15 October 2008
Paavo Vaeyrynen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development of Finland, will visit Namibia tomorrow and Saturday.
The main focus of the visit is development co-operation, but promotion of Finland's trade relations with Namibia is also high on the agenda.
"The purpose of the visit to Namibia is to strengthen the warm and close relationship between Finland and Namibia.
The aim of the visit is to develop and diversify the relationship between the two countries through new partnerships, new development co-operation instruments and new forms of co-operation.
Additionally, during the visit the possibilities for Finnish-Namibian co-operation within the mining and energy sectors will be discussed," the Finnish embassy said in a press release yesterday.
Global crisis forces Nigeria budget rethink * LAGOS - A fall in world oil prices triggered by the global financial crisis has forced Nigeria to cut back its spending plans for next year, a newspaper in the world's eighth biggest oil exporter said yesterday.
Citing an anonymous source in the presidency, the Business Day newspaper said the government was set to reduce the benchmark oil price for the 2009 budget from a current proposed figure of $62.5 to below the $59 used this year.
"An inter-ministerial committee has begun reworking the 2009 budget arising from the threat posed by the global decline in crude oil prices," Business Day quoted the source as saying.
"Although the committee has not arrived at a final oil benchmark, technical analysis undertaken points to a benchmark lower than used for the 2008 budget," it said.
Africa's most populous nation saves any oil revenue above the benchmark price into an excess crude account, a pillar of IMF-backed reforms meant to guard against price volatility on world markets and help it to save money.
Business Day said the government would cut out some planned spending, such as the purchase of cars and overseas training for civil servants, while some ministries would have no allocations at all in the 2009 budget.
Copyright © 2008 The Namibian. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Read comments. Write your own.
