China Technology Development Group Corp., a clean energy group focused on bringing together related technologies to create solar energy systems, announced today a cooperative agreement between China Technology Solar Power Holdings Limited (CTSP), and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization International Solar Energy Center for Technology Promotion and Transfer (ISEC-UNIDO). This agreement will co-establish the International Photovoltaic Application Laboratory (PV Lab) in Lanzhou, Gansu province on Nov 14, 2009.

CTDC, whose major shareholders include one of China’s leading state-owned conglomerates, China Merchants Group (CMG), and Beijing Holdings Limited (BHL), the biggest offshore subsidiary created by the Beijing Municipal Government, entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement with CTSP earlier this year (on Oct. 27) to gain 51-percent equity interest. CTSP develops and operates large-scale solar plants, such as the grid-connected Delingha 100MW Solar Power Project, making it a natural addition to CTDC’s structure.

The PV Lab will utilize the Delingha installation as a

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China Technology Development Group Corp. is an integrated clean energy group focused on solar energy products and solutions in China. The company today announced a Stock Purchase Agreement with China Technology Solar Power Holdings Ltd. (CTSPHL Group) in which CTDC will become the majority shareholder of CTSPHL Group by acquiring a 51 percent equity interest in the company.

Operating through its subsidiary, CTSPHL Group is developing a 100MW grid-connected solar power plant project in Delingha City of Qaidam Basin in Qinghai Province, Northwestern China.

Per today’s announced agreement, CTDC and CTSPHL Group will work together to develop the Delingha 100MW Solar Project, a collaboration that CTDC says it believes will help it reach its goal of becoming an integrated solar company engaged in the design, building and operation of solar power plants.

“We are very pleased to become a controlling shareholder of CTSPHL Group. This marks a significant step that CTDC has

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An interesting opinion piece today by Vladimir Ryzhkov in the Moscow Times sees one of the last bastions of media freedom - Ren TV - looking like it may have to fight for its independence.  The increasingly popular station, the only one in Russia to offer a critical interpretation of the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam disaster and cover the Dissenter's Marches in Moscow and St Petersburg, may be fettered by management 'restructuring'.Controlled by National Media Group, owned by Putin ally Yury Kovalchukm, Ren will have a new Director General and will find new lodgings alonside state-controlled RIA-Novosti and the tow-the-line RT.  Ryzhkov recollects Gazprom's Media's overhaul of NTV which followed similar lines: could this be another nail in ...

The Moscow Times reports that the government spent $10.7 billion of the state budget on fighting the financial crisis in the first six months of the year.  A Russian-Indian project to build a titanium factory in east India has been jeopardized by a shareholder dispute.  Telephone tycoon Yevgeny Chichvarkin, who is exiled in Britain, says he may set up a business there, 'maybe something in the service industry'.  The former Yevroset chairman says he has no fear of the charges held against him in Russia and does not plan to return until it becomes 'a free country'.  The ex-President of Avtovaz, Boris Alyoshin, will become an adviser to the Director General of Rostekhnologii.  Booming retailer Magnit will sell 11.2 million new shares to help finance expansion plans.  Russia's airline industry saw passenger numbers fall ...

WIPO sets up first Asian arbitration centre in Singapore

SINGAPORE: The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has established an arbitration and mediation centre in Singapore.

The centre is the first of its kind outside of Europe and aims to provide low cost dispute resolution services on intellectual property.

Come January 2010, WIPO’s arbitration and mediation centre will open here at Maxwell Chambers.

Law Minister K. Shanmugam said that the office of an international body in Singapore is a natural result of Singapore’s growing role as a legal centre.

He said: “We’ve seen a large increase in the number of arbitrations taking place in Singapore which has nothing to do with Singapore. … we’ve liberalised our regime in that you can choose council from anywhere in the world… and arbitrate in Singapore.”

The first WIPO arbitration and mediation centre was set up in Geneva in 1994 and to date it has handled a caseload of about

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World trade experiencing a “huge drop”, according to the World Trade Organization.  Rather than the gloomy 9% predicted earlier this year, volume will likely contract by 10%.

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, told Reuters Television:

That’s the situation and I’m afraid I can’t read any good news in my trade numbers.

This news doesn’t bode well for any type of recovery. “Jobs picture turns gloomier” say the headlines. The U.S. unemployment rate officially popped up to 9.5% as nonfarm payrolls shed 467,000 jobs in June. The market is tanking today on this “brown shoot”… But the real story is far worse. And as reality seeps into the empty head of Joe Investor it could spell the end for the post-2008 wipe-out sucker’s rally…

As James Davidson points out in Crisis Strategy Alert, the BLS numbers have been massaged, manipulated, and contorted into giving only half the story. He says,

To get a real

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