by Khaleeq Kiani in Dawn, July 31st, 2017 Amid political turmoil the country’s internal and external accounts appear to be entering uncertain territory. The fiscal account, after showing marked stabilisation over the past four years, has started a downhill journey as evident from the 2016-17 budget deficit that was higher than a year before as tax machinery was Rs250 billion behind target. The external account is on an even more precarious path as all of…
Posts published in “Day: July 31, 2017”
By Wang Jiamei in Global Times, July 30, 2017 at 18:23 hrs The author is a reporter with the Global Times. An investigation has found that Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, isn’t just losing low-end factories, it’s also losing advanced manufacturers, a warning of a hollowing out of the local industrial base. Higher costs for rent, labor and raw materials certainly explain some of the situation for advanced manufacturers, but another major factor is the…
(Report in Global Times, July 30, 2017 at 17:33:39 The article was compiled based on a report by Beijing-based private strategic think tank Anbound) Chinese privately owned Landbridge Group has been in the headlines in Australia recently. In 2015, the Chinese company paid A$504 million ($402.52 million) for a large number of terminals, land and facilities at the Port of Darwin, including a 99-year lease on the port. According to media reports, Landbridge pledged to…
by Viola Zhou in South China Morning Post, July 30, 2017 at 11:07pm A military parade overseen by President Xi Jinping on Sunday has put the spotlight on a remote spot in Inner Mongolia. Zhurihe – the name comes from the Mongolian term for “the heart” – houses Asia’s biggest military training ground. And with the exercise, China’s state media is hard at work linking the base to past martial triumphs and to Zhurihe’s current…
More than 320 people have been unlawfully detained or have disappeared in Bangladesh since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party took office eight years ago, according to Odhikar, a Dhaka-based human rights group. Plucked from their homes or off the streets by plainclothes members of Bangladesh’s rapid action battalion or the detective bureau of the Dhaka police, the victims increasingly include members of the political opposition, as well as suspected criminals and Islamist militants.…
by Amanur Rahman in the Dhaka Tribune, July 30, 2017 at 09:05 PM The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crimes (CTTC) unit of police believe that there is no connection between Bangladesh-born Japanese jihadist Muhammad Saifullah Ozaki and New JMB, the infamous faction of banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) that is responsible for the recent terrorist activities in the country, according to the law enforcement agencies. “We do not have any evidence that proves…
by Minnie Chan in South China Morning Post, July 31, 2017 Raised border tensions between the two Asian giants could also threaten Beijing’s ambitious trade and infrastructure outreach plan, the “Belt and Road Initiative”, experts have warned. Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball stand-off for over 40 days in a desolate region of the Himalayas that is also claimed by India’s ally Bhutan. Both sides blame each other for escalating the…