Jan. 27 – Norway could block China’s attempts to gain permanent observer status on the increasingly relevant Arctic Council due to a souring of relations between the countries over the last few years, according to a report on Wednesday in Aftenposten – Norway’s largest newspaper.

“As long as the Chinese authorities refuse to speak to their Norwegian counterparts, it will be difficult for Norway to say yes to a (Chinese) candidacy to become a permanent observer on the Arctic Council,” an unidentified “highly-placed diplomatic source” told the paper. Continue Reading

Jan. 26 – Houston-based ConocoPhillips and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) have reached a financial settlement agreement with China’s Ministry of Agriculture to compensate for the damage caused by the June 2011 Bohai Bay oil leaks.

Under the agreement, RMB1 billion (nearly US$160 million) will be paid as compensation to settle public and private claims of potentially affected fishermen in relevant Bohai Bay communities, according to a January 24 press release issued by ConocoPhillips. Continue Reading

A look at foreign investment access to the Indian market as relates to several key sectors

By Ankit Shrivastava

Jan. 25 – India has recently liberalized foreign investment regulations in many of its key sectors, opening up commodity exchanges, credit information services and aircraft maintenance operations. The foreign investment limit in public sector unit refineries has been raised from 26 percent to 49 percent and an additional sweetener is that the mandatory disinvestment clause within five years has been done away with. Continue Reading

Jan. 20 – Despite harsh weather conditions, the Arctic is becoming a global hot spot, with non-Arctic countries like China, India and Brazil pursuing “observer” status on the Arctic Council – an intergovernmental body promoting cooperation and environmental protection among countries that have territories in the Arctic area.

Experts believe that the increasing focus in the Arctic is drawn by its abundant natural resources, which will be extracted in the future if the region’s environmental conditions become friendlier and global warming melts more glaciers and sea-ice. Continue Reading

Jan. 19 – The financial crisis in the Eurozone may affect credit ratings in the Asia-Pacific region, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services recently warned.

Last Friday, the firm downgraded Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus by two notches and France, Austria, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia by one notch. Germany, Finland and the Netherland’s AAA rating did not change. Experts predict that the Eurozone states may face further downgrading in the future. Continue Reading

Jan. 18 – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner visited major Asian oil importers China and Japan last week, attempting to gain support for U.S. sanctions on Iran in response to its suspected nuclear weapons program.

On his two-day trip in Beijing, Geithner urged top Chinese authorities to sharply reduce imports of Iranian crude oil, and he informed China of a new U.S. sanction policy that would be imposed on countries which refuse to join U.S. efforts to curb Iran’s oil revenues. Continue Reading

India moves ahead of China in stock market investment access

Jan. 17 – Starting from yesterday, India has allowed foreign individual investors to purchase stocks directly in Indian companies for the first time; previously, access to Indian stocks was only permitted through institutional investors. The move widens the ability of foreign investors to take advantage of India’s booming growth and is something the financial services lobby in India has been pushing for years. Back-end industries and analysts will also get a boost as interest from international individual investors and their brokerages in India will likely be huge. Continue Reading