Merkel sets strict terms for Greek aid (20/3/15)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the euro zone's main paymaster, said today Greece would only receive fresh funds to ease a cash crunch once its creditors approve a comprehensive list of reforms it has promised to present soon.

Eurozone finance ministers back Greek reform plans. (Ministers from 19 states announce their approval of list of reforms)

Eurozone finance ministers have announced that they have approved a list of reforms submitted by Greece in exchange for a four-month extension to its international bailout. The 19 ministers decided in a teleconference on Tuesday that "they consider this list of measures to be sufficiently comprehensive to be a valid starting point," they said in a statement.

FAO hails China's success in achieving anti-hunger goal

Proper agricultural policies and reforms, and impressive increases in domestic food production helped China meet the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG), the chief of the UN's food agency says.

"China has already made outstanding progress to this goal, in part due to policies that support targeted investments in agriculture, reforms in the agricultural system, and impressive increases in domestic food production," Jose Graziano da Silva, director general of the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told Xinhua in a recent interview.

On Monday, FAO awarded a prize to China, along with Chile and Morocco, for having met the MDG-1 target of halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015, as compared with 1990-91 figures, in a special ceremony at the agency's headquarters.

According to the FAO, China reduced the prevalence of undernourishment from 22.9 percent in 1990-92 to 11.4 percent in 2011-13, bringing the estimated number of chronically hungry people down from 272.1 million to 158 million.

Graziano da Silva highlighted FAO's appreciation toward China for its steps of putting policies in place to address a potential contradiction between farmland and growing urbanization.

He highly praised China's policies of maintaining the current size of farmland for agriculture, setting a "bottom line" to contain urban erosion of land for agricultural production.

FAO was willing to work with China to further intensify agricultural production in areas of high potential and improve efficiency in sustainable ways, he said.

"Through FAO-supported training and knowledge-sharing programs, for example, farmers in developing countries are conserving and restoring nutrients to the soil, and making greater use of natural or low-chemical methods for processes like pest and weed control," Graziano da Silva said.

• "Early trials show growers can lower crop water needs by 30 percent and energy costs of production by up to 60 percent," he said.

Meanwhile, the FAO chief also voiced hope China would continue to make efforts to achieve greater success under the framework of the Zero Hunger Challenge, an anti-hunger blueprint launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2012.

He praised a plan unveiled by the Chinese government in January 2014 for rural reforms, further modernization of agriculture, and improvement of farmers' incomes.

"The government has outlined a number of measures to accomplish these objectives. These include speeding up the transfer of rural land, offering more subsidies to family farms and farmers' cooperatives, and supporting further research," he said. "The government has also listed ensuring the security of grain supplies and those of other major farm products as one of its priorities."

Graziano da Silva called for all efforts to realize goals set in the Zero Hunger Challenge, which will lead to a food secure and sustainable future.

"Reaching and maintaining such standards will require the involvement of every facet of society, including the government, businesses, researchers and scientists, local communities and families," he said. 
Sources: Xinhua - china.org.cn - globaltimes.cn
17/6/14

Ukraine to hike gas rates by 50% for IMF loan. -The IMF programme's approval would set in motion the release of further assistance from both Washington and the European Union.

Ukraine agreed on Wednesday to quickly hike domestic gas prices by as much as 50 percent to meet a key loan condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the crisis-hit ex-Soviet state.The new Western-backed government in Kiev is seeking $15-20 billion (11-14.5 billion euros) in IMF assistance in order to balance its books and meet a series of foreign loan repayments.An IMF team met with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Kiev on Wednesday for what Ukrainian officials hoped would be a final round of talks before the package is approved in Washington next month.
The Fund has made an immediate end to Ukraine's costly gas subsidies one of its prime conditions for the programme's approval.

It also wants the central bank to stop propping up the Ukrainian currency and for the government to cut down on corruption and red tape.A top official at Ukraine's Naftogaz state energy company said Kiev was willing to raise the price households pay for natural gas by 50 per cent as of May 1.Naftogaz budget and planning director Yury Kolbushkin added that rates for district heating companies would go up by 40 per cent on July 1.Kolbushkin indicated that these prices would increase still further in the coming years."We will publish a document that sets a schedule for rate increases through 2018," Ukrainian media quoted Kolbushkin as saying.Ukraine's central bank has already limited its currency interventions -- a decision that has seen the hryvnia lose 26.4 per cent of its value against the dollar since the start of the year.

• The IMF programme's approval would set in motion the release of further assistance from both Washington and the European Union.

Yatsenyuk said he expected EU officials to send 1.6 billion euros ($2.2 billion) to Kiev within two months of its approval.The United States has also pledged $1 billion (720 million euros) in loan guarantees while Japan has promised up to $1.5 billion (1.1 billion euros)..........http://www.ellanodikis.net/2014/03/ukraine-to-hike-gas-rates-by-50-for-imf.html
26/3/14