NEWS ANALYSIS

  How Xi Jinping promotes China-Malaysia friendship BEIJING | Zhao Bochao – Xinhua | Over three decades ago, when Xi Jinping, then the top official of China’s southeastern city of Fuzhou, visited Malaysia on an investment promotion trip, he found himself deeply impressed by two symbolic sites. One is the …

NEW YORK |  Xinhua | Ford CEO Jim Farley warned at a recent investor conference in New York that levying steep tariffs on imported goods “would blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we’ve never seen.” For years, the U.S. auto supply chains have been deeply integrated with its …

Equi-Life: Transforming Insurance Access in Uganda BUSINESS ANALYSIS  | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s insurance sector has demonstrated significant growth in recent years, with gross written premiums increasing from UGX 1.44 trillion in 2022 to UGX 1.6 trillion in 2023, this is according to the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda (IRA) …

Canada debuts its first-ever strategy for Africa, as Ottawa seeks to diversify markets and blunt geopolitical shocks amid rising trade tensions with Washington. SPECIAL REPORT | BIRD AGENCY | Early in March, Canada unveiled its much-touted Global Africa Strategy in a subdued Toronto event, timed eight days before a cabinet …

  BEIJING | Chang Yuan & Liu Chang – Xinhua | In February 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted then Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, an appointment between the two old friends. Back in early 2020, Hun Sen visited Beijing …

BEIJING | Shi Xiaomeng – Xinhua | When To Lam made his first visit to China as Vietnam’s top leader in August last year, he started the trip not in Beijing but in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou — a special arrangement Chinese President Xi Jinping later hailed as “quite …

Experts say the region’s mineral certification mechanism remains patchy, under-implemented, and hindered by political and regulatory gaps ANALYSIS | RONALD MUSOKE | Fourteen years since 12 governments in the Great Lakes region unanimously agreed to create a foolproof international system for certifying and auditing minerals that have been blamed for fomenting …

Fund aimed at creating 500,000 jobs annually and lifting 11million Africans out of poverty by 2030 ANALYSIS | IAN KATUSIIME | The Global AI Summit for Africa, held in Kigali, Rwanda from April 3–4, galvanized the continent’s ambition to harness the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) for sustainable development. A …

A region on edge leaves Ugandan leader with limited options ANALYSIS | IAN KATUSIIME | President Yoweri Museveni dashed to South Sudan in early April for a quick meeting with his South Sudan counterpart, Salva Kiir, due to mounting fears of an escalation that could plunge the fragile country back into …

  Harare, Zimbabwe | Linda Mujuru Global Press Journal Zimbabwe |  It’s possible to buy pretty much anything at the market in Hopley, an informal settlement south of this capital city: rat poison, mops — even medicine. That medicine is sold without prescriptions, to buyers who don’t have a diagnosis from a doctor …