Exploring and keeping readers up to date with the growing economic and political ties between China and South America. Including all the good stuff: Commodities, Energy, International Finance, South-South Cooperation, Microfinance and more
Jonathan (Jono) Warren is a friend of mine who is currently living in Beijing, but is moving to Kashgar, Xinjiang. You know the place where all the riots occurred a little while ago. He is beginning a tea business, where he will be importing Pakistani tea into China, packaging it in China and then selling it to super markets in the West.
Sounds crazy right? Well, regardless of your thoughts of this brief description of his business, the man is quite well read and paints a incredible story with his words... which you can find at his blog Garbage and Noodles (http://garbageandnoodles.blogspot.com/)
Up in Changbaixian, Liu Baiguo was that grower. The owner of a local Chinese-medicine shop (中药房), recommended Mr. Liu as his farm was the closest to the city, but produced some of the best ginseng. Liu walked into the shop and asked for the ones who were looking for him. He seemed genuinely excited to be able to show his roots to two bright-eyed American entrepreneurs.
He led us out of the shop, out of the marketplace, and into his car - a police car that he got to keep after his work as a chinese border customs official. At his fields, he told us everything he knew about ginseng, how he inherited his fields, how there are 92 workers working for him, how he plants trees on the plots where the ginseng is picked because the roots use up all the nutrients...
Brazilian federal power holding company Eletrobrás (NYSE: EBR) is planning to buy a Peruvian generator to participate in an upcoming hydro auction in Peru, company CEO José Antonio Muniz Lopes told journalists. The executive declined to say which generator Eletrobrás was looking to acquire but said the purchase was essential for the Brazilian holding group to operate in Peru.
Energy ministers from Brazil and Peru announced details of plans for several hydroelectric plants to be built in the Andean nation, saying after a meeting that 80 percent of the energy generated by the stations would go to Brazil and the rest to Peru.
Both partners will have the right to sell their respective energy quotas to other South American countries, Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said Friday after a meeting in Rio de Janeiro with his Peruvian counterpart, Pedro Sanchez.
The first five power stations – to be built in Peru’s eastern lowlands at a cost of between $12-15 billion – will generate a combined total of 6,000 megawatts annually once they come on stream in 2015.
Peru and South Korea examine on Wednesday the progress of the bilateral agreements achieved by Presidents Alan Garcia and Lee Myung-bak during the summit of leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held in Lima in November 2008, the Korean Embassy reported. "The agreement achieved last year includes mutual cooperation in oil, mineral and natural gas sectors", the Ambassy reported.
Peru’s Government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will invest 70 million soles (around 23.7 million dollars) in the construction of 6 new docks located along the Peruvian coast, reported today Production Minister Mercedez Araoz.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday he was ready to promote an “energy alliance” of global oil giants Russia and Venezuela, and confirmed his willingness to study Caracas’ requests for additional arms purchases.
Putin told Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez that Russia will employ “the most modern equipment and technologies” to carry out plans for cooperation with Venezuela in the oil and gas sector.
The accord was struck by representatives of the ministry and the state-run firm Cafe Venezuela last Friday and represents $4.1 million in revenue for small producers and family cooperatives in southeastern Brazil.
I thought it was very appropriate and a nice coincidence that upon returning from my business trip to China & Singapore, I turn on my blackberry and am flashed with this NYT article: American Graduates Finding Jobs in China.
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BEIJING — Shanghai and Beijing are becoming new lands of opportunity for recent American college graduates who face unemployment nearing double digits at home.
“I’ve seen a surge of young people coming to work in China over the last few years,” said Jack Perkowski, founder of Asimco Technologies, one of the largest automotive parts companies in China.
“When I came over to China in 1994, that was the first wave of Americans coming to China,” he said. “These young people are part of this big second wave.
Let's be honest. China has not escaped the shocks of the global economic recession. There are empty office and commercial buildings around Beijing’s Central Business District. Rents are sky rocketing and apartments are remaining unsold and unoccupied. Factories are closing in Southern China. Political turmoil has touched regions where minorities are great in number. And… so on.
Nonetheless, after living and working in the country at the beginning of the crisis (Sept - Dec 08), and returning to do business this past month—the fact remains there is one thing you can find in China that is missing from my colleagues and friends here in the North-Eastern United States, down in Lima, Peru and Belo Horizonte, Brazil and across the pond in the UK and France.
“A positive outlook on the future.”
Walk the streets of Beijing and the city is full of people just as the NYT article above describes; motivated and adventurous young entrepreneurs and professionals from all walks of life that have come to China to build their respective futures.
Likewise, a considerable portion of China’s younger generations remain confident and positive about their futures. In a country of 1.4 billion people (probably more) you will hardly ever find a general consensus. What applies in Beijing, will not apply in western China in the city of Xinjiang. This does not change the fact, that the life styles and future aspirations of China’s youth are considerably different than those of their parents and grandparents.
The Chinese are not ignorant; they know things are probably worse than their government lets on. At the same time, critics in the west are too quick to point fingers and predict imminent economic collapse. Sometimes it is a bursting real estate bubble, an over-valued stock market due for a correction, plunging exports, or decreasing import demand. Critics will always find a way to well… criticize.
China South America will be returning to cyber space tomorrow, Aug 11, 2009.
I apologize for the recent absence of updates, I have been traveling in China where access to sites such as this is limited.
We'll return to China South America's usual mix of current events relating to China & South America, commodity markets, micro finance and of course my own analysis and writing on the world.
