I was speaking at the Emirates Towers in Dubai last week. A soft-spoken manager for a large Dubai company waited until the end of my presentation before speaking up. “The Chinese banks are hungrier than the Western banks these days”, he said. “They are prepared to lend when others are not”. I wonder if they [...]
Gallery Archive
China and Qatar share their wealth
I hear that China’s sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corporation, is looking to Qatar. CIC’s Chairman, Lou Jiwei, was in Doha two weeks ago to sign a memorandum of agreement with Qatar Holding, the investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The memorandum apparently facilitates joint-investments in China, the Middle [...]
Ex-Egyptian Ambassador to China offers up a harsh critique of Egypt
Egypt’s former Ambassador to China, Mohammed Galaal, has written a harsh critique of Egypt’s investment relations with China. The original is available here. I’m sure none of it is new to observers of Egypt’s economy. But it’s worth repeating if only because its rare to read someone writing so candidly. It also illustrates the challenges [...]
Premier Wen goes to Cairo, and talks of mosques and Halal food
I see China’s Premier Wen Jiabao has been in Cairo, speaking at the Arab League. Here‘s a link to his speech. It‘s worth highlighting. The first few paragraphs offer an illustration of how China intends to win friends in the Arab world. Wen begins by referring to the popular saying, “If you drink the Nile [...]
Algeria finally cracks down on foreign workers
I see Algeria is finally cracking down on foreign workers, including Chinese workers. This article reports that the government will tighten restrictions on the employment of foreign workers and introduce preferential policies for the employment of local workers. It claims there are 45,000 foreign workers in the country of which around 32,000 are Chinese. Apparently [...]
China’s Plan B
In 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall spoke of a plan for the United States to finance the reconstruction of Western Europe. The plan was to eventually bind Germany tightly to the United States and lay the foundations for Europe’s integration. It was a pivotal moment in the world’s history. So what to make [...]
“China cheat sheet helps investors survive”, Bloomberg, September 1, 2010
“No more silver bullets for Beijing”, Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2010
“China’s historic return to the Gulf”, Foreign Policy, April 2, 2010
