November 15, 2022

CGTN: Digital economy becomes new growth engine for China and other G20 members

BEIJING, Nov. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Three years into the COVID pandemic, the world economy, while facing mounting uncertainties and challenges, has undergone profound changes, with the digital evolution accelerated and the digital economy emerging as a new engine for economic recovery and growth.

The digital economy refers to a broad range of economic activities that include using digitized information and knowledge as the key factor of production, modern information networks as an important activity space, and the effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) as an important driver of productivity growth and economic structural optimization, according to the G20 Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative agreed at 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit.

In 2021, the added value of the digital economy of 47 major countries around the world reached $38.1 trillion, up 15.6 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 45 percent of their combined GDP, according to a white paper released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) in July 2022.

Among them, the G20 members, which represent more than 85 percent of the global GDP, 75 percent of the international trade and 60 percent of the world’s population, lead the world in the development of digital economy.

The U.S., with a digital economy worth $15.3 trillion, ranked first in the world. China came second with its digital economy reaching $7.1 trillion. The European Union took the third place with a value of $6.3 trillion.

In terms of the digital economy’s share in GDP, Germany, Britain and the U.S. ranked among the top three, all exceeding 65 percent.

G20 consensus on digital economy

At the 2016 G20 Summit held in Hangzhou, China, as the rotating presidency, included digital economy as an important topic in the summit for the first time. The country also led the formulation and release of the G20 Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative, which was the first digital economy policy document endorsed by the G20 leaders.

The document proposed seven guiding principles for the development of digital economy, namely innovation, partnership, synergy, flexibility, inclusion, open and enabling business environment, flow of information for economic growth, trust and security.

It also identified six key areas for cooperation in digital economy, including expanding broadband access and improving quality; promoting investment in the ICT sector; supporting entrepreneurship and promoting digital transformation; encouraging e-commerce cooperation; enhancing digital inclusion and promoting development of small and medium-sized enterprises.

China’s booming digital economy

China’s digital economy reached $7.1 trillion in 2021, accounting for 39.8 percent of the country’s GDP, according to a white paper released by the CAICT.

From 2012 to 2021, the average growth rate of China’s digital economy was 15.9 percent, and the digital economy’s share in its GDP increased from 21.6 percent to 39.8 percent, the white paper showed.

The digital economy’s role as a stabilizer and an accelerator of China’s overall economy has become more prominent, said the white paper.

As of June 2022, China had 1.05 billion internet users, forming the world’s largest and most dynamic digital society.

The country has also built the world’s largest 5G networks, with 1.97 million 5G base stations by the end of July.

While China’s digital economy is booming and becoming an increasingly important growth engine for its economic development, the country is also offering more opportunities for international companies to grow in the Chinese market and witnessing active cooperation with G20 members in the field.

In June, German company Siemens set up its first Smart Infrastructure Digitalization Enablement Center in China, exploring collaboration with domestic firms in smart infrastructure.

U.S. tech giant IBM, with its cloud-based services, has been actively cooperating with Chinese companies in their digital transformation.

China is also working with Brazil in protecting the Amazon rainforest ecosystem with digital technologies.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-11-14/Digital-economy-turns-new-growth-engine-for-China-other-G20-members–1eWXYmrvcXe/index.html

November 15, 2022

Ethiopia is now the largest Economy in East Africa : Abiy

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday alleged that Ethiopia has managed to become the largest economy in the East Africa region and the third giant in sub-Saharan Africa.

Abiy painted the rosy picture of his country’s economy in remarks while addressing the House of Peoples Representatives.

He said that Ethiopia’s macro economy has been resilient and continued to register growth amid various bottlenecks resulting from man-made and natural challenges including the bloody conflict in the Tigray region, the Ukraine-Russia crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and drought.

The premier prided the alleged achievement further saying that the economic growth trajectory has impressed even global economists.

During the concluded Ethiopian fiscal year, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the nation witnessed 6.4 per cent growth and the nation plans to achieve 7.5 per cent growth this year, Abiy indicated.

Ethiopia’s economy reached 126.7 billion USD at the end of the concluded fiscal year.

Furthermore, the country’s per capita income has reached 1,212 USD, he added.

“The Ethiopian economy rose to 1st in East Africa and 3rd in Sub-Saharan Africa,” the prime Minister said citing a World Bank report though it is not yet clear which report he was mentioning.

“However, we do not agree with the report in its entirety. Because Ethiopia has both formal and informal economic activity, we believe it has achieved greater growth than the report indicates,” he said.

The challenges have prompted a culture of hard work in the nation, the Premier said adding that several measures are being taken to address the inflation.

Among the sectors that showed growth, Abiy mentioned agriculture which is playing a leading role in national economic development.

Agriculture has witnessed 6.1 per cent growth, he said, citing the productivity in wheat farming as a driving force for the results.

Furthermore, the nation has planted 4.7 billion new coffee seedlings to increase the coffee production of the country, he said noting that this fiscal year Ethiopia planned to produce 20 per cent higher coffee than the previous year.

Ethiopia is also working to export fruits to the international market as it has been able to register encouraging results in the sector.

Recently, the Horn of Africa nation announced that it was making preparations to export wheat to the international market starting this year.

Ethiopia’s aspiration, according to the Prime Minister is to make the country’s economy among the continent’s giants.

Despite the announced economic growth, the country’s over 115 million citizens however are experiencing the highest inflation in a decade, foreign exchange restrictions and mounting debt amid reports of massive government spending on the war effort.

Parliament earlier this year reportedly approved an additional $1.7 billion budget for defence.

Source: Sudan Tribune

November 15, 2022

New Warrap State local gov’t minister to weed out unqualified staff

The newly appointed minister of local government and law enforcement agencies in Warrap State, William Deng Koor, has said his first act in office will be to review the ministry’s employee files to identify unqualified officials.

He made the statement shortly after taking the oath of office on Monday in the presence of Governor Gen. Aleu Ayieny who tasked the new minister with tackling the issue of unqualified local administrators in the state.

“As you know, the defunct 32 states created so many messes in terms of employment and some appointments of local government staff did not follow the right procedures through the Public Service Act,” Minister Deng explained. “People were just employed regardless of their academic qualifications, some of them in super grades. So, this will be my first work, to scrutinize them by checking their curriculum vitae.”

He said that the local government administrators will be vetted using the Local Government Act.

“The primary arrangement is to verify the grades of payam administrators and paramount chiefs because some senior officials do not know how to read and write. How then can they know the laws in the ministry of local government or the Local Government Act 2009?” He asked. “That is why the governor instructed me to implement the Act.”

According to Minister Deng, the local administrators holding superpositions without qualification will be grouped as unclassified staff while the qualified staff will be promoted to lead as Payam heads and executive directors.

Meanwhile, William Wol Mayom, the Warrap State government spokesperson said of the three officials appointed last week, only two were sworn in on Monday.

“Governor Aleu and the President of the High Court oversaw the swearing-in ceremony of the minister of local government and the head of the Justice and Employee Commission but the newly appointed chairperson of the state HIV/AIDS commission declined to be sworn,” he said.

Wol, however, did not say why the HIV/AIDS commission chairperson refused to be sworn in.

Last Wednesday, in a decree, read on the national broadcaster, South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC), Gen. Ayieny relieved Anei Arop Agany and replaced him with William Deng Koor as the new minister of local government and law enforcement agencies.

The decree also relieved William Deng Koor from the Justice and Employee Commission and Madut Akucpiir Madut as Member of Parliament and replaced them with Arop Arop Akol and Madit Mawien respectively.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

November 15, 2022

Criticism as El Burhan defends Sudan’s police amidst rising police brutality

Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan accused ‘enemies of the Sudanese people’ of driving a wedge between the police and the people yesterday. Lawyers condemned El Burhan’s defence of the police.

El Burhan defended the performance of the Sudanese police in his address to newly graduated policemen at the Police College in Khartoum yesterday and considered the critical movement against the police the ‘targeting of Sudan’.

In his speech, El Burhan explained that the police are not the enemy of the youth, the demonstrators, or the people, but rather work to protect the Sudanese.

He accused political leaders ‘who were not familiar with the circumstances of the transition’ of believing rumours against the police and being drawn into defaming and humiliating them.

“The police are working under harsh conditions”, he said. Policemen are subjected to targeting, attack, and provocation, he stressed and praised the police’s adherence to their professionalism.

Continued violations

Nafeesa Hajar, member of the Emergency Lawyers and Vice President of the Darfur Bar Association (DBA), told Radio Dabanga’s Sudan Today programme that El Burhan’s defence of the police can be considered “a directive to these agencies to continue violating the law”.

‘El Burhan’s defence of the police can be considered a directive to these agencies to continue violating the law’

She said that El Burhan defended the police’s practices instead of directing the formation of committees to investigate accusations of murder, rape, and other serious harm by the police against unarmed protesters.

“The perpetrators of these violations will be held accountable before the law and the judiciary, no matter how long or short the time is,” she stressed.

On social media, Sudanese activists have more than once pointed out members of the security services dressed in civilian clothes amongst the police forces shooting at demonstrators.

There are also significant rumours that say that various policemen have resigned and sought other jobs as they refuse to participate in the violence on the streets and the beatings and torture inside police cells.

Police brutality

Recently, Radio Dabanga reported on a pattern of rising police brutality since the October 25, 2021, military coup. Last week, a young man died from torture in police custody after an arbitrary arrest, likely for the police to demand bribes, and another man was killed inside the military intelligence headquarters El Gedaref.

Two protesters were killed during pro-democracy marches at the end of last month and one of them was run over by a military vehicle after being shot.

At least 119 protesters have been killed during marches against Sudan’s military junta and more than 7,000 were seriously injured in anti-coup protests before August this year. These numbers exclude other police violence.

In September, an 18-year-old woman was shot dead in front of her family’s home during a police raid in Omdurman. After her death locals said unpunished violent behaviour is normal during police raids and believe that they are targeted because of their ethnic and tribal background.

The government has failed to credibly investigate the police killings, despite calls from the United Nations to do so, news outlet Al Jazeera explained. Police officers “enjoy total impunity to unlawfully detain, beat, and kill civilians” since the coup, activists, lawyers, and rights groups told the news outlet.

Protest injuries

The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) registered 23 injuries in Omdurman alone during marches on Sunday. The numbers include two injuries by rubber bullets and several injuries because of directly targeted tear gas canisters, stone throwing, and stampedes.

56 protesters were injured during large Marches of the Millions last week. At least five protesters were run over by military vehicles, a tactic security forces employ frequently.

Source: Radio Dabanga

November 15, 2022

FFC 80% in agreement with Sudan military but criticises El Burhan’s ‘political manoeuvring’

The Forces for Freedom and Change-Central Council (the mainstream FFC) announced that they have reached an agreement with the military on roughly 80 per cent of issues. ‘Thorny and complex issues’ remain not agreed upon, however, and the FFC is critical of the military leader’s ‘political manoeuvring’.

Spokesperson Shehab Ibrahim explained that “there are thorny and complex issues that have not yet been agreed upon between the two parties, regarding justice issues, the Empowerment Removal Committee (ERC*), and the reform of the security service and the military” in a press conference in Khartoum yesterday.

‘There are thorny and complex issues that have not yet been agreed upon’ – Shehab Ibrahim

As for amendments to the October 2020 Juba Peace Agreement about 30 per cent has been agreed on so far.

“We know that these issues are complex and not easy,” Ibrahim said, “but we expect that before the end of the year we will reach an agreement that will end the political crisis and establish a full civil authority”.

Ibrahim further explained that the military junta agreed that the draft constitutional charter developed by the Sudanese Bar Association (SBA) serves as a basis for resolving the crisis. The FFC will discuss the comments of the military junta tomorrow.

“We can certainly say that the political crisis is approaching a final solution and that the constitutional charter draft addresses all issues of the revolutionaries on the ground.”

Negotiations and speeches

The AU-IGAD-UN Trilateral Mechanism recently announced that it will facilitate a new set of negotiation meetings. The mechanism talked about ‘a glimmer of political hope’ and wrote that “we now have a workable document upon which further consensus can be built,” referring to the SBA draft.

Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan has given a series of speeches to police and military forces recently in which he also commented on the negotiations on a new political framework for Sudan.

In his speech to soldiers on Sunday, El Burhan said that the SAF has received the new constitutional framework document, based on the SBA’s draft.

“It is true that there has been a document presented to us in reference to the new proposed transitional constitution. We sent in our comments, which are to preserve the army’s dignity, unity, and independence, and that we will not allow anyone to tamper with the armed forces or interfere with them”.

‘We will not allow anyone to tamper with the armed forces or interfere with them’ – Lt Gen El Burhan

Regarding the recent speeches of El Burhan to army and police forces in Khartoum and Omdurman, the FFC spokesperson said that there are three messages that the coup leader wanted to convey in his speeches.

Ibrahim explained that, firstly, El Burhan said the solution will be based on the Constitutional Charter developed by the SBA.

The second is a warning message directly related to the defunct regime and its work, particularly within the police and security services, as the defunct regime of Omar Al Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP) was betting on a new military coup to bring it back to power again.

El Burhan’s military junta, however, has frequently been accused of bringing the Islamists and others affiliated with the former dictatorship, including NGOs and unions, back into positions of political power.

The FFC itself has also pointed out that “the military junta has been facilitating the return of political Islamists from the terrorist regime” of Omar Al Bashir, which was responsible for many human rights violations including genocide in Darfur.

Ibrahim explains that El Burhan was only able to target the NCP in his warning messages because “regional and international changes were able to curb the role of the Islamists and the defunct regime”.

The third and last message, present in yesterday’s speech to the police, is meant to reassure the regular forces of the army and police so that they do not block any path towards a political solution, Ibrahim said.

“El Burhan has entered a dilemma since the October 25 coup and wants to get out of it,” the FFC spokesperson explained.

‘El Burhan has entered a dilemma since the October 25 coup and wants to get out of it’ – Shehab Ibrahim

Ibrahim considered El Burhan’s talk about “brandishing weapons in the event that the civilian government deviated from the path” as negative messages and a kind of testament against the civilian political forces. He described it as ‘political manoeuvring’.

Full civilian authority

The Executive Office of the mainstream FFC renewed its adherence to full and real civil authority without guardianship from any party.

The office said in a statement after its meeting on Sunday that it had listened to the comments of the military, delivered to the Trilateral Mechanism.

The FFC affirmed its adherence to the military institution’s disassociation from political work and the implementation of the necessary reforms that lead to a single professional and national army.

It also stressed that it adheres to “a comprehensive process of transitional justice” with the broad participation of all stakeholders. The FFC valued any steps that are taken in the direction of building a unified civil front.

The statement stressed that the FFC coalition distanced themselves from working among the armed forces.

The FFC further decided to escalate campaigns to demand the release of political detainees, including member of the FFC Executive Office and former head of the ERC Wajdi Saleh, member Abdallah Suleiman, and others.

Source: Radio Dabanga