Briefs

LATEST NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF BUSINESS

China Post staff sort express parcels in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, on 11 November

CHINA Courier Industry Expansion

China’s courier sector maintained a steady growth in October, a monthly industry index showed.

The China express delivery development index, tracking overall express business activities and trends, came in at 358 in October, up 6.2 percent year on year, according to the State Post Bureau.

The sub-index for service quality logged an increase of 15.6 percent, indicating better service delivery by courier companies and an improved consumer experience.The sub-index for development capacity picked up 0.2 percent year on year, as China ramped up efforts to upgrade express delivery network infrastructure and delivery efficiency.

The bureau also said that online consumption had rebounded during the week-long National Day holiday at the beginning of October. China’s courier companies handled more than 4.1 billion parcels during the holiday, up 5 percent year on year.

CHINA Growing Panda Bond Issuance

China’s panda bond issuance registered stable growth in the first three quarters of 2022 thanks to new measures to boost the market.

About 75.4 billion yuan ($10.4 billion) of such bonds were issued in the first nine months,up 8.7 percent from a year ago, data from the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors showed.Among all, the issuance by international development institutions jumped 27.8 percent year on year. The association launched a pilot programme this year to streamline the panda bond registration and issuance mechanism. The issuer base for universal registration was expanded, and repetitive disclosure was reduced.

Panda bonds are yuandenominated debts sold by overseas issuers to meet financing demand.

ZIMBABWE Employment Recovery

Zimbabwe’s employment has risen to 59 percent in June this year from 51 percent in July 2020 as the country continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to results of a joint survey by the World Bank and Zimbabwe’s national statistics agency, ZIMSTAT,released on 1 November.

“Job market continued to show an improvement since reaching its lowest level in July 2020.Nationally, the share of people employed rose from 51 percent in the first round to 59 percent in the seventh round. About 34 percent of respondents did not have work or had not worked in the previous month, the lowest rate since the onset of the pandemic,” the report said.

Since June 2020, the World Bank and the ZIMSTAT have been carrying out a highfrequency telephone survey of households, known as the Poverty, Income, Consumption and Expenditure Survey to measure the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on households in Zimbabwe.

RWANDA Spurring Green Growth

Rwanda has launched a new green investment facility to spur investment in the private sectorled green growth in the country by availing sustainable finance.Dubbed Ireme Invest, the investment facility with $104 million initial capitalisation provided by the Development Bank of Rwanda and other partners was launched as a side event at the COP27 which opened in Egypt on 8 November.The launch of Ireme Invest is a significant milestone for Rwanda,Rwandan President Paul Kagame said during the event. “Ireme Invest embodies Rwanda’s commitment to achieving tangible results towards a green economy through public-private partnerships in key areas,” he said.

CHINA Strong Investment in VR

China’s virtual reality (VR) industry attracted strong investment and financing last year as market players raced to tap the burgeoning hi-tech sector.

The scale of investment and financing in VR more than doubled in 2021, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Currently there are over 10,000 VR-related firms in China, pushing the technology’s applications into various scenarios in industry, culture, and education, among others.

In November, China unveiled a plan to boost the industry’s development, aiming to expand its market scale to over 350 billion yuan (about $49.4 billion) by 2026. The plan aims to cultivate 100 top enterprises with strong innovation ability and industry influence, while also aiming to increase the sales of VR to over 25 million units. CA

UGANDA Boosting Bamboo Industry

Uganda has 55,000 hectares of bamboo, including species that can be used for everything from fodder and fuel to furniture and flooring. But, despite high demand for bamboo as a construction material, few farmers are growing the plant and the country is missing out on a global market worth an estimated $60 billion.

Now, the Uganda Bamboo Association has brought related organisations and community members together to share information, resources and technology in growing and adding value to bamboo.The association organises demonstrations for members on how to plant bamboo and also sensitises them about the economic benefits of the plant.

A staff member of the Uganda Bamboo Association works in a bamboo planting base in Kampala, Uganda, on 26 October