REFORESTATION: China and Nigeria restoring local ecology (XINHUA)

VISA Expands Service

Mozambique

The American multinational company VISA announced recently that Mozambique is among the top five African countries that registered an increase of VISA services for different transactions this year. General Director for VISA in Sub-Saharan Africa Jabu Basopo said the use of VISA services benefits not only the banks, companies and VISA, but also the country where it operates.

Overspending Warning

Tanzania

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cautioned Tanzania over its expanding public spending though the East African country's economy continued to grow steadily at 6.3 percent in the first half of 2011. Public spending has risen as a share of GDP in recent years, to deliver significant growth in local government health, education and other social programs, said Peter Allum, IMF's division chief of African Department. However, he said that overall regular spending has outpaced revenue and grant financing, contributing to growing fiscal deficits and rising public debt stock.

TV Industry Growth

Sub-Saharan Africa

Despite challenges from the Internet and mobile phones, Sub-Sahara Africa will see rapid growth in the TV industry. The number of TV households in Sub-Sahara Africa will grow from 34.5 million 2010 to 42.1 million by 2015, according to figures released at the AfricaCast 2011 Summit held in Cape Town this November. Of the current TV households, 3.5 million are pay TV subscribers, making up 11 percent of the total, figures showed.

More Grassroots Delegates

China

 The Communist Party of China (CPC) will include more delegates from the grassroots level, including migrant workers, at the Party's 18th National Congress in 2012. The minimum proportion of grassroots delegates attending the event will be 32 percent, 2 percentage points higher than in 2007, according to a statement released by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee in November. Worker delegates must take up 10 percent of the total delegates and they should be made up of those from public and private enterprises in industrial and service sectors, the statement said.