Economic development updates

Conference—Afghanistan: A Turning Point in History After the Failed Regime-Change Era

July 29, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Economic development updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Our conferences, Our economic development events

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Schiller Institute International Conference – July 31, 2021

Afghanistan: A Turning Point in History
After the Failed Regime-Change Era

Moderator: Dennis Speed (U.S.), The Schiller Institute

Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany), Founder and President of The Schiller Institute
Keynote Address: “Afghanistan: The Bright Future for the Coming Cooperation of the Great Powers”

Pino Arlacchi (Italy), Sociology Professor at the Sassari University, Former Executive Director of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, and former European Parliament Rapporteur on Afghanistan
“Eradicate Opium in Afghanistan, Develop Modern Agriculture, Build the Nation, Now”

H.E. Ambassador Hassan Shoroosh (Afghanistan), Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to Canada
“The Way Forward for Afghanistan”

H.E. Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva (Russian Federation), Deputy Permanent Representative at the Mission of The Russian Federation to the UN “Russia’s Outlook for Afghanistan and Eurasia”

Dr. Wang Jin (China), Fellow with The Charhar Institute
“Afghanistan and the Belt and Road Initiative”

Question and Answer Session

Ray McGovern (U.S.), Analyst, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA-ret.), Co-Founder, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
“The Real Interest of the United States in Asia”

Hassan Daud (Pakistan), CEO, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Board of Investment

“The Perspective from Pakistan: The Role of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for Afghanistan Reconstruction.”

Hussein Askary (Sweden/Iraq), Southwest Asia Coordinator for the Schiller Institute
“Put Afghanistan on the Belt and Road to Peace!”

Discussion Period

We welcome questions during the conference. Please send them to questions@schillerinstitute.org

Supplementary material by Executive Intelligence Review (EIR)—Special Report Offprint: ‘Will Afghanistan Trigger a Paradigm Change?’

PDF of the invitation

“After the hasty withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan—U.S. troops, except for a few security forces, were flown out in the dark of night without informing Afghan allies—this country has become, for the moment but likely not for long, the theater of world history.”
—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, July 10, 2021

We face an extraordinary moment, of further descent into chaos, or the beautiful potential of Afghanistan becoming the seed-crystal of a new era of international cooperation so desperately needed in the wake of growing disease and famine worldwide.

Afghanistan was once a hub for the ancient Silk Road, the connection between the great cultures of Asia and those of the European side of the Eurasian continent. The entire Central Asian region was once known as “a land of 1,000 cities”, showcasing advanced technologies in oasis cities, including Merv, Balkh, Kabul, and Kandahar, with large-scale underground irrigation systems. Water development will once again be crucial, and the agricultural potential is great.
In the past weeks, most of Afghanistan’s neighbors have come together, in an attempt to forge a commitment to end the nightmare suffered by the people of Afghanistan, a nightmare also suffered by the military forces of many nations drawn into needless combat in the service of a British-centered oligarchy fostering the growth of drug trafficking and terrorism in the entire region.

Just as the collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of an era—the division of the world into nuclear armed blocs hostile to one another—so also the utter failure of the 20-year misadventure of the United States and NATO in Afghanistan, and in the other failed colonial wars in Southwest Asia, poses the question: Can the great nations of the world cooperate in the transformation of Afghanistan, and the other war-torn nations, into modern economies, participating in co-operative development through the New Silk Road process, exemplified by China’s Belt and Road Initiative?

Leading voices, from veterans’ groups and whistleblowers, to experts on the danger of global narcotics plague and on international political relations, will join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in dialogue, to impel the United States and Europe to join the growing international cooperation that is coming together. We can use this opportunity to make the turn from 50 years of failed policies, and instead to embark on the path required to achieve a new paradigm for mankind.

African Development Bank President: No Economic Justice Without `Vaccine Justice’

March 23, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy

Mar. 22 (EIRNS)–Africa needs “global solidarity and vaccine justice,” were the words of African Development Bank (AfDB) President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina on Friday, March 19. Adesina launched the Bank’s {African Economic Outlook 2021} report, and decried the economic effects that the lack of Covid-19 vaccines was having on Africa. The connection of global health with global economic recovery was paramount. With Adesina was economist and Nobel laureate (2001) Joseph Stiglitz, who in addition to endorsing an increased “healthcare defense,” for the continent, also endorsed the idea of “debt restructuring,” a topic first raised by his African host.
            The AfDB president implicitly addressed the idea of global health, saying that “as long as Africans remain unvaccinated, the world will go right back to square one,” something no amount of imperial ‘vaccine passports’ could prevent. “Africa needs to develop its pharmaceutical industry and begin manufacturing,” he said, adding that “the African Development Bank is going to support African countries to do this.”
            Supporting this position, Stiglitz said, “One of the things that some of us have been campaigning for is the suspension of the intellectual property rights related to Covid-19 because {the supply constraint that you describe is at least, to some extent, artificial}… If access to the intellectual property rights were more extensive, there is throughout the emerging markets and developing countries considerable capacity to produce a lot of more vaccines.” [emphasis added]
            Speaking of the debt, Stiglitz noted that “every country has bankruptcy laws, but there’s no bankruptcy law for international debt…. When there’s too much debt, it’s as much the creditor’s problem as the debtor’s problem.” Stiglitz said the G20 debt postponement took place when it seemed the pandemic might only last a few months. “Now … a standstill is not enough.”
He added that it was in the self-interest of advanced countries to make sure that everybody has access to the vaccine and other related medicines. “The longer the disease festers in any part of the world, it can mutate, and one of the things we know is that those mutations are not going to respect borders. The Covid-19 virus doesn’t carry a passport.”
            Other notable African voices that have called for “vaccine justice” for Africa are those of South African President and recent African Union chair Cyril Ramaphosa, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. John Nkengasong.

Kurchatov Institute To Create a Joint Russia-Belarus Scientific Research Center

July 29, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Belrus, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Power & Energy, Russia, Space updates

Kurchatov Institute To Create a Joint Russia-Belarus Scientific Research Center–

July 28 (EIRNS)—The president of the Kurchatov Institute Scientific Research Center Mikhail Kovalchuk announced yesterday that his Institute and Belarus’s National Academy of Sciences had signed a roadmap to jointly establish “powerful projects related to new research infrastructure based on powerful installations—mega-sciences—[that] are now unfolding in front of us.”

Kovalchuk stated: “The program has also been launched in Russia and it is expected to become the world’s most accomplished research infrastructure in 5-7 years…. Importantly, both Belarus and Russia have the required tools. If we create this single infrastructural research space, we will become leaders in drawing other [Commonwealth of Independent States] CIS partners into this effort.”

He further said that “We have also proposed that a branch of the Kurchatov Institute be set up on the premises of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus to strengthen integration and cooperation. Also, we proposed that a branch of the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute be opened in Belarus in the field of new education.”

The TASS wire reporting on this announcement characterized the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center as “one of the leading research facilities in Russia and in the world. With its creation, Russia has set up a unique inter-disciplinary scientific and technical compound that comprises the Kurchatov specialized synchrotron radiation source (KISI-Kurchatov), the U-70 accelerator, the IR-8 and VVR-M neutron research reactors, the PIK high-flux research reactor, the T-10 and T-15 tokamak thermonuclear installations, plasma and other units.”

So. Korea Plans: Producing Up to 1 Billion Vaccines in 2022

July 29, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, South Korea, United States

South Korea Plans for Producing Up to 1 Billion Vaccines in 2022—

July 28 (EIRNS)—While it remains to be seen how the U.S. will follow through on their commitment to assist India in ramping up COVID-19 vaccine production, the U.S.-Korea plans are moving forward. In India’s case, the U.S. has a bumpy history of blocking critical raw materials for India’s world-leading vaccine production operations, and then turning down repeated requests for vaccines when India was in the greatest need. And today, Antony Blinken offered a paltry, even insulting, $25 million for India’s vaccination program. No vaccines included.

On May 23, when South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in came to the White House, agreement was made on a Global Vaccine Partnership (GVP), first with a “KORUS GVP Experts Group” of scientists, public officials and various experts. Seoul had actually wanted immediate vaccines from the U.S. in exchange for future vaccines to be provided from Seoul to the U.S.—but that was refused. Instead, four deals were initiated, beginning with Samsung Biologics arrangement to produce “hundreds of millions” of Moderna vaccines, as soon as technology transfer and trial production were completed. South Korea would be putting up the money for purchasing the vaccines produced. Moderna also signed an MOU with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and also the Ministry of Health and Welfare, for Moderna to invest in production facilities in Korea using a Korean workforce, with Korean government support for Moderna. Another MOU was signed by both the Health Ministry and SK Bioscience with the U.S.’s Novavax for vaccine development and production.

The update this month, from “a senior South Korean government official” is that Seoul is in talks with Pfizer and Moderna on expanding production up to 1 billion doses in 2022. (This is on top of deals with AstraZeneca and Novavax.) Health Ministry official Lee Kang-ho commented: “We have had frequent discussions with large pharmaceutical companies to produce mRNA vaccines. South Korea is keen to help by offering its facilities and skilled human resources.” The speculation is that Hanmi Pharmaceuticals and Quratis might be ready to start up production immediately. Hanmi said it has a large capacity reserved to produce Sanofi’s diabetes drug, but that is at a temporary standstill, and the capacity can meanwhile be used to produce COVID vaccines. And Quratis has a one-year-old factory which makes a tuberculosis vaccine, and they say they have capacity for mRNA vaccines. It appears that the technology, workforce and capital is all present, waiting to move forward.

Uzbek President Evokes Central and South Asia’s Historic Contributions to Humanity to Spur Its Development Today

July 28, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Cultural renaissance updates, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Uzbekistan

Uzbek President Evokes Central and South Asia’s Historic Contributions to Humanity to Spur Its Development Today –

July 27, 2021 (EIRNS)—Addressing the July 15th-16th Central and South Asia Regional Connectivity conference in Tashkent, which his government organized, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed that this region of almost two billion people conceive of its development today as a return to its role as a historic center of “active dialogue between peoples and civilizations … the crossroads of the Great Silk Road, Central and South Asia.”

No official translation of the speech into English is available yet, but the machine-translation of it quoted here, while not precise, captures the spirit of his call. He invoked names that every schoolchild on the globe should be familiar with some day.

Miziyoyev spoke of the great civilizations which arose in this region, going back as early as the third and second millennia BC, which “have left a deep mark on human history.” He reminded his audience, that “thanks to the spread of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and the unique traditions of different peoples in Central and South Asia, a great ethnocultural commonality has been established, and a rich and colorful culture of the East has been formed.”

The resulting strong ties between our peoples “ensured rapid intellectual and enlightenment growth… which brought to the world many more mature scholars and thinkers, such as Charaka and Sushruta, Brahmagupta and Al-Khwarizmi, Al-Farghani and Al-Farabi, Al-Beruni, Ibn Sina. They marked the development of human science and philosophical thought centuries ago,” he said. He then named some of the region’s outstanding representatives of literature who “with their immortal works … have made a great contribution to the development of the principles of peace, freedom and humanity, the ideas of friendship and mutual trust among the peoples of the world.”

“Unfortunately,” he added, “due to the historical situation, in the nineteenth century, the relations between the two neighboring regions were severed,” creating barriers between Central and South Asia. The end of that era of cooperation and mutual understanding is responsible for “the current lack of effective cross-border routes, poor development of trade and economic relations, as well as the underutilization of cultural and humanitarian relations.”

“It is time to harmonize the existing intellectual potential and our joint efforts, given the great historical, scientific, cultural and educational heritage of our peoples and the ability of our economies to complement each other,” he urged. “We are convinced that interdependence, cooperation, dialogue and, most importantly, the consistent and sustainable development of trust, will become a driving force for increasing the living standards and prosperity of the people of our regions.”

It was within that context, then, that he proposed specific ideas for regional cooperation, centered on logistics infrastructure and rail lines, and within that, aiding Afghanistan to find peace at this “important turning point in its recent history.”

COVID Delta Variant Explodes in Africa as It Soars in Asia and Ibero-America Too

July 28, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Healthcare, Healthcare

July 27, 2021 (EIRNS)—On July 9 the Africa Center for Strategic Studies warned, “The surge of the Delta coronavirus variant in Africa is set to cause hundreds of thousands of deaths in the coming months, absent a dramatic scaling up of prevention measures and COVID vaccine access.” Now just 18 days later, the North, South, and East of Africa have exploded with new COVID cases. The latest infographic from the Africa Center dated July 12, shows total known confirmed cases of COVID in Africa at 5,984,845 since the beginning of the pandemic. View the time-lapsed map here.

At the time of the July 9 Africa Center report “26 African countries [had] seen their confirmed COVID-19 case[s] jump by approximately 50%” in June compared to May. Then, in the first week of July, 5,600 people across Africa died from COVID, a 43% increase from the week before. Overall, the Center noted, “There has been a near tripling in the number of COVID cases and 30,000 fatalities on the continent since the end of April when the Delta variant emerged in Uganda.” By mid-July the Delta variant was found in 22 of 54 African countries, countries with inadequate healthcare platforms and access to vaccines—criminally, a mere one percent of Africans have been vaccinated.

A change-in-fatalities table, by the Africa CDC, compared death-rate increases May 8-June 7 to June 7-July 7, showing that 16 African countries had a 450% to 4,303% rise in COVID deaths, while six African countries had a 100% to 397% rise in COVID deaths. The table is here.

Now, July 27, an International Rescue Committee press release reads, “From Asia to Africa to Latin America, countries are suffering from record COVID-19 caseloads and deaths, … The Delta variant is leading to a spike in cases in crisis-affected countries. In the month to July 25th, there has been a significant increase in cases in Zimbabwe (116%), Thailand (110%), Myanmar (78%), Liberia (60%), Bangladesh (33%) and Afghanistan (29%), and concerning test positivity rates in Mexico (37%), Iraq (22%), Colombia (22%), Zimbabwe (20%) and Democratic Republic of Congo (17%).”

Echoing Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s call for new healthcare platforms in every country, and Dr. Joycelyn Elders’ insistence that public health measures are urgently needed, the Africa CDC July 9 report concluded that need is clear to “ramp up vaccine access to avert a humanitarian calamity” and, since “Africa does not have the hospital infrastructure to rely on …. Prevention, relying on public health principles, remains the indispensable priority.”

Latin American and Caribbean Space Agency Formally Launched

July 28, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Economic development updates, Ecuador, General updates, Mexico, Paraguay, Space updates

July 27, 2021 (EIRNS)—During the July 24 summit of foreign ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), held in Mexico City, five nations joined with Mexico to officially establish the Latin American and Caribbean Space Agency (AECL). Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Costa Rica are the current signatories, but when Celac heads of state meet in September, it is expected that several more governments will sign on. When a preliminary agreement on AECL’s founding was reached last October, participants expressed great optimism that space exploration and related technological and scientific developments and spin offs would be the best way to address the poverty and underdevelopment affecting all their nations.

The same sentiment was expressed by the foreign ministers who signed on July 24, according to Forbes Mexico the same day. The agency’s creation, said Ecuador’s foreign minister, Mauricio Montalvo, is the result of the “coordinated and harmonious work” within Celac which will “certainly be of benefit to all of our societies.” Costa Rican foreign minister Rodolfo Solano added that “in the case of Costa Rica, together with nations like Mexico, I find no more responsible way to celebrate 200 years of independent life than to think of the next 200 years, and see space as the frontier to be conquered.” And addressing the skeptics, or those who ask why poor nations think space exploration is an option, Paraguay’s foreign minister, Euclides Acevedo, put it this way: “We may not yet have satellites to place in orbit, but we are beginning to place in orbit those enemies of success, those apostles of failure, the mediocre and the resentful.”

Peace Through Development: Italy’s Messina Bridge Campaign Grows

March 18, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General, General updates, New Silk Road / BRI updates, Our economic development events, World Land-Bridge updates

Campaign for the Messina Bridge Intensifies

March 17 (EIRNS) – In a few days, the “Technical Commission” established by the Conte2 government to evaluate alternatives to the Sicily-Italy bridge connection will present its conclusive report. According to insider sources, the Commission will issue a pilatesque report, avoiding to endorse either solution.

In view of this, the pro-Messina bridge lobby has mobilized in an unprecedented way to put pressure on the Draghi government:

1. A bi-partisan parliamentary group has been formed, composed by members of Lega, Forza Italia and Italia Viva (Renzi), to endorse the Bridge project.

2. Webuild, the largest construction firm in Italy and contractor for the Bridge project, has published a beautiful video on the Bridge as an engine of development and a technical jewel.

3. “Lettera 150”, an organization gathering hundreds of academicians, has drafted a Memo of Understanding under the direction of Schiller Institute friend prof. Enzo Siviero, which will be signed by the presidents of the two regions, which will be connected by the bridge, Sicily and Calabria, March 26.

A statement by the newly formed bipartisan group says: “A parliamentary intergroup, composed by several components of national politics: this will be ‘Bridge on the Strait – Italian recovery and development starting from the South.’ An alliance aimed at Italian infrastructural development starting from the Mezzogiorno which, turning the paradigm upside down, is meant as an expression of social-economic potentiality.”

The six-minute Webuild video presents the Bridge as a large payroller: it will create 118,000 jobs and “will attract towards Italy world trade gravitating in the Mediterranean.” It will “turn Southern Italy into the logistic pole of the EU and will promote the know-how of Italian companies involved.” It will be the longest single-span bridge in the world with a total length of 3,660 m and a 3,300 m long span. It will also be the highest, with towers 399 m high, and the largest with a 65 meter driveway. It will require 1.5 million tons of concrete and 376,000 tons of steel. It will carry 60,000 trains and 6 million vehicles per year. Webuild is the largest Italian construction and engineering firm. They have built, among other things, the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia and the second Panama Canal. Last year, they built the new Genoa highway bridge in less than 12 months.

Bolivian President: A Fight for ‘Scientific Bolivia’ Is a Fight for the Future

July 28, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Bolivia, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Power & Energy, Russia, Space updates

Bolivian President: A Fight for ‘Scientific Bolivia’ Is a Fight for the Future —

July 27, 2021 (EIRNS)—Yesterday Bolivian President Luis Arce, together with other government officials and Rosatom’s deputy director general, Kirill Komarov, presided over the ceremony in the city of El Alto to inaugurate construction of a research reactor, which is the third component in the state-of-the-art Nuclear Technology Research and Development Center (CIDTN) being built in the city of El Alto, next to La Paz, by the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency and Rosatom Overseas. The other two components include a Radiopharmacology Cyclotron complex (CCRP), which will produce isotopes for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients and a Multipurpose Irradiation Plant, the construction of which is already underway and scheduled to be completed by year’s end. The research reactor should be completed by 2024.

The project’s location in El Alto carries special significance. When the Project Democracy “Maidan” coup government took over in November of 2019, it immediately shut down the project, while military and police repressed the city’s largely indigenous population that had opposed the coup. When President Arce took power last November, he immediately restarted the project. At 4,000 meters above sea level, CIDTN is the largest Russian-sponsored project in Ibero-America and, as Komarov explained, is considered to be a top priority for Rosatom. “The project is unique, a technological marvel that will put Bolivia on a par with the major countries of the world,” RT reported him as saying. Arce has emphasized that this project is not just for Bolivians, but “for all of humanity,” and as he expressed it yesterday, quite beautifully, is also to ensure that young Bolivians have a future. Future generations, he said, “will inherit and harvest what we do today in terms of technological advancement; they shall be the standard-bearers of scientific Bolivia, because a millenarian people with advanced technology is invincible. So, I want to take this opportunity to assure you that as a national government, we have the firmest will and conviction to advance on the road to scientific development for Bolivians… Our country needs highly-trained human resources in nuclear engineering, chemical engineering and biotechnology to advance toward a change from the pattern of accumulation to the transformation of our country’s productive matrix, which is moreover, a challenge for Latin America and the Caribbean,” the President’s press office reported. The full press release is here.

Caribbean Nations to Join China’s Belt and Road Initiative

March 18, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, New Silk Road / BRI updates, World Land-Bridge updates

Caribbean Nations Want to Cooperate With China on the Belt and Road

March 17 (EIRNS)—Chinese President Xi Jinping held separate teleconferences yesterday with the President of Guyana and the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and their teams, encountering great interest from each in expanding their country’s collaboration with China on economic development, and with the Belt and Road Initiative, in particular, according to Xinhua’s report. Xi spoke with both of China’s willingness to work together with the entire Caribbean region on development.

Guyanese President Dr. Irfaan Ali had his Vice President and three cabinet ministers (Foreign Affairs, Public Works and Finance) join him in the discussion, his office reported. Xinhua reported that Dr. Ali thanked Xi in the name of the leaders of major political parties and ministers of Guyana, for China’s assistance in the fight against the pandemic, and spoke of how Guyana “regards China as the most important cooperative partner in its national development, and is committed to strengthening relations between the two parties and two countries.” He conveyed that “Guyana expects to actively promote the Belt and Road cooperation with China, and strengthen cooperation in infrastructure and other fields, and stands ready to actively promote the development of relations between the Caribbean Community and China,” Xinhua noted.

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley was also joined in his teleconference call with Xi by three ministers (Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, National Security and Health), along with the Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister, his office reported. From Xinhua’s report, it can be said that the geopolitical tale of a “malign” China has not made headway here. Rowley spoke of “the great achievements of the Chinese people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in such fields as economy, science and technology and poverty alleviation.” Citing China’s success in defeating the COVID-19 epidemic, and leadership in the global fight against the pandemic, Rowley told Xi: “the CPC should feel proud of itself.” As had the Guyanese President, he expressed his nation’s willingness to work with China to actively promote Belt and Road cooperation.

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