TOP PROBLEM

THE 13th FIVE-YEAR PLAN: HOW TO BUILD A "XIAOKANG" SOCIETY IN CHINA BY 2020 by A.V.Ostrovsky, Dr.Sc. (Economics),

Institute of Far Eastern Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS)

Keywords: China, 4th session of the National People's Congress, the society of "small prosperity", the 13th Five-Year Plan

At the 4th session of the National People's Congress of the 12th convocation (March 2016) by decision of the 5th Plenum of the CPC Central Committee (October 2015) was approved. According to that decision by 2020 China should double the gross domestic product and indicators of GDP per capita as compared with 2010 indicators. A goal was set to build in China a "xiaokang" (small welfare) society by 2020.

In order to achieve this objective indicative of the 13th five-year plan (2016 - 2020) have been proposed, according to which GDP in China should be 80 trillion yuan, and GDP per capita - about 60,000 yuan (about $ 9230 at the current rate) by 2020, ie, increase by half compared with 2010.

POLICY. ECONOMY

MILITANT ARABIA by L.M.Isaev, PhD (Political Sciences), National Research University Higher School of Economics, Institute for African Studies, RAS, A.V.Korotayev, Dr.Sc. (History),

National Research University Higher School of Economics, Institute for African Studies, RAS

Keywords: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the Arab Spring, arms imports, military expenditure, military conflicts, Middle East

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published data on military spending in 2015. The rating is traditionally headed by the United States and China the military expenses of which amounted to $596 and $214 billion respectively. Saudi Arabia has taken last year for the first time the third place having spent $87 billion on military needs.

At the same time the gap between Saudi Arabia and the Russian Federation located on the fourth place is amounted just over 20 billion. However, in fact Saudi Arabia ahead the Russian Federation in 2015 only in the nominal military spending while regarding real military spending, Russia retained its third place in the global military hierarchy.

EGYPT: HISTORICAL IMAGES AND ALLUSIONS OF THE 2014 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN by E.I.Doroshenko, PhD (Philology), Copy Editor, International News Agency "Rossiya Segodnya", Moscow

Keywords: Egypt, the Arab Spring, Nasserism, elections, "Muslim Brotherhood"

The purpose of this article - to disclose the historical meaning of Gamal Abdel Nasser's image which it played in the presidential campaign of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2014. The analysis of the historical, ideological and political allusions, accompanying the campaign, explains why their involvement contributed to the success of al-Sisi and also considered the main directions of the political development of Egypt after the "Arab spring".

RUSSIAN-CHINESE COOPERATION IN FINANCIAL AND BANKING SPHERES by

M.V.Aleksandrova, PhD (Economics), Institute of Far Eastern Studies, RAS

Keywords: Russia, China, cooperation in finance sphere, Chinese payment system, yuan

In this article, the bilateral cooperation in the finance sphere is addressed in historical retrospective, with identification of the most important periods in building the financial cooperation and thereof typical forms of settlements. Emphasizing the fact that such complex sphere of inter-state cooperation cannot develop without a proper state-and-law support, the author offers the analysis of the major bilateral agreements and treaties in the finance sphere.

The further analysis is focused on the specifics of the "infrastructure" of the Russia-China financial cooperation, which includes opening of Russian and Chinese banks' branches respectively in the PRC and RF, as well as the specifics of the Chinese payment system introduction and functioning in Russia, with description of the role being played by Chinese yuan in the regional economy of the Russian Far East.

While recording the certain successes, the author also notes that in 2015 cooperation between the Chinese and Russian banks has been tangibly more

complicated as the Western countries have imposed sanctions on Russia, although not supported officially by the PRC Government.

In conclusion, the author offers a number of vectors for activities, which, in her view, would activate the financial cooperation of the two countries.

THE ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INDUSTRY AND MODERN CHALLENGES by A.O.Filonik, PhD (Economics), Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS

Keywords: The Islamic banking, The Islamic financial industry, financial business, assets, conventional banks, micro-financing, challenges

The Islamic financial industry has officially come into being since the beginning of the 70th of the last century. Since that time this sector has managed to create a rather ample niche for its activity in regional finances and entered the world of global investments as well. The Islamic capital got a favourable opportunity to draw attention of the foreign partners and is aimed now at further expansion.

This initiative must increase the number of banks and their "windows" in parallel with making both circulation of capital and accumulation of assets more expedite. The more so that this problem has become very important now as there are some points inside the industry that are not closely adjusted to new requirements while other innovations are not met by the Islamic banks in a proper way. Meanwhile their staying behind conventional banks due to the lack of new mechanisms, products and instruments and their relatively weak capability to offer them to the clients may hurtfully hit image of the whole industry and hamper its doing well.

NIGERIA'S DEMOGRAPHIC BOMB by

Yu.V.Zinkina, PhD (History), National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow

Keywords: Nigeria, demographic risks, population growth rates

Nigeria, the largest Tropical African country, is likely to encounter serious demographic risks in the near future. These risks are first and foremost related to the stubbornly high fertility and failure to achieve accelerated decline of the population growth rates. Significant rural-urban differentiation persists, and fertility differences between the northern and the southern regions are prominent. In this paper we try to evaluate the risks and to provide a number of recommendations on mitigating them.

TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY OF THE APEC COUNTRIES: REGIONAL MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT by Yu.V.Solovyova, PhD (Economics), Russian Peoples' Friendship University

Keywords: technology transfer, APEC, the Asia-Pacific region, innovation

The US and Japan are recognized technology leaders in the world and in particular in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR). Recently, however, some countries which until recently were importing high technologies also entered the market.

The economic and technological development of the Asia-Pacific region, the emergence in the 1960s the "first wave" of newly industrialized country (NIC), and then the second, the third and the fourth waves, China's emergence on the global market testified to the formation of a model of regional development, including intra-division of labor according to the geographical location, natural resources, the level of economic and technological development.

Newly industrialized economies of the "first wave" - in the first place, it is the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong - in recent years has significantly increased investment and public spending on research and development.

FOREIGN EXPERT OPINION

TURKEY'S POLICY OF "SOFT POWER" IN KYRGYZSTAN by U.K.Imanaliev, Post-graduate student, Institute of History and Cultural Heritage. National Academy of Sciences, Kyrgyz Republic

Keywords: pan-Turkism, geopolitics, "soft power", Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkey

To implement objectives of its foreign policy in relation to the Turkic-speaking peoples Turkey is using pan-Turkism ideology and is actively applying a policy of "soft power". At the same time some Western actors consider pan-Turkism as a geopolitical tool which could be used for containing Russia and China.

In this regard, Kyrgyzstan is becoming more and more an intersection zone of interests of Russia and Turkey.

POST-GRADUATE COLUMN

CHINA AND GERMANY: NEW CONTENT OF THE COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGIC

PARTNERSHIP? by A.V.Tsvyk, Applicant at Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

Keywords: China, Germany, China's foreign policy, strategic partnership, China-Germany relationship

The article is devoted to the new aspect of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Germany - the China-Germany dialogue on topical issues of international relations and security. China and Germany are both economic powers in Asia and Europe with a shared international responsibility in many international fields, from security to environmental issues. The author argues that both China and Germany increasingly consider a strategic partnership in international affairs within mutual interest.

The author analyzes and compares the positions of China and Germany on a number of topical issues on the international agenda, including regional conflicts that are being discussed by China and Germany on a bilateral level.

HISTORY PAGES

PARADES IN THE HEAVEN (China) by B.N.Gorbachev, Dr.Sc. (History), Professor, full member of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation

Keywords: People's Republic of China, military forces, armament of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Tiananmen, military parade

The second part of the article is devoted to analysis of the parade in honor of the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. China showed the country and the world the latest developments in China's defense modernization. Beijing has firmly stated that the old China and its army, which previously were unable without outside help to defeat the Japanese army, are in the past. "The history of Beijing's parades" let us see how in a historically short period of time poor and backward China had become a world power with strong armed forces capable of protecting not only the security of their country, but also to influence the development of the world situation in general.

CULTURE. LITERATURE. ART

IMMIGRANT by A.Memmi, writer (Tunis)

Preface by the Editor-in-Chief of "Asia and Africa today" journal, academician A.M. Vasiliev, and S.V.Prozhogina, Dr.Sc. (Philology), Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS

Today we publish (slightly abridged) the second excerpt from "Immigrant" which is a part of one of the books by Tunisian-born Albert Memmi. The final part is to be published in the next issue.

A.Memmi is widely known in France, not only as a writer but also as a great scientist, philosopher, professor at the Sorbonne. Born in Tunisia in 1920 he is the author of well-known novels and journalistic portraits, translated in 20 countries into many languages.

TRADITIONS. CUSTOMS. MORALS

MEAT IN PERANAKSKI by V.A.Pogadaev, PhD (History), University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur)

Keywords: Malaysia, Malaysian indigenous Chinese, "Peranakan", "Baba nenya"

"Meat in peranakski". What can you say the phrase ordinary tourist, not versed in the wisdom of Malaysian cuisine. Meat in the African, Kazakh meat, meat in French - is more or less clear. But the meat in peranakski seems at first glance some gobbledygook, but behind it there is a whole culture. And this phrase, of course, needs to be clarified. This is what we tell our readers.

BOOK REVIEW

In Africa because of the frequent mixing of different languages, especially languages of small tribes, many children's stories are forgotten. A whole layer of a little-known world of culture is actually "washed", that cannot but cause regret.

This is evidenced in the Preface to little book, "Tales of Ndonde and their neighbors" (Moscow, 2016), by Professor N.V.Gromova, Head, Department of African Studies, and Associate Professor Monika R. Urb, Institute for Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University.

In 2015, within a month the authors of the book conducted a field study of the language of Ndonde people in the United Republic of Tanzania. This language is now on the brink of extinction: if in 1987 there were about 33 thousand people speaking ndonde, in 2007 - a total of 2458 only. Even those who retold tales to Russian researchers, did not remember not only many words of their native language, but even failed to explain the content of some fairy tales.

Permanent link to this publication: