China is extending its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to troubled Afghanistan, causing analysts to wonder if Beijing is trying to expand its role in the Middle East and also putting itself at the center of the international battle against terrorism.

China’s connectivity program involves extending the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is part of BRI, to Afghanistan, and then stretching the “belt” to its neighbors -Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Iran.

Reseacher Ahmad Bilal Khalil, with the Center for Strategic and Regional Studies in Kabul, who is in close touch with the Afghan government on the development plans, provided details in an interview with VOA.

The projects include two highways, two railway lines and a major hydroelectricity dam over the Kunar river. The idea is to lay a road linking Pakistan’s Peshawar to Kabul and also to Kunduz in Afghanistan and further into Central Asia. Railway lines are expected to run from Landi-Kotal in Pakistan to Afghanistan’s Jalalabad, and also from Pakistan’s Chaman to Spin Buldak in Afghanistan.

Ahmad Bilal Khalil said China needs to enter Afghanistan with economic projects to ensure the unhindered progress of its ongoing $50 billion project in Pakistan.

“If Afghanistan becomes involved in these two (highway) projects, so it will somehow affect the security situation in Afghanistan, and it will bring more Pakistani and Chinese economic interests into Afghanistan,” he said.  “If there is insecurity in Afghanistan, (it) can also affect CPEC and One Belt, One Road.”

Link to world power

China’s plans are indeed ambitious, and prompted by its foreign policy objective to be regarded seriously as a big power. It is important for China to show it can do what the U.S. has failed to achieve in the Middle East, analysts said.

“If the interest of the Belt and Road is to run through the Middle East, Afghanistan is an area where China hopes to make a difference,” David Kelly, Director, Geopolitics of Beijing-based consulting firm, China Policy said.

“It hopes that its investments in connectivity will ameliorate the tensions that are in that country, and that they can achieve something that the Americans and before them the Soviets were unable to do, that is to dampen the sectarian violence and conflict,” he said.

But these plans are easier said than done. There are clashes on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan which have killed more than 50 people in the past few days. 

Uzbekistan has opposed the plan for extending rail and road connectivity to Central Asia saying they will be utilized by terrorists for expanding their activities.

Terrorism dangers

Ambitions apart, there are some real-life dangers concerning terrorism that China wants to tackle by presenting itself as a benefactor in Afghanistan. Violent separatists based in China’s Xinjiang region are known to have cross-border links with the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and also with Islamic groups in Central Asia.

“If  drugs or ‘afim’ [opium] can be transported or exported from Afghanistan to central Asia, there is also a huge possibility that terrorism and extremism will also be exported to central Asia. That’s where the Chinese [have] concerns,” Khalil said.

China has invested heavily in the copper mines of Afghanistan although the results have not been encouraging because of political and infrastructural challenges. It wants to build connectivity to access the mountain country’s minerals.

“One trillion dollars worth of mineral resources are available in Afghanistan. Extending the BRI to Afghanistan will facilitate extraction of the minerals to the Chinese economy. It will also facilitate export of China’s industrial surplus to Afghanistan, ” said M.K.Bhadrakumar, author and Indian diplomat.

Analysts said China is also laying the pathway for the massive construction business that will be available once the process of reconstructing war torn Afghanistan gets underway. But Beijing’s main objective is advancing its strategic and security interests beyond Pakistan.

“Indeed, the Belt corresponds with China’s increasingly proactive security concepts, which stress common security through development and economic cooperation,” said analysts at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in a recent report.

But it is more than an uphill task.

“Furthermore, at this stage, the Belt has little potential to help thaw relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but there may be prospects for this over the medium to long term… the pathway to this scenario is long and fraught with obstacles,” wrote SIPRI researchers Richard Ghiasy and Jiayi Zhou.

There are some risks inherent in China’s view of the world, as well. Beijing believes it is possible to replace religious fundamentalism by offering economic benefits. But this policy has been proven wrong in the past, said Kelly of China Policy.

“We see that the problem is that the Taliban do not have a central authority in the same sense that China is used to,” he said. “So, whereas China can negotiate with the Vatican, they may find that the political structure of power in Afghanistan and with the Taliban is dispersed”.

 
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Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Saturday faulted Wells Fargo & Co for failing to stop employees from signing up customers for bogus accounts even after learning it was happening.

Wells Fargo, whose largest shareholder is Berkshire, with a 10 percent stake worth roughly $27 billion, gave employees too much autonomy to engage in “cross-selling” multiple products to meet sales goals, Buffett said.

This “incentivized the wrong type of behavior,” and former Chief Executive John Stumpf, who lost his job over the scandal, was too slow to fix the problem, Buffett said.

Wells Fargo was among many topics discussed at Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha, where Buffett, 86, and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 93, fielded dozens of questions from shareholders, journalists and analysts.

“If there’s a major problem, the CEO will get wind of it. At that moment, that’s the key to everything. The CEO has to act,” Buffett said. “The main problem was they didn’t act when they learned about it.”

Still, Buffett’s support of current management and board was key to ensuring the re-election of the entire board last month.

Wells Fargo spokesman Mark Folk said “we agree” with Buffett’s comments, and have taken “decisive actions” to fix the problems and “make things right for customers.”

Asked whether Berkshire’s decentralized structure could lead to a similar scandal, Buffett said “as we sit here, somebody is doing something wrong at Berkshire,” whose units employ 367,000 people. But he said Berkshire has an internal hotline to flag possible misbehavior, which gets 4,000 calls a year.

Succession and dividends

The meeting also included discussions about Berkshire’s succession plans, its controversial partnership with Brazilian firm 3G Capital, and whether it will start paying dividends or make an acquisition.

Buffett has said Berkshire could have a new chief executive within 24 hours if he died or could not continue, and that nothing had changed just because he praised fewer managers than usual in his February shareholder letter.

He said it may have been harder to single people out because “we have never had more good managers.”

But he also said it would be a “terrible mistake” if capital allocation were not the “main talent” of his successor.

Buffett did lavish much praise on top insurance executive Ajit Jain, who some investors believe could be that successor, saying “nobody could possibly replace Ajit. You can’t come close.”

On 3G, with which Berkshire controls Kraft Heinz Co and tried to merge it with Unilever NV, Buffett acknowledged a dislike for the cost-cutting for which the Brazilian firm is known.

But, he said, “it is absolutely essential to America that we become more productive,” and 3G was “very good at making a business productive with fewer people.”

Buffett also raised the possibility Berkshire could pay its first dividend since 1967, if “reasonably soon, even while I’m around,” the company had too much cash it could not reasonably deploy.

“It could be repurchases, it could be dividends,” he said.

Berkshire ended March with more than $96 billion of cash and cashlike instruments, and Munger said it could do a “$150 billion” acquisition now if it wanted.

Airlines and IBM

Buffett defended Berkshire’s foray into airlines, where it is a top investor in American Airlines Group Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., Southwest Airlines Co. and United Continental Holdings Inc.

He had long disdained the industry, which had gone through many bankruptcies, but said he is confident it will not resort to “suicidally competitive” pricing strategies that could spell doom.

Munger added: “You’ve got to remember railroads were a terrible business for decades and decades and decades, and then they got good.” Berkshire bought the BNSF railroad in 2010.

Buffett also admitted he was wrong to think International Business Machines Corp. “would do better” when he started amassing 81 million shares six years ago.

Berkshire recently sold about one-third of those shares even as it built a huge stake in Apple Inc., which Buffett said is more as a “consumer” company that a technology company.

He also addressed criticism that Berkshire discloses too little about businesses such as aircraft parts maker Precision Castparts Corp, which it bought last year for $32.1 billion.

“We want you to understand what you own,” he said, and “there are just a million things that are of minor importance” at Berkshire, whose market value is about $411 billion.

Buffett also noted that Berkshire reported far fewer investment gains in the first quarter, which dragged on results, but said the company now has a slight preference for taking tax losses, which could lose value if Washington lawmakers reduce the 35 percent corporate tax rate.

The annual meeting, expected to draw more than last year’s estimated 37,000 shareholders, is the main event of a weekend of events that Buffett calls “Woodstock for Capitalists.”

Buffett and Munger took questions after the traditional shareholder movie, and after Buffett had roamed a nearby exhibit hall featuring products from Berkshire companies.

He was joined at the traditional newspaper tossing contest by friends including Microsoft Corp co-founder and Berkshire director Bill Gates, and Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.

Hundreds of shareholders lined up early outside downtown Omaha’s CenturyLink Center for the meeting. Several said they got there nearly five hours before doors opened around 6:45 a.m.

“Every year it seems I have to come earlier,” said Chris Tesari, a retired businessman from Pacific Palisades, California who said he arrived at 3:20 a.m. for his 21st meeting. “It’s a pilgrimage.”
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Berkshire Hathaway Inc Chairman Warren Buffett fumed Saturday that health care costs are eating away at the U.S. economy like “tapeworm” and said the Republican approach to overhaul Obamacare is a tax cut for the rich.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly approved a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, a victory for Republican President Donald Trump who has called the 2010 law a “disaster.”

Speaking at Berkshire’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Omaha, Buffett said his federal income taxes last year would have gone down 17 percent had the new law been in effect.

“So it is a huge tax cut for guys like me,” he said. “And when there’s a tax cut, either the deficit goes up or they get the taxes from somebody else.”

The Republican bill would repeal most of the taxes that paid for the law formally known as the Affordable Care Act. The party’s leadership has promised that the new American Health Care Act, which faces a likely overhaul and uncertain passage in the Senate, would address growing health care costs.

Buffett said rising health care costs are crippling the competitiveness of U.S. companies abroad.

Unlike in many other countries where much of health care spending is publicly financed, employers provide health insurance coverage for nearly half of Americans and often face skyrocketing rates.

Buffett said health care costs have risen much faster in the United States than in the rest of the world and “will go up a lot more.”

“Medical costs are the tapeworm of American economic competitiveness,” he said. “That is a problem this society is having trouble with and is going to have more trouble with.”

Buffett is a Democrat who vocally supported Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful bid for the presidency against Trump. The fourth richest man in the world with a net worth totaling $74.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine, Buffett has vowed to donate nearly his entire fortune to charity.

Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger added that he thinks neither political party “can think rationally” about health care because they “hate each other so much.”
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Президент України Петро Порошенко підписав закон про ратифікацію угоди з Європейським інвестиційним банком, кошти від якої спрямують на розвиток громадського транспорту у різних регіонах. Про це інформує прес-служба глави держави.

«Метою угоди є залучення під державні гарантії до 200 мільйонів євро кредитних коштів Європейського інвестиційного банку, що будуть спрямовані на покращення роботи міського громадського транспорту у деяких містах України (Івано-Франківськ, Біла Церква, Київ, Луцьк, Львів, Кременчук, Одеса, Суми, Тернопіль, Харків, Чернігів)», – інформують у прес-службі.

Документом передбачається, що залучені кошти витратять на придбання автобусів, тролейбусів, трамваїв, вагонів метро, будівництво та реконструкцію тролейбусних та трамвайних ліній, депо, впровадження інформаційних систем, зокрема створення автоматизованої оплати проїзду.

Фінансова угода між Україною та Європейським інвестиційним банком набирає чинності з дати набрання чинності закону України про її ратифікацію.

Угоду з Європейським інвестиційним банком Україна підписала у листопаді 2016 року. 12 квітня 2017 року її ратифікувала Верховна Рада. 
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The venture fund 500 Startups has been making a splash in Southeast Asia, most recently with Khmerload, a Cambodian entertainment news website modeled after the American media giant Buzzfeed. Binh Tran, a venture partner with the firm, sat down with Sophat Soeung of VOA’s Khmer service to talk about how entrepreneurs in developing countries could attract such investors. Here’s some of his advice for them:

Remember, Silicon Valley investors are a click away

I think first is to understand the whole startup ecosystem. All this information is at your fingertips. The world’s shrunk, and for resourceful entrepreneurs, they have this incredible amount of knowledge that they can tap into, to get themselves familiarized with how to build a company, how to launch it, how to monetize, and also understand investment. All that is available.

Not everyone can be a tech entrepreneur. It’s incredibly hard, but for the ones that are resourceful … the tools are there. And we want to be the ones to provide that dry powder to help you grow. So once you have achieved some progress and some [traction], then come talk to us.

Don’t overthink — there is no ‘right’ sector

I’m pretty sector-agnostic. … If you’re building something that is obscure to me … the fact that you can make a business out of it, you’re making some money out of it, that’s great. And if it’s technology-enabled, it’s done through software, or done through some algorithm that you created, that’s where I think I can help. That’s where I think the opportunities are.

Look for a growing user base

All ecosystems around the world are somewhat new. Even China is a decade or two [old] for venture capital. … If these companies are making money and they’re growing, that’s great. You see companies who have been more focused on revenue early on. So I think Southeast Asia has a lot of opportunity, because you do have that 4 million-new-internet-users-a-month type of growth, but the business models are not quite as risky [as those seen in Silicon Valley].

Pay more attention to operational rather than business risk

I think there’s going to be a small percentage of my portfolio that’s always reserved for the crazy, one-in-a-million-chance ideas. But for the most part, these startups should be solving basic problems. Across many sectors in Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, businesses have barely adopted Web 1.0 technologies. There’s opportunities for entrepreneurs to solve basic problems such as helping business attract, serve and support customers more efficiently.

So instead of investing in a new, risky, innovative business model as you would in Silicon Valley, the innovation these companies we’re investing into is the way they’re hiring and training employees and how they’ve mastered how to operate within highly regulated environments. These companies also deeply understand their customers’ problems and have demonstrated their ability to market to and sell to locals.

So the innovation we’re seeing is less about business model or technology innovation, but I do hope that changes.

Build your reputation, and be patient

You’ve got to do what you say you’re going to do. This is one of those things where your reputation is so important. … [Also,] realize that it’s going to take a while. It’s not easy. Don’t be caught up in the buzz or the hype — just focus on the fact that this is going to be a long, hard journey. And hopefully that sets up the right expectations.

This report originated on the VOA Khmer service.
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President Daniel Ortega downplayed the possible impact of a U.S. bill that would condition international lending to Nicaragua on a range of democracy and rights issues, saying it’s more of a political than an economic threat to his country.

“The world is not going to disappear, the economy is not going to disintegrate” if the so-called Nica Act passes, Ortega said late Thursday after meeting with representatives of the International Monetary Fund during a visit to the Central American nation.

The bill before the House and Senate calls for the U.S. to oppose most loans to Nicaragua’s government through organizations such as the IMF, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, with the exception of funds for humanitarian purposes or to promote democracy.

That would be the official U.S. position unless the secretary of state certifies that Nicaragua is taking steps to hold fair and competitive elections, safeguard political rights, strengthen the rule of law and fight corruption, among other conditions.

Similar legislation last year failed to advance in Congress.
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More Americans age 65 and over are still punching the clock. In fact, the last time the percentage was this high was when John F. Kennedy was in the White House.

Last month, 19 percent of Americans age 65 and over were still working, according to government data released Friday. That’s the highest rate since 1962, and the trend has been upward since the figure bottomed out at 10 percent in 1985.

As America grows older and as life expectancy gets longer, some workers keep heading to the office because they like it and still feel engaged. But many others are continuing to work for a simpler, darker reason: They can’t afford not to.

More than a quarter of workers age 55 or older say they have less than $10,000 in savings and investments, according to the latest retirement confidence survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Perhaps because of small nest eggs, nearly a third of workers in that age group say they expect to work until at least 70, if they retire at all.

Older workers still heading for jobs may also be the lucky ones. Many older Americans would like to work but say they can’t find a job, whether because they lack the skills or because employers are looking for someone younger. The unemployment rate for workers age 65 and over was 3.7 percent last month. That’s a tick higher than its median over the last 30 years, though it’s down from earlier this year.

The numbers may rise higher, critics say.

Congress this past week voted to overturn a federal rule designed to help states give more workers access to retirement savings plans.

Several states have been pushing to create their own plans to get more workers into plans like a 401(k) that automatically deduct savings from each paycheck. Low-income workers tend to have much less access to savings plans through their jobs.

Republicans and players in the investment industry, though, argue that the state-run plans could end up being much more expensive than imagined and would water down safeguards in place to protect investors.
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The United States office that handles highway safety announced it would investigate complaints that brakes can malfunction on Nissan’s popular Murano SUV.

According to documents released Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 60 people have complained that the brakes on their cars lose pressure when trying to stop on a low-friction surface.

Some drivers reported increased stopping distances after pushing the pedal all the way to the floor. The investigation will cover upwards of 100,000 Muranos from the 2009 model year.

In a statement, Nissan said it is cooperating with the probe and encouraged any drivers experiencing brake problems to visit their local Nissan dealership.

Some drivers cited in the complaint said they replaced the anti-lock brake hydraulic control unit in their SUVs and that apparently fixed the problem.

The investigation will determine if Nissan needs to issue a recall on the vehicles. The NHTSA said the problem generally involves older, higher mileage vehicles.
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After yet another viral video has surfaced of people being kicked off an overbooked plane. Delta Air Lines has apologized.

In a statement, the company said it was “sorry for the unfortunate experience.”

The video, posted by Brian and Brittany Schear, showed them and their two toddlers being told to exit the flight or be arrested after a dispute over a seat the Schears bought for their teenage son.

The couple posted the video on YouTube and showed Brian Schear arguing with someone aboard Delta flight 2222 before take-off from Maui to Los Angeles.

The dispute started over whether Brian Schear could use the seat he had bought for his teenage son for his toddler and if the toddler was required to use a car seat or could sit in an adult’s lap.

“You will hear them lie to me numerous times to get my son out of the seat. The end result was we were all kicked off the flight,” Schear wrote in a blurb about the incident.

“They oversold the flight. When will this all stop?”

The Schears ended up leaving the flight and stayed at a hotel before leaving the following day.

“Delta’s goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues. That did not happen in this case and we apologize,” Delta’s apology stated, adding it would refund their travel expenses and provide additional compensation.

The incident came about a month after another incident was captured on video showing a man who was injured when forcibly removed from a United flight. The airline announced an undisclosed settlement with that man last month.
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The U.S. job market staged a rebound in April with employers, adding 211,000 workers to their payrolls and the unemployment rate fell to a 10-year low of 4.4 percent.

April’s employment numbers are a big improvement from March when the economy added only 98,000 jobs.

Analysts say that makes it more likely the Federal Reserve will remain on track to raise its benchmark interest rates again in June.

Job gains in April came from hospitality and leisure services, followed by health care and financial services.

Average hourly earnings grew modestly, up 2.5 percent from the previous year.

Despite volatility in March, the economy has now added an average of 185,000 jobs per month in 2017.
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