesday from protests against the renaming of the northwest province in Pakistan, taking the death toll to seven in the riots since last week.

The protests, triggered by a proposed new name of Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa for the North West Frontier Province, also injured more than 100 people as the angry mob turned violent on Monday in the northwestern city of Abbottabad. Police said they have taken the situation under control.

“Police fired only in retaliation,” said NWFP provincial police chief Malik Naveed who has arrived in the city which is observing a three-day mourning while armed people have joined the stick and stone wielding protestors.

Some protestors also snatched rifles from two policemen and made policemen flee, as paramilitary troops Frontier Constabulary have been called in to protect government buildings and police stations.

Earlier during the day, protestors attacked the district administration office and set offices of some parliamentarians on fire, pulling down the politicians billboards and public signs.

Pavilion Preview

Theme: Urban Development of Pyongyang, the Capital of DPR Korea (Prosperous Pyongyang based on the River Taedong Culture)

National Pavilion Day: September 6

Location: Within Zone A of the Expo site

Turkey is to dispatch two ships of humanitarian materials worth 20 million U.S. dollars to the Gaza Strip, an international Turkish non-governmental organization announced here on Tuesday.

The announcement was made by Bulent Yildirim, President of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief, at a press conference held in front of the Mavi Marmara ship in Istanbul.

The president said that “a passenger ship and a cargo vessel will leave for Gaza on May 15. The humanitarian relief goods include medicine, medical equipment, medicine for cancer treatment, toys and educational facilities for children as well as building materials.

He said that another six ships from Britain, Cyprus, Ireland, Greece and Malaysia will join in Turkish ships on the way to Gaza. More than 50 countries support their action.

This will be the biggest relief fleet going to Gaza since 1948, he said.

He said that the Turkish ships will take five days to Gaza and will unload relief goods in five days and then return to Turkey.

Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America.

The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea.

Venezuela’s capital is Caracas. Falling within the tropics, Venezuela sits close to the equator, in the Northern Hemisphere.

Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America. The vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north, especially in the capital Caracas which is also the largest city.

China-Venezuela Relations:

Diplomatic relations were formally established on June 28, 1974 between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Venezuela. China set up its embassy in Venezuela in September 1974 and Venezuelan embassy in China was opened in November of the same year.

Ever since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the two countries have enjoyed a smooth development of bilateral relations, characterized with a frequent exchange of high-level visits, a steady expansion of trade and economic cooperation and increasing exchanges in the fields of culture, education, science and technology.

In international affairs, the two countries understand each other and collaborate closely. Venezuela supported China for its membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO). At the 55th, 56th and 57th sessions of the UN human rights committee, Venezuela voted for China’s No-action motion against the anti-China proposals put forward by the United States.

Brazil’s Industry Confidence Index (ICI) fell to 113.6 points in August this year, down 0.6 percent from the previous month, a local research institute said Tuesday.

The figure is the lowest registered since last November, said the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), a Brazilian higher education institution involved in academic research on various subjects including macro- and microeconomics.

The ICI consists of two indicators — the Present Situation Index (ISA), which measures industrialists’ opinion on the country’s current economic scenario, and the Expectations Index (IE), which measures the prospects for the economic situation in the next months.

In August, the ISA stood at 115.1 points, down 1.6 points from July, and the lowest level since February, according to the FGV.

The IE, however, registered a slight increase,from 110.4 points in July to 110.7 points in August.

The FGV said that 43.7 percent of industrialists surveyed expect Brazil’s production to advance in the next three months, while 12.1 percent expect a production fall.

The FGV also said that the utilization of the Brazilian industry’s installed capacity was down from 85.1 percent in July to 84.9 percent in August.

Participants attend a State Council session on developing vocational education in Moscow, Russia, Aug. 31, 2010.

As global media moguls were slashing budgets and jobs last year, Zhu Xuedong, editor-in-chief of China Weekly, chose a different path and re-launched the magazine in a dynamic new format.

It was a bold move that bucked the international trend but the 43-year-old was more than confident that a “dignified, thoughtful and valuable” current affairs magazine would turn a profit.

Compared to saturated markets in Britain and the United States, Zhu said his research showed the print media market in China had a great deal of potential, thanks largely to an increase in readership and a growing desire among the public for in-depth, analytical news coverage.

“Chinese readers are thirsty for human values and that’s exactly what magazines sell,” he said. “You can always find magazines that target certain groups of people, talking about their life, beliefs and interests.”

Spending on advertising with national magazines in the US alone fell 19.3 percent last year, according to preliminary figures released by the Nielsen Company, a global marketing research firm. Last month, the Washington Post Company sold Newsweek for $1, with the 77-year-old publication reportedly suffering operating losses of $44 million since 2007.

Yet, despite print media worldwide facing serious challenges from the Internet and devices like Apple’s iPad, magazines have experienced rapid growth in recent years in China and many experts agree with Zhu that the print media is holding strong with a large proportion of China’s 1.3 billion people.

Among the most popular magazines, Sanlian Lifeweek has seen distribution and advertising increase 15 to 20 percent every year since 2005, while Chinese National Geography (circulation 800,000) has maintained an annual growth of 30 to 40 percent.

An independent audit by BPA Worldwide also found that Vista, a news digest published every 10 days, sold 650,000 copies per issue in the first half of this year, up from 490,000 in the second half of 2009.

Industry analysts say the boom is closely linked to the economic development that began in 2003, which boosted public demand and enabled readers to afford magazines, which are more expensive than newspapers.

Magazines also remain popular with advertisers. China’s gross advertising spending hit 277 billion yuan ($40 billion) in the first half of this year, with about 7.1 billion yuan of that going to magazines, an increase of 21 percent year-on-year, according to Beijing-based CTR Market Research.

“Compared to television and newspapers, magazines started late in China and have always had a relatively small market share,” said Daphne Wu Chuanhui, managing director of Caixin Media, which publishes Century Weekly, a national news magazine.

A decade ago, if someone said they worked for a business magazine “no one would have any idea what they were talking about”, she said. “But the fact that the market share is tied to GDP growth and consumer power means the industry has a bright future.”