The pact will allow both countries respective central banks to swap local currencies worth up to 190bn yuan or 60bn reais. Officials said this will ensure smooth bilateral trade, regardless of global financial conditions.

The deal, signed on the side-lines of the fifth Brics summit in Durban, South Africa, is all the more significant given that China remains Brazil’s largest trading partner.

Every child, at some point, will be asked what they want to do when they grow up. Few will declare themselves set for a life as a ‘hacker’ and fewer still declare themselves CEO material. Yet, with many production lines either grinding to a halt or manned by robots, technology has become the beating heart of many organisations. Dominique Karg, proud hacker and co-founder of AlienVault, asks whether we should be nurturing a different skillset in our young.

It was in 1993 that, with the passing of the Communications Act, the government of Tanzania began to plot a course to liberalise the communications sector within the country. In the years since competition has gradually increased in the fields of mobile cellular services, radio paging, internet and data communication services, helping to affirm the communications sector as one of pillars of Tanzania’s social and economic development.

SMTC is committed to delivering the right solutions to innovative partners around the world. President and co-chief executive officer, Claude Germain, and executive vice president and chief operating officer, Paul Blom, discuss how the company has successfully evolved into the business that it is today

President and Chief Executive Officer, Vivek Kamra, discusses how the success of NatSteel’s offsite prefabrication of steel reinforcement products and services have helped refocus the business into becoming a total solutions provider.

“There are very few places,” states President and Chief Executive Officer, Vivek Kamra, “that have provided a good economic environment to operate in over the last year or so. However, despite the challenges that exist, developing economies within South East Asia have remained reasonably robust.”

Durban based Grafton Everest was formed in 1953 when two South African furniture brands – Grafton Art Furnishers and Everest Upholsterers merged. That means that Grafton Everest is celebrating its diamond jubilee this year, and it is definitely not failing to make the most of its opportunity.

When we last spoke to Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, Managing Director of EMED Mining, it was late 2009 and he had been hoping to get the company’s flagship project, Rio Tinto open-pit copper mine near Seville in Spain into operation by 2010. That was at any rate the original objective of the company, which in 2005 had been floated on London’s AIM market by a group of Australian mining specialists who saw a real opportunity across Europe and the Middle East.

Chief executive officer, Andy van der Velde, discusses how, over the course of two decades, a small, family-run business has been able to transform itself into a leading international logistics provider

Rare earth elements (REEs) are not really that rare in the earth’s crust, but unlike copper, gold or zinc for example they tend not to occur in concentrations sufficient to justify mining. But this group of chemicals is increasingly in demand for use in specialist glass technologies, solar cells, catalytic converters and many other new applications including military ones.

There was a time when succession planning was something only companies large enough to employ thousands of people did as part of an overall management development strategy. Since then screeds have been written on the evolution of succession planning, most of which points to the need for organisations to plan for the inevitable loss of key staff, irrespective of their seniority.