WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-04-04 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
By Sebastian Tong
London – Malawi is deepening trade and investment ties with China as part of a larger strategy to diversify its agriculture-dominated economy and increase its bargaining power in the international tobacco market, the country’s trade minister said late on Thursday.
Henry Mussa, Malawi’s minister of industry and trade, said the country had last week signed an agreement with China that would allow its exports to the Asian economic giant to enjoy preferential tariffs. In return, it hopes to attract Chinese companies to come to Malawi to help it develop industries to process its crops.
“In tobacco, we would like the Chinese to come and manufacture cigarettes. In cotton, textiles manufacturing,” Mussa said at a Malawi investment forum in London organised by the Commonwealth Business Council.
Tobacco accounts for about 15 percent of the economy of Malawi, one of the world’s poorest nations, and about 60 percent of its foreign-currency earnings.
The country is one of the world’s top 10 producers of tobacco, with peasant farmers in Malawi growing it.
In March, Malawi suspended a three-day-old tobacco auction after farmers withdrew their crop in protest against a drop in prices. Sales were resumed a few days later after government intervention to broker a settlement between market participants.
The main buyers of Malawi’s tobacco are US firms such as Philip Morris and Universal Corp.
However, China is the largest producer of tobacco and according to some estimates, accounts for nearly a third of the world’s total consumption of cigarettes.
“Tobacco will still be grown and sold in the foreseeable future but as a country we are diversifying into cotton, sugar, coffee, soya bean, ground-nuts,” Mussa said.
He said the government would like to see cotton’s share in total exports eventually rise to 30 percent from its current seven percent.
Malawi established ties with mainland China in December 2007 after ending 41 years of relations with Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province.
The government has forecast 8 percent growth this year, slightly higher than the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) forecast of 7,7 percent economic expansion.
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20080404114822352C665279