UNITED NATIONS Stephen Vogt Brewers Jersey , Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Africa's small businesses are key to economic growth, and joint ventures with Chinese companies can help, Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of the African Union's New Partnership for Africa Development, has said.

Mayaki, who was prime minister of Niger from 1997 to 2000, said that boosting Chinese joint ventures with African companies to the next level could help see Africa move towards more value added industries.

"I don't think Chinese investors really need advice Ryan Braun Brewers Jersey ," Mayaki said in an interview with Xinhua during Africa Week, a week of Africa-related events at United Nations headquarters on Oct. 12-16.

"The small-scale entrepreneurs, big firms, they have done joint ventures with the African domestic private sector (for many years), we just need to boost that movement in order to reach another level," he said.

The process has already begun in Ethiopia and Kenya where Mayaki said China has relocated some of its industries and trained local staff to work in them.

He said although industrialization was an important objective, reaching the objective would involve focusing attention now on small businesses Robin Yount Brewers Jersey , which play a significant role in Africa's economies.

These small businesses include smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs in the informal sector, he said.

"Smallholder farmers are feeding Africa today," said Mayaki, adding that "80 percent of the food we eat is produced by smallholder farmers."

The majority of smallholder farmers are women, he said, and governments could help them to learn new skills in areas such as management, climate change adaptation and market access.

Another area the government can provide support is in the informal economy. Mayaki said that on average Paul Molitor Brewers Jersey , 60 percent of African economies are in the informal sector.

"There are a lot of dynamic entrepreneurs in the informal economy but governments need to help them shift to a formal economy; which means financial literacy, which means managerial capacities, which means access to the services of taxation," he said.

Africa's continued high birth rate means that the continent will have to create an additional 300 million jobs over the next 15 years, said Mayaki.

He said that the private sector would be the primary sector that creates these jobs, but governments still had an important role to play.

"The role of government is to enhance entrepreneurship, because the governments by themselves will not create jobs Orlando Arcia Brewers Jersey , the jobs will fundamentally be created by the private sector," Mayaki said.

While Africa can take inspiration from China's economic growth, it's own path will be different because the world is now much more interconnected, he said.

"Africa has to go through a learning curve of industrialization -- not repeat the model of China but inspire itself, from the Chinese experience," he said.

PARIS, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- After talks on Ukraine future with leaders from Russia Matt Garza Brewers Jersey , Ukraine and Germany, French President Francois Hollande said Minsk peace process would be extended to next year in order to meet security conditions to hold elections.

"The ceasefire is generally respected and today we were able to make further progress and allow that there are no more victims in this dramatic conflict," the French head of state told reporters.

However, it's "certain" that elections would take more time to be organized, Hollande said, adding "we don't want elections to get held in eastern Ukrainian territories under conditions that would not respect Minsk."

The run-off in eastern Ukraine was previously scheduled for Oct. 18. Three months will be needed between the vote of the electoral law and the election date, which will be overseen by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Lorenzo Cain Brewers Jersey , according to the French president.

Brokered by Paris and Berlin, the ceasefire deal, reached on Feb. 12 in Minsk, capital of Belarus, envisages that both sides are to withdraw their heavy weapons 25 to 70 km from the front line to create a buffer zone and to exchange prisoners of war.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials and pro-Russian militants agreed to pull-back tanks and smaller weapons systems in eastern Ukraine.

"We wanted to make sure that the withdrawal of light weapons... would start tomorrow morning at midnight. Regarding heavy arms, there must be a similar process Jonathan Villar Brewers Jersey , and we should be able to put seals on them," Hollande said

Minsk agreement was originally set to end by Dec. 31, 2015.

SANTO ANTONIO, Portugal, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Four-time Algarve Cup winners Sweden eased past their final Group A rivals China 3-0 here on Monday with three first-half goals at the annual women's soccer tournament.

Paris Saint-Germain forward Kosovare Asllani opened scoring for the world No. 5 team in the fourth minute after a group effort in front of the Chinese goalmouth sliced open the space for goal.

The Nordic side's skipper Lotta Schelin enlarged the lead in the 32nd minute with a penalty kick after midfielder Hanna Folkesson was tackled down at the right edge of the area while trying to break through a defence of five Chinese players.

Just seven minutes later, Sofia Jakobsson took advantage of an error from China's goalie Wang Fei, tapping in a corner kick from Elin Rubensson for Sweden's third goal.

Throughout the game Glenn Robinson Brewers Jersey , China were tied with Sweden on seven shots each, but 5-10 on corner kicks and 1-5 on free kicks.

"I'm not satisfied with the result but my players have given it all. We had a quicker pace in attacking and created more chances than in the previous two games," said Chinese head coach Hao Wei.

"It's just an invitational tournament and we still have chance to improve on tactics," he added.

Swedish boss Pia Sundhage was obviously happy with the three-goal victory, though she admitted that her players didn't play a.