Privatising State-Owned Telecom Firm

and accounting has played an important role in standardising financial and economic order and promoting sound economic and social development, but there are still problems that need to be addressed, involving the supervision system, the operation mechanism, laws and disciplines.

The guideline said a finance and accounting oversight system will be established by 2025, with the primary responsibilities shouldered by finance departments and other responsibilities undertaken by related departments. Meanwhile, internal supervision will be conducted within all units, practice supervision will be done by relevant intermediary institutions and self-discipline supervision will be the responsibility of trade associations.

CHINA Supporting SelfEmployed Businesses

China will beef up support to self-employed businesses, which

make up two-thirds of the country’s market players and create a large number of job opportunities, according to the country’s market regulator.

There are now 169 million market entities in China, of which 114 million have been registered as self-employed businesses, data from the State Administration for Market Regulation show.

The self-employed businesses have created almost 300 million jobs nationwide, the data show.

The administration said it will seek to boost the development of self-employed businesses and offer technical support to raise quality, taking a range of different measures according to the characteristics, scale and revenue scale of those businesses.

ETHIOPIA

The Ethiopian government has invited interested parties in the partial privatisation of the

state-owned telecommunications firm, Ethio-Telecom.

“The government of Ethiopia is proposing a partial privatisation of Ethio-Telecom... by selling up to 45 percent of the equity share capital of the company,” the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance disclosed in a statement issued on 9 February.

The ministry said EthioTelecom’s robust infrastructure coupled with its strong financial performance will offer a significant competitive advantage to any investor.

As part of the plan, the Ethiopian government invited interested parties to invest in Ethio-Telecom, adding value to the state-owned telecommunications firm by bringing in best practices in terms of operations, infrastructure management and next-generation technological capabilities.

The plan is said to be part of the framework laid out by the Ethiopian government for the privatisation of public enterprises.

South Africa Business Confidence Index in January

52.47 BILLION

Overall trade volume between China and Zimbabwe in 2022

5140.10 BILLION

China’s outbound direct investment in 2022

70.813

Growth of net profits of China’s central SOEs in past three years