Hyperloop on the Silk Road
The northeastern Chinese city of Hunchun is like many of the country’s smaller boomtowns, continually fed by an influx of rural jobseekers looking for factory work. China is building a new six billion dollar passenger high-speed rail line to connect Hunchun with the provincial capital of Jilin to the east. That said, Hunchun is a bit off the beaten path, tucked into a nook between the borders with Russia and North Korea. Geography has enabled Hunchun to become the largest logistics terminal in the region, preparing textiles, electronics, grain, and automobiles for export. Hunchun could become an even more influential export hub if it had better access to the Pacific. Currently, it is cut off from the coast by rugged mountains and Russia’s Primorsky Krai region to the west and south. In winter months, roads are often impassable. China would like to see Hunchun connect to the sea and Russian economic planners have long had their eyes on developing better, faster links between China’s interior and Russia’s deep water, ice-free ports along the coast south of Vladivostok. (Reconasia)
Can China solve Central Asia’s impending water crisis?
China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative has become a major foreign policy priority. The land-based Silk Road Economic Belt aims to expand China’s economic connections and political influence across much of Eurasia through vast infrastructure and investment schemes, potentially involving over 40 countries. But reviving the ancient Silk Road will not be easy. Water conflicts, as elsewhere, are top on the list of potential challenges. (East Asia Forum)
2/3 of Nepal's total FDI in 1st half of current fiscal year (beginning mid-July '16) is from China
Nepal received more than two thirds of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) pledgesfrom China during the first half of the current fiscal year that began in mid-July, accordingto data from Nepal's Department of Industries (DoI). Pradeep Kumar Koirala, director general of DoI told Xinhua that Chinese investors arelargely seen interested in tourism, infrastructure and restaurant businesses in Nepal.(Xinhua)
In Turkey, US Loss Is China's Gain
With relations with the United States in tatters, the ‘Eurasianers’ in Turkey look to accelerate ties with China. (The Diplomat)
Can China solve Central Asia’s impending water crisis?
China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative has become a major foreign policy priority. The land-based Silk Road Economic Belt aims to expand China’s economic connections and political influence across much of Eurasia through vast infrastructure and investment schemes, potentially involving over 40 countries. But reviving the ancient Silk Road will not be easy. Water conflicts, as elsewhere, are top on the list of potential challenges. (East Asia Forum)
2/3 of Nepal's total FDI in 1st half of current fiscal year (beginning mid-July '16) is from China
Nepal received more than two thirds of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) pledgesfrom China during the first half of the current fiscal year that began in mid-July, accordingto data from Nepal's Department of Industries (DoI). Pradeep Kumar Koirala, director general of DoI told Xinhua that Chinese investors arelargely seen interested in tourism, infrastructure and restaurant businesses in Nepal.(Xinhua)
In Turkey, US Loss Is China's Gain
With relations with the United States in tatters, the ‘Eurasianers’ in Turkey look to accelerate ties with China. (The Diplomat)
China plans to destroy ancient Buddhist city to get copper bonanza
Two Chinese state-owned mining companies plan to destroy an ancient Buddhist city in Afghanistan in order to get the copper underneath it, according to a new documentary. According to the film Saving Mes Aynak, Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper are in the initial stages of building an open-pit copper mine 40km southeast of Kabul. The location is home to a walled Buddhist city that dates back 5,000 years.According to the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the site is also home to the world’s second-largest copper deposit. China is an importer of copper and a major global refiner of the industrial metal. (SCMP)
Amid Beijing's "Silk Road" splurge, Chinese firms eye Pakistan
Chinese companies are in talks to snap up more businesses and land in Pakistan after sealing two major deals in recent months, a sign of deepening ties after Beijing vowed to plough $57 billion into a new trade route across the South Asian nation. A dozen executives from some of Pakistan's biggest firms told Reuters that Chinese companies were looking mainly at the cement, steel, energy and textile sectors, the backbone of Pakistan's $270 billion economy. (Reuters)
Two Chinese state-owned mining companies plan to destroy an ancient Buddhist city in Afghanistan in order to get the copper underneath it, according to a new documentary. According to the film Saving Mes Aynak, Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper are in the initial stages of building an open-pit copper mine 40km southeast of Kabul. The location is home to a walled Buddhist city that dates back 5,000 years.According to the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the site is also home to the world’s second-largest copper deposit. China is an importer of copper and a major global refiner of the industrial metal. (SCMP)
Amid Beijing's "Silk Road" splurge, Chinese firms eye Pakistan
Chinese companies are in talks to snap up more businesses and land in Pakistan after sealing two major deals in recent months, a sign of deepening ties after Beijing vowed to plough $57 billion into a new trade route across the South Asian nation. A dozen executives from some of Pakistan's biggest firms told Reuters that Chinese companies were looking mainly at the cement, steel, energy and textile sectors, the backbone of Pakistan's $270 billion economy. (Reuters)
China plans to destroy ancient Buddhist city to get copper bonanza
Two Chinese state-owned mining companies plan to destroy an ancient Buddhist city in Afghanistan in order to get the copper underneath it, according to a new documentary. According to the film Saving Mes Aynak, Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper are in the initial stages of building an open-pit copper mine 40km southeast of Kabul. The location is home to a walled Buddhist city that dates back 5,000 years. According to the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the site is also home to the world’s second-largest copper deposit. China is an importer of copper and a major global refiner of the industrial metal. SCMP
CENTRAL ASIA
Cash-strapped Mongolia is now selling jewellery and horses to pay debt
Post
Mongolia is out of cash, but it has big bills to pay. Bills worth US$580 million, in fact. So citizens are scrounging up cash, and donating money, jewellery, and even horses to the government to help it cling on long enough for an international bailout. The country has a US$580 million bond payment due in March. So the government is negotiating a bailout with China and the International Monetary Fund amid a historic economic crisis, but it may not come in time.(Reuters)
Two Chinese state-owned mining companies plan to destroy an ancient Buddhist city in Afghanistan in order to get the copper underneath it, according to a new documentary. According to the film Saving Mes Aynak, Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper are in the initial stages of building an open-pit copper mine 40km southeast of Kabul. The location is home to a walled Buddhist city that dates back 5,000 years. According to the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the site is also home to the world’s second-largest copper deposit. China is an importer of copper and a major global refiner of the industrial metal. SCMP
CENTRAL ASIA
Cash-strapped Mongolia is now selling jewellery and horses to pay debt
Post
Mongolia is out of cash, but it has big bills to pay. Bills worth US$580 million, in fact. So citizens are scrounging up cash, and donating money, jewellery, and even horses to the government to help it cling on long enough for an international bailout. The country has a US$580 million bond payment due in March. So the government is negotiating a bailout with China and the International Monetary Fund amid a historic economic crisis, but it may not come in time.(Reuters)
Most people outside of Central Asia know little about the gas-rich desert nation of Turkmenistan.
The former Soviet Republic has virtually no independent media and just a handful of bookstores. Foreign journalists and scholars are rarely granted visas to visit.So it's no surprise that presidential elections this month in a state sometimes compared to North Korea are little more than a show staged to buttress President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov. On this edition of Global Journalist, a look at one of the world's most isolated countries and the cult of personality built around its leader. (Global Journalist)
Would The Real Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov Please Stand Up?
Turkmenistan is conducting a presidential election on February 12. Eight competitors are running against the incumbent, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. But if he looks like Berdymukhammedov, the person who's been hitting the campaign trail in the last week or so doesn’t much act like Berdymukhammedov. First, let's take a brief look at the eight candidates in the race. (That’s a record for a Turkmen presidential election.) It's probably one of the only times you’ll ever hear about these folks. (RFE)
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