Foreign news

China Says To Put Major Efforts In Domestic Market, While Actively Seeking Out Overseas Opportunities

Published

5 years ago

November 18, 2020

In a world rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic and escalating tensions with the United States, China has got itself well prepared — with a new economic model called “dual circulation” that is expected to shape the country’s blueprint for the next five years.

The new pattern, “dual circulation”, also known as “double development dynamic,” refers to the two economic circles: trade at home and abroad, but this time with greater emphasis on the domestic market. Hyping discussions immediately prompt suggestions that the Chinese economy would “turn inward,” as it is argued that focusing on trade at home means “closing doors” to the outside world.

Yet to Beijing, opening its door wide seems like a long-term plan that it’s not looking to give up. On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the 12th BRICS summit that China will more “actively integrate into the global market”. Instead of shutting its door to opening-up, China will embrace the world with more open arms, President Xi noted.

BRICS is the acronym for an emerging-market bloc that groups Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Tuesday’s meeting was hosted by Russia, which holds the rotating BRICS presidency this year.

China will redouble its efforts to expand domestic demand, deepen reform in all aspects, and promote innovation in science and technology to add impetus to its economic growth, he added.

“The strengthening of internal circulation has no contradiction with China’s policy of opening-up,” commented Prof. Gao Liankui of EU Business School in an opinion piece for the Global Times. “The new development pattern … was rolled out based on the objective development of the Chinese economy, which has seen industrial upgrading and an expansion of the domestic market.”

“Along with technological development, an economic entity will see its comparative advantages change, leading to a certain degree of import substitution. It’s not China’s unique path,” Prof. Gao said in the piece.

Also at the BRICS meeting, President Xi highlighted the need for international solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus. “We need to overcome differences and prejudice with unity and rationality and forge the greatest synergy in the battle against the virus,” he said.

China’s carbon neutrality commitment

Also at the BRICS meeting, Xi doubled down on the country’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality before 2060. That goal, according to experts, would require Beijing to achieve near-zero emissions by 2050.

China will scale up its nationally determined contributions and strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, he vowed, “You can count on China to keep its promise.”

“To achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 requires a huge transformation in all aspects of the social, economic, energy, and technological systems,” He Jiankun, vice-chairperson of the National Committee of Experts on Climate Change, told Xinhua, meaning new energy and renewable energy will be topped as the mainstay.

Official data shows that China’s emissions of carbon dioxide in 2018 were 45.8 percent lower than that of 2005, which means that the country had met its emission reduction target two years ahead of schedule.

In addition, the government has sorted out ways to promote “green development”. China has promoted carbon emissions trading in seven of its provinces and cities — including Beijing and Shanghai — since 2011 to explore market-based mechanisms to control greenhouse gas emissions.

China is ready to fulfill its due international responsibilities commensurate with its level of development, Xi said at the Tuesday meeting.

Building BRICS partnership on new industrial revolution

With respect to the BRICS partnership, Xi pointed out that China is willing to work with other BRICS members to accelerate building a BRICS partnership on the new industrial revolution.

Specifically, China will set up an innovation center for such a partnership in the city of Xiamen, southeast China’s Fujian Province, the Chinese president announced at the meeting. The innovation center will facilitate cooperation in fields including policy coordination, personnel training and project development, according to President Xi.

Established in 2009, the BRICS group was set up to establish an equitable, democratic, and multi-polar world order, while helping to shape a stable, predictable, and more diversified international monetary system.

“BRICS serves as an antidote to the G7 and other U.S.-dominated institutions,” pointed out London based political commentator Freddie Reidy. “This (its establishment) was interpreted as the need to find a new global reserve currency, consequently leading to an immediate slide in the value of the dollar, demonstrating the considerable influence of the group.”

President Xi also called on BRICS countries to hold the banner of multilateralism high, safeguard the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the international order underpinned by international law.

People’s welfare should always be kept close to heart, he stressed in his speech, also urging the bloc to pursue the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind.

At present, the world is caught between the most serious pandemic in the past century and momentous changes never seen in the last one hundred years, Xi said, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic that has plunged the world into the worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

“Despite all this, we remain convinced that the theme of our times — peace and development — has not changed, and that the trend toward multipolarity and economic globalization cannot be turned around,” he said.

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Financing Health Futures: Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda Turn to Tobacco and Telecom Taxes in Big Push Against Malaria

Published

1 month ago

September 28, 2025

The Gleamer

African leaders, parliamentarians, health experts, and development partners have renewed their commitment to ending malaria by 2030, with a bold call for domestic financing through innovative taxation on tobacco, alcohol, and telecom services to close critical funding gaps.

The discussions took center stage at the Big Push Against Malaria: Harnessing Africa’s Role high-level political engagement in Abuja, where Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda showcased new homegrown financing strategies aimed at reducing dependence on dwindling donor support.

Africa’s Heavy Burden

Malaria remains one of Africa’s deadliest diseases. In 2023, the world recorded 263 million cases and nearly 600,000 deaths, with 94% of cases and 95% of deaths occurring in Africa. Nigeria alone accounted for 26.6% of global cases and 31% of deaths, according to the World Malaria Report 2024. Children under five remain the most vulnerable, making up 76% of deaths.

Despite progress — with Nigeria cutting malaria deaths by more than half since 2000 through insecticide-treated nets, preventive treatments, and the rollout of the new R21 malaria vaccine — leaders warned that global targets are off-track. The World Health Organization’s technical strategy for malaria (2016–2030) has stalled since 2017, with Africa unlikely to meet its 2025 and 2030 milestones without urgent action.

Taxing for Health Futures

The Nigerian Parliament’s Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (ATM) announced plans to fund malaria elimination through “sin taxes” and telecom levies.

According to the House Chair on ATM, Hon. Linda Ogar, a bill is underway to restructure the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) into a multi-disease agency that will address HIV, TB, and malaria.

The new financing mechanism proposes:

Taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and other luxury items

Dedicated levies on telecom airtime and mobile money transactions

A percentage of the nation’s consolidated revenue

“These resources will provide sustainable funding to strengthen health systems and accelerate malaria elimination,” Ogar said, stressing that Africa must stop relying solely on foreign donors. “We cannot continue to take two steps forward and five steps backward. Africa must begin to show the world that we are ready to solve our problems ourselves.”

Similar models are already being piloted in Ghana and Uganda, where levies on mobile money and telecoms are being redirected to finance health interventions. The Abuja meeting urged other African countries to adopt this approach as part of a continental framework for sustainable financing.

Leaders Call for Urgent Action

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, emphasized that while malaria is preventable and treatable, it still kills hundreds of thousands yearly due to funding shortfalls, climate change, insecticide resistance, and humanitarian crises.

“To truly defeat this disease, we must rethink, join forces, and mount a concerted ‘Big Push’. Funding gaps remain a major obstacle, and innovative domestic financing is the way forward,” Salako declared.

From the civil society front, grassroots representatives pledged to act as “foot soldiers”, demanding that communities have a seat at the decision-making table. The World Health Organization, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Aliko Dangote Foundation, and other partners reaffirmed support but stressed the need for stronger political will and local ownership.

Private Sector and Global Support

Representing billionaire philanthropist Aliko Dangote, the Nigeria Malaria Council reiterated that private sector investment must complement government financing. Meanwhile, the Global Fund confirmed it has invested nearly $2 billion in Nigeria’s malaria response and committed an additional $500 million for 2024–2026, including support for local production of malaria drugs.

The Gates Foundation’s Uche Anaowu noted that while progress has slowed, malaria remains beatable:

“Smallpox is the only human disease ever eradicated. The question is — can malaria be next? I believe Africa has both the burden and the opportunity to lead the world in making that happen.”

Financing Health Futures: Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda Turn to Tobacco and Telecom Taxes in Big Push Against Malaria

Abuja, Nigeria – African leaders, parliamentarians, health experts, and development partners have renewed their commitment to ending malaria by 2030, with a bold call for domestic financing through innovative taxation on tobacco, alcohol, and telecom services to close critical funding gaps.

Africa’s Heavy Burden

Taxing for Health Futures

The Nigerian Parliament’s Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (ATM) announced plans to fund malaria elimination through “sin taxes” and telecom levies.

The new financing mechanism proposes:

Taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and other luxury items

Dedicated levies on telecom airtime and mobile money transactions

A percentage of the nation’s consolidated revenue

Leaders Call for Urgent Action

Private Sector and Global Support

The Gates Foundation’s Uche Anaowu noted that while progress has slowed, malaria remains beatable:

“Smallpox is the only human disease ever eradicated. The question is — can malaria be next? I believe Africa has both the burden and the opportunity to lead the world in making that happen.”

The Big Push: From Talk to Action

Speakers acknowledged that Africa has hosted too many malaria meetings without concrete outcomes. This time, however, leaders insisted the Abuja gathering must mark a turning point — from dependency to self-reliance.

With Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda setting the pace on tax-based health financing, the continent now faces the challenge of replicating and scaling up these models.

“Now that Africa is at a critical point, the need for a Big Push against malaria cannot be overemphasized. If we align political will, innovative financing, and community engagement, we can end malaria within our lifetime.”

Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda are pioneering a shift from donor dependence to domestic revenue mobilization via tobacco, alcohol, and telecom taxes — a model hailed as central to financing Africa’s health futures and ending malaria by 2030
Speakers acknowledged that Africa has hosted too many malaria meetings without concrete outcomes. This time, however, leaders insisted the Abuja gathering must mark a turning point — from dependency to self-reliance.

With Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda setting the pace on tax-based health financing, the continent now faces the challenge of replicating and scaling up these models.

“Now that Africa is at a critical point, the need for a Big Push against malaria cannot be overemphasized. If we align political will, innovative financing, and community engagement, we can end malaria within our lifetime.”

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