Mali is not the only Francophone West African country courted by Japan. President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal was invited, along with the Presidents of Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania to...

The appointment of a new Prime Minister in São Tomé e Príncipe could herald a reverse for Taiwan, according to regional diplomatic sources, who say political and commercial considerations are pushing the government...

Taiwan's Presidential elections on 22 March have delayed the appointment of Taipei's new ambassadors to Gambia and São Tomé e Príncipe. Taipei may also be waiting to see what comes...

India needs coal to fire up its growth, freight rates from Australia's mines have soared, and India's own coal-mines are crippled by price controls and labour regulations. So importers are...

Tension and recriminations continue to mark relations between Zambian workers and Chinese investors, two months after the end of a two-day strike at a US$200 million copper smelting...

Why are China's importers of raw materials so interested in Africa rather than other continents, such as Latin America? Latin America's natural resources are largely controlled by giant companies from...

At the end of May, Justin Yifu Lin will succeed France's François Bourguignon as Chief Economist at the World Bank. The Peking University professor will be the first economist from a developing...

Born in Busan in 1959, Lee attended the prestigious Sungkyunkwan University, majoring in public administration. He joined the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1978 and held posts in the...

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Indonesia n A native of Semarang, Central Java, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, 56, holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from the Bandung Institute of Technology, and master's...

Hailing from Ca Mau, the southernmost province of Vietnam, Dung joined the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (aka the Viet Cong) in 1961. He was 12 years...